Thoughts on Fruet

Karl Strauss 23rd Anniversary. <$13 a bomber and can hold its own against Fruet.

But don't mind me, I just like bitching about beer that I think is overpriced. I think Fruet is good, but it's not $25 good. There is a disturbing trend for new breweries to jump on the high-priced-beer bandwagon, and yet people still buy it no questions. I know it's the nature of the beast, but I will seek out and support breweries who don't have ridiculous prices on their beers more often than those with the hype-driven inflation. Beer is becoming more and more profitable, even though brewers are making smaller and smaller batches of it. The price per oz. is going up, but not necessarily the cost to the brewer in the same proportion.

My recommendation for those in California - if you see a bottle of Fruet next to a bottle of 23rd Anniversary from Karl Strauss, reach for the 23rd. Then go buy another great beer, and still not spend as much as you would've on the Fruet alone.

And this, coming from a guy who's spend a couple grand on beer in the last year or two.

 

Not available outside of SoCal, sadly. I did want to try that, but not enough to trade for it. Is it still on shelves? I'll be down there next week.

Fair enough. I happen to think it's silly. Beer is becoming a luxury product and it's getting luxury prices. If you don't like that there's plenty of cheap beer (as you say). Bitching just strikes me as, well, silly.

Plus the whole solara thing that they're doing with these probably makes them more difficult to produce than other comparable beers, so I'm not really sure they're doing much of a markup compared to others. Even if they are, nothing wrong with them making money and plowing it back into capacity.

Anyway, if the price tag means I'll be able to leisurely pick some up for the next few months, then that's worth it to me. The convenience of not having to fight for a bottle is worth a few dollars, I think. (Of course, Cuir wasn't hard to come by at the much lower price point, so maybe that's a bad point here, but I believe it in general.)

 

No clue. But if you find it, it's worth a try.

Beeradvocate(s) and the like are huge contributors to the rise in prices in recent years (knowledge, buzz, publicity, etc.) This website is about all things beer, including the business side. Hence the appropriate whiny posts about overpriced beer and stupid markups at local stores.

Solera probably does drive up costs a bit, but that doesn't explain all of their other overpriced beers. And it definitely doesn't double their costs. I have a few close friends who either own breweries or work at them and we've discussed this same issue. Breweries are definitely making a lot more money these days than they were 10 years ago, and it's not solely attributed to increased sales.

Something to think about - Glenfiddich makes a 15 year solera blended whiskey, which takes at least the same amount of work to make as Fruet. Probably more. And yet it still can be purchased for $40/bottle. You can also find solera-blended small-batch wines for under $20/bottle.

And thinking that all the money Rue makes on his beer goes back into capacity is pretty optimistic.

If nothing else, it makes for good discussion.

 

Good to know, I'll be on the lookout.

Well, yeah, but on the other hand what we're witnessing is the change from beer being a niche-but-still-everyman product to being, at least partly, a luxury product. Part of that is going to be a range of high-end prices. And, hey, it's still better than wine.

Yeah, sure, it was just a reason why the gap between Fruet and BB4D (or whatever) might be smaller that it appears at first glance.

Well obviously not all of it, but they've expanded a lot and the money for that came from somewhere.

Well, it definitely makes for discussion, depending on who's involved the quality can leave a lot to be desired. (Not this time, though! We're awesome.)

 

I agree about the pricing, but people don't usually drink the whole $100 bottle of wine! At least I don't think they do?

 

sadly we're hearing that Fruet will not be shipped to Virginia...

 

That beer, while decent, isn't remotely on the same level as Fruet.

 

if this is as good as 100% Cuir, i can't wait to track down a few. i think some showed up in philly buy i didnt get to hit the store when it did.

 

I disagree, and so do most online reviews. A 96 at RB and a 91 here verify my claim. Fruet comes in at 99 and 88, respectively.

I have not had them side-by-side, but I've had both and thought that the 23rd from Karl Strauss was money well-spent.

 

I tried it at a blind barrel aged barleywine/old ale tasting and it ranked dead last out of 8 beers. It definitely wasn't a bad beer to me, just middle of the road. Not very complex or rich, a bit thin.

 

It appears that a couple of reviews are dragging down the score, and there are only 10 reviews so far on BA.

 

Did any of those state how they are not that big a fan of bourbon and that is all Fruet tastes of? I love those reviews...

 

Picked up a bottle today for $30. 100% -bal Coton might be my favorite old ale to date and that includes the like of barrel aged Old Stock, BA4D, and even Adam from the Wood. If Fruet is even close to BA Coton I'll be quite pleased with my purchase. The same cost per ounce as AftW too and I had no problem throwing down for a case of that.

 

Not yet. However, there is a 2.45 review that explains that they basically hate all beers done by the bruery and they thought it tasted like sour fruit. I'm not sure what beer they were drinking but I'm guessing it wasn't fruet (which is so sweet it's like drinking maple syrup).

Dope

 

Can't wait to get my bottles in from my RS trustee. I thought Cuir was very good fresh, and markedly better than fresh Coton. Fruet has the benefit of an extra year of solera blending, and I believe is 100% barrel aged, so I'm expecting great things.

 

Yeah I went and read the reviews after I posted. Talk about preconceived notions...

 

Found some bottles of Fruet for $26 each. Definitely a score in my book after reading some prices on here.

 

Prospero's post just got deleted , guess I won't be responding to it.

 

Sorry, I just think that when a low ball review like that, where 1 person out of 30 (3-percentile) rates a beer 31% lower than everybody else, it should be dropped or at least reviewed. People are entitled to like and dislike whatever they want, but reviews like that are just ridiculous where you really have to question the review's validity. But BA doesn't do QC checks on their reviews, so we're left with to each their own. I know in statistics, something that far off would be removed from the matrix.