Craft Beer Kings, El Monte, CA

Nope I've seeing the bio gueuze 750ml sell for 14.99. I would say 19.99 is about normal market value, but everyone else jacks up the price. Really cantillon should not anymore than drie or hanssens. I've seeing 375ml of gueuze for about 11.99.

 

This may have some relevance to what craft beer has become but wasn't an experience I had at cbk.

Yesterday, I went to a very popular liquor store in corona, to buy cantillions, and the owner of this popular store, wanted 49.99 for a bottle of 750ml bio lambic kriek and 39.99 for a gueze. I just walked out after he read the total and felt offended. I was a bit in shock that 3 bottles of cantillion rang to 150.00. Apparently people pay this often.

 

Those should be $10-$11. Not sure how long you've been at this, but $20 for the smaller bottle and $34.99 for the 750 is not the norm.

 

They might be buying from Etre and marking up from there.

 

Stearns liquor has sold those 750ml gueze for 15 bucks.

 

El Cerrito has bad prices on Cantillon.

 

El cerrito is just as bad as Moe, considering out of market beers.

 

And in selling Reserve society beers. Only time I've been there were several rows of reserve society beers being sold with a markup. Granted, it wasn't that bad of a mark up, I seem to remember $23 for a Beauregarde, but still...

 

Think it's a pretty well accepted fact that a number of the shops who tend to always have Cantillon buy from Etre/Belgium in a Box/Etc and then resell with a markup. Plaza and Ramirez seem to be the worst ones about blatantly doing it. Worked at a shop for a bit and know a few different owners of bottle shops, there's no way they get as much Cantillon through distribution as they sell.

 

Yeah there's a lot of resell Cantillon out there. Majority of it is resell.

 

Pretty much. One of the few shops that I'm fairly sure gets legitimate Cantillon through distro and doesn't resell has only gotten Cantillon 4-6 times that I've seen over the past two years that I've been going there/stalking them on social media. And that's just Cantillon, that's not looking at Cascade before they started distributing more down here.

 

Very easy to tell if it's grey market Cantillon. Aside from the obvious on the Gueuze: Classic Gueuze vs. Bio / the new Belgian flag; if there is no Shelton Brothers import label it is grey market. Same goes for 3F, De Cam (do they even have an importer?), and Tilquin (12 Percent). Are the reps even checking the shelves for these grey market brews or are the brews conveniently removed when the reps come in? Or do they not care? Could be either.

 

I guess there making money in reselling beer. Who buys that stuff? I dont like that Ramirez does this specially cuz if I want some stillwater, evil twin, commons, etc...I need to go somewhere else, but they do have old sixpoint cans.

 

Paid ~18 for RdG 375ml from Mr. K a few months ago. Paid similar for a 375ml Bio from El Cerrito in July.

 

Hmm... they sold Fou Foune bottles for $20 each earlier this year. Those 375's were probably non-distro.

 

I picked up a 2013 Gueuze 375 and Kriek 375 a few months ago, one at Ramirez Bev Center and one at Mr. K's and both were about $18 each. Maybe that Year vintage was the reason for the price bump.......Knowing now that 750ml bottles should be around $20, I definitely won't be overpaying for cantillon ever again!

 

fou was $35 at Mr Ks. i got one there

 

That's not what Mike told me, but might be separate occasions.

 

How long ago?

 

9 months ago acording to my instagram