Stone Enjoy By UNFILTERED

Hmmm, but surely one glass at your local bar is more than $4? Sure, it's a bad buy on price/oz level, but, if you're really interested in trying it, it might be worth it.

Not that I disagree with you on overall pricing. Hell, I almost never buy bombers from any brewery for those very reasons

 

My local stores would not be charging $4 for a beer like Stone Enjoy By. Firstly this is not something that they would likely place in their singles section (they do not permit customers to remove singles from six-pack; the store does the breakup of selected beers). If some store did decide to breakup a Stone Enjoy By the price would be much greater than $4 for a bottle.

For the sake of comparison lets assume that the store does the same percentage change for the prices and that the 6-pack of Stone Enjoy By is $20.

For a typical beer that costs $10 a six-pack, 1/6th of the six-pack price is $1.67. They charge $4 for a single of this beer which is a 'markup' of factor of 2.4.

For the $20 six-pack of Stone, the 1/6th price would be $3.33 and then multiply by 2.4 to achieve a price of $8. There is no way that I am going to pay $8 for a 12 ounce bottle of Stone Enjoy By. I will be able to get a glass of Stone Enjoy By at my local beer bar for the neighborhood of six bucks.

I choose to not 'support' the pricing structure that Stone implements for their special release bottled beers. Others can make differing decisions.

Cheers!

 

Geez, those are some pretty harsh markups you're seeing. Around here, there's one place that splits them up right at unit cost (i.e., a sixer of Enjoy By, which runs $14.99-$15.99 around here, would just get divided by 6). Total Wine makes you pay a premium for breaking them up but still only charges $3.49 a 12oz bottle.

At $8 a bottle, there's no way I'd buy it either!

 

Well that was 'hypothetical' math on my part but as I have already stated I personally refuse to pay 4 bucks for a single bottle of a 'typical' beer.

And yes you are correct that there are some pretty harsh markups in my area (Pennsylvania). We have very archaic alcohol laws here. All liquor and wine needs to be purchased at state owned liquor stores. The typical beer retailer is called a beer distributor where beer has to be sold by the case. Until sometime last year a case was defined as 24 bottles/cans of 12/16 ounce beers. Now we can buy 12 packs as well. There are a limited number of retailers which have special 'Deli Licenses' where they can sell by the 6-pack or individual bottle but they limit a single transaction to a total of 192 ounces. Since there are limited 'Deli Licenses' that exist there is little competition at this level of retail and those retailers can charge high per unit prices.

The 'good news' in Pennsylvania is that the prices on a per case basis is reasonable and in my specific area (Southeastern PA) I have an excellent choice of beer. Russian River distributes here as does Hill Farmstead as points of example.

There was legislation passed to reform the overall alcohol laws last summer but Gov. Wolfe vetoed it. In a press announcement he had he chutzpah to state: “During consideration of this legislation, it became abundantly clear that this plan would result in higher prices for consumers.” How the hell could prices get any higher than they are today under the existing monopolistic and restrictive conditions!?!

Cheers!

P.S. I probably told you more than you wanted to know, my apologies.

 

Hello!

We did not use any fining agents in this (or any) beer. As for the crash cooling, again, not much change from what we normally do. The only real difference (other than the beer skipping our centrifuge and filter) between Enjoy By and Enjoy By Unfiltered is that we did not crash it all the way to 32F, instead we held it at a slightly higher temperature before bottling.

Let me know if you have any other questions on the process.

Cheers,
Jamie Sherlock
Stone Social Media Coordinator

 

No, that's actually helpful to better understand the environment in which your beer purchasing is taking place! I've always known PA had some weird/archaic laws re: booze, but, man, that's some brutal stuff. Out here in the Wild West (Arizona), it's the opposite end of the spectrum -- beer, wine, and hard alcohol in all grocery stores, as well as speciality liquor stores (like Total Wine, Mom and Pops-type shops, etc.). It's up to the store re: singles, but otherwise 6-packs are the norm. Can buy 24 hrs a day, too, I believe. Taxes don't seem particularly harsh on the products (pretty easy to snag $6.99 - $7.99 offerings from Deschutes, Firestone, Sierra Nevada, etc.) It ain't a bad spot, at least from a retail package perspective. OTOH, I'd be happy to get kegs/bottles of RR and HF

 

I should already know the answer to this question but...

How is the imported beer scene there? Do you have a wide choice of European beers there? How fresh are those beers?

Cheers!

 

It's as you probably surmise -- pretty darn weak. Not for lack of distribution, per se -- we get the majority of the big names -- Weihenstephan, Ayinger, HB, Spaten, Paulaner, Schneider, Jever, Reissdorf/Gaffel, etc. on the German side and Fullers, Samuel Smith, Coniston, etc., etc. on the Brit side, plus your Belgian stuff (which I don't tend to include in convos like this, if only because a number of their styles handle age better than, say, a pilsner or bitter). It's a freshness issue. My theory is that it's self-reinforcing. Not many folks buy the imports, so old/stale stuff sits on shelves, which prevents even the geeks among us from buying them, which keeps the old/stale stuff on shelves, and so the cycle goes. I still check for freshies pretty religiously, because I do enjoy those beers and like to snag them if I can find them fresh. More often than not, though, I have to pass them over.

 

FWIW, I am in the exact same boat as you here.

Things are sometimes exacerbated by the pricing as well. I would love to buy a 6-pack of Rothaus Tannenzäpfle but at 16 bucks I can't justify pulling the trigger (especially when I can buy fresher Sly Fox Pikeland Pils for half the price).

Cheers!

 

Thanks so much for chiming in! It is always great to see breweries willing to fill in consumers when asked about brewing processes. The beer was great! If there is any chance that we could see the beer taken to the next level and be bottle conditioned in the future, I'd love to see it happen!

 

My favorite contradiction of the can art on Heady is the bearded dude drinking from a glass...

 

hey guys, remember when stone felt the need to apologize for haze? how times have changed since 2011.

http://www.stonebrewing.com/blog/miscellany/2011/chill-hazethe-more-you-know

 

I drank this yesterday at Al's of Hampden in Enola, PA

 

Got an email from Stone on Jan 5th saying that this Unfiltered was coming my way. (Texas) These emails had been right in the past but checking website showed that Texas was not getting it but Louisiana was. So I planned a trip to Louisiana this weekend thinking I could pick up a few bottles and visit the parents. Latest website update shows it is not going to Louisiana. I can't tell my parents I am not coming because the beer isn't available in Louisiana. This trip is on you @StoneBrewingCo! Make sure Texas gets the next batch.

 

Just picked up a six pack of this. I can't wait to try it tomorrow once it's cold. I also picked up a oak-aged Noble Rot bottle. It was a good day!

 

I've noticed folks saying this, but I experienced the same thing w/ Tree House, Night Shift, etc. Careful pours = clearer beer with my examples from them. Swirl the cans up and pour = hazier beer. As someone otherwise taught to avoid the sediment (i.e., Belgian ales, sours, bottle-conditioned beer, etc., excepting weizens, of course), I still don't know why including it is a positive with hoppy beer, other than making the beer look more "juicy" like some folks seem to like it.

 

Noticed the same thing....website said Indiana was not getting any, so was planning on jumping the border to IL...all over IN a day after IL...no complaints...planning to try tonight, but on draft.

 

Somebody should do a blind comparison, and post which way is best : decanted or cloudy.

 

I had this for the first time last night and really enjoyed it. I originally poured it and left the sediment as I am used to doing, and took a sip. Still was good but just like Allagash White, the entire contents of the bottle are intended to be put into the beer. It changes the flavor and you don't get the full experience without it.

Unfiltered is rich with tropical fruits and citrus. Extremely refreshing and tasty. Aside from the very first run, which I had literally 3 days after it was kegged, this is probably my favorite release of the Enjoy By series.