Let's Compare Craft Beer Prices in 2012

Sorry to hear that. I've never been in the MA so I don't have any first hand experience with buying beer up there. Without knowing the tax situation, the laid in distributor costs of a case of beer, and several other factors, it's just guesswork on my part. One suggestion would be to look at one specific product, say Sierra Nevada Pale ale 4/6/12oz, and then compare it's price at one store in MA and one store in another nearby state, but check the price at the same chain, especially if it is a beer that is in their ad. If the prices are dramatically different then my guess it is a fundamental difference in the distributor's laid in cost of the beer or significant differences in the taxes in each state. Typically chains will try to have their ad prices the same across geographical regions if at all possible.

 

Yes, that's why I said that beer also has problems with ingredients. Have you heard about the recent drought causing food prices to rise? When the cost of ingredients goes up, the cost of the product goes up. Blame the weather.

No it wasn't, he was complaining about prices going up in Massachusetts. That's inflation.

 

From this first post:
As recently as 2010 I was in the PNW, where bombers go for ~$3.50 - $5.00, there was always a regional craft 6-pack hanging around for $6.99 or so, and at happy hour you could get a micro craft pint for $2-3, while the starting price in MA is about $5.50. What gives? . . . I respect the industry and the need to make money, but just wondering how much we're starting to be had, especially here in New England!

emphasis added.

 

From the first post:

 

The cost of designing a label doesn't vary dramatically, regardless of how fancy it is. That's typically a one-time cost. Costs are higher if you are using corks, cages, foil caps, wax dipped, etc., not to mention the higher labor costs for applying them. As a general rule, the choice of bottling beers in large format bottles vs 12oz multi-packs is usually made by the availability and prices of the equipment. Cardboard container companies also might require a brewery to purchase 10,000 carriers in order to get a halfway reasonable cost. Forking out the $ for 10,000 carriers upfront can be quite daunting for a new startup.

There is some truth to the idea that some breweries are just more greedy than others. In any industry experiencing growth like the craft beer industry, you will have that element. It's up to you, as the consumer, to decide who is providing the mix of quality and value that is important to you.

 

I'll agree that he was complaining about higher prices generally if you'll agree that he was also complaining about prices being higher in Massachusetts than elsewhere. Then we can drop this debate.

 

It's absurd now. really? 20%, a full 1/5 of the price of enjoying something is paid out to a kid who brings it to my table? I'm often told by Millennials that actually 20% is the 'meh' tip and 25% is closer to the norm for satisfactory service, so maybe I'm still behind the times with my 20%.

 

Pshhh, Stone Ruination $17.99 for a 6 pack.

In my store, Sam Adams is cheap, 7.99 for a 6.

Bombers are expensive... nothing under 4.99 (for a Hop stoodpid which is odd....) but just as a note, Stone 9.21.12 was 8fucking99. Woah now.

 

I'd heard that 20% was for satisfactory service. Now this. However, let's not get agitated and make spectacles of ourselves.

 

i think it would be in new breweries' best interest to attack this problem (pressured toward 22oz) proactively and try to figure out some ways to go small format. the incidental cheapness of machines and boxes doesn't change the fact that 22oz is a fundamentally inferior format for most consumers, especially with the high ABV beers everyone puts out nowadays.

 

My guess is that this will happen naturally over time. With the explosion of the number of breweries in the US over the last few years, there is simply more and more equipment out there to be had. As breweries grow, more used bottling lines will become available on the secondary market at reasonable prices. Just look at the situation around canning lines, a few years ago, it was basically impossible for a small brewery to have the funds to get a canning line. It took one manufacturer and one brewery, to create a new paradigm that is now becoming more and more accessible. 15 years ago, many small breweries used the old Hoff-Stevens kegs or the silly round Sankey kegs that were second hand because that was what was available and affordable. Now those are becoming virtually extinct as more and more larger breweries are letting go of old inventory of standard, straight sided Sankey kegs. For a brewery producing under 5,000 barrels of beer a year, the cost of equipment is neither incidental or cheap, as a percentage of their overall revenues.

 

I think what makes people cynical, with beer, or gasoline, is that when there are supply problems (real or speculative), it makes sense that the price goes up. But when the supply variable returns to normal, it seems the price never goes down as much as it went up in a correlating fashion.

 

Agreed. We all remember when airline prices went up during the 2008 oil crisis? What we don't remember is the lowering of them when gas leveled down because it never happened.

Also, I'm beating a dead horse here, but ingredients are just a very small part of the final price on the shelf. A price increase of a few bucks per pound of hops is literally just a few pennies per cents per six pack.

 

I'm not sure if the discrepancy between bars and stores is all that much since the 90's, at least as a percentage.

$5.99 was a pretty common 6-pack price for something like Sam Adams or Harpoon. And a $4.99 6-pack on sale was not unheard of. Nowadays those will steadily run you $9-$11, and I can't remember the last time I saw a 6-pack sale other than old stock closeouts. That's a solid 50-100% markup on bottles. Those same $3 pints are now $5-$6, location depending. Roughly the same markup as a percentage...

Now, what is crazy is the relative dollar increase. Going from paying $1 for a bottle to $1.75 for a bottle is only a $.75 difference. But going from $3-$5.50 on a pint is $2.50 difference. That is closer to 4x the delta in prices. Which, net-net, suggests bars are in trouble if they can't figure out a better business model that flat percentage markups, as eventually people will turn more to drinking at home. (If they haven't already)

 

Bells pricing is something that has annoyed me for a while. I live in OH right on the OH/MI border, like 2 and a half hours from the brewery. Here in OH and right over the border in MI, Two Hearted has been $11 a sixer for several years around here, and yet multiple states away we always hear people talking about how they get it for $9 or $10 a sixer or even less. I guess it just shows that in a lot of cases beer prices are completely arbitrary and randomly made up.

 

I think that we are seeing a lot of artificial demand that is encouraging brewers to increase their prices. Here in San Diego County, every liquor store and grocery store now has a "CRAFT BEER" section and are storing hundreds of bottles of beer on their shelves. If you actually took an accounting of all of the product on the shelves, I would bet that there is 6-9 months of supply for some beers.

Every new account that opens gives skewed feedback to the brewers.

 

I remember when Thirsty Dog Siberian Night and Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout were both $9.99/6pk. Those were great deals..

 

Oh, man...

Thats another thing that annoyed me. The "great wave" of breweries switching from six packs to four packs, but yet keeping the exact same sixer price for the four packs.

 

I think it's the % increase that bothers me, and maybe retail bottles are a bargain here. Most sixpacks I'd pay $6 for in the 90's are around $9. The $6ish sixpack existed for a long time for me. So that's neighborhood of 50% increase in a large chunk of my purchases.

But $3 pint at a pub to $6+ is 100% markup or more. Plus the near doubling of tip that servers feel entitled to makes it even worse. Happy Hours aren't anywhere near the bargain they used to be. Look this isn't just a general inflation issue because restaurant prices have outpaced a lot of other stuff. I think TV's, cameras, cars, tennis racquets, airplane travel and a lot of other things are enormous bargains compared to what their inflation corrected equivalent prices were in decades past.