Spiteful Brewing: A Goddamn Delightful Day

I just know if I spent money on this for overpriced bottles karma would kick sense into me by making them all infected...

 

No, we don't.

I think some breweries need to realize that it takes more than slapping on the words "barrel aged" to justify charging $$$.

 

To be fair, one of the beers that was, as you say, "slapped" with barreled aged was massively acclaimed at the most prestigious barrel aged beer festival in the world.

How much money did people pay for Bourbon County Rare again?

I'm torn on this one as I love the barreled beers Spiteful makes but don't want beers I love to get way expensive. At the end of the day, I want the people that make these incredible beers to get rewarded, so if they charge what they need to to keep their business going, then go for it. I will not personally pay it but I know others will.

Part of this is just how insanely competitive the craft beer market is right now. SO many great breweries (and many not so great ones) are popping up everywhere.

I look at this somewhat similar to how I look at going to a Cubs game. Yeah it's expensive and the beers are silly pricey but I'm also supporting the team I cheer for financially. By going to this event you're doing the same for the brewery. Again, not personally going to do it but I think people need to realize how difficult, expensive and competitive the beer market is now.

 

I think the original point was more towards the BA porter than BAMCC, which at this point everyone knows is a banger. And in fairness to Rare, that was aged 2 years in 30+ year bourbon barrels (not to mention the artificial cost increase just due to the packaging). Not saying BAMCC isn't worth some serious cash, just saying that Rare took a lot more time (and was using "rarer" barrels) to produce.

But yes, I agree with you that it's tough to balance out your desire to not pay out the ass for things, with the desire to support breweries you love (which is why I'm glad people are shelling out the money to go to this event, but which is also why I am not).

 

Hopefully people are buying season tickets and not just shelling out for the playoffs.

 

You have to think of releases like this as a fundraiser for a brewery that you want to support. These releases infuse a brewery with funds that can be immediately used for improvements, more batches, more employees, etc.

 

If we are going for Cub analogies, I'd prefer to think of it in terms of the previous owners, The Tribune Company. Buy it, watch it do absolutely nothing for you while it somehow maintains a strong interest to other people, sell it years later for more than you paid, and hope the new owner can do more than you could with it.

 

Tickets are still available

I'm going to be out of town this weekend but I would probably stomach the cost otherwise. I haven't been around for long enough to remember "when beer was less expensive". This has been my reality so far.

 

We should always question the cost, especially of these "hyped" beers. Just for reference, a relatively unknown and unhyped BA bomber like the pigeon porter should cost no more than $15 (x2). The two glasses should cost around $6 each. The 3 oz pour of BA malevolence should cost around $5. That's a total of $47. So you would be paying $63 for the BA malevolence. I would hope you would think twice, three, four, five times before stomaching that cost

 

Doubt I would go anyway because of the cost. But after having a regular bottle of malevolence gush to the point of hardly leaving any left in the bottle, which by the way tasted like infected garbage, I will do a hard pass on this release...

 

That is all your opinion obviously, and businesses all have reasons for charging certain amounts for products & services. I don't want higher prices by any means, as I already spend too much on beer, but to say something "should" cost a certain price is very tough to say.

I also highly doubt that this "event" is even going to bring in a ton of excess cash for Spiteful. Sure, I think the price is higher than I'd want, but they won't be going out to buy new cars and Rolexes as a result of this event.

 

Well, their BA Barleywine sat on shelves at, I believe, $19.99. Tree House charges $6 for a snifter and $10 for their Teku. Trillium is about $10 for any of their various glassware. So let's call it $40 for Pigeon Porter, $20 for the glassware, and $5 for the pour. That's STILL $45 for a bottle of beer that was not $45 last time it hit distro. So it's $45 for a bottle of BAMCC while forcing the consumer to buy 2 other bottles and 2 glasses (who the F needs or wants 2 glasses?!?!).

The price is not only higher than you should want, it's clear there is some gouging going on due to how sought after BAMCC was.

Like I said, I bought a ticket, but I did so acknowledging that Spiteful was being pretty damn crappy.

 

BA Belligerent Bob sat on shelves? Damn. Wish I lived in Chicago.

 

Yes and for a while

 

I understand why a lot of people are upset, but can you really blame Spiteful? BAMCC went from 0-100 overnight when they won their Fobab medal. The beer came out the following week or shortly thereafter. That bottle didn't even make it out of the box before it was sold out everywhere (mostly thanks to the truck chasers) BA Belligerent Bob sat on shelves though

After the bottle was sold out everywhere people traded very highly regarded bottles to acquire BAMCC and praised it all over the different review sites. I assume there was also a high secondary price on the bottle, but I have no idea about that.

With all these factors I think Spiteful has earned the right to sell THEIR beer for whatever price they want. This allows them to capture more of the profit of their hard work than some neckbeard truck chaser.

Don't hate the player, hate the game

 

Of course it's their right. But many other breweries have beers blow up and don't suddenly charge more than double the price of said beer on its next release (in addition to making you purchase 4 other items). Mikerphone is one solid local example of this. Tree House could probably charge $6-$8/can and still sell out. But they don't.

This will leave a bad taste in the mouth of a lot of customers, as is evident by a FOBAB medal-winning beer release not being sold out 5 days after tickets went on sale.

 

I think everyone is starting to attribute too much dollar value to BAMCC, and I think that's the wrong route to go; not because I don't think they'd charge more for it on a store shelf than they would the BA Pigeon porter, but because I don't think it would be that drastic.

The pricing on this event is high, but I think that we'd see most of these concerns eliminated if they went to the a la carte model that I and a few others have advocated. $30 for BAMCC would be fine, hell, $15 for a glass would be fine (EVERYONE overcharges on glassware). It's just forcing everyone to purchase everything that people are balking at.

For contrast, take Dark Lord Day. $200 is a crapload of cash, and many of us admit that we have no particular need for the 4 bottles of regular DL that we're forced to purchase ($15 or so per bottle, no less). However, the other things included in the package are of value to almost everyone: A BA DL variant (which, at the very least, you could sell to recoup much of your ticket price), a bunch of vouchers for food and beer (if you're cool like me and eat at White Castle, that means you have 10 beers you can get from the taps), and a handy tote bag. Plus, if you like metal (I don't), you get to get drunk at an extended concert.

This event is priced like it's a full-fledged beer event, but it feels more like a beer release where you're forced to buy a bunch of stuff to get the one thing you want (BAMCC). I don't think nearly as many people would be complaining if this sounded like more of an event. I don't know if I'd call it a cash grab, but I think that for the next one, it either needs to be a la carte, or they need to make it feel like a party, so you feel like you're buying a ticket to something, as opposed to buying a ticket for a beer.

 

I think the most confusing thing of all is why you bought a ticket.

Like I said before, Spiteful won't be living it up as a result of this pricing, and I'm guessing it wasn't easy financially to get where they are at today. If they want to attempt to get a little bit more revenue as a result of that, it's their prerogative and will have to live with potential consequences.