When did you STOP looking at price?

Price is always a consideration. I will occasionally buy an expensive beer I want to try, but usually just one or occasionally two. They never become my go to. There are just too many excellent reasonably priced beers to need to pay over the odds.

 

If I want to try a new-to-me beer, I'm usually willing to pay the "going price". I had to draw the line a few months back when I was watching for a Sam Adams Utopias. I had hoped to bag one at Costco for under $200, but was prepared to pay the going price of $210. I finally spotted a bottle at a local liquor store, asked how much it was, and when told $300 I hard passed. I diplomatically said "you're shitting me, they retail for $210". They sold it within a few days, so to them they priced it right I suppose.

 

I'm at the point when I see a beer that is "pricey", I check as many ratings sites as I can. If it's truly great, I may dig deeper into my bank account.

 

Also, I hate to say it but style/ABV factor in. For example: $17 for a bomber of a 4.1% ABV Berliner Weiss or $17 for a bomber of a 12% ABV barrel aged Imperial Stout? I'm going to pass on the Berliner and start considering/researching the stout.

 

I don't think I ever completely stopped looking a price, I think I just disregard it more now. If it's a new beer I really want to try then I'm going to buy it regardless of price, but if it's a beer that I've had many times before and it's $20 for a 4 pack or a bomber, I'll probably think twice

 

Yeah, really - I haven't seen an actual price tag on beer in probably 20 years - if I want to see one, I can go digging through my cellar and find stuff like this:


...from a Rite Aid (in Highland Park), no less. One of the few NJ drug stores that had a license back then - Google Street View shows they still are with a big "LIQUORS" sign on the building.*

These days the states let retailers get away with signage on the shelf or stacks but it does seem that new releases often don't get their sign for a few weeks after they first appear. Not as bad as picking up a sixpack the first day and take it to the register where it won't scan --- "Uh, must not be in the system yet...Hey, Louie!"

A few weeks ago I found some NB Hemperor on the singles shelf of a Trenton area store, took it to the register, the cashier scanned the bar code and said something like, "$27.45."

"What?!"

I mean, I knew it was priced high but that's nuts. Looked at the register screen and it said something like "XYZ Vineyard Zinfandel" . "Uh, I think you've got a problem..." They went 'round and 'round, pressing buttons and entering numbers and bar codes, and I eventually just walked out...

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* Oh, wait. Speaking of that Highland Park Rite Aid, one of my favorite beer buying stories.

Me and Tom stopped in after work one day, mid-afternoon (we started work at 5am) and picked up a shopping cart of relatively rare beers we'd found there that we were going split.

They may have just changed over to scanning bar codes (?) but whatever the problem, as we were checking out the line of old people behind us in line at our register got longer and longer and more impatient as the cashier had difficultly ringing up a number of beers we were buying.

The cashier, in frustration, at not being able to scan or find the price of a sixpack of a PA-brewed barley wine I was buying called out to the manager in frustration:

"I'm having a hard time with this Blithering Idiot."

And all the old people behind us slowly moved to the other cash registers...

 

For me it has been somewhat of a rollercoaster. When I first started getting into good craft beer in college I thought $10 was a lot for a 6 pack. That $10 price points seemed to have continued for a while but within the last few years it seems like 4-16oz/6-12oz packs have increased in price (~15-17 range) to where I consider whether or not to just get Pseudo Sue for 8 bucks again. This especially comes into play more when I'm trying a new beer that is in the pricier range versus one that I know will be good.

 

For me, price is a consideration but it is rarely an impediment. I have "X" dollars in my pocket for beer - whether that is two beers or ten beers is the main question. If I buy something pricey, I may go home with one beer. You'd think the spousal unit would help regulate my spending, but she is often the one saying "you know you want to try it and you might never see it again"...she can be a bad influence sometimes Interesting - I just scanned my list of beers and there are no "official" NEIPAs on there even though I live in the Land of Haze. Most of my expensive spends are sours and wild ales. But anyway...

Purchasing depends on the situation, too. If I am having a cookout at the castle, I will stock up on more wallet friendly options like Harpoon, Sierra Nevada, etc. I've wasted too much expensive beer on people who do not appreciate them or even finish them. Not that I "lock up the good stuff", I just find most people are content with more mainstream choices.

There was a guy (and I don't recall his name, but can picture his avatar) who used to post on here quite frequently and was always talking about beer prices being too low. That the way to solve the lines and such was to increase the price - have not seen that happen yet, but maybe the day is coming.

The value I find in beer drinking is simple enjoyment. I don't need to drink a bunch of beers to enjoy myself, so I probably gravitate towards the higher end of the price range. What I take issue with is "lesser" quality beers at high prices - if I am going to spend a lot of money the expectation is already high and hopefully the beer measures up. Obviously my spending can't continue that way forever (and I won't say I am counting the days, but it's getting close), so I am happy that there are plenty of reasonably priced options that put a smile on my face and someday I will have the time to resume making my own.

 

When did I start?

 

A couple weeks ago I was buying a local 6 pack and a single bottle of Du Ciel Rigor Mortis. The total was $101. The cashier and I realized the Rigor Mortis scanned at $83. Thankfully they switched it to the listed price of $4.49.

So I guess $83 for a 12oz bottle is something I won't do.

 

Larry, I can report that Tired Hands has steadily increased their prices over the past few years with the top price that I have seen reported is $26 for a 4-pack of canned 'NEIPA' type beer. These prices have not decreased the length of the long lines.

Cheers!

 

Man, I am SO happy I am not a passenger on the Hazebro train...

 

I can often buy canned or bottled beer for about half the price of the same beer on cask. But I unhesitatingly choose cask. And this can vary wildly in price from pub to pub.
But a major source of beer enjoyment derives from the surroundings so I regard the extra cost as a "pleasure tax"

 

Jon Rockefeller has a nice ring to it.

 

I've been in that store many times. Prices are lower than Pino's. But in Highland Park, they're required to put your six-pack in a bag. Killing trees.

 

We need more diplomats like you in Washington.

To answer the question at hand, I've always watched the budget on beer spending, but it became a lot easier to buy some pricey stuff after the kids were out of the house and 'off the payroll' and after the mortgage was paid off.

 

Shopping bags are made of kraft paper. Much (maybe even most or all) kraft paper manufactured in the USA is made from softwood pulp, much of that being from shortleaf pine trees planted by the paper companies to harvest and make paper. So, reducing the amount of kraft paper being used results in fewer trees being planted. Funny how that works.

 

I suspect you're thinking of @yemenmocha and his Darwin portrait avatar. And even if you're not thinking of not him, he would certainly be in the camp of high-demand-beer-should-be-more-expensive and has advocated for that position on these forums for many many years.


Tangentially related... the OP's discussion made me realize that I haven't noticed complaining about high craft beer prices on these forums nearly as often as 5-10+ years ago. Craft beer prices used to at least a monthly, if not weekly, discussion around here. I'm not sure why that is but I could guess at reasons... Maybe we've become a little numb to prices? Maybe price is becoming a secondary effort to waiting in lines/muling/traveling? Maybe cost-competitive craft (e.g. Founders 15-packs) is softening the impact of other higher craft beer prices? Maybe consumers ability to compare prices is muddled by all the the different craft beer size options now (e.g. 24 case, 15-pack, 12-pack, 6-pack, 4-pack, 12-oz, 16-oz, 20-oz, 22-oz, 24-oz/bombers, 32-oz growler, 64-oz growler, crowlers etc.)?

(Or maybe the price discussions on these forums today are no better/worse than years back, but my memory is just going bad? )