Maine Beer Company (Black Barn Program)

TBH you sound pretty desperate trying to defend the price of MBC. All of your analogies are shit. It’s not a premium product that commands a higher price, it’s not rare or particularly unique, and it absolutely is a LOT more expensive than comparable beer. It’s good hoppy beer in a glass bottle with a classy label. But it’s a terrible deal for what it is, whether you buy three bottles or a whole case. None of this is really debatable. I mean, if it’s the best beer around where you live and/or you enjoy pissing money away on solid but unremarkable beer, have at it. But you’re wasting air trying to convince the rest of us.

And again, for the hundredth time, I think basically everyone in this thread really likes the brewery. They don’t really need defending. But their pricing is ridiculous and turns most non-tourist rubes off from buying it. Not you apparently, but most.

 

Also, $7-8 cans of IPA are not an actual thing, and $6 cans are extremely rare in NE. Nice straw man though.

 

Not really.

 

I can’t think of a brewery that has hit the $6 can/$24 four pack, yet, when buying at the brewery in New England. Have any examples?

 

even nationally I think it’s reasonable to say this is a rarity

 

Yup. Off hand, the only one nationally that I've seen and it's because I follow them on social media is SARA (Sante Adairius). They've had a couple $24 four packs in the last several months. I don't pay attention to other IPA factory pricing like Monkish, etc., throughout the country, but haven't seen it in New England.

 

Other Half is near me. And given who they are + location, are probably at or close to the extreme end of the IPA pricing spectrum. And even in their case $24/4 packs are not an every week occurrence. It’s usually reserved for triple IPAs with some extra element. Ie “HDHC” and/or tosed up. Easy pass.

 

Here's what I'll say - if they're sustaining a business at the price point that you don't like, then you're wrong, because the market place has dictated the price isn't too high - it's just too high for you and a few other people. And I'm probably with you where I think it's too high for me given my preferences / tastes. But there are enough people that disagree with us that you can't just go and make a blanket statement that their prices are too high in general. They're running a successful business. Someone is buying it at the price point you're complaining about.

 

I agree - this is a rarity. A few TIPAs I've bought, but very few and far between.

 

We know people are buying their beer, clearly they are successful. The bread and butter of most breweries don't reflect this forum, we agree on that. Clearly the numbers I ran don't apply to the people they are primarily selling to since they continue to purchase the beers.

Where you go off the rails is when you mention people buying a few 16oz cans at roughly $4-8 vs 16.9 oz bottles at MBC for $5-8. So rather than broad claims of what's normal let's talk reality. You can go to the Tree House or Trillium website to look at their prices right now. What you'll find is that Tree House charges anywhere from $3 to low $5 per can for what they are currently selling. Julius is just under $4. Trail [Magic] is $3.30 per can and they have DIPA's for $4-5. Switching to Trillium they have a low of $2.55 per can for their Pilsner and a high of $5.55. There are smaller breweries that are charging higher than that for sure but anything over even $6 is a real outlier.

Ok so neither of those examples are available in distribution. If we move to beers readily available in stores, and we stick to hyped breweries, we are probably talking more in the $4-6 range. Even then $6 is more the exception than the rule. SingleCut is the best comparison to MBC since they used to use the 16.9 oz format and charged around $7 per bottle. When they moved to cans they tried charging similar prices and there was a huge backlash. I haven't bought one in a while but I believe they are in the $5-6 range now. Regardless if you want to do apples for apples comparisons we are generally looking at MBC costing ~$3 more than typical competition.

Let's also dissect your mention of LL Bean vs Sierra Trading Post. First LL Bean is a brand and Sierra Trading Post sells other brands at discount prices. They operate on the TJ Max and Marshalls model (they are owned by TJ Max). It would be more like comparing MBC to a discount liquor store that buys MBC's left overs that they couldn't sell and then sell them at a discount. So not sure where you are going with that.

 

Henry & Fran is routinely near the $24 4pack mark...definitely a sign of their quality.

 

If you're buying beer by the case, then a small difference adds up. If you're somebody who buys a bottle every other week to have with dinner or something, then you probably don't care as much about a few dollars difference. In fact, the higher price point and more visually appealing format may even be a selling point since it contributes to the feeling of the beer being something special.

I think it's probably a fairly small sliver of the population that is buying beer in enough volume that the price difference between MBC and lets say Toppling Goliath makes a substantial impact on their total budget yet is still sensitive to those few dollars. In other words, if you can afford to spend $20 per week on beer you can probably afford to spend $24 per week on beer.

 

Can you point to me where I wrote IPA, Straw Man?

 

People pay a premium for what they want and they aren't rubes for doing so.

 

Trillium is working on it.

And while four pack prices at that level are rare, just about every place that sells singles has at least a few IPAs in the $5-6 dollar per can range now.

You're also not a rube if you just buy the beer you like without running an Excel spreadsheet and worrying about some fractional inefficiency in your dollar-per-oz cost of beer.

 

Singlecut is usually at or close to that around me which is why I don't buy it lol

 

I don't know what the problem is here. For some people, price is an issue when buying beer. And they feel that the product at MBC isn't worth the extra cash. Others don't care. I don't understand what the argument is about.

Fact is, MBC is still selling enough to warrant that price point, or they'd drop the price. End of discussion, no?

I personally think they're a little pricey, and I don't buy it very often. I also order a draft of Lunch every time I see it available here because it doesn't happen very often.

 

People do pay a premium for what they want and that doesn't necessarily make them rubes, you are correct. Let's stick with your Sierra Trading Post example for a second. Lots of people will not shop at Sierra because you can't find the same selection that you can find at a non discount retailer. There is extra effort and you usually have to make some sort of compromise going to Sierra. You might want a Columbia jacket and Sierra might only have it in teal blue. No matter what the cost difference you are going to go to the Columbia store and buy what you want. If you do want the teal blue jacket though and you know the exact same jacket is at both stores but Sierra is cheaper are you a rube then for purchasing at the Columbia store directly (assuming no other benefits)?

Clothing is potentially a bad example because branding matters much more than in other industries. Speaker wire is a better example where people were literally rubes for buying Monster Cable brand at an extreme markup when there were other brands that had the exact quality at a much lower cost. Beer is less clear because certainly personal tastes matter but in general there's not a ton of social cache to buying one beer over another on a regular basis especially when you are drinking it mostly in the privacy of your own home. MBC isn't exactly the same as say Monkish, Other Half, Tired Hands, etc. where there's an entire group of people who see drinking their beer as a social status (granted MBC is probably a better brewery than some if not all of those listed).

I don't necessarily think MBC should lower their prices, my main point is that they are an interesting outlier in the beer industry where you really can't point to a solid reason why their cost structure and packaging format works. Every argument you could make for why their beer is more expensive could be applied to many other breweries that aren't as expensive. That's why I continue to ask these questions.

 

I haven't spoken to either of the brothers since the early days in Freeport. They used to handle the tours in Portland and would be pretty upfront about their long term marketing and business plan. If you visit the brewery, just chat them up about what and how they market their beer. I don't think they will be too coy about what they do right.