Maine Beer Company (Black Barn Program)

Working on it doesn't mean is. I don't follow all their triple IPAs, but I don't think those have hit the 6/24 mark, yet. I think top is/has been $22+ change for them. I'm sure someone who follows and buys them regularly would know better.

Genuinely curious, are you talking about beer stores selling $6 cans? My post was in regards to buying directly from breweries in New England. If that's what you are referring to, can't really compare it. Again, I haven't seen any IPA four packs at $6/$24 in/from *New England* breweries.

 

Their IPAs or other styles of canned beer?

 

Could you elaborate on this a little bit? I feel like you're contradicting yourself between saying that beer doesn't have a ton of social cache then speaking about the people Monkish, Other Half, etc.

 

New Park's Blender series is $6 a can but they have said it is because they use fresh fruit not puree. However, all of their ipas and stouts are between $4 and $5. Give me one of those over a Maine any day of week.

 

Oh, man, no way. I’ll take MBC, SingleCut, Trillium, Olde English; anyone over obnoxious New Park.

 

Ran across MBC Dinner on draft at a dive bar in Andover, MA this week. $8 for a stadium pour pint - enjoyed it.

I’ll continue to say they make a very good (not great) product that is just simply overpriced in general.

 

Right? Their ipas are so good it is obnoxious.

 

Damn, well played!

 

Hey, did you guys know that Maine Beer Company's beers are more expensive than some other beers?

Totally crazy. Really makes me want to open up my computer calculator app.

 

Ha, yeah that was a bit of double speak. What I meant was that in general the average person isn't impressed by the beer you drink. If you drive up in a Bugatti Chiron I think pretty much everyone is going to take some notice, even if they don't know what a Bugatti is they are going to realize its a nice car. Name brand clothes might not impress everyone but there's certainly a large portion of the world that takes some notice. These things are pretty obvious and buying those things presents an image for those who that's important to.

Beer does have some social cache but its pretty limited in scope. There are those who buy certain beers, visit breweries, etc. and then post on say Instagram. The impact of that is much more limited to a niche group of people. The "Instagram worthy" beers tend to be from the more hyped breweries such as Monksih, Other Half, etc.. I don't think MBC beers have that same sort of draw within the Instagram world. They tend to be hazy as well, which MBC beers generally don't have much haze, at least not comparatively. I probably should have just left it as "Beer doesn't have a ton of social cache". I also wasn't trying to imply anything about people who drink Monkish, Other Half, Tired Hands, etc.. I haven't had Monkish but have had both Other Half and Tired Hands and seek it out when I can.

 

Cool and fair. I was originally going to reply that I would argue that there is some social cache with beer, but I think you summed it up better with the idea that it's in exactly the limited scope. I feel like a lot of these breweries have developed something of a subculture and as a consumer, sometimes you have to separate that culture from the quality of the beer. I'm no longer at the point where I can do the chase culture or the look what I got shit. If a beer is on tap somewhere that I want or if I happen to go to the brewery, great. Otherwise, whatever.

I wonder if there is a socially conscious beer drinking sub-culture that we don't know about that are supporting MBC...

 

Here in Pittsburgh, you can barely get MBC - it's around, but sporadic. Happened to be at dinner one night with my brother (no pun intended) at a nicer restaurant, and "Dinner" was available for a 12oz pour - no brainer right? Just ordered it - we both did. $15 apiece. No BS.

 

You know where else this is surprisingly true? Wrist watches. If you're into that and own a Rolex or a Panerai, you notice when someone else is wearing it. But nobody else does - literally nobody. If you're trying to impress a girl, don't spend $6k on a watch - they have ZERO idea. You're in a closed group where only that group gets it. It's mostly the same way with beer. When someone comes over and I say grab a beer, they're like "WTF is all of this - I don't even know what to pick."

 

Bar pricing can be ridiculously variable. My local Whole Foods had Dinner on this summer and it was like $8 for a 12 oz. A pizza place by me has Lunch on right now and it's $11 for a pint. That same pizza place has Tilquin Mure on for $22 (I don't know the oz on the full pour) where other places usually price lambic at $15. There's certainly a lot of variability, even within a market.

 

Yes. I guess if you want to compare strictly on on-site pricing I guess it's different, but I don't get the sense that on-site sales are really MBC's bread and butter, so the retail comparison makes more sense in my mind.

 

Sorry, since basically all of MBC's beers are pale ales and IPAs, I just assumed you were staying on topic, my bad. Sure, if you want to compare MBC's bottles of 5-7% hoppy ales with $8 cans of pastry stout, then yeah, I guess it's a great deal.

 

But like... why can't you? What's so special about pastry stouts that they get to be expensive?

 

Yeah - this wasn't meant as a shot at MBC this time - just relaying an experience I had - totally on the restaurant and not the brewery, but I about shat myself when I got that bill.

 

Now you're just being obtuse.

There are basically two arguments being made in this thread.

Argument 1: "I like MBC's beer and don't care what it costs. I like to splurge every now and again." This argument is totally personal and I have no issue with it whatsoever.

Argument 2: "MBC's beer is not overpriced at all because its a premium product and/or other completely different kinds of beers are the same price." This argument is objectively wrong, and stupid, and is the only one I've been addressing. But I'm done now.