Evil Twin Pricing & Thoughts

Thats the tough part about judging a beer on price. We as the consumer want to justify the quality of the beer versus its cost. Its really easy to try and break it down by cost per ounce but that really is unfair. Especially on imports where there are at least one added level in the distribution process.

It makes it very difficult to know at what level or levels the above average mark up is coming from. As far as the market determining the price its not its not very elastic based on demand. The biggest price variations seem to come when it arrives at the store because thats when the owners have the most flexibility to mark it up to where they see fit.

The most frustrating part for me is that the prices vary so much from store to store. I can comparison shop at the stores around me but I'm too lazy to travel more then 15 minutes out of my way to save the extra dollar or two that would be canceled out by the gas anyway.

In the end its out of our hands. The best we can say is while I prefer the taste of X beer over Y but Y offers the better value. The most helpful way to review a beer is independent of price. Thats why I love beer festivals because you pay a uniform price and get to try the beer not thinking of the price and don't have to take the risk of having to pay a lot just to try it

 

That is exactly right I just read an article about that! The US craft beer consumer will pay anything to get their hands on a beer and the distributors and retail stores know it. It would be the same if Zombie Dust was selling for $16 which I have seen it that high and we pay it.

 

I can't afford their beers, so I don't buy them, it doesn't upset me at all that I cant' buy them or that they charge that much for them.

 

Because they have payed money for it before, and been dissapointed. Also, this is a beer discussion forum, for discussing beer. People are saying things you dont agree with, which doesn't give you the right to say "This dicussion is pointless, you people are obnoxious." I find the pricing of ET beers, versus their quality, to be obnoxious. Doesn't the brewer have the ability to talk to distros about the price points of his beers? If someone is brewing a beer for him, isnt that brewer selling it to Jeppe, which makes him the proprietor? If I'm wrong then shame on me, but saying that Jeppe doesn't have the ability to discuss/mildly influence end pricing seems a little silly. Then again, why would he if there are thousands of people willing to part with the money? How many open-ended questions can i squeeze into one rambling paragraph?

Granted, Zombie dust is $16/six pack from anywhere in the city, and what, like, 8 dollars a six pack at the brewery? Shee-Zus.

 

Exactly...Jeppe CAN lower prices. All he has to do is cut out the middle men, or at least not have 5 of them. "Why is your beer so expensive?" "I can't change my prices, they are set by someone else, then someone after that, then..."you get my point. When you add in the quality factor, trolls like myself get discontent. I don't want to hear that you had to hire x amount of people to sell your beer, or that you have to pay someone else to brew your own recipe. Maybe that's why I mainly drink local. I can't fathom why someone would send another brewery their recipe and say "here, brew this for me. Make any changes you see fit. I don't care what yeast you use, or what hops, as long as the final product is good." That sounds much more like a business venture and less like a craft/skill of manual labor that takes skill and dedication. I wonder if Jeppe's prices will change when he actually opens his own brewery! His team of middle men will drop from 5 to 2: the distributor and the bar/shop. I hear it might even be here in PA...I can visit him regularly.

 

You do realize that to a certain extent, cutting out middle men when dealing with alcohol is against the law, right?

 

I have the right to say whatever I want until the Admins of this site tell me otherwise.

The start of this thread was actually someone who said "I like the beer, but it is too expensive." Apparently he was disappointed in the price. There is an easy fix for that, DON'T BUY THE BEER, which is once again why I find this thread obnoxious.

You're implying that people paid a price for the beer, but were disappointed in the value vs. the dollar and are now complaining about it as a bad beer. The whole jist of this thread is just that the price point is too high, which once again leads me to the solution stated above. It's not that the price point is too high for a bad beer or the price point is too high for a good beer, it's just that it's too high.

If you can't figure out why Zombie Dust would be considerably cheaper at the brewery than at your local beer store, I can understand why you would fail to see how little Jeppe can do to meaningfully lower the price of his beer.

 

I'm only annoyed that they're taking up shelf space that could be used for something I could afford.

 

NO HE CANNOT! If he tells all of his middlemen to lower their prices, they will probably just say no. If he insists, they will tell him to find another middle man- and pay for breaking his contract. This is what you guys have to understand.

If MillerCoors goes with a distributor, they can set certain terms- Freshness, pricing, timely delivery, etc. Those are stipulated in their contracts.

When Jeppe looks for a distributor/importer, he really doesn't have much say. If he says "You're only allowed to mark up my beer 10%" they will say no. Nobody, and I mean nobody, will import or distribute his stuff. He has no power over his retail pricing.

 

to a certain extent...I am aware you can't cut all middle men out, the states need their cut. But, 2 is better than 5...

EDIT: When I mean cut out the middle men, I do mean leagally. Brewing at your own place and not using an importer cuts two price hikes right away.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-tier_(alcohol_distribution)

As Jeppe is a gypsy brewer, his per batch premium is going to stay roughly the same over the course of time, as opposed to lowering after an expense for his own equipment, thus leading to a slight bit of markup right off the bat. When you add in the importer, he's stuck in a minimum of a 4 tier system which he has no way of getting out of. Cutting out the middle man is great in theory, but there's no one for him to cut out here.

 

I think his point is that he could change his prices if he went about brewing the beers a different way, like brewing more in the US for beer sold in the US or opening his own production brewery. The beer needs to be exceptionally good for a brewery with his setup to survive. Luckily for him and all of us, the majority of his beer is exceptionally good.

I'm not knocking the way Jeppe does business by any means - I'm sure he has many reasons to do it the way he does and the majority of us in here have little information about how he conducts his business and why he conducts it that way. However, it's certainly not the cheapest way to get beer to US consumers. I'm sure he knows that.

 

Tons of interesting dynamics at work here in this thread -- which may be one of the most telling about the current start of U.S. craft beer I've seen.

1. An actual mental price ceiling seems to be being reached by a majority of beer geeks.

2. A segment of the beer geek set apparently remains willing to pay these prices, either once as a tick or repeatedly across a range of styles...

3. A brewer achieving a degree of success using a business model that has been supported by his target demographic, but who is also aware that his current model is, at least to a degree, unsustainable (up to and including, apparently, the bottom line, as his business is hardly making him a wealthy man)

4. Tension among the historically supportive (almost to a fault) beer geek community

5. European players in the U.S. craft beer scene being accused of driving up prices -- while the old Euro imports have actually dropped in price over the last few years by benefiting from the self-same distribution channels

...I'm sitting here sipping on a $6.99 six-pack of Spaten (I know...evil In-Bev, yet another dynamic) and enjoying the show. Prost!

 

except that he has a contract with 12% so that even stuff brewed in the US still has to go through the Importers hand before it hits a distributor and then to the final retail outlet...

 

Jeppe runs Evil twin out of Brooklyn with his wife. They moved here within this year I believe but I'm not completely sure...I'm a troll not a stalker. It may have been based in DK at one time, but rumors have it he is looking at a brewery right here in PA.

 

If you don't like Evil Twin's pricing, don't buy their beer. If you don't mind their pricing, I recommend you seek out Lil' B. It's the base beer for IBB and is way too drinkable.

Do I buy every Evil Twin beer on the shelf? No. Do I buy every beer on the shelf from other brewers? No. Do I sometimes feel cheated by the price of mediocre beer? All the time. Do I write off a brewer as "shitty" or "overpriced" based on some of their beer in some of their markets? Never.

Bottom line: is Evil Twin for everyone? No. Does Evil Twin make some amazing beers that their supporters are well rewarded for purchasing? Absolutely.

 

I'd would be ideal to look at the costs of ingredients, shipping, and of course a certain profit margin to the distributor, brewer and the seller.

I personally have bought quite a few of Evil Twin's beers,I feel like sometimes the quality is justified but once again if you don't like the price don't buy it.