Saving Money on Craft Beer?

You can find different scenarios with the pick-a-six deal so you have to be careful at what's in front of you.

One of my local stores used to get beers from broken lots (a 6-pack is short because of a broken bottle, or someone at the distributor wanted to try a new beer at breaktime, etc.) from the distributor, and you could fill a plain brown 6-pack carrier for $7. But that great deal went bye-bye for some reason.

The same store now allows you to pick any bottle from the shelf (not cans because they have a separate display of can singles), but every single is marked up around 10% above the per-unit price of the 6-pack. Some beers are fresh and some are not, but you pick them.

My other beer store has a very large display of singles, and the employees try to make room for singles of some new beers just received. All are marked up about 10%. So you pay for the extra work that it takes to maintain that separate rack and the extra time that the cashier takes to scan 6 beers. But the experience of trying 6 new-to-you beers is great for tickers.

 

I remember from about 2010-2015 timeframe the store I frequented that allowed you to do mix and match 6 packs of any beers on the floor in six packs (back when 90% or more beers were in 12oz bottled beers), Would usually cost me $15-18and that would be fair game for most all beers in the store in 12oz bottle format (22oz bombers and 750mls were the top shelf stuff back then). Now with 16oz cans as more of the norm, and more localized distribution vs larger production brewers, I need to be very budget conscience and selective to walk out of the store with 6 different beers for under $30. If I were actually grabbing my most desired singles from the store shelves Id probably in the $40 range. Most of the best canned beers are going for $7-8 each out of the store to break them as a single from a 4 pack. Needless to say, I’m straying away from singles and buying more solid 6ers and occasional 4 pack cans.

 

Haha, I guess we'll agree to disagree on this one. Yes, I'll agree that Hamm's is a cheap beer, BUT it isn't a bad beer!
Sometimes it's nice to step away from the IPAs, sours, pastry stouts, etc etc & have a plain old easy drinking AAL & mine is Hamm's...Plus the history & nostalgia of the brand adds to the experience! Cheers

 

Maybe you are at the wrong distributor. Around here a case is most definitely less than buying by the six/four pack. I’ve even had a distributor give me the case price for loose six packs of the same beer.

Enjoy

 

What part of PA are you in? Philly area here so that may be the difference.

 

Same here

Enjoy

 

Damn this thread is a bit of a deflator for my next buying trip over the line into Washington State (which has the largest alcohol import fees from anywhere outside the state line). I'm in British Columbia which has all beer, wine and spirits controlled through the BCLDB, and fixes all prices.
But through the pandemic we have actually seen craft beer prices drop in some cases, as craft makers quickly got away from litre sized bottles and moved into 6 and 12 packs to align with common shipping and buying habits. Our liquor board puts stuff up on sale constantly, but not much goes for less than $1.50 can (US)
https://www.bcliquorstores.com/prod...beer&special=on sale&sort=name.raw:asc&page=1
When I do make it over the line I guess it will be growler refills and clearance sections in the beer dept ..

 

How much of a savings are you typically experiencing?

 

Reducing my drinking at the bar has been a good source of savings. Homebrewing has also been a great source of savings to me as I’m able to brew a good quality aged sour beer and aggressive hopped beer for a small fraction of the cost of purchasing the commercial examples

 

Kunda provides discounted prices for buying by the case.

In the thread I started about buying beer by the case I provided some examples:

"Below are some examples of case vs. six-pack prices at my local Retail Beer Distributor for a few craft beer brands:

Fat Heads Head Hunter: $45.99 per case (1/4th = $11.50), $12.99 per six-pack

Heineken: $33.50 per case (1/4th = $8.38); $9.99 per six-pack

Yuengling Traditional Lager: $26.49 per case ($6.62); $6.99 per six-pack"

Cheers!

 

Ah okay well right here is the issue and why I generally see no discount when comparing broadly: the distributor is offering a discount per case if you are comparing it with only their six pack prices. But using HH as an example I have seen it for less than $11.50/six pack so if you were to buy four six packs at $10.99 somewhere else it's cheaper than Kunda's case price.

All case by case [pun intended?] examples, though, and I am sure in some examples it really is cheaper.

 

Yeah, if you use Retailer A vs. Retailer B then that is a challenging comparison vs. just staying consistent with a single retailer. I am confident that there are other retailers (e.g., Capone's, Whole Foods, etc.) where the six-pack price of a beer such as HH would be comparable to Kunda's six-pack price.

Cheers!

 

Beer Marketers Insights weekly newsletter said that "insiders" reported that Molson Coors also "paused" some sub-premium brands "following cybersecurity event and TX storm".

 

Apply what is true is drug game to beer game.
"Grow yer own" = Brew your own.
Don't get high off your supply =Don't drink.
Stay sober.
This game is expensive. Like they say :

" If you aint got no money stay yo broke ass home!"

 

Try your regional breweries - the large micros, medium size breweries that rely more on distro than on site sales. I was at Knee Deep in Auburn, CA last weekend and they had a list of specials for each day of the week, which was mostly discounts on certain things.

 

Wish I could get some Rainier, let alone Little Kings Cream Ale. Good, inexpensive, and nice.