Has inflation impacted your beer budget?

Yeah, when it costs me $5.50 per 4-pk of NEIPA on the homebrew side, I find it really hard to pay more than $17 for a 4-pk at a local brewery. My Czech Pils that I made in January cost $2.61 per 4-pk. I think just knowing the back end costs to make (plus labor and utilities), you lose me when you're selling a standard NEIPA for more than $17. Tired Hands sells their Helles for $15 per 4-pk and I'll gladly pay that, but $24 for a milkshake IPA 4-pk, no thanks. That margin is just ridiculous.

$25 for a 750mL de Ranke Oud Bruin, yup, I'll pay that. I was at Root Down last Friday and picked up 5 4-pks and paid $79 ($15.80 per 4-pk) and was worth every penny. Most expensive was Bine for $18, but again it's a GABF winning IPA so it's worth the money.

 

I'm not married and no kids. So, I'm too stupid to reduce my beer budget.

 

Craft breweries are hoping that there are more customers like you out there!!

Cheers!

 

I only go into beer stores with a completely open mind, I have been buying cheaper beers recently mostly because I have been feeling a bit burned out by hop overload. I'm sure that'll change in a couple weeks though

 

My diet has me restricting the amount that I drink, so inflation really has not impacted it. If I see something that I want, I usually spend on it.

 

Sounds like you need to take a walk down the international aisles for some Belgians, Germans, and English beers!

 

Maybe!

I do track leisurely spending, but beer is just lumped into that. I just know money keeps going into savings at the same rate, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ indeed!

Now you have me curious what I spent last month on beer alone...

 

Absolutely. I'm going to be buying fewer $15-18 four packs from local brewers and more $15-18 twelve packs from Sierra Nevada and Jack's Abby. Housing, food, daycare, health care and everything else are increasing like crazy, but my pay is only going up 2% for the new fiscal year. Hopefully a few small local brewers will realize that they need to price their products more reasonably if they want to keep their non-wealthy customers.

 

I get what you are saying here but the 'dilemma' for the small, local craft breweries is that their costs have significantly increased due to inflation over the past year+. Can these small businesses absorb these price increases and remain in business? Of course the other consideration is if they raise prices will their customers cut back their purchasing?

I am uncertain how to characterize Jack's Abby but Sierra Nevada is a large craft brewery with two large locations (I toured the Mills River, NC and it is big and beautiful) and there are economies of scale for larger businesses. They can produce product at a more economical manner as the small, local craft breweries but even they at some point will likely have to pass on their increased costs and raise their beer prices a bit.

Cheers!

 

Hardly! That being said and being retired, I don't have a "beer budget" per se. I give myself X amout of buckos to spend every week on groceries, beer, gas, pot & lap dances. There is a new "big box" grocery store in the area, their prices are cheaper than the local grocery store or liquor store, that's certainly helped. A $15x15 Centennial pack sure beats a $15x30 PBR any day....

 

I buy AMERICAN (kidding ofc), but I have been looking for more than 4 packs that's the issue I have been running into

 

For about 4 or 5 years I had a $4000 annual beer budget that I stuck to pretty damn well. It was mostly designed, originally, as a mechanism for getting me to cut back on habitual beer drinking and just be more thoughtful about whether I actually wanted that last beer of the night or that mediocre beer at the restaurant, and it worked for that.

Starting in 2021 I switched my technique and started taking a week off of drinking every month, and this year I also added one day per week that I don't drink at all. So I abandoned my beer budget and just buy what I want now. I should probably combine the approaches though cause I'm sure I'm spending more money on beer now than I was when I was keeping myself to a budget.

 

I wanna drink beer with you!

Cheers!

P.S. I would invite my buddy Phil to join us but then we might get kicked out!?!

 

Are we supposed to have a beer budget?

 

Never had a beer budget, I spend less money on beer retired because I'm in bars less often. No more knocking a few down after work with co-workers,

 

Pabst was making a 4 pack of tall boys called Old Tankard an ESB which is great and supposedly they stopped making it. It was replaced in my distro by their hard coffee which is surprisingly good, but not beer IMO, it's like Yoohoo and Kahlua had a love child.
Hamm's came back strong, starting to see Old Style again and I was digging the Schlitz before they tried to "craft up" the price.

 

This right here, the beer budget is definitely more lock down. Sorry to say, if I can buy better beer and cook at home and come out ahead, the less likely I venture out to pay more at a an establishment. And I live within walking distance of a German pub that's got amazing food and only beers from across the pond and Europe that do not include the usual grocery store imports.

 

But none of them are regionally owned anymore.

@jesskidden

 

Right. What I meant was Pabst in name, contract brewed by others and puts out regional old man staples, Olympia, Black Label etc.

 

Okay, but when you compare to those old, genuinely regional days (probably even before my time, although all of the above were still available from the original sources when I started drinking beer), the modern knock-offs can't hold a candle.

Back in the late '70s and early '80s Old Style was a pretty common go-to, but the Huber beers were more desirable.

These days I wouldn't look twice at Old Style -- even pricier imports garner my attention faster.