Side Project / Shared (2022)

It’s so good. I drank four bottles in two days last weekend.

 

Per their board, I got the last one about an hour ago at the cell. Not sure how truthful that is as it relates to the near term, but it was delicious…

 

On-site bottles of D11 at the brewery.

 

D11 on-site at the brewery. Nice.

 

D13 on site at the cellar

 

vanilla weekend

 

CoEx Purple bottles on-site at the taproom today.

 

I had to work yesterday. That work took me deep into KY. On the way back home I stopped at many stores, as I often do, to hunt for whiskey (mostly for my BIL, as almost nothing is MSRP and he's willing to pay a certain upcharge, but I generally can't afford it). Well, as I stood there looking at two bottles - both of which I wanted to buy, both of which were allocated and I had never seen, neither of which had I ever even had an opportunity to try, and both of which only had a small upcharge - I was debating whether I really wanted to spend the money.

On one hand, $150 for a $250 bottle is not only a good deal, but not that expensive when you break out the per drink price. On the other hand, I don't need another bottle of whiskey, and even though I haven't had it and would like to try it, I ultimately decided I'd rather put that money towards gymnastics for my daughter.

Then it occurred to me. Acromatic packages are going to be $80+ in a couple days. What the hell was I doing? If anything, whiskey was by far the better choice. Even if my per-drink happiness (utils) were lower from whiskey than Acromatics, it wouldn't be significant, and total happiness from consumption would be far higher and longer lasting from the whiskey.

This got me thinking about how Side Project has never decreased prices. Usually, once you increase scale you're able to decrease prices at some point. At the start, people are usually willing to support high prices to help get a brewery up and running, and usually prices always decrease at some point. Now prices at SP are not only higher than ever, but they keep selling beer in packages, they've switched to a smaller format to increase prices (shrinkflation), and all draft prices have gone up. Where is the cost-sharing? Surely I can't be the only person that feels like SP is working to keep profits constant or increasing by passing all costs along to the consumer. Their price increases far outpace anything else in the industry that I've ever seen.

I "get" that they are a luxury producer, but they sure seem like the most expensive producer in the entire business. Even if stout prices continue to rise, saison prices should be falling. It'd be especially nice to see some of the beers like Grisette and a la table reach a price point better inline with market substitutes.

 

Doing actual mental gymnastics to pay for gymanstics. I like it.

Soooo....what bourbon? Also, bourbon >>> Achromatic Vibes if that's the decision you're reduced to making.

 

i think $80 is being generous, my gut tells me atleast $90. im all tapped out from vacation this weekend, ill have to sit this one out. unless by some miracle its a 2 bottle back with another yet-to-be-released beer.

i get what you mean about production increase. SARA did that a few years ago, dropped a couple of their staple beers down by like $5 since there was an increase in production and a lower cost for them, they passed the savings to the consumer. It was pretty awesome

 

I'll save my money for when Anabasis and BBT Rye drop. They've got to be coming sometime soon

 

hmm well it sounds like I'm wrong and I'm buying a pack tomorrow

 

nice. was hoping it would be that BB or Single Farm.

 

I’m as guilty as anyone so this is probably pretty hypocritical of me to say but I wish the conversation here was more about beer and how good or bad it is to drink and less about the economics of beer.

On that note I recently had a bottle of La Ruche and it was fantastic. Just an easy drinking summer beer. It’s something I can open if I have non craft beer loving friends over for dinner and it goes well with appetizers or just sitting on the patio drinking

 

the reviews for BA ambiente seem... average, any reason why? even the hype guys are rating it average lol

cinnamon strikes again?

 

The SP threads have been pretty non economic focused until recently IMO. I mean yes, as soon as packages were introduced it would be mentioned in a post or two, but it’s only now people keep bringing it up since:

1) Both locations are open again, and have been for a while. The packages were originally pitched as an idea to keep the staff employed
2) They opened a third location
3) The SP staff over doubled since Covid kicked off
4) The price on beer is going up even not accounting for the packages
5) They like to mention how much of a small tiny brewery they are despite all of the above

Bonus:
6) For members: they keep giving us (essentially) weekly $40 saisons but not the stouts

 

Curious about this as well. I've never had a problem with the cinnamon level in any of their stouts. To be fair though, I love cinnamon.

 

I would love to see lower prices on white label beers. I would buy more of them if they did

 

Good to know as I'll be at the Cellar either tomorrow and Thursday and now less inclined splurge on or split a 750. To that end, what is on tap or in the cellar currently that is "can't miss" for a Cellar newbie?