AC Golden Ctayt

I really loved the shit out of this beer. Price was steep but worth it to try it at least once. Might have to buy another to age.

 

I'm honestly pretty stoked to try this. Coors is getting pretty good at infiltrating the beer nerd world. My only issue with this, especially with this stout, is the price. The PTR (price to retail) on that stout was about $205 for the case. That's $17/bottle to the account. Add a 25-30% margin on that and you're at $23/$24. Now, that's fine if it's justified at the brewery and market level. But at the brewery level, it is not justified. Coors has access to some of the best buying power in the entire industry (raw materials, equipment, etc.). Keep in mind, this company had net sales of $1.75 Billion in 2012. At a market level, it's kinda justified. But you'll have a helluva time finding many $24 Imp Stouts. My point is, I just get a weird feeling from all this. I'm worried that we, the beer lover, are getting duped. I'm worried that the big guys at Coors who oversee this AC Golden division are laughing behind closed doors. Laughing that we're falling for this marketing ploy of a craft brewery. Laughing that we're willing to buy a $24 stout that we've never heard of. Laughing that they're able to play in our sandbox. Just in general taking advantage of our overall interest and support of good beer. I don't know. Just feels weird. Sorry, had to vent there for a bit.

 

Now I'm not so excited to drink the one I've got sitting around...

 

I share your concerns. One (of several, I'm sure) thing that differentiates AC Golden beers from Coors' is the price on the shelf. They are polar opposites. Now, Coors knows marketing. They know that people (in general) associate higher prices with superior quality; as is obvious in the wine industry. I wonder if the price of this stout reflects the cost to produce it. Or if the price reflects an attempt to inflate the perceived quality. I won't buy it (but will try it )
Yet, I also buy very few beers with the $25 price tag.

 

Haha sorry for the Debbie Downer comment. Don't let me bring you down. It's just beer.

 

Right. Honestly doubt it costs them much to produce. Their sour stuff on the other hand? That takes time and attention. And that costs money. It IS great, though, that they're letting their brewer do whatever he wants. You won't find that at AB/Inbev. And "AC Golden's" head brewer is super legit. Actually had a chat with our (New Belgium) brewmaster and he had nothing but great things to say about him. So, they've got that going for them. It's just the suits in the office that I worry about.

 

Except, the Apricot, Peche, Kriek, Ctayt have all been $24-$25. I know they are all barrel-aged beers, but I don't think they're relative to cost to make.

 

No, they just buy craft breweries

And, yeah, ACG brewers are really good. Kind of a sweet gig for them

 

Ohhhhh slam! ha!

 

By the time we crack the bottle I will either be
1) too excited to try a new stout to care or
2)too drunk from drinking other stouts to care.
So don't feel too bad about it.

 

Jokes on them.I would think most people are willing to fork over $25 for something new. But repeat purchase? I doubt it when there are GREAT other options (Parabola, Big Bad Baptist, Uncle Jacobs Stout, maybe Bourbon County next year?, etc.) available at half the cost.

 

I'm not familiar with repeat beers from AC Golden yet aside from Colorado Native. All their Hidden Barrel Series have been one-offs I thought.

 

It's a catch 22 I guess. At one end, I don't want THE MAN getting even more of our money (especially after convincing generations that drinking their pee-water lagers was the cool thing to do), but at the other spectrum, I just want good beer.

Good beer shouldn't be discriminated. But I understand the hesitation to support the backers of the project. I got two bottles of Ctayt just based on word of mouth of people I respect in beer knowledge, who have tasted it and heaped big-time praise of it, in addition to praise of the folks actually making it.

If I think its weak, I won't buy later versions of it. I agree the price point is higher than I'd like. Unless its one of the best barrel aged stouts I've ever had, I probably won't ever get another bottle. But I'm curious at this point.

 

Picked up two bottles as well. One for myself, the other for a friend.

Looking forward to tasting it.

 

Good beer is one thing but it irks me that they set the price so high and people just buy it anyway. AC Golden has priced their sours higher than Cantillon which is a much smaller brewery and is located across the fucking ocean for God's sake. I won't compare the quality because I won't buy an AC Golden beer but I'd guess they would fall short in comparison. This stout is priced at least $7 more than Firestone Walker Parabola which is just crazy. I'd be interested to hear knucks999's input on their pricing strategy. Do they really feel like these beers are in the upper echelon with brewers like Cantillon, Russian River, and Firestone Walker or do they just know that craft beer geeks are stupid and care more about the latest and greatest than actual value or quality. I suspect it's the latter. I guess it just bothers me that we have so many fly-by-night brands who price their beers the same as breweries who are among the very best. The small brewery/startup argument certainly doesn't apply here.

 

Amen! Well said, brotha!

 

Tried it last night...the beer tastes very good IMO. One dimensional? Maybe, but a damn fine dimension. Hints of profit margin on the nose.

 

For what it's worth, at a small tasting a while back we had Fou Foune and AC Golden Apricot side by side and while it was not as good it was not as much of a gap as I expected.

I haven't bought any of the AC Golden beers, mainly because I haven't had the opportunity, but if/when I do I don't know if I would at that price

 

Well keep in mind these are extremely small batches, only half of the sour batches have been bottled and only 14-18 cases IIRC, we're talking <200 bottle count, the rest kegged and served at Rackhouse, festivals, or competitions I presume.