I got curious and looked up the one-star reviews for the SN Mills River Taproom. There are only 29 out of nearly 2000 Reviews. Aside from the idiotic ones like people complaining they don't serve liquor, the main two complaints had to do with their dog friendliness being limited to a small area outside on the patio and small portions of food when considering the price. I will admit, although the food is excellent, I have been slightly disappointed couple times in the portion size for how much I've paid. They have a 4.7 overall though and it's well-deserved
If I lived closer and would be able to visit whenever I wanted, I could see this being a thing. Vacation spending hits totally different, though!
Yeah, I can't see offering lower packaged beer prices, as they're more expensive to produce. Kegs are where you're making your money, as you're just selling the liquid. No container. You're probably right that you could charge the same or more than your accounts, but I think you could charge up to a dollar less than your accounts without much of a push-back from them. Or, if they did have an issue, just run specials on certain beers so it would be more targeted.
This just brings us back to the very first point in this thread: If the brewery undercuts the price that their accounts sell at, the accounts have no reason to carry that brewery's beers.
Except that almost all of the accounts are - far enough away from the brewery that customers aren't making a direct choice between the two most of the time - offering things a brewery doesn't (food, cocktails, wine, an extensive tap list, unique experience, broad selection of packaged alcoholic beverages) as their primary draws - not really competing with the brewery in any meaningful sense given the above Breweries always play this card to justify high taproom prices. But it just doesn't stand up to logical scrutiny. Who is actually going to say "nah, I won't order this $8 beer in a restaurant or bar because I could theoretically get it a dollar or two cheaper at a place 20 miles away that offers a totally different experience to the one I'm having right now?" Or, "I'm gonna pass on this $17 four pack at the liquor store I am standing in right now and instead drive half an hour to the brewery to buy it for $15?"
Maybe it depends on the region? Here in PDX, there are a lot of beer bars/taphouses in town, as well as pubs/restaurants with sizeable draft selections. Most sell their draft beer for considerably less than what you'll pay at the brewery taproom.
I feel like this is especially the case when there are so many local, regional and national options to choose from. Beer bars have plenty of options, and if they feel a local brewery is overcharging for kegs (such that they can't make enough profit without selling pints above the MSRP), there's no reason for them to buy from that brewry. It's not as if there aren't plenty of other highly regarded breweries to choose from. Here in PDX, breweries like Brujos, Great Notion, Ruse and Living Haus sell there beer at prices that are significantly above what local beer bars are charging. My impression is that they want to be particularly careful not to undercut any of their local accounts. They do occasionally offer brewery only releases, otherwise I'm not sure why anyone would visit their taprooms.
It's just a lazy, scarcity mindset. You want to make more money? Do something unique that sets you apart. Brew better/different beer than everyone else. Make your brewery a place people look forward to coming to and hanging out, instead of just picnic tables and a food truck. Get out in the community and meet people and talk about beer.
I think that's the key, right there. If you're in a highly competitive local market you might have to make some concessions. However, if your market isn't as competitive and/or you make a product that is known to move quickly, you have a little more carte blanche.
We're talking about small breweries, ones whose reach may not even be 20 miles. Literally breweries who only have their beers out in a few towns. The breweries that self-distribute. If you can get the same 6 pack, at the same price, while you're getting groceries, why wouldn't you? Why drive the 2 miles to the brewery? This is how the brewery keeps everybody happy; they sell beer to the stores and bars, folks who want the brewery experience can go there, and everyone is paying roughly the same price for their chosen experience.
Beer at the brewery is priced at the HIGH retail price. It's backwards from my logic that beer should be cheaper at the source but that's the way it is it cost more to ship than gets discounted to the distributor and then store/bar has to profit.
I haven’t read thru all the responses so this may be a duplicate comment. In the NY FingerLakes, I found many local beers cheaper at the store in Hammondsport vs pricing sold on site at the breweries nearby. I’m guessing this is due to tourists buying mostly from the breweries along the lakefront, where locals (a fairly depressed locally economy there) can buy beers cheaper at the store.
Love my local breweries, well, the ones that don't suck. I like the social aspect, but it gets pricey.
The three tier system has for so long placed so much downward pressure on beer prices that brewery taprooms need to charge the same "market" price to help make up the difference in really, really terrible distribution margins. And if they are self-distributing, they have the costs associated with vehicles and labor to deliver the beer. They're still not making the full cut. This used to be a much bigger issue before the advent of the brewery taproom. Good bars were very, very sensitive to pricing as brewery taprooms started to act more like bars (or open additional taprooms near bars). I can see it as a little different now being as brewery taprooms are so commonplace, but it's still not a good look to regularly undercut your customers. And in this stagnating (at best) market, it's pretty odd to expect lower prices at the source, the only place that small breweries are making any real money. Take a look at your local breweries' event calendars as well: they're doing everything they can to get people in the door right now. Long gone are the days of having a flight of samples in an industrial park just for curiosity purposes.
My local brewery offers cheap pours, especially Wednesdays and Thursdays where they’ll fill a 20oz boot for cheap. Their 4 and 6pack prices match the stores. The only crazy thing is they charge $1 more for a 64oz growler than for a 4pk of 16oz cans. The growler doesn’t require canning costs. I don’t think the prices for big brewers have gone up that much. The big brewers seem competitive with each other and are substantially cheaper than many of the local craft brewers.
From my understanding taprooms have much better margins on draft pours compared to packaged beer, so since you're taking away supply of a kegged beer that could be charged at a draft pour price I can kinda see the logic. Maybe it's cheap but all accounts are that it's hard out there, gotta imagine every buck counts. Also filling a growler is time consuming, doesn't shock me a place wouldn't bend over backward to make it an attractive option if they regularly have some variety of canned stuff.
