Bruery 2017 RS/HS Allocations

Regarding the price increases, I do believe it's better to do it all in one adjustment, rather than a bunch of phases. That being said, I do think these are excessive.

I can see how it would alienate the regulars/locals....but in the grand scheme of things, I don't think the Bruery totally cares. I think they are consciously growing (more memberships being offered), less exclusives/more distribution, and are positioning themselves as somewhat of a luxury item / destination.

Personally speaking, I might only go a couple times a year, and my time is much more valuable to me than money. When I am there, I just want to enjoy myself, and don't really care about the price.

One suggestion to the Bruery, is that with the increased taster prices, you should consider refunding the amount if someone buys a growler. Standard practice at most wineries.

 

I just want to give a HUGE shoutout to the Tasting Room staff, who have definitely caught $*** in regards to the price increase in the last week and yet continue to provide awesome, friendly service. FYI, from what several of them told me, it sounded like few (if any) of them actually knew about the changes.

 

Share this OC was okay.

Chocolate Rain was very smooth and awesome. Better than last year.

 

Or bottle.

 

Which I understand. The Bruery will "get the message" the best if their Tasting Room sales drop significantly after the price change. Venting on social media may feel good but won't make them change their minds. Simple economics will.

 

Interesting... I wonder if I should be using another word. Possibly it's the acidity that's standing out to me? Would you rate Beret very high (for a sour) in acidity?

 

I actually feel bad for these people, they obviously have no say in this, they are essentially bartenders. The tasting room staff doesn't care about profits and the bottom line. They care about serving the customer. Increases in price comes from the top maybe not as high as Patrick, or maybe it was, I do not know, but someone at a management level made the decision.

I now have a dilemma, I am probably going to be in Anaheim around lunch time and normally would go to the Bruery as both Noble and bottle logic are closed till 4. Any recommendations not named the bruery?

 

Not exactly sure how much time nor distance you're looking to go but consider Haven gastropub nearby in Orange, or heck even the Anaheim packing district as well.

 

I feel horrible for them. I was talking to my main guy there and he said tips have been $*** the shifts he worked there... which I can understand; paying 2x for the same flight a week ago would tempt me to tip less... if I didn't know the people behind the bar like I do. I definitely want to urge anyone going to take your frustration out on upper management (by ordering less), not our friends behind the bar... keep tipping them generously.

 

I skipped SMM for that very reason... that, and I simply couldn't afford it.

 

Standard past SMM plan: a full flight, followed by a full pour, chill
New SMM plan: get my stamp, 1 taster of whatever i'm not sure about for allocations, leave

 

I agree with your sentiment except that ordering fewer drinks means fewer times tipping means the staff makes less. The fact is the staff is going to take the brunt of this price increase.

 

I definitely got the "old" pours for my extra money on Monday.

 

Can confirm. Went to Terreux today to try the new allocations and definitely got 2 oz pours and paid double the price.

 

Yup, still went to SMM this week, but I got 2 flights and 0 fills between a friend and I. Compared to 4 flights and 2 fills a couple of weeks ago. Still tipped same percentage but tab was half my usual amount (for 1/4 the beer). I still saw lots of members with growlers on SMM but most didn't know about the price increases yet. I wonder how many will still be bringing theirs for fills next month.

 

Recall the email I mentioned sending a few days ago? Well, I got a response. Here's the TLDR of it:

1. Our previous pricing was below market value.

2. We still provide superior value compared to our neighbors.

3. Some of our more drastic changes (such as Autumn Maple and SHIT) are to better treat our higher ABV beers.

Nothing was mentioned in terms of growler fills.

I'll respond to Jonas with a more detailed response, but here is my public response:

1. Most places I've been to charge somewhere between $3-5 for a 4oz pour of beer. Most flights cost between 6-12

 

Recall the email I mentioned sending a few days ago? Well, I got a response. Here's the TLDR of it:

1. Our previous pricing was below market value.

2. We still provide superior value compared to our neighbors.

3. Some of our more drastic changes (such as Autumn Maple and SHIT) are to better treat our higher ABV beers and to make sure we aren't over serving our customers.

Nothing was mentioned in terms of growler fills.

I'll respond to Jonas with a more detailed response, but here is my public response:

1... And 2. Most places I've been to charge somewhere between $3-5 for a 4oz pour of beer. Most flights cost between $6-12 depending on the type of beer being served. With that said, $1.5-3.5 for a 2oz taster sounds about in-line with what I've seen elsewhere. Right now, you can get a 4oz taster of Ground State/Reaction State for $4.5 at Bottle Logic. Translate that to a 2oz pour and you pay $2.25... Which is less than you'd pay for JARDINER at the Bruery right now. You can argue that the pour volumes have gone up... But have they really? As many have said on here, and from what I saw on Monday, I don't think there's been a big change. And in fact, with 40 beers on tap I'd rather have the smaller size. As of right now, the MINIMUM cost of a flight at the TR would be $12.50... Featuring their lowest tier beers (pale ales, berliners, and blondes primarily). I could walk into a place like Beachwood and for $8 get a flight of four 5oz pours of some of their best stuff (Single, double and triple IPAs, stouts, Mocha Machine, etc) and an upgrade to some of their more signature stuff (Tovarish, BA Mocha Machine, etc) might put me back another few dollars. I'm not sure what places upper management looked at, but the Tasting Room no longer provides much of any value in comparison to their neighbors... At least for tasters.

3. I'm boarderlined offended for this point. I feel like a responsible way to not over serve someone is to cut them off, something I know the people behind the bar are more than capable of doing (I could easily see Lee, or Ryan, or Emily, or Chris cut someone off). Instead, jacking up the prices and in some cases halfing the pour volumes of your higher ABV beers, which make up HUGE PORTION of your tap line up with the pretense of keeping people from being over served feels insulting to the many people who come, enjoy responsibly, have a water or two with their flight, and use proper judgement... As I do (I stayed an hour later than planned on Monday and nursed a few nitro cold brews just to be safe). I could understand if DUI's coming from the TR or a large number of incidents was becoming a problem for the Bruery, but I've never seen that, other than the scattered incident that is going to be common elsewhere.

Again, I understand the need to raise prices... But this is the wrong way to go about it on so many levels! I'm genuinely disappointed in the responses I've heard so far trying to justify what truly are draconian and drastic increases that make an afternoon at my favorite watering hole prohibitively expensive.

To show I'm being fair, I've posted the email response below... Let me know if you think I took anything Jonas said out of context and I'll fix my response accordingly:

Terrence,
Thank you for your well-thought out email, and of course for your years of support to The Bruery. Obviously it is unfortunate to hear your (and others’) criticism of our recent pricing changes, but nonetheless we value your input. Please rest assured that we are taking these complaints seriously and are evaluating whether additional adjustments need to be made.

To provide some general context, as you point out, these changes were implemented in large part to account for increases in our costs. It’s worth noting that this is the first such major change we have taken in many, many years. For that reason, our prices previously were far below market pricing at other brewery tasting rooms as well as specialty beer bars. While I agree with you that market pricing isn’t always tied 100% to a direct cost structure, I would argue that benchmarking across an industry in a specific area is a fair, reasonable, and smart business practice. Even with the increased prices, I can still find numerous examples where we still provide superior value compared to our neighbors. I will also point out that some of the seemingly more drastic changes on specific brands (you mention Autumn Maple, others have pointed to So Happens It’s Tuesday), are also a result of re-examining how we treat our higher alcohol beers; to ensure we are living up to our responsibility to not over-serve customers, we have re-worked some of the ABV brackets that determine pour size & price.
I will follow-up with you shortly with more specifics.
Cheers,
Jonas


Jonas Nemura | Certified Cicerone®
Sr. Director of Operations
The Bruery & Bruery Terreux
737 Dunn Way, Placentia, CA 92870

 

Let me see if I understand this thread correctly...

I got set in my place for making a post complaining about the shit quality of the bottle opener that was a waste of money in our membership cost (because we the people of this thread cant do anything about that.)

But we can have 5 pages of complaining about price increases for drafts?

Neat

 

Not sure I see the problem with a healthy debate on the pricing subject, as long as it's civil and not trying to directly attack anyone. Not everyone is going to agree here, but this is a larger change made by the folks over at The Bruery, and if their members want to ask them why, I think it's perfectly reasonable to do so.

 

I think the whole opener thing is a one time inconvenience, you get upset about it and move on. Mine broke and I went, "well shit, that sucks" and threw it away, much like if I broke a glass.

The price increases have an effect every time someone goes inton the tasting room. People are very sensitive about money, and how much they're paying for something.

Personally, I'm more miffed about the price increases than a bottle opener I didn't really care about in the first place, but to each their own.