Jester King in MA

You're actually almost sort of on to something here (and it has nothing to do with MA specifically)--there is an issue with just how many "event beers" (i.e. assertive beers in single-bottle formats) the market can bear. Logsdon and Almanac and Wicked Weed are starting to sit because people are only willing to make pricey 375s and 750s a certain (small) portion of their consumption. Beer is still not wine--it's a functional beverage that succeeds in functional formats and packaging. Seizoen Bretta is great, but I need a 750 of farmhouse ale once every couple months at best. Next time I need one I'm going to have like a dozen new options so what's the likelihood I'm going back to the well with Seizoen Bretta? I really love what Jester King does but nothing about my daily life is set up for consuming $20 Jester King 750s on a regular basis.

That being said, it still makes more sense for those breweries to challenge the market than it does for a competent but unremarkable regional like Revolution or Rhinegeist to show up in Mass. with pale ales and IPAs that are dependent on freshness.

 

Ah. Nothing compares to the “dumping ground” of NY. Name recognition is a bigger incentive than quality/satisfying local demand

+Upland

 

Trade + Market Value plays a role; their value diminishes as they sit...who cares about quality

 

Yup, this one made a splash on the BA advertisements a month or so ago, but I haven't seen it since, or in stores. My easily answered lazy ass question is do they also do IPAs and other stuff, and in the same vein - does Revolution, also mentioned in this thread, also do sours - and if so, have they been distributed in the Beantown market? If so / not - we're not talking apples / oranges...but I guess I'm nit picking

 

How do these brands fare on tap though? People might not be willing to drop $20 on a JK 750 all that often, but they might be selling decent compared to other brands in beer bars. There are a lots of brands that I rarely buy bottles of, but do drink on tap quite often. I dont go out of my way to buy Firestone Walker Double Jack in bottles, but if I'm at happy hour with coworkers I will gladly get one because its most likely the best thing on tap for the couple hours I'm there.

 

Massachusetts definitely seems to be on the short list of places you distribute your dollar-per-ounce beer too. And yes, those beers are aging like crazy on the shelves. Has anyone ever actually bought a bottle of Cascade? I still see 2013 bottles from them all over the place.

 

For those who care, this thread struck a nerve so I got a little carried away and started a thread in the national Beer Talk forum that didn't go anywhere, but here it is anyway...and my response to @DeweyCheatem-n-Howe

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...-boston-market-and-beyond-wilds-sours.498943/

I realized that as looked a little further into it in doing a modicum of research for this. I'm glad you did though because it really got me thinking and I still stand behind what I wrote. Another guy pointed out that La Folie / Lips of Faith are routinely offered at $12 around the country. I found it at Marty's Newton for $16 which routinely price gouges folks and is pretty much always the highest prices in the Boston area. But similarly, I still stand behind my conclusions as New Belgium still has a good strategy on market entry into the Boston market. Anyway - CBC's pricing (was it Belmont?) seems pretty fair as I recall seeing it as CBC Newton Center before they moved a couple years ago for somewhere in the mid - $30's. I'll post this to the NE forum as well, thanks for the feedback / fessing up...!! Cheers!

 

The New Belgium Lips of Faith bottles were being sold at 12 at Burlington Wegman's and I think similar at some of the other stores that tend to be cheaper.
I have seen a store sell TDD Dulcis Succubis for $35 when other stores including CBC were selling it at $26, I wont mention the store as they sometimes are cheaper than most but we have issues with our pricing.

 

I was under the impression this was the first time Jester King package has hit the market? Legally, at least..

 

in MA maybe but Mad Meg was on the shelf in RI for a while (I think for around $15 with a brewery price of $13) and others being seen in VT, I can find discussions with the Bevvie up there from 2015 about Jester King again prices midway between 15 and 20.
Jester King HAS seen distribution into NE at reasonable prices in the past few years.
The sad thing is with this markup it becomes just as much sense to reach out to someone in Austin and trade NE hops or HF shelves for Jester King and if you do it for 4-6 bottles it becomes the same price or cheaper.
I have been doing this for a few years and with these prices I see no reason to change to using our local stores.

 

Completely true - I've been dabbling in mail trading recently and it's not really as expensive nor as much of a packaging hassle as I thought, depending on where you send it. And if you stick with cans from Trillium or Tree House...

 

Part of the reason why some of these beers sit is, using Wicked Weed as an example, the $20 pint that they have on the shelf is like the 5th best sour of the style that they make - their top beers sell right away, the employees nick them or we don't actually get them at all. You can be sure if Atrial Rubicite (switching to JK now) was on the shelves here at some outrageous price, it would still move. I agree that there is a fair bit of brand-extending in MA where folks fall into the trap that a great brewery is great at making everything.

Someone above mentioned Cascade. If you go to some of the better shops, Julios for example, Cascade has reduced its wholesale prices by 30% or so. Now the 750s are in the low $20s versus low $30s. A vast improvement. The lower volume shops, unfortunately, have not been able to sell at the high price and haven't gotten the picture that they need to offer a special. I convinced a local guy to sell me a half case at 30% off for a bunch of Kreik and Sang Rouge and he was pleased to do so.

 

b/c folks are looking for trade/resale, which is hard with distribution/diminished rarity

 

I see Almanac sitting on shelves everywhere in the Southcoast. Wicked Weed moves, but its not as hard to find as it once was.