Weird taproom pricing

I've run into this before, some places base the growler cost on the draft price. If it's an $11-12 sixer im assuming the draft price was around $5 a pour. It doesn't make sense to me either but it sometimes works out that way.

 

And chances are that you could find 6packs cheaper at a store. Breweries, in general, do not want to compete with the retailers that carry their beers.

 

I noted this with a crowler fill at a new local brewery. I had bought several low ABV crowlers there before for $9, but then one day I ordered one that was 8% ABV and was presented with a bill of $15. I asked what the deal is and they said they charge almost double for higher ABV.

As someone suggested above it is based on tap price. High ABV taps are often smaller and higher priced - not because high-ABV beer costs much more to make, but because folks are likely to buy smaller quantities of high-ABV beers to avoid stumbling to their car. So to offset you buying less, they charge more, so that 9oz 12% ABV beer nets them the same profit as the 16oz 5% ABV beer next to it. They are then using faulty logic to extend that pricing to crowlers and growlers, because it comes from the same tap.

This imperial pricing should not apply to crowlers and growlers since you are committing to buying a higher fixed quantity, not reducing the quantity due to strength. The imperial beer might cost them slightly more to brew, but certainly not twice as much - or am I off-base here brewers? How much more does it cost to brew a 9% ABV beer over a 4.5% ABV beer?

 

High ABV beers often DO cost more to produce. Producing more alcohol in a beer requires more sugar to ferment into alcohol, which requires more grain and malt to extract that sugar from. Filling up a fermenter with that extra grain will cut down on the end volume of beer that results. More ingredients required + less beer produced = more expensive to make.

Its more complicated than that, but the general equation is consistent.

That also doesnt factor in the cost of barrel aging beers, which many breweries do with their higher ABV beers. Barrel aging adds a whole other set of costs, including the cost of the barrels, cost of the space to store the barrels, the cost of the manpower to monitor the aging process, and the added risk of taking a marketable beer and putting it through additional processing that could potentially damage the end product (infected beer...).

 

What's legal does not mean a brewery will actually allow their brand to be poured into a competitors growler.
Also. That's about the normal difference in pricing between a growler and the same beer being sold in 6 pack configuration.
To break that down a bit more. In the time it takes to fill and seal a single growler. A packaging line can crank out upwards of several hundred single 12 oz cans.

 

The WF near me charges more for grwlers than six packs. I dont get it. Pretty much stopped buying growlers as I dont see any worth the $. If its not package I still dont care. I have my price limits on beer and I stick to them or very close.

Enjoy

 

There's a taproom that does growler fills that's on my way home from work. I don't understand their pricing whatsoever. Pints are $6. They have a canning machine that does 16 oz cans - which are $3.50. And growler fills are $9. Doesn't make a lick of sense.

 

Good point. It's most likely to maintain a steady profit percentage on all kegs. I.e. whether they serve you a pint or a growler out of the keg, they know they are making 150%, 200% or whatever back on that beer, vs. having to figure out a profit curve by selling drafts high (as always) and growlers low.

Of course, this is pure guesstimated speculation.

 

It's frustrating to customers, but good business is to buy/produce as low as you can and sell as high as you can - while alienating as few customers as possible. If folks keep paying ridiculous prices, a thriving business must keep taking that money. Another alternative though to high prices, is lower prices and higher volume - which means happier and more loyal customers.

 

It makes a lot of sense when you factor in the costs of each respective aspect of the business. Staffing needs. Insurance needs. Equipment needs. In the case of a taproom. Throw a food menu on top of it, and the costs of keeping a kitchen open. You have a lot of costs of doing business to pick up in the price of a pint.

 

Grain doesn’t go into the fermenter, but into the mash tun. I agree with what you are saying in general.

 

Why wouldn't it be more expensive to get beer in a growler vs can? The question I would have is why are they even offering a growler fill if its available in a can?

 

Seems like it should but I don't make beer to sell for a profit. Price is their decision and whether to pay it is mine.

 

You would think but like a few others mentioned, some joints base their prices on their draught prices. Every taproom i've gone to around here has their growler fills price $3 or $4 less than their 6 packs (or equivalent) unless it's a limited release or something like that.

 

Because of the added cost of a canning line, empty printed cans (or stickers), can lids, plastic rings or 4/6pk boxes, cardboard "trays" to make up a case, canning line labor costs, etc.

 

Wow that's bad, I wouldn't every fill a growler at that place if packaged product is cheaper. Pretty bad strategy too, I mean hey this beer that goes bad in a couple of days costs more than the same beer packaged up to last a good 3+ months.

 

Well, with the growler, you're getting 4 pints for the price of 2. 4 16oz cans is the same amount of beer, but would cost $14. In this case, the growler is the best value.

 

There's certainly an up front cost to purchasing the canning line but that's spread across [presumably] a much higher volume of sales vs a growler. At volume those are incremental costs which should be lower than the labor costs of filling a growler as well as the opportunity loss of filling growlers. Any fill of the growler is time that bartender isn't filling a pint(s) of beer for customers. If they price the growler fill less then you are getting less money per ounce for that keg of beer. How many growlers will an individual customer purchase? How many cans will an individual customer purchase? From a pricing perspective which should I push? The bartender could sell that customer several cases of beer in the time it probably takes to fill a single growler. Seems to me the growler should cost more.