Toppling Goliath - Chicagoland (2020)

Brewing a beer that uses 5x's the ingredients of any other beer they make, adjuncting it with one of the most expensive adjuncts you can buy, buying bourbon barrels, aging for 20 months in a facility you have to pay a lease on, taking up space for 20 months when you could have put new barrels for more barrel aged beer in their place after 8-12 months, paying people to rack, bottle, wax, and box the beers, paying someone to create the social media posts, paying the people who will sell the beer on KBBS day = printing money.

 

Yes.

 

Yeah.... cause other breweries don't do exactly the same thing (in areas where real estate/rent is a lot more expensive than forking Iowa) and charge a fraction of the price TG does.

 

Exactly. Not arguing the TG quality at all.
The beers are fantastic and I’m all in for paying the price if I want one of these beers however breweries all over the country are doing this and are not charging these prices. Just look down the street at Pulpit. TG runs a great operation and they turn their stout releases in to huge events that brings in a ton of revenue for the city of Decorah on these weekends. It is a very cool experience for beer nerds to travel to. Doesn’t mean the beer isn’t overpriced. You can justify the prices by quality and experience but not what every other brewery out their is doing for their BA and special event releases.

 

Brewery prices for the Binny’s collabs:
TG Barrel Slayer: $50 per bomber = $2.27/oz
Rev Thundertaker: $30 per 4-pack =$0.62/oz
I’m sure TG’s BA stouts are wonderful, but I will probably never know, as I don’t swim in that side of the price pool.

 

That is incredible when broken down that way. Look no further than Central Waters and what they can sell their barrel aged beers for (and I am fairly certain they are not a charity).

 

Must suck to be poor.

Jokes aside, why shouldn't TG charge that much? They have done a master job at marketing their product at top tier levels (and arguably, it really is top tier for the most part), pump out several products with exclusivity leading the demand crisis, and rather than selling their product for half the price and watching other people make 10x the profit, they just go ahead and sell the product at twice what they should and cut into the flippers' 5x profit. Charge whatever, guys still line up in winter 3 days in advance just to get their damn beer.

 

You're right, they can charge whatever they want. Capitalism does ruin everything eventually though so careful what you wish for.

 

I'm really not sure when capitalism became such a negative thing in this country. Mainstream media outlets have performed swimmingly in their task I suppose. But...this is a beer forum so that's really a discussion for elsewhere. Yes, in a capitalist world TG can charge whatever they desire for their beer in order to turn profit and people have the blessed opportunity to decide freely if they are willing to acquire it at that valuation. It doesn't sound like capitalism is ruining anything when there's still the freedom of choice to choose IF you are willing to acquire the product at the price set. Or you also have the freedom to skip the line and wait and see where secondary falls on the product, where further capitalism takes place and is set by the free market itself. I suggest those concerned with the cost just skip the beer, though.

 

You should take your head out of the oven if you think the American mainstream media is anti-Capitalist.

To frame this about beer though, what is happening is breweries run by scumbags like TG (Clark) are pushing the boundaries of pricing. What the knock on effect is that other breweries then follow suit and push the prices up.

Let's look at something like BCBS which has been a static product. The price for BCBS per ounce has risen about 70% in the past 6 years. Is that because the product has gotten 70% better, 70% more valuable or are they just asking consumers to pay 70% more. You saw a similar prince inflation with TG and beers like Assassin (although I think the inflation was more than 70%). Sure, they can charge more and people will buy it, that's all true. I can choose not to buy it and I am choosing increasingly not to. What people don't get though is that upwards pricing will at a certain point price just about everybody out; just because you aren't capable of thinking on a longer time horizon, doesn't mean others aren't. Breweries that continue to jack prices of their beers are catering to the most price insensitive people in the market.

The point is, consumers are being charged more for the same product, and amazingly, are justifying it to themselves. I am arguing that we as a community should push back against this sort of behavior. I have been in this hobby for longer than most and how I've seen it change over the years is pretty depressing. Again, I'm talking about long term effects here.

Yes, they can charge whatever they want, yes I can choose not to buy, but that doesn't mean I have to be quiet about it and just accept that I should pay 70% more for the same product.

 

Distro Assassin at $30: worth it. Brewery only Assassin if it were still $30: not worth it.

 

I have been pushing back against secondary beer selling for well over 10 years now. It has completely ruined the trading market. Unfortunately my complaining hasn't done a damn thing.

 

You and I can choose to not buy it. It won't stop the hordes from lining up in the snow for the release and purchasing it all the same. Only Covid can do that apparently (lining up in the snow, not the purchase itself), but doesn't mean it's any less shit show.

 

And while we are at it, let's stop using the term printing money. When you take into account having to make counterfeit printing plates, buying a printing machine, the ink, the paper, the risk of getting caught, the health risk of being around toxic ink, renting a space a for the press, buying those stupid gold strips that go into the money, the packaging the stacks on stacks on stacks, the labor, you really aren't making much money printing money.

 

The Fratellis had it easy - back before the gold strips.

 

I have as well.

A huge problem with the secondary market is it inflates the market for everyone else. If a brewery sees a handful of their bottles selling on the secondary market for say $300, they feel they are justified in pushing up their own pricing. The people buying these bottles on the secondary market are the 0.1% of people purchasing a given beer (generally) and yet greedy brewery owners use that purchasing behavior to influence their pricing for the other 99.9% of consumers.

Again, totally their right, but that doesn't mean people shouldn't push back against it. Our voices may get drowned out and we may be unsuccessful, but it's better than not saying anything.

 

I think the underlined list above misses the crucial element: cost has increased. Demand for used bourbon barrels has absolutely skyrocketed in the last few years, and the supply of used bourbon barrels has not increased as quickly. Especially the supply of high quality used bourbon barrels, which aren't ready for beer aging until what, like 6-12 years after they are first filled? You've now got every single craft brewery in this country (as well as a few in Europe), plus just about every scotch distillery, in competition to see who can get the best used bourbon barrels. I think this has a big impact on pricing.

Regular BCBS, while 70% more expensive than it used to be, is still one of the best deals in barrel aged beer.

 

Sure, of course production costs have increased.

https://www.craftbeer.com/craft-beer-muses/barrel-aging-beer-american-brewing

While trying to secure barrels, breweries also need to consider the cost. Plenty of second-use barrels come in around $30 to $40 a barrel. But it isn’t uncommon to see some of the nicer bourbon barrels — by far the most in-demand barrel in the market — clear well over $100 a barrel.

Again, not negligible, but not driving a 70% increase, especially if you're buying in bulk like I'm sure AB is for BCBS.

Occam's Razor.

 

Sloth love Chunk...