Favorite brewery you can’t afford

Dovetail in Chicago -- at least their specialty/seasonal beers. Just saw their Festbier for $16 a 4-pack of 16 ounce cans.

Love to try it, but when I can buy a 12-pack of good beer cheaper, I just can't justify the cost.

 

I don't drink excessively so I can buy whatever I want. If need be, try supplementing the expensive stuff with cheapos.

 

Prairie Artisan. Great beer and overflowing the shelves, but I refuse to pay that much. Recently 415 North showed up here. Same thing with them.

 

Since I don't too many in a row, anymore (I think), I'll still shell out for quality, but Equilibrium's arrival raised my eyebrows when I saw what they wanted for a couple of their IPAs in my local yesterday. Anything over the $20/4pack had better be gobsmacking in quality.

 

SRSLY?

Fuck that.

 

Andrew Tate, is that you?

 

Good question. Buying somewhat less of the expensive stuff is a given, but the NA market isn't that "mature" yet for anyone having the balls to go super high. Your question was about the readily available beers, so my hesitation to pay high transport cost for ordering from abroad isn't the focus here. That for example makes ordering directly from the US a very special thing.

Let's look at the maximum prices here. A supermarket chain is my main provider, and I switch between the two, maybe three ones with the broadest selections with home transport to my address, and order every new NA beer I see, to be included in the hauls. There is just one above €4 right now among say a hundred different. Already makes me hesitate buying it another time after the tick, but why not?

I have ordered before from an online company with ready selections of 12-24, at a €3-4 per beer. As recent as yesterday I found another to me new domestic online company, thought they only sell live, and they provide singles. They have the most expensive NA beer I think I've ever seen: 6,40 €. Will order one at some point, but not two.

 

Anchorage.

 

What $105 for a 375ml or whatever size their bottles are is too expensive?!

 

Maybe this is insensitive but a lot of breweries are just straight up lying to themselves justifying some of the prices. Some of the ones listed here are shocking and laughable (if I have disposable money will I cave sometimes? Yes) For me to answer the question I'll say Nightmare brewing, it was pretty decent for how old it was but 30 dollars for a 4 pack is simply not sustainable.

 

I agree but the market justifies the cost. It’s tough to say that a certain brewery isn’t “worth it” when they’re sold out every release. Although, I’ve personally drank quite a few and said to myself; “how can they think this is worth that price?”

To answer the OP, 450 North. They showed up here several months ago for 8-10 a can. I’ve tried a couple and mostly enjoyed them but I have locals doing the styles just as well or better for around half. I would buy more if the cost was less.

 

I’m in a similar boat. I don’t drink enough to pay much attention to price.

 

Toppling Goliath. I've cut back drastically on my beer consumption in recent years, so it pains me to see most of their stuff in >$16 four-packs of 16-ounce cans nowadays. We used to be able to get singles, but the seltzers, ciders, and hard fruit juices (!) have pretty much killed off the singles space. When the singles occasionally pop up, they usually run $7-8 for a 16-ounce can. Unless it's one of their flavored imperial stouts, which can run upwards of $20 a can. I hate that format anyway, so I'm not buying at those prices.

(Hard fruit juice? I remember when they called this "wine." I mean, really.)

 

Cascade immediately comes to mind. I don't see their stuff on my stores' shelves anymore, so maybe they pulled out of Michigan.

Sooner or later someone in this thread will reply with Side Project. (I suppose that I just did that. ) I was shocked at some of their prices when I visited there a couple years ago.

 

And what exactly was the point of this comment?

 

It's really not all that great IMO. Most of their stuff that I've had is overdone, with the Pecan Pie Porter being the only truly good beer I've had from them

 

Now that's a bit surprising to me. I know Smoothie Sour is a thing, but at least locally, I don't see them packaged/distributed aside from 450 North. And even the one local brewery that brews them frequently doesn't really make them as good as 450. I'd love some cheaper ones that are on par. All that being said, it's not super often I crave the style