Half Acre Brewing Co. (2023)

Well then goddamnit I'm smashing that "like" button on his/her post.

 

If you thought that post was confusing you should have seen it when I accidentally put cinnamon in the description of the new version too.

I always liked the apple / cinnamon version but it's so different from normal Benthic. Very excited to try a "true" DB Benthic

 

Limit 3 2-packs tomorrow. Looking at roughly $40 a 2-pack

 

I'm usually not Mr. Complainy-Pants when it comes to pricing, but compared to Revolution this is pretty brutal.

 

I'm usually not one who wants to get into another guy's pants, but in this case, I'm all in.

 

At least buy him a beer at hopleaf first…

 

Agreed. I'm sure it will be good, so I might spring for a 2-pack if I run into it in their random cooler popups over the next month or two, but I'll pass on it tomorrow when Oznr fees are included.

 

Half Acre seems to be the most aggressive with pricing. I’m sure this’ll be great, but it’s bordering on too much. I’m splitting it & even splitting it, I’m not a happy camper.

They always have it on tap, and that’s how I think I should start drinking their stouts.

 

Is it higher than Rev? Of course, but at this point Rev is the exception for top tier BA beer pricing.

I’d agree with mid to upper end of the local market? Hard to say “the most aggressive” though

Phase Three DB Minutiae: $58.75 for 25oz
Minutiae: $45 for 25oz
Goose 2 year BW: $40-$60 (depending on location) per 16oz
Dark Lord variants: typically have been viewed as $50 for 25oz (for years mind you)
Whiskey Hill BA releases are between $45 to $55 for 25oz on Oznr.
Side Project- not only way higher per oz for the BA stout you want but package pricing ensures you also pay the same top dollar for something you didn’t really want.
Heck, even some of Hubbard’s Cave’s BA stuff was $35 with tax for 25oz back to 2019, even before the price of everything went through the roof.

I don’t fault HA for believing their program compares favorably to the other top regional players, as a) I agree with them being a top 3 Chicagoland barrel program and b) I would rather have the brewery reap the $$ behind the beer so they can expand and thrive than have it be super cheap retail so demand goes through the roof and it becomes crazier to get and higher on secondary, only benefitting the flippers on profit margins.

 

I’d settle with upper end of the market, but I do like this breakdown!

 

Half Acre is king of the extortion stouts. Do they make a good barrel aged stout with a decent price point? Three Floyds, GI and Rev all have sought after bargains in the barrel aged stout categories, but HA chooses to play the $$ game. Probably because they were so late to the game with having a good barrel program compared to their peers.

 

I always enjoy when these conversations come up, and I think it’s important to compare across other high end beer to DB Benthic pricing like you did here, and I’ll just expand a bit on that. Agreed that it seems pretty steep (I will agree the added Oznr fees kind of suck), especially comparing to Revolution, but the price/oz of beer isn’t actually that high when compared (I’ll exclude taxes/fees in most cases):

DB benthic: $1.45/oz
GI 2yr barlewine: and 30yr: $2.37/oz
Rev deep woods: $0.52-$1.25/oz
Minutiae/Arabesque/Eunoche: $1.41/oz
Hubbards cave high end: $1.41/oz
SP BA stouts: $2.00-$2.41/oz
Dark Lord variants: $2/oz
Bottle logic stouts (from BL): $1.48-$1.72/oz
Other HA BA beer: typically $1-1.25/oz

I still absolutely think it’s reasonable to skip out on this release due to pricing, I just don’t think half acre is being particularly egregious here compared to everyone else

 

Annnnd instant sellout. Smooth sailing here and secured the bag. The ultra heavy demand at that price point won’t be motivating HA to go lower, that’s for sure.

 

they charge that much because people are foolish enough to buy them at that price. The only difference between say FFF Crushing Mass and a Dark Lord Variant is that the DL variant has perceived rarity so they can get away with charging $2oz while the virtually identical beer they (crushing) mass produce
gets sold for .47 cents an oz. Same with GI’s BCBS that is like $10 a bottle, but with a variant sticker on it triples or more the price.

 

point me to these bargains from Rev, GI, and 3F.

if they sit on the shelf, do you still consider them "sought after"? how much of those beers are produced compared to HA?

 

This phrase is doing some heavy lifting and relies on some big assumptions, of which we have no evidence. Claiming that Crushing Mass is identical to say Sundae Thunderstorm is just a wild guess since the latter hasn’t come out yet. One would have to know the exact recipes for each beer and the costs to make them to determine the truth of this subjective comparison.

More to the point in this thread though, it’s not “perceived rarity” but actual rarity in the case of Half Acre due to their smaller program and that they release a limited number of BA offerings each year, which all sell very fast direct from the source. The next one coming in 2023 is not until September, almost half a year away. And only a sparse amount of Benthic or Orin ever hits even local distribution, increasing the actual rarity because one has to be in proximity to the brewery to get it the vast majority of the time.

 

1st i never mentioned Sundae Thunderstorm so that’s on you. If you think there is $1.53 per oz difference in ingredients and manufacturing between Crushing Mass and a Dark Lord variant then you are what’s wrong with craft beer. There isn’t. Not even close. But if you need to justify the expense by telling yourself that go ahead. It’s virtually the same beer in a fancy bottle with a DL “brand” slapped on it. Drink the hype!

 

I drink what I think tastes best, rank HA at the top of the heap from my years of drinking their beer and thousands of others, and have the disposable income to pay the opportunity cost and continue to support a local business I value. FWIW, by my tastebuds, Cocomungo doesn’t hold a candle to Benthic.

It’s capitalism- vote with your dollar and I’ll vote with mine. May the best business model and product win. Judging by the 30 sec sellout, lots of other people voted with me today, so you’d better find a louder soapbox than Beer Advocate to convince the community at large, if you are looking to do more than tilt at windmills.

And really, from my perspective, the only thing wrong with the craft beer community are those that want to tell others that they are ruining the community, but hey, keep gatekeeping!

 

I mean, that's just factually incorrect since one of them contains vanilla and cacao nibs. Maybe not $1.53 per oz, but vanilla is expensive.

 

To the more general point, yes, demand does drive pricing to a decent extent. But in this case we're talking about a heavily adjuncted stout that got two barrel treatments. That's not an apples to apples comparison to base BCBS or Deths Tar or a random FFF beer that might have spent 4 months in barrels for all we know.