Maybe the wrong forum/topic for this, but nothing in brewing is ever really sterile. That said, much of the process needs to be sanitary.
My in-laws happened to live right down the street from Side Project, I’m not into barrel aged beers, and had no idea that they were so popular when I visited, but one thing that struck me was that one of their beers sold for $65.00 a bottle for on premises consumption only. My brother in law’s and I debated if anyone actually bought those, but it turns out that they definitely did sell a lot. Anyway, my question is, when you pay that much for a beer, are you expected to pay a 20% tip on top of that? I remember hearing a similar debate about super expensive wine, if you buy a $ 700.00 bottle, do you tip an additional $ 140.00? It seemed like people were pretty evenly split on that, one opinion being that the server is doing the same amount of work as they would for a $20.00 bottle and the tip should reflect that. The other side was that if you can afford a $700.00 bottle, you can also afford the $140.00 tip. I never have and never will be in that situation, so it’s more academic for me and I don’t have a strong opinion one way or the other, but I’m curious how that plays out in the beer world.
I remember back when I started being able to go out to bars (2000), $1/drink was considered the standard tip, and most of the time that would be overtipping at the types of places I tended to frequent. The $700 bottle of wine at a fine dining establishment isn't exactly analogous to the $25 beer at the airport that started off this whole tipping conversation. While I don't think I've ever had poor service at an airport, it was never outstanding. Why? Odds are you will never see that person again, and you're not going to stop flying out of DCA or wherever because the service wasn't great. At an actual fine dining establishment the servers and bartenders get there by being exceptional at their jobs. I've worked with servers that pulled down $250k+ a year, and they're not going anywhere unless something crazy happens. My ex got written into the will of one of her regulars (not monetary, but a pretty extensive and valuable antique book collection) because she took care of them. When you tip well, they'll take care of you. They'll bribe the kitchen staff to send out an extra course or the bar to for a digestif. With modern POS systems, its easy to take notes about preferences and behavior and it'll ping the next time you make a reservation. Anytime you go there again, you can bet the manager, hostess, and the server you're getting assigned to will be reading up on you. Leave the tip that you would on a $20 bottle for a $700 bottle, you're still going to get great service the next time you go, but it won't be the service you'd get if you left 20%. Restaurant people have long memories.
Depends on the customer. Most do factor in what percentage of their food bill is attributable to an expensive bottle of wine when leaving a tip, but then there are those who simply pay their standard tip amount regardless. When I went to TG a year or so ago, I decided to splurge on a bottle of KBBS. Other than release day, you can't get KBBS to go... you have to consume it on premise. So I was faced with exactly the situation you presented. I also tried several other beers there and my wife and I shared a couple of appetizers. So the tab was up there a bit by the time we decided to leave. Normally I would have left a 20% tip, but that struck me as absurb given that two-thirds of the bill was attributable to the KBBS. I dont think the bartender even poured the beer for me. She just opened the bottle and brought me a glass. Anyway, I decided to leave her a 15% tip, which still ended up being a pretty sizeable bump for her given the addition of the KBBS to my check. I felt my decision was reasonable, though I'm sure there are some who would take issue with it (either too high or too low).
Just thought I'd add a couple of stories to amplify this portion of your post. Several years ago my wife and I were at the French Laundry, having the expected excellent dining experience. Service was outstanding, as you would expect. We were chatting with our waiter, talking about different wineries in the area. He recommended several different wineries to visit, most of which we'd been to. However, one of the wineries he mentioned wasn't generally open to the public, which I pointed out. I agreed that their wine was great, and of course we'd love to visit, but as we weren't club or mailing list members, I didn't see how it would be possible. At that point the waiter pulled out his card, and told us to just show it to the winery staff. I took a moment to digest the implications of this, and then asked him if he was sure about this. The waiter assured us he'd done this before, had spoken to the winery owner about it (a frequent customer of the restaurant), and that they had no problem with this kind of referral. Quite the education for little old me from the sticks. The other story involves my first visit to Le Taillevent back in 1997. They were a michelin 3 star restaurant at the time, the first one I'd ever been to (I think they're a 2 star restaurant today). I'd never seen that level of ambiance, atmosphere or service before. So I was fascinated and very curious. Our waiter was very forthcoming and friendly. He'd been working there for roughly 12 years and was very satisfied with his employment. He mentioned though, that pursuant to his employment at the restaurant, he was expected to take weekly wine appreciation courses, language courses (he spoke perfect English, but was currently learning Cantonese), and cooking classes. All paid for by the restaurant. We didn't discuss his salary of course, but he was quite well traveled and had numerous hobbies and interests. It was apparent that his salary at Le Taillevent was rather, ahem, generous. Again, another educational experience for moi.
I’ve never heard of KBBS, I always see KBS at the local beer store, but I’ve never bought that one either. What does KBBS run for a bottle if you don’t mind me asking?
$100 for a 12 ounce bottle. At one time it was the number one rated beer on BA. So I was curious. I don’t normally spend that much money on beer, but figured it was unlikely I'd ever be at Toppling Goliath again, so it was now or never. And I was curious....
I can’t imagine a beer ever being good enough for that price tag, but to you was it worth the experience?
It's really impossible to answer that. Frankly, I've had much cheaper BA stouts that I thought were better, and in fact the KBBS wasn't even the best beer I sampled at TG (I preferred the Term Oil Vanilla, pistachio and granola). Still, it was a very good beer, one I was happy to have the opportunity to try. It's not a beer I'd want to try again however, at least not at that price point.
Doesn't look like things have changed much. Currently at the Bear in Oxford, where my pint of London Pride was 6.05 GBP, and the Gales HSB was 6.35 GBP. In fact, a couple orders of chips, two beers and a double G&T made with Monkey 47 came to around $50. No additional tax or tip. Doesn't feel very outrageous to me. Granted, this is in Oxford and not London, but still...
In my state the minimum wage is $7.25. A brewhouse should at least put one brew on tap that is affordable. Not everyone is well off financially.
Classic American Pilsner. Basically, the pilsners that American lager breweries were producing before prohibition.
Classic American Pilsner. A nomenclature that we homebrewers call the type of beers our great/grand parents drank in America circa 1900. Cheers!
