Are Quebec Brewers Pricing Their Products Too High?

Dude, those prices are still way cheaper than what we pay out west.

 

Interesting to see the prices starting to go up. Wonder if it's a trend that we'll see more of across Canada? I guess when local breweries see what people are willing to pay for imported US brews that are taxed to hell and back, I can't fault them thinking they could get away with charging more.

And speaking of expensive quebec beers - peche mortel 6 packs are $25 out here.

 

ooh does that mean it's here now? I'd pay $25 for 6, it's like $10 a bottle in the US! lol

 

I haven't seen any in the most recent shipment of DDC stuff that showed up in the past couple weeks, but a few places put in special orders periodically I think.

 

bombers are 10-20% too high for what they are
Just saying

That said, Loonie is off almost 10% with xchange costs, and could be another 10% off in next few years

 

Quebec isn't the only province with this, though. Back in mid-2013 I paid ~$6.50 for a bomber of Parallel 49's first anniversary ale (ie. Hopnotist), which was amazing and good and great and one of the best imperial ipas to come out of BC. Just a few days ago I paid $40 for 4 bombers of P49 Robo Ruby, an imperial ruby ale (ie. red IPA) from the same brewing company, a beer that wouldn't be worthy of kissing the ground Hopnotist walked on. It's easily their worst beer (and I guess by beer I mean imperial IPA, just to keep things in perspective), and yet they're charging almost double for it. Ffffuck that.

If this trend keeps up I guess I'm just going to go back to Fat Tug which is $5.75 a bomber at BCL stores until it inevitably goes up in price and then, once it does, maybe I'll just ferment potatoes in my bathtub.

 

As far as the Yakima IPA goes (and all our beers), the pricing has not changed by one cent since it was first released on the market last spring. Our wholesale cost is the same for every one of our retail customers. They decide the final price. If you mark up our wholesale price by 20 to 30% you get a retail of $6.13 to $7, plus deposit and tax. If you are paying more than this, look elsewhere. The retailer is taking more than 30%. I have never heard of 10$ - that is CRAZY. We can't control what mark-up retail stores charge. Almost all are reasonable, but occasionally some will take advantage of popular beers. Some retailers in Quebec City are charging $8 plus tax and deposit as they are driving down to our brewery to get the beer - fair enough I suppose. But when we start delivering to Quebec city - I expect these prices to come down.

Bombers can seem pricey sometimes, but I think this is a reasonable price considering we were hand bottling and capping up until recently, and have extremely small production capacity. We also use 100% organic ingredients, purchased with no volume discounts. I've purchased bombers of Stone IPA in the USA for 5 USD - we are a bit more - but not by much. We're trying to get a bit bigger, and someday we hope to lower our prices and do 4-packs, but we are not ready yet - no space and not enough cash...

Hope this helps.

cheers,
daniel (le castor brewing)

 

Awesome that you guys post here to inform your consumers. Wish more breweries would do the same!

 

Happy to respond to any questions you guys might have. I don't check beer advocate that often, so you can always post a link to the thread on our facebook page if there is something being discussed that would benefit from a reply. As for 9 or 10$ bottles of IPA - please let us know where you are seeing this, as this requires a conversation with the retailer. You can always email us at [email protected]

Thank you for your support - lots of stuff coming out this year that we're excited about!

Cheers,
daniel

 

Quebec brewers get to work in a vacuum, so they can charge almost whatever they want. I buy close to my limit every time I cross into the US, where I can get a 6-pack of Founders, or Sierra Nevada for about 9$, as opposed to a sixer of DDC, which even though its cheaper than most microbrews here is still 14$ a sixer. 7$ for a bomber of Yakima is a lot, but at least its a good beer. I dont know whos buying all the other 7$+ bombers I see on the shelves.

 

This is silly. With all the breweries in Quebec and the ease at which they can get their beer into retail outlets, unlike some other provinces, they do not work in a vacuum nor can they charge whatever they want.

Try comparing beer prices in other provinces instead of other countries.

 

Its the same in all provinces. I didn't say quebec was alone. Its not about where else the brewers can sell their products, its about how no one else is allowed to sell their products in Quebec (or any other province).

 

This might be an issue if there were very few craft breweries in Quebec but there isn't. There are lots of them.

Let me make this simple for you. Saying that Quebec brewers can charge almost whatever they want demonstrates an ignorance of simple economics.

 

Quebec beers are priced too high but I figure it has to be the taxes more than anything.

Some breweries will have to fix that issue because imports are starting to be cheaper and also with Inbev bringing in the goose island stuff, the 750ml of quebec beer priced way high will sit on the shelves.



ah, local IGA.

 

Yep, see here

 

For beer overpricing A la fut is the worst I have ever seen http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/16495/. From day one they have been selling singles for like $3.50-5. They charge more than any other QC brewery and have been doing so since they started.