Avery Growlers

Truth incarnate. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that it'll be available year around at a great price point. Lilikoi is finally getting released in cans on Sunday. Boy, these times we live in...

 

I dont understand why growler prices would be more than a 6 pack in a store. I am buying the package to put it in, driving to your place to pick it up and having it filled by someone who I assume is being paid a lower wage than a bottling/canning line employee. When they don't have packaging costs, transportation costs, lower wage costs, and cutting out the middle man why are they selling it for more? I rarely buy growlers any where in CO except for Comrade(which I have the punch card for so they cost $10 each)but I do buy them when I travel and it always seems to cost less to buy the growler as opposed to a sixer(growler glass excluded).

 

The freshness argument doesn't hold water - any of those high gravity beers will be the same batches that are available in bottles, but more expensive in a growler and you're forced to drink them all at once. There is absolutely ZERO incentive to fill a growler of ANYTHING at Avery. That doesn't mean I don't still love them and the beer they make, but there's no way in hell I'm getting a damn growler there.

 

^^^That's why I don't fill growlers of beers that are packaged. Comrade is a great example of a local brewery that I regularly fill growlers out because it's the only way I can take their beer to-go. It's kind of like a treat because it's not something I can walk into a shop and buy any day of the week.

 

@alexipa seems to be the only one who gets it.

First, I don't think John Q. Public regularly cross shops growlers with small-format bottles. In other words, Avery is not pricing its growlers for the 15 people posting on BA that will think, "Shit, this growler of the Reverend costs more than three bombers at Applejack." Rather, Avery is pricing their growlers for the people who think, "This 10 oz goblet of Czar is $5...a $34 growler (more than six pours!) I'll take one home."

Second, BAs should stop thinking that COGS is the only thing that drives prices. Even if the margins are shitty compared to Hermes handbags, craft beer is still a luxury good. Thus, while COGS has a significant effect on pricing of craft beer, for a big, established brand like Avery, prices are determined as much by what what the consumer is willing to pay as by the COGS (especially for big, established brands like Avery that can spread out the COGS thanks to their diversity and size).

Anyway, /rant or whatever.

I've haven't filled a growler for less than $15 for a long time.

 

All these responses of growler prices seems odd given a Pint of the beer at the brewery is always more expensive than buying bottles/cans at the store. Why no hell raising over that?

 

Because I am soaking up their ac/heat, lighting, glassware and space when I drink it there. I expect beer that i take home to cost less since you aren't supplying me somewhere to drink it. When I buy more of something I expect a discount. I've been this way since I went from buying joints to quarter bags in junior high.

Where the real anger should be is in session beer pricing. Can someone explain to me why a session 6 or 12 pack cost as much as the regular line up? Less production costs should mean a smaller price tag, it works that way when the costs are higher such as ipa vs iipa.

 

Here's what I believe is the issue. I think seeing a growler fill for over $30, let alone $80 gives a lot of people sticker shock, me included. Then you look at the reasonable ones and the only thing is their most basic beers for the cost of roughly other breweries solid not sold in bottles ones. I'm personally not a huge fan of their normal lineup except for white rascal. The combination of the high prices for most, with the normal cost ones for their basic beer creates this negative vibe for their growler program. Avery has always been pricey at the brewery and I think when you multiply the pints into a growler price people start to take notice. Divide any of those prices by 5.3 (12oz × 5.3 pints = 64oz). White Rascal $12 divide by 5 beers is $2.40 a pint. I'd drink $2.40 pint white rascals all day.

 

I don't think the goal for Avery is to see how many growlers they can fill and sell on a daily basis. They would probably rather you stop by for a couple of beers and lunch then buy their bottles (liquor store, brewery, release, etc.). They make more money that way, and I don't blame them. Not only are their prices increasing but I see that across the board for craft beer. It's going to take a lot to turn me away from being an Avery fan! But to each their own.

 

Yeah much more reasonable by the bottle.

 

Sorry to revive a dead thread, but I wanted to give you folks an update on ye olde growler pricing. As we've transitioned to a brand new brewery with a full restaurant, some things were bound to slip through the cracks and growler pricing was one of those things. On the bright side, we're doing our best to be flexible and change things as we go...

We lowered the prices once, but as a few of you astutely pointed out, those prices still weren't in line with the rest of the brewing world. Once again it appears that we didn't do enough research. The standard seems to put growlers around the same price as other packaged beers, with some exceptions for draft-only releases. So we've tried to match that. That puts a growler of Avery IPA at $8, Dry Hopped IPA at $10, Maharaja at $28, and so on down the line.

I headed down to do a little research on our growlers and counter pressure growler filler, as I haven't had time to experiment with any of it. We're still dialing the growler filler in, as it won't fill every type of growler... it depends on the internal height and the top opening. It will do our stainless steel growlers, the standard glass jugs, and some other kinds, but can't really be fit for mason jars or Hydroflasks. We opted to sell the stainless growlers here instead of the glass jugs for a bunch of reasons... weight, portability, protection from light, the fact that it won't break in your car on a camping trip, you name it. And if someone buys a growler and fills it, we sell the growler at our cost. We're still working on finding a 32 oz growler that can work, as a 64 oz of Tweak is pretty daunting.

So yes, there are some restrictions, but we weren't going to sell growlers until we could do it with the highest quality in mind, which means keeping as much oxygen and light out as possible. If that means we won't sell quite as many growlers due to the extra cost, that's alright.

Anyway... have we hit the absolute perfect pricing on everything? We can't say for sure, but we'll keep figuring it out until we hit the right balance of All The Things.

Rock on...

Andy Parker
Ye Olde Barrele Herdere

 

I'm glad to hear you are working on it. I personally view growler sales as a valuable tool for a brewery. You can use them to please your customers by making them feel they got a deal and you are also making more money off this customer by not having to sell the beer to the distributor at a discounted rate. We understand you can't undercut local liquor stores on the packaged beers. In theory the more growlers you sell out of the taproom the more profitable those ounces of beer were to the brewery. With a distribution footprint the size of Avery growler sales are merely a drop in the bucket I'd imagine and giving a "discount" to such a small percentage of your customer base would not be noticed on the bottom line. Volume could easily offset any lost profit. Regardless, there is some wiggle room from what you sell to the distributor at vs. the tap room prices posted in this thread.

 

prices in @rekrappy's last post are as good as I remember seeing anywhere in this state on comparable beers. If I understand correctly, they're now selling the basic-basic beers like Joe's, IPA, Elle's (I always call beers but their real pre-litigation name, and that dog's name was Elle, damn it) for $8?

vs. the $12 in the menu KANE3 posted?

That's sweet. I am not sure I've seen a comparable growler fill for less than $9 elsewhere, and they are often/usually $10 or $11. I of course would still buy Joe's or IPA at the liquor store in a sixer for anywhere from ~7.99 to 9.49....I like a sealed (and probably double pre-evac'ed with nitrogen or other inert gas, so that the package O2 is in the low parts-per-billion range) individual 12 oz or 16 oz serving when that option is available and only buy growlers when it isn't.

 

Why did the Clio price go from $44 in round 1 to $70 in round two? Weren't you guys trying to bring the prices DOWN, not up?

That's really the only thing that confused me

 

That's definitely confusing. I hadn't even noticed that one, actually... I don't actually work in the Tap Room or set growler pricing, though I've tried to get some positive information to the people that set these prices. Past that, I'm on the periphery.

But looking back, it looks like that $70 might have even been a typo on our previous menu. I'm holding a current price list for our growlers and Clio is set at $28, same as Maharaja and Czar. It's looking much better now. Though I believe I see a typo on the new menu also, so we're obviously still in the transition stage on all of this.

And southdenverhoo, you are correct. Joe's, Elle's (pre-lawsuit spelling is always nice), IPA, and so forth are $8 for a refill.

Thanks for your patience, folks. Rock on.

-Andy

 

I was in there earlier yesterday and prices for growlers look like they have finally been figured out haha. Food was awesome too and downstairs was PACKED

Also a lot of nice archive releases in the coolers. Holding a 2004 czar in my hands was crazy. The foil didn't even have the logo on it yet. Picked up a few older BA series ones. They said they are rotating a bunch of them every day from the cellar. I grabbed 3 bottles of #9 and 3 bottles of #11 for about $160 total for the 6 pack.

Anybody seen what other archive releases have been for sale? Are these out for a special reason or just to fill cooler space ?

 

$160 for a six pack is just insane. I get that they're super old vintages and not available any more but that's some * kind of pricing right there... Call it **** or robbery, either way it feels wrong.

 

It did feel a bit silly paying about $26 a bottle, but at the end of the day id much rather pay that directly to the brewery instead of to a person on * only because at least when I'm getting it from the brewery I know it's first hand, hasn't been in any weird traveling circumstances and has been cellared properly for almost 4 years. The bottles even had dust on them haha.

I was more grateful than anything just to have the opportunity to buy them.