Bars overpricing craft beer?

Prices were cheap enough I was even able to pay for my sister-wife a couple.

 

This bar is not making nearly as much money as they should be.

 

Coming from Notre Dame I would expect it to be more accurate than many of the other random "Check your BAC" websites, but I would definitely take it with a grain of salt.

 

How much do you weigh? That seems very off

 

Like others have said it boils down to the price they paid for the product to begin with and being responsible businesses of not over serving you. Think of it this way, they serve whiskey and bourbon in small glasses/shot glasses, not pint glasses.

 

160, give or take. Go to the site and punch in 20oz of 12% beer, and prepare to be shocked by the results.

 

.052. But to be fair im 6'5 and have 115lbs on you.

 

Devil Dancer is about 22 bucks a 4 pack. Dogfish is about 11 for a 6 pack.

(22/4)/(11/6)*6/20*8=7.20

So given my pricing is reasonable, they're up charging you 80 cents? I don't see the issue here at all. Am I missing something?

 

Prices are definitely going up and I do not see this trend changing any time soon. The craft beer market is as strong as ever and I do not see a decline in patrons in any of the craft beer bars I frequent. Combining the higher bar prices and the fact that I don't have to drive, I find myself enjoying beer at home more frequently.

 

Bar prices aren't too bad in des moines. Plenty of good options for $5 a pint.

 

I manage 2 of the most popular restaurants in Houston, and I can frequently go to the store and buy beer cheaper than getting it through the distributor. I don't order in huge bulk and don't have the bargaining power to negotiate a lower price. Some large chains can negotiate a lower price, but most craft bars don't have as much pull as you would think.

To also tie into the OP's question. We have a spread sheet of every beer we bring into the establishment, and price it out to the ounce. For a lot of reason we don't serve a 12% beer in a pint glass. I'm legally responsible if the customer gets into an accident. We don't want to get into a legal battle especially one that's covered by the local media for over serving a guest. That's the most important reason for the portion size. The other reason is if we want to mark up an item 3x there is a limit the customer is willing to spend on a glass of beer. The price is becoming fairly elastic, but if you aren't going to pay $11 to try it, then you definitely aren't going to spend $30 for a pint. Keep in mind we have to pay for the beer, employees, lease, gas, electricity, taxes, etc.

 

Prices for beer in bars in Philly is pretty standard but there are a few places where you pay too high a price. Mostly for the location/atmosphere.

 

Most craft beer taps around here are $4-7, with $5 being the standard. The highest price I've seen for a glass of beer was $10, but that was only once.

 

Other side of this coin is the bar that has figured out that customers no longer blink when served a small-glass beer, and they now serve everything in less-than-pint glasses. I've stopped going to one downtown AVL bar because they seem to have come to the conclusion that an 8oz glass is an acceptable standard, and they serve every beer in that size.

 

Not in the bar business but do work on the retail side and have a small hand in the production side. While there are likely a few places here and there that will have legitimately ridiculous prices, not too many people I know are living exceptionally large working in this business.

 

Wow after reading all of the prices in this thread I'm happy for our $4-$5.50 pints here in Washington State.

 

Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA = $10/6-pack
Founders Devil Dancer = $20/4-pack

And those are retail prices. So, why wouldn't you expect to pay more at a bar?

 

Let's do some simple math here:

Founders Devil Dancer price in bottles : $5/12oz bottle = ~$.42/oz
Dogfish Head 60 minute price in bottles : $1.50/12oz = ~$.13/oz

At this bar:

Founders Devil Dancer = $8/11oz pour = $1.30/oz
DFH 60 = $6/20oz pour = $.30/oz

Doing the math here, the beers are really similar in markup at the bar compared to their bottle prices. Devil Dancer is about 3.1x the bottle price, whereas DFH is closer to 2.33x the bottle price. Another way of looking at it at this bar is that in stores, Devil Dancer in bottles is about 3.33x more expensive than 60 minute, but their draft pour is 4.33x more expensive. Keep in mind though, Devil Dancer is a special attraction beer that will drive people to a location for the night, wheras 60 minute is nothing special people can find anytime. And we aren't even taking into consideration the cost of the kegs to the bar.

And even if I were to not include all this boring, nonsensical math jargon, can you just imagine if people were given 20oz pours of Devil Dancer, I imagine the drunken stupor at the bar would just be priceless.