Beer will get more expensive, right?

I don't mess with expensive beer anymore. Whenever I've spent >$20 on a bomber, I generally enjoy it, but it's not ever worth it to me. I can't imagine spending $40 on a beer when I can buy an entire case of Zombie Dust for the same amount of money.

 

I like where he's going with this, sort of a Marvels' What If? reality.

 

The higher the price the higher the expectations. It would be impossible to please someone like myself with a beer that costs that much.

 

Beauty is in eye of the beholder. Lots of folks won't pay that for a beer on principle. I picked up a bottle of Breury's Saison Rue for $14 @ a BevMo outside SF, largely because of love for saisons. Wasn't my cup of tea, unfortunately. But even if I liked it, I doubt that I would pay for it over & over again. Too many other great, less expensive options.

 

I don't do the bar scene either. But while $3.25 isn't super cheap, it's a small local company and it's about the price of other stuff at the craft shop. It's cheaper than my morning coffee.

 

Saison Rue isn't great in my eyes either. Just trying to compare apples to apples rather than the comparison of Bruery stuff to Ranger IPA or Bud Light or whatever. The reference price is important and that seems to be where a lot of the backlash comes from. There are different markets in craft, and there's one for everybody.

Bruery has some $9.99 bottles I believe. $14 for a big bottle of Saison isn't particularly outrageous. Pretty much Fantome prices and 25% of those taste like bandaids.

 

Think of it like a 4 oz pour of port for $6. You just buy 6 at a time.

 

It will continue to get more expensive until people refuse to pay the prices. You have the supply and demand aspect (rare bottles going for $100) and also other factors like distribution costs/fuel, packaging, ingredient costs (increase in hop usage) etc.

 

Beer will get more exspensive as demand become greater, but still won't reach high end wine prices as a rule. Most wine when bought at a store is marked up 300% and even more at resteraunts.

 

No offense, but this thinking is why so many small businesses fail. When you enter a market with a premium price, you better able to compete from quality standpoint. You can't just expect a certain mkt share because you're local, "fresh", and similarly priced to other craft beers. (This place had inferior beers to other local competitors)

 

Beer will certainly demand more of our money. If it climbs too high, I will have to get serious about brewing.

 

When I first started drinking (before legal) a G.I.Q. ( 40 oz) was 50 cents and no deposits . a sixer of 12 oz was under 2 bucks. Prices always go up but rarely go down.

 

My point wasn't that local defaults as charging for freshness or "localyness". But if it is a new, small brewery the economies of scale won't work in their favor to charge lower prices. Maybe the beer isn't up to snuff, in which case maybe they won't survive doing that. But I hardly see $3 beers as a gold rush.

 

No. Unlike everything else in the world the price of beer will never, ever increase.

 

exactly

 

In the OP it was asked: “…it strikes me that very soon we will routinely see 750ml bottles of beer that cost $40-$50-$100, right?”

The simple answer to that is we will see those ridiculous prices if beer drinkers are willing to pay ridiculous prices. If instead we all collectively decided today to not pay 20 bucks for a 750 ml bottle of beer then this progression will not occur. I personally refuse to pay 20 bucks for a bottle of beer. If everybody did this as well then this will keep ridiculous prices in check.

Cheers!

P.S. The majority of the beer I drink are my homebrewed beers. I would encourage others to homebrew as well.

 

Yes. The question is will the price outstrip other items? Since beer is a product of agriculture and manufacturing by how much is a good question. Beer will be subject to what consumers are willing to pay, product scarcity, grain prices, hop prices, general agricultural conditions, water prices/water quality issues, new brewing/bottling technology, fuel costs, and to a lesser extent real estate costs.

 

on the other hand many wines are under 10 dollars, in fact I bet quite a few are. all I can say on beer price increases is many are out of my price range now, or have limited me to buy ALLOT less. Me I cannot guess what prices will do, but unless its a computer part it will most likely get more expensive. Grains and yeast and hop for Home brewing have risen since I started doing it full time about 4 years of all grain now. Still its a LOT cheaper than buying it. its even sometimes better quality, lol

 

Not to be a jerk here, but you have the degree, tell us? how the heck do we know, 99% of us are just drinkers here, we have no secret knowledge, well maybe Jess does.

experience says most of the time things go up, but you know economics, so you also know things go down, and deflation etc.
fairly sure during 2008 most lowered or held on to current prices, the econo improved the prices went up right?

No one has a crystal ball. oh course you could turn on CNBC they try to predict things all the time on there. lol. as with most they are usually wrong. as no 1 really knows.