black note release?

And what proof do you have of this?
Considering most BA ales are priced 50-100% higher than their non barrel counterparts, what makes you think the profit margin is not relatively the same?

There are world class stouts at $7.99 a 4 pack...A BA stout such as Eclipse retails for $30 for a 22oz.

Unless their barrels are leaking gallons of beer a day, I don't see how MOST brewers wouldn't carry the same profit margin on their regular beers as their specialty ones.

 

Playa please...

Talk to brewers/breweries employees, they will tell you pretty much the same thing that I posted.

Even if BA beers are priced 50-10% higher, BA beers are generally produced in a much smaller quantity. You must also factor in how much faster you can turn over the beers that are not going to barrels. So even if the profit margin per bottle is much higher on the BA beer, that can be quickly trumped by the sheer quantity of the alternatives that can move through in the same time period.

 

Does anyone know if this is out in the General Store?

 

Bell's really enjoys phone calls and always returns voicemail messages.

 

LOL! By all means, call them and leave VMs. They are extremely responsive (dripping with sarcasm)

 

Kevin is right.

Added production costs include the purchase of the barrels, labor to fill and empty, floor space, heating and cooling that space, the angels share, the time sampling the barrels to decide which to blend and which to reject (dump, there is always the chance that a barrel will go off), and some breweries have the barrels in a remote location so transportations comes into play. It all adds up.

On the other hand, Bells is setting the 800 bbl fermenters (12 of them) now to make more of the production beers.

Brewers like to have special projects as a challenge. Barrel aged beers, sour beers, and even lagers full into that category. Open wood fermenters from Strohs? Larry Bell has said they may do Q Falls as a production beer someday, but that beer is expensive to make as it is lagered and then dry hopped. That ties up the tank for a long time, and many ales could be pushed though that tank in the same time. I want more Q Falls!

Production volumes and schedules are something that the brewery has to decide.

 

I can't believe this thread is still open

 

I think it is open because Barrel Aged Black Note is getting bottled soon!

 

Mmm... Barrel Aged Black Note! The best kind!

 

I wonder what color cage they will use for the Pappy variant?

 

Might want to tell that to Firestone Walker...

While there whole lineup is stellar and essentially flawless....Their beer SITS and SITS, most of the time by the time it's on the shelf, their Double Jack is already one, two or three months old....I've seen Double Jack bombers well over a year old in probably half a dozen stores the last year. (And not one or two, I'm talking shelf fulls of old stock).

Firestone Walker would most certainly be out of business if they didn't have their barrel aged offerings. Knowing this, I don't see how anyone can fathom a regular brewery does not make the same money an BA beers.

 

Non-BA Firestone Walker beers sit on the shelves -> Firestone Walker would be out of business without their BA beers?

That doesn't remotely follow.

 

Bronze/gold has been the go-to for some other breweries.

 

They aren't on beermenus, I think you are mistaking it for the Niles one perhaps. I have seen single bottles marked up a $1 more than you'd see it Binnys sometimes, (like 120 min for 10.99) but for the most part you can find good brews at reasonable prices. For example, I picked up two bottles of Alpha Klaus there ($8.99) yesterday--that's long gone from any Binnys. IIRC I paid $8 for the BN.

 

You're right; I'm thinking of the one in Niles. Good to know they're not all like that...

 

I love the surety that some of you Frangelic Mountain Browners have in thinking that we won't get our hands on cases of this. It's on like donkey kong.

 

One of my buddies, who works in sales for Bell's has told me multiple times that the customers that pay the bills are the customers who drink Amber, Two-Hearted, etc. I get so annoyed by people thinking that barrel aged + hype = massive profit for a brewery.

 

people see a $25 four pack and don't think about the fact that the cost of those sales is far, far higher, with higher alcohol taxes, storage space, electricity, purchase of bourbon barrels or other specialized ingredients, specialized labour to determine composition of blends, etc. if bell's could make more money by cranking out asstons of black note, don't you think they'd be setting up entire new facilities just to brew black note?

also keep in mind that barrel aged stouts are not casual craft drinker beers. people i know go absolutely fucking apeshit for oberon that don't even otherwise drink craft beer. barrel aged stouts appeal to a tiny fraction of bell's consumer base.

 

If we are comparing I agree BN is way better than KBS IMHO. I will hunt down BN because that beer is TITS, but KBS...I will pass this year... BCBCS is 10x better.