Breweries Privately Contacting You

Do you want to reply to the brewery and get an explanation? Otherwise, I'd just ignore it.

I don't think it's uncommon for breweries to reach out for quality concerns or to correct factual assertions about their beer, but I've never heard about a brewery reaching out in an actual sales manner. It's a shitty thing to do to their retailer too.

 

150 is absolutely insane for a deposit. Yes, you get that back if you turn it in, but the fact they're charging that high of an amount up front would bother me too. I'm close to Southern Tier and Lavery and my friend has a keg deposit at both. I think combined, it's still less than the 150 the OP would have been charged by them. Every place is different, sure, but that's way too much.

 

That is a really good point actually - they are trying to poach business from a local retailer - that is super douchy actually.

 

I haven't checked in a while on pricing, but generally a $1-$1.50 more per unit. Not a big deal at all, and still convenient for those making a special trip. I'm sure it's a money maker for them, but probably not a significant portion. Whatever they have to do to keep the place the way it is, i'm all for it!

 

I understand it being pricier at the brewery. I just don't understand them contacting you to ask you to buy it there. Weird and not cool

 

Honestly, I forget about that aspect when considering brewery pricing. Im probably confusing this with Macro breweries who operate at a surplus and who's sales don't impact the local retailers as much.

 

I don't use untapped, for a variety of reasons, but have had a few occasional chats with folks from a brewery, both in the forums and by private conversation. Its usually about the brewing process, etc. and much appreciated as I get to learn a lot from pros. But none of them have any kind of access to any kinds of records as to what and where I buy my beer. Nor would I generally volunteer that information on a public site.

 

Ok @dvmin98, just let the cat out of the bag and tell us who it is.

 

yea I know. but its goes to show you be-careful with real info. just my 2.5 cents.

 

That's the first time I've heard about it coming from a brewery. I used to shop at our local farmers' market until I realized the same head of organic lettuce from the same farm was $1 cheaper per unit ($3.99 vs $4.99) at the local gourmet food market than directly from the farmer.

 

Where did you get your info from? All the local breweries sell kegs on site. I've purchased them several times.

 

I gave a low ranking on Untappd to a relatively new brewery's saison offering and they sent me a message apologizing for it not "being to my palate" and that they were planning on "delivering a plush east coast IPA by the end of the year."

I found this to be quite rude, basically insinuating that I must not like the style because I didn't like their beer while also suggesting that I would prefer a less complex style. It annoyed me to the point that I would never bother to buy anything from them in the future.

 

This all makes sense, but there's still no customer incentive for the OP to get kegs from the source. Even accepting the deposit, I would never pay $30 more than I have to for something. If they don't want people getting their kegs from other sources then stop selling them to retailers, at least locally. The message is way out of line IMO.

 

I personally find it distasteful for breweries to directly contact customers unsolicited here on BA and other social platforms. Some people like it but I find it overreaches too much.

 

There are tons of instruction videos for using commercial kegs for your homebrew. Just a different coupler for the most part.

Check YouTube if interested.

 

Almost every brewery I visit sells their beer at a higher price than what I can usually find at a distributor...never made any sense to me, you would think buying from the source would equate to a cheaper price due to savings from shipping costs, ect. So I would love to cut the middle man out and buy directly from the brewery but that usually does not make any sense cost wise. Plus, if it were cheaper or the same price at the brewery rather than a store it would cause me to visit the brewery more often.

As far as that deposit on their kegs, they are out of their minds trying to pass that on to the consumer! As others have said it is just a sure way to deter people from buying from them. Even if that's what they pay, all they need to do is make the deposit value high enough to deter people from keeping or scrapping the kegs.

 

@dvmin98 Did you know that the brewery sold kegs directly before the guy contacted you?

 

My point is the brewery wants to make sure you return it, not do anything else with it. Having large number of kegs out of circulation for small breweries could be logistically & financially crippling. So using a negative incentive ( you losing a deposit over scrap value ) will financially motivate customers to return their kegs. Some people would just procrastinate or blow it off entirely, if they are only 30 bucks or so in the red.

 

The thing is they price higher to be good to their local retailers. That's actually why I was told that Troeg's had such limited hours back when they were in Harrisburg. The brewery in question here is doing the opposite of that by requesting people go to them instead of retailers. It's shady any way you look at it.