This is by no means a “hater” post. In reality, I just wish certain beers that I like weren’t so expensive. Case in point: Prairie. Bomb! Isn’t even barrel aged, yet at it’s cheapest it’s $9.99 out here in Southern California. When I can buy CBS, KBS (and its variants) at $5.99, why would I even think about overpriced Prairie? Yeah, get it together guys... And Toppling Goliath, I’m looking at you too.
Adroit Theory... I only seek out their non-IPAs, but woof... Generally, I'm leery of ANYTHING that's 20ish a 4 pack at TW
Constellation supposedly paid $1 Billion (with a 'B') for Ballast Point. Whoa, way too rich for my blood. ( Gee, whatever happened to that deal?) But then, Sapporo apparently got Anchor for a mere $85 Million, but, you know what? Still out of my league. In fact, I'd imagine even if the next Pandemic Relief Payment comes through, every brewery is still too expensive for me, so I'll just have to be satisfied with buying and drinking their beers.
The list of breweries I buy little or nothing from because of their price is too long to type. But I don't worry about it. There is soooo much great beer available today. I look in my DBF and at my credit card statements and all is well.
I agree both are typically too expensive compared to competitors. So many great reasonably priced California options. Speedway Stout, North Coast Old Rasputin and Lagunitas Willetized are typically great deals, and with IPAs, you can't go wrong with AleSmith and Beachwood. PtE is more expensive but worth the occasional treat as well. Not sure how pricing compares in France to here, but MT's standard offerings are priced like their competitors. Stone and Ballast Point are in another price range, so I never really pick them up. MT's Devil's Teeth are excellent but very pricey, I try to pick up a can or two as a treat when hitting California (they never make it to Chicago). My Take / List: Breweries that charge what they can, and if there is a market for their beers at higher prices, more power to them. I rather they make profit over the ubiquitous neckbeard beer scalpers that overrun our area. That said, I'm aware of two breweries that have begun "scalping" their beers recently (double, triple plus over their MSRP) for off-premise consumption, namely Toppling Goliath and Goose Island. I stopped buying TG a while ago, and GI purchases out of a rare taproom visit have dried up except for the BCBS which has also become too expensive IMO. Some East Coast breweries started dropping here with ridiculous prices so I just pass (Jackie O's $1.30/oz BA beers and Equlibrium/Other Half $8-$9 per 16 oz can of NEIPAs). I've been buying majority local, and even for BA there are significant savings. My favorites are: Chicago: Revolution: $20 IPA 12 can variety, packs, $10 six packs, and great Deep Woods beers at $0.52-$0.63 / oz for great beers (Deth's Tar, Ryeway to Heaven, Straight Jacket). Spiteful: $10 IPA 12 oz 6 packs (Chicago's best year-round WCIPA) and $12-$14 for their 4-6 16 oz specialty releases. Michigan: Founders: $15 15 packs of All Day IPA and Mosaic Promise, oh hell yes. And 4 Giants, Blushing Monk and their BA Imperial Stouts are among the best at a reasonable price. Bells: Pick up at least a twelve pack of Oberon each year and they come up with some reasonably priced beers across many styles that are great, and their Expedition Stout is awesome.
It’s not that I don’t buy them, but whenever Cascade brings something into my market, I only buy one. Their stuff is really expensive up here.
Other Half certainly isn't winning any awards for "best priced beer", but then you have some guys who are straight up EGREGIOUS... TOPPLING GOLIATH Forager Prarie etc... I'll always admire Hill Farmstead (and Tree House) for consistently putting out world-class beer and not absolutely gouging a hole in your wallet. Yet I still keep returning to Side Project like my life depends on it...
The pattern in my area is that small, local breweries open up their doors with no reputation or track record of quality and want people to pay $17 for four cans of a 5% pale ale or pilsner, and $19 for an IPA or stout. That's always going to be a hard pass for me. You can get away with charging those prices once you've proven your beer is reliably good. Not before (and the lighter stuff should always be $12 at most anyway).
Toppling goliath is ridiculously expensive 9.00 a bottle for DDH king sue for example. Also levante 18.00 for a 4pak of pale ale and for an ipa your talking 20.00 to 24.00 it's insane
I agree with you on this one. I realize that barrel-aging of sour beers adds a huge cost to the brewery for the price of barrels and the time aging, and the finished product is always very good, but I'm just not into sours enough to buy them regularly. Since Jolly Pumpkin is a Michigan brewery I'd love to support them more (their beers are even much more reasonably priced when compared to Cascade), but I'm just not that big of a fan of sours to buy their beers very often. Kettle-soured beers will have to do when I crave that style.
I want to try Bruery Helles but not for $15 a four pack. I stick with very local or imports to keep it reasonable
Equilibrium Brewery seems overpriced at the stores in Maryland compared to their website. On their website, a lot of their beers are in the $17-$20 range for a 4pack...which is still a bit much for me. But my local store has 4 packs for around $30. I'll admit, I purchased a single can to see if the price was worth it. It was a great beer, but I also have more reasonably priced beers that are just as good available.
Stone. Cascade. Used to rip on Prairie, but I do think some of their work is worth the price. Not near all of it though. Like wise, I've dropped some money at Side Project, but it's always a special treat, usually associated with a vacation.
Sorry for this one, likely to be flamed, but I haven't bought 3 Floyds in many years because I saw them jump their prices back before anyone else had. Sure, many are catching up now, but it just seemed like a pretentious move by the brewery based on their popularity. No, I have no solid proof of this, but when they were $2 a six-pack more than most of the others on the shelves, I knew I could find something else.
It is. Mornin' Delight (in my opinion) is a seriously amazing non-BA breakfast stout. Is it $50 amazing? No, but it is a great stout. $50 is a lot for any beer, let alone a 22oz bottle that didn't see time in oak. I haven't had KBBS (and will probably never have the chance to), but the whole $100 for a 12oz single thing kind of rains on my parade a bit. But hey, people keep paying it, so they'll keep riding that train. All the way to the bank.
I'll 2nd this. No 4-pack in any store for under $22. It is cheaper for me to drive just over a hour to the brewery, buy a 4-pack and drive home (which I wouldn't.) Good beer, yes. Great beer, no. Worth $30....absolutely not.
Anchorage. BA stouts and barleywines that are $20-$25 at the brewery somehow become $75 when they hit distro in so cal.
I wouldn't say there's breweries I won't support because they're too expensive. Ones I won't buy on a regular basis, sure. I won't be filling my fridge with 28 dollar distro Equilibrium four packs, that's for sure. Or the 50-75 dollar Anchorage BA 375s, I'll have to be in a fancy mood to pick one of those up.
Total Wine has Houblon Chouffe for $10/4 pack which doesn't seem too bad for an excellent Belgian IPA. My votes would have to go to Equilibrium, Other Half, and Toppling Goliath. All great breweries, all a bit overpriced.
I'll toss in Maine Beer Company. Silly format/pricing. They make great beer but I won't buy it anymore.
I'll agree that Chouffe beers are the most approachable price-wise (I actually liked their blonde ale). Duvel and Gulden Draak are two examples that I know I could never bring myself to shell out the cash for.
Here in Europe we are used to paying high prices for US beers. We've splashed out 40 euros for Anniversary Fremonts and 16 euros for Tree House (per can). Trillium cans went from 11-15 eur. However Anchorage prices seem really crazy. Sacrifice is around 43 eur, Endless Ending 50 and Ten Years went from almost 80 eur. That's one 375 ml bottle. I understand they are expensive in US as well, not sure why are they priced that high.
Forgot about them. Missouri got them distro'd here starting in... 2018? Now that I'm thinking about it, I haven't seen any for awhile. Perhaps Maine pulled out from distro here. I bought a couple bottles of Lunch and thoroughly enjoyed it, but freshness quickly became an issue, and at that price point, it's just not worth sifting through.
Supply & Demand. Same with Toppling Goliath. We complain about pricing but at the same time those horrendously expensive stouts sellout in minutes online or by lottery etc.
Any of the beers that are behind the paywalls that are membership clubs, if not local and top notch. Can’t afford to pay for the membership, beer to give proxy as thanks, and shipping.
I used to be turned off by MBC's price tag too. But then I read up on their business practices. They, in my opinion, are doing it right. I try to support them given those practices. I don't mind paying a little more than I normally would to a company like them. But they are indeed expensive, no doubt about it. Their beers are also really tasty too, which makes the purchase easier, ha.
Some of Surly’s IPAs that are packaged in 4 packs (Axe Man, Abrasive) are very pricey, and I’d probably buy them way more often if they were like $12 or $14 as opposed to $20 in my area. I’m not really a fan of hazy IPAs that I can actually get around here (other than Pseudo Sue because it has some nice bitterness to it), but even if I were into them, most of them would be too expensive for me, at $15-20/4 pack. That said, I’ll gladly pay that much for a four pack of stouts I really like. I’ll gladly buy a couple of bottles of Darkness every year, too. There’s no way that I would pay $100 for KBBS, though.
I splurged the other day. $40 case of Cape May Coffee stout. I really like it. I full that in with Hamms, $13 a 30 pack. Been getting Jai Alai, Jai Low , guayabera and mix packs for $26.99 a case. Grabbed Yards Brawler and mix case for $28. Staying at $1 a beer is a little tough and I’m around $1.18-1.25 because I buy a $40 case or a few $12 four packs here and there. I stopped buying bombers but broke down last week. I’m done now. $13+ for Big Bad Baptist that tasted like cherry cough syrup, no email on the web site to contact them. I’m lucky I can get good fresh mid/large brewery beers quite inexpensive at the spot I go to. Selection changes every month or so. Enjoy
Two questions: Are you able to find these beers very fresh? It has been my consistent experience that Jai Alai suffers from hop fade very quickly; after 3-4 weeks it drops off a cliff. When you say "case" here do you mean 24 cans? A price of 27 bucks is waaay lower than what my local Retail Beer Distributor charges for a case ($43.50 plus tax).
