Eric's Ale - New Belgium

IIRC, they have replied previously and said it was due to distributors pricing, NB sells it to all distributor's the same.... so blame MillerCoors.

 

If that's the case why do they sell it at their taproom at the higher price? MillerCoors shouldn't be affecting what they sell it for.

 

Well it certainly seems to me they set the premium price point only for the market that put them on the map. Whether that's true or not....no thanks.

 

Cuz they want you to get a better price at the stores that their distributors send them to?

 

That's the stock answer but if every other market and distributor sells it cheaper then here and by a significant amount then they are letting MillerCoors set the price? Because if your answer is true then that is what is happening.

And I have n idea what the price is for this beer here. Just don't expect it cheaper then the past beers.

 

Great question. And I've heard that too. Well, headed to Facebook to ask on their page ...

 

There have been a few of their sours that weren't jacked up here; I think Tart Lychee was in the $10-12 range, so there's hope it won't be $18 here.

My personal theory is just that Coors wants to sell their barrel aged and sour beers for $25 bucks a pop, and they don't want the local competition coming in at half that price. Prove me wrong.

 

18 bucks at Hazels today.


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I think those prices pre-date the AC Golden sours. IIRC, the cork/cage 750 La Folie was around $20 before CDC signed with NB (don't know what that would be in today's $$). Not sure if it's CDC jacking up prices, NB jacking up prices, or NB sending it to other states at a cost-loss.

 

So $18 here at a store and $11.55 at a store < 300 miles away. I can't believe that NB is selling at a cost-loss (which I doubt they are) enough to make that big of a difference. Both those stores are probably making the same profit % on the bottles.

Wonder how much the bottles are in Ashville NC at their other facility?

 

No matter what the issue is. It's really lame.

 

This whole practice is weak sauce. It shouldn't be more cost effective to trade someone on the east coast for a beer brewed an hour from here.

 

Only thing I hate is NB keeps saying it's the distributors and they price is wrong in every other market. That might make sense on 1 beer but every other distributor in the country is taking that massive loss for every beer NB puts out? It's their beer and can price it how they want in our market but just come out and say "We still sell the beer here in CO even if we price it 30-40% higher than any other market so we're going to keep it at that price"

 

Personally, I find it easier to believe that CDC controls the price, but it's hard to imagine that NB doesn't have influence. Typically, a brewery will "suggest" a price-point to a distro, but the latter has ultimate control. And it sucks when the distro is an impersonal giant (and competitor). NB has other CDC and BUD distro contracts elsewhere, so I wonder how those prices compare/contrast. As far as price at brewery itself, that's usually a contract between brewery/distro to keep prices same or more at brewery, so as not to punish the retailers. @BeerSlingerMike would know more about distro contracts, though.

I'm suspending my frustration until it can be aimed appropriately

 

It's believable that it's the distributor deciding to mark these up so much, but like someone mentioned above it's weird that that would be the taproom price too. Why let the distributor dictate what you sell it for? I get the idea that usually beer is about equal or higher to store prices if you buy from the source so as not to undercut the retailers who sell your beer, but I wouldn't get following along with that principle when the distributor decides to jack up the margin so high on just a couple of beers

 

Here's my take on NB over the past few years:
In CO, LoF beers used to be 3 tier with retail prices at like 6,10 and 18. Not anymore. Any LoF that is not sour is $10 and sours are $18.
For example, just 2 years ago, Biere de Mars = $6, Tart Lychee=$10, La Folie = $18 and they would release 2 LoF each quarter (usually a tier 1 and a higher tier beer)
For the past 12-18 months their non-sour LoF offerings are all ~10, while the sours are ~18. Last $6 LoF bottle was Wild Dubble about 18 months or so ago. They were offering the Hop Kitchen beers at $6 for awhile, but they appear to be draft only as of late.

So what I think happened is they dropped the Tier 1 for the LoF and replaced it with HopKitchen, but that has since been axed, so now we have $10 and $18 bottles of non-sours and sours, respectively.

What is really shocking is that $10 LoF beers in Colorado are $10 in most other states I've been. Where the sour LoF beers are $18 in Colorado and $13-15 everywhere else I've been. So if it's a price thing with the distributor as they say, it would appear that the CO distributor is only raising prices on sour LoF beers? Doubt it.

I would love to get a sensible answer from a NB person on this.

 

All good observations! Just a comment on one statement from your post....I was buying La Folie and Le Terrior for $8-10 a bottle in IL and IN just a year ago.

 

They responded in a similar thread a couple years ago and put the blame solely on the distributor. They essentially said that every other market had an incorrectly low price (thanks to a UPC error) and that the CO price was the only correct one.

 

They blamed the UPC error on the 2013 Le Terroir pricing in other states, not the pricing for Kriek or La Folie, which is why we are so dumbfounded by this.

In 2013 Le Terroir was released for the first time in 5 years or so and they bumped up the pricing from ~8-10 to ~18 in colorado. In other states it was still being sold for the price from 5 years ago, which was 8-10. This was the UPC mistake, but fast forward a year...
In 2014 Le terroir was being sold for 13-15 in the other states I've seen, which is the same price range as La Folie and Kriek in those states.

So the UPC error explains the 2013 out-of-state Le Terroir pricing issue, but still not the "Colorado LoF Sour Premium" we pay here.

 

My head hurts from thinking about this.

Bottom line is that all of us CO people know we are paying more than everybody else for the same beer, which blows.