Foam Brewers

Can anyone help on Foam's pricing for 64 ounce growler fills, especially their IPAs (Eraserhead, Shining)? Guessing Hill Farmstead pricing around 22-24?

 

How are the cans tasting? Planning my next beer trip to VT atm!

 

Taste great. $18 four packs are a new phenomenon in VT, so not sure how often I'll indulge, but no complaints.

 

I usually get 32 oz. growlers filled and they only add $2 to the price listed ($12-$14 in my experience). Sounds like $24-$26 would be close to accurate, but I don't know for sure.

 

Is foam doing can releases every Friday from now on?

 

This Saturday, August 19th, we will be releasing House of Fermentology Orange Dot bottles. Orange Dot is an mixed-culture American Wild Ale fermented and aged in oak with roasted Cara Cara Oranges and local wildflower honey. 6.5% ABV

Saturday, August 19th | 10:30 AM
112 Lake Street

$17 per bottle
2 bottle limit per person

 

No idea on that but they did purchase their own canning line so I would guess they will be pretty regular.

 

Nice to see Foam already making an effort to adjust allocations based on turnout. Dropped limits to 2x 4packs sometime during the release

 

Built to Spill again. Anyone go to the Pavement release? How was the line/when did people start lining up? Hope to go some Friday soon.

 

Buddy got there at 9 and said he was about 100 deep

 

Not sure what release your buddy went to, but I got there at about 9:10 for the Pavement release and there were definitely less than 50 people in front of me. A lot of people showed up between 9:45-10am. And they still had plenty of beer after the entire line was taken care of. I believe they didn't sell out until 1 or 2pm. I'm sure the folks that wanted to be in the first 20 (I heard 7am is when they started lining up) and guarantee a case allotment got there really early, but if you're ok with the current 3 4-pack haul, I don't see any reason to arrive earlier than 9:30 to feel comfortable in getting an allotment. And I'm pretty sure the fine folks at Foam have said that they will adjust limits to assure that everyone in line at the time of release will get beer, so I wouldn't worry too much about walking away with no beer as long as you are there by 10am.

 

That's just what he told me, maybe he got there closer to 10, said they got 3 four packs

 

I'm heading up this Saturday. Do cans usually last from the Friday release?

 

No, they have all sold out day of so far. No info on today's release yet, safe to assume it will sell out however.

 

I haven't really trolled through this thread yet and am psyched to try Foam anything for the first time real soon, but at the risk of saying something slightly negative - what's up with the $18 / 4 pack price? I realize it's on par for what comparable beers in the Boston area charge but it seems decidedly un-VT like and kinda puts me off a little bit right out of the gate.

 

Agreed. I don't see myself pulling the trigger too often. I can get Burl Beer Co. stuff, Alchemist, Fiddlehead for $5 cheaper.

 

They are doing ~100 case runs and can get away with selling them for more due to limited supply. If they were trying to sell larger batches they would have to lower pricing.

Same reason they can sell a 12oz IIPA pour for $8/9 that would be $6/7 at the bar up the street.

 

Fair enough but in that case why not produce half as much and charge even more...not trying to bust your balls or anything but my only point was that an $18 / four pack price point is uncool. I know brewers need to make money and I would love to love these guys the same way I love Fiddlehead and the Alchemist, etc., but I haven't even tried them yet and already am trying to withhold judgement...having said this, Trillium went through some similar growing pains and look where they are today. Vermont is a different animal though. As stated above, there are a lot of options available for a lot less. I'm not saying any of this to be mean-spirited or overly critical as I genuinely can't wait to try their stuff, but my hope is that others either tell me I'm off the mark - or agree with me, in which case maybe Foam might consider reviewing their prices. I think competing in the VT market with such a price differential will be fine in the short term as they gain momentum, but in the medium to long term I fear it might be unsustainable. Cheers!

 

I think they are applying a Treehouse/Trillium model when pricing beers. It is a much closer comparison when talking about style of beer as well (more like the 2 previously mentioned/less like the ones mentioned in your post). I believe their hopping rates are probably the cause for the price point which we can see with Trill/TH. Also because of their size, it costs them more than Alchemist and Fiddlehead to make 16oz of beer.

EDIT
Fancy die cut labels cost $$$

 

Foam's taproom is extremely busy. More so than any other brewery in the area.
They have no need to compete on price point with the Alchemist and take lower margins when they could otherwise sell it all as draft out of the taproom.

Unless they massively increase production, they won't have excess beer to concern themselves with competing to sell.