Founders announces Solid Gold Lager

I haven't read thru 4 pages , but... Why? Why would Founders basically copy an AAL reciepe when there's a ton of comparable beers thst have been around forever? Sticking a Founders label on a bottle of AAL still makes it an AAL, and I can get Hamm's super cheap. I might try one, but I still don't see the point, it's like Mercedes dumbing down a car and selling it on the cheap. If your going to do cheap it's already been done to death, and they already do it well.

 

This is one that I will probably purchase once in a while. I'll drink one once in a while, but mostly to keep in the fridge for friends and family that do not like the other styles of beer that I have on hand. I refuse to buy BMC and like to have something for those that only drink 'domestics'.

 

To make money?

Dale, not tomorrow but the following Sunday I will be discussing Solid Gold vs. Hamm's in the New Beer Sunday thread. Do you think there will be a 'winner'?

Cheers!

 

Winner is in the eye I suppose, not all AALs are created equal, some are definately better. But I'm guessing it's hard to beat PBR or Hamm's or maybe a dozen others at this game, it's about all they do. Hard to beat Hamm's for $13 a case, and it's just not a cheap beers it's easily one of the better AALs.

 

Only one that I didn't care much for was Re'Dankulous. Just wasn't a fan of it.

 

That's a post I'm looking forward to reading.

 

So I walked into my local this morning and after greeting the owner told him I would be his best customer of the day. He laughed and asked why to which I said, "cause I left my reading glasses and can't read any of the prices". We get along, I always grab a bunch of stuff and he sorta rounds off the total in my favor.

Included in my haul was a sixer carton of Solid Gold one of which I had with lunch and then another to write a review. Here's my take . . .

Compared to Macro AALs this one;

1. Has more flavor and hops,
2. Doesn't taste bad when it warms up to room temp, and,
3. Costs a lot more.

I think both my AAL drinking friends and my Craft drinking friends would like to try this but neither group would then spring the price to buy more.

 

I haven't had the beer, but I like the way you boiled it down to this.

 

re: MillerCoors Hamm's v Founders Solid Gold-

For years people have said that the "macro" brewers brew beer on the cheap - using corn syrup, hop extract, high gravity brewing (all applicable to Hamm's) and on top of that have a cost advantage with the economies of scale that come with brewing tens of millions of barrels of beer in modern highly-automated, super-efficient breweries with few workers*, located all over the country (lowering transportation costs). One result of which was the destruction of over 95% of the post-Repeal brewers in the US.

* It takes 515 highly-paid workers brew 11 million barrels of beer in MC's Ohio brewery. In 2015 (after the San Miguel Mahou deal) Founders had a little over half that many - ~300 - but brewed less than 3% as much beer as MC's Trenton facility.

So, a small US brewer (yes, partially-owned by a large Spanish company but with no previous presence to speak of in the US beer market) comes along and brews a beer in the second most popular style sold in the US, assumed to be using what most would consider better quality ingredients**, employing many more workers per barrel and selling that beer at a very competitive price compared to AB, MC and Constellation's "premium-priced" beers, and people say:

"Yeah, but Hamm's is cheaper."

** No confirmation of what form of corn they're using (grits, flakes, syrup) or the malt/adjunct ratio, but it can likely be assumed their using, at least, hop pellets (and in greater quantities than macro AALs) and are not HG brewing -- I guess?

But what "style" is it? I see light lager beers of this sort which use corn as an adjunct listed here on BA as "American Adjunct Lager", "American Pale Lager" (Yuengling Premium, Shiner Premium, etc) and "Euro Pale Lager" (Stella Artois).

Constellation (and before that, Grupo Modelo/Crown) is doing OK - over 8% of the US market, two beers in the US Top Ten, #3 beer marketer in the country - selling, primarily, AALs at above-premium prices.

 

Tastes like a session IPA

 

So, something along the lines of Victory's Home Grown?

 

. So if it turns out to be a bit of a hoppy lager, why not just by
A nice Pils? I'm interisted to see Jacks report as well.

 

Yeah I agree. Hoppier than your average AAL but nothing earth shattering. Not sure why people keep asking “why would they make an AAL, it has already been done before”. I’d say “why not?”, if this were just another IPA I probably wouldn’t have even bought it. Glad they’re doing something different for once (I can’t recall the last time a large scale craft brewery made an AAL, hence why I said “something different”)

EDIT: Full Sail Session lager is a pretty good comparison to this beer. I kinda forgot about it.

 

Can't say as I'm not familiar with that one.

 

Home Grown is much more hop forward than solid gold, very different beers imo

 

Well, I have not formalized a "report" yet but I will express my thoughts that Founders Solid Gold is not a Session IPA in my opinion. There is indeed a noticeable hop aroma/flavor in that beer but no where even close to what would appear in a Pale Ale or Session IPA.

Cheers!

 

I 100% agree with you here.

A very notable difference in the magnitude of the hop aroma/flavor in those two beers.

Cheers!

 

I saw this at the area TW the other day. I passed for the time being. But comparing prices of their 15pks to others, I have to post here and applaud their efforts to become the cheapest beer sold (on a per beer basis) not among the Macro family. So they are definitely onto something.


To compare, 15pk of this was $12.99
Other 15-16 pks:
wolfpup/GI ipa/GI urban wheat $17.99

Founders azacca/PC pils/Mosaic promise $16.99
Pub beer/Shocktop $15.99
founders centennial $15.99
founders all day $14.99
Mamas yella pils 16pk $14.99

Likewise, against macro breweries,
Bud/miller/coors are $23.99/30 pk.

If we buy two of the founders 15 pks, we come out to $25.98. A $2 difference at this point.
Natural light/ICE, rollingrock, keystone, and pabst are about $20/30 pk.

But that's not really a fair comparison. When the macro beers are 18 pks, we are seeing $15/18pks. THats about $0.83 a beer. Founders Solid Gold is about $0.86. That's about a 50 cents difference compared to nearly $2.00. Now if we compare 12 pk prices at $11 for big beer, Founders Solid gold becomes cheaper by 75 cents.

We talk about economies of scale etc... But the vast majority of consumers are still buying the smaller formats. So really, its the big wigs just raking in the money. Savings arent being passed down to consumers when the format is smaller than 15.

In my market, the average craft sixer is about $7-$10, and 12 packs run around $14-$18.

Now whether this solid gold was worth all this math, I may have to give it a shot.

For now, at least in my market, its nearly as cheap as macro 12 packs. And it's beating the other craft 15 pks by at least 2 bucks. Those are some serious gains and I could see this one gaining traction fast.

Pc pils was about $17/15 pk. Other places in town have all day for $17 as well. I think their threshold has to be at $1/beer if they want to compete with the big boys