How much control do we have over price?

Whales causing you a lot of trouble in the thousand lakes of Minnesota are they?

 

I think he does homebrew. You should be saving cash by homebrewing, I save a lot when it comes to buying the corked belgians that I try to clone.

 

Unfortunately this is true!

 

I can say in that case you save some $$$, but if I would ever stop buying equipment, freezers, and more kegs, I might say it is a cost savings.

 

Thats true. I try to look at equipment as hobby items that produce beer. Even so, we've made about $ 35,000 worth of Belgian style beer so far with about $1000 worth of equipment.

 

Or you could say: That's too expensive and my my beer world will be just fine if I don't get that bottle.

It's not exactly a life saving medication for a child with cancer. Me thinks they have you by the balls my friend.

 

Either that or you are sarcasm impaired. ;-)

 

Haha, yeah, meant to say anti-whaling.

We have more of a problem with Asian Carp here

 

I'm primarily a wine drinker, and sommelier, really interested in craft beer since maybe 2 years. I can't disagree more about "High" beer prices. Even the best examples are pretty cheap. If you want to try pretty much the best stuff around in the wine world, you have to pay hundreds, or thousands of dollars on a single bottle. Yesterday evening, I was drinking a second anniversary pinot noir barrel-aged Saison from Dunham, a blend of saison and 18% of their Leo's IPA, with some Brett. Those bottles were 15$ at the brewery for a 750ml. Outstanding stuff, sold at the price of a...pretty average, entry level bottle of wine.

Just enjoy the fact that prices, even for the best stuff around, are still low.

 

That is one way to look at it. Too bad I am throu my Belgian phase.

 

You forgot the obligatory in the original for internet sarcasm!! Or perhaps sarcasm has ME by the balls.

 

This x's a million.

 

Craft beer (and any beer, besides "home brew") is a business. Breweries price their beer based on the expenses they incur as well as the profit they like to make. Sure, you can all "vote with your wallets", and stop buying beer you deem to be "too expensive".

Then what? Well, Brewery X won't profit as much as they wanted to on Beer Y.

Then what? Well, Brewery X won't bother to make as much of Beer Y as all the BAs on this site would like.

Then what? One of two things.... a) Brewery X stops making Beer Y all together, and that will piss off a lot of BAs that really dug that beer. b) Brewery X limits their distribution of Beer Y, and some "rogue BAs" that can get their hands on Beer Y, will start hoarding all of Beer Y they can get their hands on, and use it as trade bait... and that will piss off a lot of BAs that really dug that beer.

Bottom line: Buy it if you like it, and it's at a price point you feel is worth it TO YOU.

 

Breweries aren't just throwing a random price out because they think that's what they can get.

(Of course they are. It's simple economics. They choose the margin they want to make.)

6pk for $10 = $1.66 a beer. A bottle of water costs $1.50.

(Overpriced tap water, which is virtually free. $1.66 per bottle of beer is reasonable. Yet many craft beers cost over $3.00 per bottle for 12 oz. or more.)

Not meaning to go directly at you, I have seen plenty of others say beer is overpriced and completely disagree.

(No worries.)

 

I see beer prices come down at my beer store that aren't selling very well.

 

Now there are three things for certain. Death, taxes and the ever rising price of beer.

 

I see two reasons why we don't.

The first reason we don't is because craft brewers don't see one another as competition. They all have this spirit of being on the same team. As such, they don't use their prices to try to outsell one another. No one is using price to affect their sales.

The second is diversity of product. BCBS, Parabola, and say Dragon's Milk aren't considered substitutes even though they are all BA Stouts. Craft beer drinkers, who are the average consumers of those products don't see them as such, anyway.Take that as compared to Heinz/Hunts ketchup, which by average consumers are considered substitutes for one another. So, price is not going to be a determining factor for which of those three someone buys. Craft beer drinkers are likely going to buy the ones they like which may be one, two, or all three. No one is going to buy both Heinz and Hunts ketchup.

So no, we don't have control over price.

Craft beer is often considered an "affordable luxury." So it's still a luxury, which is a type of product where people don't generally let the price determine their purchasing decisions. Within reason, they purchase what they want regardless of cost. So as long as prices remain within reason, people are going to purchase what they want. That is to say, a brewery could charge 7.50 for 6er or 10.50 for a 6er, and if it's the sixer you want, you probably aren't going to let the price stop you. You might give it a second thought at 15.50 if it's just a pale ale (where it seems outside of the realm of "reasonable" prices for that product), but probably not if you were told it's worth drinking.

Anecdotally, I can say that unless I'm shopping for single bottles/bombers, I almost never consider the price of the beer I'm buying anymore.

 

been brewing for over 10 yrs ,but haven't had time lately due to a family illness.

 

I'd wager that prices from breweries in states that do NOT mandate third party distribution are not much less. It still costs huge sums of money for breweries to self-distribute to bars, restaurants, and stores. It's called "disintermediation" when they do it, look it up.

 

In general, I dont even look at the price any more. I want to try something, I get it. Im not rich, just a lowly road construction worker. But if I want something, as should you, just get it. I spent $12 on a bottle of art of darkness by ommegang about a month ago. didnt want to spend that much, but im glad I did.