Is there any decent craft sold for BMC comparable prices?

Trader Joe's has 2 dollar bombers

 

Sierra Nevada, Samuel Adams, and a few others are commonly found close in sixpack prices.

Small and local? No. They charge more, even if you buy it right from the brewery itself.

Personally I don't think it should be this way, but if people are willing to pay it then they continue. Meanwhile, I'll either drink value craft like Sierra Nevada or if I'm paying premium prices I'll drink Alpine, Ballast Point, Bell's, Founder's, Victory, and other breweries that are in a much higher league and actually deserving of their price points.

 

SN makes great beers at a great price. But your not going to see WalMart priced PBR at $10 for an 18 pack.

 

How on earth could it not be that way? They aren't even remotely as efficient as macros in production and they inherently use more expensive raw materials. This shouldn't even be a question. You can't make beer as cheap as massive monopolies do when you have a labor intensive process and you use malted barley instead of corn. It cannot not be that way.

 

You surely pay for a lot of marketing and other shady behaviour when you buy corporate beer, so it's not necessarily a foregone conclusion.

Occasionally I've gotten $5 growler fills from good local breweries, but I suspect that's more a case of loose accounting than real costs.

 

Not really, I think a six pk of small breweries are almost always going to cost you a few dollars more. I just recently bought a six pk of DIPA from a brewery in n Cali for about $11. It's not great but imo I didn't regret spending the money.

 

I think near me on sale 14.99 12packs of Sierra Nevada is about the best deal in craft. I don't really see any 6packs less then 9.99 in NewYork and mostly higher

Possibly if some decent craft could make money at 8 bucks a 6 pack they could get some market share by being cheaper then the crowd, but maybe because there is just so much diversity in craft that it is hard for new breweries to break in with enough volume to lower price and still make a decent margin

 

Ok maybe Im mixing up what "should be that way." I was implying that macro breweries are able to price lower.. And that you should not expect small craft breweries to be able to do so so easily.

 

I think New Glarus has to be amongst the best deals in craft with 6-packs for $7.29.

 

I'm talking about local craft vs. macro craft. Along the lines of what @cookiequiz said, and with certain assumptions about what state you're in, buying right where the brewery is means no middle man markup, no transportation costs (you're at the brewery), perhaps no bottling or canning costs (with growlers or kegs if you're borrowing keg), etc. In the past (long ago actually) some of my favorite local breweries were that way - much cheaper when you drank at the brewery, or got growler fills there. Now everything is priced on par with full retail market pricing.

I understand the market is what it is and local places are able to price at full retail. Fine, economically speaking. But we should not assume they couldn't charge the same or lower price per ounce than Sierra Nevada (bottle prices) when filling growlers at the small local brewery itself where many of the aforementioned costs are not present. They could, but they're not, because it is more profitable to do what they're currently doing. Honestly, I think we may see a return to this sort of thing as prices generally go up and the local places have more need for an advantage over the regional/national macro craft.

 

Yuengling porter, the new ipl, there is nothing wrong with sam adams.

Narragansett has been doing good things.

 

The notion that you could get the one for the price of the other does not seem to factor the term "craft" into the equation.

I'm sorry, but if you want BMC prices, you're going to get BMC quality.

That said, SN and SA are both good options at good prices. I personally prefer SN, but SA is more approachable for those who don't go for craft styles and a lot of hops, so SA is what I bring to holiday events and such.

You get what you pay for.

 

Bmc have ridiculously large economies of scale. Even with their advertising expenses, it would be almost impossible for someone to best their prices.

 

I've seen breweries like Alaskan, Sierra Nevada, Summit, Schells, Goose Island, and Sam Adams go for like $6.99 a six pack here in Minnesota. When it comes to 12pks there's even less disparity between craft brands and BMC brands, in fact, I often see craft brands for like $10.99 or cheaper.

 

New Galrus sells only in Wisconsin and many sixers are had for $7.99 you named spotted cow in your post but as a Brewery (NG) the whole line up is reasonable, 2 Others are in Minnesota Schells and Summit

 

The best deal I've seen yet in PA has been Duclaw's Serum (double IPA) for $7.99 a sixer. At the same store, all the BMC beers run about $6-7 a sixer.

 

you would think if you get it the source it would be cheaper but I doubt it, the only reason I would go to the source aside from getting it on tap and fresh would be a release only available there. They still have to pay rent and the people that are serving you the beer so I doubt its less than buying at liquor store.

 

I like to think victory helios is a great deal at 4$ a bomber.