KBBS trade value

i'd suggest at least 48 hours and probably more. < 24 hours will absolutely get removed.

 

Not every trade gets done. To understand this is to take the first step outside the vortex. A bonus: Life really is pretty good here outside the vortex.

 

trust me my life is fine, I just want to drink this beer. Don't read too much into it. If you come down from oregon we can share

 

Ahhh happy to help you out with a dark one finally. We've both come a long ways from our Pseudo for supplication days.

 

Not really!!!! CBS was inferior to KBBS. I know we are all just talking subjective information here.

 

This is what I don't get from a business model. $5K worth of beer and maybe $1K of profit isn't going to fuel your business in any meaningful way. A lot of effort goes into making these one off beers, and not a whole lot of return.

Now I understand that the brewer likely did this because they love brewing beer, and while I respect that there is still a business to be run. I totally respect that it is likely brewed for the love, but then just handing it out to random customers seems weird to me. Why not have a charity raffle, or take care of your top customers?

 

If nothing else, it's incredibly effective and comparably inexpensive marketing. Toppling Goliath is still so small they self-distribute, yet every BA in the country knows who they are, and KBBS / MD are a big part of that recognition.

 

Agree that it is gets your name out there, but the only reason to do that if you are a small brewery is if you intend to expand 10X times (more?) the current foot print.

So unless TG is coming to Ohio in the next say, two years then this is a total waste of time and resources (again I'm talking business model here).

Unless this beer is something that is coming on a larger scale, it doesn't really make sense from a long term point of view. Even if the name recognition is out there I'm not going to drink their nationally distributed IPA just because I've heard of their amazing stout. Why not just spend time and resources on Pseudo Sue and get that beer to more people, it isn't like they aren't already making great beer.

 

The biggest issue stopping any brewery from making more, I believe, is access to the barrels they want to use to age these beers. You simply don't get to buy up as much as you want. Because InBev bought Goose Island, they have a lot more barrels to use along with infrastructure and financial backings to "mass" produce the Bourbon County series. TG is tiny and these barrel-aged beers are fun side projects for the brewers.

Regarding the bolded sentence, I wouldn't drink nationally distributed IPA from a brewery because of their amazing stout(s) either. However, I would definitely give it a try at least because of how much I've heard of their stout(s). Whether or not I like the IPA and choose to continue is a matter of how good the IPA is. Having the name recognition draw people into trying out your other products for the first time, that first step, is HUGE.

 

That first paragraph is my point, why do the marketing with a limited release beer that you aren't able (or not intending) to widely distribute? If that beer is hard to make for whatever reason, then I would focus on driving sales with their flagship/focus product.

It is true that hearing about a good beer will lead you to try another beer from that brewery. Reputation is the door opener. That beer better be a quality beer, or that will be only a short term win.

The thing I'm really stuck with is that TG has a known winner in Pseudo Sue. Why not focus efforts on getting that beer into more people's hand rather than a limited release? That beer is good enough to drive the hype on it's own.

If TG didn't have that (and other easier crafted beers) in their lineup I could see making a hyped beer to get people's attention. I feel like they have our attention already, and if they are going to be a bigger footprint they already have the tools in place that are both more efficient and profitable.

 

PsuedoSue is steadily available at their tap room and around the area, and sold out quickly when distributed. I don't know the annual production #, but I'm guessing many, many, many thousands of times more than KBBS/Assassin/MD. I wouldn't say that they aren't focusing on the product or driving the sale of their flagship at all. But again, that's all "work" while limited releases are all fun. Moreover, for every 300-500 bottles of each of their stouts each year, they aren't going to be able to put any more dent into the demand of their flagship beers.

 

Right, and it still isn't available outside of that region in any meaningful way. Take the time and focus on your core product, and drive your business that way instead of spending time and resources on limited releases. There is some marketing value in getting your name out there, but I feel TG is already at that point and people are ready to buy their product.

Fun is good as well, and if that is what they are going for here then I'm all for it, but if they are looking to get bigger they will need to get their core product moving not these one off beers. Maybe to your point the fun limited releases beer helps with the drudgery that brewing the same old beers brings (brewers as a whole are more artists than what I would call hard core business people) and that is the big value add.

Good discussion.

 

I really believe that the goal of brewing limited beers is fun. Any marketing impact is purely incidental or at least an intended added bonus and not the primary goal. A lot of times, these BA beers and limited beers fail so it's not very good or guaranteed marketing tool to employ. I definitely don't see TG ever want to get bigger through these limited stouts unless then ended up like Goose Island .

Not every business wants to expand for one reason or another. This seems to be the case for many breweries that we love (Russian River, FFF, Alpine, HF, etc.) who seem to be happy at the size and production level. Maybe it's the headache of expansion, more $, more responsibilities, more work, less time to drink, etc.. TG is working on expansion, surely but slowly, at the speed that they are comfortable with.

 

Don't you think the enjoyable part about being a craft brewer would be doing these different brews?

Don't we have enough companies that are all about shoving out mass produced beer?

If it was all about footprint (money), shelf space (money), and promotion (money) then they'd sell off to AB Inbev and we'd have Pseudo Sue Lima'rita.

I'm not saying I would not enjoy having better (more consistent) access to their products (and I only live 2hrs away), but if the only thing they had coming out was Sue my interest would wain at some point.

 

All-

We're veering of topic here...it's not the thread for a discussion of TG's business plan, future direction or how it may (or may not) relate to other breweries.

Let's get back to a specific discussion of KBBS.

 

Who do you think are TG's top customers?

I spend a lot of time in Decorah because I have family there. I would guess that most of these beers went to TG's top customers. I'd also guess that most of TG's top customers are not on this site.

 

Anyone care to weigh in on batch 1 vs pvw kbbs value and taste? What barrels were used for batch one?

 

Templeton Rye for batch 1. I haven't had batch 2 yet. I might be trying it today. Batch 1 was 3 hundred bottles and released over a year ago so I would assume it's trade value is very high because there are not many left.

 

I drank my KBBS last night and I must say its the best beer Ive ever had, I haven't had a huge amount of whales but this was top notch and I feel it's going to be tough to top for me personally. Being someone fairly new to the whale scene I was tempted to bite on some of the more outrageous offers I saw, but in the end TG is my favorite brewery and I drink a lot of there's stuff so getting their rarest beer out of sheer luck was a sign to drink it and I'm glad I did.

I'm going to out of the box with question, I got this idea when I saw someone offering a case of BB CW reserve stout for KBBS. What amount of Busch Light would it take for you to give up your KBBS if you had one? I sat down and tried to figure it out. The avg. 30 rack runs about 14.99 I think? If I had all that Busch light I'd have to resell on the down low for below cost so let's say 12$ a case. I've seen people selling KBBS for 400$. 400/12 = 33.3 , 30 packs(we'll round up to 34). Plus it doesn't include the hassle and sentimental value I had for the bottle, I value my time so I don't want to spend it all selling Busch Light, plus the risk of illegally selling beer... I'll say 300$. 300/12 = 25 cases. Throw in a case to cover the shipping and maybe extra cases 4 just because TG is my favorite brewery. And it looks like the total come out to 64 cases of Busch Light for a single KBBS.

So the moral of the story is you can try shoving Dark Lord and rare sours down my throat but if I would have seen a simple "ISO: KBBS FT: Busch Light 1:1920" I might have bit.

 

I see a ton of KBBS iso's, few if any FTs. So I'd believe the guys who have them mostly don't trade and or just drink them.