Lagunitas High Westified sightings.

Generally, I tend to agree, but for small and mid/small-sized brewers, those just getting their start with barrel-aging, and those who are more 'at the mercy' of the market than they are (like Lagunitas) forces which define it, I suspect MSRP tends to be reasonable and representative of something that is more than just price gouging.

Barrel procurement (especially now), the time and space such beers require, QC (particularly in this period of not uncommon infections) and all that additional labor, are, in the end, not cheap. It's certainly less understandable when other big craft brewers, like SN, Stone, North Coast, and Deschutes, for example, charge much heftier prices for anything they put in barrels, but for the littler guys, I tend not to bat an eye. With them it seems plausible to me that the price they set is either 'what it took' to make the beer, and/or what they needed to charge to remain solvent and grow in the ways they aspired to. For my part, I almost never find it hard to support that.

In any event, I think Lagunitas, in their pricing scheme, is a unique outlier in the industry. It's almost as if they decided--in some stoner haze that would not be at all out of character for them--that they would never charge more than $11 for a 6-er, no matter what it was. For all we know, they might be losing money or simply breaking even on this beer, just as they may have for Waldo's. But if they are profiteering, it can't be by much. Without more information, I just personally don't see them as an example of the prices that should be set by everyone else. The folks in Petaluma, with or without their new Heineken semi-overlords, are somewhat crazy, and probably representative of nothing rational by conventional standards.

 

I agree wholeheartedly with your here on the disparity. Now I'm happy to forgive the smaller breweries, but even locally I've seen lots of barrel aged bomber sized beers in the $10 range (CDN). The barrels are clearly part of the mark up, but I bet the labour is almost more. Still, I have a hard time forgiving the bigger breweries for slapping a $20 price tag on a barrel aged imperial stout when I see stuff like this from Lagunitas and other local breweries who charge less. Clearly the price of the bottle is part of the allure for some of these bigger BA beers and probably a bit of "worth its while" aspect in there too.

 

Paging @DogTown...care to speak on this? How do you guys do it (charging $10.99 a sixer, when others charge $10-20 for a bomber)? Are you selling sixers of high-westified or Waldo's at a loss?

 

Maybe/Possibly this is the first "good/positive" thing to come from a large merger/buy-out ?? When you have enough capital on hand, the process (labor/space/barrels/etc.) doesnt take anything away from everything else you are doing and thus you dont have to make up for it with a large price tag.

This could be completely false, but it is hard to wrap my mind around the fact they could make a BA stout that tastes this good at 1/5 the price that most other breweries charge

 

Anyone remember how much the bombers were last time this was released? I remember buying some but don't what recall the price was, wanna say they were around $10.

 

They were $10.

 

High West Distillery was bought out by Constellation, the new owners of Ballast Point. Rumor is that all High West barrels will now go to Ballast Point. I think Lagunitas has already switched to Willett. Could the price point of the High Westified 6-packs be a bit of a passive aggressive response to Constellation & BP? I hope I'm wrong, but I wouldn't get your hopes up for a $11 6-pack of Willett BA Stout next year. My guess is they go back to $10 - $12 bombers.

 

I think it would be a stretch to depress the price of Lagunitas beer to send a message to Constellation or BP. I'm cautiously optimistic that the only change next year is the barrels (and the coffee).

Lagunitas released some Willett Stout in draft this year. Hope it's a preview of next year's 6pks. I'm not big on coffee, so losing that is no hardship, and I'm not a bourbon connoisseur but it seems just as good from Willett barrels as it did from High West.

 

Allow me to voice the controversial, dissenting opinion.

I am drinking one of these now. I'd classify it as merely okay. It doesn't blow me away. In fact, I find it to be somewhat forgettable overall. (#shotsfired, I know. Keep in mind that I had a swallow of B-Bomb right before I tried this. Probably not fair.) It is tasty, especially for the price, but IMO it doesn't come close to being anywhere near as good as the other usual BA suspects. Personally, I can see why others are able to command a higher price tag. Even if I could get a sixer of this at $10-12 year-round, I would go out of my way to purchase my other BA favorites. There is still a fair amount of this stuff hanging around Spokane, but I don't think I will be going out of my way to pick up any more of it.

I thought I was going to like it less than I ended up doing, actually, because in general I'm not a big Lagunitas fan. So at least in that way this was a pleasant surprise. Nearly every other beer I've had of theirs to me tastes like I'm drinking pennies. There's a weird metallic thing going on there. Don't know enough about the chemistry of the beer and my own physiological make-up to understand what is up with that -- and yes, I'm willing to admit that "it's (probably) me, not you." One of my brothers doesn't pick up on the metallic aftertaste and is a big fan of the brewery as a whole; the other brother has the exact same problem with them that I've got. At least in this case, if that copper taste is there, it is very subtle, for which I am thankful.

-- Nathan

 

I thought High Westy was long gone, but I noticed Chuck's CD had sixers and singles of it when I stopped in to get some Intergalactic this evening. Wonder if there's a second wave of distro coming.

 

There is a whole bunch at the Lake Grove Zupans as of an hour ago. $11/6-pack. Have plenty but bought more.

 

Only one left in my fridge...

 

I've seen a few cases floating around north Seattle the last few weeks. I will say as someone who typically prefers to separate my high end coffee and beer, this is very good. Not in my top 10, but at this price it's at the top of the BA value picks out there at about 1/4 the price of my favorites. Well done Lagunitas

 

I just spotted some at the Tanasbourne Whole Foods for the familiar price of $9.99 a sixer.

 

For whatever reason this just landed in Boise this week in bottle, kegs were here a month or so ago. Usually we get Lagunitas at the same time as Oregon and Washington. Not sure if this was a late run or just some leftovers that the distributors just got.

Now I am ready for some Waldo's to be bottled too.

 

Okay - I have to say this: This is within the top 5 coffee barrell aged stouts you can find and for less that half the $ per oz. than anything on the market. It is like a mocha shake on steroids. This is my top find in the last 18 months. Excellent work laugunitas!