pFriem bottles

Picked some up at the brewery a couple weeks ago. They're beautiful.

 

Had the current line-up at the brewery on Saturday... The Blonde Flanders was stunning... The Flanders Red was a close second. Really all of their brews were fantastic.

I passed on the bottles because I had spent so much cash the last week... But even the sours were only $11... Not bad at all.

 

I asked Josh Pfriem the same question when I toured the brewery during Zwickelmania. Turns out that all their branding and packaging has been done by Portland-based design firm The Great Society. Beautiful work indeed.

The Great Society - pFriem Family Brewers

 

That's in house, the bottles to go are $2 less.

 

Really excited for the bottle release(s), fantastic to have them (hopefully) readily available.

 

also had the Flanders Blonde this weekend. really loved that beer.

my only issue is that pFriem charges so damn much for growler/growlette fills (especially on anything over 8% ABV) They want $14-$15 for a Growlette of the Belgian Strong Dark!! I got that same beer for $8 for a Growlette at Whole Foods in Portland.

Also they wont fill up with either Flanders which I kind of expected, but really wanted to take some home.

But congrats to pFriem. I remember it was just a few years ago that my wife and I could just drop in there any time on a weekend and sit down. Now that place is seriously jumping, and they deserve it!

 

In that same vein, I saw growler fills (64 oz) of their 10% Belgian imperial stout for $10.99 at 39th st mini mart. I shit you not. Couldn't believe it.

 

I was very impressed with the bottle design when I saw them in PDX last week. Didn't buy any. I'll wait until they get here so I can buy at a discount.

 

Gonna be a bottle release event at the "specialty beer store" here in town next week. They're distro'd through the ABI house up here, so hopefully some will be available at the Food Coop for a few bucks less.

 

I prefer 500ml bottles to bombers, so I'd gladly pay a little extra to get a little less. That makes absolutely no sense, but I'm sticking to it.

 

When I'm drinking by myself, a bomber is a chore, no matter how good the beer is.

 

You know where I live.

 

Their 32oz fills also are more than half the $ for a 64oz fill of the same beer. Don't understand that at all. I asked once and they couldn't provide any justification.

 

Buying in bulk gets you a discount.

 

They are in Trader Joes now..$5.99 for the Belgian style stuff and $3.99 for the Blonde IPA and PIlsner.
Looks like they got some great distribution

 

Not sure this is THE justification but here's one possibility: fill "cost" is a fixed $3 fee since it's pretty much the same "work" to fill a 32 and 64 ... and beer is $1 an oz (totally made up numbers). In this scenario a 32 would cost $35 and a 64 would cost $67. Boom - more than half. That's always where I think the logic comes from - fixed labor, variable product cost.

 

I think that's probably pretty standard. A pint costs less, per oz, over the bar, than a 10oz "schooner". So, it probably has something to with labor time and waste.

 

That's true about "half pints" over the bar. Clearly I'm not a business person. With that said, I'm not sure it's the standard for growers. Many places just charge half, or pro-rate by the ounce for even smaller containers, including spots dedicated to filling growlers.