Poor business practices

the irony of selling rare beer at huge markups is

1) rare beer hunters see what you're doing, and now they fucking hate you.

2) normal ass beer fans (AKA the majority of your customer base) don't give a shit about rare beer, and aren't going to buy the $40 bottle of shit they've never heard of.

 

I've never been in a beer store that didn't have some out of date beer on the shelf. Even nice places that you would expect to do better.

I think that it's a law in Massachusetts that you have to have a dusty four pack of double jack from the beginning of time on your shelves at all times

 

In short, yes. And rareness prices have spiked as unicorns got into the rareness crops and ruined the yields.

 

Is there no ROFL smiley on BA?

 

#2 for all the freshness ****s out there on BA (myself included) the general buying public are either mostly ignorant or simply don't care. I've taken beer off the shelf that's past it's best by date only to have customers ask if we still have said beer, me telling them it's expired, and them telling me that they don't care they will buy it anyway.

 

Talk about a stretch in interpretation but if you say so, then it is so.

 

On point #3, I completely understand a store's pain in having to 'eat' the cost of past dated beers. I have no problem with a business trying to sell these, as long as they clearly identify them. For example, have a "past their prime" shelf with a clear disclaimer that the beers are past their date. Sell them at a sizeable discount to recoup some of the cost. There are plenty of folks willing to take a risk on a slightly dated beer as long as the price is right, and they know what they are getting into.

This is no different than the 'day old' section that many bakeries have.

 

Same here. I would welcome this actually, as I have personally never seen old beer sold any other way than on the shelf at full price.

 

I posted this on another forum but it kills me when I get to the checkout and the cashier asks if I've had (limited release) and when I respond no they say, oh... me either but I was only able to get *insert a number above the limit.

 

Great post OP. The only thing I would say is that perhaps you may want to reconsider your stance on discounting old beer. I mean, as long as we're talking old within reason (anywhere under 6 or 7 months from bottling seems okay), I think there are a lot of customers who would appreciate the honesty, as well as there being customers who understand that not all beers become undrinkable with age--they just change.

Example: my local shop dropped the price of Founders Reds Rye to $9 a 4-pack (down from $12.50, I believe) once March came around, because even though Founders doesn't use "best by" dates, March was three months out from the bottling date. I happily snagged a box because even though Reds Rye isn't the Amarillo crack after three months that it is when fresh, it's still a really good beer, maybe just not quite $12.50/4-pack good. But it's certainly worth $9 after a few months.

 

Disagree. Having dusty old IPA's on the shelf for full price can damage credibility. Putting old beer on sale sends the message that you are a responsible business owner who pays attention to sell-by dates, and it makes me more likely to spend time and see what else you have on the shelf. Plus, plenty of shelf aged beer (not IPA) is still perfectly good and I always like to stop in to stores like this to see if they have any deals this week.

 

I do agree with this. I don't think your store loses credibility if you have a past it's prime section or clearly state these are discounted IPAs because they are X minutes old. (or days or months if you aren't that particular about your IPAs) I think it actually gives your store more respect that you clearly marked these and you are letting the customers decide to take a chance at a really good price instead of selling them unmarked. Ideally it would be nice for a store to never have old stock, but the market is flooded and I see no problem with a store that discounts old stock.

 

#3 is rampant around here in the MKE area, evidenced by all that crap NG Spiced Ale still on the shelves. NG should do a solid and take that awful stuff back! I also see a ton of > 6 mos old IPA's on the shelves which shouldn't be acceptable.

 

Absolutely and I made my comments fully aware of their additional brewery.

 

economics my friend, economics

 

Economics? Like give people what they want and they give you money?

 

Rare and limited beer is often rare and limited for good reasons. The big name, tasty hops that make up some of our favorite IPAs are really expensive, and sometimes hard to get, due to the high demand for them. The barrels that house some of our favorite barrel-aged beers are also quite expensive, and often limited as well, and take up a lot of space that a brewery doesn't always have. It also takes a lot of time, obviously, to make a big barrel-aged beer, so a yearly release is sometimes all the brewery can really do.

Goose Island could certainly make Bourbon County a year round brand, but they'd probably have to sacrifice quality to do that. They'd have to settle with with buying lower-quality, cheaper bourbon barrels, and it wouldn't taste as good. The Alchemist could quadruple their output of Heady Topper, but to do that, they'd probably have to buy hops that are of lesser quality and easier to get in large amounts, and the beer would suffer.

These are only two really well-known examples, but you get my point.

I'd prefer a smaller amount of world-class beer, made the way it should, rather than a glut of lower quality beer, personally.

 

There is a nice discussion of production considerations by the brewer in the La Cumbra Wins thread. He also talks of styles that they make, pretty traditional ones.

 

IMHO I don't own a store and I sympathize with those that do because many beer nerds can be whiny. But for me it's a simple solution. First come first serve. If people don't make it in time-sorry but better luck next time. I don't have a problem with a store owner keeping some aside for top customers-I would do the same. But for the remainder-just let it be a free for all and move on. I don't even care if you charge $1 or 2 more than the guy down the street. If it's first come first serve then i'll pay for that convenience.

I have made a switch to only shopping at stores that do it this way...or I just drive to the brewery to get it myself (case in point KBS and Black Note) and there isn't much I have missed out on in the last 8 months. Also, many grocery/specialty type markets are a great place to get what you need. This is why I shop so much at Holiday market because @Holiday1072 is consistent on posting announcements and allocations. Everyone who shops there knows this is how they do it and so no one better complain if they miss out (though I am sure Ash has his fair share of stories of people whining anyways lol).

It's a 5 hour drive round trip but I was able to buy a case of BN (my fav beer by the way) and not hassle with 1pp allocations, jacked up pricing, having to buy $x worth of whatever beer they ordered too much of or not being sold the beer because "im not a regular" etc etc etc. I plan on driving to Chicago for the BCBS release. Considering how bad allocations were last year here in this market and the expected limited bottle counts of those who will have it....it is worth it to me.

 

But you are doing the right thing by removing it from the shelf when it gets old.
If someone wants to buy it knowing that it is old, you both win.