Prairie Bomb! Pricing

$9.50 or $8 for the new batch depending on the store, in the city I live in. Was $6 or $7 for the blue wax batch, is pretty obvious the hype is going to Prairie's head/price point. It is on par with Abraxas ($21 per 750) though and they just don't have much competition considering Mexican Cake and Huna see very little distro (those might even be brewery-only?). I'm sure it's an expensive beer to make, but I'd assume their profit margin is quite high also (proof being they've raised the price at least $2 across the board, can't imagine that's all the distributors doing, hope not at least, the douchey middle man shouldn't be the ones making bank on someone else's product).

 

I've seen it in OKC for anywhere from 5.99 - 6.99, in DFW most places are 7.99 - 9.99 depending on the store.

 

Will I have a shot at getting any when I make the move from Chicago to AZ? Drive through stl, Tulsa, Amarillo. I'm hopeful..

 

I've paid $7.49 each time it's been available. Worth every penny by my estimation. Didn't feel like the extra $2.50 I paid for Bible Belt was worth it though.

 

Bomb! is a good beer and unique. It's worth 6.99 for sure. If you're in a place that it's harder to find, then it's worth a couple bucks more probably. Just the nature of it. Doesn't mean Chase is trying to price gouge people. The retailers get the greed on too.

 

The trades I've made for Bomb! were at $7.99 a bottle.

 

I found Bible Belt in Louisville, KY for about 6-7 dollars/bottle.

 

I haven't seen any Prairie Bomb at Kahn's. I bought some Prairie Ale and Puncheon there last week. I also haven't seen any at Vine and Table. I bought 'Merica there a couple weeks back

 

There's a (somewhat infamous) store in Austin that routinely gouges for anything remotely limited. When Chase found out they were doing this with some of the Noir variants, this was his response: http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...illa-noir-in-texas.137315/page-7#post-2044012

 

Kahns has gotten Bomb three times. I post on Facebook and twitter every time that we get new Prairie (and other new releases too of course).

 

How can I follow you on Facebook? I'm not doubting just hadn't seen it! Looking forward to finding it! Cheers!

 

https://m.facebook.com/KahnsFineWines

 

Sorry I didn't realize you were from Kahn's! Good to know!

 

Had on tap yesterday. Huge letdown but that's just me. Can't see this being worth more than $5.99 per 12oz bottle.

 

What is wrong with these liquor stores?!?! I run a liquor store in OKC. We make money with our NORMAL mark up selling them at $6.05 a pop. Gougers need to get out of the business.

 

I'm pretty sure I've seen it for anywhere between $6-9 here in Kansas City.

And while I'd be hard pressed to pay $12 for a bottle of the stuff, I think @MarkyMOD touched on an important point here. How many 14% ABV imperial stouts infused with coffee, chocolate and vanilla are just out there on shelves for the taking? The most common analogs to Bomb! are the already-mentioned Abraxas, Hunahpu's, Mexican Cake, etc, and none of those are barrel-aged, nor are they cheap or easy to find.

I will say this--of those three, I've only had Abraxas to be able to compare to Bomb!--and for me Abraxas is better and more worth the hunt/price because of the cinnamon (so I can only assume the same for Huna and Cake). But the simple truth is that it's easier for me to get hands on Bomb! than Abraxas, and WAY easier to get hands on Bomb! than Huna or Cake, seeing as how I've never had either (someday...).

 

Why do you leave retailers out of the possible suspects for ridiculous prices? If it was Prairie raising the price so much, the price difference wouldn't be so great from place to place.

Hate to break the news to you, but online fever about a beer lets a lot of otherwise clueless retailers know that IT'S RAPIN' TIME!

 

God bless you - wish there were more places that understood the long term benefits of reasonable pricing.

 

$7. retail. $12. - $15. at the bar in SD.

 

If you assume it's the retailers, then you'd have to assume they're colluding, since the prices in one area seem to be the same at most stores. Far from impossible, there's even the evidence that it happened in my city, since two stores charged $8 and two stores charged $9.50 (same distributor). Hope I didn't come off as implying all distributors are douchey/value profit over the customer and the beer. While that seems to be the majority of distributors, it doesn't really apply to BOMB in my area. Crooked Stave Artisans handles Prairie here and they are beyond amazing, I have nothing but great things to say about them. Makes sense, considering they're a craft brewery, but it doesn't change them being awesome in the slightest.
I would be very wary to not put a good amount of blame on distributors in other areas though. It seems the evidence is there when all stores in an area (possibly colluding again, but somewhat unlikely that there's not even one store who doesn't want to screw the customer or try to undercut the competition) charge ~$9 or higher. Maybe this isn't the case here, but past examples I've heard of suggests the brewery charges one price for the beer and that doesn't change with the region. Have even heard Prairie say this before, not sure if it was about BOMB though.
Whether it's distributors, retailers or both significantly jacking up prices doesn't really matter, the middle man is getting a good-sized cut of a pie they had no hand in creating. I realize distributors and retailers are critical to delivering beer into your hands, but that doesn't mean they should be responsible for a ~100% increase in the product's price. Would be great to see profit margins on these beers from all the entities (brewery, distributor, retailer). That would obviously clear up a lot of questions. Unfortunately, transparency isn't common though. Why would the public value honesty and being up-front? We're only the people that keep these companies in business after all.

Edit: Didn't really address this point: I'd imagine Prairie raised prices too, not just the middle men. I'm not always right though.