Pricing vs Availability

This may not be a ground-breaking topic, but I've never seen a thread dedicated to it.

A large chunk of posts in the BA forums, are of the missed opportunity variety. You see post after post after post, and countless threads, of people complaining about missing out on buying a beer because it sold out. There are an infinite number of reasons (truck chasers, no limits, line-jumpers, lists, not knowing the beer guy), but it all boils down to the store/brewery not having any left when the person in question tried to buy it.

So with that said, to me (and from my experience, to several others on here as well), it seems like a no-brainer for breweries to raise prices on special/limited/one-off beers to a level where (I hate to say it) supply comes closer to meeting demand.

This already happens anyway. The problem is that it is inconsistent, and the people benefitting are not the breweries - instead it's craft(y) store owners and individuals selling on sites such as * etc. And these beers sell, so the demand is clearly out there. Would you not want your favourite local brewery benefitting from the extra $ instead?

I understand breweries wanting to keep beer accessible, and "for the people". But a brandy barrel-aged stout brewed with cinnamon, cocoa nibs and rosemary, served at 55F in a snifter, is not the working-class ideal people paint beer to be, no matter what way you spin it. I also understand that these limited beers serve as a marketing tool for a brewery's year-round offerings, so jacking the price on a limited release could alienate some of their customer base. But surely there has to be a happy medium. The brewery could publicly donate some/all of the extra $ to charity if they're too concerned about a profit-driven image.

And to be clear, I am absolutely not suggesting prices go up across the board. A beer such as SNPA should remain unchanged. I'm referring to beers that have expensive ingredients, take up space at the brewery, or in any way are an extra expense for the brewery.

The only grey area for me would be for beers like Hopslam. Beers that are insanely sought after, but don't involve much in the way of extra cost to produce for the brewery. You wouldn't want to run the risk of these sitting on shelves for any extended period of time. I suppose for hoppy beers such as these, an idea would be to go the PtY route - DONG.

My question: if you disagree with price increases on limited-release beers, other than the fact that you personally may be getting less beer (2 x KBS rather than 6 x KBS), why?

And if there are brewers out there, I'd be especially interested to hear your thoughts.

 

Not trying to suggest elitism or any sort of cash-flashing mentality is a good thing. Simply saying that if demand for a beer warrants it, perhaps it should be sold for $50 rather than $15. Yes that's going to be a harder decision for someone with a $50 per month beer budget vs someone who has $250 per month to spend, but you can't have everything. Sometimes you have to make choices. It's only beer that seems to me to not work this way, where everyone seems to feel they should be allowed to buy as much of everything as they want.

And if they aren't able to buy something, it's not because it was priced too cheaply, but rather it's the brewery/distributor/store's fault because the beer is not being distributed and sold in the optimal way for the person in question to get their hands on it.

 

I wouldn't totally agree, but I get what you mean in a sense.

But who's fault is that? It's beer geeks like us. We're the ones pushing for sours, barrel aged beers, saisons brewed with XYZ. And we want them served in the correct glassware, at the correct temperature, by people who are knowledgeable about the product. We're the ones to blame.

 

I hear you man. I'm from the UK and I'm a big fan of well done, simple styles. And same goes for Germany. But you cannot place the blame squarely on the brewers over here. If people didn't want it, they wouldn't continue to make it. And if they did they wouldn't last long.

 

Fair enough. But regardless of what came first, people want those styles now