Singlecut Beersmiths, Astoria, NY

Haven't had the newest Jenny Said batch, and probably won't given that I've had it multiple times and the rather high price point (that's not to say I won't get cans in the future), but Jenny Said is definitely one of their best beers. Probably top three for me.

 

thought the new batch of Jenny Said was fine, but wasn't really bright enough for me personally. more malt presence than I prefer compared to similar others in the style. wouldn't get it again at that price point.

 

This is what the beer used to look like. There may have been some mango juice, but it recall it being a dank, earthy, onion bomb.

 

Finally bit the bullet and picked up some DDH Is this the real life. It's a great beer but it's certainly very far from being worth $24 a 4-pack plus tax! I mean this is the most expensive 4-pack I have bought in years! But after trying the beer I honestly wish I would have spent my money else were because while it's def good beer, it's just not "That" good in my opinion.

BUT on a lighter note, I am pretty glad to have been able to try this beer out here in NJ without making a trip out to NY, and under a month old at that. 10/10/17 canned on date.

 

I picked up a 4pk of this as well. Haven't tried it yet but the same as you...a lot of money for 4 beers. I really enjoyed Weird and Gilly so I was fine shelling out the $ and with the store in such convenient location I wasn't going to pass it up. Side note, they (Hudson Wines in Secaucus) still had a bunch of 18 Watt 4pks left.

 

Weird and Gilly was actually the first SingleCut beer I got in a trade a while back and I loved it! So naturally I was excited to see this on the self today. And despite the steep price point I deiced to commit. It just didn't deliver on what I imaged it would be like at almost $30 a 4-pack with tax would taste like. Still super solid beer, just doesnt justify the price.

 

I won't do it. I just saw Jenny Says and Punk With a Stutter at my local and didn't even bat an eyelash at it. What am I gonna spend $50 on 8 pints? I got a 4 of Founders Harvest and a 4 of the new Moustache instead and paid almost $20 cheaper.

 

Hate to say this but you were better off

 

$8 a can for Punk at my local shop, this is ridiculous.

 

I'm in the camp too of not buying their cans for the price. I saw DDH Jenny Said around here and for the price, went with Industrial Arts Wrench instead. Man, I can drink Wrench all the time!

I'll mostly stick to a bottle here and there from Singlecut every now and then. Mainly, HBOL when it comes around again.

 

I was looking for Industrial Arts at Hudson Wines as an alternative but there was none, sadly.

 

I know that this thread doesn’t need any more complaints about SC’s pricing but bottles of Dean Amber Ale just hit my area for $8. 16.9 oz bottles of a 6% amber ale for eight dollars a pop. This may be the most egregious pricing I’ve seen from them yet. Laughable

 

Absolutely agree--that price point is prohibitive at best and exploitative at worst. That said, I presume you are buying from a retailer (not straight from the source)? If so, the price is determined by the POS (i.e., store from which you purchase), not the brewery itself. While Singlecut deserves the full brunt of the blame for egregious pricing of direct can/bottle sales, I don't know if I'd fault them entirely for the cost of their distributed product without knowing the $/unit at which they're selling to the third-party retailer. Would love some more insight into this--don't necessarily expect to get it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

 

Great point...in many cases, breweries offer fair pricing and retailers take advantage due to certain circumstances (Grimm comes to mind). However, Dean bottles are only one dollar cheaper ($7) at the brewery. If this beer was in four packs of 16 oz cans it would cost around $26.50 retail at the brewery. No matter how you slice it this pricing is simply unacceptable.

 

Anyone know if they have any awareness of how their pricing is affecting sales?

I like several beers in their lineup, want to try others that they are putting out, but like others I pass them up every time due to price.

 

Dean was my favorite ale at SingleCut way back when they were mostly a lager brewery. It was $15 a growler fill but there were a couple of batches that fluctuated too much for me.
I really liked that beer, I never had such a hoppy amber from the east coast before so I emailed asking what hops were used - just because I was curious. I received a tense email refusing to discuss the 6 different hops used because of trade secrets. Around that time I started to be turned off by SingleCut and this was way before bottle prices.

 

I've heard others say, in this forum, they want their employees to be fairly compensated which is fair. I just don't get that reasoning because that kinda infers every other brewery in the US must be paying their employees peanuts or something.

 

This is long overdue, but felt like I deserved to give Singlecut a shoutout for some excellent customer service. I had a can of Softly Spoken Magic Spells a few weeks back, and noticed some off-flavors (possibly diacetyl) and mentioned it in an Untappd check in. Dan, their QC guy, responded to my check-in and asked me to reach out to him via email with more info, so I did, explaining why I thought it was diacetyl, etc. He thanked me and asked me for my address, and a few days later a box arrived with a 4-pack of DDH Is This The Real Life and a Singlecut t-shirt. I know a lot of you (myself included) have had some issues with their quality lately, but I thought this was a pretty great gesture from them.

 

here's one data point, I know a while back I commented on the price to the beer buyer at Bread & Honey, and I believe he said they were charging him $96 a case for it... that's like retail / tap room sale price for many other beers out there...