Troegs barrel aged troegenator

I have a bunch of last year's BA Flying Mouflan and BA Troegenator. Was really surprised to see the price increase. No idea why as it wasn't flying off the shelves last year.

 

That seemed to be the case. Maybe also a shorter length of time in the barrels?

The 2015 batch labels said "Ale aged in bourbon barrels", was 13.4% abv and was $12 a bottle, no 4-pack or case discounts.

The 2016 batch labels said "Oak barrel aged" , was 11.7% abv and was cheaper.

 

At this price I might buy a single, but like others they make at this price I won't buy more than one.

 

@jmdrpi Barrels are very pricey, as is time and labor. Ultimately we want to sell barrel-aged beers (bourbon or otherwise) into our markets as well as at the brewery, so this price reflects suggested retail price. At some point there might be a second tier for barrel aged pricing, but for the beers we are intending to put in the market this year, this is the pricing. Also, there won't be four packs in the retail channels outside our brewery - just single bottles and 12 pack cases.

 

Anyone get this? Try it? What did you think?

 

Thanks for the feedback. I understand barrel aging is expensive, I was just surprised to see the pricing since last year's batch was priced much more aggressively. Makes sense if you don't want to undercut retailers, but I would guess it's going to greatly reduce the number of people willing to buy 4 or 12 packs instead of just one bottle.

I will say that this is one of the new labels that I think is an improvement!

 

@jmdrpi No problem. Pricing for brewery release only is more like fantasy land - someone throws out a number, everyone says "sounds good," and away you go. Increasing amount of beer produced to serve outside markets means a hard look at all production costs, a hard look at how much is produced, a hard look at market interest, a hard look at like-brands in the market, a hard discussion with wholesaler partners, and a hard look at our portfolio pricing strategy. This one got dinged a little, but others will feel very appealing.

 

I'm just glad I have a bunch of last year's stashed in my cellar. Might pick up a bottle or two but not more than that at the current price point.

 

While I can appreciate how difficult it must be to calculate prices for barrel aged products in particular, I think Troegs has left out an intangible part of the calculation. Customer perception. Wild price swings between the original BA Mouflan release, the last BA Troegenator release, and the current BA Troegenator release look absolutely incoherent to this consumer. This has had a significant negative impact on my perception of the Troegs brand. They used to be one of my favorite breweries. I certainly haven't written them off altogether, but they get a significantly smaller percentage of beer money. The good feeling I used to have supporting a local brewery that "gets it" is gone.

I appreciate that for the beers mentioned above Troegs used first use barrels which helped make them absolutely upper echelon BA beers. Not all breweries choose to do this and the difference is easy to taste. However, I have a cellar full of Sunday Morning Stout, Insanity, Backwoods Bastard, and Boulevard BBQ that all cost between a quarter and a third as much and are damn good beers. These folks will continue to get the bulk of my beer money.

 

I am looking forward to trying it and there have been some great reviews from people in central PA. There aren't many BBA Doppelbocks out there let alone a great one like Troegenator.

 

You are in for a treat, it's an awesome beer. One of the great reviews is mine from when they released it as a scratch beer on draft. I gave it a 4.47. I also really enjoyed the $18 4-packs from the last release.

 

I was at DFH in Milton this past weekend and did the brewery tour. Our guide was showing us the huge wooden tanks they use to oak age their Burton Baton and PSM saying they were the only brewers to have such large tanks with the exception now of Troegs who just installed one.

Point being was he expected Troegs to have an oak aged beer in their year round lineup sometime soon....could it be Oaked Troegenator?