Weasel Rodeo $$$$$$

I prefer the original...but still enjoyed the farmhouse version. It's a smidge thinner, drier. Hard for the yeast to compete with the roast.

 

It's been working out pretty well for Jolly Pumpkin and Russian River. Wild/farmhouse ales aren't a fad. They're just not for everyone.

 

As far as pricing goes I've been thinking about it and I'd like to see something like this (I'm sure someone will correct my math if it is wrong)

LPP - currently ~$20 an equivalent 6 pack ($.28/oz) - brought down ~$14 ($.25/oz)
BM - currently ~$31 an equivalent 6 pack ($.44/oz) - brought down ~$22 ($.30/oz)
Limited releases - no change needed

I'm not expecting these prices soon, but my hope is that as they continue to grow in popularity they can leverage things like direct distribution (fingers crossed) and expanded capacity to cut the costs a bit on their staples. I think the price points I've suggested would turn drinking a JK bottle from a weekly/bi-weekly 'treat' to a 'daily drinker'.

Then again they could go another way and leverage their growth to have more year round offerings at the same price.

A good question to ask is if you would prefer prices to remain the same but access increased or continued limited access but slightly better pricing. Honestly I'd be happy with either result.

 

Weyermann Organic Pilsner Malt, our base malt for Le Petit Prince, Noble King, and Mad Meg, actually costs $1.17/lb, and some of the specialty malts that we use cost even more. Organic Caramunich, for example, is $1.43/lb. The recipe for this beer also calls for approximately 1.5lb per barrel of European noble hops, which, as I'm sure most of you know, are not cheap. The hops required for a batch of Le Petit Prince actually cost more than twice as much as the those required for the same size batch of Wytchmaker.

The biggest cost factors for all of our beers, however, are time and labor. We're very limited in what we can produce, and as a result, we need to charge a little more for what we're able to make in order to sustain our business. Our non-wild beers typically spend anywhere from 3-6 weeks in tank, followed by another 3-6 weeks bottle/keg/cask-conditioning. A brewery making less highly attenuated beers with a quicker fermenting yeast, and force carbonating could conceivably produce in about a week what it takes us anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks to make. Whether you feel that the results of this extra time warrant the extra cost is a decision that only you can make.

Le Petit Prince is actually far and away our least profitable beer, but even if we more or less break even on it in the end, we'll keep brewing it for our own consumption and sell what we're able to sell. We tried to be as aggressive as we reasonably could with the pricing, taking into account that it is meant to be a session beer, and not wanting the bottle price to stand in the way of that. We targeted a $5.99 retail, but taking the realities of the market into account, that target isn't always possible to hit. Maybe it will become more possible with time.

In order for a brewery our size to sell its beer at more "competitive" prices, it seems to me that they would either need to plan on growing significantly so as to achieve the economy of scale necessary to make such pricing viable, or they would need to use far less expensive ingredients and processes than we do. We've already said that we're not willing to compromise on our ingredients and processes. We're also not trying to become the next large regional producer. We're a small artisan brewery, making the beers we want to make, the way we want to make them, and though we are growing and hope to keep growing to the extent that we can do so organically, we're not striving to be anything other than that. Not everyone is going to like what we do, and that's OK. There's plenty of other beer out there for those who don't care for ours.

Cheers,
Ron Extract
Jester King

 

Sour BM is the best JK I've had, and that was the one that I had the lowest hopes for. It placed my foot in my mouth for me...

 

Beer Geek Rodeo was pretty awesome ... But to have it again I think I'd top out near $15-$20.

 

Yeah, I paid 14,99 for mine. I don't think I'd pay more than that. If I were an out of towner, maybe 19,99. Anymore than that is too much.

 

sours/wild/farmhouse a fad. THIS is the most hilarious thing i have ever heard. hmm guess the Belgium folks have been riding that wave for ehhh centuries!!
BTW people sours dont just happen over night. it takes time. a long ass time. a regular ale takes a few weeks to come to a finished product. lagers they take longer almost 2 months, but sours. sheesh they can take years. This is why your beers like cantillon and such are usually a couple years old before they reach your lips. Hence the reason sours are typically waaaay more than you ave ale. im not a commercial brewer and have never brewed commercially, but just in the homebrew world 18moths fermentation for a sour is not unusual.
On to the pricing for jester king. they are proud of their stuff. this is the first brewery I have been to (ive been too quite alot all over the states thx to business traveling) that actually charges $10 for a pint glass.
I too loved the original Black metal and the wytchmaker. I no longer drink them due to the newer version's yeast.
As a previous thread I posted prices can vary big time depending on the retailers.
the non soured beers do bring a premium. I can get a growler of jester king beer cheaper than I can a 750ml.
So for the sours I can see a higher price point than other styles of beer based on time and labor and storage.
As for the other styles I cant justify it. just my 2 cents.

 

Anyone know if Weasel or Beer Geek Rodeo is still available in the Dallas Area? I will be heading there in the next couple days.

 

Wondering the same thing myself. Did Weasel Rodeo ever come out??? I hope I didn't miss it. There was something on the Jester King website but it looks like it was removed or I just cannot locate it.

 

Actually, directly from the brewery, sours in Belgium are very cheap. Not sure how they make it work really.
You can pick up a 75cl cantillon for about 5 bucks .
They just get expensive in America because of shipping , supply / demand I guess.

Also once you have been doing sours for a while the investment goes down possibly. Because you have a full pipeline of aging sours in barrels so it doesn't matter so much that they take a long time, you can still bottle a new batch every week from the pipeline.

 

Some kegs came out last week, but no bottles yet. I asked Ron on Saturday and he said they are still waiting on label approval. I forget whether he said end of the month or about a month (too much Weasel Rodeo and Stone beers at Petrol that day). But in short, it hasn't come out yet and sounds like it is atleast 2 weeks away.

 

Thanks DonD !