Why is this beer so expensive?

I have no business connections with the beer industry but some of this makes me think that price inflation with materials and commodities could price some of these beers out of viability for either the producer or consumer.

 

I think the reason you see strong opinions about this is that consumers see a wide range in the price tags for similar styles/quality of beers (not just barrel-aged ones). So the simplest explanation is that supply/demand economics are at least a factor, and not just pure production/distribution costs are being factored into retail pricing.

 

You find it ironic for two reasons.

One is a misunderstanding of the word ironic (which in and of itself only barely qualifies for irony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony ). Don't worry, very very few people who use the word do so with the understanding of its proper usage.

The other is that in my wine comment, I was commenting not that barrel aging beer is more expensive than winemaking...which in some cases it is, and some cases it's not, depending on the wine and the beer...but that consumers largely have greater tolerance for wine prices. Thus, a given bottle of wine that has the same identical Cost of Goods (COGS) as a bottle of barrel aged beer can generally command a higher price than that bottle of beer. Which also doesn't qualify as irony. [Insert more non-ironic smiley faces here.]

 

That is kind of what I was getting at. I am involved (friend of owner, volunteer, sounding board) with two breweries. I guess by luck they both have more space than they need right now. Future plans if all goes well will be to fill all available space with tanks. The best time frame is 3 to 5 yrs. Both have decided to use some of their excess space ( I know sounds foreign to you) with barrel racks and a few barrels. The rational is that they can make some money now and the demand for a couple thousand bottles is easier to sell than the increase in demand they need to use the space for a 60 barrel tank. Their big complaint is finding barrels. Like you said if the demand were there a tank is much more profitable.

 

The question you should be asking is: Why is this beer so cheap?

And you should be asking that about the regular version.

 

I'd buy that.

 

how can I get an essentially free 2nd use barrel? nice post also

 

Buy the first one at full price and age beer in it. When you re-use that barrel its a 2nd use barrel and you don't have to pay anything for it...

(Of course your accountant might not like that logic and want to do the books in a different way... )

 

seeing as how at most I could brew 5 gallon batches it may not be practical to brew 10 or so batches to fill it but God would I love it. I have seen new baby barrels for aging spirits at home. may try that first, could be interesting age a good bourbon for a few months then age a beer and just alternate between uses.

 

According to some of the homebrewers you can buy pre charred oak chips, soak them in Bourbon for a while and then use those with comparable effects. Could probably treat them as 2nd use chips the next time you use them.

 

My preferred method to obtain bourbon barrel type flavors in my homebrew is via oak cubes soaked in bourbon. If you really need to go the bourbon barrel aging way there are used 5 gallon barrels available for you to purchase: http://www.homebrewing.com/equipment/whiskey-barrel.php

http://www.homebrewing.org/Used-5-gallon-whiskey-barrel_p_2187.html

Cheers!

 

Most beer labeled as Bourbon barrel aged is barreled in freshly emptied Kentucky bourbon barrels (the vast majority of bourbon is still made in Kentucky).

Bourbon distilleries sell their used barrels to brokers in large batches generally, and those brokers sell them to other distillers (Scotch, rum, tequila, etc) or brewers. They get large deliveries from the bourbon distillers and then sort them out by quality and sell at different prices, they usually dont have someone laboriously searching through barrels at the distilleries picking out only the best. They don't sell barrels that have already been used for beer either.

The idea that the barrels used for this beer are different than others or somehow special is just a bit of marketing and the fact that they told you a bit more about the barrel makeup on the label than most other breweries do. In fact, this beer is made up of barrels that had not previously held any other liquid, barrels which had recently held bourbon, and barrels that had recently held beer, but had held bourbon before that.

 

Holy crap 140 and 160 for a 5 gallon barrel. Since they are out I assume someone is buying them.

 

And it's only 500ml...

 

Only but the 'best' for some homebrewers.

I will continue to brew using the bourbon soaked oak cube method myself.

Cheers!

 

I have used the chips with good results. Might have to go with the cubes as the chips were a pain in the ass at bottling. A fellow home brewer managed to get a stave from a barrel and put that in his keg. It was one of the best barrel aged beers I have ever had.

 

That is the price around here too for Tuthilltown barrels. And yeah they go pretty quickly, sometimes you have to be on a waiting list.

 

1) According to a several different brewers they often use 2nd-use barrels (still bourbon barrels) and then do something like blend the output from the two kinds of barrels. Not all beer is aged in 1st use bourbon barrels. It depends on the beer and brewery. Yes the majority of Bourbon is made in Kentucky, and I did not say otherwise.

2) You may have been mislead by the wording of my comment and I can see how. At least some brokers acutally do a quality check on barrels and do not sell to other distillers or brewers any barrels that are no longer suitable for re-use (some are not when the come from the distillery). I hadn't intended saying brokers sold barrels that have been used for beer and can see how the way I worded my statement created that impression. Apologies for misleading statement. My intent was to focus on the labor costs at the brewery involved in keeping track of the barrel usage, etc.

3) Stone, as do other brewers, make use of 2nd use barrels with some of their barrel aged beers. But when they say that the barrels are all first use for this particular beer that may be partially marketing but is also a cost factor in the production of the beer.

4) "In fact, this beer is made up of barrels that had not previously held any other liquid, barrels which had recently held bourbon, and barrels that had recently held beer, but had held bourbon before that."

So you are saying they used a mixture of virgin barrels, 1st use barrels, and 2nd use barrels and blended the beer from those barrels. If true that could make the beer even more expensive since virgin barrels cost more than 1st use barrels. But notice that you are also accusing Stone of lying or putting misleading information on their labels.

Have you any proof of that statement beyond your simple assertion that it is the case?

 

My local homebrew shop has group barrel brews were everyone brews the same 5 gallon recipe, they fill up barrel(s) and then you get your share of the finished beer.

 

I'm not accusing Stone of lying at all. The different types of barrels used is listed on the back label. I was just saying that it seemed from your post that you thought that they were doing something different from the standard practice of other brewers (the addition of a small amount of new oak barrels is not standard, but not what you were talking about).