Is all dogfish head beer expensive?

BeachedBumm said:

Yeesh you want to talk about to expensive and overrated look at how Russian river is selling pliny the younger. I've never had it and probably wont for all those shenanigans but geez give me a break.

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Every brewery that does an annual super-special batch of beer charges a premium and has ridiculous distribution policies for it. Look at Three Floyds Dark Lord, Bruery Black Tuesday, etc. I suppose the exception might be Stone with the Vertical Epic and Anniversary ales, although they are still higher priced at least they're not impossible to get without lining up on release day. And maybe the Bigfoot release.

DFH has a good beer and priced based on demand - people pay the premium price because they like the beer. It must be good enough that they recently expanded their brewery operations exponentially.

Again...I highlight this beer. $105 for one 12oz bottle. Is that expensive? Let's say you make a widget (pick one) that thousands of people want - but you only have the capacity to make 100 of them - don't you think that price would be a factor? This is one great example...

Airborneguy said:

Plus, even their staples are inconsistent to me. But, that said, tons of people like them, so they aren't going anywhere.

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I do agree about the staples. I bought a case of their Punkin Ale this year and I really did not like it compared to prior years. And everyone I asked who had tried it (without asking a leading question or telling them my opinion first) said something was different with this year's and they didn't enjoy it either.

With terrible PA beer laws (supermarkets can't sell beer, beer distributors can only sell it by the case, etc.), I ended up spending $50 for a case of beer I didn't enjoy.

That said, I do enjoy some of the other DFH offerings: 60, 90, Midas Touch, Raison, etc.

You have to consider that the grain bill is massive for the comparitive ABV so its not that they charge you for the alcohol, they charge for the raw materials, makes perfect sense.

Also, they ferment 120 for 3 months, normally a beer is less than 3 weeks so every 3 weeks they ferment 120 to that massive 18% abv they miss out on fermenting another beer, so you end up having to pay for that as well.

Im sure they could pump out 7 batches of 4% beer in the same amount of time and make the same amount of cash, what do you prefer?

DFH is definitely overpriced but it also depends on the location. I just started going to a new beer store and Midas Touch there is $3.50 for 12 oz, my coworker seen it as high as $6 in other stores. 750ml DFH that I sometimes buy can be $12.99 (Bitches Brew @ Whole Foods, $9.99 at my new spot), $15.99 (Fort), $11.99 / $12.99 (Sahtea, Theobrama, Red & White @ Whole Foods).

I got to drink plenty of it on the cheap, but I lived in Delaware for five years. Now that I've moved to SF, I'm surprised how expensive it is elsewhere.

It's just under $10 on the base class 6 at Dyess AFB.