Costco-Beer.

Saw the pack at Costco today and wondered what it'd be like. In the NW we can also get 24 packs of Henry Weinhards for $17.99 a case. How does this compare?

For MY tastes this is better than the winehards packs... (I also had the decision between the two - identical price). Your tastes may differ...

The pale ale seems to adequately represent the style. Not bad. I've agreed with dylans dad's reviews on the two he's reviewed thus far. I can have a way with words when I take the time... I just rarely do ;-)

Damnit I shouldn't be druk after 4 beers (had to test all 4... for... um... science).

I doubt anyone that picks up a case of this will ditch it off on friends/ family unless they have a stockpile of better beers around. Perfect time, however, to pick up a case - if ya don't like it, take the 20 pack (1 of each missing) to a family gathering... it'll get taken care of quickly...

I was planning a costco run this weekend for apple juice anyway... looks like a few more things to add to the list .

Is it really only available in 24 packs? No samplers or anything?

Sorry 24 pack only. I wish they had the free samples while you walked around the store but I'm sure there is a law against it.

As I drink the next few bottles I'll try and get more descriptive, but on first pass there hasn't been much to describe. Of course Curtis beat me to reviewing all of them so my drinking will be in the name science and supporting fellow scientists.

DylansDad said:

update:

So for 2 of 4 it's like a light beer drinkers pack of "Exploration Beer"

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Probably the best way to describe the 4 beers...

And to clarify - the case is 6 of each beer... so it really is a sampler pack. Not sure if the plans are to offer each beer individually at some point or not (I doubt it based on costco's typical merchandising scheme).

curtis97322 said:

Probably the best way to describe the 4 beers...

And to clarify - the case is 6 of each beer... so it really is a sampler pack. Not sure if the plans are to offer each beer individually at some point or not (I doubt it based on costco's typical merchandising scheme).

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In my Costco they sell nothing less than 24 packs of beer. It kinda sucks since they have stuff like SNPA and Bridgeport IPA which are both good but I wish they could make a mixer pack of craft brews.

Oh my Costco right now is selling a 4 pack of 22oz bottles of Unibroe for $20. Good deal?

But at the price v.s. your local store (at least here... not sure what part of OR UR in), look at it this way - you're buying 3 six pacs and getting a 4th free.

And What I meant was - the costco beer here is a 24 pack with 6 of each variety. Ours has the 4 pack of unibroe for $20 as well - never had that beer, may pick a pack up to see how it is...

I need to remember to check the beer selection at the costco in Salem (15 min north) - way bigger store, probably a better selection - but people are nowhere near as freindly.

Off to see santa with the kid... hope the snow doesn't get too bad (I'm not worried about MY driving - but snow + average oregonian = trouble)

I can pick up cases of Alaskan Smoked Porter at my Costco

A blast from the past.

We recently started getting the Kirkland Signature Beers in Costco in Virginia.

They appear to be made by Saranac on the East Coast.

SPLASTiK said:

I can pick up cases of Alaskan Smoked Porter at my Costco

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24 packs of Stone IPA at mine :rockin:

kaiser423 said:

24 packs of Stone IPA at mine :rockin:

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I hate you.

mysteryberto said:

Saw the pack at Costco today and wondered what it'd be like. In the NW we can also get 24 packs of Henry Weinhards for $17.99 a case. How does this compare?

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I bought a case for a summer party and found it dead middle of the road, but i would buy it over Henry's every time.

I assume that Costco has gone this route due in part to Washington's stupid liquor laws. As you may know "Kirkland" comes from their hometown East of Seattle.
WA requires that all wholesale prices on alcohol be the same to every merchant no matter their volume. Costco was suing the state over this BS because it eliminates their volume discount.

northernlad said:

I bought a case for a summer party and found it dead middle of the road, but i would buy it over Henry's every time.

I assume that Costco has gone this route due in part to Washington's stupid liquor laws. As you may know "Kirkland" comes from their hometown East of Seattle.
WA requires that all wholesale prices on alcohol be the same to every merchant no matter their volume. Costco was suing the state over this BS because it eliminates their volume discount.

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huh. Interesting. Yea, that would make it easier to pimp your own brand of beer for cheaper. But that is a pretty silly law. Why was it passed?!?

kaiser423 said:

huh. Interesting. Yea, that would make it easier to pimp your own brand of beer for cheaper. But that is a pretty silly law. Why was it passed?!?

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Facist fun-hating Naziism

Mutilated1 said:

When I was a kid, I used to collect beer cans. I remember one can that I had was white with "BEER" in brown letters.

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That was real beer. You could buy it in 7-11 a long long time ago.. I want to say 1973-1975?

Well, I stumbled upon the Kirkland 24-pack at my local Costco just tonight and had to grab it. I only searched for this thread when I came home. No matter how the beer ends up tasting, for $17 it's still a pretty good way to stock up on bottles for my future brews and have a little something to drink as well

kaiser423 said:

huh. Interesting. Yea, that would make it easier to pimp your own brand of beer for cheaper. But that is a pretty silly law. Why was it passed?!?

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it was passed so that the state could have a monopoly on all alcohol sales statewide.. prices here are higher than almost everywhere else because of it.

unfortunately, there have been attempts to change it but all have failed.

picked it up at 17 bucks, not bad not great. i have bottles for bottling

Finally broke down and bought a case at CostCo. Not bad, really.

"Hey! He's Talking to yoooouuu!!"

Revvy said:

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I tried the Kirkland beer a couple of months ago, Wasn't too bad. Tasted a lot like GB, which I'm not crazy about.

I also broke down and bought a case of this beer reciently. They all tasted good to me, I gave about half the case to my dad and he really enjoyed them. Here in Nebraska the beer is made out at the FX Matts brewery in Utica NY...unless of course there is another big brewery in Utica...

Yeah, it's not fantastic stuff, but certainly good for the money.

I was in costco and saw they had the case that contained 4 6ers for only 18 bucks so I bought it instead of going with somethign else. it was medicore. however what I noticed was the labels were near impossible to removie I was soaking them with some bells and new belgium bottles and after soaking for 15 mins the bells and new belgium practically fell off. the kirkland bottles soaked for near 2 hours and still resulted in my scrapping off the bulk with a putty knife. wasnt worth my effort i will never try that again.

The Costco in Lake Zurich,il carries Two Brothers Brewery mixed case and never having had the beer, $23 for a case was a steal in my opinion. It was next to the Kirkland and I'd heard of 2 Bros. but next time I'll take the plunge just to try the Kirk.

Hophead75 said:

The Costco in Lake Zurich,il carries Two Brothers Brewery mixed case and never having had the beer, $23 for a case was a steal in my opinion. It was next to the Kirkland and I'd heard of 2 Bros. but next time I'll take the plunge just to try the Kirk.

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Don't bother... for a few extra dollars, the TB case is FAR superior. The Kirkland stuff, while not bad, is contract-brewed, and not award-winning quality like the TB stuff. A fantastic value as well... one example, 1/4 of the case is a 6'er of "Cane & Ebel", which is one of their artisan brews usually costing ~$10.99 A 4-PACK. When you figure you're getting $15 worth of that beer alone, plus 18 bottles of three other great beers for a grand total of $23, there's no contest. BTW, TB labels are a RIDICULOUS pain in the butt to remove.

Man, this thread has been brought back from the dead like 4 times now. It's like the Super-Highlander.

Still, kinda makes me wish I had a Costco nearby so I could score a 30-rack of "halfway decent, almost-craft beer," on the cheap.

I just bought a case of this and eh they r nothing special.

llazy_llama said:

Man, this thread has been brought back from the dead like 4 times now. It's like the Super-Highlander.

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MrInternet said:

BTW, TB labels are a RIDICULOUS pain in the butt to remove.

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Great, I just bottled a sixer of 3 kinds to enter into some comp's. I bottled before removing the labels because I thought a quick little soak would take them off before I fill out the paperwork. Any ideas to make the process smoother?

there are already threads on removing the labels I am sure.... i would recommend soaking them in warm water soapy for a little while than scrapping off the labels. use vegetable oil to remove excess gum just rub it on and let it chill for a few minutes the oil will break down the glue. I would however recommend removing labels prior to bottling.

its ok. little over a buck a bottle. i've made better.

Kirkland brand is the new cheap beer I buy.

Great reusable bottles and case too for my home brew.

Hophead75 said:

Great, I just bottled a sixer of 3 kinds to enter into some comp's. I bottled before removing the labels because I thought a quick little soak would take them off before I fill out the paperwork. Any ideas to make the process smoother?

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You're not going to like hearing this, but regular OxyClean does NOT take these labels off. They are basically a heavy-duty sticker, not an "adhesive-backed" piece of paper like Sam Adams or New Belgium. I've soaked these bottles for 48 hours in Oxy, and the most that would happen is the edges would get a little squishy. You have two options: 1) get something sharp and peel as much of the label off as you can before soaking, or 2) just scrape them off dry. Trust me, there's not much less work involved in scraping these off dry as wet. They are literally a mylar-backed heavy duty decal of some kind, and I usually just end up scraping them off dry.

You could also tell your SWMBO next time she goes to a Pampered Chef party to grab a few of these: Nylon Pan Scrapers, those are what I use. They come off a bit easier if you soak for a long time AND use one of these. Easier, but still not "easy", by any means...

MrInternet said:

You could also tell your SWMBO next time she goes to a Pampered Chef party to grab a few of these: Nylon Pan Scrapers, those are what I use. They come off a bit easier if you soak for a long time AND use one of these. Easier, but still not "easy", by any means...

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So what are they, just bits of hard nylon with a scraping edge on it? I have some plastic putty knifes I got at the dollar store that I use for scraping pans clean, I wonder if they would work on bottles as well.

Great tip!

a metal putty knife will work even better than a plastic one. or if you wanted to invest in a razor blade the kind that is used to clean paint off windows... that will actually work best as far as methods of scraping...

Revvy said:

So what are they, just bits of hard nylon with a scraping edge on it? I have some plastic putty knifes I got at the dollar store that I use for scraping pans clean, I wonder if they would work on bottles as well.

Great tip!

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Thanks. It happened to be the closest thing handy one night, as we keep one on the sink for scraping baking sheets, etc. They are sold mainly to help clean off their stoneware cooking pans to avoid using too much soap.

The plastic putty knives from the hardware store is genius! Those would be much cheaper and accomplish the same thing... removing labels and not scratching the glass. The scrapers I references *are* a bit more ergonomic and comfortable, but why do that when you can have ugly junk?

MrInternet said:

Thanks. It happened to be the closest thing handy one night, as we keep one on the sink for scraping baking sheets, etc. They are sold mainly to help clean off their stoneware cooking pans to avoid using too much soap.

The plastic putty knives from the hardware store is genius! Those would be much cheaper and accomplish the same thing... removing labels and not scratching the glass. The scrapers I references *are* a bit more ergonomic and comfortable, but why do that when you can have ugly junk?

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I have 3 100+ year old cast iron pans/dutch ovens that I cook with on occasion, and they are perfectly seasoned. So all I really need to do to clean them is use one of those scrapers and hot water. The stuff just comes off beautifully, without affecting the seasoning on the pans.

Just got done washing and delabeling a little over 100 bottles and I have to say that I love Costco beer now. The bottles are plain brown bottles perfect for entering beer in comps and the labels just float off with a long soak in hot water and oxyclean. I had a mix of bottles and after scrubbing and thumbnail scraping a few dozen Widmer bottles I learned to appreciate the Costco bottles. Soak, label falls off, any residue left behind just wipes off with no scrubbing necessary. I'm going to stop saving certain bottles and just pick up a case of Costco beer now and then to bolster my bottle supply. Widmer bottles are going to recycling from here on out!

Those nylon pan scrapers are < $1 at Bed Bath and Beyond.

I found the beers "soulless". The German Lager was passable, however the pale ale was bland on my I guess jaded palette. Since I am not a fan of brown ales I will not give a biased opinion on that one. Now the hefe is a wheat beer...It is not a Hefeweizen! It is too bitter, it has no banana, I don't percieve a German Hefe. If you call it an American wheat, OK. In the end for the price not bad beer. IMAO the Lager was the best of the costco pack. For me it was like a watered down Optimator. If these beers can convert even a few away from BMC I would think they serve their purpose.