1/2 bbl Distribution

[Nil]

Hey guys, do you have any stats on the wholesale price on 1/2 bbl kettles? Some folks told me $150/half-bbl, yet it is not a lot, knowing in advance that a pub, selling a $4.00 per 12 oz glass, will be making around $650.0/half-bbl, more than three (3) times.

Thanks,
Nil

 

[Hello]

Your question is odd. Are you asking if you buy a 1/2 barrel of beer from somewhere then resell the beer then you can make three times the amount of money that you originally spent? If so, that's not legal, you know? If you're asking if you fill a 1/2 barrel with your home brew and sell, it is also not legal.

I don't mean to be an armchair lawyer and now that I got that out of the way, I will say that prices likely vary depending upon the beer. I can get a 1/2 barrel of Fat Tire a lot cheaper than I can get a 1/2 barrel of say Simtra. It's going to depend on where I live, how much the distributor is charging my guy and how much my guy wants to charge me. So in other words, prices vary.

Whatever the price, if you resell the beer then you will indeed make money. The money maker is always in drafts. The margin for profit on bottle sales is quite often low.

 

[ArcaneXor]

$150 is pretty close. What I don't understand is what this has to do with the retail price of the beer inside of those kegs - out of that amount, they have to pay rent, debt interest, wages, insurance, and purchase ingredients/equipment. If people steal their kegs, that seriously cuts into their ability to pay the bills.

 

[Brettomomyces]

Whole sale can be around 130-150 for a keg, higher if it's somethin pricey. I was also confused by this until I swapped kettle for keg in my head.

But no, it is not a lot. Margins from keg sales are incredibly slim.

 

[Clonefan94]

It really depends on what beer you are buying.

And as others have said, out of that $650, you have to pay a lot of bills. Not to mention, you have to hope you sell through a 1/2 barrel of that beer in a timely manner. If it sits on tap for 2 months, that's not really pulling in the money you need it to.

 

[hunter_le five]

A 3X markup is a pretty standard markup for a bar or restaurant, whether talking about the beer/wine/food. Obviously some products are higher (soft drinks) and some products are lower (steaks), but an average of 3X is normal. There's a lot of overhead that's gotta be covered, and at the end of the day a 5% profit margin is considered good (a far cry from that 200% product margin we started with).

 

[bobeer]

Hey guys, do you have any stats on the wholesale price on 1/2 bbl kettles? Some folks told me $150/half-bbl, yet it is not a lot, knowing in advance that a pub, selling a $4.00 per 12 oz glass, will be making around $650.0/half-bbl, more than three (3) times.

Thanks,
Nil

your question is indeed confusing. Are you talking about a 1/2 bbl kettle? Or how much is it to turn a keg into a kettle? Or how much money could you make if you sold a 1/2 bbl worth of beer? Which you'd need to be licensed to do.

Obviously if you sold a 1/2 bbl keg of beer as a whole 1/2 bbl you'd make a lot less than if you sold the beer out of that same 1/2 bbl keg as pints. As others have said it really just depends on what beer you're selling. If it's a high abv beer you could get away with doing 9-12oz pours and charging a bit more for it as opposed to a 16oz pint for a 5-6.5%, just as an example, abv beer at $4-6 a pint. Buying in bulk is always cheaper than buying in single units...

You may have used the word "kettle" by mistake but that is throwing your whole question off for me. It also seems like you answered your own question within your question.

 

[Nil]

I should say keg and not kettle...sorry fo the confusion....

 

[jbaysurfer]

Wholesale price that a brewery gets for a 1/2BBL keg is about 150 here in SoCal. The distributor marks it up to 190 or so, and the retailer sells it for whatever they can get for it.

The same keg, sold in pints, in house, for the original brewer can yield 500-600. Thus the reason most breweries would like to sell as much of their own beer, in house, as possible, and often growler prices per pint are less than pint prices if ordered at the bar. Even at growler prices, breweries still net way more money than if they sold that same beer wholesale.