I am kinda on the fence about this topic. If anybody knows the slogan, "It's not yucky, it's Icky", please tell me why a pint at the bar is $6.00, and a six pack is $8.99? Personally, I don't really care for any of their beers, as their IPA's are not well balanced, and their porter to me was like brown water. Am I willing to pay $36.00 for the equivalent of a sixer at the bar for that beer or any other, not likely. My wife and I recently went to BJ's, and their nitrogen porters, were not pleasing to me. Am I am a$$ hole, well maybe. I like to take my wife out once in a while and go to a "new" place and see for ourselves, what we think. I guess I got a little off track here, yes, I know it costs a whole lot less to get a six pack to the retailer, than it does to get it served at the bar, but, let's be reasonable... At the Brew Brothers, Reno, a 15oz draft is $4.99, and before we get into a casino makes their money on gambling and everything else is gravy, it is a classy place, with great entertainment, and trust me, they could sell their handcrafted for more, and people would pay it, without blinking an eye, as they have won national awards for their beer.
I have no problem paying $6.99 for an Imperial pint of Samuel Smith's Organic Apricot Ale, as I have tried to make an apricot ale that amazing, and gave up trying. Magic Hat #9, to me is crap. No mouth feel, no smooth apricot flavor, and almost the same price! I make a close relative of Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter, as my house Brown Porter, and not only is it a beer that my beer friends like ( especially my wife), but it won a contest too. Charge what the public will bear is being sustained by supply and demand on beer's like Pliny's. Have I had a pliny's?, no I have not, but they help set the standard of bomber pricing in my opinion. I could almost guarantee if their were more Pliny's produced during the year, their price would not be so offensive as it is now. I brew my own beer because, I can afford to use the best quality ingredients in every recipe, and I never get near $5.99 a bomber to produce it. Will I ever be able to produce an exact clone of any of my favorite ales? No, I won't, that would against the laws of phsyics.
End of rant. If I have offended anyone, I will apologize now.