The Price of Craft Beer

[JLump]

I mean, if I owned an artisan brewery producing sours/exotic, long aged beers and people are will to pay $20 for a 22oz bottle, that's what the hell I'm going to charge. Like its been said before, this is simply what the market is willing to pay. I also think that a lot of what people are paying for is not necessarily the raw sensory experience of the beer itself, but the mystique of those types of beer. They are similar to wines in that regard and share their price point as well.

Personally I LOVE most sours which is why I started brewing them. If you can stand the wait, they are really no more expensive to brew, lol.

 

[Transamguy77]

I mean, if I owned an artisan brewery producing sours/exotic, long aged beers and people are will to pay $20 for a 22oz bottle, that's what the hell I'm going to charge. Like its been said before, this is simply what the market is willing to pay. I also think that a lot of what people are paying for is not necessarily the raw sensory experience of the beer itself, but the mystique of those types of beer. They are similar to wines in that regard and share their price point as well.

Personally I LOVE most sours which is why I started brewing them. If you can stand the wait, they are really no more expensive to brew, lol.

Well if your talking beers like that then the price has to go up, all that beer has to be stored somewhere and that storage is taking up warehouse space that still has to be paid for. So if a beer ages for a year the cost of that floor space needs to come out of that profit.

 

[mr_stout]

I mean, if I owned an artisan brewery producing sours/exotic, long aged beers and people are will to pay $20 for a 22oz bottle, that's what the hell I'm going to charge. Like its been said before, this is simply what the market is willing to pay. I also think that a lot of what people are paying for is not necessarily the raw sensory experience of the beer itself, but the mystique of those types of beer. They are similar to wines in that regard and share their price point as well.

Personally I LOVE most sours which is why I started brewing them. If you can stand the wait, they are really no more expensive to brew, lol.

A 22 oz bottle is a little less than two 12 oz bottles. $20 dollar for that is a lot of money. I guess non-brewers would have to pay that price if they wanted the beer. BUT, since we are brewing our own beer, lucky for us, we can just make it ourselves...

 

[GPP33]

Two thoughts:

1) why does a beer that’s 3x as expensive need to be 3x as good. It you can get yourself into elite company by being 1.5x as good then you should be able to charge elite pricing. It’s not a linear correlation. If no one else is making beer 1.5x as good as the masses then once you reach that threashold you are on the favorable side of the supply/demand curve. My parents house is easily worth 2x what mine is but it’s not 2x bigger or nicer. The formula 1 team that goes 202 vs the one that goes 200 is paying a lot more than 1% more to get there, the road biker who saves .00001% in weight by buying some titanium part is paying more than .00001% more than the next guy. As you encroach on the limits they become exponentially more difficult to reach.

2) a lot of the expensive beers are things like crazy wilds/sours/barrel projects which I’d imagine turn out bad a lot more than a basic pale ale. When you pay $1/oz your paying for more than the beer in that glass, your paying for all the beer that didn’t turn out so good on the journey to those delicious and unique 12ozs. Anyone can find a recipe for pale ale/stout/hefe/Kolsch/pils etc that is guaranteed to be delicious if you have even the slightest clue what you are doing however not everyone can pull off these more complex beers and I’d wager a bet that not many get it right on the first try, the second or even the third.

The ****** part for the consumer is there’s no cheap way to distinguish the winners from the losers.

 

[SoCal-Doug]

It's reasonable to expect a surge in price for the following:

• High alcohol content. Anything with high OG goes up in price due to the higher malt usage and the extended fermentation and maturation time. Imperial Stouts and Barleywines come to mind.
• Crazy dank IPAs. At high hop bills they start to feel in the budget.

Whether they are your alley compared to usual beers it's up to you but those would be immediate suspects if they were at $2 per bottle.

dank and grossly overhopped swill will sell at crazy high prices because they are a fad. put a skull or something midevil on the label and call it something cool like "alien phlem" and you got a winner!

think about things like "the pet rock" and eating tide pods or the new thing, snorting condoms. once those kids hit 21 years old, they go right for the ipa's.

 

[bbohanon]

Dont get me started on the price of craft beer lately..its absurd what alot of the craft breweries are selling these days in relation to the quality you get for that beer.
There is only one or 2 craft beers I will fork over my money for as I know exactly what I get with them time and time again..
I have just been disappointed too many times after spending 14.99 on a 6-pack and getting sub-par beer as a payoff.

The problem is what many of the previous posters have said..they are charging what people are still willing to pay. Most of the friends I have that are "crafties" don't even know the difference in good craft and "meh" craft. They chase the popular breweries "lastest release" and have their money in hand before they even get to the counter to buy it not knowing if its worth a damn or not.

 

[deadwolfbones]

Personally I LOVE most sours which is why I started brewing them. If you can stand the wait, they are really no more expensive to brew, lol.

Same! But there are some things even homebrewers (usually) can't do, like blending different base beers to make even better sours (as blenderies like Cantillon, etc, do).

 

[Staticsouls]

All my friends are hype beasts. The nice thing is I never buy into those ridiculous releases, but they always bring them in exchange.

 

[Crasher06]

I buy locally, mostly, and the costs are a little high but I'd rather spend a couple of extra dollars versus the bad old days when Bud and Miller were the top (sometimes only) choices. No slam against them, particularly. I just think honest competition encourages excellence. Sometimes not. But market forces should eventually prevail.
Plus I get to see what types of beer the local water may be best suited for.

 

[Lefou]

Find the beer you enjoy at the price you're willing to pay and be happy.

...and you know what? I did [find beer to enjoy at a good price].

How about Meijer in Richmond, Indiana?
They were running an Easter Bunny Sunday sale after 12PM on Leinie "Canoe Paddler". Got 12 for a little over $10. Not exactly "craft beer", but I picked up 24 bottles for less than what it would've cost me for two six packs in NJ.
I was happy ... and I shared some for good measure.

 

[mr_stout]

Two thoughts:

1) why does a beer that’s 3x as expensive need to be 3x as good. It you can get yourself into elite company by being 1.5x as good then you should be able to charge elite pricing. It’s not a linear correlation. If no one else is making beer 1.5x as good as the masses then once you reach that threashold you are on the favorable side of the supply/demand curve. My parents house is easily worth 2x what mine is but it’s not 2x bigger or nicer. The formula 1 team that goes 202 vs the one that goes 200 is paying a lot more than 1% more to get there, the road biker who saves .00001% in weight by buying some titanium part is paying more than .00001% more than the next guy. As you encroach on the limits they become exponentially more difficult to reach.

2) a lot of the expensive beers are things like crazy wilds/sours/barrel projects which I’d imagine turn out bad a lot more than a basic pale ale. When you pay $1/oz your paying for more than the beer in that glass, your paying for all the beer that didn’t turn out so good on the journey to those delicious and unique 12ozs. Anyone can find a recipe for pale ale/stout/hefe/Kolsch/pils etc that is guaranteed to be delicious if you have even the slightest clue what you are doing however not everyone can pull off these more complex beers and I’d wager a bet that not many get it right on the first try, the second or even the third.

My response:

1. You really should get what you pay for. It should be a linear correlation.
2. I am not paying for the mistakes of brewers that do not know how to brew. Why should I?

 

[grampamark]

My response:

1. You really should get what you pay for. It should be a linear correlation.
2. I am not paying for the mistakes of brewers that do not know how to brew. Why should I?

I'm guessing you don't work in marketing.

Price, in an open market, is largely determined by supply and demand. Demand can be "inelastic" (clean water, toilet paper, gasoline, the things people will buy at any price) or "elastic" (things people want rather than need).

For items for which demand is elastic, demand can be created by marketing ("it's new! Improved! Buy now, supplies are limited!") or, more subtly, by word of mouth.

Craft beer definitely has elastic demand. Nobody dies if they don't score a six pack of Heady Topper. If the proverbial "everybody" is saying "You have to try Heady Topper. It's da bomb", there are enough folks who just have to jump through how ever many hoops they have to, just to find out for themselves if that beer is as magnificent as "everybody" says it is.

It doesn't matter if the beer (or whatever product) is X times better than an alternative, or even better at all. All that matters is that a certain number of folks will stand in line and pay the asking price, just to find out what the hype is all about.

If the product really isn't that great, the people who made a BFD out of it aren't going to admit they were wrong. Marketing relies on some fundamentals of human nature (not willing to admit they've been hosed being one of those), so the hype goes on, even if the product doesn't live up to its overblown reputation.

For everyone who, like Mr. Stout, presumably, won't pay a premium for an inferior product, there is someone who will pony up the price of admission because, well, that's what all the Cool Kids are doing.

Welcome to Marketing 101.

 

[JDXX1971]

My wifey just brought home a 25.4 oz Founders CBS @ $24.29 plus tax and CRV. So at roughly $1.00 an oz I have high hopes for this one. But really what does that make a keg of killer home brew worth????(I also have high hopes for my 4 gallons of Chocolate Bourbon RIS I have aging) Just sayin, you know.

 

[S-Met]

Remember that beer has alcohol and usa likes to tax alcohol. Some State's more than others. Seems other countries feel thie as well. Price+transport+storage+production+taxation or fees on every one of the steps in one way or another.

Setting aside the bs that I just stated, heres more:
premium beer is not made for every palate.
May not be at appropriate age, temp or served in the wrong glass.
May be poorly made?
May be amazing to someone else.

I have no problem spending too much for a beer, cheaper than getting at the bar. Besides, $10-15 is nowhere near as much as I've spent on mediocre wine.

As for brewing: some single bottles may cost more then brewing 5 gal of clone, but that assumes that I want to drink 5 gal of it. It also assumes that I didn't want instant gratification.

 

[GPP33]

My response:

1. You really should get what you pay for. It should be a linear correlation.
2. I am not paying for the mistakes of brewers that do not know how to brew. Why should I?

1. You’re a single consumer that is welcome to pay what they feel is appropriate for the product. Lots of other people apparently feel that something a little better or a little more unique is worth a lot more $. It’s not something that’s unique to beer, it’s common in every industry.

2. What if we don’t call them failures but R&D? When you buy anything you are paying for the R&D/development that went into it. Not everyone can brew a perfect beer every time, yes even the pros. The trials/tests/studies that breweries invest in coming up with the perfect combination to make something unique and amazing are R&D costs and they must be wrapped up into the costs of the final product or they won’t make any money.

 

[shelly_belly]

I stopped in a brewhouse in West Point Ga last Sunday that was metered pour your own. $.40 -$.50 per ounce. No thank you.

 

[mr_stout]

From now on I only buy the best tasting beer that cost less than $1.50 per 12 ounce bottle.

 

[RPh_Guy]

My untappd unique count is 1702.
I'm moderately tired of paying for mediocre beer/cider/mead/wine at any price, especially bottles that have oxidized.
Paying $5-6 for a pint at a brewery or $6-10 for a flight doesn't seem worth it for just the beer. For me what makes it valuable is the entertainment and excitement of trying new things. I've been to about 60 breweries and still enjoy visiting new ones.
FYI, if you just buy bottles you're missing out on a whole lot of local craft brew since many breweries don't bottle.
Also, I'm happy to occasionally pay for quality sours (yay for dregs) and wet hopped beer of any style because they're so scarce. Too many barrel aged beers I've had are underwhelming.

Having tried so many commercial beers, I have really specific flavor targets for what I want from the style when I brew it.
Homebrewing has really been a great experience. I don't always hit my target but it's almost always good beer anyway. Cheers to everyone on HBT for your help!

 

[Conehead]

I stopped in a brewhouse in West Point Ga last Sunday that was metered pour your own. $.40 -$.50 per ounce. No thank you.

That seems a reasonable price doesn't it?

 

[radwizard]

If Craft Beer is gouging me and taking advantage of me, and Macro is evil (and also taking advantage of me) - I'm not exactly sure what I am supposed to do...

 

[Conehead]

If Craft Beer is gouging me and taking advantage of me, and Macro is evil (and also taking advantage of me) - I'm not exactly sure what I am supposed to do...

Brew your own like me.

 

[Conehead]

We are going to Seattle in August to catch the Jays and Mariners play ball. I know we will be going to the many pubs in and around Seattle but price won't matter that much unless they are just crazy. Whatever the price is, we have to pay 30% more because of our low dollar. Can't worry about that, we will be on a holiday.

 

[DownstairsBrewing]

My response:

1. You really should get what you pay for. It should be a linear correlation.
2. I am not paying for the mistakes of brewers that do not know how to brew. Why should I?

Quality is almost never a linear correlation. Think about your own brewing, particularly from your first batch onward. At first, there are obvious and fairly cheap-to-do means of improving. As you take advantage of those, new ones don't simply appear. The next improvements are harder to do, and usually require more equipment and/or better ingredients.

 

[matzou]

Maybe sometimes as well you(we) have no idea of the real cost to produce the beer ?
Maybe they need to pay the employee a decent wage ? Maybe there is a lot more going into making this beer that you can think of ?

The list could go on with a lot of maybe... As well as homebrewers maybe some have a "god" complex thinking that why fork that much money when we could probably replicate it at home.

I'am playing the devil's advocate as sometime I have been very disappointed by craft offers here in Spain, but as I picture USA you shouldn't complain too much for price/quality you are living in the promised land ;^)
Imagine paying more or equal in an emerging craft beer scene with less integrity/quality control...

 

[divrack]

If Craft Beer is gouging me and taking advantage of me, and Macro is evil (and also taking advantage of me) - I'm not exactly sure what I am supposed to do...

it would seem the obvious answer is obvious...
brew on dude. although then you're just playing into the nefarious hands of Big Malt and Big hops.

 

[divrack]

the thing is, there is never a linear correlation between price and quality. in fact I have no idea what metric you would use to plot quality against price.
with wine, for example the proportion of money you are paying for the actual wine in a cheap bottle is almost nothing and rises dramatically when you start paying more. does this mean you will definitely like the wine more? no. but most likely a lot more care will have gone into it's production. a fifteen year old will most likely prefer a cheap wine, but after years of quaffing and pontificating you should at least find the more expensive wine more interesting if not more drinkable.

with beer, frankly the cheap craft hoppy stuff is generally **** these days, there are a few breweries I'll buy but I'd rather have a home brew. I will treat myself to cloud water or the kernel at 4-5 squids a bottle if I can find it or more for a good sour as it's bloody difficult to emulate and is a nice treat.
some of the medium to large craft brewers are just releasing total garbage these days though, at least in Britain. had an ipl recently that was worse than anything I've made ever.
frankly a decent pilsner like urquell knocks the socks off a lot of this cheaper craft stuff.

 

[pinchegil]

Once upon a time there was a bunch of craft brewers that decided to open local establishments and make quality beer for the masses at low prices, as their popularity grew they decided we can supply it to even more people if we sell it outside of our establishments, but to do this we have to raise the price to purchase more equipment but the people will not care because they are drinking quality beer. Then they were all purchased by Inbev who reduced quality and kept the price the same. The End

 

[aprichman]

I just paid almost 18 dollars for a 6 pack with 15% off. It was a mixed pack from my LHBS, all 12 or 16 ounce cans of fresh IPAs from the Pacific NW.

 

[C-Rider]

We have a local market that from time to time will sell "dated" Craft Beer at a really good cost. Someone on the island often over estimates how much is needed to beat the date. (not that I'm worried about dated beer being bad). Just picked up two 18 full pint cans of Sierra Nevada Summer Ale for $17.67 including deposit and tax. How can a summer ale be dated in July? I was canned on Jan 31st this year.

 

[aprichman]

We have a local market that from time to time will sell "dated" Craft Beer at a really good cost. Someone on the island often over estimates how much is needed to beat the date. (not that I'm worried about dated beer being bad). Just picked up two 18 full pint cans of Sierra Nevada Summer Ale for $17.67 including deposit and tax. How can a summer ale be dated in July? I was canned on Jan 31st this year.

That's impressive you can still type after being canned almost 6 months ago!