How much is too much to pay for a beer?

[FlaHopper]

I picked up a 750 ml bottle of Rogue's Brewer's Ale 2008 for $24 the other day (eatanddrinkitall.blogspot.com). A couple weeks ago, I bought a bottle of Allagash's Hugh Malone Ale for $16. Between the two, I spent $40 on what amounts to about four pints beers. Now, I realize the increasing cost of gas is driving up prices, but I suspect that these beers would be more expensive even if gas was cheaper.

So are these beers worth the price and is there a trend of breweries increasing the prices of their beers?

[seahag]

I don't know how much is too much, but hops shortage + rise in fuel cost = pay more for beer :(

[LStaff]

Rogue beers in ceramic bottles are notoriously priced way higher than the quality of the beer dictates. They are using the Corona model where they price it higher than their competition to get people to think that if its priced higher, it must be of better quality.

Many people could argue that the higher priced Allagash's are worth the money, but I have yet to buy one of them.

Even flagship microbrew offerings are getting pricey lately. $10 for Victory Prima Pils and $9 Smuttynose IPA 6 packs at my local beer store - and Smutty is made within an hour drive. Sierra Nevada is still giving good value with their 12 packs though, so I usually just stick to their seasonals. Homebrew is still relatively inexpensive for me since I stocked up on hops before the local homebrew shop realized that there was a shortage, but next year, I won't be so lucky.

[Josh]

Not sure I agree with the comment about the Rogue beers. I had a one year old Old Crustacean and Imperial IPA from the ceramic bottles, and they were tremendous beers.

[LStaff]

We can disagree with the quality of those particular beers, but when you look at what other brewers are charging for similar products, you gotta agree that Rogue has priced themeselves well above that - at least double in some cases. You may feel that Rogue Barlywine and DIPA are qualtiy beers - I'm not a fan of either and think their competitors are doing a better job with those styles these days - but do you think they are twice as good as their competitors?

[Josh]

I didn't pay 2x for what I got. IIRC, I paid $12 for them, which is along the lines of what I've paid for other high-end barleywines, like Angel's Share.

I'm not disagreeing that they are more expensive. But I am a fan of their beers in general.

[afty698]

Agreed 100% on the Rogue ceramic bottles. Prices are out of line compared to other beers in the same style and of similar quality.

I also have a beef with Allagash's pricing. While I think they do interesting beers that are hard to compare directly with anything else, I find it hard to spend $15-20 on a bottle of American Belgian-style beer when I can buy an actual top-tier Belgian for the same amount or less.

[Josh]

I think we're seeing the beginning stages of an upward spiral for beer pricing. Fuel, grain, water, and hops are all getting a LOT more expensive, which means beer prices will follow suit. In a way, this idea of shipping beer all over the world is starting to seem really crazy. I think prices are going to get really high before too long.

[FlaHopper]

I agree that the price of beer will increase across the board, but Rogue was agressively pricing its speciality beers years before the gas price spike and and hop shortage. I picked up a bottle of Brew 10,000 back in 2005 for $20. I get the feeling that breweries are trying to find out how much folks are willing to pay for special releases. A while I like these beers, paying $20, $25 and up is a bit much for what amounts to less than two full beers.

[LStaff]

>I get the feeling that breweries are trying to find out how much folks are willing to pay for special releases

Especially when they see their beers being resold for $50 - $400 on ebay - for the collectible bottle, and not the contents, of course. <eye roll>

[lcool]

The largest single expense at OMMEGANG & UNIBROUE is the bottle/cork and cage.All of the mentioned are imported,heavy and costly to ship.Many brewers offer the option of a bomber or a 12oz star cap.The star caps are 40% less per ounce.

LSTAFF offers some good logic and advice,all things being relative $25.00 isn't an
everyday bottle to me,it's a splurge.

[ted]

That's a Deus-like price for that size bottle. Not something I do all that often. Occasionally pick up the limited editions from Dogfish et al for $10 to $15 for that size bottle. I actually think that the Unibroue beers in a 750 w/ cork is a better deal than the 12-oz. bottles.

I think the overall moral of the story is to drink locally, which is the least-expensive option for us. Not to mention that Sweetwater IPA is really good stuff.

[TongoRad]

Another thing to keep in mind is that these seasonal or special beers are just not a very efficient item for the brewer to produce, and they, in turn, will recoup their expenses via high bottle prices. A lot of time there will be a long conditioning time required, which ties up the tanks for longer than usual. Sometimes special ingredients are used. Sometimes the beer is a blend. Sometimes there are barrels involved. Sometimes they use a special (non-house) yeast which can run a few hundred bucks alone, divided among a small batch like 10 barrels or so. Sometimes there is hand-bottling involved. Etc. etc...

This is a different situation from the other issues which are also driving up the prices of beer in general. Add the two together and you definitely will see some crazy prices on the shelves.

[willblake72]

Well said, and certainly the crux of the issue. Add to that the competition when deciding to which distributors the beer will be sent in such limited release, and the costs with smaller batches of labels, etc., and often the addition of different bottling lines. All that said, the Rogue beers in ceramic are probably priced out of line and the Allagash limited releases are rarely worth more than a one-time sampling. On the other hand, if the competition are high priced imports from Belgium, Italy, Denmark, et al, then why not inflate the price a bit in keeping? And why not mark up a bit for exclusivity?

Ideally, we would all drink great local beer, but that's not always feasible or desirable if we're looking for variety plus quality.

Bottom line: It costs more to brew in smaller batches and even more to distribute those to diverse markets. As consumers, it's unfortunate when the beer doesn't live up to the price tag, but that's just part of the hunt, is it not?

[jgg13]

Depends on the beer :)

Here in Boston a lot of the 750s of craft beer runs in the 10-20 range with some of the smaller extra fancy bottles being in the same price range (paid $10 per 12oz of the Dogfish Head Raison D'extra recently.

[Bobfrmia]

This seems to have been way over thought.
You spent 40.00 on 4 pints of beer, and you want someone else to to tell you if it was worth it?
I don't know, did you really like them? Did you think "hey, that was crap".
Price is relative. If it isn't worth it, don't pay it.
Christ people, we all have a choice. I'll gladly pay 10.00 a sixer for something I LOVE.
It beats the hell out of whining about the 6 dollar buds you have to buy at a concert.
The good craft brewers have to be getting killed on cost.
Suck it up, pay another dollar or so, drink good beer.

[FlaHopper]

Then I guess the better question is, how much are you willing to pay for a beer? Have we been paying too little for good beer all along, or are breweries trying to make a little more money? Beer is a luxery iten after all, and breweries have a right to sell their product at whatever price they choose. So are beer enthusists willing to shell out $20, $50, $100 like oneophiles and fans of expensive spirits?

[Josh]

Brewers are typically pretty low-paid. I'd say people have been underpaying for a long time. Macrobrew is cheap in the same way that McDonald's is cheap. Craft brew is an artisan product, which means more time to produce and costlier ingredients.

[Bobfrmia]

I don't know. Seriously. Right now I buy Cascade Pale for 4.99 a six pack. If it goes to 7.99, I'll buy Goose Island instead. If Goose Island goes to 10.00, I'll buy Dogfishhead 60 instead. I don't like one so much more than the other to not just buy the cheaper of the 3. I live in Iowa. I don't have to worry about it much, cause our selection sucks. Now, if I lived one state north, I'd have some decisions to make.

[brendastarlet]

We wouldn't think twice about spending $25 on a good bottle of wine, and sometimes more. If this is your thing, go for it.

[bflocat]

Yeah, I agree with Bobfrmia on this one. We recently paid $18 for a bottle of New Glarus Belgian Red (not typically available for sale outside of WI), and though we didn't particularly like it (too much like Juicyfruit), it was well worth it to try it out and see what all the hype is about, and to know that we would not be asking our friends to drive it over to us. And I bought a DogfishHead Black and Blue (750mL) for $13 and felt that was well worth it because it rocked.
Typically though, I'll spend $7-$8 for a 6-pack. I don't want the crappy stuff (Labatts), but I also can't afford to be regularly drinking the high end stuff either. I guess that makes it all the more special when we decide to go out and splurge on something we know will be really good.

[kelarry]

I shared a 750 of Deus, which is a Belgian Champagne Ale this weekend with friends. It was $50 in a restaurant- about the same as we would have spent on a bottle of wine, & worth every penny.