The "I Hate Beer" Thread

bramsdell said:
Am I the only one who is totally fine with Anchorage (or whoever) charging as much as they want for a beer? Go ahead and charge $75 for a 375ml. I mean, there's no fucking way I'd pay that, but look at wine or mead or whisk(e)y, and all of those markets have recognized that there is a very high ceiling of what people will pay per ounce. Sure, beer is slightly different because it should probably be finished in a single session, but that just shows that it makes all the more sense to bottle in 375ml.

First off, beer has been a historically democratic drink - it's the cheap booze of the people. This seems to explain the pearl clutching when someone releases a $75/375ml or a $100 12oz. However, look at the secondary prices out there - there is a market for people who will pay hundreds of dollars for sugar water. Why should all of the cash go to those with no talent/art/skill/whatever other than standing in line as opposed to those who actually craft the product?

The other thing about breweries charging more for beers is that there will not be the instantaneous sell-out that we see for so many hype releases (which are then flipped for hundreds of dollars on secondary). Price out the secondary market, these beers will be available for longer, which will actually provide greater access to those who want them (not just those who can instantly pay for them), and beer will be democratized again (though differently).

There will always be lots of $15-30 BA stouts and barleywines out there.
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I was just about to post something like this. Moreover, so long as they can actually sell the beer at a reasonable clip (and so aren't pissing off stores/distributors too much with expensive product collecting dust), I don't blame them one bit. With regards to Anchorage in particular, I commend them for smartly capitalizing on the whole "Barleywine is Life" trend and the willingness of so many in that group/scene/hashtag to blow obscene amounts of cash to avert FOMO/keep up with what everyone else is posting/etc. And I've done this on occasions myself, I certainly won't pretend my shit doesn't stink when it comes to following trends and wanting to be a participant. But were it not for that, I doubt they'd have anywhere near as big a market for $70 375mls. And the fact that they make this stuff available online over sites like Tavour probably helps too: more people can and do get it (being at home with disposable cash during the pandemic surely doesn't hurt here...), so more people are posting pics of them cracking these bottles, which just serves to drive the FOMO of everyone else: "man everyone is drinking these but me and they are not hard to get, all I need to do is not be cheap and throw down the cash."
 
bramsdell said:
Am I the only one who is totally fine with Anchorage (or whoever) charging as much as they want for a beer? Go ahead and charge $75 for a 375ml. I mean, there's no fucking way I'd pay that, but look at wine or mead or whisk(e)y, and all of those markets have recognized that there is a very high ceiling of what people will pay per ounce. Sure, beer is slightly different because it should probably be finished in a single session, but that just shows that it makes all the more sense to bottle in 375ml.

First off, beer has been a historically democratic drink - it's the cheap booze of the people. This seems to explain the pearl clutching when someone releases a $75/375ml or a $100 12oz. However, look at the secondary prices out there - there is a market for people who will pay hundreds of dollars for sugar water. Why should all of the cash go to those with no talent/art/skill/whatever other than standing in line as opposed to those who actually craft the product?

The other thing about breweries charging more for beers is that there will not be the instantaneous sell-out that we see for so many hype releases (which are then flipped for hundreds of dollars on secondary). Price out the secondary market, these beers will be available for longer, which will actually provide greater access to those who want them (not just those who can instantly pay for them), and beer will be democratized again (though differently).

There will always be lots of $15-30 BA stouts and barleywines out there.
Click to expand...
I have 0 issue with it, but I do wonder who the hell will buy it at that price. Then again I'm apparently the one person on the planet who has never been impressed by an Anchorage beer.
 
Jerm said:
Anchorage can and should charge as much as they want for the beer. I bit on Tavour on the ADwtD can, but was unimpressed (not only at that price point but generally) and vowed not to buy any more Anchorage expensive stuff.
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Their hazies are suprisingly decent but not something I'd overpay for.
 
Layne said:
Bad take. Love buzz was a god tier beverage
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I want to say that I hated their early stuff, but it's more that I thought it was mediocre. It wasn't bad enough to hate, just very, very much not my style. The way they made everything so Brett-forwarded reminded me of... well, the way American breweries make Brett beers and just shove it into your face with very little else going on. It's somewhat possible that all these years later I'd appreciate them a bit more, but idk, not really worth it to go out of my way to track them down.

EDIT: I went at looked up my old Untappd check-ins and I gave the beers higher ratings than I remembered (although that could just be grade inflation), but I really liked this comment after I'd had (I think) their whole original lineup: "I'm starting to think that this brewery is an elaborate ruse, and they've only ever made one beer."
 
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Layne said:
There are 2016 whiteout wit bottles in austin. If you gotta have lmk
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My local bottleshop has batch #4 from June 2015 on the shelf for $6. I'm pretty sure they bought them in 2015 but nobody wanted to buy a $15 750 of wit so they disappeared into their cellar.
 
bramsdell said:
Am I the only one who is totally fine with Anchorage (or whoever) charging as much as they want for a beer? Go ahead and charge $75 for a 375ml. I mean, there's no fucking way I'd pay that, but look at wine or mead or whisk(e)y, and all of those markets have recognized that there is a very high ceiling of what people will pay per ounce. Sure, beer is slightly different because it should probably be finished in a single session, but that just shows that it makes all the more sense to bottle in 375ml.

First off, beer has been a historically democratic drink - it's the cheap booze of the people. This seems to explain the pearl clutching when someone releases a $75/375ml or a $100 12oz. However, look at the secondary prices out there - there is a market for people who will pay hundreds of dollars for sugar water. Why should all of the cash go to those with no talent/art/skill/whatever other than standing in line as opposed to those who actually craft the product?

The other thing about breweries charging more for beers is that there will not be the instantaneous sell-out that we see for so many hype releases (which are then flipped for hundreds of dollars on secondary). Price out the secondary market, these beers will be available for longer, which will actually provide greater access to those who want them (not just those who can instantly pay for them), and beer will be democratized again (though differently).

There will always be lots of $15-30 BA stouts and barleywines out there.
Click to expand...
Layne said:
They should absolutely be pricing their beers higher. Nathan has mentioned this several times that I know of.

But I will disagree with you when it comes to finishing wine in a single session. Don’t re-cork—tomorrow is a new day!
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Yup I've been preaching this for YEARS and still believe it's correct (unlike many things I believed back then). I wrote about it on my blog in 2014 after years of BA posts to the same effect.

www.nathan-miller.com

Craft beer is underpriced - L’histoire de sa vie

I've written a lot about this topic in various other locations, but I figured it's time to talk about it here: much of craft beer is absurdly underpriced. I've touched on supply/demand before in this blog, but a quick refresher can't hurt. Basically, to the left is a supply and demand curve...
www.nathan-miller.com

It's one of the few posts I've kept public as the years have gone by and I've archived more and more.
 
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