Yesterday, I was on my way home and wanted to pick up a six or two of something different for the weekend. I went to QFC (one of the two big grocery store chains out here, the other being Safeway), and was kind of surprised how much beer prices have creeped up over the past couple years or so.
The "sale"price (ie, the price when you have the store discount card) for just about everything micro is now 8.99 or 9.99. No card? You are paying 10.99 and up.
Then I walked down the aisle a little to the edge of where the macro swill is kept. In a tiny vertical slice of shelf space, were a series of imports. Various offerings of things like Guiness, Leffe Blond, Pilsner Urquell, Schofferhofer grapefruit, and stuff like that. Then it caught my eye - A 6 pack of DAB 500 ml cans in shrink wrapped plastic for $7.99. I bought it and a 6 of a Summer beer from Deschutes for 8.99.
What the heck has happened? We have gotten to the point that the German Imported Beers cost less than the ones brewed 20 miles away.
What are you guys paying for a 6 pack in your area?
PS- I popped a can of DAB when I got home, and it had “IT”, and while I could tell it wasn’t straight out of the fermenter, it still tasted pretty damn good. It’s gonna be tasty this afternoon when it gets almost to 90F here today. (You folks that live on the surface of the sun in AZ/NV/NM - well, you chose that).
I couldn’t agree more. Prices are crazy and to be honest these shelf’s seem to hold more every time i go to binnny’s. I don’t know who is buying all this beer at these prices but its not me. Occasionally only is all i can afford. That makes homebrewing all that much sweeter imo.
I agree with it all - DAB is one of my favorite easily attainable German beers, and I feel good about the price. I don’t feel good however about the price of most beers. Gotten ridiculous. I’ve been rebelling for a while. I keep Yuengling around as my cheap beer and brew the rest. I go out for pints occasionally, but the high prices have obviously trickled down to pints. Very run of the mill stuff is $6/pint, more for some. Lots of $11 -15 sixers, ‘affordable’ sixers $9-11. The market will only support some of this crap so long.
Seems like it’s $9-10 for the larger Colorado crafts (Avery, Oskar Blues, Odell) and generally $11 for other things. Eddyline’s pint cans sell for $11.49 so that’s usually my go-to if I have to buy beer, or want cans.
Nowadays a lot of that $9-10 shelf space is also Ten Barrel, Ballast Point, etc.
Most sixers of craft in my area run $8.99 to $12.99. Often I can get the Sierra Nevada standards at $11 per 12 pack with a coupon. I bought a 24 can case of Yuengling for $15 yesterday with a coupon. I’ll probably not do that again as the beer almost bores my pants off. I’d much prefer to get PBR at essentially the same price.
I used to get a sixer of Sierra, Alaskan or Boulevard for $6.99 in Dallas at Central Market. Ballast Point is always one of the more expensive packs. I just don’t buy unless the situation calls for it.
I have a tendency to buy single bottles, either 22s or 750ml. Of course depending on what it is, it can range from 6$ (for something like Full Sail) to 35$ (for something like Bruery Terruex, which I haven’t yet pulled the trigger on).
It’s slightly better if you buy a 12 pack, but not by a whole lot. If I buy a pack that big it’s a variety pack with 3 or 4 different things in it, and they run from 15-19$ depending on what it is.
Six packs here range from 8-12$ depending on what it is. Even though it’s not a huge bump up that’s why I just cannot buy Ballast Point at 16-19$ a six. Ironically I saw an ad the other day for a grocery store and you could get an 18 pack of Busch Light, a 12 pack of Full Sail or a 6 pack of Ballast Point for the same price.
I try to compare grocery store prices to pints in a bar. 12$ a six pack of 12oz is still cheaper than 4 pints in a bar (plus an uber home). I did the math once and some beers are as low as $1.50 a pint, it just seems really expensive in the store when it rings up 14.99 for a 12 pack. (But that 8 or 9 pints).
$8.99 - $9.99 is about the norm here as well. I don’t buy a lot of sixers (that’s why I brew), but do occasionally try something new.
To me, a way better deal is getting a growler fill at one of the three breweries in town. One of them sells their beer canned, and the tapped beer from the brewery invariably tastes much fresher. And they give you a free glass of beer while you wait for your growler to get filled. What could be better?
Most of my commercial beer purchases goes to PBR, when an 18 pack goes on sale for $9.99. ;D
It seems like all the local craft beer around here is going for about $10 or $11 a six pack. Twelve packs of regionally available beers such as New Belgium and Sam Adams are a better deal at around $15 of $16, but I usually prefer to spend my money on local products.
It’s telling that ABI brands like Goose Island are undercutting locals by selling for $7 or so a sixer. That bothers me.
Sierra Nevada and some of the larger local breweries are $9-$10 a pack. Most other craft beer is $11-$12, and some, such as Bell’s and Ballast Point, are as high as $14-15. Sadly, some of this is utter crap. The nearest brewery to me that bottles shouldn’t be in business, I’ve yet to buy beer from them that wasn’t infected, overcarbed, or had some other issue…utterly inexcusable at the price charged.
Are they truly undercutting using underhanded tactics, or are they simply enjoying the economy of scale? I don’t notice the prices being terribly lower, but I also don’t buy too frequently. I might now if I can find a half decent IPA for $7.
I haven’t seen that drop in bottled beer, especially not Goose, but I heard rumors that they slashed a lot of keg prices to the point where they were almost losing money. Buying kegs for my wife’s graduation seemed to bear that out, where a 5 gallon of Sierra Nevada was like $175 and a 5 gallon of 10 barrel IPA was $79. But maybe 10 Barrel was already that cheap?
That may have been temporary to flush out old stock. I’ve only bought kegs once and probably won’t ever do it again.
A quick glance at Johns Market (where we bought the kegs) seems to show similar prices. 10 Barrel Apocalypse is $89 for a 1/6BBL. Alaskan Amber is $86, Ace Cider is $94(I’d expect that to be more expensive), Grapefruit Sculpin is $103 (not shocked), Hop Valley is $92… so it’s kind of in line with most everything else.
Goose Island IPA on the other hand was $50 for a 1/6. Hmm. Before I started throwing stones on that one I would say it’s not their most popular beer, not really what they are known for, and also not that popular out here. I’ve never seen it on draft anywhere, I’m a little surprised John’s carries it.
But how would we know if they are selling at a loss? They have enormous scale, I’m sure they get great pricing on everything from ingredients to utilities.
