I can’t remember the last time that I bought a sixer, I almost never buy beer. The last time I bought any beer in the last 2-3 years was a few months ago at Pike Brewing when we were in Seattle for a couple of days.
The only reason I even go through the beer aisle is to get inspiration for something to brew.
The only time I try any non-homebrew is at the beerfests where I volunteer and get it for free.
I miss the days of a case of Saranac Pale Ale being $30. (Do they still even brew this? I loved this beer, British style PA brewed with Fuggles. Denny would love it.)
I feel like many breweries are starting to price themselves out of existence. I mean it’s still just beer, meant to be a simple drink to be enjoyed amongst friends. I love geeking out about beer, but it’s going too far. I’ve stopped buying craft Bombers, they’re absurdly overpriced. I want something I can share with a bunch of friends without breaking the bank. I don’t want your kumquat sour gose at $13 a 4-pack, thank you very much. (I do like some specialty beers, but when the Flying Dog Firkin Fridays at Oriole Park at Camden Yards are mostly whacky brews…c’mon guys, your IPA is sublime with crab fries and Boog’s BBQ, just serve that on cask…)
I’m about 45 minutes from Utica and Saranac still has their Pale Ale. They make some nice beers. Utica club is a guilty pleasure.
Man I still wish Saranac had their Pale Ale down here, usually all I can find is their 12-pack sampler. (Usually a couple IPAs and some fruity beers.)
I may need to look into special ordering some…
1/6 Barrel kegs-$70-100 depending on style
Six packs
Crafty (Goose, Leinie, Blue Moon, etc.) $6.99
Big Craft (Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, New Belgium)-$7.99-8.99
Most Craft-$8.99-9.99
Weird random craft-$11.99-$14.99/4 pack tallboys (Or worse, 4 pack long necks)
I’m fine with most of it, but some of these places that want to sell a six pack for a bit less than a 12 pack drives me crazy. Especially when it’s only for a 4 pack! I can understand when it’s for an expensive beer to make (DIPA, RIS), but when it’s for your brown ale or pale ale I’m out.
I don’t buy six packs too often any more but I always buy a lot of cans for the Fourth for our annual vacation with some friends. I was surprised by how many six packs were selling at $10-15 for pretty basic beers (craft lagers, pale ales) without anything exotic to command higher prices.
I guess this is just where the market has gone with $20 four packs of hazy IPA and $40 bottles of pastry stouts.
Lotta 4-packs of either 12- or 16-ouncers these days, often running the same $8-$11 as for a 6-pack. Then a lot of the good beers I might be interested in getting often only come in 22-oz bombers for the most atrocious prices. But I don’t necessarily want to always drink 22 oz at the same time or feel like I have to share it with friends. Pisses me off. If I could get 8-packs of 10-ouncers, especially of the specialty beers or strongs of 7% ABV and above, that might make me happier than the packaging options that are usually available for special beers. Someday when the universe is mine to control, it will be done my way. Until then, I guess I should just brew and bottle my own.
Here, here Dave
I might buy more sixers if they were marketed as variety packs. Especially cans… not sure why no one seems to be doing this. Give me the option to try six different beers from your brewery, not six of the same.
“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
One of our best local bottle shops allows you to break a six pack. Of course the cost per bottle is more, but you can variety to your heart’s content.
Money for nothing.
In Utah, all non grocery beer is sold by the one pack, the ultimate in variety. Whadda country!
I gotta get me to Utah! :o :o
I just bought my first sixer of craft beer in about 2 years a couple of days ago. $11 for a sixer of Sam Adams, damn! I used to be able to get a 12-rack for 13-14 bucks. The next day I found Warsteiner Dunkel for $10.49/6 - that’s something I don’t mind paying for.
Mmm… German imports… I don’t mind paying premium prices for TRULY premium beers, either.
Quick derail for my favorite German beer buying story - back in the late 90’s I saw that a local liquor store was selling can cases of Paulaner’s helles. The owner had ordered bottles and, assuming it wouldn’t sell in can format, sold the cases @ $7ish. I bought a case and noticed that they were filled barely over a month prior! I went back and bought the rest (all same packaging date). One of the best German imports I ever had from can or bottle.
At least at the brewery I work at, the 12 pack variety packs are a pain in the arse to pack. Essentially you run 12 packs of all four styles, and then someone has to repack them by hand as the 3 of this, 3 of this, 3 of this and so on. Magic Hat recently did a mixed 6 pack of their two hefs, Circus Boy (American Style) and Zircus Boy (Bavarian style) but it was very limited time thing with people voting on their favorites.
I totally get where your coming from because I love the 12-pack variety packs for that very reason, let me try 4 different things, especially when it’s seasonals. Just from a packaging standpoint it is an enormous labor cost. At a huge place like New Belgium it might be easier for them to feed all four into the drop packer and load them at once, but we basically have to do 12 packs of all four and then rearrange them by hand.
Not necessarily. If the store can’t sell the entire six pack after breaking it up then they lose money on whatever they have to discount or throw out. Breweries normally won’t take back individual bottles. This is the biggest problem with IPAs because people pay attention to the bottling dates. People aren’t buying the old IPAs left behind from mix-six.
I saw the guys at Sierra Nevada’s Asheville facility packing the mixers by hand. lots o labor…
As I’ve commented before, I’m not opposed to the idea of mixed 12 packs, but almost every one I’ve ever seen has at least one dog of a beer I know I’m not going to like, so I wind up paying for 12 beers but only getting 9 drinkable beers. That’s poor economics from my skewed perspective. Yes, I know I should be more open minded and try things before passing judgment, but I am certain that I won’t like the blueberry, pringle, peanut butter saison and don’t think there is any scientific need to prove my assumption by sampling it.