The Beer Thread

You used to be able to get a growler of OTWOA at the brewery for about $12 - then they realized they had lucked into a world class beer and started charging $20 or 25 for a growler

I started quite the flame war on BA when I pointed this out a while back  :o :P

James wrote:
That's what it is on the current draft list.

I remember when i got a whole growler of it at Whole Foods in Fairfax for about $9.

Yada wrote:

James wrote:
I see that Smoke and Barrel has OTWOA on draft, and at half price tonight, that means $4.50 for 13 oz draft. But not much interest here. Damn you, Heady Topper.

Christ, it's usually $9 a draft there?

brennser wrote:
You used to be able to get a growler of OTWOA at the brewery for about $12 - then they realized they had lucked into a world class beer and started charging $20 or 25 for a growler

I started quite the flame war on BA when I pointed this out a while back  :o :P

bullseye.

i went to half price drafts last night at s&b, and it's just hilarious to see OTWOA and Enjoy By, both 9% beers, same style and all that, both are $9.  but one came from 5 miles down the road, and one came from 2,700 miles away.

i'll save the rest of my rant about dc brau for another day. 

Finally drank an Oracle last night, another disappointing release from Bell's.

Now what do I do with the other five bottles?

The economies of scale are slightly different at Stone and DC Brau…

fatskippy wrote:
The economies of scale are slightly different at Stone and DC Brau…

stone: ships there beer 3,000 miles, makes charitable contributions, big employee payroll, has an enormous and immaculate brewery

dc brau: ships there beer 5 miles, makes no charitable contributions, <10 employees, has a shitty tasting room and a small brew space

dc brau is price gouging like crazy ($11 six packs across the city for their standard fare) and making up ground on their capital costs, which sure, it's good business, but they are fucking their locals by doing so.  it's just stupid that people pay the extra cost for these guys beer, just because it's a dc brewery.

margins are razor-thin for small breweries.  super-hoppy beers like OTWOA are expensive to make.  i don't blame them for charging more for a popular product if they can.  on the upside it's motivated them to brew it more often, instead of being a seasonal. or one-off.

does anyone think that DC Brau is rolling in cash?

if it's not worth the price to you, don't buy it.

i don't know, they may not be rolling in it, but i bet they are seeing profit margins like no other small-scale brewery, and it's because they take advantage of the market.  there's no other good local option.

i just don't support the idea of them saying, "well, all these other six-packs are $11, so let's make ours $11 too".  make it $9, because you didn't have to pay that extra $2 to transport it, and make it everybody's go-to because of the price, and the beer itself, not because there are no other >local< options.

sweetcell wrote:
if it&#039;s not worth the price to you, don&#039;t buy it.

i still buy em at the bar, just not retail stores. i'll still support them, and wish them the best. i just don't agree with their business model, that's all.

i realize i'm sounding very much like an old cranky fart in this thread as of late.  but all these brewers bitching about "oh i hate all these people coming to my brewery" and breweries taking advantage of a booming local market… to me, it's all just a giant fuck you to the consumer, and the consumer is what keeps them doing what they love to do.

Stone produced 177K barrels of beer last year, DC Brau produced 5K barrels. It is a clownshoe comparison and Enjoy By is hardly a great deal at $9/22 oz bomber or the equivalent of over $29 for a standard 6 pack.

http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/dc-brau-corruption-pricing.105088/

good discourse of the issue i speak to.  seems like i may be off-base on a few of my presumptions.

You could always bring one or two of them to a 9:30 bottle share.

Yada wrote:
Finally drank an Oracle last night, another disappointing release from Bell&#039;s.

Now what do I do with the other five bottles?

you had to know it was only a matter of time before a feature film was based on the life of craft brewery employees, right?

http://flavorwire.com/411008/flavorwire-interview-drinking-buddies-director-joe-swanberg-on-improv-craft-beer-and-the-real-chicago

anyone gonna hit up any of the Goose Island tastings next week - King Henry!!  ;D ;D ;D

FUCK YES.

i'll either be at CK wednesday, or MP on thursday. or both.  fuck it, both.

Is this the beer that will knock Heady from its #1 ranking?

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23222/78820

James wrote:
Is this the beer that will knock Heady from its #1 ranking?

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23222/78820

they made only 300 bottles this year - they might as well sell it on mars too.  i believe that sound in the distance is the hype machine revving its engine…

i mean, it sounds like a superlative beer, but this will likely become the next holy grail of beer snobbery. 

Local beer meets heavy metal at Port City?s Metal Night
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/going-out-guide/wp/2013/09/05/local-beer-meets-heavy-metal-at-port-citys-metal-night/

King Henry, some variant of Bourbon County, and some variant of Matilda all on draft at Whole Foods Fairfax tomorrow.

I'd definitely hit that up, but already have a beer event to go to tomorrow.  ;D And won't have time to get out there and get a growler, though they will be having those beers for growler sale in addtion to single servings.

brennser wrote:
anyone gonna hit up any of the Goose Island tastings next week - King Henry!!&nbsp; ;D ;D ;D

James wrote:
I&#039;d definitely hit that up

(…)

won&#039;t have time to get out there and get a growler,

that doesn't make sense to me… if you're definitely going to hit that up, why not grab a growler while you're there?  and, more importantly, why don't you grab a growler of king henry for me?!?  (no, seriously, grab a growler for me)

that WF of yours sure does get some decent tap offerings.

Founders All Day IPA.  Bucks the current trend of over-hoppy, 8%+ IPAs.  Two thumbs up.