Are $30-40 bottles hurting the industry?

Originally posted by after4ever
Sounds like some people around here could probably use a beer right about now.

Originally posted by Cletus
No more so than your prior condescending posts and irrelevant tangents, I presume.

Originally posted by cquiroga

In all of this talk, I’m assuming you’re talking about hurting the industry ECONOMICALLY, which you still haven’t really confirmed. I still don’t understand the mechanics that you’re suggesting are in play when expensive bottles of beer are "hurting the industry." I am seriously curious and hopeful that you can explain a little more thoroughly what exactly you mean by "hurting the industry," and I guess I’ll just leave this discussion until something like that comes up.

Several things:

--Are the fact that craft beer prices in general are rising at a much faster rate than the rate of inflation going to result in another craft beer die off like we witnessed in the late 80s and early 90s? We’ve already seen it happen in other industries.

--With prices reaching the cost of a good bottle of wine, are craft breweries starting to price their core audience right out? I can’t speak for the entire world here, but I know that locally, a LOT of my felow beer geek friends have stopped buying new beer and reverted back to cheaper staple beers like Orval and Chimay.

--With beer that is intended to be consumed relatively fresh sitting on the shelves, and likely a shadow of what they tasted like fresh are people buying these for the first time being turned off to craft beer?

--Why is someone going to buy a $25 bottle of witbier when Hoegaarden is around, and you can buy 2-3 sixers for the same price?

--Is the price spike making it more difficult for smaller craft breweries to establish themselves? The amount of money anyone has to spend on beer is finite, whether we’re talking about the consumer, the retailer or the distributor. Are the distributors and retailers going to scrutinize new brewers unjustly, dooming them to close shop as breweries like Dogfish Head and Brewdog push the next overpriced beer onto the market?

Originally posted by SoLan
Doesjel is $8.99 / 375ml here

Originally posted by Cletus
Um

Several things:

--Are the fact that craft beer prices in general are rising at a much faster rate than the rate of inflation going to result in another craft beer die off like we witnessed in the late 80s and early 90s? We’ve already seen it happen in other industries.

--With prices reaching the cost of a good bottle of wine, are craft breweries starting to price their core audience right out? I can’t speak for the entire world here, but I know that locally, a LOT of my felow beer geek friends have stopped buying new beer and reverted back to cheaper staple beers like Orval and Chimay.

--With beer that is intended to be consumed relatively fresh sitting on the shelves, and likely a shadow of what they tasted like fresh are people buying these for the first time being turned off to craft beer?

--Why is someone going to buy a $25 bottle of witbier when Hoegaarden is around, and you can buy 2-3 sixers for the same price?

--Is the price spike making it more difficult for smaller craft breweries to establish themselves? The amount of money anyone has to spend on beer is finite, whether we’re talking about the consumer, the retailer or the distributor. Are the distributors and retailers going to scrutinize new brewers unjustly, dooming them to close shop as breweries like Dogfish Head and Brewdog push the next overpriced beer onto the market?

That’s not clear enough for you? What are you looking for?