Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

Has anyone noticed the huge spike in beer prices lately?  I think the biggest difference I’ve seen is the jump of middle level beers to that upper tier price.

Case in point, I walk into Market Street Wine shop a week or two ago looking for Treog’s Nugget Nectar.  It is an Imperial Amber (I’ll save the “why the F is everything Imperial now” rant for another day), and I loved it 2 years ago and thought it was just pretty good last year.  I walk in their and a 6-pack of it is $11.99.  11 freaking 99 for a sixer. 

Now, I’m not cheap and I don’t have a problem paying that much for a six pack of top tier stuff.  But it seems like the hop shortage has given a few breweries the opportunity to spike their prices to the next level.

No, I didn’t buy it.

/rant

I have noticed a similar trend, Jamey.  The price of stainless, glass, and cardboard, in addition to the increase in hops and malt that people know about, have really given the opportunity to brewers and wholesalers to jack up the prices.  I would expect a 20% increase in price would be reasonable, given the pass through for the increase in raw material prices.  However, I have seen many 50% and greater price hikes, which is just greed.

I work in the hospitality most notable the food and beverage. The cost of food and beverage has gone up so much on our supply side it is incredible some items as much as 20% since December. Flour is so volatile that large bakers can’t lock in a price for more than a month; it used to be for a year. we all know the economic effect of the falling dollar makes our raw goods cheaper for other countries to buy etc. my guess (because we are doing the same) companies try to hold the price as steady as possible to avoid inflation pressure but there comes a point when you have to pass on the cost. there is a lot of pressure on the beer items grain is going up as more livestock is feed grain due to corn going to fuel at a higher price (recently read an article about 3 chicken processing plants closing due to this effect) hops of course had a bad year. I think we will be paying higher prices for a while even if the economy recovers companies will look to recoup on some of there profit margins.

But I agree those who take advantage and raise the price too high are cheating us. But that is why we brew our own.


just to add to the rant about the cost of goods i am not a fan of it at home or work, and hope the situation improves soon