Art'noo
after the mad roller-coaster of the Rutland's birthday bash, and the orgy of overindulgence that was last weekend, I wasn't drinking Monday Tuesday or Thursday to give my body a much needed rest. Luckily, pre bash and Friday and at other times in the last week or so, I was. Hence :
En route to the Rutty I was in Shakespeares having a "warm up". This is both sarcastic and euphemistic - it wasn't like I needed a warm up for the sport of drinking, and it wasn't as if Shakespeares was warm - in fact it was chuffing freezing! Luckily I had a dark beer to shield me from the frost - A pint of Dark Star Original. This tasted a lot thicker and less balanced than I remembered. It seemed to have a slightly black treacle theme running through it and was much sweeter than I was hoping for. It was still enjoyable, but not what I really expected. I also had a a half of the Mallinsons Brewers Gold to cleanse my palate, which it did enjoyably and effectively.
Friday night myself and Miss N were in the Sheffield Tap. Forgetting that here is a board listing the beers and importantly (hopefully?) the prices (not that I can really see it well enough to read it) I relied on spotting a beer from a brewery I liked. I did just that having spotted an Oakham pump clip (two dumplings were stood in front of it with no way of seeing between them without coshing one over the head) so without knowing anything else, I asked for a half of that - it was £2.40! (cue feigned surprise) The beer in question was Oakham 20. According to their website it is 5.8%. So how in the name of Satan does it manage to be £4.80 a pint? Especially when compared to a 7.0% stout which they had on at £4.00.
No doubt Oakham will be described as " a very expensive brewery" like Dark Star were claimed to be. The extent to which that is a disingenuous explanation forms most of the reason why I didn't bother asking why it was so overpriced. It is a matter for concern that they no longer seem to warn customers of the impending damage either - perhaps my closeness to the handwritten board made it seem like I had already considered the price acceptable. Obviously I checked the other prices thereafter....
Miss N was dispatched to find the next drinks and we went Tapped for safety - the Growler Citra beer was on and it was very palatable although I didn't find out how much it was. This was followed by two astonishingly good pints of the Anarchy Brew Co Breakfast Stout, the 7% one at £4.00 a pint. Not over the top, and the beer was absolutely exceptional. I really can't think of a bad Anarchy beer I've had and it was great getting to try the first of theirs that I encountered at SIBA BeerX once more, this time on cask. Indeed, it was so good that I forwent the opportunity to try some Fyne Ales Vital Spark that I'd had my eye on.
Yesterday was a day of staying in, apart from nipping to the shops. Asda has got rid of the only interesting beer brands it stocked, namely the Ilkley range and the BrewDog Punk. Seems we Handsworth folk don't like beers with flavour, brewed with aplomb. Either that or not even BrewDog can afford to sell their beers at a loss to the Walmart behemoth. However, in a rare positive development, they have started selling the Shepherd Neame IPA, a 6.1% recreation of an old recipe with a really pleasing vintage style label. These are on offer at 3 or £5.00 so it seemed silly not to get a few.
The aroma is noticeably Sheps yeast and Kent Fuggles. It has a very warming mouthfeel, and its not really particularly pale, more a pleasant caramel orange, of which there are hints in the flavour. It is very hoppy but not citrussy, and easy to drink probably due to the balance of malts. I love a hop monster pale ale any day but this was a pleasant change, especially on a cold Autumn night, and it stood up well to the slow cooked Moroccan chicken stew which we were having.
Later we had a bottle of the 2007 Fullers Vintage Ale. This is the tenth anniversary brew and it had weathered well. Very well in fact. The surprising feature of this magnificent brew was the extent to which you couldn't detect that signature orangey taste. I have been drinking the Vintage Ales annually since 2000 and although there are subtle differences that orangey yeasty base has always been prominent. This time there seemed much more hops than I recall previously, which after 6 years in the bottle is quite good going.
The hops used in the Anniversary Brew were Fuggles, Target, and Styrian (it says "super styrian" but I wasn't sure if this was a compliment by John keeling or an actual styrian variant!?) and without an older bottle to hand to compare I'm not sure what difference that should make to the overall brew. Whatever the explanation, this was a very accomplished beer that was well worth the lengthy wait to try.
More news to come next week, when I might see some of you at the Blue Feather Brewery Intergalactic launch - the beer brewed in collaboration between Blue Bee and Welbeck Abbey will be launched around 19.00 at The Closed Shop on Commonside. Well worth a trip over.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Showing posts with label Beer pricing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beer pricing. Show all posts
Sunday, 13 October 2013
Friday, 28 June 2013
Tapped?
Hello,
I was in the Sheffield Tap the other day having a quick one before meeting a friend, and wanted a pint to see me sated whilst I waited.
Recently I'd opted for a pint of one of the excellent Tapped Brewing Co beers whilst there. Because they are very good, whilst also sensibly priced. Most Tapped BC beers average £3.00 a pint, broadly comparable with the Rutland nearby. Other prices, though, seem to get a bit silly. With Tapped being a rather good brewery with great hop forward (but balanced) beers in their repertoire, one wonders how that might impact on the sale of guest beers.....
I always thought the Tap guest beer policy was based on " this is rare so you will pay more" given the absurd premiums applied - the fact that numerous below HSBD beers have still been ridiculous in price can only be explained by either the pub taking the piss, the suppliers taking the piss, or the "novelty value of ales" being exploited. As a case in point, on that occasion I spotted Dark Star Porter, which I craved.....
One of the great improvements to the Tap is the willingness of staff to inform you when a price is, ahem, higher than you could reasonably expect. The beer was (following a check on the brewery website) 5.6%. It was £4.60 a pint. With this information available, I politely declined. The barman informed me "Yeah, Dark Star beers are very expensive".
Well, irrespective of whether I think that is sufficient justification, or correct, I later met Fluffy and regaled him with the tale - and he had bought the same beer the night before at the Ale House Sheffield for £2.80 a pint. And Steve the Beermeister regularly finds their beers good value at around £2.50 to £3.50 a pint in Hastings in super expensive Sussex. So, erm, WTF!?
Given the above its interesting to consider how the Tap's guest beers may fair in future. A not unusual beer at well over £1.50 above the going rate is unlikely to sell, so given the excellence and sensible pricing of the in-house beers, I wonder whether the pricing policy might backfire?
Wee Beefy.
I was in the Sheffield Tap the other day having a quick one before meeting a friend, and wanted a pint to see me sated whilst I waited.
Recently I'd opted for a pint of one of the excellent Tapped Brewing Co beers whilst there. Because they are very good, whilst also sensibly priced. Most Tapped BC beers average £3.00 a pint, broadly comparable with the Rutland nearby. Other prices, though, seem to get a bit silly. With Tapped being a rather good brewery with great hop forward (but balanced) beers in their repertoire, one wonders how that might impact on the sale of guest beers.....
I always thought the Tap guest beer policy was based on " this is rare so you will pay more" given the absurd premiums applied - the fact that numerous below HSBD beers have still been ridiculous in price can only be explained by either the pub taking the piss, the suppliers taking the piss, or the "novelty value of ales" being exploited. As a case in point, on that occasion I spotted Dark Star Porter, which I craved.....
One of the great improvements to the Tap is the willingness of staff to inform you when a price is, ahem, higher than you could reasonably expect. The beer was (following a check on the brewery website) 5.6%. It was £4.60 a pint. With this information available, I politely declined. The barman informed me "Yeah, Dark Star beers are very expensive".
Well, irrespective of whether I think that is sufficient justification, or correct, I later met Fluffy and regaled him with the tale - and he had bought the same beer the night before at the Ale House Sheffield for £2.80 a pint. And Steve the Beermeister regularly finds their beers good value at around £2.50 to £3.50 a pint in Hastings in super expensive Sussex. So, erm, WTF!?
Given the above its interesting to consider how the Tap's guest beers may fair in future. A not unusual beer at well over £1.50 above the going rate is unlikely to sell, so given the excellence and sensible pricing of the in-house beers, I wonder whether the pricing policy might backfire?
Wee Beefy.
Thursday, 7 February 2013
Room with a phew.
Hello,
last night I got to the new brewery room at the Sheffield Tap (formerly a dining room, situated to the far left as you look from the outside). Having become convinced it was a fairytale or trick to frustrate me, I was relieved to discover that you really could just walk in, sit down, soak up the fab vistas, and, one assumes had I arrived earlier, watch beer being made.
Meanwhile I had two fab beers to keep me company - half a Marble Stout, which was excellent, like almost all Marble beer is, and a Junionaire (most probably not the name, but Sheff Tap FB page deactivated so no idea what is on!) from Thornbridge, brewed by young people. Somewhere. Admittedly this paucity of detail is a reporting failure, but I assure you I was too mesmerised by the grandeur of the brewery room to care.
Interestingly, it was surprising how many people seemed to arrive and then immediately walk out - but then, yer can't ignore the fact that there's nowt as queer as folk.
One slight downside to my visit was the much vaunted arrival of Kissmeyer beer in keg, and a forthcoming meet the brewer event. Not that meeting a fermenty spargey chap is a bad thing, just that the beer from said brewery took the piss in terms of price.
Of course, one could suggest that the fault of the heinous over pricing should lay fairly and squarely with the retailer, but am not so sure. In a pub where people wee themselves at the chance to buy the "latest" and most talked about (dear God, trending?) beer, no matter what the price, you can't blame the Tap for putting on something unusual even if its cost is astronomic. However, I wonder how much of the eye watering cost is profit, especially if the producer is taking the piss?
Lets face it Denmark's craft beer isn't cheap - but the argument for buying Mikkeller is that its renownedly excellent. So it could be a country thing. I realise Carlsberg isn't expensive, but then, the likelihood is, any you buy in the UK is brewed in the UK.
I like to think that Thornbridge and Magic Rock are a great example of brewers setting the bar higher than most of us would like to jump. Recent excellence in a bottle has made me less begrudging of that ethos regarding Thornbridge; likewise the stupendous Bearded Lady and Human Cannonball offerings from Magic Rock have done the same. Thornbridge in particular though seem to trade on an "our beer is simply excellent so you should pay more than the going rate for it" business outlook. So maybe Kissmeyer think they are likewise uber fantastic?
I say they, but the blurb on the Tinternet is all about one guy, Anders Kissmeyer. He could still be incredibly certain of his own brilliance though.....
The final puzzle is that being keg, I don't think there is an expected extra cost that would come with a Keykeg. I don't think continental kegs are single use, yet, I don't know for certain that this was in a conventional continental keg.
For info, the beer was called (I wrote it down as "f*ck that" but sense I may have been having a giraffe), was 7.%, and was £4.40 a half. Making it as, or possibly more, expensive than Magic Rock Bearded Lady - yet being 3.5% weaker, and below the HSB duty limit, and not definitely being in a single use container.
Lastly, Mikkeller and Magic Rock and Thornbridge have a really good reputation. I am willing to be wrong here, but I suspect Kissmeyer doesn't have the same enigma. Perhaps if it did (bearing in mind no tasters were available), I might have been willing to fork out for a half.
Wee Beefy
last night I got to the new brewery room at the Sheffield Tap (formerly a dining room, situated to the far left as you look from the outside). Having become convinced it was a fairytale or trick to frustrate me, I was relieved to discover that you really could just walk in, sit down, soak up the fab vistas, and, one assumes had I arrived earlier, watch beer being made.
Meanwhile I had two fab beers to keep me company - half a Marble Stout, which was excellent, like almost all Marble beer is, and a Junionaire (most probably not the name, but Sheff Tap FB page deactivated so no idea what is on!) from Thornbridge, brewed by young people. Somewhere. Admittedly this paucity of detail is a reporting failure, but I assure you I was too mesmerised by the grandeur of the brewery room to care.
Interestingly, it was surprising how many people seemed to arrive and then immediately walk out - but then, yer can't ignore the fact that there's nowt as queer as folk.
One slight downside to my visit was the much vaunted arrival of Kissmeyer beer in keg, and a forthcoming meet the brewer event. Not that meeting a fermenty spargey chap is a bad thing, just that the beer from said brewery took the piss in terms of price.
Of course, one could suggest that the fault of the heinous over pricing should lay fairly and squarely with the retailer, but am not so sure. In a pub where people wee themselves at the chance to buy the "latest" and most talked about (dear God, trending?) beer, no matter what the price, you can't blame the Tap for putting on something unusual even if its cost is astronomic. However, I wonder how much of the eye watering cost is profit, especially if the producer is taking the piss?
Lets face it Denmark's craft beer isn't cheap - but the argument for buying Mikkeller is that its renownedly excellent. So it could be a country thing. I realise Carlsberg isn't expensive, but then, the likelihood is, any you buy in the UK is brewed in the UK.
I like to think that Thornbridge and Magic Rock are a great example of brewers setting the bar higher than most of us would like to jump. Recent excellence in a bottle has made me less begrudging of that ethos regarding Thornbridge; likewise the stupendous Bearded Lady and Human Cannonball offerings from Magic Rock have done the same. Thornbridge in particular though seem to trade on an "our beer is simply excellent so you should pay more than the going rate for it" business outlook. So maybe Kissmeyer think they are likewise uber fantastic?
I say they, but the blurb on the Tinternet is all about one guy, Anders Kissmeyer. He could still be incredibly certain of his own brilliance though.....
The final puzzle is that being keg, I don't think there is an expected extra cost that would come with a Keykeg. I don't think continental kegs are single use, yet, I don't know for certain that this was in a conventional continental keg.
For info, the beer was called (I wrote it down as "f*ck that" but sense I may have been having a giraffe), was 7.%, and was £4.40 a half. Making it as, or possibly more, expensive than Magic Rock Bearded Lady - yet being 3.5% weaker, and below the HSB duty limit, and not definitely being in a single use container.
Lastly, Mikkeller and Magic Rock and Thornbridge have a really good reputation. I am willing to be wrong here, but I suspect Kissmeyer doesn't have the same enigma. Perhaps if it did (bearing in mind no tasters were available), I might have been willing to fork out for a half.
Wee Beefy
Thursday, 3 January 2013
Clear, but not as mud.
Hello,
aside from my exotic purchase of a beer that didn't meet my expectations (as covered in my previous post) I have seen a couple of other bloggers mention strong beers and prices recently - but in contrasting ways. Whilst Steve at the Beer Meisters blog here recorded the prices of Dark Star Imperial Stout in the Hastings area, Timbo at A Swift One made a plea here for 2013 to be a year when prices were fairer, and expressed his frustration at the high price of Keykeg "craft" beer in, "craft beer" establishments. Whatever Craft beer is.... (only joking!)
aside from my exotic purchase of a beer that didn't meet my expectations (as covered in my previous post) I have seen a couple of other bloggers mention strong beers and prices recently - but in contrasting ways. Whilst Steve at the Beer Meisters blog here recorded the prices of Dark Star Imperial Stout in the Hastings area, Timbo at A Swift One made a plea here for 2013 to be a year when prices were fairer, and expressed his frustration at the high price of Keykeg "craft" beer in, "craft beer" establishments. Whatever Craft beer is.... (only joking!)
Given that Steve has seen, albeit locally brewed 10.5% beer on sale on cask for less than £5.00 a pint in two pubs in Sussex, yer know, in the Saaaaarf, where everything is expensive, it seems odd to me that supping in the North I have somehow sleepwalked into a mindset where anything above the idiotic beer duty punishment threshold gets to be acceptably £7.00 a pint. Which throws up a few questions..
Firstly - am I going soft? Wibble. And when the hell did this happen? Could it be that endless sessions in Thornbridge pubs and the Sheffield Tap plus my visits to North Bar and Port Street Beer House and the like has led me to form a skewed picture of how much beer should cost? The Keykeg Arbor Ales beer at 12% was on at below a fiver a pint at the White Swan in Chesterfield as was the Keg Anchor Old Foghorn (what a coup by the way!) at Shakespeares in Sheffield. If the excuse for Keykeg costing more is that the container is single use then why is that not always the case?
Also, why are some brewers forging ahead with putting everything into Keykeg dispense? Where is the justification for supplying locally in Keykegs, and for putting much lower strength beer in them? One of the things about Keykeg as a dispense method is that its usually used for stronger beers, indeed, it pains me to concede that often they are suited better to that dispense (eeeurrgh, that feels icky). But is this a smokescreen? Because take off the alleged 80p difference per pint from cask, and it still ends up being 2 or 3 quid more!
Having taken a much needed breath and sought an oft missing "grip" I can now provide the start of an explanation, if not something as radical as a defence.
We don't know what pricing/purchasing arrangements the pubs in Hastings have with Dark Star. And we don't know for sciencertain that those quoted are correct (sorry Steve - assume every one is as lapse with the detail as I am!). Also, in the Shakespeares example, I don't know if the keg used was a trad or Keykeg - since its an American beer. I readily admit that I have come to associate all exotic none cask dispensed draught beer with Keykeg, and I'm not sure that's very helpful.
The final puzzle is, last year, I virtually popped a lung in apoplectic derision at Thornbridge Bracia selling for £9.60 a pint on cask at the Hallamshire House. Now, a year later, its the same price*, but its on Keykeg. I don't understand!
I know many beer bloggers have had this same disorientating sensation that their "pain barrier" of unacceptable expense has been withered away by a seamless procession of ever rarer, more exclusive and more preposterously expensive ingredient featuring beers from the darlings of UK and world brewing. So I don't expect any sympathy.
What I and all fellow sufferers could really do with is some inside knowledge. A brewer. Or a brewery owner. Or a bar owner. Someone who cares about beer, profit and customer experience (and there are thousands of you lets make that clear) who can honestly explain, counter or confirm any of the above points to me. I promise to share the results with erm, well, this blog. Too long for a tweet, one would hope.
Holding my breath now brewfolk...
Wee Beefy
*Mr Ash - I can't read your chalk board writing. Hence I couldn't work out if a half pint was £4.60 or £4.80. So if £9.60 is wrong, its your fault, basically....
Saturday, 14 April 2012
How much is too much?
O'rate,
I have seen quite a lot of coverage on beer blogs about the cost of stuff. Beer stuff, obviously. Boak and Bailey posted about it, and judging by the venue and product choices of many bloggers it seems theres more blog folks that will pay whatever is asked than there is who'll question or decline.
Personally am not keen on paying over the odds, and I suppose our old friend expectation comes into that. Also, having worked in the off trade (albeit before HSBD) I do have some understanding of costs, and often consider that what I'm being asked to pay is unreasonable.
Recently I have been to many establishments that have made me think about the point at which something is just too expensive, and how much people would be willing to pay and why. Here are a few examples :
A low gravity 500ml bottle in a shop, costing £4.00. (Its very rare, in that its possibly the only time the brewery have ever done a 500ml bottle, or sold them outside of their pub estate.)
A pint of aged beer in a pub retailing at £9.00 a pint. (The beer was aged for quite some time and was potentially only available on draught at a small number of venues. Its just as expensive in a bottle.)
A 500ml bottle of beer from a local brewery selling in a bar for about £6.00. (The bottles are hard to come by I understand.)
A pint of lower gravity beer (about 3.5%) sold in a pub as a guest for the same price as a 5.0% beer. (Its unusual to see the beer in the area.)
The first three examples are specific, the last one is more a general annoyance that you get in pubs.
Please note, there is no evidence that the above retailers aren't selling this stock. So why are people willing to pay so much for it? I have tried to suggest the reason I think the retailer is charging the stated price, because I'm interested to know what factors might make someone part with their cash for something that is more expensive either than you'd expect, or that you would consider acceptable.
If I'm buying beer, here are a few considerations that I may undertake :
Is it being sold at the going rate.
If its not, does it seem like there might be reasons why not.
Is it something I've always wanted to try, and if so does that justify buying it if the first two criteria aren't met
Will I get chance to buy it again
Is it limited edition (most likely with bottled conditioned ales, and Christ, that's a whole other can of worms)
If it meets none of the above criteria, but I am convinced it will be nice, shall I treat myself.*
Do you have similar considerations? For instance, is the rarity or otherwise unattainability of a product reason to pay more than you would normally? Or indeed, is cost an issue for you at all when buying something as relatively cheap as beer?
Wee Beefy
*I am not holding up the queue at the bar having this internal dialogue. Having a good idea of price and which beers I have tried/breweries I like means that probably only one or two of these considerations apply at any one time. These are a broad representation of what I might consider when buying ale. Which is perhaps for the best.
I have seen quite a lot of coverage on beer blogs about the cost of stuff. Beer stuff, obviously. Boak and Bailey posted about it, and judging by the venue and product choices of many bloggers it seems theres more blog folks that will pay whatever is asked than there is who'll question or decline.
Personally am not keen on paying over the odds, and I suppose our old friend expectation comes into that. Also, having worked in the off trade (albeit before HSBD) I do have some understanding of costs, and often consider that what I'm being asked to pay is unreasonable.
Recently I have been to many establishments that have made me think about the point at which something is just too expensive, and how much people would be willing to pay and why. Here are a few examples :
A low gravity 500ml bottle in a shop, costing £4.00. (Its very rare, in that its possibly the only time the brewery have ever done a 500ml bottle, or sold them outside of their pub estate.)
A pint of aged beer in a pub retailing at £9.00 a pint. (The beer was aged for quite some time and was potentially only available on draught at a small number of venues. Its just as expensive in a bottle.)
A 500ml bottle of beer from a local brewery selling in a bar for about £6.00. (The bottles are hard to come by I understand.)
A pint of lower gravity beer (about 3.5%) sold in a pub as a guest for the same price as a 5.0% beer. (Its unusual to see the beer in the area.)
The first three examples are specific, the last one is more a general annoyance that you get in pubs.
Please note, there is no evidence that the above retailers aren't selling this stock. So why are people willing to pay so much for it? I have tried to suggest the reason I think the retailer is charging the stated price, because I'm interested to know what factors might make someone part with their cash for something that is more expensive either than you'd expect, or that you would consider acceptable.
If I'm buying beer, here are a few considerations that I may undertake :
Is it being sold at the going rate.
If its not, does it seem like there might be reasons why not.
Is it something I've always wanted to try, and if so does that justify buying it if the first two criteria aren't met
Will I get chance to buy it again
Is it limited edition (most likely with bottled conditioned ales, and Christ, that's a whole other can of worms)
If it meets none of the above criteria, but I am convinced it will be nice, shall I treat myself.*
Do you have similar considerations? For instance, is the rarity or otherwise unattainability of a product reason to pay more than you would normally? Or indeed, is cost an issue for you at all when buying something as relatively cheap as beer?
Wee Beefy
*I am not holding up the queue at the bar having this internal dialogue. Having a good idea of price and which beers I have tried/breweries I like means that probably only one or two of these considerations apply at any one time. These are a broad representation of what I might consider when buying ale. Which is perhaps for the best.
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