I've had some great session beers like Pinner, DayTime, Stone Go To, All Day, Introvert, etc. but is anyone else annoyed when you go to the store and the 6 pack prices are the same for these as other craft beer? Shouldn't the price be cheaper when I compare it to beer like Two Hearted, Dale's, Stone IPA, etc when the alcohol is lower?
Session Beer
- Thread starter dmclone
- Start date
The cost of making beer is all in the equipment and labor. The price difference for grain and hops between a session ale and a normal gravity IPA are pretty nominal. It doesn't take as much grain or hops to make a session beer, but it still takes just as much time.
I probably drink All Day the most, but I think my favorite session ale right now is Ballast Point Even Keel. Only problem with Even Keel is it is $12 for a six pack, which is still a little cheaper than Sculpin for $14.Can get a 15 pack of All Day for $16.
Also been drinking Boulevard Pop-Up and Victory Swing session saison quite a bit.
Also been drinking Boulevard Pop-Up and Victory Swing session saison quite a bit.
I was in San Diego a few months ago and Sculpin is as common as Miller Lite is in most of the country in stores, restaurants and bars. It's pretty common in LA too, I wouldn't call it the #1, that's maybe still Sierra Nevada or something, but you can't go many places without seeing it.
This is mostly right. Hoppy stuff does tend to cost a little more to make, particularly the varieties with harder to find (read: more expensive) hops. It mostly boils down to scale, though. The amount of labor it takes to produce beer really doesn't change as the size of the system goes up. If you have identical systems aside from size, a 30bbl batch takes about the same amount of time and effort as a 3bbl batch. And on those systems, it takes the same amount of work (roughly) to make a 10% belgian as it does a 3% belgian. You still have to pay for packaging and transport and labor and all the other stuff that goes into it. The raw ingredients generally aren't a huge contribution to price in the grand scheme of things (though it does matter a great deal more when you're selling wholesale vs. retail).
I look at the session/non-session debate as more about what you enjoy drinking and quality beer at low ABV.
