Beer Prices v. Wine Prices

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by bscottskangum

I realize it was a clarification of the question, I quoted you since you were the easiest to get to .... or should I say that I quoted you because your clarification was concise and to the point

Aw, shucks.

[Salvelinus]

For 2009, craft brewery sales represented 4.3 percent of volume and 6.9 percent of retail dollars of the $101 billion U.S. beer industry, the association reports.http://www.mlive.com/kalamabrew/inde...7_percent.html

There just aren't that many people out there educated about good beer. On the off chance they might pick up a craft six pack they probably get turned off by the fact that it doesn't taste like the other three beers they have had (bud,miller,coors) and therefore can't understand why you would pay so much for that crap (their words not mine).

[WildBlueSooner]

Beer is good!
Wine is good!

What is the question again?

[captain53]

Originally Posted by Resipsa

So I'm standing in my beer b&m last night eyeballing another sixer of North Coast Old Stock Ale with a little voice in my head whispering......$14.00 is a lot to pay for a six pack of beer.

Operating from the premise that one six pack of beer is the equivalent of one bottle of wine, at least in terms of AB/ABW, etc.

And I'm thinking. Is it? Is it really? If you haven't had the pleasure, Old Stock Ale is 12.5% alcohol ABV , and INCREDIBLY complex. This is one fantastic ale. And at 12.5% alcohol, one beer is the equivalent of 3 regular beers (or regular glasses of wine) , eg. Bud or Miller. And ads notwithstanding, it really does TASTE GREAT

Even if it was a regular alcohol level, I guess I still wouldn't understand. 14.00 bucks for an outstanding beer, one of the best in it's class, vs. 14.00 for wine. what is 14.00 for wine going to get you?

The point I'm trying to make is that you can buy unbelievably fantastic beer for starting around the $9.00 a sixer range and going up, but most people, absent beerophiles, balk at that, yet will willingly spend $25.00 on a low end, middle of the road bottle of wine. I dont' get it. Is it the snobbery? That beer is "low class"? What is it?

I just see it as personal preference, priority, taste and budget not necessarily related to social class or financial well being. Just like Cigars folks tend to buy what they like and drink what they buy....... for whatever reason.

I don't think anything of paying $80 for a bottle of Lagavulin but cringe at the sound of $14/6 beer but that does not mean I don't understand your enjoying the $14 beer.