This story was first written as a sidebar for the one archived in The Library about why paying more for beer may benefit us all.

Sidebars don’t work all that well in this format, so I’m turning it into a basic post (with a note it was written in the summer of 2005). The idea is that looking at specific beers you will get a feel for why one beer may cost more than another - other than some guy in a store or restaurant deciding to put a higher price on it.

Alaskan Amber
Why: Ingredients, location
Let’s start with the idea that a beer can be “only” 5% abv and worth a premium price. Just about everything costs more in Alaska, so of course you’ll pay a bit more for Alaskan Amber in a campground store at Denali National Park. Operating a brewery in Alaska has special challenges, a reason why Alaskan was the first craft brewery in America to install a grain dryer for spent grain, lowering the cost to ship used grain back to the mainland.

Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel
Why: Ingredients, transportation
A rich and complex lager being particularly high in alcohol (5% abv). It’s particularly important this be served fresh (and that boosts the price), but because it costs more sometimes it languishes on the shelf and then consumers complain it isn’t worth the price. Tough balance to strike.

Cantillon Lou Pepe Kriek
Why: Ingredients, production time, transportation
Retailing at $22-30 per bottle on-premise, this Belgian import pretty much defines the top end of what consumers call a fair price. A modest 5% abv, this well-aged lambic from oak barrels is made with whole schaerbeek cherries, and twice the quantity as in other krieks.

Great Divide Hercules Double IPA
Why: Ingredients, production time
Hercules, 9.5% abv and 85 IBU, is one of the best examples of the relatively new Double (or Imperial) India Pale Ale style. At $4.49 or so for a 22-ounce bottle, the Colorado beer isn’t exactly expensive. “Compared to our everyday session beers like DPA (Denver Pale Ale), our big beers have 50% to 75% more malt and substantially more hops,” said Great Divide co-founder Brian Dunn. “Not only do they have a lot more ingredients, but they also take two to four times as long to brew.”

Jolly Pumpkin La Roja
Why: Ingredients, equipment
Everything costs more when your brewery is small, and Jolly Pumpkin is more like tiny. Jolly Pumpkin owner-brewer Ron Jeffries ages his French-Belgian inspired beers in wood and bottle conditions them in heavy-duty brown champagne bottles. They generally sell for $6.49 to $7.99 per 750ml bottle, with special issues costing more.

Orval
Why: Ingredients, production time, transportation
Although the Belgian Trappist brewery has made fermentation changes that shorten production time by a day at the front end, the beer still undergoes three weeks of secondary fermentation and five weeks of bottle conditioning in the brewery. Batches intended for the United States have their own labels, so bottling and final conditioning don’t begin until importer Merchant du Vin places an order.

Rogue Chocolate Stout
Why: Ingredients
Some beers taste of chocolate but don’t use it as an ingredient. Rogue includes chocolate malts, real chocolate and rolled oats to develop a striking bittersweet character. Should chocolate make the beer cost more? Young’s Double Chocolate (at about $2.99 for a 500ml) bottle costs a little less per ounce than Rogue (usually $4.99 for a 22-ounce bottle), and both are less than Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock ($14 for a 750ml bottle).

Southampton Publick House Cuvee de Fleurs
Why: Ingredients, uniqueness, inefficiency
At $10 or more for a 750ml bottle, this saison has heft (7.7% abv) and finesse (flavored with edible flowers). The 660 bottles in the 2005 batch moved quickly even though they cost more than much heralded import Saison Dupont. “We are definitely a more inefficient operation than Dupont,” said brewer Phil Markowski, who wrote the book Farmhouse Ales and knows the Dupont brewery well. “(And) we hand bottle and hand label; it doesn’t get much more inefficient than that.”

Three Floyds Dark Lord
Why: Ingredients
One of many cult beers (AleSmith Speedway Stout aged in bourbon barrels is another example of similar style) produced in such small quantities that relatively few have heard of them. The brewery describes this as a “gargantuan Russian (Imperial) Stout brewed with Starbucks coffee, molasses, and honey; 13% abv” and the resulting beer has the consistency of motor oil. Aficionados drove from as far a Connecticut and Georgia in the spring of 2005 to stand in line for three hours and more to pay $15 for a 22-ounce bottle (or $150 for a 12-bottle case) at the brewery’s door in the Munster, Ind.

Kapuziner Weisse
Why: Ingredients, transportation
Let’s finish with one more reminder that a beer doesn’t have to be expensive or “over the top” to deliver classic flavor, one that when fresh startles those unfamiliar with the weizen style. At $2.19 for a 500ml bottle competes with American-brewed craft beers on price, as well as other German weisse beers at $7.99 a six-pack.

Posted: September 19th, 2006 under What should you pay?.