Three days a week I work in a wool shop. And at least once a day, I can guarantee that someone will complain to me about our yarn being too expensive. In reply, I explain about the quality of our yarn, or non-concomitantly shrug my shoulders. I have to answer their rudeness with a polite answer. It is a regular downside to my job.
So when I get home from work to one of my favourite hobbies, I’m a little disappointed to find similar complaints. Browsing through the blogs, I come across a post from an Auckland blogger where I have to wade through a dozen sentences complaining about the overly high price of the beer before he talks about the taste. While he is complimentary of the taste, it does receive far fewer sentences. He’s not alone in his complaints – the beer geek’s lament of the expensive pint is oft heard in pubs and bars. But I have to ask anyone who complains about the price of beer – do you know any rich brewers? Any brewers who work fewer than 50 hours a week? Any craft beer bar owners who are rolling in money? And most of all – is anyone forcing you to buy that beer?
I tried to calm down, reminding myself that everyone is entitled to their opinion and no one was forcing me to read such posts. I gave up on blogs and turned over to Twitter…where one of New Zealand’s best craft breweries had just posted ‘Beervana appears to be extortion this year. Expensive for brewers and punters. Only one person gains here. We need our own locally run fest’. I’m happy to say that Beervana calmly defended itself, pointing out that Beervana 2011 didn’t make a cent of profit and the aim of 2012 was to break even. This was supported by evidence provided by other Tweeters, such as, if inflation is taken into account the price for punters is only $1.50, Beervana will need ten thousand visitors to break even, and the stall price is comparable to trade shows in other industries. And most of all no one is forcing them to participate. Breweries are quite within their rights to balance the costs and benefits of participating and decide whether to take out a stand. But to announce on a public forum that it is too expensive – extortionist even? That’s unprofessional and ultimately counter-product if you do decide to pay the price – because you’re putting punters off attending, reducing the value of the stand.
To put it bluntly: brewers aren’t robbers, pubs aren’t thieves and festival organisers aren’t extortionists. These are all people who are passionate about beer and want to raise its profile, and yes, make some money along the way – because money allows them to keep doing what they love. You can support them by paying what they ask or you can decide to spend your money elsewhere. It’s your choice and no one’s forcing you either way.
Just Another Beer Blog 
June 20, 2012 at 9:12 am
I’m SO hot right now… 😉 Keep talking capitalist to me baby!
OK, seriously… agree totally, though because I am me, I will take it even further.
Beervana felt the need to point out that they don’t make a cent of profit. The implication being that it would be wrong to do so. When did the idea of making a profit become such an evil thing in the eyes of most of the freakin’ world? Everybody seems to forget that all the cool stuff we love is brought to us by people who do what they do in order to make money – to put food on their tables, clothes on their backs, buy the things they want to make their lives better, and even (yes! really!) help other people. Now, do craft brewers do what they do for love? Of course! Would they still do it if they made no money at it? Well, some actually do, but most just couldn’t afford to. Bye bye (insert beer you love here).
In short, Kate is 100% on the money. If you don’t like it, simply vote with your wallets. Whinging about “extortion” is poor form as well as being factually incorrect.
Rock on Kate!
June 20, 2012 at 9:33 am
Well said Kate.
As for the “expensive pint”- those who complain have a pretty short memory for the poor-quality beer they used to buy before craft took off. Craft is pulling New Zealand beer up by its own bootstraps, which we should all be happy about. Even as a home brewer I find it impossible to begrudge paying for a well-made, interesting, quality pint.
If people are bothered by the cost of beer, let’s start having a conversation about excise. Maybe it’s not all that fair to tax small producers at the same rate when there’s a real difference in the way that craft and mega-swill are consumed.
June 20, 2012 at 9:45 am
Douglas, where’s my “Like” button?
June 20, 2012 at 9:51 am
Ditto… If you’re going to complain about the price at least make it a complaint about the taxes =)
June 20, 2012 at 10:32 am
The problem is people thing beer is ment to be cheap and nasty and never really have gotten over that mindset.
People look at me in horror when they ask how much I’ve paid for different type of beers. Yeah so what? I dropped $220 on a slab of Rochefor 10’s.. Or paid $60 for a single bottle of Holgate Breweries Empress..
Or imported Tactical Nuclear Penguin, Sink the Bismark and Royal Varility for $180
So what? They look aghast.. But then the winning point is: how much have you spent on a bottle of Wine?
Why should it be acceptible for wine to be 500+ for a bottle of grange, but spending 15 bucks for a pint a no no? Or a $100 on a port, $70 on a vodka.. whatever…
Dont even get me started on resturant prices for wine….
There is a lot of push to get people to drink “craft beer” without the education that goes with it.
“Premium” products attract premium prices. It’s that way life works and I totally agree. Get over it.
June 20, 2012 at 10:53 am
Of course, that leads to the discussion on whether it’s worth paying that price for the quality/enjoyment you receive. Only the individual consumer can decide that, and they should decide it with their wallet. Not all craft is great. Not all BigBeerCo beer is bad. “Worth it” is the point where you feel you’ve got $X enjoyment out of what’s in your glass.
June 25, 2012 at 11:03 pm
I am the beer guy in a “wine store” and have this exact argument with people everyday…
June 20, 2012 at 10:54 am
I agree with you Kate. Putting aside the business aspects (where the beer is priced accordingly to cover overheads, labour, excise and profit), fundamentally this issue is about how value is perceived. Many punters don’t blink twice about paying $10-18 for a glass of wine, a cocktail, or a single malt whisky in a pub, bar or restaurant, because there is the belief that they are getting good value for their dollar. However, for beer this is not always the case, which suggests the legacy of our beer drinking history holds sway – beer is seen as a cheaper commodity to be drunk in quantity. I suspect this even passes through the back of the mind of many a beer geek when standing at the bar – it’s only natural.
Obviously, this is changing and beer is slowly gaining acceptance as a valued drink it its own right.
As for the cost of beer itself, I don’t think it is too high – rather our wages are too low!
June 20, 2012 at 10:58 am
That post took over 30min to write, interrupted by two phone calls, and I see Allan has already said it…:)
June 20, 2012 at 3:51 pm
What are these people on about? Damn, I’m constantly amazed at how CHEAP craft beer is in bars. The price difference between a pint of craft and a pint of, say, Tui is drastically smaller than the difference in a bottle of craft and an equivilant volume of swill at a supermarket / bottleshop. It seems to me that bar and supermarket prices for craft beer approach parity, and the bar is sometimes cheaper! Which is AWESOME. So thanks, craft bar people and brewers.
June 22, 2012 at 8:12 pm
I’m proud to admit to being a dirty Capitalist but let’s remember there are two important sides to this equation – producers and consumers, each with opposing interests. Consumers voting quietly with their wallet is honourable but doing it publicly may in fact be more effective (as long as it’s fair and producers can respond). We as craft beer consumers seem intent on handing over as much money as possible to small, inefficient artisial brewers (with a collaborate, group hug thrown in). If consumers really care about maximising good beer at a good price we should probably encourage the ‘big boys’ to get into it as we’ll get much better value or at least push for some competition. Because, let’s face it – the only difference between craft beer and mega-swill is the ingredients used. If brewers can’t make a profit they should quietly vote with their feet and try their hand at something else. Home brewing is always there for them as a hobby.
June 24, 2012 at 6:09 pm
Are you suggesting craft beer is over-priced because brewers are inefficient? If so, I would like to strongly disagree. Craft breweries are constantly looking for way to improve how they brew and getting the most they can out of their ingredients and kit.
The only difference between the ‘big boys’ and the ‘smaller lads’ is not the ingredients – are you aware that Lion brews the smaller batch sizes of the Mac’s range with considerable difficulty on their kit? Lion and DB are set up to brew very large batches, making it very difficult to make smaller, more experimental batches – and experimentation is at the heart of craft brewing.
Consumers are well within their rights to vote with their wallet – I’m not arguing otherwise. What I am advocating is that we should pay well for quality.
May 1, 2013 at 11:25 pm
These two posts reminded me of conversations last week with three of the Crafty Buggers brewers and one of the Lion marketing dudes, which will form part of an upcoming Beervana blog post on where to buy good beer offpremise in AKL (20 ROOLY decent places!)
In essence, despite admitting it was a marketing-based brand, the Lion brewers said their beer is just as good as any out there and uses same ingreds,
so “the only difference between craft beer and mega-swill is the ingredients used.”
is in fact
“the only difference is craft is brewed for the best flavour expression possible, and mega-swill is brewed based on a marketing plan to target a segment not already met, which yields unexciting, mediochre beer BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT THE MARKET RESEARCH TOLD THEM.” Then you work backwards from there and figure out what you have to make. Which is meh. How you do that using the same ingredients, state of the art kit, AND a qualification to put it together, boggles the mind.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with them, they are good brewers, they make beer well. Safe beer, nice beer, perfect beer, marketing beer. Meh beer.
Drink authenticity. Not marketing.
May 1, 2013 at 11:28 pm
Orrrrr, more on-topic, don’t pay to drink marketing, pay to drink authenticity,