In the past few months a bit of chatter over the slight rise in the cost of beer has risen over the various media venues.  This is to be expected as weakened dollar and fragile global economy has and will continue to drive up the cost of commodities.  Externally influenced factors aside, there has also been a bit of a buzz over higher priced beers whose cost is influenced by factors other than market fluctuations.  There are numerous factors that affect the price of any given beer, and I need not head down a rabbit trail that's already been paved, but I do want to address this particular cause of disgruntlement, as I saw a great case of "expensive beer shock disorder" tonight. At my usual bottle shop tonight I examined a 750 ml bottle of Brooklyn Brewery's latest release of Black Ops, again, for the second week in a row.  There was a certain amount of hype going into the release of this beer, and rightfully so.  The ever respectable Garret Oliver put a considerable amount of TLC into this beer:  11.6%, aged in oak bourbon barrels, and bottle conditioned with champagne yeast. I first saw Black Ops over a weak ...

Here is a continuation of our series on what factors affect the price of beer.  The rest of the posts can be found here. The law of supply and demand seems like a simple concept.  Almost everyone takes the idea for granted, but it's amazing how little we actually think about it.  In a consumer based economy, this law is a pillar to purchasing.  Simply stated, there is a certain amount of a given commodity; let's say beer could be the one we'll talk about.  There is not an infinite supply of a given beer.  Naturally, this is irrelevant if no one wants said beer, but the real sticking point may be seen when a lot of people want the beer.  Ideally, the amount of beer will meet (or come close to meeting) the desire for it. The reality is that if more people want a given beer than there is of that beer, brewers are in a position to charge, within reason, what they want for the products.  The ideal position for a brewer seems to fall firmly within this sphere of economic situation.  Of course, care must be taken not to extort nor to alienate one's customer base, so brewers ...

So far in an ongoing series that explains the higher price of craft beer over macro beer, Mike has written three fantastic articles on Hops, Grain and Yeast.  In an intentional, and hopefully not boring, deviation from the ingredient nature of the series, I am going to write briefly on an uncontrollable variable in the craft beer price equation:  Inflation. While it has been argued by certain economists, namely from the Austrian school of economics (I.E. Rothbard, Mises), that inflation should not exist in a free economy, a free economy (minimal government interference in an organic market) is a pipe dream.  Thus, inflation is inevitable.  Just ask your grandparents how much they paid for a Coke when they were kids or reflect on the first time you filled up your tank of gas as a teenager. So how does inflation affect the price of beer, namely craft beer? To begin with, inflation has been significantly driving up the cost of beer since this site was launched a bit over a year ago.  You may find yourself cringing as you shell out $12 bucks for that six pack of Dogfish Head, especially when you recall paying around $11 just 2 years ago.  What happened? Two ...

Continuing our series on factors (including grains and hops) that contribute to the higher cost of craft beers, let's take a look at yeast.  There are many types of yeast that can be used in brewing.  Oftentimes, a brewer will use more than one yeast in a particular brew.  For instance, a lot of the sour beers that have become more popular in the marketplace use multiple strains. Obviously, the more specialty yeasts or variety of types a brewer uses, the higher the cost of the product. A corresponding lessening of cost is associated with fewer yeast strains.  Our macro brewing friends mostly use one consistent lager strain, so there is lesser cost for those who use this one strain.  Micro brewers, on the other hand, make a variety of styles, include multiple strain styles in a beer, and some even use fresh yeast to bottle carbonate/condition their beer (again, this is extra money for the brewer). So, where does all this yeast come from?  Large brewers are able to purchase lab equipment, propagating equipment, and storage space for yeast specimens, which they keep in house.  Their ability to do this pays the expensive equipment off over the course of time.  They ...

In my last post that dealt with the cost of beer, I mentioned the impact of grains.  My expatiation was plenty for many of you.  And since "brevity is the sole of wit, brief let me be."  Hops are important on various levels for making a beer.  There was a time in history when they were not a major part of beers, but that time is long gone.  Why?  I think partly because hops were found to be ideal for the various parts of beer production.  This includes everything from fermentation to shelf-life.  Yet many people don't understand that different beers use different amounts of hops. As a crop, hops have only really been widely used in beer for a few hundred years.  Some will point to their incipient and early uses, but they are a recent phenomenon in brewing.  Be that as it may, they are certainly now the premiere crop for giving beer aroma, bitterness, fermentation health and life span. Since they are now one of the basic building blocks of beer, let's see what role they play in the cost of a beer. The first thing to remember is that hops only grow well in certain climate types.  Since ...

It is absolutely amazing to see the amount of work that goes into the beer making process.  Doubly amazing is the fact that beer was an accidental discovery.  After the grains were found to be edible, people quickly discovered that cooking/drying it gave a better flavor, greater degree of mallibitlity, and more stable shelf life. Thus, humans had a source of food that lasted longer than their normal sources that were subject to immediate decay.  Not long after that, some of the grain seems to be accidentally wetted...and beer was born. We've written this elsewhere, so I won't linger too long.  This intro is more of a segway to our current situation.  Maybe this article will seem frenetic and metier in nature, but I want to make clear that beer is not an easy commodity to make. Have you ever heard those souls who claim that craft or import beer is artificially inflated?  Essentially, the claimant appeals to the snobbery of the drinker.  In addition, there is an underlying assumption that all beers are created equal. Fortunately, no poor fool has been so imprudent to mention the above ideas around me in a long time. Most of what I have to say ...