Real price of a six pack

If this topic has been covered, feel free to let me know.

So went to a convenient store today for some beer. I was looking at New Belgium’s Abbey (wasn’t feeling a super hoppy beer), that was retailing for $8.99 for a six pack. So was Shiner’s 101, a pilsner. I went for the Abbey, because 101 isn’t very good, but it got me thinking.

I realize there’s huge variation in terms of the recipe, but for your average craft brewery, what is the brewery cost for a six pack of beer? Since the store is making a 25%-40% markup, and they are marked up from the distributor, etc, just curious how much it cost to produce a six pack of beer.

Sale price- store markup - distributor markup - federal, state and local taxes = xxxx?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

There are also economies of scale in the size of production, would also greatly vary by the recipe (how much malt, hops, aging time required)...but after that, I don’t know...

Are you talking about production costs? It varies.

The ’real price’ is what you’re willing to pay for it.

Certainly a fraction of what we end up paying for it, especially with the draconian three tier system we have. I would guess somewhere between a third and half of what we pay for it, but I am very interested to hear if anyone knows an actual number or percentage.

The price of the brewery is part of the real price. I’ve heard of as little as 200k getting something going. 2 million is also done very easily.

This is not a negligible REAL cost of producing the beer.

Neither is labor, energy and other operating costs.

I’ve heard the ingredients themselves are very cheap. Fritz Maytag had a story where someone approached him and said, "So I heard that a bottle of Anchor Steam only has 25 cents worth of ingredients in it."

"That’s true," Fritz replied. "But the first bottle, cost me two million dollars."

$1.64

Originally posted by CanIHave4Beers
$1.64

I was told today that for the average mid-size brewery (NB, Pyramid, Shiner, etc.) is marked up about $30/keg (in Texas) by a distributor. The brewery has about $10 marked up when they sell it to the distributor.

I don’t know if it is true, but is sounds about right.

I think sometimes price comes first. The brewery has a beer that they are going to target at $7.99 to compete with beers at that price point. Then they try and make money on that beer. A small brewery will loose money initially. As they grow their volume they switch from loosing to slowing making money to making more money. The price stays at $7.99. They make enough to invent in more equipment and loose money again for a while until the volume grows to fully utilize and pay for the new equipment. The price stays at $7.99. What was the cost? I think Fritz has the right answer at $2M. Plus a lot of sweat and stressful sleepless nights.

Yea, put the brakes on this one.... while doing the research and due-diligence for my own brewery... 6-pack beer is the most expensive form of packaging per volume beer and the retail price usually has little room for variance compared to larger format packaging... you are 10x more likely to feel the effects of retailer mark-up on any other package besides 6-packs. Eating dinner now but will chime in more later... =p

Originally posted by kp
I think sometimes price comes first. The brewery has a beer that they are going to target at $7.99 to compete with beers at that price point. Then they try and make money on that beer. A small brewery will loose money initially. As they grow their volume they switch from loosing to slowing making money to making more money. The price stays at $7.99. They make enough to invent in more equipment and loose money again for a while until the volume grows to fully utilize and pay for the new equipment. The price stays at $7.99. What was the cost? I think Fritz has the right answer at $2M. Plus a lot of sweat and stressful sleepless nights.