Two new microbreweries open in Chicago

$9 a six pack?!?!?!?! I love microbrewery beer, but not at that price.

Metropolitan's Flywheel is available as a single bottle (or six pack) at DiCarlo's in Mundelein. You can get single bottles there of just about every beer they carry. Had Flywheel this weekend and it was pretty good.

So what's a reasonable price for a microbrew 6-pack?

$6 to $7 per sixpack - tops.

Not that the Tribune has the staff or budget to do any reseach anymore...but, for microbreweries, there's also Emmett's Tavern & Brewing and Rock Bottom Brewery in the suburbs.

The price of microbrewed beer largely depends on their method of distribution. If they distribute out the door from the brewery, the cost would be less. However, if they have to use a distributor, the distributor needs to make money as well, hence the higher price tag.

Get Real wrote:

Not that the Tribune has the staff or budget to do any reseach anymore...but, for microbreweries, there's also Emmett's Tavern & Brewing and Rock Bottom Brewery in the suburbs.

I think the writer was focusing on local microbrews. Rock Bottom Brewery is a national chain.

"A six-pack of Half Acre costs about $9, depending upon the retailer..."

$9? Please be serious. There's more to that high price than simply the whim of a retailer. Hang the high price where it really belongs and not make the retailer the boggy-man here.

Optimist wrote:

The price of microbrewed beer largely depends on their method of distribution. If they distribute out the door from the brewery, the cost would be less.

And everyone involved would find the Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) knocking on their front door. Aside from the sale of growlers in brewpubs, brewers cannot directly sell their products to the public, not since the implementation of the 3-tier system, established after Repeal.

$9 isn't that bad when you consider that people pay $4.50 for bottled urine (all Miller and Busch products).

$9 is pretty average at your corner liquor store if you live in the city. We pay $7.99 or $8.99 for most decent beers at our corner store.

ALso, I think you should note that Brew PUBS are different than Microbrews... you can't buy Rock Bottom or other (more local) brew pubs beer at the store.

$9 for a six pack is very fair. I mean a single beer at a concert or ball game is an easy $5-$7.

For those who are moaning about paying what amounts of a dollar and a half a beer {$9 for six}, that's NOT an unreasonable sum for real beer. If you want average American lager, wait for me to recycle my real beer and I'll sell you the recycled goods for what your tastes and budgets are geared for. Just pour a little medical-grade alcohol into it, ice it up and you'll be as happy as were you sucking on your mother's teet.
American beer is an oxymoron to those with taste - outside of the micro-brewery markets that is.

Whoever marketed for these businesses should be shot! Lets see, Chicago's over the top sales tax on alcohol, Economic recession, all bar and restaurant businesses in Chicago down by an average of 45% and lets not forget $9 for a 6 pack. That seems like an ideal time to open a micro-brewery!

Get Real wrote:

$6 to $7 per sixpack - tops.

really? where can you get quality craft beer for $6 a six pack? And please don't say bud american ale, Leinies honey weiss or blue moon.....

Even at $10 per sixpack you're getting a better deal than a $4 bottle of wine.

you are all a bunch of losers!

Bob wrote:

<quoted text>
And everyone involved would find the Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) knocking on their front door. Aside from the sale of growlers in brewpubs, brewers cannot directly sell their products to the public, not since the implementation of the 3-tier system, established after Repeal.

Brewers can in fact sell their product directly to the public. Different states have different laws. In Oregon, a brewer can apply for a specific license that allows them to sell to the public or directly to retailers. I'm not sure if you are speaking specifically of Illinois, but that would be a violation of state law, rather than federal, so the policing body would not be the TTB, but the state regulatory body.

You guys are amazing.
$9 a six pack for craft beer!!

Considering at the moment I am in Australia. Domestic beer prices are about 15 dollars for a six pack, craft beer is 20-25 dollars a six pack.

American craft beer such as Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is around the 35 dollars a six pack area, and Rogue is more like 15 dollars a bottle!!!

To think you guys are complaining about beer for $1.50 each astounds me. You don't know how good you have it.

Josh

PS the above figures are local figures, reduce the amounts by approx 25% to get a comparative US dollar equivalent

Get Real wrote:

Not that the Tribune has the staff or budget to do any reseach anymore...but, for microbreweries, there's also Emmett's Tavern & Brewing and Rock Bottom Brewery in the suburbs.

Thats because they are chains, not the same...