May 16
Cash-strapped Drinkers Downgrade to Economy Beers
As people continue to watch their pennies, drinkers are are starting to trade down to economy beers, according to the CEO of Miller Brewer.
Well that is obvious in a slowing economy, The raised price of hops has not helped either,
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[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt As people continue to watch their pennies, drinkers are are starting to trade down to economy beers, according to the CEO of Miller Brewer. Well that is obvious in a slowing economy, The raised price of hops has not helped either, read more | digg storyAs people continue to watch their pennies, drinkers are are starting to trade down to economy beers, according to the CEO of Miller Brewer. Well that is obvious in a slowing economy, The raised price of hops has not helped either,read more | [...]
Reporting from the front lines in the beer wars, I can tell you that the price increases have been very uneven in Maine. For years, the cheapest beer in town was Pabst Blue Ribbon, and the price slowly rose over the years from about $4.99 a twelve pack six years ago to $5.99 last year. Then suddenly the price shot up to an utterly absurd $7.49. I stopped buying it even for cooking bratwurst. For some reason Budweiser has always been rather expensive in Maine. The cheapest stuff left at $5.99 a twelve pack is Old Milwaukee, a Stroh’s brand and not at all bad, never to be confused with Milwaukee’s Best. Most of the premium beers have not increased at all, especially surprising considering the weak dollar and increased shipping costs. St. Pauli Girl and Pilsner Urquell is still $6.99 or $7.99 a six pack depending on the seller. The American ales and micro lagers have held pretty steady on price, still slightly less than the premium imported lagers in most cases. The big surprise? Hard Cider has become very expensive and hard to find. Until the nineteenth century most Americans drank cider rather than beer, and farmers typically pressed and aged their own. The German and Czech immigrants popularized beer, and better cask and refrigeration technologies made cans of cold beer as much a part of the American way of life as denim miniskirts and unicorn tee-shirts on pierced and tatted receptacles named after jewelry manufacturers and components. “Thanks, Tiffany-Amber, I got a can of Old Style to wash that down for ya …” Anyway, cider has been “out” for over a century but could be found if you looked. It was briefly popular a few years ago, but now has become truly hard to find. Only large grocery stores and liquor retailers have it, and they usually only have one or two brands (Woodchuck is the most popular, but only one or two of its many varieties are usually stocked). The prices have gone WAY up, so that a sixpack of Woodchuck is now well over eight dollars in most cases. Just last year is could be had for $6.99 or less. Last year I even got to sample some of Woodchucks’ “Pear Cider” a week before it was supposed to hit the shelves (I have a source). Very tasty, I was sad to see it discontinued at my favorite store.