Portland Beer Price Index: Autumn 2014

Are you surprised to hear the price of beer is going up?  The Portland Beer Price Index isn't.  Here are the numbers I gathered around Portland on the equinox:

• 6-packs: $9.69, up 3 cents
• 22-ounce bombers: $5.58, down 4 cents
• 6-packs (sale price): $8.97, up 6 cents
• 22-ounce bombers (sale price): $5.21, down 2 cents
• 16 oz. draft: $4.64 up 3 cents
• 16 oz. draft (happy hour): $3.85, up 6 cents

It looks weird that the average bomber prices went down.  It has to do with the strange gyrations of Hopworks IPA bomber prices, which have seemed almost random the last few months.  The shelf price of that beer fell $2.50 at one place I survey.  So that's the price drop.

Everything else is going up in price.  $9 seems like a lot for a six-pack.  I feel like I'm usually finding something I can stand under $8 (and a couple lucky $6 finds recently).  But these are just the averages of a fixed set of Oregon beers.

Speaking of which, since Laurelwood Red is now a six-pack beer and no longer in bombers (hooray!), I replaced that bomber with Base Camp In-Tents IPL.  (That change would also have changed last quarter's numbers, so the up/down numbers above are apples-to-apples as if Base Camp was in last time.)  The only hiccup there is that QFC doesn't carry Base Camp right now, but it's a pretty popular supermarket beer these days so I hope they will figure it out pretty soon.  Consult the PBPI configuration page for more information on the makeup of the index.  See you in three months.

Portland Beer Price Index, First Half of 2014

What if they had a beer price index and nobody came?  Apparently nothing, since I skipped reporting the PBPI for the spring quarter of 2014, and no one called me on it at all.  I did gather the data for that quarter, so I can show you the ever-rising chart.  My feelings aren't hurt, I went ahead and gathered the summer 2014 numbers, and now I'll report both at the same time.  The chart is for bomber prices, partly because of the dramatic 30-cent jump last quarter.  Here are the current numbers:

• 6-packs: $9.66, down 3 cents (Q1: -.01, Q2: -.02)
• 22-ounce bombers: $5.54, up 30 cents (Q1: +.30, Q2: -.00)
• 6-packs (sale price): $8.91, down 3 cents (Q1: +.12, Q2: -.15)
• 22-ounce bombers (sale price): $4.98, up 4 cents (Q1: -.09, Q2: +.13)
• 16 oz. draft: $4.61 up 9 cents
• 16 oz. draft (happy hour): $3.79, up 9 cents

It appears that Laurelwood Red is now only available in six-packs, so I have removed it from the bomber index (the numbers reflect apples-to-apples with the previous index).  I think the replacement bomber will be Base Camp In Tents India Pale Lager, but I want to gather the numbers for one quarter before adding it in, to preserve apples-to-apples comparison with the previous quarter.

I also wonder if I will be able to keep Belmont Station in the retail index.  They seem to be tweaking the six-pack selection, and I wouldn't be surprised if they dropped some of the old stalwarts that a boring price index depends on.  I'm sure the changes allow a more interesting selection there, but it will sadden me to lose that data point (and hopefully I'll be able to find a replacement).  The pub side of Belmont is better than ever, and it will continue to be in the pub price index.

The bomber non-sale price is way up, largely because Hopworks IPA has gone way up in price.  Retailers (or wholesalers) seem to be trying to get people used to the new normal by offering discounted sale prices on it for now.  The six-pack chart actually tapers off a little bit, mainly because of continued pressure on Terminal Gravity and Caldera, whose six-packs used to be relatively expensive but are starting to fall more in line with everyone else.

Check back in three months for the next installment of the index.  More information on how the index is compiled is on the PBPI configuration page.

Portland Beer Price Index: Winter 2013

As predicted by a couple of industry followers of the Portland Beer Price Index (PBPI), beer got more expensive in Portland this quarter.  It's a pretty big leap, with less generous sale prices accompanying higher shelf-tag prices. There's no clear external driver for this -- I think you can thank Oregon's three-tier system for allowing price fixing by the distributors for this.

Here are the Portland Beer Price Index numbers for the winter quarter of 2013:

• 6-packs: $9.69, up 19 cents
• 22-ounce bombers: $5.29, up 7 cents
• 6-packs (sale price): $8.94, up 29 cents
• 22-ounce bombers (sale price): $4.93, up 11 cents
• 16 oz. draft: $4.52 unchanged
• 16 oz. draft (happy hour): $3.70, up 5 cents

Last quarter, someone commented that beer prices in Oregon are significantly higher than prices in other states... for Oregon beer.  This despite the relatively low level of taxation in Oregon.  The most likely explanation for this disparity is price fixing by the wholesalers.

I have to admit, I get out less and less often these days.  The pub prices may be a little out of date, and may get revised (upward) as I make it around to the pubs in the index.

If you require more information on the makeup of the PBPI, read the page which describes the composition of the index.  Check back in March to see the first numbers of 2014.

Portland Beer Price Index: Summer 2013

This quarter's installment of the Portland Beer Price Index (PBPI) won't surprise anyone.  Prices in every category are up, in some cases by quite a bit.  The graph on the left isn't very dramatic, I admit, since it's on a scale of $0 to $16.  But I wanted to shake things up a bit by giving you a graphic representation of the price difference between six-packs (in orange) and the six-pack equivalent (SPE) price of 22-ounce bombers (in blue).  If you want the detailed numbers, click on the graph to see a larger version, but the small graph nicely illustrates the bomber price penalty -- about 80% right now.  The average bomber in town is priced like a $15.66 six-pack, when it's on sale.  Regular price is now like a $16.36 six-pack.

Here are the Portland Beer Price Index numbers for the summer quarter of 2013:

• 6-packs: $9.37, up 21 cents
• 22-ounce bombers: $5.00, up 12 cents
• 6-packs (sale price): $8.72, up 11 cents
• 22-ounce bombers (sale price): $4.78, up 7 cents
• 16 oz. draft: $4.52 up 5 cents
• 16 oz. draft (happy hour): $3.65, up 6 cents

This is the 16th installment of the PBPI (though only the 15th counting the more useful sale/happy hour prices).  For the 4th edition (2010Q2), I dropped the Hawthorne Safeway because it didn't have any of the bombers I was indexing.  I knew the beer selection was better there since the store was remodeled over a year ago, but it didn't occur to me until the other day that they carry all the beers in the index now!  It's always been a struggle to keep a full slate of stores that carry all the beers, so I will happily add them back in to the index next quarter.  It also gives me the option of dropping New Seasons -- something I never thought I'd say -- since they are now the only store I canvass that doesn't carry any Rogue bombers.

If you require more information on the makeup of the PBPI, read the page which describes the composition of the index.  Check back three months from now for the autumn numbers, and meanwhile spread the word about the bomber price penalty.

Portland Beer Price Index: Spring 2013

No, no, no!  This isn't how it was supposed to go.

Starting in the middle of 2011, the Portland Beer Price Index (PBPI) looked like it was showing bomber prices decreasing while six-pack prices marched slowly upwards.  Not that I was excited about more expensive six-packs, but I have always considered the bomber price penalty to be a temporary distortion peculiar to the beer industry.  I thought the SPE of bombers would eventually fall below six-pack prices.  I can't think of another consumer liquid where a larger package is more expensive per ounce than a bundle of little packages.  It's not true of soda pop, wine, liquor, bottled water, shampoo, ... you name it.

But the trend I was hoping to spot didn't continue, and now we have bomber prices -- shown in the chart -- higher than ever before, while six-pack prices fell even more than they did last time.  And not just the sale prices, but the "official" prices.  Here are the Portland Beer Price Index numbers for this quarter:

• 6-packs: $9.16, down 7 cents
• 22-ounce bombers: $4.88, up 4 cents
• 6-packs (sale price): $8.61, down 15 cents
• 22-ounce bombers (sale price): $4.71, up 5 cents
• 16 oz. draft: $4.47 up 3 cents
• 16 oz. draft (happy hour): $3.59, down 2 cents

What is happening here?  I think there is some healthy competition in six-packs, as breweries like 10 Barrel and Oakshire move into that area.  Ninkasi must have their six-pack pipeline flowing steadily enough that they have been able to lower their prices, and I think Caldera and Terminal Gravity are feeling price pressure since it's hard to justify the high prices they've enjoyed for a few years when the newcomers have something more interesting at a lower price.

For some reason, the bombers in the PBPI aren't feeling that heat, and Laurelwood has raised the price on their bombers by 10% this time, though most retailers have a sale price on them for now to cushion the blow.  However, there might be a bias in the bombers I've selected, because I've seen some new sale prices on other bombers that I've long considered either slightly or wildly overpriced.

Logistically, I'm starting to be troubled by HUB IPA bombers.  New Seasons appears to have dumped them in favor of HUB tallboys, and QFC has a space on the shelf for them, but no bottles and an obviously incorrect price tag ($6.30).  For this month's numbers I subbed in other HUB bombers those stores were carrying (DOA at QFC, Secession at New Seasons).  The HUB tallboys are a great innovation, especially if they can get the price closer to Ninkasi's SPE, but I may need to find a replacement for the bombers in the index (come to think of it, Gigantic IPA would make a reasonable and somewhat poetic replacement).

If you require more information on the makeup of the PBPI, read the page which describes the composition of the index.

Hollywood Beverage: Eastside Liquor + Beer Store

Portland now has a second liquor store which the OLCC allows to sell beer and wine:  Hollywood Beverage at about 30th and NE Sandy.  A couple of years ago I wrote up the other such store: Pearl Specialty Market, which is still your best bet for a good beer selection in the Pearl.

Hollywood Beverage has been open since October -- its previous incarnation as the more run-of-the-mill Hollywood Liquor was further up Sandy just east of the I-84 overpass -- but I didn't make it in for a visit until a couple weeks ago.  I was stunned by how low some of the beer prices were.  Some of them seemed like mistakes until I realized there were too many of them to be in error.  If you thought the prices at Beermongers were the lowest possible, check out these bomber prices:

• Ninkasi Oatis: $3.15
• Lompoc Proletariat Red: $3.25
• Pelican Silverspot IPA: $4.00
• Gigantic IPA: $4.35
• Pelican IPA: $4.40
• Laurelwood Deranger: $7.25

The selection was good but not a home run -- it struck me as kind of a work in progress.  The six-pack prices weren't as startlingly low as the bombers -- most of them could be beat by supermarket sales -- but $8.50 Ninkasi six-packs and $9.50 Caldera sixers were as low as I can remember seeing anywhere.  Imported beers didn't strike me as being so cheap; I think Beermongers may have them beat, and certainly has a better selection.

An employee came up while I was shopping and asked if I had any questions.  "Yeah, why is the beer so cheap?"  He said that the owner is so used to the low margins on liquor set by the OLCC that he thought 20% was a pretty decent markup on beer and wine.  The guy who told me that turned out to be the wine buyer for the store -- "You should see some of the bargains on our wine" -- and he said he's encouraging the owner to either raise the beer and wine prices or start promoting them more to increase sales volume.  So you might want to get in there and snatch up some bargains in case sanity prevails.

Bikes and Beers in Amsterdam

For a person who has been wedded to bicycle transportation for about 25 years, it's a wonder that it took me so long to visit Amsterdam, where nearly every resident of every age rides a bike in every kind of weather, without making too big of a deal about it. Well, I finally made my pilgrimage, and had a great time biking the canalside streets and parks of the central area on a clunky rented one-speed girl's bike with a flowered seatcover and chopper handlebars that let me lean back until I was almost horizontal.

The icing on the cake is that Amsterdam is also a fabulous beer destination, as I noted in previous posts about 't Arendsnest (my favorite place in Amsterdam) and Gollem's Proeflokaal.  I had a great beer time there even though I missed several of the "must-visit" beer establishments: bars In De Wildeman and Café Belgique, and bottleshop De Bierkoning.

I did make it into one excellent bottleshop -- De Gekraakte Ketel (the Cracked Kettle) -- across the alleyway from the original (and currently closed) Gollem's location. The picture above of the bicycle with the crate of Westvleteren empties is the Cracked Kettle's sandwich-board -- it would make a better picture if the front tire had air in it. The rambling split-level shop had a good selection of Dutch and Belgian beers -- I grabbed a bottle of Columbus strong pale ale from 't IJ brewery, and a bargain-priced 750 ml Cantillon Iris ($10.50). I inquired about Westvleteren based on the crate out front, but all they had in stock were a few 1996 bottles of the 12, priced (if I remember right) at €50 ($70) each.  Other geek-worthy beers were to be found there also, including some American offerings, and BrewDog's viagra-laced Royal Virility Performance.

Seeing as how Gollem's was closed, a clerk at the Gekraakte Ketel recommended a replacement bar for us: De Zotte Belgisch Bierproeflokaal. The jawbreaker "Proeflokaal" that you see in these bar names means "tasting room". It was a nice place on a quiet side street just outside the canal district. At a little after 4 PM on a weekday, we were alone in the place with the bartender, the pub cat, and some kids from across the street that came in to use the restroom. The cat became quite interested in the block of cheese that was coming out of the refrigerator below the bar, and hopped right up there for a taste. There was a good selection of Belgian bottles, and a few taps (6-10 if I remember right).

Another place worth mentioning is The Beer Temple, which bills itself as an American beer bar.  It's owned by the Arend family that runs the fabulous Arendsnest.  There are an impressive number of American beers on tap, from the likes of Great Divide, Rogue, Left Hand, Anchor, and other quality brewers.  In addition, there are a few Dutch and Belgian taps, and some lighter fare like Beck's and Hoegaarden.  Nice pubby atmosphere like 't Arendsnest, but the beer selection is wasted on an Oregon beer snob -- too much focus on stuff I can get cheaper and fresher at home.  One interesting thing is that the Beer Temple was offering 20 ml -- about two-thirds of an ounce -- of BrewDog's Sink the Bismarck for €8.50, or Tactical Nuclear Penguin for €7.50 ($12 and $10.50). The British gents in the picture had ordered shots of TNP in tiny beer steins and were generously sharing it with the other patrons.  We decided it had an herbal character, kind of like an Italian Amaro.  Whoa, that's an SPE of $1277.58 for Sink the Bismarck!  It's just a lucky accident that the picture shows a BrewDog "Beer for Punks" banner reflected in the window behind them.

The proeflokaals and bottle shops will keep you busy and well-beered in Amsterdam.  Supermarkets also had a few drinkable options on the shelf -- some La Trappe varieties and some widely-distributed Belgians like Duvel.  On our first night in town, I grabbed a couple of "lentebocks" off the shelf, since we wouldn't be leaving the apartment that night.  Grolsch's was sickly-sweet, a real struggle to get through, but a brewery called Hertog Jan had made a very nice, copper-colored maibock with the right balance of malt richness and lagered crispness.  It was packaged like a cheap supermarket brand with a few different beer styles, but it was a solid choice for the refrigerator shelf.

I'm glad I finally made it to Amsterdam.  Now I've got to find a way to get back there again.

La Cave à Bulles, Paris

Alcoholic beverage word association, quickly:  "France?"  Of course you said "Wine".  Good beer is available in France, just not in the variety that an Oregon beer geek has come to demand, and not piled high in every restaurant, diner, and convenience store the way good wine is.  After a week in the Loire Valley and Paris, I'm delirious with joy if a bar has Affligem Blond on tap instead of the ubiquitous and somewhat cloying Leffe Blonde; in the supermarket the best option tends to be Hoegaarden tall-boys, though I did drink a couple Kronenbourgs to support the local team.

Luckily, our Paris lodgings were a five-minute walk from the showcase beer store in the City of Light:  La cave à bulles -- translation: The Suds Cellar -- at 45 Rue Quincampoix, around the corner from the Centre Pompidou.  It's stocked with a few hundred varieties of beer, and might remind you somewhat of the original Belmont Station location.  The focus is fittingly on French beer, though there is a good selection of Belgians, and even a few Sierra Nevada and Left Hand bottles tucked away.  The Belgian selection is less than what is available in Portland at Beermongers or Belmont, but la Cave did have a few Cantillons on the shelf, which hasn't been available in Oregon recently ($8 for 375 ml).

The proprietor, Simon Thillou, is very welcoming, and gives personal attention to each customer that walks in, to try and guide them in their beer selection.  I watched him work with an older couple who came in to look for a bottle to impress a beer loving friend:  "Do you want something stronger or less so?  Darker or lighter?  Sweeter or drier?  How bitter?"  They were beer novices, and balked a little at "bitter".  "But you drink coffee, you eat chocolate, don't you?  It's not bitter in a bad way."  He's equally adept at working with a picky beer geek, starting with a few questions about what you like, and branching out with some choices to help you explore the French beer scene.  His English is probably better than your French, so don't hesitate to ask questions.

Most of the bottles are sold at room temperature, though a small number are kept refrigerated, if you're in a big hurry to get some beer down your throat.  Prices are reasonable, considering a central Paris location:  generally about $4.25 for 33 cl bottles, or $8.50 for 750 ml.  Big bottles of Cantillon Iris were on the shelf for $19, and if you're homesick, drop €6.10 for a Ninkasi IPA -- oh, wait, that's the French Ninkasi in Lyon, which predates the Oregon one.  La cave à bulles is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 AM to 2 PM, and 4 PM to 8 PM (but not Wednesday mornings).

I only got to make one visit to the Cave à bulles, because the store is closed Sunday and Monday, we arrived in Paris in a downpour Saturday evening after it was closed, and we left town Wednesday morning before it opened.  I'm glad I finally made it there, and I highly recommend it to you if you're visiting Paris.

Long Brewing: New Beer from Newberg

A new brewery in Newberg is stealthily making a presence in Portland. Long Brewing first caught my eye when the Cheese Bar mentioned having their beer; then I saw these bottles in the cooler at Pastaworks yesterday.

My curiosity was dampened by the price tags on the bottles:  $12.15 for bombers of the porter and the IPA, and $9.29 for the lager.  The six-pack equivalent prices of  $39.76 and $30.40 must be a Portland record for what appear to be just everyday beers.  That's even beyond Upright Four -- which on tap is not any more expensive than its peers, but which is priced a little ridiculously in bottles for a bière de table.  At least Four is a unique style, with an interesting story and technique behind it.  Consider that bombers of Hair of the Dog Blue Dot were $7 on the same shelf as the Long IPA, and I have to hope the store made a mistake in pricing these.  There was no way I was going to try one at that price.

I've got an email out to Paul Long to learn more about his brewery, but haven't heard back yet.  Google tells us that he had an impressive streak of wins at the American Homebrewers Association between 2004 and 2007 -- 4 gold medals, 2 bronzes, and the "Ninkasi award" in 2005.  Sounds like a talented guy who has decided to live the dream.

Has anyone tried any Long Brewing beers?  Where did you see them?

[Update: More info from Paul Long:

Currently I only do 22 oz bottles. No one has my beers on tap yet. The only other locations are restaurants around Newberg like The Allison Inn, The Painted Lady, The Joel Palmer House and the Horse Radish in Carlton. I am working on a larger system at which point I may do a limited number of kegs. I sell direct $6/bottle for Linda's Lager and Kolsch, $8/bottle for Vienna Lager, IPA, Porter and Wee Heavy. Case price is $.50 less per bottle.

I have not heard of anyone who has tried my beers thinking they were not worth the price. We use a No Compromise approach, the best malts, freshest whole hops, very hands on small batches with great attention to produce beers with expressive aromas and flavors that are integrated and balanced. If you're interested give me a call and come by for a tasting.

So if you want to try these, your best bet is to contact Paul directly. For a porter or IPA, $7.50 is still relatively high but not unthinkable; $5.50 for the lighter beers compares pretty well with, say, Heater Allen.
]

Pearl Specialty Market and Spirits

Pearl Specialty's Beer and Cigar Selection

Since I realized the other day that Bridgeport ESB had been discontinued by the brewery, I've been on a mission to find a few remaining bottles on sale somewhere. One of the bottle shops that I scoured -- to no avail -- was Pearl Specialty Market at 9th and NW Lovejoy. Even though the Pearl Market couldn't fulfill my ESB quest, I realized that the place is a hidden gem that a lot of people might not be aware of, offering a classy selection of micros and imports. It has flown under the radar to become the best bottle shop in NW Portland or downtown -- the only other competition in that part of town are the big grocery stores.

I'd been aware of Pearl Specialty for a while.  It created quite a splash when it opened, because the OLCC granted it one of the few licenses in Oregon to sell beer and wine alongside stronger spirits. More to the point, I realized it was one of the few liquor stores in town to be open until 10 PM -- most of them close at 7.

The liquor selection

I've saved a couple of neighborhood parties with that knowledge.  [As an aside, click here for my trick for scoring bottles of gin and rum even later into the night.] And for a while it was one of the few liquor stores in Portland that opened on Sunday, though the Republican Recession has made that a more commonplace occurrence in the last couple of years.

So I was aware of it as a liquor store, and I knew they sold beer, but I was surprised to see how much the beer selection has improved since my last visit a couple years ago.  According to the owner, Pearl Specialty started adding more beers when the store expanded in September of last year.  They are working towards a goal of stocking 1000 beers.  The picture at the top shows most of the beer section, and there is also another bank of coolers full of bombers and 12-packs outside the frame to the left.  They carry the Oregon standards, plus a high-end selection from beyond our fair borders:  off the top of my head, they seemed to carry pretty complete lineups from places like The Bruery, Dogfish Head, and Trappist breweries like Westmalle, St. Bernardus, and Rochefort.  You won't have a problem finding something to suit your mood if you go in there.

The beer prices are pretty normal -- not Beermongers cheap, but not predatory like you'd expect from a shop in the Pearl District.  I was mighty pleased to snag a bomber of Caldera's Rose Petal Imperial Golden for about $4.50, and stalwarts like Ninkasi and Lompoc ring in at the usual Portland price of $4.  Plus, there is a 5% discount if you buy 3 bottles of beer or wine, and a 10% discount if you buy 6 bottles -- that brings the Ninkasi down to $3.60, which actually is about as cheap as you'll find.

You've got to appreciate Pearl Specialty's motto:  Purveyor to those seeking the finer things in life.  To my mind that starts with good beer and high-end booze, but they also have a decent selection of wine and sake, and a cigar humidor.  Apparently designer bottled water was part of the original plan, but it isn't conspicuously on display there anymore and doesn't show up on the website.  Tough sell in a town were the tap water is as good as it is here.

Bottle shops have been springing up all over Portland in the last couple of years.  Following Belmont Station's lead, the latest fashion is to attach a bar to a bottle shop (Beermongers, Bottles) or vice versa (Saraveza, Hop and Vine [bottle shop opening Saturday]).  Pearl Specialty's angle of bottle shop plus liquor store is another interesting business model.  You could think of it as one-stop shopping for beer cocktails.  Anyway, cool place.  If you need a bottle of booze after the other liquor stores are closed, or if you're in the Pearl and you need to pick up a good bottle of beer, Pearl Specialty is the place to go.

Hair of the Dog Inventory Running Low?

John had a nice article in the Oregonian the other day about two eagerly awaited Southeast pubs: Hair of the Dog and Cascade's Barrel House.  As is always the case, the opening date for both of them has been pushed back repeatedly, and they are both going to miss their revised-revised-revised deadlines of July 2010.  Too bad:  it surely crossed their minds that it would be great to be open by OBF weekend.

A few months ago when it soaked in to my brain that Hair of the Dog would stop brewing for a while during the move, I rubbed a couple of pennies together and put a few bottles of Adam in my basement.  Mostly I was thinking it would be interesting to compare pre- and post-move Adam, but I'll admit that I also was hedging against some kind of disaster.  A late opening date isn't the end of the world, but I'm feeling pretty clever as I notice that HotD bottles are starting to thin out on store shelves around town.  The other day at Belmont Station there were only a few bottles in the cooler; at Fred Meyers down the street they were out of Fred (irony!) but still seemed pretty well stocked with Adam.

Cascade doesn't have the same problem, since they have two baskets to put their eggs in, and anyway they are already making use of the Barrel House to age beers, they just can't serve anything there yet.  If Alan isn't able to open Hair of the Dog until later this year, will we get to a point where there's no more left on the shelves?

Portland Beer Price Index: Summer 2010

It's hard to believe that the days are only going to get shorter from here, since the clouds have kept the days from seeming long at all, but it's the summer solstice already. Here's the Summer 2010 Portland Beer Price Index.

• 6-packs: $8.73, up 2 cents
• 22-ounce bombers: $4.95, up 3 cents
• 6-packs (sale price): $8.25, up 12 cents
• 22-ounce bombers (sale price): $4.83, down 3 cents
• 16 oz. draft: $4.21, up 1 cent
• 16 oz. draft (happy hour): $3.51, up 3 cents

Generally, prices are up a tad, though bomber sale prices continue to fall. There's a little bit of restating going on with the retail numbers. At the time of the Spring 2010 PBPI, I complained that Safeway didn't stock enough of the beers in the index, and asked for suggestions for a replacement. Readers Jeff and Rick suggested the QFC at 55th and Burnside. It was a good call -- the fine beer selection at that store covered all the beers. Sometime in April, I recorded the prices at QFC, so the up/down figures quoted above are with respect to the spring numbers once QFC is factored in, which lowered the prices by 2 or 3 cents.

Speaking of restating, it looks like I may have to find a replacement for Pelican IPA. Neither QFC nor Fred Meyers had it this time. The wine guy at Fred Meyers said that Fred's hasn't been able to get it since Pelican moved to self-distribution. At QFC there was one bottle of Pelican Tsunami Stout and one of Kiwanda Cream Ale, both drastically marked down to $5, which leads me to believe that QFC is also discontinuing Pelican. For the index this time, I maintained the previous QFC and Fred's Pelican prices, and used the closeout $5 QFC price as its sale price. Since you guys were so good at finding me a replacement retailer, I'll ask your advice again. What would be a good bomber to replace Pelican? I'd like it to be an Oregon beer from outside of Portland, so the first things that come to mind are Oakshire and Heater Allen, though I'm not sure QFC has the latter. What do you think?

Time flies when you're having fun. Look for the next PBPI -- one year after the first one! -- around September 21.

The Bomber Price Penalty

The thing that got me started comparing and tracking beer prices was the observation that it usually costs you more -- ounce for ounce -- to have your reusable growler filled at a brewpub than it does to buy disposable bottles that have gone through packaging, wholesaling, and retailing.  This growler price penalty is apparently due to the fact that bars have a different business model than bottle shops and groceries.  But there's a related pricing issue that doesn't make any sense at all:  the disparity between the retail prices of 22-ounce bombers and 12-ounce bottles sold in 6- or 12-packs.

Don't start in on me with comments like "if you want it, just pay the price, otherwise shut up".  I'm not saying that no bomber is worth the price.  But it is worth pointing out that: 1. The exact same beer costs more in big bottles than in small ones, and 2. Similar products such as soda pop or liquor are priced in the opposite way -- bigger packages cost less per ounce than smaller ones.  To illustrate the point, I'll show you the price difference for a few beers I saw recently at a big grocery store in Portland, and also a similar comparison of Coca-Cola prices (Pepsi prices were identical).  We'll use the legal tender of It's Pub Night: the U.S. dollar and the Six-Pack Equivalent (SPE).

• Anchor Steam:
  
  • bomber: $3.39 (SPE $11.09)
  • 6-pack: $9.29
  • penalty: $1.80
   
• Deschutes Mirror Pond:
  
  • bomber: $2.89 (SPE $9.46)
  • 6-pack (sale): $5.99
  • penalty: $3.47
   
• MacTarnahan's Amber:
  
  • bomber (sale): $2.69 (SPE $7.43)
  • 12-pack (sale): $12.99 (SPE 6.50)
  • penalty: $0.93
   
• Sierra Nevada Pale Ale:
  
  • 24 oz. bomber: $2.89 (SPE $8.67)
  • 6-pack (sale): $6.99
  • penalty: $1.68
   
• Widmer Hef:
  
  • bomber: $2.99 (SPE $9.79)
  • 12-pack (sale): $11.99 (SPE $6.00)
  • penalty: $3.79
   
• Coca-Cola:
  
  • 2-liter bottle (sale): $1.67 (SPE $1.78)
  • 12-pack (sale): $5.00 (SPE $2.50)
  • discount: $0.72

For each of the above beers, I took the lowest big-bottle price and compared its SPE to that of the lowest small-bottle price. That highlights another aspect of the bomber trickery: bomber prices are marked down less frequently than 6-packs or 12-packs, which are on sale almost every single day at big groceries. In case you're worried about apples-to-apples comparisons, even if I use non-sale six-pack prices for those matchups where the bombers weren't marked down, the bomber penalty is still 80 cents for Deschutes and $1 for Widmer, though Sierra Nevada did fall into line with about a 52-cent discount.

Nor was the Coke pricing a fluke -- there was a similar discount at several groceries around town. By the way, even though I translated the cola prices into SPE, the grocery shelf tags at most stores give you comparison prices in pints. Kind of backwards -- I usually think of cans of pop, and pints of beer.

Spread the word about the bomber price penalty. The fact that no other product is priced with a volume penalty instead of a volume discount leads me to believe that bomber pricing is simply a swindle.

Portland Beer Price Index: Spring 2010

Sunday is the spring equinox, so it's time once again for the Portland Beer Price Index. As a reminder, this survey is not a complaint about beer prices generally or at any particular place. It's just my attempt to watch price trends over time. For more details on which beers and establishments were surveyed, see the first PBPI.

Here is the Spring 2010 PBPI:

• 6-packs: $8.74, down 1 cent
• 22-ounce bombers: $4.94, down 9 cents
• 6-packs (sale price): $8.15, up 30 cents
• 22-ounce bombers (sale price): $4.88, down 9 cents
• 16 oz. draft: $4.20, unchanged
• 16 oz. draft (happy hour): $3.48, up 2 cents

It's interesting, the pint price is unchanged again, but not because no one changed their prices this time. A 25-cent drop in the typical Belmont Station tap price offset the 25-cent rise at Deschutes. The happy hour average went up because the Bridgeport Ale House is 25 cents less generous than it was three months ago.

The drop in bomber prices is almost wholly due to a $1 drop in the price of Pelican IPA at Belmont and New Seasons.  Fred's is pocketing the savings on Pelican, and also seems to indicate that they're going to raise the price of Rogue Shakespeare Stout, though the sale price keeps it even for now.  I noted fewer 6-pack sales this time, which resulted in the 30-cent jump in the 6-pack sale price.  In particular, no one had a sale on Deschutes.

Is something going on with Deschutes' cash flow?  They raised their pub pint price, and no six-packs are on sale.  On the other hand, prices are still falling at Belmont Station -- including a 25-cent drop on the typical draft pint price -- which makes me think they're feeling the heat from Beermongers.  Do the Deschutes and Belmont changes represent two opposing responses to the rough economy?  I also noticed more variability in the prices at Horse Brass.  A lot of classics are just $4.25 a pint, but some guest tap prices are creeping up.  For now I kept a $4.50 typical price for Horse Brass.

In the next cycle, I'm likely to drop Safeway, since they only contribute four six-packs and no bombers.  I tried to outflank them this time by checking out the fancier store at 39th and Powell, but it had exactly the same selection as on Hawthorne.  Does Trader Joe's have the beers in my survey?  QFC?  I might consider Beaumont Market or 39th Street Mini-Mart as a replacement, but they are likely to have higher prices than Safeway and I'd have to figure out how to restate the prices.  If you have any ideas for me, I'd love to hear them.

Look for the next PBPI around June 21.

That Is Cheap

Not long ago I was mocking the little beer store on Hawthorne just east of 20th for their pitiable selection. But today Dave radioed me that every bomber in the shop was for sale for just $2. So I scooted around there and found a few things that were well worth the $6.55 SPE that represents. Sure, that's not much less expensive than the usual MacTarnahan's/Pyramid bomber price, but even a 20-cent markdown lowers the SPE by 65 cents.

And that's a hellacious price on Prima Pils and Sinist0r. Dave has even rounded up $2 Total Domination bombers there before, though they didn't have any today. The shopkeeper told me that they try to clear out the stock over the weekend, starting Thursdays, so you might check in there late in the week to see if they have any bargains.

No Relation

The Fred Meyers on Hawthorne seems to think that Blue Dot and Blue Moon have something in common. They shelved them right next to each other. I'm as big a fan of alphabetical order as anyone, but this is taking it too far.

At the top level, Fred's beer taxonomy is:

• Organic
• Foreign
• U.S. Micro
• Industrial Lager

I suppose those are somewhat interesting categories -- I can't think of another store that separates the organic beers -- but within those categories there doesn't seem to be any order.

So you end up with Blue Dot next to Blue Moon (no relation).

Small Are Beautiful

I'm talking about bottles, of course.

Back in college or shortly thereafter, my friend Bret was contentedly sucking down a can of Milwaukee's Best Light at a party when he was accosted by a preppy kid who told him, "Life's too short to drink cheap beer!" as he waved his 7-ounce Little Kings bottle in Bret's face.  In one of the finest comebacks on record, Bret shot back, "Life's too cheap to drink short beer!".

Setting aside the multiple ironies of that exchange, I want to talk about two beers that have recently been repackaged in smaller bottles than before.  Three cheers to Bridgeport for making Hop Czar cheaper and shorter.  It makes more sense to sell a 7-8% beer in six-packs of 12-ounce bottles than it does to sell it in 22-ounce bottles.  Anyone recall what bombers of Hop Czar sold for?  I'm thinking it was $5, or an SPE of $16.36.  The six-packs have been on sale around town for $7 -- less than half the price.  Hop Czar is now a constant fixture in my fridge.

It's one thing to open a 22-ounce bottle of 8% beer, but Rogue was selling their big beers -- like the 11% Russian Imperial Stout -- in even bigger 750 ml bottles (25 ounces).  The news that Rogue's XS series would now be sold in 7-ounce bottles took the Twitternet by storm a few weeks ago.  It's obviously a much more reasonable size for such big beers.

But instead of halving the price as Bridgeport did, Rogue took advantage of the switcheroo to raise the price about 5%.  At Belmont Station, the big bottle of RIS sold for $16.49, and the new small ones are $4.79; the SPE went from $46.82 to $49.27.  Which is even more surprising when you consider that the big pottery swing-top must be a much more expensive package than the regular-old glass bottles with a cap.  The beer is good -- I bought one of the 7-ouncers and drank it even though the bottle (wisely) recommended aging for a year -- but it's not $50 six-pack good.  That's more than $10 over the SPE for Deschutes Abyss.

Apparently Ninkasi is building a new bottling line that will let them move into six-packs.  When they do, watch out! Total Domination usually has an SPE of $13.09 -- I think their retail sales will go through the roof if they bring out $7-$8 six-packs.

Since I mentioned Abyss above, what do you think about Deschutes putting some of their bruisers like Abyss or Mirror Mirror into smaller bottles?  They could go Rogue and have a little higher margin if they went from $12 bombers to $4 sevens, or they could give us a break and sell them for $3.50 and leave off the wax coating.

Anyone heard of any other breweries moving to smaller formats?  Shorter, or cheaper, or both?

Portland Beer Price Index: Winter 2009

It's the winter solstice, time once again for the quarterly Portland Beer Price Index. In response to comments on the first PBPI back in September, I recorded not only the regular price of the beers in the survey, but also sale prices (for retail) and happy hour prices (for bars).

Reminder: this survey is not a complaint about beer prices generally or at any particular place. It's just my attempt to watch price trends over time. For more details on which beers and establishments were surveyed, see the first PBPI.

Here is the Winter 2009 PBPI:

• 6-packs: $8.75, down 10 cents
• 22-ounce bombers: $5.03, down 5 cents
• 6-packs (sale price): $7.85
• 22-ounce bombers (sale price): $4.97
• 16 oz. draft: $4.20, unchanged
• 16 oz. draft (happy hour): $3.46

The makeup of the BPBI has changed a little bit, and I went back and recalculated the fall numbers based on that. When the big boys do it, they call it "restating". One change is that I reluctantly dropped Beermongers from the bomber index, because they only had 3 of the 6 bombers in stock when I was there (not a single bottle from Hopworks, Laurelwood, or Lompoc). I was really counting on them to lower the index a little bit with their great prices -- indeed, the autumn bomber index is 18 cents higher without them -- but their selection misses too many Portland standards. The other change was adding Bridgeport's Hawthorne Ale House to the pub list -- because of their generous happy hour -- which lowered the 16-ounce index from $4.27 to $4.20.

The decline in retail prices is mainly due to Belmont Station's lower prices, though Fred Meyers lowered one or two also. The sale/happy-hour prices are based on all the beers in the survey, so it includes beers that weren't on sale. That's especially evident in the bomber prices -- almost none of them were marked down when I did my canvass. A few more details are worth mentioning:

• I used Belmont Station's cash prices. Purchases with a credit or debit card are higher.
• Not only is the pub average unchanged, but no pub in the survey changed its regular price since September.
• Six-pack equivalent (SPE) prices:
  • bomber: $16.46
  • sale bomber: $16.27
  • pub: $18.91
  • pub happy hour: $15.55
    

Look for the Spring 2010 PBPI around March 21st.

Confidence

A few weeks ago, when the oddly-named Stout, Microbrew, Wines and Market -- with no real microbrews in stock -- opened near 20th and Hawthorne, I stopped in immediately, hoping for an excellent bottle shop just steps from my house. It was disappointing to find that the beer selection there was not even as good as the 7-11 across the street -- really, not as good as the Safeway six blocks away.

Beermongers had just opened a couple of weeks before, so as I was chatting up the SMW&M proprietor, I asked him what he thought of Beermongers. He said, "I don't see how they're going to make it, with New Seasons just down the street from them."

Man, that just sent my head spinning. You see, SMW&M is at the NE corner of Ladd's Addition, Beermongers is at the SW corner, and New Seasons is at the SE. So, comparing Beermongers to SMW&M:

1. Distance to New Seasons: tie
   
2. Selection: Beermongers wins
   
3. Price: Beermongers wins
   
4. Distance to 7-11 and Safeway: SMW&M loses
   

I don't see how they're going to make it.

Belmont Station's New Prices

This week, Belmont Station introduced two-tier pricing on its bottled beers: customers paying cash will pay about 4% less than those using credit cards. There was a small amount of anguish about this on Twitter, and the Bulls & Brew blog published a rebuke, but 4% truly reflects the costs that third-party card processors charge to small merchants like Belmont Station -- basically a 50-cent charge per transaction, plus 3% of the total transaction. Two-tier pricing seems like a fair solution to me: let the customer decide whether the fee is worth the convenience.

Part of the initial reaction to Belmont's move was along the lines of "The most expensive bottle shop in town is raising its prices?" To counter that impression, the Station's latest email newsletter -- titled "WE REDUCED PRICES ON HUNDREDS OF BEERS!" -- tries to spin things the other direction:

We've reduced the everyday prices on hundreds of beers. 95% of our six packs and large single bottles (22 ounce, 750ml, etc.) now cost less.

Effective this Monday, November 2, the biggest discounts will go to CASH customers.

Sorry guys, but I'm not buying that. As luck would have it, I can do a quick fact check on this, since I recently collected a few 6-pack and bomber prices for the PBPI. The average price of the 6-packs in my survey did indeed fall from $9 to $8.67 at Belmont Station, and the bomber average dropped from $5.21 to $5.07. That's the cash price, and the reductions are 3.67% and 2.67% respectively. So credit-card customers are not -- on average -- seeing lower prices.

Furthermore, I would be surprised if 95% of the prices were reduced, since in my small survey, only four of the six 6-packs decreased in price, and only three of the six bombers are cheaper. The other prices stayed the same. So, either I'm a really good shot with my beer picks, or the price reductions fell disproportionately on the 950 special-occasion beers on the shelves, not the 50 biggest movers.

One more problem: customers paying with a debit card pay the same higher price as credit-card customers. My admittedly shallow understanding of the problem is that there is not a percentage fee on debit card transactions, just a 50-cent charge. On a $5 purchase, 50 cents is already 10% of the transaction, but at least there isn't the added percentage there is with credit cards. Maybe the 4% averages out, but it seems like debit cards should be treated more kindly than credit cards. [Update: In the comments below, Chris from Belmont Station clarifies that debit cards are now charged a percentage as well; Kevin points out that nowadays debit is only cheaper to process than credit above about $25. So, I was wrong to think that debit should get off lighter than credit.]

Despite Belmont Station's clumsy attempt to cheapwash their new policy, I like their approach of passing the savings on to the customer. Although I've gotten used to the convenience of paying with a credit card, I've recently started paying with cash at local establishments. Do your local merchants and publicans a favor: use cash when you can.