Essential reading: "The Best Gin to Buy on a Budget."

In addition to performing a valuable public service by locating the most cost-effective gins, the author agrees with one of my recent assessments: Why drink Tanqueray when Beefeater's always a few bucks cheaper?

Previously at the PC: "From Gin Lane to the height of sophistication," now with interaction.

The Best Gin to Buy on a Budget, by Michael Dietsch (Serious Eats)

 ... Perhaps it's about making appearances. Cheap gin calls to mind images of disheveled, broken folks shambling to the flophouse. People grimace at the idea of 'bathtub gin' that wasn't poured from a beveled-glass bottle with a shiny label. So while we can happily find a good bottle of bourbon for twelve bucks or ten or even eight on sale, it's startlingly difficult to find good gin for less than $20. I know—this month, I scoured and I searched and I hunted, and I tried 15 of 'em.

Here are the best gins that'll run you less than an Andrew Jackson.

Craft beer costs dissected.

This strikes me as a sensible explanation for a non-specialist readership. Thanks to BC for the link.

Here's How A Six-Pack Of Craft Beer Ends Up Costing $12, by Joe Satran (Huff Post)

I've said it before and I'll say it again: There's never been a better time to be a beer drinker in America. The skillful innovation of American craft brewers over the past decade has pushed beer in delicious new directions. It wouldn't be hard to argue that the craft beer renaissance is the most exciting development in the country's culinary world right now.

But this explosion in quality comes at a price. Literally. With few exceptions, prices for good craft beer are far higher than for mainstream macrobrews from brewing conglomerates such as MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch. A six-pack of beer from breweries like Dogfish Head, Ballast Point or Cigar City almost always costs more than $10 -- and routinely exceeds the $15 mark. You could easily get a 12-pack of Bud Light for that much.

Part of the price differential is due to pure marketing. Like vendors of designer clothing, acclaimed craft breweries can charge more because their customers expect to pay more for luxury goods. I recently spoke with more than a dozen people involved at all levels of the craft beer world to get a sense of the industry's cost structure. It turns out that craft brewers incur far higher costs than mainstream brewers. Indeed, once you learn about all the work and material that goes into each six-pack, $12 starts to seem like a bargain.

Bomber bottle pricing at Bank Street Brewhouse and the Pizzeria & Public House.

(An internal memo about an on-premise NABC bomber pricing change)

---

Memo: Bomber bottle pricing at Bank Street Brewhouse and the Pizzeria & Public House

Effective immediately ... Wednesday, May 30

NABC’s bomber bottles need to be stocked chilled, as part of the regular bill of fare at both NABC locations. We realize that most customers will opt for draft, but during times of brand outage or just because they prefer bottles, having them available should become the norm.

There will be one low price, the same price for SINGLE bottle on-premise consumption, or for carry-out. There will be a percentage discount for bulk purchases, i.e., 3 or 6 or 12 bottles.

3-5 bottles ... minus 10%
6-11 bottles ... minus 15%
12 or more bottles ... minus 20%

The pricing tiers are as follows (before tax pricing).
*** available now

$6
***Black & Blue Grass
***Elector
Hoosier Daddy

$8
Bonfire of the Valkyries
***Hoptimus
Naughty Girl (available on June 7)
Solidarity
Tunnel Vision
***Yakima

$10
***Elsa Von Horizon

$12
Jaxon

Market pricing
ThunderFoot

Mark your calendars: Bottled beer list revisions complete at long last.

The task of updating the bottled beer menu at NABC/Rich O's/Sportstime began about the same time as Gravity Head (i.e., February 29), and proceeded through so many false starts, revisions and reboots that it seemed as though I'd passed into another dimension, one that led me not back to the familiar confines of the pub, but onto the set of "Heaven's Gate" -- or an episode of "The Twilight Zone."

Here it is, finally, as updated on July 27, 2008: NABC's bottled beer menu .pdf

It should come as no surprise that the prices therein are higher, in some cases substantially so. The new world record holder is Jadwiga Mead from Poland, which doubled in retail price, primarily because the new wholesale price is almost identical to what we used to charge on premise.

That's right: The wholesale price doubled. Jadwiga is one of the best meads I've ever tasted, but 60-odd dollars is a lot of money.

To be perfectly frank, even an eternal optimist like me is beginning to question whether the beer market will support hikes like these. In devising a new and streamlined system of mark-ups (another rreason why this took so long), our percentage actually has been lowered in roughly 40% of the offerings. At the same time, the portfolios of B. United International and Shelton Brothers, suppliers of the majority of worthwhile imports, probably increased in cost at least 30% across the board.

Whether these increases come from importer or wholesaler is irrelevant. Will consumers still pay? We'll find out.

Another factor that has muddled my thought process is that with the arrival of American 1/6 barrel draft import kegs, the price of draft beer per ounce now occasionally exceeds that of the same beer in the bottle. That's unprecedented, and it skews everything. Would I pay more for ten ounces of Chimay Tripel on draft than for the bottled version, which I personally regard as good or better than the ale in kegs?

Stay tuned. Surreal is just beginning. Thanks to Colleen, Phil and John for their assistance in this effort.

Jesse Williams on national television this morning.

CNN Headline News apparently picked it up from Louisville's WHAS-11. It's a piece on hop prices, and NABC's Jesse Williams comments.

Beer makers raise prices

Good work ... rotten topic!