How does Budweiser price their beer?

[Paul_Heery]

This will give you an idea about the costs involved in a beverage and how it is sold.

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by Baz

What is wrong with the pet rock?

Talk about cool....

I still have mine too.

On beer pricing, 12oz generally cost a bar between .04 and .08, course it is the rest of the overhead that brings the price up to $3 a mug.

[aigel]

Drinkability!

Unbelievable that that's a noun used to sell beer. Always sounded to me like "wow, this stuff is actually drinkable!?".

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/bud-light-touts-drinkability-97136

G

[RWebb]

even for you poor people who live outside Oregon, there must be a microbrew somewhere near you (La. has Abita - just a tip, ok!)

patronize them; pay a tad extra for a quality local product and bring back craft brewing

if all else fails, DIY

[Nostril Cheese]

I live right down the street from Belmont Station.

I is happy.

Welcome To Belmont Station! - Belmont Station

[cashflyer]

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

On beer pricing, 12oz generally cost a bar between .04 and .08

No way.
A standard 15.5 gallon keg has 165 12oz servings (assuming no loss to foam).
If the bar pays $35 for the keg (American mass market brands) then it's $0.21 per serving. If the bar pays $50 for the keg (mid tier), that's $0.30 per serving. Etc.

Or think of it this way... at $0.08 per serving, the bar would be paying just over $13 per keg. Granted, our place was a small pub, but I can't imagine any brand could be obtained for $13 per keg.

[MBAtarga]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Cost breakdown for Mass-produced six-pack (in 1996):
Ingredients .16

This is all I've got...from this one book. Hope it helps.

hey - I was close!

[speeder]

Originally Posted by cashflyer

No way.
A standard 15.5 gallon keg has 165 12oz servings (assuming no loss to foam).
If the bar pays $35 for the keg (American mass market brands) then it's $0.21 per serving. If the bar pays $50 for the keg (mid tier), that's $0.30 per serving. Etc.

Or think of it this way... at $0.08 per serving, the bar would be paying just over $13 per keg. Granted, our place was a small pub, but I can't imagine any brand could be obtained for $13 per keg.

Exactly. I am part-owner of a bar in rural WI., I have nothing to do with the day-to-day operation but I could find out what a keg costs. One of my close friends here in Los Angeles is the manager of an upscale bar and I heard him talking to someone the other night about paying $175 for a pony, which is a mini-keg of some craft-brewed beer.

$.04 to .08 per serving is off by a mile.

[Racerbvd]

even for you poor people who live outside Oregon, there must be a microbrew somewhere near you (La. has Abita - just a tip, ok!)

patronize them; pay a tad extra for a quality local product and bring back craft brewing

if all else fails, DIY

Yep, we are starting to have some really good (so I'm told, as I haven't had any since 2008) local breweries to choose from..
I still laugh about some clowns I saw in a liquor store a few years back, they looked at all the Micro brews and one said to the other

We don't want no import, foreign beer, we want an American owned beer, we was bud

What was so funny, besides the fact that the micro beers are truly American, was that bud was no longer owned by an American company..

Originally Posted by cashflyer

No way.
A standard 15.5 gallon keg has 165 12oz servings (assuming no loss to foam).
If the bar pays $35 for the keg (American mass market brands) then it's $0.21 per serving. If the bar pays $50 for the keg (mid tier), that's $0.30 per serving. Etc.

Or think of it this way... at $0.08 per serving, the bar would be paying just over $13 per keg. Granted, our place was a small pub, but I can't imagine any brand could be obtained for $13 per keg.

Been a while since I have been on that side of the bar, looks like prices have increased ..

Exactly. I am part-owner of a bar in rural WI.,

BEERS on Dennis, and they have some great beers inWI

[KevinTodd]

Originally Posted by cashflyer

No way.
A standard 15.5 gallon keg has 165 12oz servings (assuming no loss to foam).
If the bar pays $35 for the keg (American mass market brands) then it's $0.21 per serving. If the bar pays $50 for the keg (mid tier), that's $0.30 per serving. Etc.

Or think of it this way... at $0.08 per serving, the bar would be paying just over $13 per keg. Granted, our place was a small pub, but I can't imagine any brand could be obtained for $13 per keg.

Was this thread started in 1983? There hasn't been a half-barrel (15.5 gal) keg of anything sold for $35 wholesale since then.

Domestics (even garbage like Coors, Miller Lite, etc.) cost anywhere from $75-100 before the $30-$50 keg deposit. Craft beer and decent imports routinely sell at wholesale for $135 to well over $200 per keg (most of which are in 1/6 barrels, or 19.5 liters) for high gravity.

You armchair quarterbacks keep talking your smack. I'm getting a lot of laughs out of this.

[cashflyer]

Originally Posted by KevinTodd

You armchair quarterbacks keep talking your smack. I'm getting a lot of laughs out of this.

I am far from being an armchair quarterback, however I am also far from motivated to get my records out of storage to look up the exact price we were paying.

[Shuie]

Are we talking about the retail pricing we pay, what the distributor charges the retailer, or what the supplier/brewery charges the distributor after they pay the federal and state excise tax? There are several levels of pricing and everyone takes a cut. The supplier doesn't really set the pricing at the retail level.

I don't know the rates off the top of my head, but if the beer business is like the spirits business, almost half of the net sales are eaten up by excise tax at the supplier level. Im sure its way more complicated than this, but I would guess Budweiser has to have an army of accountants and MBAs look at their balance sheets, assets & liabilities, PP&E, trademarks, marketing, insurance, logistics & shipping costs, stockholder equity, excise taxes, administrative costs, and the costs of making the sales in order to determine what they need to charge a distributor for a barrel of beer so they can hit their earnings targets and continue to grow.

Budweiser spills more beer during a shift than most breweries make in a year. I don't know exactly how they determine the price they charge a distributor but I can tell you that it can easily cost me $50+ to brew a half barrel of a low gravity rice & corn beer at home w/no excise tax.

Originally Posted by RWebb

if all else fails, DIY

[Racerbvd]

Geeze, yes, some of us do go back to the 80s, and since the question was on a domestic swill( which we have a plant locally) that is some what cheap, and when buying volume, prices are much cheaper than say a quality beer such as Spaten(which does come in smaller kegs and cost much more, but is taste so good) . Prices, like the quality do very from region to region (and WI has some great beers,plus, the ones for in state are slightly different than the same beer they sell that goes to other states, Dennis should be able to educate on that). I can see why fewer and fewer people are willing to try and help, since the thanks from others tends more and more to be insults.

[KevinTodd]

Originally Posted by cashflyer

I am far from being an armchair quarterback, however I am also far from motivated to get my records out of storage to look up the exact price we were paying.

No offense meant whatsoever.

I also do not have to go into storage to determine pricing.

And Byron I have been in business for myself since the 80's too.

Not trying to argue--just stating actual pricing--which by the way doesn't drastically differ from state to state with the exception of those few remaining for which the franchise laws still apply. Sure--tax rates vary, but we're taking a few dollars--not wide swings.

Oh--and I just wrote a check for a 1/6 barrel of Chimay and it was $210 plus tax and deposit.

Hope I haven't mistakenly offended anyone else.

[Rickysa]

Since I'm guessing most folks here are tinkerers and hobby junkies, some might find this interesting... The Electric Brewery

I've had the fun of getting to the point of building the controller, which starts this weekend!


(sorry for the tiny hijack)

[Racerbvd]

BEERS on Kevin!!!

Go any of this??

[Head416]

For reference, Total Wine and More shows on their website $100 retail price for 1/2 kegs of Bud, Miller, Coors. That's before tax or deposit. I couldnt find pricing on their site for full kegs.

What kind of pricing advantage does a bar get vs me walking into a store? 20% less? That's just a WAG, I'd like to know what it really is.

[dhoward]

Originally Posted by Head416

For reference, Total Wine and More shows on their website $100 retail price for 1/2 kegs of Bud, Miller, Coors. That's before tax or deposit. I couldnt find pricing on their site for full kegs.

What kind of pricing advantage does a bar get vs me walking into a store? 20% less? That's just a WAG, I'd like to know what it really is.

Bars get little, if any pricing advantage over you walking into a store. In fact, I used to run liquor and beer beer across state lines (illegal) for a friend of mine, so he could save $2 a case...

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by RWebb

even for you poor people who live outside Oregon, there must be a microbrew somewhere near you (La. has Abita - just a tip, ok!)

patronize them; pay a tad extra for a quality local product and bring back craft brewing

if all else fails, DIY

Even the local Hooters has Widmer on tap (My favorite mass produced beer) and if they run out of that they have shock top.

However I don't have to drive all the way to Long Beach (the closest hooters to my home) to get good beer:

San Pedro Brewing Company - Handcrafted Ales & Lagers, and Great Food!

[cashflyer]

Ok... I will bow to Todd's superior memory on this topic. My wife says I can't remember **** anyway; I guess it's especially true about remembering prices from 4 years ago.

I pulled an old Budweiser invoice from June 2009.
Bud Light, 1/2 BBL, $109
Nat Lt, 1/2 BBL, $98
Bass, 13.2 Gal, $168