damnit
Flat Tire is just what happens when you leave a bottle of Fat Tire open too long. 
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True. Somebody further up the thread was talking about a âgood dealâ at more than 8 bucks for a beer!
Carrefour have good deals on craft beers on occasion, although they ramped up their prices a bit over the last year or so.
Hopefully.Taiwanese will realise craft beer is still beer and we can buy some local brew at non exorbitant prices.
Even normal beer is not really cheap here. +1 for the Carrefour tip: I sometimes buy Belgium / German / European beer there, and a few weeks ago they seemed to be getting rid of some stock, so I stocked home with lots of large cans that I will slowly use for fighting the heat 
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You are not right, dude. That is just evil.
On occassion, I have seen Sam Adams there. And at Ding Hao, also.
Ding Hao is selling a German heffeweiĂe, complete with stein! But, alas, my wife said no.
Craft beer is so profitable here that guys I know who owned bars closed the bars so they can focus on brewing instead of managing the bar. And they had a lot of investors going in also.
Donât forget that what you brew you need to get rid off!
Taiwan is a small place with lots of people thinking beer is just beer and donât know anything more about beer than itâs something to get drunk on, ganbei.
Pitch in my 2 cent here from someone who stands on the opposite end of the bar
craft beer is expensive in Taiwan when compared to beer price in the US, Canada, Europe, etc⌠but TW beer price is comparable to neighboring asian countries. why?
Could be shipping cost, import tax on alcohol, storage, and MORE. I am always mind boggled when looking at keg prices in the US and the quotes I get from the local brewers/importers. Someoneâs raking in good money for sure, but definitely not us. Our pour cost for normal craft beer (typical IPA, Pale Ale, Porter, wheat beer, etc⌠regardless of domestic or imports) are on par (sometimes more) with the pour cost of aged/seasonal/limited edition in the States.
So the only way for us to stay alive is to price higher to be in the 50%+ margin to cover overhead, rent, salary, etcâŚ
Some may wonder, well venue A has a pint for NT180 regular price, venue B has NT150 pint during happy hour. I am almost certain not much is made on beer, but on food/cocktail/liquor. Thatâs great for regular bar business with good product mix.
However weâre focused on the âcraft beerâ only in our case, hence we spend a good amount of time designing our tap list to make sure we offer as many beer types as possible (within somewhat limited selection of breweries to choose from) at any given time. When we finally get the best tap list combo down, we are already scratching our heads to design the next upcoming tap rotation in 1-2 weeks.
A few other things that âsomeâ craft beer specialty places practice routinely and many other establishments often donât care for are following -
- Bi-weekly line cleaning (self-perform with proper equipment and time)
- Pull out the stale beer thatâs been sitting in the lines overnight (daily) or lines have sat for an hour or so between each service pour.
- Keep kegs in cold storage 24/7 (surprise!)
- Donât use expired keg, or almost expired. (some argue thereâs really no expiration date on beer as it will still be okay to drink and not get sick. Just might taste a bit funky)
- Daily taste each beer for freshness and spot signs of faulty flavors (
for employees, 
for owners). If it doesnât taste right, we pull out the entire keg and wonât serve it to the public. Then we sometimes put it on the backup line+faucet and drink our sorrows away privately at the end of the day.
All things mentioned above are hidden costs associated with servicing good tasting beer not seen by the customers.
This may sound like some overwhelming beer-geek talk, but it actually takes a tremendous amount of work and attention to details to maintain the quality of beer once itâs tapped. Once thing we know for sure is that we wonât cut corners in our standard of practice in order to decrease the cost of operation. We only hope that one day that some magic happens and we are able to drive the keg prices down to a âreasonableâ price, whatever that price may be.
(p.s. bottles or cans bought from supermarkets are almost always cheaper than bars/restaurants. I think that applies to everywhere you go, but people still go our to restaurants and bars right?)
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Iâm guessing that the cost of the beer itself is a relatively minor (20-30%?) component of a pint of beer consumed on your premises. Rent, staff, power and tax would be what the customer pays for.
If your locally-sourced craft beer is expensive, itâs probably just that they have the same problems you do, eg., high rent overhead and a relatively small customer base.
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God bless you, razor_k.
Where is this razor_k, if I might ask?
You hiring? Where do I sign up.
Yes, a bottle of regular Erdinger at Jasonâs or even Carrefour is around 100NT. Whereas a bottled Erdinger is no less than 200NT at the bar.
Itâs not even import beer, Taiwan Beer all across the board are cheaper at the supermarket compared to the bar.
However, the bar gives you the social aspect, atmosphere and not everyone has the space at home to invite friends over for a few cold ones.
Thanks for sharing though!
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You are correct. Customers are paying for space, electricity, staff, taxes, etc⌠though itâs a relatively small component of the cost of operation but it is responsible for the majority of revenue for specialty shop.
Pour cost at 30% would translate to 220-240ish price range, and I know at that price tag is frowned upon for people who are used to the beer prices in the states.
Donât mean to diss any particular businesses, thatâs why no names were mentioned. But the last thing we want to see happen is for consumers to compare venues based solely on the price tag differences.
I would rather produce than deal with shitty alcoholics
Thanks man. We might not be business savvy, but efforts have been put in to maintain good quality products for the customers. We only hope customers can understand that and not think venues with higher price tags are all here to rip people off.
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It wasnât actually the customers. Like others said overhead cost was high. Most cocktail bars can charge 250+ for a small drink and no one blinks an eye. People can only drink so many pitchers of beer. The other main reason itâs hard to find people who gives a shit about your business here. Finding people actually making an effort pushing your beer and keeping the place clean and not stealing and giving inventory away is hard. You also need someone thatâs trained in understanding craft beer, speaks Chinese and English and youâre paying them like 30k max. They probably are looking at slightly better job options.
You brought up an intereting point about 250+ cocktails without a blind of an eye.
Guess customers are able to justify the 250+ cocktail price to see bartender shaking/tossing/stirring your drink. Itâs a form of art, craft, and entertainment.
Craft beer on the other handâŚis as simple as âpull the damn handle and stop at the right time.â Nobodyâs going to pay extra to watch you clean the lines and pull out stale beer 
Has anyone tried this Chithonic themed beer from North Taiwan Brewing?
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