Your cart is currently empty!
Steven Coulson
Steven has been drinking beers, wines and spirits for decades and has a propensity to go about them at length after a few drinks.
Latest Posts
- Dissecting The Beer Menu – An Irish Pub & Layered Brews
- Has anyone else noticed that every “limited release” somehow stays on shelves for months?
- Dissecting The Beer Menu – An Irish Pub & Layered Brews
- Headed to Asheville – looking for top breweries to get German style in cans / bottles
- Does anyone else feel guilty drinking beer alone because it’s supposed to be a social experience?
Categories
Tags
Social Links
The Illusion of Scarcity in Craft Beer: Are Limited Releases Losing Their Luster?
Have you ever walked into your local bottle shop and noticed that the so-called “limited release” beers never quite seem to run out? It seems that no matter how exclusive the label might claim a brew is, many of them linger on the shelves for far longer than you’d expect.
Just yesterday, I strolled through my favorite bottle shop and encountered an “extremely limited” barrel-aged stout that has been there since October. The shelf talker proudly touts that only 500 cases were produced, yet it appears that demand is lacking, as no one seems inclined to fork over $25 for yet another bourbon barrel stout that tastes strikingly similar to countless others.
Remember the days when beers like Founders’ KBS and Goose Island’s Bourbon County Brand Stout would fly off the shelves? Enthusiasts would brave the elements, camping outside stores just to secure a few coveted bottles. Nowadays, I can saunter into almost any reputable shop and walk out with vintage 2020 Bourbon County stout as if it were a six-pack of something much more commonplace.
The sheer volume of “limited edition” beers hitting the market has led to a surplus where much of it sits on retailers’ warm shelves long after its “drink by” date has passed. This can create a frustrating paradox—consumers are told that these offerings are rare and exclusive, and yet they remain readily available.
At this point, the practice of promoting artificial scarcity is becoming more than just a marketing gimmick; it’s somewhat embarrassing. I’m growing weary of shelling out top dollar for “limited edition” brews that end up being less rare than a certain light lager beloved by many.
If breweries want to maintain the allure of limited releases, they either need to make these beers genuinely hard to find or stop pretending that their latest barrel-aged concoction is some hidden gem waiting to be unearthed. Let’s hope the craft beer community can return to celebrating true rarity and quality, rather than settling for a marketing ploy that leaves us feeling underwhelmed.