You want your beer cold?

[iamthestretch]

Is this normal: I was over at my favorite beer connection in DC this evening picking up some Brooklyn Lager and Shelter Pale Ale and a guy walks in and asks for a case of Heineken, cold. They fish it out of the cooler and ring it up: "$28 please." He balks and points to the clipping of their weekly WashPost column ad taped to the counter that has Heinies at $20 a case. "That's for warm," he's told. "What do you think pays for the refrigeration?" Granted, it's 100 degrees in DC right now and we're sweating under Orange Alert and all, but this is a new one to me. Anyone else been surcharged for dipping into the cooler rather than shopping off the shelves?

[Chef Shogun]

The places I seem to frequent keep most of 'the good stuff' in the cooler (Ok, except for the odd case, but mostly the un-fridged is the utility beer). Always wondered if that 'allowed' them to tack on an extra buck or two. Where is this beer place? I want some Brooklyn in DC, too!

[slkinsey]

My guess is that they charge more for cold because they can. They figure that, if it's all that important to you that the beer is cold right away, it's worth the extra 33 cents a bottle.

IIRC, it's not atypical to charge a little more for already-cold beer.

[Chef Shogun]

Guess 33 cents/bottle doesn't sound so bad, but the (equivalent for 24 bottle Heinie case) $8/case surcharge makes it sound steep. The fun part is this is something you could calculate, given the cooling power of the fridge, cost per kWh of electricity, cubic meter of beer to chill, and desired temperature differential. Betcha it's NOT $8/case, even with the fridge opening for M seconds every N minutes causing a delta change in temp, and maintanance of the fridge. This is assuming all other things, rent, base utilities (not the fridge), etc, being equal vs. room temp beer. More like "Sell two chilled cases and you've covered your fridge costs for the day", without running the numbers.

[redfox]

Meanwhile my local liquor hut (Montgomery County) sells all of its beer warm "to promote home consumption." HARRUMPH.

[cdh]

Might be crazy liquor laws too... I've certainly heard of states that disallow chilled beer to be sold... maybe DC goes both ways and allows cold and warm sales, but taxes them differently...

All dumb liquor laws should be repealed... write your elected critter!

[Okbrewer]

In OK all beer sold at the liquor store (the good beer!) has to be sold unrefrigerated. You want cold stuff, you go to the grocery store or 7-Eleven and get the 3.2 beer. No high point beer can be sold cold, don't want you to be able to drink it immediately. Fortunately for me, I like mine at 'cellar' temps, so a quick chill is usually all it takes. Of course I also have a well stocked beer fridge, so who cares!

[sparrowgrass]

In Indiana, you can get beer at the convenience store/gas station, but only warm beer. For cold beer, you have to go to the liquor store.

In Kentucky, many convenience stores have a cooler full of ice and single beers right next to the cash register.

Silly liquor laws--let's repeal them all.

[Ed Hamilton]

I was driving through east from Kansas City through Missouri years ago and tried to buy a beer at a convenience store and was told that they couldn't sell liquor by the drink, I had to buy three. So what could I do? I bought three and didn't have to stop for beer for the rest of the trip, did have to stop to get rid of one of them though.

Is still the law in the Show-Me state?