Beerwulf - cheap online beer shop (well, for Belgian beers at least)

[Shoeyuk]

Its annoying as in one of my emails Mark said "However, we do not have any further price changes for individual bottles scheduled." yet i have seen two rounds of increases since then

 

[Ron Grainger]

Yes he said that to me too!

 

[HungryHippos]

The price rises seem to continue. Rochefort 10 is now a whopping £3.79!

I've put together a small table showing some of the price changes over time. I am missing some data though.



If anyone wants to get a swan song order in with Beerwulf before everything has gone up further, then my current suggestions are:

Affligem Blonde: https://www.beerwulf.com/en-gb/p/affligem-blond2/ £1.09 per bottle
Affligem Tripel: https://www.beerwulf.com/en-gb/p/affligem-tripel2/ £1.35 per bottle
Kasteel Blonde: https://www.beerwulf.com/en-gb/p/kasteel-blonde2/ £1.69 per bottle
Troubador Blonde: https://www.beerwulf.com/en-gb/p/troubadour-blond2/ £1.75 per bottle
Hapkin: https://www.beerwulf.com/en-gb/p/hapkin2/ £1.85 per bottle
Kwak: https://www.beerwulf.com/en-gb/p/pauwel-kwak/ £2.19 per bottle (gone up less comparatively against most of the others).

I think the Chimay's are OK and haven't changed much, £2.19 for Red, £2.39 for White, £2.59 for Blue.
Westmalle seems to have kept it's price OK as well, you can buy the Dubbel here for around £2 if you shop about, but the Tripel has remained at £2.59 since march so I'd suggest the Tripel is due an increase.

Duvel Tripel is OK as well, but it's not one I am that keen on. A bit cheaper than Tescos who sell it at £2.50 a bottle.

 

[Ron Grainger]

Thanks for the great info there HungryHippos!

Has to be said that despite the increases Beerwulf are still, across the board, cheaper than BeerHawk and Beers of Europe. In fact the only price they are beaten on in this list is Delirium Tremens which sells for £2.50 a bottle in Tescos. I've done a small comparison chart below and you can see that several prices are £1 dearer elsewhere with Kasteel Donker being a whopping £1.20 dearer at Beerhawk.



I guess, if they do the sensible thing and keep the current prices where they are for a while, it would still make sense to get those Belgian speciality beers from the Wulf!

P.S. I have no connection with the company, just an interest in great beers at a fair price.

 

[silent]

nice comparisons there, seems beers of e are competing with beerhawk and not wulf. just an observation.

 

[HungryHippos]

True Ron, but I'd argue that at those kinds of prices then the nearest supermarket is probably a better bet for the most part, I'd not want to spend £2-£3 a bottle lightly.

M & S was doing 3 for the price of 4 on a reasonable selection of Belgian ales, which made them somewhat competitive but with fewer options. My local Tescos is OK if I can live on Duvel and a few others, I hear Waitrose is quite good though I don't really have any near me.

Even Amazon sell some, I can get Westmalle Dubbel at an average of £2.10 a bottle from Amazon directly

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Westmalle-...UTF8&qid=1532377390&sr=8-2&keywords=westmalle

Helps that by some weird round about method I can get 4% off at Tescos, 4% off at Amazon, and 7% at M&S!

Edit - I forgot to add that Beerwulf still seems well priced on the La Trappe selection. The dubbel/tripel/quad are all cheaper than the normal blonde.

Had a quick count up, and excluding some which I was having trouble pricing up on any of the main ones, this is my current stock with values at the cheapest available price:

 

[silent]

True Ron, but I'd argue that at those kinds of prices then the nearest supermarket is probably a better bet for the most part, I'd not want to spend £2-£3 a bottle lightly.

M & S was doing 3 for the price of 4 on a reasonable selection of Belgian ales, which made them somewhat competitive but with fewer options. My local Tescos is OK if I can live on Duvel and a few others, I hear Waitrose is quite good though I don't really have any near me.

Even Amazon sell some, I can get Westmalle Dubbel at an average of £2.10 a bottle from Amazon directly

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Westmalle-...UTF8&qid=1532377390&sr=8-2&keywords=westmalle

Helps that by some weird round about method I can get 4% off at Tescos, 4% off at Amazon, and 7% at M&S!

Edit - I forgot to add that Beerwulf still seems well priced on the La Trappe selection. The dubbel/tripel/quad are all cheaper than the normal blonde.

Had a quick count up, and excluding some which I was having trouble pricing up on any of the main ones, this is my current stock with values at the cheapest available price:

wow, thats some stock!!! thanks for the comparison chart, very useful!

 

[Ron Grainger]

That's an impressive stock list HungryHippos. I tend to buy 16 bottles at a time and reorder when stock gets low. It's true you can sometimes get a decent price in the supermarket but of course the choice is somewhat limited and prices are still usually well over £2 a bottle. Waitrose do have a great selection of Beers although the Belgian side is quite small. Tripel Karmeliet is £2.99 there so Beerwulf still has the edge, just. Lidl have Belgian beers from time to time including Corsendonk blonde and dark versions at very reasonable prices. It's a pity they don't have them all the time though. I haven't actually looked at he M&S range so must check that out. I have bought Westmalle double from Amazon in the past and that does represent a good price.

The lower La Trappe pricing may have something to do with it being Dutch as opposed to Belgian and Beerwulf being a Dutch company. Affligem Tripel at £1.35 is still a great price for a very nice beer which costs a staggering £3.59 from BOE.

 

[weringo]

FYI there's currently a £10 off coupon at Honest Brew. They're not usually the cheapest but have a great selection of beers especially NEIPAs

https://www.hotukdeals.com/vouchers/honestbrew.co.uk

 

[NickK]

For some reason the £5 off code from the newsletter sub has become £10 off at some stage.

Not worked out why, but not complaining.

Gulden Drak - I've tried their Double and Triple (9%) - how was the Quad?

 

[HungryHippos]

That's an impressive stock list HungryHippos. I tend to buy 16 bottles at a time and reorder when stock gets low. It's true you can sometimes get a decent price in the supermarket but of course the choice is somewhat limited and prices are still usually well over £2 a bottle. Waitrose do have a great selection of Beers although the Belgian side is quite small. Tripel Karmeliet is £2.99 there so Beerwulf still has the edge, just. Lidl have Belgian beers from time to time including Corsendonk blonde and dark versions at very reasonable prices. It's a pity they don't have them all the time though. I haven't actually looked at he M&S range so must check that out. I have bought Westmalle double from Amazon in the past and that does represent a good price.

The lower La Trappe pricing may have something to do with it being Dutch as opposed to Belgian and Beerwulf being a Dutch company. Affligem Tripel at £1.35 is still a great price for a very nice beer which costs a staggering £3.59 from BOE.

I would be surprised if they don't up the other La Trappes soon though, the standard blonde one is more expensive than the dubbel/tripel/quad etc and that almost never happens, they seem to be upping prices as they restock stuff, so I expect they'll be over £2 each within the next 3 months.

Gulden Drak - I've tried their Double and Triple (9%) - how was the Quad?

Enjoyed it

Not tried the others would like to one day. I really like the egg glass anyway and wanted to buy it even if I didn't like it!

I drink the tripels/blondes most of the time, but occasionally the odd dubbel/quad is a nice change.

 

[~Divine~Wind~]

That's an impressive stock list HungryHippos. I tend to buy 16 bottles at a time and reorder when stock gets low. It's true you can sometimes get a decent price in the supermarket but of course the choice is somewhat limited and prices are still usually well over £2 a bottle. Waitrose do have a great selection of Beers although the Belgian side is quite small. Tripel Karmeliet is £2.99 there so Beerwulf still has the edge, just. Lidl have Belgian beers from time to time including Corsendonk blonde and dark versions at very reasonable prices. It's a pity they don't have them all the time though. I haven't actually looked at he M&S range so must check that out. I have bought Westmalle double from Amazon in the past and that does represent a good price.

The lower La Trappe pricing may have something to do with it being Dutch as opposed to Belgian and Beerwulf being a Dutch company. Affligem Tripel at £1.35 is still a great price for a very nice beer which costs a staggering £3.59 from BOE.

The Corsendonk are currently reduced from 6.99 to 4.99 for the 4 packs in my local lidl.
I was hoping that theyd have the 6 packs of draak/piraat reduced as I think for the money thats a cracking little box for around a tenner
Keep yer eyes open for those boxes they seem to go fast

 

[dl8860]

The Belgian pack at £30.95 remains pretty good value. It's cheaper per bottle than my order of 12 bottles in April which was at the good prices in Hungry Hippo's table above. Lots of sections of the website are down which is annoying.

 

[Ron Grainger]

Yes that is a good value pack! The Trappist one is a bit pricey but does have some special beers in it.

 

[Ron Grainger]

So the latest development over at Beerwulf is free delivery on full boxes only. They have stopped using boxes of various sizes and are only shipping in the 16 bottle size. I understand from Mark that this is a move to become more environmentally friendly and boost efficiency. However what it actually means is that if you buy a full box of 16 bottles the delivery is free as before but if you buy a couple of extras making an order of, say, 18 bottles you will be charged the full delivery fee of £4.95. I'm just wondering where the incentive would be to purchase those few extra bottles. All their rivals offer free delivery after a certain price has been reached but what Beerwulf are doing seems to be penalising the customer for adding a few more bottles to their order. Think I'll just carry on buying 16 at a time.

 

[HungryHippos]

So the latest development over at Beerwulf is free delivery on full boxes only. They have stopped using boxes of various sizes and are only shipping in the 16 bottle size. I understand from Mark that this is a move to become more environmentally friendly and boost efficiency. However what it actually means is that if you buy a full box of 16 bottles the delivery is free as before but if you buy a couple of extras making an order of, say, 18 bottles you will be charged the full delivery fee of £4.95. I'm just wondering where the incentive would be to purchase those few extra bottles. All their rivals offer free delivery after a certain price has been reached but what Beerwulf are doing seems to be penalising the customer for adding a few more bottles to their order. Think I'll just carry on buying 16 at a time.

I don't really mind that to be honest, always thought it was a little silly that they didn't do something like mapping your order to the boxes they sent for that reason. 16 minimum isn't too bad either, as you can quite easily drink 16 bottles.

Plenty to get through at the moment though not planning on ordering anymore for a few months at least!

 

[Martynt74]

Just got my first order in. Went for the "Explorer" pack as at £32 with the £5 subscription discount i couldn't argue at £27 for 16 bottles.

It's a shame deliveries are only free on full boxes though as i'd have liked to add a few extras but don't want to buy another 16

 

[Ron Grainger]

Just got my first order in. Went for the "Explorer" pack as at £32 with the £5 subscription discount i couldn't argue at £27 for 16 bottles.

It's a shame deliveries are only free on full boxes though as i'd have liked to add a few extras but don't want to buy another 16

Yes that's my point exactly. If you go for a pack and then want to add a few more, it has to be at least 16 more to avoid the delivery cost. It's like being penalised for wanting a few more beers.

 

[HungryHippos]

Yes that's my point exactly. If you go for a pack and then want to add a few more, it has to be at least 16 more to avoid the delivery cost. It's like being penalised for wanting a few more beers.

I know they were doing some various sized boxed as some of mine would arrive in smaller ones, some in bigger ones. I am not against trying to fill a box but perhaps they could offer bigger ones for you to fill up instead of limiting the size to 16.

 

[Ron Grainger]

According to Mark they used to do boxes of 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 but have decided to go with just the 16 box from now on. Seems like a step backwards somehow but here is his reasoning:

"What we experienced in doing business so far, is that very often we were shipping out orders that were rather inefficient in terms of using materials. Orders of 25 bottles for example. The change to one singular type of box means that:
1: We can work in a more sustainable and environmentally friendly way, both in the materials used as well as the efficiency of our warehouse. Basically, automation of parts of our process is a lot more likely and possible for the future.
2: This new strategy allows us to use a new type of box, one that is safer and reduces the risk of breakage. We want to ensure that each of our parcels is delivered without any damages."