10 Beers That Aren’t Cheap but Are Truly Worth the Price

We are living in the golden age of craft beer, with more than 9,500 breweries in the United States alone. No matter your tastes, there’s likely a perfect pint for you. 

And while you may think that expensive brews don’t have quite the same prestige as liquor or wine, the purveyors on this list may convince you otherwise.

If you need to lower your financial stress, but still want to enjoy a good beverage, this beer is the least pricey on our list. Here’s a collection of rare and expensive beers that are definitely worth spending your money on.

Price: $40 - $130

This selection from Missouri-based Side Project Brewing is not outrageously expensive, but when was the last time you spent $130 on a bottle of beer? If you enjoy it too much you might need to pick up some extra cash to afford the habit. 

Oude du Blé — with its classy black label — may have your taste buds thanking you. Made from Missouri wheat saison and aged in French oak for 13 months, this beer has a deep complexity and a nuanced oaky flavor.

Price: $199+

The appeal of beer isn’t usually the design of its bottle, but this selection from super-popular Massachusetts-American brewery Samuel Adams is one exception. 

Packaged in a beautifully ornate canister, this beer offers 28% ABV and contains notes of tart Balaton cherries. 

Coming in at just over $200 dollars, this highly-rated beer is aged up to 28 years in a variety of barrels which gives it a unique composition.

Price: $400

Carlsberg is a Danish company renowned for its light beer that’s sold in distinctive light green packaging. 

The company tried its hand at the luxury beer market in the 2000s with the launch of its Jacobsen Vintage line. This beer is aged for more than six months and contains notes of vanilla, caramel, oak, and prunes. 

It’s exclusive to Denmark and contains 21% alcohol proof. Each bottle is a work of art itself, containing one-of-a-kind lithographs by Danish article Frans Kannick.

Price: $110

Sapporo is a beloved beer company from Japan, but their Space Barley brew is nothing like anything else they offer. 

Although this one does seem like an obvious marketing gimmick, there is no denying that it’s an incredibly cool offering. The barley that is used to make this beer spent five months aboard the International Space Station.

For a brew to be this outworldly, $110 may seem like a bargain, but it is very hard to get your hands on this cosmic beer. It was only sold in Japan with its proceeds going to charity.

Price: $650 - $900

Belgian blonde ales are renowned for lending themselves to easy drinking, but there’s nothing easy about this brew’s price tag. 

Then again, most blonde ales aren’t 55% proof either, and that’s exactly the ABV rating of this particular beer choice which is made from nettles and juniper berries from the Scottish highlands.

This beer isn’t for those with a weak stomach. At the time of its first production in 2010, this beer was touted as both the world’s strongest and most expensive. Its original run sold out in only four hours.

Price: $850+

This San Francisco brew is pretty hard to come across, but if you do, you can expect to pay around $1,000. 

Its prestige is largely due to its status as a single-run brew, which means that its unique flavor is only available at one time only. 

It’s brewed in the American Wild Ale style and features juicy cherry notes. Notably, it is one of the rare beers to hold the distinctive 100% rating on beer-rating website BeerAdvocate.

Price: $750-800

This illusive Belgian brew comes in at 8% ABV and can exclusively be found at a single bar in London called Bierdome. 

Heads up before you buy that plane ticket, though — this beer was only made in very small quantities, so there’s a good chance the bartender might be sold out or has raised the price if there is only a small stock left. 

This dark beer, which contains notes of anise and toffee, is aged for ten years before serving.

Price: $95.99

From Australia, the Crown Ambassador Reserve is rumored to be the country’s most expensive bottle of beer, and rightfully so as there is so much to rave about.

This dark 9.6% beer comes with notes of amber and caramel and offers a fruity, hoppy taste. Its retail price is about $73 dollars, but if you’re intent on buying this beer you should expect to pay even more.

Pro tip: When buying expensive alcoholic beverages, you may want to use a credit card that helps you to earn rewards such as cash back in order to get the most bang for your buck.

Price: $100

BrewDog is at it again, this time with their imperial-style Sink the Bismarck. With an alcohol rating of 41%, it makes sense that this quadruple IPA is sold by the bottle. 

According to the brewers, this beer offers a spicy, fruity taste, and interestingly a “full attack on your taste buds”. If that’s the kind of thing you’re into, you might be able to pick up a bottle of this for around $100.

Price: $503,300

Imagine owning a bottle of beer that has gone on more adventures than you have. That’s likely the case with this particular brew from Allsopp which famously went on a 19th-century Arctic expedition. 

This beer, which was brewed in 1875 for a Welsh naval officer, is rumored to taste “sweet” with “hints of tobacco”. It’s hard for us to say ourselves, though, because there is only one bottle out there and it sold for $503,300 at an auction.

While this isn't one you're likely to buy, it still makes a great story. You can keep way more money in your wallet by shopping for regular beers that are worth the cost. 

Your refined taste for alcohol may be satiated by some of these expensive beers, whose purveyors took great care to produce. 

Whether you are imbibing or collecting, beer lovers may also be interested in the producers as an investment avenue. Though sales were slightly down in 2020 — likely due to the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic — the market is worth a staggering $94.1 billion dollars. 

If you’re looking to keep more money in your bank account, researching beer stocks isn’t half a bad idea.