Portland Beer Price Index

Bill from It's Pub Night has provided an invaluable service to Beervana: he's created the Beer Price Index. Like other indices, the BPI is a collection of prices averaged together. In this case, Bill is tracking prices on six-packs, 22-ounce bottles ("bombers"), and pub pints. The function of such indices is to track prices over time. The structure is similar to the Dow Jones. It's not designed to be comprehensive--it won't tell you the average price of all stores and pubs in the city or state. What it will do is allow us to see how prices change over time for the beer he included in the index. So here we go--the Autumn '09 BPI is:

• $8.85 - six pack (average of six brands)
• $4.90 - 22-ounce bottle (average of seven bombers)
• $4.27 - pub pint (average pint in nine establishments)
  

I will avoid summarizing his entire post--you should go read his methodology and definitions there. He has more fine-grained detail and analysis (all useful), including six-pack equivalent prices on bombers and pints.

This is very cool. A hearty cheers to Bill for putting it together.