More Darkness on the way

Not sure where you are going but I live and work in the eastern suberbs and have had ZERO problems trying to find Abrasive. Pretty much any of my regular stores I go to all have it at any given time, definitely do not need to drive to MPLS to find it.

 

Dennis Brothers, Cellars - Woodbury, and basically any liquor store in Woodbury or Cottage Grove. If I head to West St. Paul its all over. Just don't get it. I go to France 44 and they have a stack of it 4 feet tall but the stores I'm talking about say Surly isn't delivering over hear and if so in very limited quantities. St. Paul is a different animal. Easy to get there. As far as the stores I typically frequent that are close in the suburbs seem to be getting none. Its not like I can't find it but there is no where near the supply around here that there was last year and certainly no where near the supply as in a typical store in MPLS or MPLS suburbs. It's not like there is any debate hear. This is the way it is. I visit a lot of liquor stores in a week and I'm not delusional.

 

Princeton's in Maple Grove got their shipment in earlier today, 2 bottle limit.

 

Saw Abrasive at Dennis Brothers today.

 

Ask them the last time they had it. I talk to them all the time and they don't get much ever lately. I know it pisses them off when they have to tell you they don't have any and watch you walk out the door to go searching.

 

Don't get me wrong. I don't bother buying Abrasive as much as I used to and I'm not going to be supporting Surly as much given they don't even take care of us as Chicago is their new market. A new batch of Darkness with most of it going to Chicago is bullshit. This is only the beginning. Give it a couple years and see how many other states they go into while they neglect us. Lots of people feel the same. Look at the dates on cans even in MPLS. France 44 and some other big stores have furious and over rated that is two months old the last time I looked.

The only good thing that will come out of this will be that they will be canning new beers as all the tap takeovers are basically product development and they are seeing which beers do the best.

 

Long gone, my wife was there right around 4 and they were out.

 

Where do you live and what are your regular stores? I guess it probably doesn't help that I live as far from the brewery that I might as well be in WI. I guess it's obvious more craft is consumed in MPLS as you can see with all the craft bars there and basically none in our area.

 

Surly does not Distro anymore. Have not for a while. What I find amazing is that people fall over themselves for Darkness. Don't get me wrong. I bought a bunch of it, but why do we? I can spend less money and get 4 packs of BCBS/C/BW, CWBBS/BW/CS/PM, Founders IS and BS, along with many other fine RISs that cost WAY less.

The more amazing this is that I can now find Surly in any little town around the state and on tap at places where they could not get it 6 months ago. I thought they could not brew any more than they were and they could not keep up, but I see it everywhere. And now in Chicago gets tons of it...Guess the Johnson partnership is a good deal for them.

 

The Chicago thing doesn't disturb me too much. It would've three years ago when Darkness and Abyss sent me scrambling to beat the truck chasers to my local stores. Maybe it gets tough for a few years around here, but we don't know what will be the desired local two years from now.

In my opinion, Toppling Goliath has passed Surly in stouts and IPAs (not IIPAs). I thought New Glarus was overrated until they busted out the Thumbprint series iiPa, Wild Sour, and I wish I made it the VSB release. How many people are heading to Central Waters this weekend? I had Rum King last weekend and I will wait in line for that one when it is bottled again.

There might be more people wanting to brew than there are existing brewers now. Most of us didn't know what Toppling Goliath, Perennial, or Cigar City was three years ago. It wouldn't surprise me if Hunaphu is produced at larger scales soon and on shelves in Atlanta. We're getting Toppling Goliath this year!

Minnesota has always fostered a healthy creative class, and I bet that same climate will produce a brewer in the near future that will push Surly for instate dominance. And by then Firestone Walker could be here and we could all have a couple Parabolas in our possession. The Chicago resentment doesn't make sense long term. Surly should feel uncomfortable with the way the market is developing, not us as consumers.

 

How much did folks pay today? Got a bottle for $23 @ Haskell's which I wasn't happy about but it was my one bottle this year.

 

18.99 at gv liquor barrel

 

So if this was a new batch, that was just bottled - what year do we call it... 2013.2 ?

 

I wasn't going to get any of this batch but I think I should. Would be nice to compare to the batch from October 2013 and see if its any different. Since this was bottled in 2014 I guess you can't really called it 2013 Darkness?

Did Surly use their dating machine on these bottles?

 

The butthurt is amusing.

You want Darkness? Go to Darkness Day.

You whining because a local brewery is doing great & beginning to ship product to other states? Waaaah.

 

Nailed it.

Side note - Firkins said they would get theirs in on Thursday. Looks like it is popping up all over in various locations. Good luck to those of you that are hunting it.

 

I tend to agree here. It's a second run of Darkness. A bunch of it is being made available to us. And we're bitching because a bunch of it is going to Chicago? To me, the net result is *we're getting more Darkness*. Yeah, so it will be hard to get. It would have been harder to get if they hadn't made any.

For all I care, they can send it all to Chicago, or Omar can sit at his mahogany desk and pour it all over himself like he's Tony Montana, mang.