Surly Jumps The Shark?!

If the "hip" spots in town didn't serve Surly, I'd pass on them.

 

they make it seem deliberate, but if they had the option I am sure they would have it on tap.

 

I would assume purposely not carrying great beer automatically = unhip. Am I missing something here?

 

^This.

It's also the case at a number of liquor stores... after all, it's just a "Minnesota novelty."

 

IIRC this has something to do with the "Surly Bill" that allowed breweries to open tap rooms. At the time of it's passage a few bars publicly pulled Surly from their lines as they didn't want to compete against them.

 

wow, the ultimate form of pettiness. "Boo hoo, we have to compete with a brewery that brews great beer? how unfair! lets hate on them for trying to make money."

 

We went to Bachelor Farmer last weekend for dinner while in Minneapolis and they had Fulton but no Surly. I wasn't sure if this was due to them still being fairly new or if the whole "hipper than hip" vibe they were putting out was responsible.

 

Bachelor Farmer is pretty new, they may still be on the waiting list for Surly.

 

Maybe. But you'd think the owners would have a little pull, given that they're the Governor's kids.

 

I have heard a similar story about Fulton and their tap room.

 

as long as the hipsters locations in MSP carry PBR I will be AOK......

 

Any pull they have probably has more to do with the size of their wallets. And even then while it might get them up the list, Omar won't pull it from an account to give to them instead.

 

Wouldn't surprise me. IIRC Pracna on Main was the most public to pull their Surly lines, but they were still serving Fulton last I heard.

 

I tend to think it has more to do with the hipster vibe put off by Bachelor Farmer and several other spots in MSP. I think the OP was right when he posited that this is some sort of hipster pushback.

 

hah, what a stupid thing to do. "they might go to the surly tap room... fuck it, i'll make sure they go to the tap room by not even serving surly here! haha!"

plus i'm sure surly's going to have huge problems finding people to buy all their beer. always meaningful to boycott someone who's probably brewing at capacity and selling every bottle and keg they produce.

 

Im curious as to how you got the impression that some "hip" bars in these towns choose not to cary Surly deliberately, maybe even because they view them as big, bad and arrogant?

 

Actually, I've heard and experienced the same issues stated by the OP. Last time I was in the cities, I went to Ike's (not trying to bash Ike's, I love their food) and they didn't have Surly on tap. I was specifically told they have no plans to bring it back. I agree that this is probably due to the "Surly Bill." Rather immature in my opinion.

Here in Rochester, Bender and Furious are on tap at most places. Even BW3s put it on tap last fall. Unfortunately, it was at the expense of Schell's. Why BW3s needs 10 taps of BMC crap and their respective "knock off" craft beers is beyond me. That's right Shock Top, I'm calling you and that mow hawk out...

 

Is it so far fetched to believe that some place that serves "Toasts" as a sort of cutesy/ironic/hip dish would also find itself too cool for school when it comes to choosing beer?

Also, the toasts were delicious. They would've been better with a Furious instead of a Sweet Child o' Vine, but they were still delicious.

 

I've only heard of two bars pulling a breweries product due to the "Surly Bill". One is Pracna, whose owner dumped Surly. The other I'm hesitant to name as I don't have definitive proof, although I heard it from what I consider a reliable source. Sure, it does seem petty on one hand, but if a bar loses even one customer to a brewery taproom I can understand their anger. Perhaps the attitude is, if you are going to operate a bar that directly competes with me, and draws customers away from me, then why in the world would I sell your products? That probably isn't the decision I would make, but I don't put food on my table and pay my mortgage by making money of off selling beer.