No Surly Wet this year!

Price jump? $2 is a price jump on a beer that sells out in minutes?

Other breweries are putting out seasonal/limited release stuff that is just sitting on the shelves just like Surly stuff. They are no different. This isn't some grand problem for them unless you will just admit it's some grand problem for every brewery ever. Indeed. Fulton. Lift Bridge. All of them have beers just sitting collecting dust. Yet the complaining and mindless attacks are at Surly.

Yes, beer is sitting there, by that it's Pentagram and Smoke. Both of which have always sat around. Their actual everyday beers continue to sell at a level t hat requires them to run their brewery 24 hours a day.

 

You quoted my post but don't appear to have read it, so...enjoy.

 

No, I clearly read it, but whatever.

 

Oh, and saw Furious in store today, dated 6/10/2014. Not say, but just saying.

 

Clearly it's in reaction to this thread! And they said bitching wouldn't get us anywhere...

 

What problems? That people don't like some of their beers? No.
The problem I was stating is logistics pure and simple. Wet is listed as a seasonal beer with an availability of September. They state they have "No Room" for this beer in production. If I were one to cut a seasonal I'd skip Fest, there are no truck chasers going after that one. I don't know what their production schedule is and how long Fest takes to brew vs. Wet and tank space and time used for both brews.

In true Minnesota fashion we can never be too happy about anything.

 

Haha! We're like sports fans yelling at our TVs. "Why the hell did Todd & Omar run Peterson up the middle on 3rd and 8! Don't they know anything about football!"

 

And yet many of you will still be chasing Darkness come fall.

I don't really understand the pricing complaint, at least on the regular stuff. I'm paying $9-$10 for a 6er from other Minnesota breweries (Bent Paddle, Indeed) - maybe slightly cheaper oz for oz but not a huge difference - or $4-$5 for a 22oz bomber from some of the others (which I don't buy often, because I want smaller formats and oz for oz it's way higher). Frankly, Summit feels like the only local that's measurably cheaper on an oz for oz basis on regular release beers. (12 packs of bottles for 11-12 bucks pretty regularly). That may change but the locals seem to have settled in on 9-10 bucks as a sixer price point. Even the Summit cans are 8-9 bucks depending on where you buy them. Can find Surly for 8-9, sometimes higher, and some of the seasonals are higher, I'll grant that. But I do think they're chasing a different market with Abrasive and Blakkr that is less price sensitive.

And frankly, I see beer languishing from their competitors as much or more. I see 6 month old 750s of Indeed and Fulton pretty often. Smoke and Pentagram have always sat longer, and I could make the argument that they're overpriced for the market. Are $20+ bottles of Pentagram going to fly off the shelf? No. And it will be interesting to see how Darkness sells this year, but that beer has yet to hit the wall and the price has continued to rise, and it's still in high demand in the trading scene here and other places. Sales will still be brisk.

 

Please tell me more about Rodenbach and Love Child.

 

I wouldn't call the attacks mindless. Again the price point seems to be the main problem. $21.00 and up for Pentagram and every other Surly Bomber. $15.00 for Fulton W&P, $14.00 for Lift Bridge Biscotti, $13.99 for Indeed Old Friend and Burr Grinder. Etc.

 

I haven't had Love Child, but Rodenbach Grand Cru is much better than Pentagram, and less than half the price. It's lip puckeringly sour with a nice tartness. Plus, it is easy to find year round at any of the better beer stores throughout the metro.

 

And all of those you can find well after their brew dates. So doesn't seem to be the price at all.

 

Things get incredibly subjective in a hurry though. I bought as much or more Abrasive this year as I ever have. I frankly find a lot of the other 750s from local breweries to be incredibly inconsistent or simply not as good as the surly offerings I've tried. I feel like there's a reason Darkness flies off the shelves but I can still find Worthy Adversary sitting around 6 months later. But it's all completely subjective.

I see many other specialty or limited releases from out of market at the caliber of Surly's offerings at the $20 price point. Maybe not rodenbach grand cru, but I can probably pull 10-15 bottles out of my cellar at any given time that I paid that much for. Maybe I'm a sucker. I don't know. Many of these shelf turd at my local haunts even though they are incredibly good beers because of the price point. More for me, I guess.

also, the $8.00 Love Child was a pricing error from the distributor, it's now $15 at most places I've seen it this go round.

 

Yep.

 

IMO, The breweries have all gotten together to make sure specialty bombers are way more expensive. I can't fault them for it.

 

Conspiracy theories now? This thread doesn't disappoint.

 

Nope the price of Pentagram is not an issue at all, you're right. People are buying Rodenbach as an alternative just to spite Surly.