Founders to Colorado?

Indeed. Was talking with a few people about that recently. We don't have anything like that. BA Old Chub occasionally shows up on tap, but it's one of the peat-smoked kinds. It's also a total crapshoot finding it. I prefer the more straight-ahead versions like Dirty Bastard and Big Sound. Back before their weird collapse, Grand Lake had a BA version of Plaid Bastard that was similar.

 

I find it slightly-to-very hard to believe that there's enough midwest transplants in Denver/CO to make it worthwhile for Bells and Founders to do a full distro to an unbelievably saturated market. If every one of you guys on here bought a shitload of their stuff - I still don't think that's enough. As @Domingo and others have pointed out, there are too many run-of-the-mill porters and IPAs and browns in this state as-is...

example - I go to Grapevine and look at the shelves and see Founders porter... next to it are local porters like New Belgium, Elevation, Odell - I know I like those other 3 just fine and their $1 cheaper for a 6 pack... Why am I even thinking about this? haha

 

It sucks for drinkers like me whose primary beer money goes towards regular flagship/shelf beers when one lives in a market dominated by drinkers (and traders) primarily looking for the one-off, "special" beers. We get screwed when a)great breweries like Bell and Founders avoid the market recognizing the obstacles they would face with their regular lineup and b)those breweries that do send their stuff do so only to have so much of their stuff sit.

Admittedly, I do have a homer bias in my buying patterns. FW, Founders, Bells, etc. is never going to be purchased as frequently as my favorite local stuff, like Odell. However,they would still maintain a regular spot in my drinking rotation. For example, as much as I love Odell's Cutthroat Porter I would still happily fork over an extra $1 or $2 for some Founders Porter, which is a superior beer (my favorite porter), IMO. And I can't count the amount of times I tried to spend the extra money on FW's Union Jack, though I never did because of the age problem and I wasn't about to spend more money for a much older hoppy beer.

 

We have the same exact taste in porters! Any favorite canned offerings?

 

Surprisingly, no. I just checked out which porters I have tried and rated on this site and only 2 come via the can, neither of which I was much a fan for.

 

Same here I wish I could have a bunch of cans of a great porter in storage for my "second beer", I'm pretty much out of bottle space.

 

Not saying I like it or it's fair, but Denver's beer market tends to involve "buy it once to try and unless it's amazing, probably never again." Our shelves are packed with great beers (or at least when they were fresh) people aren't buying. At least not regularly. Just walk into any of the well stocked stores like Lukas, Davidson's, or Grapevine. I bet 99% of customers can't even name or recognize 1/2 of their SKU's. I'd like to think I'm fairly well informed and I probably don't know 40% of 'em. I'd love a perfect world where we can all buy every beer possible, but at a certain point there's a battle for shelf space and a brewery that has to make money by sending their beer where it will sell.
Would I love to purge some of that to make room for better beers? Sure. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way and I'm not a retail consultant.
I'm sure we've all heard the cries of "if only XXXX was around, I'd buy that all of the time." That rarely holds true when it actually shows up and it's more expensive and less fresh than other examples from CO and CA. I've seen it happen going all the way back to when Hop Devil and Storm King showed up and were both in the BA top 25.
Beer is still more regional than some might believe. I'm not so sure that's a bad thing either.

 

More for me.

 

It's a great thing!! All the more reason to travel to awesome and exotic locations, like San Diego and.....Cleveland

 

All I'm saying is if two hearted or centennial IPA were offered here fresh year round it would compete for space in my fridge on a regular basis.

 

I like variety too. There's only so much Superpower, Odell IPA, Yeti, and Dale's I can drink before I get kinda sick of those beers. If Ballast Point and FW could do well out here I have no doubt that Bells and Founders can as well.

I posted on Founder's IG photo "Colorado next" and they replied "we hope to make it out there very soon!"

I would buy all of the Breakfast Stout and Imperial Stout. All of it. Breakfast Stout over Espresso Yeti all day.

 

I'll say this, I'd buy more Founders and Bell's than I do Sierra Nevada or Sam Adams. I mostly buy Prost, followed by maybe Left Hand and Great Divide, but I could work in Founders and Bell's six or four packs.

 

If they come, hopefully these things will come to pass. The shelves at the beer-centric stores tell a different story, but hopefully they're the exception. For years Goose Island only sent their specialty beers to CO. Those days are long over, but at least there is a precedent for the idea.

 

Southern Tier is another recent example. Here's Pumking and Warlock. BOOM---gone.

 

Good call. Forgot all about them, although I bought several bottles of each. Those are the only bottles I wanted (although some others like Mokah are good) and those are the only ones they sent!

 

Southern Tier was and will continue to be Pumking and Warlock only in this market for the forseeable future. They will have another offering of Pumking and Warlock coming out in the Colorado market at the end of August. So they did not come and go, it was just a seasonal release/offering.

 

August?? Pumpkin beers should come out on July! THEN the Xmas beers in August.

 

For me, it's easier to look at it as a list of the beers I would buy on the reg...there are actually quite a few:

Backwoods Bastard
KBS (duh)
Two Hearted
Breakfast Stout
Curmudgeon
Harvest Ale
Hopslam

I think they'd alright if they came...think about all the midwesterners that live here (bastards)...in my opinion (which means nothing) this is a bit different than someone like Southern Tier bringing one or two beers...these are breweries with huge followings that wouldn't need to begin a new marketing campaign. More like a plug and play instantly.