Surly Todd The Axe Man

Damn, that's my usual Costco. Could have saved $0.50!

 

And Warrior hops for bittering.

 

Canned on 7/21 no carb issues, delicious.

 

Had my first can last night dated 7/21. Carb was just an itsy bitsy off, but it was amazing. It was so hard to not grab another can, but I limit myself to one beer a night Mon-Thurs. haha. Definitely in my top 3 of best IPA I've ever had.

 

I think that the carbonation and head retention are decent - but not great (I have the 7/21 batch). I have had other canned higher gravity IPAs that also seem to have this issue (some Tree House brews come to mind).

Also, As a recent Minnesota transplant coming from New England, I can say that for pure hop flavor, this beer is right up there with IPAs/DIPAs made by the Alchemist, Wormtown, Tree House, et al. But the best thing about it is I can walk into almost any liquor store in the Metro and effortlessly pick up several four packs if that is my prerogative. No more driving to Vermont, waiting in lines, or calling liquor stores about availability. I'll cheers to that!

 

But, bro, you don't get beer cred drinking local shelf beers! Best tasting IPA or double you ever had? Who cares. You buy it to trade for out of state shelf beers, duh! Then you use Untapped to check em all in so everyone knows how cool you are!

And, of course, you MUST grow a beard. All beer guys need beards. Especially if you aren't a real man and can't change your own oil or do other common household chores.

Quality and "beer cred" building status of a beer is proportional to how hard the beer is to get, how much it costs, how far you drive for it, and how long you wait in line.

This beer is easy to get, no waiting, and relatively cheap. It must be garbage!

 

So thats what Untapped is for. Ok, got it.

 

No Warrior in Axe Man.

 

While I wasn't there when it was brewed, Todd on twitter earlier this week said they use Warrior for bittering

Don't you dare bring beards into this... they have done nothing wrong.

 

false.

https://twitter.com/surlybrewer/status/626034307539189760

 

you'll still find yourself driving to wisconsin for things you can't get here. it happens.

 

Hah! You're probably right. It's just nice to not deal so much with the crazy scarcity market as much here (from my admittedly limited experience). Something like Todd or even Double Daytripper, hell, maybe even Fresh Squeezed, would be gone in hours at most Massachusetts beer stores.

 

i think the market's changed a lot, but 15 years ago, we never had any issues in allston finding anything, what with blanchard's, marty's, and sunset.

back on topic, lest i step on some toes again, there was a lot of hype about this beer but if they have racks of it at costco, i don't think there was any worry about missing it.

 

I think there was a lot of hype in the craft beer/BA community. Otherwise I don't think it has spread out much further than the well in tune fans. Maybe that is why they decided to do a single run of it this year, to gain fan fair from the random people that just pick it up not even knowing what it is. Then next year maybe they do two or three runs once it's better known. Otherwise you just end up out dated beer. I dunno, that is just my thinking of this.

 

I hate double posting, but does anyone know how is this beer trading?

 

Whalez Bro...

Seriously though it should probably trade similar to Abrasive, $4$ semi limited shelf beer.

 

I am sending some to some regular trading partners with no specific expectations (usually how I do things), as for trade "value" that's a tough thing to guage. It's also I think difficuilt since this is the first time canned so people not in the area probably aren't aware of it.

 

I was told that the initial investment to get a beer canned is much more than the ongoing cost to continue to can that beer. I honestly have no idea how cans are produced, but I assume you would have to pay for the design, pay for a template to be made, and pay for the first production run. The next time that beer is canned, the company producing the cans already has the can template and just needs to do another production run. Like I said, I don't know anything about this, it's all speculation on my part based on what I was told.

 

As a beer geek, I was totally going to chase this beer down upon release, buy a bunch, and post my "haul" all over the internet. But, its wide availability is really disappointing to me and I don't think I'll be buying any.

Plus, how is one supposed to enjoy this beer without "Tood the Axeman" specific glassware. Am I supposed to put it in a Darkness glass for my Untapped picture? Cmon, that would totally change the taste! Surly is REALLY dropping the ball on this release.

My mind is made up, no Todd the Axeman for me.

Heard about this new malt liquor flavored like root beer made by 4 Loko? Gonna go buy a couple cases of that instead and jumpstart my beer belly.

 

Who cares? Drink it if you like, try to trade it for something if you prefer.

If you really want an answer to your question, go look at the trade boards & wants/gots like everyone else.