Toppling Goliath Brewery appreciation thread...

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/psuedo-sue-florida-vs-iowa.396929/

 

Not to derail too much, but while that's a beautiful drive...I'd steer clear of the beer. Brought a couple bombers to a tasting a year or so ago (their Amber and their brown I believe) and they were both a mess. (One infected and one just confusing iirc) Tried them on draft a few weeks ago in Viroqua and seemed like things had gotten slightly better, but still couldn't finish a pint.

 

I heard a rumor from a Hyvee Manager that Surly tried to do a collab with TG and TG said no, so Surly decided to make the Citra beer to spite TG....Anybody know if this is true?

 

Thought they had a good relationship since they have done tap takeovers together. Could be true though.

 

That seems like a ridiculous idea. For one, Surly already makes wildly acclaimed beers that are completely in the same wheelhouse as beers TG makes. Secondly, everyone and their dog makes a citra beer these days. Nothing about this screams "spite" anymore than many other things Surly or TG has done, which don't scream "spite".

As bocky pointed out, they've done a lot of public events together. Doesn't seem like something you'd do when there was spite on the table.

 

Maybe that's really why Linda Haug left...

 

To add to this - when I was at Casanova inquiring about the dark beer fest I asked if TG was coming and the manager said that they initially weren't planning on coming but the Surly guys talked them into it because they are good friends. Not to mention the TG guys are at Darkness Day every year. As far as I can tell there is zero issue between them.

 

I don't care what anyone says, a Hyvee Manager said!! Plus, I think he may have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express the night before.
I get my info exclusively from grocery store managers on most things.

 

Good to hear this is completely false!

 

There may have been talks of a collab at one point, but I think that is as far as it got. Like others have said, members of both breweries have been at each other's releases multiple times, so I really doubt there is any sort of bad blood.

 

Most collaborations are done with breweries outside of your distribution footprint. If Surly and TG did a beer together it could cause negotiating issues deciding who gets to distribute the beer in which areas.

 

I am making a detour to hit Toppling tomorrow on the way home, looks like they will have pompeii, what else do they have to go? No updated list for a while and on twitter says they added a whats on tap link on facebook but I'll be damned if I can figure out where its at?

 

Give this link a try https://www.facebook.com/TGBREWS/app/113645212312588/

Looks like Pompeii bombers and all of the florida stuff (pseudoSue, Golden Nugget, Dorothy and Rover Truck) are available to go. They have King Sue on tap at the moment, but not to-go. Cheers!

 

B

Appreciate the info, that helps. link doesn't work for me though, desktop only?

 

What? It would go through distribution of the brewery that brewed/bottled/canned/kegged it. Nothing complicated.

 

Not to mention they are both with JBros are they not?

 

So would Surly or TG or both of them sell the collaboration in WI and IL?

 

If they agreed on a means to divide their distritution territories where they overlap, they would then be committing anti-competitive business practices that are outlawed under Federal antitrust laws.

 

TG can have Iowa, Surly MN and no one cares about Wisconsin.
I mean, they aren't even in this region on BA.

Problem solved.

Or, we could ask the all-knowing Hyvee manager what to do about distribution.

 

I think they already did this and didn't tell anyone. I'm speculating that about 5 years ago TG and Surly collaborated on a barrel-aged stout that they plan on releasing later this year and serving it only at a "to be determined" beer festival that is held in some far away state. I'm also guessing they will hand out about 100 super rare bottles of this beer and will then tell everyone that they will never brew it again. Most likely this will all be done just to spite everyone on this site so that the BA moderators will simply get tired of it all and just lock down this goofy thread.