Toppling Goliath Brewery appreciation thread...

Made it in for Rue tonight. The negative reviews are crazy. It's certainly unusual, but this is a damn fine beer.

 

"too boozy. tons of oak. too much barrel" those are all good traits IMO. I can't wait for a fellow mug club member to share their bottle

 

Certainly there comes a point where these notes are too much and it becomes an unbalanced mess. The only positive reviews of the beer I have seen are from people sitting right in front of Saboe as they checked in at 515.

I love that TG is stepping out of their comfort zone and experimenting with new beers, but I don't think this one hit the mark. If I ever get to try Rue the Crown, perhaps I will change my tune, but the early reviews aren't very promising.

 

I wasn't with anyone that would require ass-kissing, and I enjoyed it a lot.

I'll say this, the first cold sip was straight booze. I was ok with that because I like whiskey, but the full breadth of the beer didn't kick in until it warmed up closer to room temp.

I'm not sure the temps of the early reviews or how long people let it sit in the glass, but I really came around as it warmed up.

 

Doesn't your significant other work for TG?

 

No.

I'm a long time mug club member/local and casually have gotten to know the servers over the years I've patronized the place, and occasionally even chatted with Clark and various brewers, but I'm hardly "connected" at that level, IE where I'd be concerned about being negative towards a TG beer.

 

I guess that is my mistake. I must have you confused with someone else.

You can increase the counter of good reviews I have seen (as much as "straight booze" can be a positive review) to 1.

 

It should be interesting to see if consensus changes after the silent drop hit. The other folks drinking it seemed to have positive opinions as well. I realize it's a small sample, and maybe people were just being nice in the taproom, but it seemed like a genuine response.

It wasn't as good as MD or KBBS, but I definitely came to a much more favorable spot than the majority.

 

Im sure the beer is good, and probably $18-$25 good, the question is, is it $50 good?

If Rue the crown is $50 based on demand, hype, etc...then KBBS should be closer to $100 right?

 

Now that's a good question.

I think they could get $100 for KBBS easily, too. I hope they don't charge that whenever it's made again, but I have little doubt they'd move the product.

I would probably pay 75%-85% for Rue what I'd pay for KBBS. I have a hard time dropping more than $50 on a beer, but in the past, KBBS has been in smaller bottles too.

 

I mean, KBBS would sell out at $200/bottle. The issue isn't selling them, the issue is the backlash that would come with it. Their consumer base would see it as a cash grab and it would piss off way more people than the money would be worth. They released MD at $35/bomber and Rue at $50/bomber. I'd expect KBBS to be in that same range, maybe even bumped up to $60, but charging over that I think would have some negative consequences in the beer world.

 

Let's be honest with each other here. NO BEER is really worth $50+.

 

I don't disagree. I think that's about the ceiling for what they could charge without backlash.

I was just more responding to TBone's question about KBBS being $100 worthy. I think at the end of the day it probably is (just based on the simple economics - I wouldn't pay it) but would agree with your point that charging that would have real, negative repercussions.

 

Let's hope they take our advice and we don't have to shell out $150 for two bottles!

Then again, I paid $500 for a bottle of the last batch so I'd rather Clark and Mike get the money to make more beer than a random old person in Decorah.

 

Isn't there a cap on how much you can charge consumers for a bottle of beer. I believe it's in the State of Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division but I can't find it right now.

 

For me personally, I mostly agree.

The market says otherwise. If people are REALLY paying more than $50 for beer (and they are - someone just said they paid 10x that for KBBS) than the beer is really worth it.

 

If they came out charging $150 for a 12 oz KBBS there would be a lot of unhappy people. We had a release in Chicago recently for Spiteful and it was $110, people were pissed. Tickets were available for days, normally high profile releases are gone in minutes.

 

TG is leaving a ton of money on the table for KBBS. I'd like to see a brewer release a whale in a tiered release so they get most of the profit and the resellers don't.
Week 1 release: $500
Week 2 if bottles remaining, drop price: $300
Week 3 if bottles remaining, drop price: $150
Week 4 if bottles remaining, drop price: $100
Week 5 if bottles remaining, drop price: $50
etc.

I believe TG has a mug club, so they could offer a couple bottles at a fair price to the locals who support the business before doing that to keep them happy.

 

People aren't reselling Spiteful for $400- $1,000 a bottle.

 

In the short term, yes.

In the long term, I think they would damage the brand/reputation by pushing it up. The craft beer hype has a bubble. At some point, people are going to take a breath and say "why the hell am I paying $100 for 12 oz of beer?" and the craft breweries who have leveraged their goodwill to take advantage of short term hype may find themselves losing customers if they price them out of the market.