Toppling Goliath Releases and Updates

buddy of mine talked to the TG guy when he dropped off cases of King yesterday at his store. Said Mike tweaked the recipe a bit for this batch and the hops they are getting this year are crazy good quality, better than in the past. Also said they're planning a triple dry hopped sue and another new ipa this year. could all be bullshit, but that's what he said.

 

I've heard new IPA rumors but this is first I've heard of triple hopped Sue, def has my attention though.

 

Is KS dropping in MN?

 

No King Sue for any of MN this time.

 

Apparently we only get the shitty batches of it.

 

TG's hit and miss distribution system is annoying, and coupled with their batch to batch variability, it is frustrating.

 

Attitudes like this would frustrate me to no end if I were in the business of selling beer. Nobody owes you distribution of the beer you want.

TG is right across the border. Go get some if you want it.

 

I just was able to pick up two bottles of their most recent batch, but I totally had to take an ass ****** in price to get them. 27$ a bottle

 

There was a place in the greater Milwaukee area forcing patrons to buy 4 other bombers for a King Sue. That means spending nearly $40 for the privilege of spending $8-10 more. Unreal.

 

I never give places like that my business, bad business in my book.

 

The place I stopped at in Milwaukee was 3 bombers (probably the same store you are talking about). I picked up 3 Mosiac Sue's for $21. I don't really like the practice but if TG is requiring stores to buy other TG product to get 1 case of King Sue then I can't blame the stores for doing it too. No one is "forced" to buy the beer though.

 

I can understand having you buy a 4 pack or a bomber, but 4 bombers for one King Sue? I know another place required 2 4 packs. If TG made them stock up in order to get King Sue, it makes a certain amount of sense to pass it along onto the consumer. But bald faced greed is how you drive away more people than you lure in. It seems to get worse around here with every release. I'd rather hunt around than play into that. When I start coming up empty handed in my hunt, then I'll stop buying and leave the $20-40 bottles of King Sue for the thirstiest of the die hards.

 

Does King Sue actually reach $20+ a bottle retail???? Or is that the secondary market?

Im done hunting distribution bottles. Im just going to start making the 5 hour round trip to the brewery from Madison. Can buy entire cases that way and get it freshAF.

 

Allocating limited release based on regular lineup sales is standard practice. But, when the regular lineup is mostly cans from FL, dominated by Dorothy and Rover which tend to become shelf turds, it makes playing the game a little tough for the retailer.

My annoyance with TG is not that, though. It is the geographic lottery they seem to play as well.

 

I believe this practice is illegal, at least in Minnesota. There was a place or 2 forcing you to buy a few bottles before getting access to by BA Darkness. Someone mentioned it at that time. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure they even linked the statute.
It basically read, you can't force patrons to purchase items in order to be allowed to purchase other items... in fancy words.

 

So, are sample-box exclusive beers technically illegal in MN?

 

Look at it from TG's point of view. They have to get the beer to the distributor. It doesn't make sense to drive every single batch across the entire midwest to get it to every distributor, so instead they play round robin with different batches. This goes back to when they were self distributed and they would only have enough of certain beers to send them on one leg of their delivery routes.

Most of the stores that got King Sue got a case or two from this batch. If it goes out to every single store that sees distribution, then each store only gets a few bottles, which means it only ends up in the hands of the bottle shop owners and their friends.

It wasn't that long ago that King Sue was available taproom only and sold out in a single day. This batch is one of the better ones and has lasted a week already, on top of seeing distribution. I see that as a win.

I'm not usually a TG apologist, but the whining in this thread has reached new levels lately.

 

Probably not since they're part of the same "package."

 

Must not be, I never see Target selling a heart-shaped box full of nothing but toothpaste flavored chocolates around Valentines Day. I have to buy the full sampler to get those gems.

 

My only complaint is that the bottle shops that receive limited batches like the king Sue, just gouge their customers for profit because they know they can and I think it's wrong. Not a way to keep customers coming back.