Twin Cities Bottle Hunt - 2020

Hahahahahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....ha.

 

This reads like someone who forgot about Surly Syx.

 

Do you mean that Surly Syx was on trend or that it wasn't a better beer than 13? I definitely don't think the former, and I didn't intend to suggest the latter. For the record, I meant that Four and Five were not necessarily off-trend, not that they weren't better than 13, and that most of the other anniversary beers were better than 13.

Below is my personal Surly anniversary beer ranking (based on the originals, not any rebrews). I never tried Four, as I can't stand coffee. I'd say the top seven all were good to great beers and the bottom four were misses, but at least Surly tried to do something experimental, interesting, and boundary-pushing with Syx, SeVIIn, and Ten (and the never-released Twelve) before subverting the purpose of the tradition with the ultra-mainstream 13, which is designed to taste like a beer that you could find on tap at every brewery in Florida in 2019.

1. Eight
2. Two
3. Nein
4. Five
5. Eleven
6. One
7. Three
8. SeVIIn
9. 13
10. Ten
11. Syx

 

Surly 13 is excellent. I don't give a f*ck how trendy it is, or if it would fit into a Florida theme, it's delicious. That is all. We now return you to your regularly scheduled bottle hunt.

 

If I read Surly's website spiel correctly, they are re-marketing 13 as a "Friday the 13th" limited release rather than an anniversary beer.

Leaving aside whether or not a "Maple barrel-aged Imperial milk stout w/vanilla beans & lactose" is trendy (seems obvious...)

(also seems to me that saying "milk stout w/... lactose" is a bit redundant, but that's just my linguistic pedantic nature coming through...),...

One of @islay's points (if I read his post correctly) was that all or most of the Surly anniversary beers were decidedly off-trend and/or experimental, whereas 13 is mainstream, and the re-marketing of it would appear to bear that out.

Whether he (or anyone) likes the beer is irrelevant to THAT part of his post, IMO.

And, I wonder... is the Surly Anniversary beer tradition now dead? IOW, will there be a 14?

 

There will be a 14 release this year.
As for the milk stout with lactose point. I agree, it is redundant, BUT from a food safety standpoint, lactose is a potential allergen, and many consumers don't immediately know that milk stout = lactose. It's an added layer of precaution / protection for someone who may have an issue.

 

13 may be a more mainstream style of beer than many of its predecessors, but another way to look at it, is providing a style we know we can do well, and which our fans prefer. The release was a massive success both from the brewery and distributor perspective. It was one of Surly's highest demand beers in years.
Again, your palate and perspective may be different, but most of our fans seem to agree that it was a success.
Anniversary beer ratings / scores on this very site:

1. Four: 4.36
2. 13: 4.23
3. Eight: 4.18
4. Two: 4.17
5. One: 4.16
6. Five: 4.12
7. Ten: 4.10
8. Three: 4.09
9. SeVIIn: 3.99
10. Eleven: 3.97
11. Nein: 3.96
12. Six: 3.85

The beer market has changed somewhat in the intervening years and the Uber-experimental Anniversary beers simply didn't perform as well as they once did. With so much beer to chose from, some of the more experimental styles are risky for a one-time grab in many consumer's minds.

13 started-out organically. Originally it was a potential for a Darkness variant. We tasted it, and loved it, and knew we had something special so we re-brewed the base stout minus the finishing hops and using the same barrels as "Pancake Party." The added pop of the lactose and vanilla beans are unique to 13 and helped to round-out the barrel tannins which we determined to be a distraction from the pure maple cocoa flavor of Pancake Party over time. Essentially it evolved, as our thinking evolved about what beer we wanted to release and how.

Moreover, 13 is a good brand for us. It fits Surly image to have a "lucky / unlucky" 13 and it made sense to move forward with it. In the future, it'll be a yearly release on Friday the 13th, whenever they should happen to present themselves as a special treat for those who loved the beer.

I don't know what will ultimately happen with the Anniversary program, but we're planning to release 14 this Fall. It'll be ready when it's ready.

 

So, next month, then?

Future Friday the 13th dates:
13 March 2020
13 November 2020
13 August 2021
13 May 2022
13 January 2023

Will it be canned and distributed, or taproom only?

 

Nope. November. This one was too quick of a turn to age what we wanted. Every now and again, there are multiple Fridays that land on the 13th. We'll choose one.

 

13 sold out almost same day down here in Central Iowa....wish I had gotten to grab more than one, by the time word got out it was phenomenal, it was gone......do like the reduction in serving size(16oz instead of larger format)...will there be another reduction to 12oz? Or do you see it staying in the same packaging going forward?

 

Yeah, I was just teasing!

 

We're going to stay with the 16-ounce can-in-box format for future releases. Our small-scale batches are all brewed at the original Brooklyn Center facility, and that packaging line isn't set-up to do 12-ounce cans, and the total volume of beer is far too small to bring over to the MSP packaging hall. Ideally, I'd like to get out of the bottle business for everything except Darkness.
For us, cans have far better package integrity, and simply make for a better package type.

 

You WILL drink pastry stout until morale improves.

 

I would love for Darkness to be packaged similarly to 13 in a 16 oz can-in-box format but I know from Bill's previous comments about my complaints about Darkness in a large bottle format only that it will not happen.

The yearly original Darkness artwork could still be featured on the cans and on the box design in more upscale/exclusive packaging than the outdated 750 ml bottle and Surly could keep their profit margin per oz with a $12 price point. Ok, I'll stop dreaming now.

 

I take it that, along with its absence from the 2020 calendar, suggests Pentagram is no longer being packaged?

 

Actually it is. Pentagram is moving to the 4-pack 16-ounce pak-tech format in the month of May as a BC Small Batch release.

 

Firestone Walker Parabola is popping up & disappearing all over the south metro (& assumedly other portions of the metro) for those who enjoy an old-school, straight-up barrel aged stout.

 

I saw some at 1010 yesterday. I didn't grab any as I didn't like last year's batch (seemed thin and artificially sweet compared to my memory of what Parabola used to taste like).

 

Has anyone seen Sixpoint Master Blend around Minneapolis? (preferably in Uptown/Downtown/NE)

 

SLL Has it along with FFF 12oz bottles of Arctic Panzer Wolf (01/24).