Surly Coming to Colorado

I would buy jai alai if every 6-pack wasn't 4 months old.

I'll definitely be buying todd, but probably not very often if it's going to be a $18 4-pack

 

It's doing the same down here in Denver. It sold like mad for a month or two, but it seems like it's just sitting around now.

I have a feeling Surly will follow suit, although Coffee Bender (at least to me) still tastes fine for almost a year. Wish I could say the same for Todd, Blackkr, Furious, Hell, etc. though.
I know it isn't typically feasible, but places wanting to enter the Denver market need to do things differently. That might be staggered releases, sending a large portion of seasonals, not sending every flagship, or even just sticking to the GABF month rollouts like JA, Lawson's, Short's, etc.
Melvin and La Cumbre might be able to do well by giving us week-old stock, but it's not like the places outside of our regional are able to do that. I think the last time someone outside of CO/WY/NM/UT made a real impact here was Ballast Point.

 

Yeah, but ballast point is turding shelves everywhere I go.

 

I wonder how much the Ballast buyout has to do with their seeming decline here in Colorado? Maybe it is just me, but they seemed to ship more varieties here after the buyout, but with less movement off the shelves.

As for Surly, I have not had a lot of experience; just a few sips of Darkness and some other random tastes here and there, which I have mostly enjoyed. (Non-BA Darkness was/is a thing of beauty). My prior experience makes me think I'll buy a six or four-pack or two and if its good, maybe add it to the one-four-or-six-pack-per-quarter rotation.

 

Colorado drinkers seem to prefer independent breweries. Wicked Weed was flying of the shelf until it's buyout.

 

While Ballast Point doesn't exactly fly off the shelves now, it was a really big seller prior to their buyout. People were even borderline truck chasing the first go-round of Sculpin variants.
I think the buyout combined with our local scene making more tooth-melters (it coincides with S26, Comrade, Cannonball, etc. opening) has done them no favors. Still, I bet BP is a top 5 mover for out of state brands.

 

I do see BP in the hands of non-nerd craft drinkers pretty regularly, so it's not dead for sure. But the hard-core beer nerd community, i.e., us, seems to have lost the BP love. Price may have something to do with it too. Will Surly be as spendy as BP? If so, that will hurt their chances here.

And I think you're right that S26 and others have matched or surpassed BP in the packaged IPA market since BP arrived.

 

I go out of my way for S26, but haven’t bought BP since the sellout... can’t imagine being alone on that

 

I haven't bought a 6-pack of Sculpin in forever. Granted, I don't usually buy all that many IPA's to begin with, though. I have enjoyed several of their seasonals at my local OC and I did really like the 6-pack I bought of Red Velvet. That used to be a beer I'd line up for at GABF.

It might be interesting to get some sales numbers for out of state breweries in CO. It feels like some brands just sit there (like Victory), but they've been in our market for a long time. For all I know they have some underground following that isn't obvious.

 

BP flopped in Casper(Wyoming?) too.
Overpriced, under delivered.

 

Drinking a Todd now; its a good beer and canned on October 12, 2017, so decently fresh, too.

At 18 bucks for a 4-pack of 16 oz cans it does not, however, compare favorably to local IPAs in terms of dollar-per-unit-of-enjoyment.

 

I like that ‘dollar-per-unit-of-enjoyment’ concept!

 

Why is Todd (isn’t he the brewer who was treated like shit and left to 3 Floyd’s?) the Axeman so damn pricey? Even in Chicago it was like $18. Is it really $7-$8 better and/or more expensive to make vs. all of their other beers incl. Furious?

 

This was definitely my hang-up. I was excited to grab a 4-pack until I saw the price. Had to make a hard pass and couldn't bring myself to pay for that even once.

 

What's a 4-pack of Coffee Bender running? What about normal Bender?

 

I'm not sure either Bender has landed yet. Plenty of Hell, Xtra Citra, Furious and Todd.

 

Exact same reaction I had. I had to first go to a second liquor store to make sure the $18/tall boy four pack was everywhere...not sure I'll buy or not, because that means not grabbing 2x4 (not even a tallboy mind you), Elevated, WeldWorks, etc.

 

I believe Coffee should retail for about $11.99 and regular for $9.99.

 

Aboot the same prices I paid France 44, without the shipping of course.

 

Picked up so far: Furious, Todd The Axeman, Hell, and Xtra Citra.

Cheers!