No Surly Wet this year!

Face facts, Bill knows how to buy beer.

 

I love those stores. I can buy Darkness, Wet or the first canning of Abrasive at my relative leisure without having to compete with the rest of you craft beer trend chasers.

 

CAPITAL LETTERS

 

sorry I was so loud.

 

I think we need to divide our argument into two schools: flagships and special releases.

Surly's flagship is Furious, which will always sell. The vast majority of their new brewery will be dedicated to canning and kegging Furious to keep up with demand and continue expansion into new markets. It is a top quality beer at an acceptable price. Its freshness is less of a factor in the market because it's not exclusive to beer geeks. Joe Schmoe will buy it without giving two shits about when it was canned because he doesn't care. It sucks that we can't find it less than a week old anymore, but we aren't going to be able to change that. Their other cans (Overrated, Coffee/Bender, Cynic, etc) are bought more irregularly because the purchasing demographic leans more toward the beer enthusiast, but the prices remain relatively reasonable, so there's little issue.

Special releases are aimed at the beer geek and the demand is well understood by craft brewers everywhere. Beers like Wet, Abrasive, Darkness, Pentagram, and the anniversary series require more ingredients, time, and care to make and rightly should be more expensive than Surly's regular fare. Freshness is its own issue, but an appropriate price should be is the source of the conflict.

I have absolutely no beef with Surly and have not once bashed them for quality. They make an excellent product and I enjoy it regularly, but I do so mainly in their taproom. It's hard to justify the cost of their specialties when there are perfectly good substitutes on the shelf for a much better deal. I continue to believe that it's reasonable to think Surly specialties are overpriced when there are lower priced equivalents out there. Bargains are the reason Walmart exists; I'm not saying it's right but it proves that people want the most bang for their buck.

I don't think Surly owes us anything and I think they make outstanding beer. I just don't think it should cost as much as it does and I think that's fair to say.

 

I don't know why I get sucked into this.

 

Since Johnson Bros. took over distribution, the price of Surly's mainstream beers has remained constant. I am sure that it cost Johnson Bros. more to distribute than Surly when they were self distributing. Could it be that Johnson Bros. is raising the price to make up the difference? It seems that since they took over distribution, we have seen the prices of the special releases skyrocket. Are we pinning the tail on the wrong donkey? And then there's the store's that add on more than their usual margin (I'm looking at you Surdyks).

 

Because someone was wrong on the Internet!

We've all been guilty.

 

Additional tier means an additional 20% in a lot of cases. We definitely see that in Iowa with the cost of Off Color's beers relative to what they are in Chicago, though they've lessened some since they've entered. When they first came in, 6pk of Troublesome was $17. Now $13. All the while $10 in Chicago where it wasn't going to a master distributor first.

 

Darkness is still $20 at the source on Darkness Day.

 

So much hate on Surly going on anymore! I'm jumping on the "I love them again" train just to say I was ahead of the trend before the rest of you start heading that way again. It's still cool to point out how you were ahead of a trend, right?

Meanwhile, I'm gonna go back to listening to some Nickelback.

 

I like beer...

 

Nickleback. Pfffft. Let me know when youve graduated to Creed.

 

Yeah, it's too bad there are so many Surly haters now....Hmm, well maybe not. If they all put or not put their money where their mouth is, there will be that much more Abrasive, Darkness, etc for the rest of us!! BTW: have you tried Brau Brothers 100 yd dash? Pretty go stuff IMHO. Cheers

 

It is obvious that with the increased production and expanded sales footprint comes more logistics headaches. Three questions I have are:
1. Will the new brewery make these problems disappear and allow them to run a full calendar of brews without fail?
2. Will Surly be introducing more seasonal or year round brews or stick to the same selections at higher capacities?
3. Will Surly offer 12 oz cans in 6 pack or 12 pack format with the new canning setup?

 

What problems? That people don't like some of their beers? No. This won't help with that.
Hope so, but no rush in pushing out more beer. Their stable is fantastic, no need to mess around too much with it.
Probably not.

 

I'm sure the "middle man" (J. Bros in this case) is a big contributor to the price increases. Especially if they paid Surly what they did to land the Iowa distribution deal (which I heard was around $20 Million). Just think about that....$20 Million to Surly just for the exclusive rights to get to distribute their beer in Iowa (when that day comes). It will take them years and years of selling Surly to be able to recoup the costs of that deal and start making money. So, of course one way to make that money back quicker is to increase prices on Surly products at retail. And as noted, that doesn't include the additional markup retailers tack on themselves. In the end, us consumers are the losers, as we pay more. I really don't think all of the fault lies on Surly here.

 

The Midwest forum threads are a total bummer lately. Dudes, I know it's "more than just beer" for many of us. But seriously, let's all just go have a beer and stop arguing with each other incessantly.

 

NO! I'm going to go have some wine.

 

Someone who cares more than I do should start a "Surly Complaint" thread. And I love Surly, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see they're having growing pains.

What problems? To begin with, smaller competitors that are making beer just as good & selling it more cheaply; price jump on bombers that are turning some into shelf turds; increasing quality out-of-state competitors; beer sitting on shelves forever (& leading to probably consumer dissatisfaction); etc. Their stable is fantastic. Yes it is! But when you have other quality breweries putting out seasonal/limited releases (see: Indeed, Steel Toe, many others) it is no doubt cutting into money that could be going to Surly. They don't need to become Short's, but they will recapture a lot of their "buzz" if they start cranking out a few more interesting seasonals/one-offs when the new brewery is up & running. A lot of 'us' expect this to happen & will be disappointed if it doesn't.

Surly is clearly thriving & good for them. They're also obviously savvy business people. But some of their beers are starting to languish on shelves even in their home market, & that's a warning sign of an underlying issue when they have embarked on a massive, expensive expansion.