I recently went on a trip to DC and found Furious and Coffee Bender in Dupont Circle, just wanted to let some people know. Cheers
Might want to keep this on the down low. Unless something has changed very recently (& that's certainly possible) the Surly is probably there on a less than legal basis. It's happened plenty of times before with plenty of breweries.
Just wanted to let any local BA's know but its sorta makes sense that they were counterfeit due to the price they charged
Seriously though, I have heard of people finding Surly in the DC area. Not sure if Todd and/or Omar know someone there or what but they do find their way into DC.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it is legal to 'bootleg' beer in DC. If a store wants to send someone to Minnesota to bring back some Surly, they are allowed to sell it. Obviously, they'll charge a premium for their effort.
This. And the store needs to pay all the local DC taxes as well. This is how we've had the occasional Surly/ Hill Farmstead/ Russian River/Heady Topper beer show up. FWIW, I heard the Surly cans were $8-10 each and Pliny the Elder has gone for $15/bottle, so this isn't a cheap way to try these beers.
No, most states' three tier laws mandate that retailers only buy beer from in-state licensed wholesalers. Here's an article on DC's unique system - How Lax Import Regulations Made D.C. A Craft Beer Haven
Absolutely it is. Otherwise Churchkey would have been slapped around pretty hard by now, they're pretty open about their cool beer nights (the Russian River thing last weekend and the Surly takeover in March come to mind).
Yeah Churchkey is a good example of this. They will have none distributed beers on tap quite often so you just have to keep an eye out. As of these bottles and cans I would rather just trade for it because it would be cheaper. Having the option occasionally is pretty cool though.
1 West Dupont Circle usually has bottles of Damnation in their store too - but for something absurd like 20 dollars per bottle though.
