Toppling Goliath (2024)

Well…I’m not sure anyone else’s experience , but TG is kind and accommodating so they are letting me pick up my bottles Sunday. Hoping some of the stuff on Tap lasts to try that I haven’t had at TG and at Pulpit.

 

Going to make an impromptu stop in Decorah following a Wisconsin vacation in August. Figured we were only three hours away and extended the vacay by one day.

I know Pulpit Rock and Toppling are the places to hit. We will be there Aug 9th (Friday). Any hotel recommendations? Nothing fancy but looking for clean and under $150.

@instagibmo

 

Hotel Winneshiek: History and hospitality in Decorah, IA

 

This is where we usually stay. Downtown Decorah and pretty nice.

 

This might be a dumb question, but why is TG so expensive here in MN...

I was about to pick up their new haze variety box, and the mf'er was $25.99 at my local store. So I picked up a Revolution IPA variety box for $18.99 instead.

$13.99 seems to be about the baseline for 4x16s or 6x12s with the exception of Pseudo Sue which may be a buck cheaper.

What am I missing.

 

TG is expensive everywhere. They've built on a model of charging as much as they can for beer and as long as people keep buying it, why would they change? Until people start refusing to pay that price, it will continue; as long as Assassin and KBBS release keep selling out at $50 and $100 a pop that will continue to be the price. My local liquor store had bottles of Naughty Temple sitting on the shelf so maybe it's starting to change...or they just made too much.

 

Kbbs is clearly pricey but I don’t think $50 for a bomber of assassin is “expensive”. Little over $2/oz for that kind of quality and consistency is an easy buy for me.

 

I know this is getting into the weeds a bit, but the actual cost for Assassin or KBBS is much higher due to the travel there. Even if you are a member of a club (including LC - which you are) and you pay the same price for the same volume of beer (which you don’t necessarily, but assume you do), and even if you rate them the same, TG still costs far more unless you are local. Shipping 6-12 bottles and any proxy costs (and dividing that on a per-bottle basis) is still far less than having to GO to TG. If they just allowed proxies, I probably wouldn’t bat an eye at your post. But, without proxies? It’s just an incredibly high discrepancy for me.

Assuming just $50 gas and $150 for a hotel and $50 for food for 1.5 days, even if you got to buy 2 bottles of assassin, try it and KBBS on tap and got to buy a vintage bottle, you still have $250 of added cost to split. Conservatively, unless you are local(ish), you’re probably realistically spending $80-100 per bottle of Assassin.

The only way you get out of that is if you’re trading a $50 or cheaper bottle for an assassin and have an IP trade locally or ship.

 

There's a cost to travel. Hotel, food, gas etc. It's a part of living a wonderful life. Everyone has to access whether it's worth it or not. If you're able to do it I highly recommend it.

 

Pick up times are totally flexible, assuming you'll pickup later in the day.
I think they do that so there isn't a large influx of people at the same time, potentially disrupting their normal business.

 

I picked a hell of a day to stop at Toppling. Draft list is insane. Assassin 24, Assassin with Coconut, Pecan, and Vanilla. Aurora, 52 Hertz, and Assassin Muerte Dulce. This is gonna be great.

 

I happened upon looking at the draft list there today by complete chance, and yep - you definitely struck gold - enjoy! Cheers!

 

WTF happened to Zeelander? Why is it 7% and tasting like a former shell of itself? Every single TG brew is starting to taste extremely similar with them losing the nuisance of each one.

 

IMHO this isn't unique to Toppling Goliath. There are a number of breweries that put out a lot of hazies & after a while they blur together...Blackstack in St. Paul MN is another that made killer hazies at first & after about a year I couldn't tell them apart. But yeah, TG IPAs aren't even on my list anymore when I head out to find an IPA.

 

TG used to be something I hunted down. At this point I haven't bought a beer from them in over 6 years. Their haze always sucked and Clark taking to social media to act like their formerly dank IBU bombs were always hazy killed any shred of good will I had left for them.

 

Too bad Fat Head's doesn't distribute to Wisconsin, I have a feeling you'd hold the market down solid for them.

 

Follow up to my previous post. I feel like the godfather when it comes to Zeelander, insert "Look how they massacred my boy" meme. I just cant believe the loss in quality in what was once probably my favorite beer from TG. Had to struggle to finish the 6 I had from the two mix packs.

Now lets gets started on the rest of the pack. Haze Smacker is simply put, an awful beer. It taste like a overly sweet copy of a NEIPA a shitty brewery would put out. No complexity between the hops and malt, just juice sweetness.

Radiant Haze is awful as well, with it also being on the sweet side. I feel like this and Smacker are pretty much the same beer with different hops.

Playa Del Mundo taste like a b version of Golden Nugget, and it's a true shame not to see the classic instead in the pack.

I just never thought I would see the day when I get 4 different TG beers and they are all extremely hard to finish a can... Sad days for the beer world. Really wish Mike would bring back single hop 5% pale ale experiments but those days are long gone it seems.

 

I thought about buying that mixed pack 2 weeks ago, but the damn thing was $25.99. I instead chose a Revolution IPA variety box for $18.99 and got 3 damn good beers and one mediocre one in it, and they were 4 very different styles.

Not sure what's up with TG nowadays. I still like Pseudo Sue. King Sue is awesome but as I get older and busier with kids, 7.8% ABV beers are just not that appealing anymore.

Their special release IPAs are all 7.8% ABV and all taste the same to me with maybe some minor hop variations, and of course are $20 for a 4-pack.

I still buy their product but I do question the direction in which they are going, especially since their product is sold at such a high price.

 

I feel like this is the big nail slowly being driven into the craft beer market and no one is talking about it. I'm honestly considering throwing out most if not all of the well-curated BA stouts and other high gravity stuff I've acquired over the years. Literally no one wants it including the one who paid for it. Good high quality stuff that ages well and still can't be gotten easily. I think it's only a mtter of time before TG is spewing out hard seltzers and renting out brew capacity to any taker. TLDR; We all grew up and moved on.

 

I think your take is a touch overdramatic, but I understand the direction you're firing in & agree with it. Breweries that used to be trampled to get their limited beer (Forager, for instance) now have bottles to takeaway for weeks or even months. Part of it, IMHO, is the insane pricing. So many good beers to be had for relatively reasonable prices that it seems crazy to regularly pay $35+ for a single bottle.

And if you want to get rid of some of those stouts, let me know.