Toppling Goliath Releases and Updates

Interesting. I didn't know this, but perhaps it explains the god-awful glass of Biter that my wife & I tried to choke down recently. Buttered popcorn would be putting it mildly & I wondered if they'd mixed up the kegs, because I'd never had anything remotely that poor from T.G. previously.

 

Then they mixed up all of the kegs because that beer was horrid.

 

I want to say Biter were the first non-Dorothy kegs with Wisconsin tags of which I remember seeing pictures (Casanova Twitter?). Might have been something earlier though. Not surprising. Last spring they only seemed able to brew distro bottles or kegs. One slowed the other to a crawl. Since then, they've expanded distro and not fallen further behind (excepting the Iowa lull for the release party).

 

Yeah, Biter is pretty bad, so the one you had was just fine lol... That was the first TG beer to be on tap in Rochester (and a lot of other smaller MN spots) and it made a lot of newbies wonder what all the hype was about with TG, since Biter was so bad. Pretty bad first move marketing wise to drop Biter first if you ask me.

 

I agree with what you guys are tasting/saying... I had Biter, but didn't get a second one. Was not the TG I was used to, for sure. This does explain the massive influx of bombers floating around lately though. It seems there are always AWESOME bombers at HyVee. I think them pawning some kegs off to WI explains a lot...

 

Mosaic Sue is back in the Tap Room

 

Anyone know if this will hit WI distro?

 

According to my calculations, KBBS is 1 review with a rating of 4.82 or above away from becoming the #1 beer on the BA top 250.

 

And now KBBS is #1 on the Top 250!!!!

 

So wait a second, is the pseudoSue that's on tap at the TG Taproom brewed in Verona, WI at WBC?

 

I'm not positive, but I think everything on tap in the taproom was brewed by TG in Decorah. Kegs going out for distribution are brewed in Verona.

 

This was my understanding as well.

 

I think you should question their approach to distribution/expansion. It's only fair, considering the quality issues. FL Sue is simply not the same beer as their Decorah version. Same with all of these kegs - they're not the same beer, by any stretch of the imagination. In all cases, these beers taste different batch to batch and it makes your typical beer geek leery of buying their product.

Another major issue they have is marketing. I live in MSP, 2 hours away from their brewery. Here, tastings are handled by reps from their distributor. I've talked to many of them, most don't know the first thing about their brewery or beer. Last weekend, they poured standard FL Sue at the Beer Dabbler (the biggest Winter festival in the city). They had a huge opportunity to hook hundreds, maybe thousands of people into buying their product and they mailed it in.

The fact that such a poorly run organization can expand and prosper is a testament to how good the beer they make is. Hopefully, their ownership realizes this and gives their head brewer whatever the hell he wants!

 

Did retailers across the state by thousands of cases? I'm hearing it's flying off the shelves in the Chicago area despite what people think of the Florida product. As long as it keeps getting sold, Clark will continue business as usual.

 

This happened at first here. People were just so happy to have TG available that they bought whatever was out there. That said, I don't know anyone that still buys the FL product regularly, and I don't know any non-geek craft beer drinker that buys it, or frankly, really has any idea who TG is due to their lack of marketing.

I buy maybe 1-2 4 packs of FL Sue in a year, but at the same time, I'll go to Casanova LQ in Hudson (an hour drive) and buy probably 30-40 Decorah bombers. Think about how much TG I would buy if their real product were available at the LQ store that's 6 blocks from my house! I'd be willing to bet that a lot of other people in my area would tell a similar story.

 

Clark has said before once the new Decorah brewery is up and running, all products in Iowa will come from Iowa. This would make sense in a distribution standpoint, but if I were Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, wherever else they are, and all I get is Wisconsin kegs and Florida cans, I'd be pissed.

He's gone off on twitter before about Iowa lawmakers not letting him self distribute, or open multiple brewing locations without being considered a brewpub. If I were a lawmaker, I'd be more concerned about how they're able to sell a product with their name/logo on it which isn't even created by them. I understand how contract brewing works, but IMO, this is a complete sham.

Rant over.

 

For some reason I was under the impression that was the new brewery is up and running, ALL products will come from Iowa and that they wouldn't be contact brewing anymore. Perhaps my impression is wrong?

 

I'm sure someone is telling Clark that their best chance to make the most money is to strike while the iron is hot and expand as far as capacity will allow. The issue with this is that it's shortsighted. Long term, I'd imagine TG is better off actually brewing the beer they're sending out for distro (novel concept), even if that means not expanding as quickly.

I'm honestly not mad at TG. They're a business first and foremost. I'm just a guy that likes their beer and would buy a lot more if the beer in my area were actually made by them.

 

Has anyone heard anything about the saison that TG is releasing? Someone at Casanova said it was going to be a peach saison and that they are expecting to get it in the coming weeks.

 

Been radio silence on this on for some time.