What's all the buzz over Fat Tire?

I live near Wisconsin and have spent several years bartending. Around here Spotted Cow is your Fat Tire. New Glarus makes some phenomenal beers (like New Belgium), yet all the hype is on one of their weakest, but flagship product.

 

You always want what you can't have...I got stationed in Colorado in 1981, at that time no Coors east of the Mississippi, first thing I did when I arrived was went to the bowling alley and grabbed one...I was overwhelmed by indiffernce

 

Do you ever offer your customer an alternative? You know, something similar to Fat Tire.

 

What buzz?

 

There's a badge specifically for it on Untappd!

NB makes some wonderful beers. Fat Tire is not one of them IMO. I know a lot of people who love it though. I'd rather seem them drink that than BMC stuff!

 

It's a really popular beer in other parts of the country. When people travel to visit friends, it's often the beer in the fridge. Same with Sam Adams around parts of New England and we used to hear about Yuengling before it came to this region. If people aren't beer geeks, it's new and exciting to them. Seems like something a beer store should be able to handle. "Sorry, they don't distribute to this state/region. I wish they did, it's a solid beer. But here are a few beers that are similar you might enjoy"

 

Maybe it's the Colorado mystique and aura [no Curt Shilling, they're not dancers] just like Coors was before it came east of the Mississippi. I went to undergrad in Denver and thought Coors sucked so I drank Oly - basically the same beer but it didn't have the same hype. I remember bringing some Schaefer back to school [early 70s when it was still brewed by Schaefer] and having one of my roomies who grew up in Colorado tell me it was the best beer he ever had. Like the old saying, people want what they can't easily get.

 

People are saying it's a gateway beer but I don't see it as that if it's the 3rd(or 4th) best selling craft beer in the US.

 

Someone asking for FT Amber Ale would probably be happier with another similar "gateway" beer, rather than a "better" craft beer. Just sayin' ....

 

The best selling craft beers ARE gateway beers... what else would you call SNPA or SABL?

 

Some people just enter through the gate, crack open a beer and stay there.

Enough of them so that the flagship beers of the Top 5 "craft brewers" (based on the current B.A. definition) - SNPA, SABL, NB Fat Tire, Shiner Bock and Lagunitas IPA - make up about 17% of ALL craft beer sales. And, once Yuengling Lager becomes "craft" as expected next year, that total will be way higher.

 

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

 

I was only comparing them in the sense that they are both gateway beers... meaning the first craft beer people will try, and not such a radical beer that it turns people away. I didn't mean to activate the "Sierra Nevada Defense Network."

 

I'd call them the best selling craft beers.

 

I cant imagine there are too many craft beer drinkers who didn't, at some point in their drinking career, go into a bar or store and ask for Fat Tire. Whether or not they knew of its distribution footprint.