Surly

The Darkness has been released once again!!
(Yes those are all beer cans.)

I'm sad to say this is the last time. Due to state law Growlers, festivals, and special releases are a thing of the past at Surly Brewery. Why you ask? Well due to some stupid state law, when a brewery reaches a production of over 3,500 barrels a year, they can no longer sell growlers etc.

Well that just stinks. My friend Ben got me two Growlers from Surly for my 40th and now they will turn into memorabilia instead of vessels for beer. (sniff) I'm sad that Surly won't be able to have their Surly fest or their annual release of Darkness. As you recall last year I went to the Darkness release sometime in the middle of winter. I remember the temp. being -2 at 8am and the doors not opening until 9am. I was only able to get two bottles last year, but got to drink a whole lot of beer while waiting on my chance to get my hands on the Darkness.


This year they opened up at noon and it was above freezing. Last year you could buy 2 750mL bottles of the goodness. This year you got to buy 6-750mL bottles for the price of one Ben Franklin. Yes that's right!! I took a few pictures of the line that was over two blocks long when Jamison and I got there around 10:30. The line turns to the left it this picture. Ben is actually in this picture somewhere.



Here is the last shot I took before getting my wrist band. I think this was after waiting for at least 45 minutes. I was lucky enough to get band #609 out of 700. Surly only released 4,200 bottles on Sat. Wow 700 people at $100 each, that's a lot of $. They were smart though. Everyone who got a wrist band had the opportunity to buy their 6 bottles by 5:30 that evening. After that, they opened it back up to first come first serve at $17 a bottle.


Now you might think that all this beer is way over priced and outrageous. But let me tell you this. Last year when Darkness was released, a few bottles went up on Ebay. They sold for over $200. A few bottles from 2007 went up on Ebay this year and I think they went for almost $280. I still have a bottle from last year sitting in my basement, I mean cellar. I now have 6 bottles and who knows what I'll do with them.....maybe drink a few. I'm pretty impressed by this almost 3 year old brewery. It has a huge following and the logo is a hit!! Even Jamison sports some Surly swag every once in a while. If you want to see more about Surly check out this link here.

Until next time Hoppy Drinking!!