Visiting Minnesota

I’m visiting Minnesota, the weekend before, and the week of Thanksgiving.

I’m wondering if it’s a pain in the ass to acquire beers like Surly Smoke and/or Darkness? I’m sure it is, but I’d just like to verify that.

I may be up for bringing a load of Pacific Northwest brews out there, if anyone is around that week, and/or interested in a QUICK in-person trade.

I’ll be meeting my future wife’s family for the first time, so I can’t go run off and dick around with too much beer stuff.

Thanks, and let me know if you’re interested.

-Kevin

Smoke is a seasonal and is released in November, so you should have some luck locating it. It is pricey, usually I see a 750 listed around $18, but it is a great beer.

Darkness is much less available in stores (and if it is, it sells out very quickly), though you’ll probably be able to find it on tap around town at that time of year. I’m not sure where it will be on tap this year, maybe another local can help you out.

If you are looking for a bottle, you’ll most likely need to set up an in-person trade with someone who attended Darkness Day.

I am in Rochester (about 1.5 hours south of the Twin Cities), so sorry I can’t help you out myself.

Darkness is a pain in the ass to get, Smoke isn’t too bad. It might be easier to set up an in-person trade either way before you come just to save yourself time. A lot of stores don’t carry Surly so it could be tough to find a specialty from them if you don’t know where to look.

There are loads of good beer stores about everywhere. That being said, there’s a liquor store in every strip mall, and, just by sheer numbers, a pretty large portion of them do kind of suck. Post your exact location, we can presumably point you to a good spot.

I’d be up for a quick IP trade and would love to get some PNW brews. I have some of last year’s smoke as well as Syx if interested. Hopefully I can get some Darkness this year.

darkness was on the shelves for a few months in some places last year

Really? Outer Burbs? I never saw any.

I thought I recall seeing some on shelves for quite a while out in the southern suburbs. Can’t remember specifics, though.

I actually saw Syx and Smoke in Duluth 2 weekends ago. I know thats not the same as MPLS/St. Paul area, but still worth mentioning I think (not sure why I think that though)

Thanks for the response, gentlemen. Glad to see that this won’t be a big pain in the ass, as I’ve had some folks step forward to offer.

Minnesota sounds great, and I can’t wait to visit.

Cheers

I saw a good amount of Smoke at the St. Louis Park Liquor Barrel a couple months ago. I’d imagine that it’s still there, because at $18 a bottle that stuff will continue to stagnate on the shelves.