The line starts here

New Belgium is continuing to expand into new markets across the US with its flagship beer Fat Tire.  Ad Age recently reported on the move into Minnesota that occurred on June 21st.  The beer was available first at 6 AM at a place called Surdyk's Liquor.  Here's the amazing part...there was a line of people two blocks long waiting to buy when the store opened.  More than 600 cases were sold in the first hour at a price of $40 each.  Amazing!  The owner of the liquor store had been fielding calls for years about when the brand would be available locally and realized that he could capitalize on this demand by being the first store selling the beer.  Here's a quote on his reasoning:

"'I'm old enough to remember people lining up for Coors,' said store owner Jim Surdyk, who opened his shop an hour early that June day to stake a claim to selling the state's first Fat Tire. He also hyped the beer in advance radio and print ads. 'After getting calls from people every day for years about whether we had it, I figured this could be the same sort of thing.' "

The article also goes on to talk about the success of Shiner as it moves to areas where large numbers of former Texans have moved.  Unfortunately they lump Shiner in with the overall craft movement, but I have a hard time including them in the category.  Shiner is owned by Gambrinus who also now owns the Pete's Wicked label and Trumer Pils among others.  You may also have heard of one of the brands they used to import in the Eastern US...a little brand called Corona.  I'm sure that those who imported that "stuff" have the same mind set as the folks over at New Belgium and other craft brewers. [Insert heavy sarcasm here!]