So, this weekend was the DFH Weekend of Compelling Ales & Whatnot, which basically boiled down to “two” new beer releases, a shit-ton of vintage DFH on tap, and good times all around :).
So here’s our adventure in a nut shell … So we left roughly 9AM on Saturday morning to try and run into the 11Am brewery tour with Sam at the DFH Weekend of Compelling Ales & Whatnot. We got down there about quarter to eleven and ran into some DFH familiar faces. I think because of the poor weather there were less people than originally anticipated, so we were able to jump onto the “special” 11AM tour with Sam, bonus. During the tour, which was 1.5 hours long, one of the longest he has ever given …, we learned all sorts of fun facts about DFH; like about the Wrath of Pecan / Pecant name change, the reason why the lauter tun is so much larger than the rest of the brewing equipment, and where Sam keeps his private stash (sorry, dude, we may need to raid that :)). Anyway, overall it was a great time, we got to try and buy: the Wrath of Pecant, a new limited edition beer at a very fair price, we tried the Aprihop, Black & Blue, and Burton Baton, yum and yum! And we ALMOST indulged in the 2006 4-Pack, a 2006 beer each of 120 Minute IPA, WWS, Old School Barleywine, and D’Extra (I think), for $60, yikes, and awesome! AND we got to pick up some Liquor de Malt, old school DFH throw back, swee!
After the brewery came the pub. We showed up later than expected around 2:30-3:00-ish for lunch. They seriously had like 20 beers on tap, an ass-ton of vintage, plus some in-house only, plus some specials like Randallized WWS through espresso beans, umm, yeah, yum! PLUS, it was the first of Randall 2.0 that I saw, a double chamber Randall, appearing to be one chamber for “flavoring” (hops, espresso, apricot) and one chamber for chilling, with the potential for the chilling chamber to have a second ingredient, ie I THINK the ApriHop was pushed through hops in the first chamber of the Randall and through apricots the second chamber, make sense?
After way too much (or just enough) lovely DFH beer we decided to part ways. But this of course, wasn’t before some very interesting conversations, which I won’t say too much here, but hopefully I will get to express fully later. Let’s just elude to the following: Short Film Competition, Bocce, Dogfish Dash, Hurt Locker (wtf??), Mastadon, and general wacky-bird-full-on-drater-ism!!
Yeah, I said it, what you got a problem with that? I’m into fat washing!
So the other day I played with the concept of fat washing. What the hell is fat washing!? That’s what I said at first, and it wasn’t some weird nakedness-with-a-hose-and-sandwich type of internet thing either. It has to do with infusing a liquor with the essence of a fat. OK, it’s still weird. So why the heck was I playing with the concept of fat washing? Well, to experiment with the idea of a Bacon Beer, why else!
So for my fat washing experiment Robert and I decided on making Bacon Bourbon, think it sounds good, yeah me too. So we needed bacon and bourbon. Robert supplied the bourbon with some 100 proof Old Grand-dad (yowsa!) and Booth’s Corner Farmers Marker supplied the bacon. We decided on two different bacons just to see if there was a difference, so we got approx a 1/3 of a pound of Pepper Hickory Bacon (HICK) and Double Smoked Bacon (DBL). We really had no idea what the ratio of fat to liquor should be, so we decided on amounts we could handle eating and drinking so there was no waste. So first of all the HICK bacon was cooked off and the liquid fat was poured into three ounces of bourbon. We didn’t want to pour in all the lovely bacon bits so we poured the fat through a coffee filter in a funnel, it worked perfectly. We then mixed this up and let it begin to settle, which is about the time-frame of when the picture above was taken. At first it looked like salad dressing, and I think it would make a good base for a salad dressing with a salad with spinach, hard boiled eggs, blue cheese crumbles, craisins, and steak – sign me up. Then we cleaned things up and proceeded with the DBL bacon in the same manor. After both bourbons were bacon infused we moved them to the freezer to help speed the solidifying process.
While the fat was setting up we ate almost all of the bacon, of course, until we got towards the end and decided we should chocolate-dip some of the bacon! So I grabbed some dark chocolate I was recently given and set up a quick double boiler, melted about eight pieces of chocolate and then dipped about eight pieces of bacon, while of course burning the piss out of my fingers with the chocolate. I then laid the chocolate dipped bacon on a Corian cutting board and placed it in the fridge to set up. We figured in a couple hours (two episodes of Lost to be precise) we’d have fat washed bacon bourbon and dark chocolate dipped bacon, sounds like bacon heaven.
After the bourbons came out of the freezer they had a very solid fat layer on top a little greater than half an inch thick, and it was fully separated from the bourbon. Next we had to figure out how to get the bourbon from under the fat. We tried two different methods. Robert went with the knife around the edge of the glass and try to pop the “fat puck” from the top of the bourbon. I went with the take a straw and pop a hole through the fat and then pour the bourbon through the whole. They both worked in their own way, but the pop-and-pour method worked better. After either method of trying to pop the fat puck or the pop and pour method we wound up partially breaking the fat so that there were fat floaties in the bourbon. So it was back to the coffee filter and funnel technique, and again it worked perfectly. After both bourbons were poured off the fat and poured through the coffee filter there was perfectly clean and clear bourbon for the sampling.
We had no idea what we were getting into so there was a lot of excitment/anticipation. Would it smell of bacon, taste of bacon, would it be greasy, would it be any good? These were all questions in our mind. And the answers, well, I was impressed. You could catch smoke in the nose, and bacon in the flavor, it was mild and slightly hammy, there was no grease or slickness at all, and yeah, it was good! I actually thought the fat washing took the bite away from the 100 proof bourbon, but that could have been from numbed taste buds from an afternoon of bacon and plain bourbon too. But overall I would call it a success and would highly consider doing it again. This time we weren’t thinking and threw out the fat, next time I’m going to reserve that stuff and cook something with it, like beans, and see if the fat absorbed any bourbon notes. Also, while enjoying our fat washed bacon bourbon it was time for the dark chocolate dipped bacon. And it was incredible too! Seriously, if you like bacon and chocolate you gotta try it. I think it would be amazing crumbled and put either in ice cream or cookies instead of chocolate chips. Robert even liked it and he’s not a big chocolate fan, but it did inspire us to next time try peanut butter dipped bacon, whoa.
Overall it was a silly afternoon with a high success rate. If anyone else tries to experiment please let me know. Now remember it has to be done with a fat that will solidify, like bacon fat or butter, not olive oil. Anyone up for a real Buttered Spiced Rum? Sounds like another afternoon to me! Oh and about the Bacon Beer … not sure if this was enough to convince me, but maybe a Bacon Washed Bourbon Beer, maybe.
So Friday 12.11.09 was the annual Sly Fox Brewery single hop variety celebration date, this year dubbed the Hop Project.
See the rest of the Sly Fox Hop Project pictures HERE
This was the sixth year Sly Fox has done its single hop variety year long deal with it climaxing during the celebration date, originally called IPA Day then later called the Hop Project. I have been to the last four years and have had a great time, though this year is the last year. They say (straight dope) it is a combo of reasons roughly based on the idea that the year long brewing of the single hops beers is taxing on the brewing schedule and they do not officially celebrate for their anniversary, which happens to also be in December. So, basically it appears as if they will stop doing the single hop beers throughout the year, yet will retain a celebration day in December for their anniversary with promises of not disappointing. Fair enough.
This year it was Erik, Robert, and I that went up. The doors open at 10AM and we arrived a little before 11AM. Three out of the last four years we have sat in the same seat, this year being one of them. So from being in the same area the last four years I feel as though it gives us a unique perspective on the the flow. I think Sly Fox definitely has there systems down; waitresses were on top of their stuff, beer flights and food flowed easily, and I don’t think I heard any complaints. But, I felt as though it were less busy than in the past. Typically the restaurant fills in wave; there’s the early morning idiots like us, then the lunch crowd / people who take half days from work, and the end of work / happy hour time frame crowd. We’re typically out before it gets much later, but I would assume there is a later resurgence also. Anyway, usually by the time lunch rolls around it begins to fill up, and by the time the after work crowd shows up it is busy, I didn’t feel that way this year, it never felt full to me, but maybe that was just me.
Another change was in the past Sly Fox had always brewed IPAs to showcase the hop varietal beers, this year it was Pale Ales, which may have been a good idea. You figure, a Pale Ale has less malt and is less complex than an IPA so there should be a better chance to show case the hops, plus Pale Ales are lower in alcohol which lets people sample the same amount without feeling the effects so heavily, and there is an opportunity for Sly Fox to use less ingredients thus make more money. They sold the beers in three small flights with five ounce beers, four beers per flight. If I remember correctly my favorites from each flight were the Cask 2009 Odyssey, the Boadicea, and the Argentine Cascade. After the flights we stayed for lunch and a couple pints. We were probably there from roughly 11-ish to 5-ish, which is slightly longer than I anticipated but not as long as it has been in the past.
Overall hats off to Sly Fox once again for one of my favorite annual beer events, and I can’t wait to see what they pull off for next year with their anniversary party.
So Sunday (9.27.09) was the 4th Annual Dogfish Dash 5K/10K and Robert’s and my 4th year participating in the 10K.
There were a few changes this year. First was the name (see shirt above), it has it listed as the Off-Centered Dogfish Dash, umm, ok, was that necessary, whatever :). And while I’m on the shirt, what’s up with the chicken in the logo instead of the dogfish? Seriously we asked a couple people that worked there and they all were like “dunno”. So, anyway, back to the real changes, first off it was in Milton this year versus Rehoboth the past three. Milton is an odd little town, but it was nice to take a run through it. Also, it was big, capped at 1,000 people and sold out, though supposedly about 25% of the people didn’t show because of the rain. Also, the food was all cold food versus hot food and cold food at the pub, understandable though since there is no pub at the brewery. But the biggest change was the lack of flow of fine fine Dogfish Head beer. Basically they had one jockey-box set-up with four handles, they couldn’t pour the beer fast enough plus it was pouring over 50% foam, ugh. It seriously took us over 20 minutes to get one beer, our ONLY beer from the jockey-box. They later brought out about 10 cases of Festina Peche which they blew through in like 30 minutes to help alleviate the jockey-box scenario. And later we found the tasting tent, which was way off to the side, where they were pouring about 6oz servings of Palo Santo, 90 Minute, Punkin, and Midas Touch – at least that tent had some flow. I know DFH is already aware of this “problem” and I guarantee it will be fixed for next year.
BUT, besides the changes, which sounds like bitching, it was a good time! We got lucky with the rain. I woke up about 5AM (about and hour and a half before I had to wake up) to the sound of rain pouring on the roof of my dad’s place. When we got to the brewery about 7:30AM it was still drizzling. By 8AM for the start it had stopped. By the time we wrapped up our 10K about 9AM it still wasn’t raining. But within, say 15 minutes, it rained for over the next hour as we all tried to enjoy beer, yogurt, and cereal. Oh, and no coffee, WTF!?
And, in case anyone was wondering, both Robert and I were running about 80%+. If I would have had 2 Advil, another 30 minutes, and a large coffee before the run I would have been 100% easy. Much better than last year, where we both were like 10-20%, yuck. So, kind of regardless, we’ll be back again next year! Thanks Dogfish Head, thanks Matt.
OK, so last Saturday (09.19.09) I was down at Dogfish Head Brewery in Milton, DE for the 5th Annual Intergalactic Bocce Tournament, and it was just as bizarro as ever!
If you want to see the rest of the pictures click here.
So once again the Erik Mitchell Band was invited back as the “Bocce Band” to play everyone’s favorite show of the year, the Dogfish Head Intergalactic Bocce Tournament. Fortunately for me, for this gig in particular, I have been dubbed essentially an honorary member of the band. My main “duty” as being in the band is to hopefully be able to borrow the van from work (which I was able to), help set-up and break-down equipment, and take pictures to document the day. All while enjoying several refreshing Dogfish Head beers and hanging out with the freaks. I think I can handle that! From the bands perspective this is quite a “big” gig in the sense of the amount of time they play and the amount of songs they play. This year they started roughly around 1:30PM and finished roughly around 8:00PM, so like 6.5 hours. They played 4 sets, with at least 12 songs per set, except for maybe the fourth set. Each set was roughly 1.5 hours long, so in the whole time frame they really only took less than an hour break spread throughout. So, if you’re interested here is a copy of the 2009 Dogfish Head Bocce Tournament Set List from the show, enjoy.
Besides the band, there was so much else going on! This tournament is a total freak fest in the best way possible. When DFH talks about doing things for Off-Centered People, these are their people. We ran into lots of familiar faces like Tom and Eric from Punkin Drublic with a crazy new Amish theme, Jim and John from Midas Touch My Balls who were the old guys last year and this year they were the old guys widows (with obituaries and everything), John Deere Flava Flav, T-Pain, and Shawty Pimp from the Pallino Pimps rockin out their nautical “I’m On A Boat” theme, Lee (Nacho Libre) and the rest of the Alpha Males kickin a construction theme with man hole … covers, and of course last years champs Bonsai Bocce running with the same theme as last year in their Karate Kid gear, plus Real Fake Tits and his crew from Mama’s Roast Beef were rolling with a German beer girl theme, and Sam and his peeps were crazy cross-dressing bocce lovers … anyone else in the freak show? Oh yeah, Motley Brue with Nikki Fuckin’ Six Pack were back after being gone last year and being Motley Jue the year before that, so they were kicking their 80’s glam rock gear, Knights of the Malted Balls (2009 champs!) had there same knight gear on, Beer Junta (I think that’s their names) had a Mad Scientist type thing going on (sorry if I’m mixing two teams together), the Bocce Beer Monks were there again but by the time Saturday rolled around their team was basically out of costume just relaxing, also Jebus was back again with the Holy Rollers rocking out a baby Jebus and the three wise men type theme this year, and Cat Bird Ass Brewery switched things up and were bikers this year, I think they changed their name too, but I can’t remember to what, and of course the winning team from Arizona from the DFH West Bocce Tournament these guys had full size fabric Dogfish Head bottles for costumes, they looked pretty cool, and I think the last team was a group of architects and/or engineers who have been working with Dogfish Head to redo the exterior of the brewery, look at the pictures to see what I mean.
I spent a lot of my time hanging out with the different teams that weren’t actively playing, and hanging out with some of the Dogfish Head staff, so big hey to Audrey, Marissa, Matt, and John. I also tried to take a bunch of pictures and actually filmed a couple short videos of the band too. With the pictures I originally was going to borrow Karen’s camera, but when she lent it to me we realized the LCD screen on the back was cracked, and with a digital camera that makes it much more difficult to see what you’re actually shooting. So I instead I used Erik’s camera, which worked out just fine. He also brought the video camera but the battery wasn’t fully charged. So I think (Erik has the camera so I am not sure) we have about 20-40 minutes of each the second, third, and fourth sets from the show. I actually can’t wait to see them no matter how poor the quality or short they are. The food I thought was also superior this year in my opinion. They again had it catered and lunch was cold sandwiches, wraps, chips, fruit, that kind of stuff and it was pretty good, and dinner was more hot food with a BBQ flair, ribs, pork sandwiches, all sorts of sides – yeah dinner was real good. It was actually smart for DFH to do dinner at Milton instead of Rehoboth in my opinion because it freed up their upstairs from all the freaks and didn’t overwhelm their kitchen with like an extra 60+ orders on a Saturday night. They also did the awards ceremony at Milton this year, which I assume went well, but the band was packing up their equipment during it as to not hold things up because we were already behind schedule with the buses.
All in all it was a great time, from the Friday night party before the party, or Bocce Eve as we have dubbed it, which we determined has the feeling of Christmas Eve and Mischief Night rolled into one – hyper anticipation, to breakfast at Timmy D’s (that’s for you Carson), to the ridiculous bus ride home (how often do you look forward to a bus ride?), all the way through the Saturday night mayhem. Yeah, that’s the cool part, just because bocce is over and we’re no longer in Milton doesn’t mean the fun stops. This year Erik announced during the show that we’d be showing our 3rd place winning movie from the Dogfish Head Film Fest “World Wide Clout” back at our hotel room and essentially invited everyone back. Fortunately we only had like 15 people show up, people from all sorts of teams, the architects, the pimps, the old ladies, and I think the construction guys. Then after the WWC showing and hanging it was time to raid the Dogfish Head brew pub again, so we were down there enjoying ourselves for a while. And of all things bizarro we ran into a couple from Austin, TX who also had entered the Film Fest who happen to be at the pub and recognized Robert and I. I swear, with how crazy everything was that day it seriously felt like we imagined them there, the timing was just crazy. Oh, he also announced about our silly shaving bet with Robert, so hopefully that sparked some interest there too.
So, not to make this post any longer, I’ll leave you with a couple links to even MORE pictures if you are so inclined to look at more drunk cross dressing people playing bocce :). First are pictures from Jimmy Balls from MTBM here. Next are the pictures from the “unofficial” Dogfish Head photographer, Jess Daleiden, for the bocce tournament, you can find Friday’s pictures here (which is the day we were not there) and Saturday’s pictures here. If anyone wants more just ask, there’s always more from this event. And in case your interested, re-caps of the past: 2008, 2007, & 2006 (sorry no 2005).
The trip was kind of a three part trip, first to Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY, second to Ft. Kent, ME, and third to the Bottle and Cork in Dewey Beach, DE to see Keller Williams. It was both a long week and a fast week if that makes any kind of sense. It started last Friday July 31st with Erik, Robert, and myself going up to Brewery Ommegang to volunteer for their Belgium Comes to Cooperstown (BCTC) event. This is the third year Robert and I have done it and the first Erik has joined us. It was very similar to the last two, but with a couple legal changes. It seems Ommegang ran into some issues with the State of New York and beer festivals in between last years and this. For my volunteer shift I was pouring beer for a brewery from CT called Olde Burnside Brewing Company, they were pretty nice guys and I had a blast. Both Friday and Saturday nights were of course big party nights, tons of fun.
See the rest of the pictures from Ft. Kent, ME HERE.
From Cooperstown we travelled to Ft. Kent, ME which is pretty much the northernmost most part of Maine. It was a 12 hour drive from Ommegang to Ft. Kent. We stayed at this cool lodge called the Trackdown Kennels & Lodge. It’s basically a hunters lodge, but since it was off season it was just a cool chill lodge for us to kick it in. We then spent the next two days with Robert’s family, who’s father is originally from Ft. Kent, for his parent’s 50th Wedding Anniversary. I originally was a little hesitant in going up, I had never even met his parents before, but soon after we met them I knew we would be OK. Ft. Kent is very laid back, almost additively so. Once I really got use to the vibe (which was just about when we were leaving) I could have kicked it there for quite a while. The Anniversary party was pretty much a family reunion with about 90 members of his family there and people traveling in from as far as AZ and CA, it was very cool.
See the rest of the pictures from Keller Williams HERE.
Then from Ft. Kent we travelled back to DE, it was about 13 hours, which is actually the fastest I have ever made that drive. I had been to Limestone, ME twice, which is very near Ft. Kent, and if my memory serves me right it was closer to 18 hours both times, so I was pleased to say the least. We got home about midnight-ish on Wednesday and on Thursday Robert, Karen, and I were leaving to head to Dewey Beach to see Keller Williams at the Bottle and Cork. There were a bunch of people we were meeting down there for the show; Craig, Alycia, Abby, and Wooly. The show was tons of fun though it took quite a while for the crowd to really get into it, lot of talking and such, but hey it’s a bar I guess. Keller played a ton of cover songs, so that’s both cool and also a little disappointing just because I would have liked to see more originals. Anyway, after the show we all went back to Abby’s dad’s beach house in Millville and hung up late and then got up early and got going. Friday Robert and I were wiped and we actually cut the beach portion of the trip a day short, originally planning on staying until Saturday.
Overall it was a really great trip, and a great way to spend a week off from work. Hopefully there will be more great trips like that in the future. If you want more details on anything or have any questions let me know, I just don’t feel like typing too too much right now.
So the other night was a night of transfers, nothing too exciting, but I figure I’d give you something different to read.
So from left to the right the following things are either happening or about to happen in this picture: Carboy number one has an actively fermenting R3 in it, carboy number two is the Cluster Wheat about to be transferred to a keg, and carboys three and four are both Sum Bra Pale Ale about to be transferred to secondaries and dry hopped. So this was … last Tuesday I think, so like a week ago.
Currently the R3 is done visual active fermentation and is ready to be transfered to secondary and dry hopped. The Cluster Wheat is currently on tap, and the Sum Bra Pale Ales are both hanging out on their dry hops and I am trying to decide if I want to transfer to keg on Wednesday or wait until over a week more, so essentially 8 days on dry hops or about 21 days – both would be fine.
Things I have noticed in the in between; the R3 has a weird clumpy yeast/protein clumps weirdness going on. I have heard whispers of such activity because of use of rye, but I have never seen such a thing, it is odd to say the least. If you squint at the first carboy you can see two big-ass chunkies toward the top by the bubbles (I know, yeah right). The Cluster Wheat has turned out well, I actually am looking forward to getting into it a few pints to get a real feel for it, which I think is going to happen tomorrow. And the Sum Bra Pale Ales are doing nice, fermented down in the range I wanted, and tasted pretty good at transfer. The funny thing is, either the Summit or Bravo hop has a distinct Simcoe hop flavor to it, which totally through me off – cats in my beer? If you know what I mean you know what I mean, you know.
Bailed on the brew day for Sunday, it was the Amber Kitchen Sink, I woke up a little crusty and then the day slipped away and I found myself at the movies watching the newest Harry Potter movie. I thought it was freakin’ good. Also, this week I have a big multi-step trip coming up: Return to Cooperstown, NY and Brewery Ommegang for the Belgium Comes to Cooperstown (BCTC) event Friday, Saturday, Sunday then off to Ft. Kent, ME (last exit on Rt. 1, WAY up there) to meet the Desjardin family for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday then rush back home to DE to go to the Bottle & Cork in Dewey Beach to see Keller Williams and hang-out for a couple days at the beach Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So if things go quiet for a bit that’s what’s up, but I will definitely post about BCTC.
Well, I just recently got back from my first Phish shows in almost five years, and, well, Oh My God!
FYI, this picture is ridiculous! From left to right: Dan Woolard, Erik Mitchell, Brian Moore, Craig Mummert, Frank Maier, Keith Collins, and Mike Kavanagh. I had the ultimate pleasure of enjoying a Sunday afternoon with these guys prior to a Phish show in Camden on Sunday. I have know these guys for going on 20 years (!), I met them all between 1989 and 1994 – crazy, crazy, crazy!!
Anyway, back to Phish, last time I talked about this guys I was more than disappointed with the way things ended, and I was very sceptical for the way things were going to re-star, again. I was very broken-hearted back in 2004 and I was scared to let Phish back in, it was very much like an old girlfriend. But, they did good, they did real good! I was lucky enough to go to three show this summer tour, Thursday 6/4 at Jones Beach, NY, Friday 6/5 at Jones Beach, NY, and Sunday 6/6 at Camden, NJ. If everything the band is putting out there to the public is true, this is a very clean Phish that is rocking like it is the mid-nineties again! I had so much fun at the two Jones Beach shows and Camden was off the charts for me, probably top five favorite shows I’ve been to. Between the people I got to hang with in the lots, to the vibe inside, to the music Phish cranked out it was one amazing time.
Without further ado, and if you are interested, here are the setlists from the three nights:
June 4, 2009
Nikon At Jones Beach Theatre, Wantagh, NY
Set One
* Grind
* The Divided Sky
* Ocelot
* The Squirming Coil
* Punch You in the Eye
* Dirt
* NICU
* Ghost
* Run Like An Antelope
Set Two
* Water In The Sky
* Birds Of A Feather
* Drowned
* Meatstick
* Time Turns Elastic
* Waste
* You Enjoy Myself
Encore
* Rock and Roll
June 5, 2009
Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY
Set One
* Wilson
* Buried Alive
* Kill Devil Falls
* AC/DC Bag
* I Didn’t Know
* My Friend, My Friend
* Ya Mar
* Theme From The Bottom
* Boogie On Reggae Woman
* Split Open and Melt
Set Two
* Down With Disease
* Twist >
* Piper >
* Backwards Down the Number Line >
* Free
* Twenty Years Later
* 2001
* Slave To The Traffic Light
Encore
* A Day in the Life
June 7, 2009
Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ
Set One
* Chalk Dust Torture
* Fee
* Wolfman’s Brother
* Guyute
* My Sweet One
* 46 Days
* The Lizards
* The Wedge
* Strange Design
* Tube
* First Tube
Set Two
* Sand
* Suzy Greenberg
* Limb By Limb
* The Horse >
* Silent in the Morning
* Sugar Shack (debut)
* Character Zero >
* Tweezer
Encore
* Joy (debut)
* Bouncing Around The Room
* Run Like An Antelope >
* Tweezer Reprise
I noticed that I had done a couple fun things that I hadn’t talked about, probably because most of them weren’t beer related, well like it or not, here’s some of the stuff I’ve been up to.
I suppose I am kind of going to try and go in order, though I really don’t think it matters and you’ll probably be able to tell which picture goes with which detail, and if you can’t . . . well, just look at the “pretty” pictures. Anyway, about a month ago was the annual Trail Dawgs half marathon that Robert and I run every year. This year was actually our fifth year participating and our second and third best times overall, all right! Also, this was the first time since I was in sixth grade, like 19 or 20 years ago (!), that I visited and enjoyed St. Mary Magdalen’s Medieval Festival that my mom puts on as part of her history class. It was so much fun and the kids seem to love it as much as I remember it, I’m sure I’ll be going back again. Got introduced to a new game too, Sloshball! The basic idea to Slosh Ball is very similar to kick ball except in order to proceed from second base you have to finish a can of beer and you have to field with a beer in hand at all times. Tons of fun to say the least. Got to go to my last show at The Spectrum and the last time I’ll see The Dead. It was nice to take in the Spectrum one last time, I’ve seen lots of great shows there and have always felt like it was Philly to me, The Dead was fun, but hopefully this will be it. Also got to enjoy one of my favorite beer festivals of the year the Goat Races up at Sly Fox Brewery. Even in the rain it was a good time and a large crowd, and the Maibock was excellent. My favorite TV show LOST had its season finale for season five, only one more season to go and the show is all wrapped up. This was a good season, but not my favorite, and I feel about the same for the finale, good, but not my favorite. Went up to the Keswick Theater for the first time and checked out the Spinal Tap Unwigged and Unplugged performance. Very chill atmosphere, good crowd, good performance, shitty ticket prices ($75). Picked up another show at Homegrown Cafe with the Erik Mitchell Band, fun times per usual. Though it is basically a restaurant, they do a good job hosting bands there, and they have good beer, and they JIMP. Karen and I went up to the Media Iron Hill location and checked out the Brandywine Craft Brewer’s Festival. Not sure why we’ve never been before, always remember being busy, but it was a good time none the less, all local boys. And finally got to have a fun weekend down at the beach for Memorial Day weekend. We stayed with our friends Dave and Jody on Friday and with my dad on Saturday. Wish there were more beach weekends on the schedule.
So there’s the last month in a nut shell. I think since some weren’t beer related they got bumped, and I think sometimes I was busy so the beer ones didn’t get posted, not sure, maybe Facebook and Twitter and stuff have just ruined “Blogs”, seems like people are actually talking less and less these days . . . you never know.
Here it is, the official internet release of our short film World Wide Clout. It is the third place winner in the 2009 Dogfish Head Off-Centered Film Fest. The basic criteria for the DFH Off-Centered Film Fest were: “Films which will be considered for the Off-Centered Film Fest must be no longer than five minutes in length, must include a story-line containing the concept of an underdog, and must include a reference to Dogfish Head in the script or have Dogfish Head product placement in the film.” That’s it, and we ran with it!
The basic idea behind World Wide Clout was we wanted to take both of the given criteria requirements and basically be obnoxious with them. So for the concept of an underdog we tried to make it both extremely impossible but yet still a totally probable scenario plus blow the hell up out of DFH while trying to not be full on tacky. We referenced 26 DFH beer in the film (see if you can count them all) and had mad DFH product placement, again as Sam said, “these guys had a Dogfish Head reference like every two seconds.” Exactly. So after we started drinking, and thinking, and drinking, and thinking a little bit more of what we wanted to do for the film festival we came up with almost the entire idea of World Wide Clout from start to finish in one night – it was too funny. After we were finished and looked at what we had on paper, we realized that there was a large enough of a story-arc to create a full length movie, but that wasn’t possible. So how do you wean that down to five minutes? Turn it into a preview to a movie of course! So World Wide Clout is actually a preview to a movie that doesn’t exist, you got that?
Anyway, because I know everyone will be wondering, I’ve also hunted down the second and first place winners short films here and will provide a link here so that you can check them out if you are so interested.
Second Place was a short animated commercial called “Psychedelic Dogfish Head Beer Cartoon Commercial” by Dax Norman. It clocked in at 1:09. If I remember correctly Dax said he was an art student from Florida who enters short film competitions “all the time”.
First Place was a short film/commercial just called “Dogfish Head Commercial” by Chris Rose. It clocked in at 1:58. If I remember correctly Chris is a local to Austin and is a DJ in town who actually missed the first night of the film festival (the beer tasting portion) because he was in Brooklyn, perhaps DJ-ing.
All right, well there you go, World Wide Clout for the masses. Please let me know what you think in the comments section either on this web site or on YouTube, we’d all love to hear your feedback may it be good or bad, we’re ready for it. Though this process started in January and it is now almost May this has been one of the most fun little projects I have ever gotten to work on. Big thanks once again to Erik Mitchell, Robert Desjardin, Karen Moore, Corey Bonser, and Sharon Wienckoski and everyone else who contributed there time and energies, may it be through help with the soundtrack, donations of props and equipment, or use of a filming location – with out everyone’s help listed in the credits, this would not have been possible, please watch the credits.
