Lagunitas Brewing’s Tony Magee Gets Tried in the Court of Social Media – Sadly.

A couple of weeks ago, Lagunitas Brewing owner Tony Magee did something unthinkable. He threatened legal action within the craft beer community.

Did Tony propose litigation  that was  going to forever wipe Pliny from the face of existence? Had he filed an injunction to cease the GABF? No,he simply was wondering if another brewery had possibly come up with a packaging for their new beer that might have come to close to the packaging he has branded for one of his.

And a portion of the craft beer community went bat-shit crazy.

For those who some how missed all of the who-struck-John between Lagunitas Brewing and defendant Sierra Nevada (actually, if you did consider yourself lucky) here it is in a nutshell. Lagunitas was a bit miffed that the lettering on the right looked in their mind too much like the lettering on the left.

Exhibit A and B. Note the kerning, apparently that’s important. (PHOTO CREDIT: Brewerylaw.com)

Don’t see it? Don’t feel bad. Apparently, a lot of other people didn’t see it as well. So much so, that Tony  discovered himself heatedly defending his position on social media from people who were calling him a “dickhead”, to people who were threatening to stop buying Lagunitas’ beers because of his actions, to everyone in between.

And while all this was going on, through all the stone throwing and name calling, between all the character assassination and venom spewing, I just kept asking one question…

Why do you people care so much?

When I wrote the original drafts of this post, it was full of examples of breweries not playing well together (how about when Sierra Nevada trademarked “Narwhal Stout”, you remember, when they pulled the rug out from under Narwhal Brewing), and paragraphs on how important branding is (ever recognize a six-pack of Flying Dog beer from across the liquor store? OK, you get it then). But I don’t think that should be necessary.

In fact, I almost scrapped this post because I’ve been working on it for so long that the topic is almost moot. Lagunitas has dropped the matter and all is good. But to be honest, the aftermath is even more disturbing to me.

https://twitter.com/lagunitasT/status/557145887127109632

That’s Tony, talking like a repentant, punished little boy because his lawsuit was found frivolous and without merit. Not in a court of law where it should have been judged, but in the court of social media.

And I don’t know which is sadder, that some people lashed out at Tony for his threat to take Sierra Nevada to court, or that after he’d dropped the legal action some people feel like they’ve done the right thing, and are claiming this as some kind of victory.

When Tony announced his intention, he was judged by everyone who had a Twitter or Facebook account who believed that somehow, that entitled them to a vote in the matter. And as these cases normally go, it appeared that the people with the most negative feelings towards Lagunitas were the ones most vocal.

I’m not saying that people shouldn’t have an opinion on the matter, and I’m certainly not saying that people shouldn’t voice that opinion on social media (what else is social media for). But this is an example of how social media gets all “torches and pitchforks” in an area where it would be best if most of those in the mob would just keep their fingers quiet.

Let’s run down a few things:

1 – Lagunitas had every right to challenge Sierra Nevada.

“Right” is the word I want to emphasis here. Protecting one’s brand is a given in the business world, and businesses do it all the time. To get all pissed at someone because they want to make sure that another company is not infringing on something they’ve worked long and hard to establish is not only on the surface ridiculous, but actually narrow minded. I mean, it’s OK if you look at the evidence and say, “I don’t see it.” But in my opinion its quite another to spiral down to the level of bullies complete with name calling, stone throwing and threats. It’s not necessary to act like Tony walked into your house and kicked your dog.

2 – Lagunitas should not have backed down.

After the social media backlash by offended people, Tony Magee announced that he was withdrawing the lawsuit because in his words:

I had to know the Answer, but the Answer came much sooner than I thought and in a different Court than I thought it would. Can I say thanks?

— LagunitasT (@lagunitasT) January 14, 2015

I believe from the context that Tony is referring about the “Court” of public opinion which is, sorry, in some cases the absolute worst “Court” to listen too. Most of the people bashing Tony for his decision are probably people who have no real knowledge of the business world or have never owned anything to the extent that they’ve had to protect it in a court of law. They’re just pissed because Tony is tarnishing their illusion that all is unicorns and rainbows in the craft beer world. That’s right, I said illusion. More on that in a moment.

If Tony truly felt that Sierra Nevada was infringing on his branding, he should have stood his ground instead of caving to all the hate that was tossed at him, especially by a bunch of people who immediately went to their final sanction which was to stop buying his beers because he wasn’t playing nice. Many of whom probably haven’t purchased a Lagunitas beer in months. That’s right. You know you haven’t. We can subpena your Untappd feed.

Maybe the court would have ruled in favor of Tony. Maybe not. YOU don’t know. I don’t know. But what I DO know is the best time to challenge (and hopefully settle) Trademark disputes is early on, not after they have mushroomed into serious issues that do require costly, prolonged legal battles.

And those disputes should be settled between the breweries, and when that is not possible, in a court. Not on someone’s twitter feed.

3 – Nobody is wearing white shirts here.

Everyone is quick to defend Sierra Nevada because they believed that in this case they are in the right. But like I’ve written above, Sierra Nevada has had their own checkered past when it’s come to dealing with brewers over Trademark matters.

And when it comes to legal entanglements they’re not alone. (OK, so I didn’t totally remove all the examples of breweries not playing well together as I stated above, sue me)

Magic Hat went after the West Sixth brewery in Kentucky over Trademark issues, causing West Sixth to make a small modification to their proposed label. Coronado Brewing went after Elysian over the word “Idiot”. Unita Brewing changed the name of its IPA from Hop Notch to Hop Nosh after a complaint from Notch Brewing.

In fact, these types of legal dealings are not unique between craft beer brewers, they can happen between anyone in the beer business no matter what the business is, even between a homebrew shop and a craft brewer.

So much for unicorns and rainbows. But in all the cases I’ve mentioned above, what happened? The issues were settled and business went on. Which leads me to:

4 – The worst that could have come out of all this was probably nothing.

I’ve said above that I don’t know what would have happened if this situation was allowed to play out, but actually that’s a lie. I can (with fair certainty) tell you exactly what would have happened:

Either Lagunitas would back down (what happened) and business would have carried on.
Or Sierra Nevada would have backed down and business would have carried on.
Or they would have settled and business would have carried on.
Or Lagunitas would have won and business would have carried on.
Or Lagunitas would have lost and business would have carried on.

And the worst ramification from any of these scenarios would have been that we would have had to wait a little while longer for Hop Hunter to be released if the outcome hadn’t favored Sierra Nevada or, well nothing.

Sure, there might have been some hard feelings between Lagunitas and Sierra Nevada, and those wounds may have hung around for a long time. But in the grand scheme of things all that may have done was insure that Lagunitas and Sierra Nevada would not have clogged the beer shelves with another cash grab collaboration beer in the foreseeable future.

Was Tony without fault in this situation? In my mind, no. But to me it wasn’t that he took legal action against another member of the craft brewing fraternity no, it was his attempts to justify those actions in the world of social media. His best move would have been to simply do what a lot of other companies do when they find themselves in a similar situation:

We do not comment in public on pending legal matters concerning our brewery. We hope that this matter comes to swift and satisfying conclusion for all parities so that we can go back to focusing on what we our business is all about, producing the best beers we can for our valued costumers.

And then just walked away and let the matter take its course. Whatever your feelings on the legitimacy of Lagunitas’ claim, in my mind the people who attempted to bully Tony into dropping this matter acted poorly. And I hope that his final decision in this matter was based on input and advice from his councils and his lawyers, not because a bunch of irate people (who are in the minority anyway because there are large portion of people who drink craft beer don’t know and don’t care about anything in the business beyond what beer they’re drinking this weekend) threatened to not buy his products in the future.

Because a lot of  them probably weren’t going to anyway.

Jim Lutz, CEO Fordham/Dominion Talks About The Brewery’s Involvement With AB InBev, Out With The OLD, and New Beers in 2015

This post has been quite a while coming. As you may or may not know the Brewer’s Association awhile back released a list of breweries in the US that did not meet their definition of “craft brewery”, and of course, a little uproar ensued.

For those of you who are not aware of this, or really don’t see why people should care, let me fill you in.

The Brewer’s Association is the self-appointed watch dog of all things “craft beer”. In order to be labeled a “craft brewer” you have to meet a number of requirements set out in a multi-part definition that they have put forth. Requirements such as barrel output (size), types of ingredients used, and ownership.

Now that last one might seem a little strange but indeed, it matters to many people (and to the Brewer’s Association) who owns breweries that are trying to pass themselves off as “craft” breweries. And by definition, if your “craft brewery” is owned more than 25% by an entity that is itself NOT a craft brewery, than by the trickle-down theory of zymurgnomics you are non-craft.

Although I feel that the 25% number is a bit arbitrary, the reasoning behind this stipulation is pretty straight forward. The Brewer’s Association does not want big corporations swooping in and buying smaller craft breweries, changing things around and then trying to continue to pass them off as “craft breweries” to the unsuspecting public.

Again, if you know nothing about this situation the whole thing may seem pretty odd, but believe me there are many evil specters in this world that want to infiltrate your favorite small brewery and then, while you sleep soundly at night, replace your brewery’s six-packs with six-packs made under the guise of your brewery, but having a big corporation taint about them. Kind of like a craft beer changeling if you will. They look like your beer, cost like your beer, hell they may even taste like your beer, but there are people out there who can sense their malevolent aura liquor stores away. Like how a mother always knows which baby is not hers.

Or at least that’s what some people would have you believe.

The problem with approaching this situation from this perspective is that not all ownership partnerships are created equal.

The beers produced by breweries like Magic Hat and Pyramid catch a lot of flak from the craft beer purists because they are now completely owned by a non-craft beer company. But are those same people going to show the same lack of loyalty concerning Breakfast Stout and Dirty Bastard, now that their cherished Founders Brewing recently sold a 30% stake in their brewery to Mexican company Mahou San Miguel? I’m willing to bet not.

[Author’s note: Since I wrote this article, AB snatched up Elysian Brewing to much outcry and now there are reports that they’re courting Cigar City]

And why should they? Although it is above the 25% limit the BA sets, 30% is far from a majority interest in the brewery. Add to that Founders co-founder and CEO Mike Stevens’ assurance to the craft beer world that “Founders will remain Founders”, and most people are probably willing to simply hold their breath and hope for the best.

And if nothing changes at Founders? Well isn’t that the more important concern we should be considering here? If Mahou San Miguel is willing to let the people at Founders run the brewery as they have in the past, does the ownership issue really matter? I guess it depends on your point of view.

Anyway, back to the list that the Brewer’s Association put out. I was of course curious to see who was on it, and see which aspect of the definition the offending brewery had broken (NOTE: Due to continued desire of the Brewer’s Association to not kick Sam Adams out of the sandbox, it’s never ‘size’). Of course, I never expected to see a brewery from Delaware on the list, let alone two. But there they were – Fordham Brewery and Old Dominion Brewery, under the umbrella company Coastal Brewing. Reason? “Brewery is owned 49% by AB InBev”.

What? That was news to me. Now granted, I wasn’t intimately familiar with the backgrounds of these two breweries (for clarification, while the breweries currently operate as separate entities with different packaging and portfolios, they share a single facility, brewing equipment, sales representatives and head brewer) but I never suspected that AB InBev had a large stake in their operations.

A quick internet search revealed that indeed, back in 2007 before the two breweries merged and moved to their current location in Dover, DE; Anheuser-Busch entered an agreement with the then Annapolis, MD based Fordham Brewing which did eventually give Anheuser-Busch (which hadn’t been bought up themselves yet) an apparent stake in the breweries. But I couldn’t find any reference or statements to back up the 49% asserted by the BA.

Not long after that, Fordham/Dominon Maryland representative Casey Hollingsworth tweeted that the breweries were not owned 49% by AB InBev and challenged the Brewer’s Association to “do their homework” (sadly I could not find this tweet using Twitter search to include in this post).

At that moment I thought, “Yeah, maybe someone should do that homework. And maybe that someone should be me.” But sadly, time passed and the idea of finding out what was really the truth concerning Coastal Brewing got pushed onto the back burner.  And I’ve seen it stated several times since, but when someone recently posted the statement in a Facebook Group, I decided it was time to see if I could get some clarification concerning the matter.

I reached out to Fordham/Dominion through their website, and Jim Lutz, President/CEO of Coastal Brewing agreed to take some time to talk to me about his company’s relationship with AB InBev and (more importantly to me) the conglomerate’s dealings with the everyday operations of his company. And to help clarify the situation as much as possible, Jim invited Ryan Telle, VP of marketing for Coastal Brewing to join in on the conversation.

Jim began by filling me in on the back story of how AB InBev first came to acquire a stake of Coastal Brewing. [Author’s Note: Some of this information is on the Old Dominion Brewery Wikipedia page, but the page information was incomplete and out of date. Not really knowing about the page, Jim and Ryan said they’d look into updating it and in fact, Ryan must be updating in now, because I’ve notice that changes have been made to it as I’m writing this].

Back in 2007, Fordham Brewing and Ram’s Head Taverns owner Bill Muhlhauser entered an agreement with Anheuser-Busch, which at that point, gave AB a 49% stake in the brewery plus control of the brewery’s distribution.

Bill then reached out to purchase Old Dominion Brewing which owner Jerry Bailey had been trying to sell since the mid-2000s. Once the transaction was complete, Muhlhauser found himself in ownership (along with other partners) of both breweries, with AB still having a stake in the companies as well as the distribution rights to the breweries’ beers. So where does that arrangement stand today?

“In-Bev’s current stake in the two breweries is less than 40%,” Jim related.

OK, it would have been nice if it had been below 25% so we could have killed this thing dead once and for all, but as I said above, what was more important to me was to find out what that truly meant to the day-to-day operations of Coastal Brewing.

Did they have input in the recipes that head-brewer Dan Lauder formulates for the two breweries, brewing philosophy, or marketing direction? What exactly is Coastal Brewing’s obligations to AB InBev because they have an approximately 40% stake in the company?

“We send them a financial report every month,” Jim stated.

Really? No quarterly meetings with AB Inbev where you have to present a ridiculously huge slide deck laying out all your business and marketing strategies for the coming year?

“In the years I’ve been here (Jim came over from Flying Dog in January of 2011) I’ve only met with the AB InBev people twice, both times in New York City. In fact, the two people I met with no longer work for AB InBev.”

So at the moment Jim wouldn’t know anyone from AB InBev if they walking into his office? “I wouldn’t know them from Adam.”

Ryan echoed that statement, “In the two years I’ve been here, I’ve never talked with anyone from AB inBev.”

Of course I really wanted to nail this point home so when I asked if an entity that owns close to 40% of a business operation doesn’t at least check in every now and then, the assurance was quick, “No.” Jim would then go on to add, “AB InBev has never stepped inside the brewery.”

In fact, since the years that have followed their initial agreement, Coastal has worked to distance themselves even further from AB InBev by reacquiring the distribution part of the business. “We now have the ability to go into any state and negotiate with all distributors until we find the one that we feel will serve us the best,” Jim said. “When we went into New Jersey, we chose a non-AB InBev distributor. When we pulled out of Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama because we felt it didn’t make sense for us to be there, WE made that decision.”

I asked Jim how he felt about the Brewer’s Association and the fact that his breweries would never be considered craft under their current definitions. It was here that Jim’s passion for what Coastal Brewing has accomplished really came through. “I’m sure they have to draw a line for a definition. The managing board meets and they need to have a definition. It’s a shame. We pay our dues to the Brewer’s Association. We’ve won craft beer medals. We won a Gold medal in the 2014 World Beer Cup. We won a Silver medal at this year’s GABF. But if they don’t want to acknowledge us a ‘craft’ well…”

Winding up the interview I wanted to ask a few other questions that I myself was interested in knowing the answer to, after all it’s not every day I get to talk to the CEO and Marketing VP of one of Delaware’s major breweries. Having recently noticed some changes in the social media concerning the two breweries and the wording on the new packaging of one of the breweries, I asked if we had officially come to the time when we could drop the “OLD” from “Old Dominion.”

“Oh, yes,” Jim responded.

Ryan added, “We’ve recently consolidated the two brewery’s websites into one site. We’ve started using ‘FoDo’ as a marketing designation and everyone who works for us has it in front of their names on Twitter.”

So is there any chance of this on going consolidation including the two brewery’s portfolios in the future? “No, we’ll be keeping them separate as they are two different [brewing philosophies],” Jim replied. “Fordham is more sessionable, while Dominion is where we brew bolder beers.”

Regrettably, I walked away from this interview feeling less than totally satisfied. The bottom line is that until such time as the ownership agreement changes, Fordham and Dominion will not be considered “craft” by the Brewer’s Association. And that’s sad, because they are two fine breweries that in every other way, symbolize what it means to be a “craft brewer”.

But armed with the fact that AB InBev has no input into the day-to-day operations of the breweries, and that Fordham’s Rosie Parks Oyster Stout and Dominion’s Double D IPA are two of my favorite beers brewed in Delaware – that’s “craft” enough for me. Especially when you take into consideration that I’ve never liked using the word “craft” to describe a brewery anyway. But that’s another post.

I’d like to thank both Jim Lutz and Ryan Telle for taking some of their valuable time to talk to me.

Time for another beer…

THE FINAL SIP: Coastal Brewing will be releasing two new beers this year. First, Fordham will be releasing Sun Seeker, a Hefewiesen, in the summer after which it will join their other year-round offerings. Second, we get a new Pin-up girl from Dominion! The sixth beer in the series, Hop Lips, will be an IPA that Jim describes as something more sessionable, but at the time of this article they’re still doing test batches so he couldn’t tell me much else about the beer. I look forward to trying them out!

 

The Not So Local Tap – Lancaster Brewing Company

He paused. As if a moment of silent tribute had to be given before he (or anyone) should walk through the door that was open before him. The door certainly deserved no  such reverence, the single paned, fullview door was like thousands of others he’d passed before. No, it was what lay beyond the door that forced him to take a mental pause. Then finally, thinking that he’d surely shown enough respect, he walked in.

The room was considerably darker than the sun lite parking lot he’d just left. But even as his vision waned, his eyes slow to adjust to the reduced light, his other senses kicked in, telling him everything he needed to know.

The warm, slightly humid air kissed his face, a welcome contrast from the crisp, winter air outside. The sounds, metal against metal, the unmistakable trickling of running water, the hiss of steam, weren’t simply an assemblage or random sounds. No, they gave the room life, filling it with a symphony of organization and purpose.

But it was the smell. The malt. Fresh, and sweet; floating in the air like wisteria on the first nice spring day. It permeated the building, to the extent that he wondered if the structure could ever be rid of it. And it was the smell that took him back. Back to a time when his house often smelled like this.

If I were to write a book, channel my inner Oliver Gray, and have the need to describe a character walking into a brewery, that’s exactly how I’d write it. A man walking into a place that is open, filled with the sights, sounds and smells that hopefully take him back to a time when he too participated in the joys of brewing, whether that time be 20 days ago, or (in my case) 20 years ago. After all, that’s how it should always be when one walks into a brewery. But sadly, it seldom is.

Well, with a little clarification. Sure, sooner or later if you pass through enough internal doors you’ll walk into the brewing area and be greeted by all the sensations described above. But not to often do you walk into the front door of a place and feel as if you’d just stepped into the brew house. It’s like walking into a house that has two doors, the one in the front enters the living room, and one on the side enters the kitchen. Sure, you’ve entered the house in both cases, but only of the entrances is going to give you a more satisfying smell of what’s cooking.

There’s very few times I walk into a brewery/brewpub/etc and feel like I’ve walked into the “kitchen”, but that’s exactly how I felt the moment I stepped in the Lancaster Brewing Company – the smells, sights, and sounds of brewing were very evident with the first step inside the door. If you’d ever stepped into a brewery before (or home brewed) I could walk you into LBC blind folded and you’d be able to immediately recognize the activity happening around you.

And with good reason, The Lancaster Brewing Company’s dinning area sits on what would be considered the ground floor with the basement below housing the brewing equipment.  A large, railed opening in the floor not only allows ample ceiling height for the tall fermentors below, but also affords a mezzanine-eyed view of the brewing area from the floor above, as well as letting the sounds and smells of the labor below permeate throughout the building. No brewing equipment sequestered behind brick or glass walls, for LBC. It’s right there below you, filling the room with all it’s sensorial glory.

There’s something quaint about it. So Lancaster. Although Lancaster is as “city” as any city can be, it’s highly associated by outsiders with the farms and attractions of the Pennsylvania Dutch community that thrive in surrounding same-named Lancaster County.

And the establishment just seems to capture that vibe perfectly. From the rustic, wooden interior; the brick facade that gives the building the appearance of being painted in what I’d call classic ‘covered bridge red’; to even the brew master himself, Bill Moore, who walks around the building, his stout frame and mountain-man enviable beard giving him the appearance of a man who’d be just as comfortable building furniture, or working of farm equipment, if he hadn’t been too busy honing his chops at industry respected breweries such as Independence, Stoudt’s and Sly Fox.

Tracey and I had arrived at LBC for lunch due to some temporal miscalculations. We’d spent the night in York, PA, attending my daughter’s first college play and since we had the entire next day off to get home, we obviously had a couple of breweries lined up as possible lunch stops. Unfortunately, neither place within walking distance of our hotel (Mudhook Brewing Company, Liquid Hero Brewing) opened until 4pm – later than we wanted to stay. So we hit the road, and made a back up plan.

And I’m glad we did, because as you can tell Lancaster Brewing really struck a chord with me, the food was good and the beers tasty as always. We both started with their Winter Warmer Ale (which by luck had just recently made its seasonal debut), a beer that I’ve grown to really enjoy over the years, and one that the brewery uses for a good cause – proceeds from the sales of Winter Warmer help the PA Wolf Sanctuary.

I followed up with their Shoo-Fly Pie Porter which I was very pleased with (love a good porter), while Tracey went for the Milk Stout that she enjoyed, even though it had a touch more coffee in the profile than she would have liked.

Unfortunately, two was the limit for the driver and the navigator (especially since the first one clocked in at 8.9%). So, to soon, we found ourselves on the road home.

I’d highly recommend a stop at LBC if you’re ever in the area. There’s just a sensational, beer lover’s appeal to it. If you do decide to go however, I do offer one piece of advice – go to the website and get the low-down on parking. LCB has it’s own lot, but it’s small – maybe 20 cars small (and it would probably help if your car WAS small), so check out the alternate parking options at the website.

Also keep in mind that brewing was actually going on while we were there, which I’m sure doesn’t happen every day that the restaurant is open. So who knows, maybe on the day you go you will be able to enjoy a nice quiet meal, with none of the clatter or rumbling associated with the activity of brewing and enjoy a fresh beer without the distraction of that sweet smell of mashing malt in the air.

But for your sake – I hope not.

I KNOW YOU HAVE BEER IN THERE!! OPEN UP!!!

Beer and Tanks

The Beer Board

A Birds Eyes View of The Mash Clean Out Below

The Tank Outside

Brewing Equipment

The Mug Club Stands Ready

Pizza and Beer

Steam Rising From the Kettles

Lancaster Brewing Company

Time for another beer…

 

Product Review – Govino Shatterproof Beer Glasses, Plus More Thoughts on Glassware

Back in 2012 I posted what I would call a controversial opinion when I asserted that glass shape doesn’t really influence the flavor of beer.

I put forth several points where I discussed the more overlying reasons bars serve your favorite beers in different styles of glasses (mostly cost), why uni-tasker stemware is mostly a marketing ploy used by glass manufacturers, and most importantly, how the proximity of your nose to the beer when you take a sip overrides any real need for the glass to do anything other than just keep the beer from running through your fingers.

Chris, over at I Think About Beer, responded with a post of very well reasoned arguments as to why, on this particular topic, I was bat-shit crazy. OK, those weren’t his words exactly (and to be fair, I am bat-shit crazy on quite a few topics), but he did write a thorough rebuttal, some of which I can’t counter-argue.

Based on his evidence I was forced to change my beliefs a bit. First, for the AVERAGE craft beer drinker, the shape of the glass won’t make a difference. And second, the pint shaker or Libby “sleeve” is absolutely the worst glass for critical beer evaluation. Except for maybe a Disney Princess mug. Although in my defense I wasn’t exactly drinking craft beer out of it.

To the first point – note I said ‘average’. Craft beer enthusiasts who write blogs, attend events, trade beers, travel, and enjoy all the other activities that we (meaning people who take this more seriously than the average Joe) do, sometimes make the short-sighted mistake in believing that everyone who “enjoys craft beer” drinks at the same bar as we do (so to speak).

But having had many run ins with craft beer lovers in many different situations, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s simply not the case. There are vast (*whispers*VAST) numbers of people out there who enjoy craft beer who just don’t even know this side of the brewverse exists. And those people are blissfully enjoying good beer in all their ignorant glory in whatever glass they happen to have.

The second point tilts itself back towards those aforementioned craft beer enthusiasts. To the more analytical quaffer out there glassware may not matter much, depending on the glasses being compared, as long as they have some of the same functionality – a sloped shape to aid head formation and retention, and to help concentrate aromas, nucleation sites for bubbles to form, etc. Is a tulip glass really that much better than my favorite Zeiss Amsterdam? Maybe not. But they are both infinitely better than the commonly used “Libby” shaker as Chris suggests, although the proof he puts forth to demonstrate his point is a little – well, shaky.

The photo Chris submitted to show a bad beer in a pint glass. Really, Chris? Where was this taken? A bowling alley? (Photo credit: hombrewmanual.com)

No, beers poured into shaker glasses can also be things of beauty, enticing a road weary beer traveler to sample the malt and hop elixir that they contain. But showcase all the subtle nuances of their precious contents? Probably not. Because let’s be honest, that’s not the number one function that many manufactures consider when designing their glassware, or indeed bars consider when selecting glassware (the pint shaker is easy to clean and stackable – ’nuff said). Sometimes, other considerations are more important.

Take Govino for example. The company produces a series of wine and beer glasses that might not be high on a sommelier’s or cicerone’s list of must have glasses, but they do have one useful feature – they’re shatterproof.

Govino markets their glassware as “The Ultimate Go Anywhere Glass”, and one can certainly understand why. The glasses are made of a BPA free polymer, and therefore won’t break if dropped or knocked over by an over enthusiastic dog’s tail.

Govino account executive Blair Grant sent me a couple beer glasses to try out and after using them for several months (and I was surprised on how much I DID use them) here are my thoughts.

The first thing that struck me is that the glass is small and light, and although there is a certain amount of flex at the very top, the glass is quite solid and firm where  you would grip it. Of course the first thing I did was hold it over my head a drop it. The glass did hit the ground with quite a bit of force, but simply bounced a few times before coming to a stop. For all intensive purposes, the glass did seem to be pretty durable.

Don’t try this with your expensive Spiegelau glasses.

I mean, I’m sure if you run over one with a truck you’d end up with something that looked like a crushed water bottle, but if you think about all the ways you’ve every reduced one of your favorite glasses to a dust pan of tear inducing shards (and how little effort it took to sometimes do that), than this glass would have saved you the heart break. And if you do manage to run one over with your truck, Govino glasses are 100% recyclable.

Govino claims their beer glass holds 16oz, and to be honest I was pretty sure there was no way I was going to get a pint of liquid into one, but indeed the glass does hold 16oz – but much in the same way a shaker pint holds 16oz – to the brim, no room for head.

But that means the glass has plenty of room for a standard 12oz beer, plus head and even full my brain immediately noticed the  glass’ lightness every time I picked it up during my first handful of uses. I usually like glasses with some weight to them, so this took awhile to get accustomed to.

Govino’s thumb-notch.

Another interesting feature is that the glass has a thumb-notch or divot in the side that  Govino incorporates (and has patented) into all their glassware designs, an obvious understanding that in some places these glasses may be used, added grip could be important.

One sensation while drinking from the Govino beer glass is the mouth feel. No, different mouth feel. The the wall of the glass is thin, and due to the small opening the lip of the glass is very obvious against the sides of your upper lip when you take a sip. I was able to get used to it after a while, but some people might find it off putting.

An aspect of the glass that I was initially disappointed in is the fact that I thought the production seam across the bottom of the glass would be an awesome feature to help nuclidation and thus assist in that steady stream of CO2 bubbles that just looks so fantastic rushing up from the bottom of a nice beer glass.

This didn’t seem to be the case at first, as all the beers I poured into the glass looked pretty lifeless. But as I continued to use the glasses, I could see a gradual increase in the carbonation emanating from the bottom of the glass. Perhaps there’s a layer of something on the new glasses that I didn’t completely get off with the initial wash, but what ever the reason, the last couple of beers I poured into them looked pretty good.

Oh, and speaking of the small opening and cleaning – you’re going to need a thin brush. Your old fatty ain’t going to fit here, and Govino recommends that you hand wash their glasses. My suspicion is that the hot steam cycle might run the risk of turning your dishwasher rack into a craft beer version of The Persistence of Memory. Or that the glasses don’t have enough weight to keep them from bouncing around like ping pong ball in a lottery machine.

Are you going to be bowled over by this glass’ ability to showcase the subtle nuances of your favorite double IPA? Is it going to make you pack away your favorite tulip glasses? Probably not.

I know the Govino people would love to sell these as a serious “beer glasses”, but to the crowd where serious “beer glasses” matter, I’m not sure it quite fits the bill. But in the realm of the pint sleeve, its “go anywhere” functionality makes it a perfect substitute for a poolside dinner party (or just poolside for that matter), boating trips, or picnics; anywhere you find yourself where glass isn’t allowed, or practical; and you still want a level of savoir-faire. And unlike many other options in these cases, the Govino glassware is reusable.

Another suggestion I would make is that it’s a perfect glass for your little, budding “craft beer enthusiasts” when they start believing that they’re big enough to start drinking from “big boy glasses” – especially with the assistance of the divot to aid little fingers.

If I had a Govino back then, I’d probably still have some of my not so functional pint glasses in my cabinet.

A glass for serious beer contemplation? No. An excellent glass free substitute for casual beer drinking situations? Most definitely.

I’d like to thank Blair Grant for sending my a couple of glass to try out, and apologize for the delay in my review.

The Final Sip: A four pack of Govino beer glasses will run you about $15. That’s not overly expensive especially when you consider that if subjected to only the normal use and abuse you give your current beer glasses, they should last – well, probably longer than your current beer glasses. Govino also makes a series of wine and cocktail glasses as well as a wine decanter.

 

 

2014 at The Dogs of Beer – Stealing Post Ideas From Other Bloggers.

To be honest, I wasn’t going to post a year-end review. I try to keep all that retrospective stuff confined to my yearly birthday post, since I look at the timing of this blog more in an elapsed, than a calendar way.

However, Bryan over at This Is Why I’m Drunk posted up a year end review for his blog where he wrote a month-by-month run down of the most popular posts from both a reader and personal perspective. Thinking, “Hey, that doesn’t look hard!” (especially since he didn’t add a lot of stats and trends to his) and really just waiting for the clock to hit 3 so I can go buy tonight’s champagne, I thought I’d do the same. Although I probably won’t get around to posting it until tomorrow…or maybe the day after. Hey, you knew what this was!

I posted 50 articles in 2014, which is horribly down from my previous two years. I feel lazy. Unproductive. I thought that’s what all my unfinished house projects were for.

As I look back over the blog, it would appear that I was slacking in the review department this year. I didn’t drink less beer. Trust. Just didn’t write as much about them I guess. I’m going to try to rectify that in 2015. What? Do or do not. There is not ‘try’? Yeah, you’ll fit in here just fine.

Of the posts that did make it up, there were many that I was very proud of, probably a couple that I should have been less so, and as is the case in this wacky world of WordPress, those weren’t always the ones my readers enjoyed the most. I’ll trust their judgement over mine.

It just goes to show you that you never know what might strike a chord with  your readers, or what might catch a slight case of virality on the interwebs. So how did the year shake out? Let’s review:

Oh, and if you don’t really care for the month-to-month break down, scroll down to see some other year end stats about this blog, including interesting countries that visited and the weird-ass things people typed into Google to find me.

JANUARY

I got the ball rolling in January with my new “monthly” series (said using his best John Oliver impersonation, “Well not every Month. We’ll be taking some months off.”) The Full Moon Post. The idea was to tie in the spiritual changing of the seasons with the seasonal cycle of beer. Add a dash of culture observances, pagan traditions, and some astronomy and you have it.

The series was well received (I’m still trying to decide how, or even if, it will be back next year) but it was my January review of The Kennett Brewfest that received the most views that month. This goes to show that local readers are just crazy about this festival, as it had been held back in October and still people were interested enough to click on it.

FEBRUARY

February was probably one of my favorite months as far as posting is concerned because it was here that I wrote the story about Bill Coleman contacting me with the background story of his dog, Ludwig. Ludwig is the dog you see in my banner picture above, the sad looking dog with his chin resting on a bar.

Interviewing Bill and getting in contact with people who still work at the bar where the picture was taken and remembered Ludwig’s visits was the kind of story telling that makes blogging fun. But readers showed that they also are looking for information, even if I’m not the one to directly provide it.

I posted a press release that I received from Jenea Robinson at Visitphilly.com that listed a lot of great Philly beer events coming in 2014. Readers around here are always looking for the next big Philly beer event, and views to this post demonstrate that.

MARCH

March saw me ask where all the bloggers had gone (my most commented on post of the year), join in on my first Session post, and degrade people who drink green beer on Saint Paddy’s day. But the nod for this month doesn’t go to any post, no it goes to a page.

My Where To Fill Growlers in Delaware page is one of the most clicked on elements of my blog. I receive a constant stream of views on it, and I’m glad that it’s providing useful information to those who live in, or are visiting Delaware.

APRIL

April shows that it’s not just all straight-forward craft beer that people are interested in. My most viewed post that month was my review of Crabbies Ginger Ale that came about when Crabbies’ US rep Jennie Hatton asked me if I’d be interested in reviewing it.

On a personal note, April saw the ushering in of a new Editor. And I’ve been living with that decision all year.

MAY

The Brew Dogs came to my town to film scenes for an episode of their show focusing on Delaware. They traveled the state, brewed a beer on a race track with Dogfish Head, and stopped by in Historic New Castle to film some scenes with Delaware’s 1st Regiment. This was a big deal in Delaware and searches concerning it led to the post being my most viewed in May as well as one of my top viewed posts published in 2014.

JUNE

June was a good month as I actually posted a series (well two posts actually, but that’s probably as close to a series as you’re going to get from me) surrounding how often one of the thousands of beers we try actually becomes one of our regular go-to beers.

But it once again was Philly stealing the show as my posts on The Opening Tap Ceremony and A Day Spent in Philly during Philly Beer Week were by far the most viewed posts of the month.

We also celebrated our third year of blogging, although admittedly I waited until August to write about it.

JULY

I started a new series in July called Tasters, which is simply a collection of photos that I took (either for the blog or not) that I never used. Photos I think are nice enough to share with a little blurb, but not needing a large article on their own.

But this month was ruled by one of my favorite pieces this year, my reporting on the outing of craft beer brewer Pawtucket Pete’s being mostly owned by industry giant Duff Brewing. And it would seem that a lot of people were clamoring for the facts surround this news story as the post made it into my “Top Three” of 2014.

AUGUST

I finally got around to posting about this blog’s birthday, and gave a report on our trip to Salem Massachusetts. But it was here that I was starting to notice the building readership of my Full Moon Posts, as August’s made it to the top of the month’s view count.

SEPTEMBER

September proved that local beers (and big name brewers) still pull a lot of traffic to my blog. Although I wrote a very nice run down of the first Annual Odessa Brewfest, it was my review of DFH’s American Beauty that pulled in the most readers. In fact, it was one of the most read reviews in 2014, behind only my review of The Bruery’s Six Geese a Laying, back in January.

OCTOBER

A quiet month for the Dogs of Beer. As always I took the last two weeks of the month off to focus 100% on the up coming Halloween night. And although I did manage to post a nice interview with 2013 Delaware Homebrew Champion Russell Kalbach just weeks before defending his crown at the 2014 Delaware Wine and Beer Festival, October proved that sometimes an active post is created when you simply write about a topic that many people are interested in.

In my October Full Moon post I wrote about the ‘rare’ occurrence in my area known as Selenelion, the act of being able to see an eclipsing moon setting as the sun is rising. Reports of the event were all over the place, and people were trying to find out as much information as possible.

The post went crazy, becoming my #1 post for single day views (by a lot), #1 viewed post written this year and my #2 post viewed this year from everything I’ve ever written (my Beer in Movies – The Shawshank Redemption still crushes in page views every year. Every time TNT tosses it on for a weekend mini-marathon, boom).

NOVEMBER

My review on Evil Genus’ Trick or Treat topped the view list for November. Not really much else to say about that except I guess I do need to get back to writing more reviews in 2015.

DECEMBER

Not much time for these posts to make a huge impact. In fact, I was pretty light in December. Still I did managed to post some annual Christmasy stuff and thangs, but the second post in my Taster’s series took the month’s title for sure.

And so there you go. Here’s a few more interesting facts –

The five most active people on my blog were: G-Lo (Booze Dancing), Scott (Beerbeque), Oliver (Literature and Libation), Vegan’s Husband and Bryan (This is Why I’m Drunk). Thanks guys! Your readership and comments are much appreciated.

Ninety countries visited my blog – the ones I found most interesting: Myanmar(?), Cote d’Ivoire(The Ivory Coast) and Bangladesh. I hear North Korean has been attempting to read my blog, but apparently they’re having trouble with their internet or something.

And finally, one of my favorite things to look at every year – the funniest search terms used to find this blog:

“saint patricks day star wars”
“fattest woman or men in the world guoness break reorder”
“can a dog be out on the day of eclipse”
“bitches with fishes that i can post on facebook”
“pics of a clown taking a dump” (this was used three times!)

So there you have it – a (not so) brief run down of the year in review. I look forward to 2015, and hope you’ll all come along for the ride.

Cheers!

Ryan Seacrest ain’t got nothing on Buddy!

 

Our Yearly Visit From Saint…OK, This Year it’s Beer Bloggers

This is the third year I’ve adapted the classic poem for my own use, only this year I thought I’d spin the tale in a different direction with a cast of my favorite bloggers. As always, this goes out with much respect and apologies to Clement C Moore.

Twas the night before Christmas, beyond any doubt.
But Buddy wasn’t sleeping with all these bloggers about.

The gang had shown up to spread some Holiday cheer.
Bringing with them loads of food, spirits and beer.

G-LO poured scotch, waving the bottle with glee.
“It just wouldn’t be Christmas, if we don’t kill three of these!”

Jana was there with food so unique.
Along with a good selection of Beers of the Week

“These beers are from Belgium!”, Chris loudly announced.
They were great but had names  I could hardly pronounce.

Scott wandered in, with meat scented of smoke.
Popped open a beer and started telling a joke.

Bryan was breaking down our trends like mathematician Descartes
Showing us what was going on with a bunch of tables and a chart.

Josh and Doug were both busy, Skyping with Liquorstore Bear.
He had no booze in Canada, “God, I wish I was their!”

Oliver was quick to correct, always the editor extraordinaire.
“I think in that last verse, you probably meant ‘there’.”

When out from the driveway, there came such a sound.
We sprang to the window with a leap and a bound.

The scene it was hazy, I thought from from the snow.
Then Jana swiped her palm on the glass, “Dude, clean your windows.”

On the lawn stood a man, his cheeks a rosy glow.
Rocking on his heels and peeing in the snow.

He kept straight to his task, and spoke not a word.
Took a sip from his flask, then flipped us the bird.

We stood there transfixed wondering who this could be
When G-Lo exclaimed suddenly, “Hey, I think that’s Limp-D!”

Sure he was right, I replied with a grin.
“That’s got to be chilly. Should we let the guy in?”

“I really don’t know”, G-Lo said with a smile.
“His bladder’s quite big. He could be out there awhile.”

But soon he was done, and into the house he came.
Greeting each blogger, calling them by name.

G-Lo! Jana! Scott! Oliver and Ed!
Sorry about that, but I couldn’t find the head!

Chris! Josh! Bryan, and Doug!
It’s freezing out there, someone fill me a mug!

From there things got fuzzy, like great times with friends  do.
I remember nothing else, and so this tale is through.

So we say to you all, as we have twice before.
Happy Holidays to all, from our house to yours!

Boston Beer Company’s Old Fezziwig, A Christmas Carol and Christmas Pudding

Holidays. Movies. For me, they go hand in hand. Whether it’s enjoying Mose and Ramses struggling with each other to decide who controls the fate of the Hebrews at Easter, or John Wayne trying to recapture his more peaceful life in Ireland on Saint Patrick’s day, there always seems to be a movie that I’m looking forward to as each Holiday arrives.

And so comes Christmas. OK, I’m not in small company here. When it comes to Christmas, just about everyone has “that movie”, the approximately 2 hours of cinema that just captures your Holiday spirit the way nothing else does.

Someone in one of my Facebook groups posted a question about that very thing today, and the responses ranged from the obvious to the decidedly less so – It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas and on the more slanted side; Bad Santa, Elf or Gremlins (if you don’t remember why, check it out on Netflix).

Here at tDoB, Tracey will have A Christmas Story on for as much of the 24 hour marathon that it runs as she possibly can, probably only catching the move in its entirety once, but enjoying several select scenes multiple times throughout the day.

For me, it’s simply not the holidays unless I’m catching some version of the Charles Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol – whether it be the 1951 adaptation starring Alastar Sim in the role of holiday hum-bug Ebenezer Scrooge, the 1984 version starring George C Scott (admittedly my least favorite) or the TNT produced version starring Patrick Stewart. And yes, Scrooged.

It’s the TNT version that I seek out every year. Patrick Stewart’s performance of Scrooge is one of my favorites, a gripping performance from an actor who in my mind is excellent at portraying the 180 degree emotional swing of a man who is given a glimpse of the future he as forged for himself, and given the enviable opportunity to change.

And of course, I’d be lying (like all the other Holiday movies I mentioned above) if there wasn’t a beer tie-in involved.

The beer in this case is Boston Beer Company’s Old Fezziwig, a beer named for the festive character from Dickens’ novella which used to enjoy full seasonal release status, but now is sadly relegated to a included brew in BBC’s annual Winter Favorites 12-packs and cases.

And I mean sadly. For me, Fezziwig is one of the best seasonal beers BBC makes, and I look forward to procuring my 2 or 4 bottles every Christmas. So much so, that in order to get my yearly fix of this Holiday goodness, the BBC Winter Favorites pack is the only case of beer I buy outside of cases of Guinness for Saint Patrick’s day – ever. Not lying. I rarely buy cases of beer. I just don’t drink that way. Is it worth it? Let’s taste.

THEM: Old Fezziwig is built on a grain bill of two-row pale, Munich 10 and chocolate malts. The beer is balance with Hallertau, Mittelfrueh, Tettnang, and Tettnanger hops with an IBU finishing at low but respectable 25. Orange peel, ginger, and cinnamon are added to give the beer its festive flavor and the beer clocks in at 5.9%ABV.

ME: Standard beer to start, deep mahogany pour with ample head and lace. The nose has a light touch of spice mixed with malt and chocolate. It’s the lightness in the spice that I appreciate the most about OF. This isn’t Anchor’s Our Special Ale, with an onslaught of spices on the palette no, this has a subtleness about it. A light touch of spice that doesn’t drowned out the basic beer.

The taste has a good backbone of malt which comes across as caramel or brown sugar with more spice layered in. I get the orange and ginger when I drink OF, with the cinnamon playing a very small part in the overall profile (which is good, I’m not much of a cinnamon fan).

The end is balanced, but not overly sharp as one would expect with 25IBUs. I know this term is over used, but I find this beer quite…drinkable, with a hint of lingering spice in the finish. I wish Santa would bring this back in stand alone six-packs, or at the very least bombers. I don’t think I’m asking for much. But I guess I’ll just have to continue to buy the Winter Collections every  year.

BBC has a commercial patting itself on the back for the over 60 varieties of beer they brew. And yet they still pad their Winter Favorites cases with Boston Lager. Come on guys!

So there you have it. One of my most looked forward to Holiday beers that perfectly aligns with one of my most looked forward to Holiday movies. But that’s not all.

After years of watching the many incarnations of A Christmas Carol, I one year got curious about the “Christmas Pudding” that takes center stage at the Cratchit family’s Holiday table, and of course, being a little bit of a kitchen troll, I eventually had to make it myself.

Think of traditional Christmas Pudding as a steamed fruit cake. If you only have moderate kitchen skills you can pull this off. The only unusual technique is the use of bain-maries, which you can think of as French for double boiler – because you know, they have a fancy word for everything. But seriously, there’s nothing tough here.

Below is a recipe I found on the internet on Simon Pearson’s Flickr account. It’s pretty consistent with other recipes I’ve researched over the years, and I’ve always had good luck with it. I encourage you to check out the original site with its awesome pictures. But because it’s on Flickr the step-by-step picture “next photo” procedure might be a little cumbersome, so I’ve unified the full recipe and added a few steps below.

Also, the recipe is in metric (if you’re baking or homebrewing, you SHOULD be using metric, but I know many don’t) so I’ve include the equivalent standard measures where needed. I’ve also translated it into what I’d call “Ed Baking Mode”, meaning that on occasion I take shortcuts that I’m sure would make a real baker quiver, but saves you from washing one or two bowls in the process. Enjoy!

Recipe:

1 orange (juice and zest)
3 baby carrots (cut into thin strips and then chopped)
1tbsp mixed spice (Mixed spice is the English cousin to pumpkin pie spice and usually contains cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. You can use PPS in a pinch, or mix your own. And don’t be afraid to add other spices like ginger or cloves if you wish.)
6.2oz (175g) dark muscovado sugar (you can usually find this in specialty food stores. Use dark brown sugar in a pinch)
1.8oz (50g) toasted pecans
5.3oz (150g) chopped dates
5.3oz (150g) chopped prunes
5.3oz (150g) raisins
5.3oz (150g) currants
5.3oz (150g) sultanas (Known here in the US as “Thompson Seedless” which is the grapes that raisins are made from, so they’re kind of redundant in my mind. I’ve substituted chopped dried apricots in the past.)
3 eggs (beaten, or not. See below)
6.2oz (175g) warm butter (easier to work with when warm)
4 slices crustless white bread (crumbed or chopped fine)
2.6oz (75g) blanched almonds, flaked (slivered almonds work)
2.6oz (75g) self-raising flour (you can find self-raising flour in any supermarket)
3.4oz (100ml) Guinness (a four pack of cans works best)
3.4oz (100ml) Grand Marnier
Brandy

Hardware:

some string
foil
two pudding basins (use what you can find that will work. Circular is best, but mine aren’t)
two large pans with lids (to make bain-maries)

Do it:

Set up the bain-maries: Put one of your pudding basins into each of the large pans. Fill the pans with water until the level of the water reaches about 3/4 of the way up the basin. Remove the basins.

Drink two of the cans of Guinness to insure freshness. If the Grand Marnier has been sitting around for awhile or looks suspicious, then have some of that also. How much? Until you’re satisfied that its good, or until you just don’t care anymore.

1 – In a bowl, stir together all the fruit, chopped carrots, OJ, Guinness and Grand Marnier. Let sit for at least one hour. Longer is better. Over night is killer. I substituted CB Honey for the Grand Marnier last year.

2 – In another bowl, combine orange zest, sugar, and butter. Mix until smooth like Barry White. Test the brandy.

3 – Add three eggs into the mix from #2 and mix to combine. You can beat them together in another bowl and add them in after – or decide there’s been enough violence in the world for one year and you’d like one less bowl to clean and add them unbeaten. It’s up to you. Finish drinking leftover Guinness, or if you’re still not sure about its motives, test the brandy again.

4 – Sieve into #3 the flour and mixed spice. Add the bread crumbs and nuts. Stir until they behave.

5 – Add the fruit that is now hopefully feeling as little pain as you are to #4 and mix together.

6 – Split the mixture into two well greased pudding basins. Cover with foil and use the string to tie them securely. If you’re feeling adventurous, try tying it in a away that gives you “handles” to easily place and remove the basins into your bain-maries. Or if you like your fingers steamed, don’t.

7 – Bring the water in the bain-maries to a strong simmer. The water should put off a lot of steam, but it shouldn’t be a rolling boil. Once the water is to temperature, lower one of the filled pudding basins into each bain-maries and cover.

8 – Let the puddings steam for 6 hours, checking the water level in the bain-maries often, and adding more water when needed to keep the level constant. This is a good time to test the brandy. What? I already did? I think you’re mistaken.

9 – Once done, carefully remove the basins. The puddings can be immediately turned out and served, or left to cool in the basins and refrigerated for later.

10 – To serve, turn out onto a platter, pour brandy on top of the pudding (I poke a small dent in the middle of the top of pudding to create a well) and light (my lawyers instruct me that I must tell you to be careful with this step. We are not responsible for tabletops, eyebrows or long-haired pets). Owww and Ahhh until the flame goes out. Slice and serve. If serving hot I suggest serving with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and a snifter of something good, like scotch or  hey, brandy (if there’s any left at this point.)

PHOTO CREDIT: Simon Pearson’s Flickr

Happy Holidays!

Tasters – Another Blogtography Post

I thought it was probably time to do another “Tasters” post. Since my previous (and inaugural) post was back in July, I won’t feel hurt if you don’t remember the premise.

These are photos (beer related or otherwise) that I’ve taken that never got used in the blog (although with a couple of these, “not yet” would be more adequate). Short little blurbs helped out by 500 pixels x 350 pixels of whatever imagery that was running around in my head that my camera happened to capture. Little ideas that never became big posts.

For those who asked last time, I’ll give a reminder: All photos taken with either my HTC phone, or my Canon T3i. Post processing done in either Digital Photo Professional (Canon software, for RAW files), Paint.net (for JPG files) or a combination of both.

So with that….

I’ve always said that Twin Lakes’ Greenville Pale Ale can go with me anywhere. In this case in accompanied me to the Motley Crue/Alice Cooper show at the Susquehanna Bank Center, NJ.

 

Another tailgate photo from the MC/AC show. If you’re going to have a friend who’s only found one Belgian beer he likes, it doesn’t hurt that it’s Brouwerij Van Steenberge Piraat Ale. Apple Dixie cups optional.

 

We were all excited to learn that Pizza By Elizabeths was going to start brewing their own beer. Their honey, basil ale was a decent enough first offering (although Tracey and I though it tasted a bit soapy). They’ve made other beer since, but we haven’t been back, and so far PbE is flying under the radar not having really joined in with the community of other brewers in Delaware.

 

This is from the lunar eclipse back in October. I admit there’s some color correction and a lot of sharpening post process on this one, but it didn’t turn out bad for a snapshot off of a tripod.

 

Tracey and I relaxing at The Cat’s Eye, Fells Point, Baltimore.

 

Sharing pizza and a beer with my son at Argilla Brewing.

Do you suffer from Sicilizymurinstaphobia?

 

What?

The irrational fear of eating pizza with a beer and not taking a picture of it to post on social media.

 

Ha. Ha. Funny. If you must know, wait…what’s that?

What?

 

That picture next to your words.

OH! That’s my avatar. Like it?

 

Avatar? What the hell?

Well we were talking at the last Friday afternoon meeting and we thought it would be beneficial for your readers to really know when it’s me interjecting into your post and an avatar seemed to be the best way to do it.

I told you, we don’t have Friday afternoon meetings.

Sure we do, just because you think you’re to cool to show up to them doesn’t mean they don’t happen!

 

WE DO NOT HAVE FRIDAY MEETINGS!

You can keep saying that, but it doesn’t make it true. Anyway, like I said, we decided that this would help your readers follow our conversations more easily.

Who the hell is WE?

Everyone who was at the Friday meeting. There was me, the three geese, bear, Simba, bunny, a tennis ball..

 

YOU AND YOUR TOYS DO NOT HAVE FRIDAY MEETINGS! AND YOU DO NOT MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT THIS BLOG!

So you say, yet there the avatar is…

 

God, we are so going to have a talk when I get home. In the mean time, can I please continue with the post.

Sure. You go for it.  Bet you have another picture of pizza. It’s like a sickness.

 

Shut up!

The boys from the Roaming Raven food truck take a break from serving food at this year’s Delaware Wine and Beer Festival to have a little fun with me (full post to come).

 

This is a cheat. I took this photo probably 15 years ago at the pier in New Castle, DE and had the a digital copy dupped off of a slide. Lots of color popping here to bring out the rainbow. It’s no longer possible to take this picture as the put up an ugly safety fence around the pier.

 

I drank several Left Coast Voodoo American Stouts over the Halloween season. I recommend it highly. The skull is lit from a light above, I got lucky that it made the eyes glow. The bottle label is lit during exposure with a small hand held light. Green and reds are boosted in post processing to make the shot more vibrant.

And finally…

finally…

Go ahead, I have ALL day…

 

Damn, you…

Pizza and beer at Lancaster Brewing (Full Post to come).

BAH!!!!!! I was right. You have a sickness. A deep, perverted sickness.

 

Shut up couch licker.

We thought Buddy should get a little experience running with The Dogs if he’s going to be editor. So we brought him the Highland Games in Fairhill, MD. As you can see, he found the event very exciting, and very tiring.

I wasn’t tired! I’m trying to shut out the bagpipes from my head!

 

The bagpipes sounded great.

Maybe to you! Try it around 45,000mhz! You know there’s subliminal messaging up in that range telling you to “eat more haggis”.

 

No there is not!

Yes there is. Or in your case it probably says, “eat more pizza. And take a picture.”

 

Sigh, wait until I get home.

 

 

 

 

Product Review: Micca Speck Digital Media Player, Halloween Sounds and Video Where You Need It.

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: This post is part of my NOCTOBER series.  A group of posts I’ll be writing throughout November that are about subjects I would have written about in October if I hadn’t taken several weeks off to focus on Halloween.]

I wanted to write up a quick product review on a media player I’ve been using during Halloween for the past couple of years and I need to give a shout-out to Big Ant over at Eerie Acres Cemetery as it was his video review that first put me on to this nifty little box.

Sound is an essential element of a home haunt.  Like the background music in a movie it’s an important part of setting the overall mood that you’re going for; whether it be scary, eerie, or yes, even whimsical.

The problem is that sometimes getting the sound from where it is to where you need it can be a pain in the ass. Oh sure they sell these neat little things called cords, but those things aren’t always a cure all, in fact sometimes they can be down right frustrating.

Cords seem to be made these days under the assumption that nothing you have that makes sound is any further than 12ft from where you want the sound to go. Stores are full of terribly expensive cords that will move your sound 1, 3, 6 or 12 feet, but if you want to move it 30ft (something I do routinely in my home haunt) get ready to chain lots of cords together and hope that you don’t find yourself having an RCA jack when you need a 3.5mm. Sure you could go out and buy all those cords, or get custom ones made off the internet, but why not put your money into something that makes sound (and video) portability a little easier in Halloween (and non-Halloween) applications. Something with a little versatility?

The Micca Speck fills that bill nicely. This little unit (smaller than a pack of cigarettes) is a complete multimedia player capable of playing movies, music, and photos in a full range of formats; while also supporting folder hierarchies with a fully functioning file browser. The draw back? The Micca has no internal memory itself, but thanks to two slots on the unit’s front, if you can get it on an SD/SDHC card, or a USB host (flash drive, external hard drive, even a phone) you can play it on the Micca Speck.  What type of sound are we talking about? The unit outputs HDMI PCM 2.0, analog stereo and supports MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, APE, AAC formats.

What you get.

That all sounds fancy, but what’s the bottom line? I used a Micca Speck to run my haunt’s thunder and songs, through my Haunt Master’s lightning boxes. With the Specks small size (and lack of any volume control) I was worried that the little box didn’t have the punch I needed.

No worries. The unit sounded great pumped through my 600 watt stereo system and even with my Bose cube speakers just sitting in the front windows the clear, distortion free sound could easily be heard well before you got in front of my house. While this set up didn’t really solve a portability issue I was having, what it did do was free up a laptop that would usually be tasked with this duty and allow me to use it somewhere else.

The unit’s portability could definitely help out in other areas – think running sounds for a cauldron creep, flying crank ghost or some other prop (except for one issue that needs to be addressed. More on that in a minute), conveniently and easier right from the prop location. The unit comes with a 3.5mm AV to R/L/V male RCA cable, so if your prop’s sound system is set up to accept male RCA jacks, you’re golden. Plus, its small size makes it easy to conceal in any prop.

Need video in your haunt? The Speck supports formats up to 1080p and 20-50mbps per second and will play videos in the following formats: MKV, AVI, TS/TP, MP4/M4V, MOV, VOB, PMP, RM/RMVB, MPG, M2TS, and WMV.

I put my second Micca unit (yes, I got two. Usually when I get something like this, fall in love with it, go to get another and find out they don’t make them anymore. Decided not to chance it in this case) to run my window projection effect. I ripped some videos off of a couple AtmosfearFX DVDs I had bought, loaded them onto a thumb drive and hooked the unit up to my projector. This is the second year I’ve run it without so much as a thought. I simply turn on my projector at night, and turn it off when I want.  The Speck unit does all the work.

Here’s some other basic information about the unit:

• The box contains; 1) one Speck Unit, 2) one IR remote control, 3) one 3.5mm AV to R/L/V male RCA cable, 4) one 100-240V AC adapter. The unit has an HDMI output as well, but does not come with an HDMI cable.
• The unit has features like auto play, repeat one/all, shuffle play, language settings, playback settings, and output settings; all of which can be controlled by the system’s menu or by the remote control.

However it’s not all puppy dogs and unicorns with the Speck. After a few years of using mine here are some things to be considered:

• The unit has no battery support, so you have to use the included AC adapter. That’s not a major issue because as home haunters, we’re used to running electricity all over the place.
• The unit is programmable through a system menu. To use the menu you need to hook the Speck into something that will accept the RCA jacks. To program mine, I just plugged them into the side jacks of a small TV I have, programmed the Speck to the settings I wanted, and then moved it where I needed it to be.
• Most of my applications have been set and forget. I program the Speck as to which file type I want to play (audio/video/photo), set it to auto play and repeat all, and forget it. Which I think is the best way to use this unit, because to me, the remote is kind of useless except for simple things like skipping songs or turning shuffle on and off. The bottom line is that programming the Speck is more easily done through the menu.
• The system uses a standard browser/file structure when dealing with media files. Any files in the top director of a device or card (IE not in a folder) will be played automatically if the auto play function is selected. I name my files so that they will be listed and be played in a certain order which seems to work great for my videos, but didn’t for the unit running the music. I didn’t have shuffle accidentally on (the files always played in the same order, just not the one I set up). This isn’t a deal breaker, but I’d like to find out why it’s doing it.
• This one could be tough. When setting up my unit for the music, I of course just needed the audio so I just hooked up the L/R jacks. No dice. I couldn’t get the unit to start until I also plugged the V RCA jack into a female RCA jack. Luckily, the unit was sitting next to my living room TV, so I just plugged it into an unused side jack. This is probably an issue with grounding but can be pretty inconvenient if you just want the unit out in your yard running audio and aren’t lucky enough to have another RCA female around. I’m going to do some playing around this year to see if I can figure out an easy fix, if I find one I’ll pass it on (likewise if anyone else has a fix, feel free to pass it on!)

The Micca Speck menu. You’ll need a TV, computer or something similar to use it.

And that’s pretty much it. The Micca Speck is a pretty nifty, straight forward media player that can be used in multiple applications in your haunt (or any other media activity you need a portability). The unit is still available on Amazon.com for about $37, which might seem pricey if you’re a bare-bones haunter, but I feel it’s better than untangling $37 dollars worth of wires every year.

In fact, I’m thinking of purchasing one more to run the sound for a new animated prop next year. But hopefully, that’s another post.

Class in a Glass – Evil Genius’ Trick or Treat. Horror Movie Evil Geniuses? Not as Many As You Would Think.

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: The post is part of my NOCTOBER series.  A group of posts I’ll be writing throughout November that are about subjects I would have written about in October if I hadn’t taken several weeks off to focus on Halloween. ]

When I first grabbed a bottle of Evil Genius Beer Company’s Trick or Treat, Chocolate Pumpkin Porter; I thought, “SCORE!”  I mean, what better beer to review during the Halloween season than one named Trick or Treat, and what better brewery for that beer to come out of than one named Evil Genius? This was a slam dunk I thought as far a blog post was concerned because after all, evil geniuses are common place in the landscape that is horror movies and saluting some of them during this review seemed appropriate.  That is until I actually started my research for this post – and found out that many of them are simply getting by on their reputations.

When it comes to evil geniuses in the horror world, Doctor Frankenstein  should immediately come to mind, and it is true that in several movies he’s pretty villainous. However in Mary Shelly’s classic novel, the Doctor is actually more of a morally straight forward, momma’s boy who embarks  on a quest to circumvent the laws of nature when his mother dies of scarlet fever. Throughout the novel, Doctor Frankenstein’s motives are generally good, oh yeah there’s that whole “grave robbing thing” but lets be honest, that was so common place back then that I often wonder why they even bothered to bury people in the first place. The story ends up being mostly about the good Doctor’s attempts to destroy his creation, which totally tanks his EG cred.

Then there’s Griffin, AKA The Invisible Man, who’s been played in classic movies by the voices of Claude Rains and Vincent Price. Griffin is a successful scientist in the field of refraction who discovers a way to change the skin’s refractive index to that of air, rendering himself invisible. And although that should certainly qualify you as a genius, the lack of forethought about the consequences of being invisible add serious penalties to his EG score. Like the fact that you’re basically going to be running around naked in Southern England during the winter months, and all that amazing covertness you were trying to obtain from invisibility will go out the window when villagers see a heavily bandaged man (or just a single waist-high sock) walking down the street. In fact, H.G. Wells paints Griffin as a man who clearly can’t grasp the grand scope of the possibilities of his invisibility, to the point where at the end of the story, just as he’s finally beginning to formulate plans for a “reign of terror” against the nation; he’s subdued and killed by local villagers. A man who was invisible. Kill by a bunch of sheep herders. Not genius.

Dr Jekyll and Mister Hyde? Yes!  Now we’re talking.  The internal struggle between good and evil that exists in every man.  But Robert Lewis Stevenson’s tale of caution actually has a subdued context when it comes to evil.  True, Doctor Jekyll found a way to transfer himself into Mister Hyde, allowing Doctor Jekyll to indulge in vices that would be unseemly to a man of his social ranking, but Stevenson never mentions what these vices are although the social morals of the time of the story could indicate that they were things like carousing in seedy taverns and fraternizing with morally questionable women – or what my friends and I used to call ‘Saturday night’. In fact the only crime Hyde commits openly in the book is a murder during one of his last transformations, which is horrible, don’t get me wrong, but not “I want to rule the world” bad. And Genius? Jekyll dispatches himself when he realizes he can not recreate the formula that keeps him from turning into Hyde. Evil geniuses never give up.

No, sadly some of the most iconic figures in classic horror aren’t the evil geniuses I originally thought them to be. And the ones that are present don’t equal any where near the number you find in comics, TV or cartoons – genres of entertainment that the evil genius truly thrives in.

People like Lex Luthor, Doctor Doom, Sideshow Bob, Gru and of course my absolute favorite:

*FACEPALM* NOOoooo. Ok…..maybe a little…but put up the other picture anyway…

Bastard.

So can Evil Genius’ Trick or Treat rekindle my belief and faith in the “Evil Geniuses” of the world? Let’s Taste.

THEM: ToT is built on a grain bill of 2 Row, Crystal malt, Chocolate malt, and Roasted Barley. It features Warrior and Tettnang hops to the tune of 35IBU and is fermented to 7.8% ABV. From the website, “Our Chocolate Pumpkin Porter melds together rich chocolate decadence with fall spices. Notes of cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg collide with a delicious chocolate flavor to create a whirlwind of flavor in your glass“.

ME: Oh Hello! I drank half of this before I even typed one letter of this review.  The nose is bursting with chocolate, a slight touch of malt and memories of sticking my nose into a carton of malted milk balls. After a bit I begin to pick up subtle spices in the mix which puts me in mind of that designer chocolate you can buy now different spices in it. The flavor is more kick ass chocolate with hints of dry cocoa all of which end pretty neutral in the back.  There’s a touch of syrupy sweetness in the end, but it’s not over powering.

The pumpkin aspect of this beer is rather subdued.  I can catch some of the spices in the nose and every now and then I believe I can pick out the pumpkin, but to be honest if you gave this to me blind I probably would have never pulled the pumpkin out – not that this is a bad thing. To be honest I’m glad that the spices and pumpkin weren’t so prominent that they distract from the fact that, at its heart, Trick or Treat is all about being a very good chocolate porter first, and a seasonal pumpkin beer second. At least that’s the way I see it.

Genius? I’ve always maintained that the subtle use of flavors like spices, coffee and bourbon in a beer usually is.

Evil? Absolutely.  In the best way.

Time for another beer….

The Final Sip – If you enjoyed Trick or Treat, make sure you keep an eye out for Evil Genius’ other chocolate porter Purple Monkey Dishwasher, brewed with peanut butter. It’s usually released in March.