My blog n'at

It was 5 years ago on May 5th that the first episode of Should I Drink That was released. Since then the show has been downloaded over 1.25 million times,  featured in countless print/radio/tv outlets across the country and are recognized as an entertaining and educational resource for craft beer advocacy.

What started as 2 drinking buddies talking into a webcam one night in 2006 has blossomed into a cult following with fans all over the world. We felt a need for a show where you could listen about craft beer without the snobbishness and ask questions that you may shy away from because some self proclaimed beer expert was belittling you.

We do this show out of passion. Craft beer is meant to celebrate innovation, flavors and exploration of your own palate.  You’re supposed to have fun with it and not be some elitist prick looking down on people. We offer suggestions on what you may or may not like but that is the beauty of craft beer, everyone’s taste is different so don’t ever feel ashamed for what you like. Craft beer is made for your enjoyment, not for judgement.

Because of this show we’ve been able to experience craft beers from all over the world that the average drinkers never will. We’ve made very good friends and love every single one of our fans!

I’ve always beat around the bush and avoided answering a lot of questions about the show. Not because I didnt know the answer or was ashamed, just some things I didn’t feel like sharing or wanted to make shit up. So here you go, answers to a lot of the questions we get. If you have any feel free to leave them for me in comments.

1) Where did the show name come from?
The original name was going to be “monkeys with hand grenades” or “operation: shortbus”. We sent emails back and forth trying to figure out which one was best. We picked “Should I Drink That?” because it was the most popular thing we would be asked at bars. We knew each show would be able to answer that question.

2) What is with your names?
We decided right away to not use our real names. Not for privacy but hearing from “Doug and Brad” is kinda boring and craft beer is about having fun. Its entertaining. Brad has always had a sick sense of humor so sickpuppy just fit. Father Spoon comes from the podcast which inspired SIDT called The Real Happy Hour. I’ve been called “spoon” since college so the “father” part came from a forum post over there where I started forgiving people for stupid things they did while drunk but the penance would be a drink. I still have the fake collar I made and took a pic wearing that coined the name. You can thank a man named Kurt Johnson.

3) How long did we expect it to last?
Not more than a couple shows. We got rocked that first show and sickpuppy had to go close on his new house that next morning. I think we had material for 3 shows and figured after 5 that would be it because we would run out of material. Our stats went from a couple downloads from friends to a few hundred. Every anniversary we say “only one more year…”, Obviously we never listened

4) DFH 120 chug. What don’t we know?
a) Dick Hammer is a real paramedic and no that’s not his name. In fact he didn’t have one until I blurted it out b) The “10 minutes later” was filmed on my shitty digital camera and was 100% real. It really messed with my head. c) That was  filmed on Good Friday and I had fasted the entire day (I’m catholic).  We shot it at night. d) I had threats against me because of it e) Dogfish Head emailed us about it. Sam and his crew said they loved it and invited us to the brewery. Suck it haters! f) There were 18 pages in the ratebeer.com forums wishing I would die or was dead. we have a pdf of it somewhere g) the video has been viewed over 50,000 times. h) One guy on you tube hated me so much because of it he made a series of videos mocking me. Apparently I really pissed him off.

5) Random facts

• Over 1.25 million downloads. Number of those that are my wife – 0.
• I’ve lived in 3 different places in that time. “Studio B” was a running joke with us. We’ve only recorded there once and it was a garage.
• Studio B is in fact being built, thats no shit. I’m trying to figure out the power I need right now.
• I can’t drink most stouts without getting sick.
• Since the start of the show I’ve lost my dad, gained 2 sons, bought a house, won a car and got my first gray hair.
• Because of the show I learned the skills for my current profession
• I wouldn’t be where I’m at professionally and in a new career if it wasn’t for the show.

(click here for the whole gallery)

Ahhhh the Steel City Big Pour. I’ve been to the previous 3 and once again it lives up to expectations. This year we took a different approach and had a booth at the front door. Wow what an experience! For the Big Tap In we were at the entrance of Brewers Alley which was perfect but this was the main entrance of the event. The downside to being at the front though was that we weren’t in the main room with the brewers. Turned out that was a good thing.

The crowd in the main room with the brewers, art and music was very loud so for recording purposes it would have never worked. We also poured some firkin beers from Erie Brewing which would turn out to be another great decision. While people were waiting in line our banner was the first thing they saw. The beer would then bring them in and we’d pitch the show. The thing to keep in mind for beer fests is that the first session is usually beer geeks and the second is more of your party crowd. You still get beer geeks but they’re in the minority. We also had a great visit from Mr. Baconpants and Justin Kelly who organizes a monthly meetup for craft beer fans at OTB Bicycle Cafe.

First session was non stop busy and we had zero time to record but the bonus was that I finally got to meet Thirsty Girl. What a kickass blogger and if you haven’t been reading her site you should check it out. Also going on while we were selling the show, meeting fans and pouring beers social media was in overdrive as Chris from Bocktown had the first ever Twitterfall that I have seen at a fest. The official tag for the event was #bigpour4, Foursquare was buzzing with checkins and the Beerby guys were having a great day with people downloading their app. At our booth we had deals where if you joined our facebook fan page you could win $30 The Pear Cares dollars, $20 Bocktown gift card and 2 VIP passes to Podcamp Pittsburgh 5 ($50 value). We had at least 10-15 people sign up at the booth plus Twitter was smokin with event exclusive SIDT giveaways and all calls to the drunk dial hotline could get you a free shirt and pint glass from Main Street Brewing.

During the 2hr break of the 2 sessions we were slammed with interviews of brewers who came to us. This turned into a round table discussion that turned epic and you can hear when we release the show in the next week.

2nd session started and was just as crazy as the first for traffic. I met more fans, Pittsburgh’s newest badass, and a fan from Houston, TX who said that he loved the show and his friends would die for a pic with me. Apparently the DFH120 Chug is a favorite of beer lovers in Houston so I was humbled that’s for sure. If he posts a pic to the SIDT wall I’ll share it.

The night ended around 9pm for us and after 12 hours of being on our feet I was ready for my bed. Ironically as soon as I started my car the rain came down hard. With all of the equipment that we carried that could have been a huge mess but that didnt happen.

Thanks to all who stopped over to see us (Always a blast chatting up Lindsay and Andrea too!) and some of you I don’t have websites for or I’d link ya. It was a rewarding night and also my last one. You can read more about that tomorrow…

(click me and i’ll get bigger)

I check out our stats religiously to see if there are any spikes in traffic. Once the whole buying a house/moving process started I got a little very lazy on keeping up. I was checking out a few things yesterday when I saw another spike so I had to start investigating and thats when our good friend Adri broke the new to the world – Should I Drink That was listed under the ‘What’s Hot” section of iTunes in the Food category!

I don’t even know what to say about this one. Amazed is probably a good one. SIDT is in the process of re-inventing how to cover beer festivals and live events so to get news of this honor gives me the extra boost to keep on going when I could just say screw it, I’m done, i have more important things to do. If any of my readers are fans of the show I want to thank you for downloading it and supporting us. If it wasn’t for you we would have stopped after 10 shows. We do love all of you, even if you’re from Philly

cheers!

4 years ago today sickpuppy and I launched SIDT. We figured that it would last 10 shows and maybe a couple hundred downloads from friends. This evening we’re releasing EP63 and are pushing 700,000 downloads.

I thought about doing a “state of SIDT” address for today but realized that required a lot of work and I have beer to drink. I know we say this every year but we’ve kept our promise, wait till you see what we’re gonna do next. 2010-11 has already shaped up to be unreal and we will be doing more with our social media sites getting you guys even more involved.  iphone/droid apps are in the works, more with the DD hotline and goodies I havent even told sickpup about.

I will say this, our 5th anniversary is going to be a freaking bash

Thanks everyone for the support and don’t forget to call…

cheers!

You’re seeing that correctly. In what could be labeled as our worst kept secret ever, we grace the pages of the March 2010 issue of Pittsburgh Magazine. I was flattered when I first learned that Jonathan Wander wanted to talk to me about the show and since it was around Podcamp Pittsburgh time I figured he was a curious fan. That’s when I found out about his intentions to write the article which left me stunned. We’re talkin USA scores with 26 seconds left in regulation of gold medal game Canadian stunned. I’ve done many interviews with beer trade magazines but never with anyone outside that realm and I honestly didn’t know how their readers would take to us.  We do carry an explicit tag but also we’re genuine on there and not some corporate bullshit. People tell me they dig that so that has to put some odds in our favor. This past January Jonathan and I talked over the phone for a solid 2 hours about the show, my life, growing up in Erie and followed it with a photo shoot at Bocktown on a Sunday afternoon. The rest was up to his creative hands.

The article is incredible and I admit, when I first saw it in print at Giant Eagle, I blushed.  Oh hell I was glowing. Only a few select people know how much work I really put into this show behind the scenes and to see it on a stage like Pittsburgh Magazine just blows my mind, even more than when we appeared in national publication DRAFT. In a way it seems like the show was validated. When you hit local there’s something even more meaningful about it. Now if someone back in my hometown of Erie calls, oh lord I’ll never shut up.

The magazine will be seen by over 250,000 readers in 10 counties (Erie included). If you can’t find it at your local Giant Eagle, Borders or Barnes & Noble you can read the online version here

Thankfully with the show I have been able to develop skills that I never thought twice about and it turned into getting my butt employed. Should I Drink That has treated me well and with the plans that I have in mind for this year, should make the experience even more amazing.

Creatively I know where I want this to go and how the whole process should flow. Does it happen that way? Hell no. In fact getting an episode of SIDT together is a huge pain in the ass but one I like to have. When we started it was “lets go to the store and see what we can buy” and now there is a dry erase board that I plan out the next few shows on. Multicolored markers too cause I’m spiffy like that. I think once Studio B is purchased and wired I’ll have a better understanding of what it is I want but until then we’re going with what’s worked.

I want to thank everyone who has supported the show.  When I was starting college I wanted to get into radio and that dream was quickly shot down by my fam. Then again they also said I would never make a living in computers and look how that turned out  Without you, my kickass friends, I would never have moved forward with long lost dream and this thing would have been over with years ago.

Thanks everyone!

cheers!

Hey yinz! It’s time for the 2009 Podcast Awards and this year we’re pushing the Pittsburgh party. The city is already home to the Super Bowl and Stanley Cup champs so its time to add to the trophy case!

This year, along with SIDT, we ask that you nominate friends of ours who produce top notch shows out of Pittsburgh. It’s easy and only takes like 1 minute. No lies. 1 minute.

Go to http://www.podcastawards.com/ (or click that nifty Podcast Awards banner above) and enter the following

Entertainment:
Podcast Name: Wrestling Mayhem Show
Podcast URL: http://sorgatronmedia.com/wrestlingmayhemshow/

Food & Drink
Podcast Name: Should I Drink That
Podcast URL: http://www.shouldidrinkthat.com/

GLBT
Podcast Name: The G Spod
Podcast URL: http://www.thegspod.com/

That’s it. Fill in whomever else you want or leave the other blank.
Nomination Period closes @ 2359 October, 18th

You get 1 nomination per email address.

Pass along to your friends and spread the love!

cheers!

The long awaited review of the beer fest weekend from July 25-27th is here. This is your belated Humpday Happiness as next week we will be going back to beer reviews.

The Meter Maid
Sickpuppy and I arrived in Erie on Friday afternoon so we could pick up the prizes for our contest winner which included a 1 night stay at the Avalon. The meter I pulled up to had 9 minutes left and we were 1/2 a block away from the hotel. We hurry in check reservations and then run back. The meter maid was in the process of writing me a ticket when I ran up. Told her that we just came in from Pittsburgh, spots in front of the hotel were full and I just had to check reservations. She said “put a quarter in NOW!” She rips up the ticket and with a sneer she says “I’ve had a bitch of a freaking day and want to go home”.  She walked away.

Walk down Memory Lane
Friday night we went to the BrewErie for dinner and a few drinks while reconnecting with our friends there. It’s not everyday that I absolutely rave about food but goddamn you need to see this

That would be the special from the BrewErie. Along with that, and many fine beers was the legendary Beergarita and fresh from the test labs was the Bloody Weizen (1/2 bloody mary, 1/2 wiezen and rimmed with Old Bay).

Sickpuppy has never been to Erie with me before so being the host I thought it only fitting that I take him on a quick tour of some of my old stomping grounds. First stop was The Shaggy Dog (which is now The Dog) where it all began for me in the mid 90′s. I had my first craft beer there. I hustled pool from frat boys there. I made great friends and I still think back fondly. I also haven’t been back since my going away party in 98. The Dog was a walk back in time as very little has changed there. The hole in the ceiling I put is still in the back, the pool tables look the same and the bar is just as I remembered it.

We talked to the bartenders and instantly hit it off. They ran down the history of the place, since I had left, and it seemed like the bar was a goner until current owner Kenny bought it over a year ago. I have to give props to the staff for being top notch to us and treating us to an entertaining evening. If you go there look for Dill, Bryan and Tomy. Tell them SIDT sent ya   The plans they have for remodeling the bar are similar to what we discussed 10 years ago but I think this group may be able to make it happen. Oh I will be back!

We ate a fat chick and LOVED it!
On our way back to crash for the night I decided there was one more place to stop at to finalize our tour. Jimmy Z’s Time Out Tavern in Wesleyville. My brother and I hold this place near and dear because it’s the only bar open on Thanksgiving and close to our mom’s. Every time we’re both in town for the holiday we HAVE to stop. Drinks are cheap, food is good and the crowd is filled with the same regulars every night (well when we’ve gone) in the same seats.

Sickpuppy was diggin this place as a capper so we had to do the soon to be traditional famous SIDT Flaming Dr. Pepper which you can see on video here from a bar in Pittsburgh. We chat up the bartender for a bit and decide that we need a shirt. We tell him why we’re in town and want something unique to take back.  That’s when we bought this shirt.

Now the kitchen was closed so we couldn’t order one but come on, that’s pretty damn funny.

We left and went to crash and go over notes for the next day which you will read next…

For the full gallery of the weekend click here.