My blog n'at

One thing that I’m bad at is remembering the year. I kept thinking it was 2010 for some reason and have no idea why 2012 doesn’t seem far fetched. Maybe I have a thing against years with odd numbers? This past year was eventful personally but when it came to blogging it was kinda meh. Either way here’s a quick recap so my kids don’t have to sift through archives.

January 2011
Year started off great with the Winter Classic (even though Pens lost) and spending the first 2 weeks home with my new baby. I also decided that I would attempt to go a full year without drinking a Bud/Miller/Coors product. Not to be some elite prick but to see for myself how tough it would be. With the amount of picnics we attended and moments of weakness for going cheap I’m proud to say I’ve made it a full year and some days.

February 2011
Kept the busy pace with a quick trip to Baltimore to pick up the first of what would be many awards for a website I made. Even thought it was winter I was falling in love with the city. I will be going back soon. I also hit my mid 30′s while only suffering a minor “oh shit, I’m getting old” moment and Teaspoon got his first haircut while hitting the terrible 2.

March 2011
2 things happened, we got sick and I ate a lot of fish.

April 2011
My mom wanted to know why I didn’t invent Facebook, the internet or cure cancer. I had some views on the sale of Iron City which turned out to piss off a bunch of yinzers and Pittsburgh purists. Eh, it happens.

May 2011
Should I Drink That turned 5 years old on the 5th and we had a whirlwind bash in Boardman, Ohio as we took over the Big Tap In after party. We cracked open a 101 oz bottle of Double Arrogant Bastard that we have been sitting on for 4-5 years. It came with a padlock. Nuff said. I figured out how you can take a trip with Megabus to Erie (or Pittsburgh from there) and have a very low cost time. I celebrated national Craft Beer Week and if you haven’t heard me talk about it yet, am on the planning group for Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week coming in 2012. This month also was record breaking numbers as we raised money for March of Dimes which helps preemies such as my boys.

June 2011
After many years of hard work I graduated cum laude from college. It was incredibly stressful when I threw work and the family into the mix but the support was fantastic! I’ll probably have my student loan bills paid off when Teaspoon is starting school.

This Saturday I’m doing something completely new and it may surprise you to find out.  I’m brewing my first batch of beer!

A couple months ago I decided that I needed to find a hobby that would be something I could do at home and be relatively inexpensive. Free time to leave the house is hard to come by these days and if I could do it while the kids were sleeping (wait, that sounds shady) that would be perfect. Enter… homebrewing.

A few things have played into why I haven’t brewed before; from the lack of space and time to the kids. Arriving as a housewarming gift, my partner in craft beer adventures, sickpuppy, bought me a starter kit from Northern Brewer. Next my good friend Phil said “You can’t just do it to do it, you’ll know when it feels right.” and he’s absolutely correct. I have that passion to learn now and both of those guys are fantastic brewers.

This Saturday also happens to be national “Learn to Homebrew Day“. Honestly I didn’t even know such a beast existed until sickpuppy told me about it. Since I’ve never done it before I haven’t really paid much attention to homebrewing news.  I checked around the Pittsburgh area but didn’t see anything scheduled (really shocked at this) but I did find out that the guys at Erie Brewing will host an event on Saturday from 9am-5pm at their brewery. For more information you can contact them at info@eriebrewingco.com or (814)459-7741.

So what will I be brewing? I picked up the Innkeeper kit and will be adding in some additional hops. The thing that is attracting me most to home brewing is that, like cooking, you can make any recipe your own plus I can can focus on making what I consider the perfect beer. This batch should be ready by Thanksgiving so I’ll have a treat to look forward to and maybe some gifts for family to try out. A name has been chosen (which is why we’re using additional hops) and I can’t wait to work on a label. You’ll find out soon enough what it will be called.

If you’re in Pittsburgh and maybe this weekend is too soon (or not) to get started here are some local resources that you can use.

Supply stores – This is where you can pick up your starter brewing kits and then the packaged ingredients to get started

• South Hills Brewing Supply (South Hills)
• Country Wines (North Hills)
• Porter House Brew Shop (North of Cranberry)

Homebrewing clubs – Groups of friendly people making great beer and always willing to help out the newbies. Everyone has an acronym too.

• Three Rivers Underground Brewers or T.R.U.B.
• Three Rivers Alliance of Serious Homebrewers (T.R.A.S.H.)

Last Friday night I resumed my traditional perch among the podcampers by providing the beverages for the Podcamp Pittsburgh Meet-n-Greet icebreaker. Not to break from tradition I also brought with me 9 cases of the finest Erie Brewing Company offerings with Presque Isle Pils, Derailed Black Cherry Ale, Misery Bay IPA, Railbender, Heritage Alt and Fallenbock.

Estimated crowd of 200 at Alpha Lab had all of the beer kicked in 75 minutes. Yeah, didn’t expect THAT to happen but thankfully there was wine that I was also pouring for people. A delicious point was proven though, women love good craft beer.

I had the assistance of Scottsweep and Mrs. Crappy since sickpuppy was under the weather.

Again it was another successful night for Should I Drink That and there are plenty of pictures to show for it.

Unfortunately for me this would be the most Podcamp action I would see. Due to work schedules I was on kid detail for most of Saturday but did make it down for 1 session and then to the afterparty.

In a soon to be new tradition for Podcamp I joined uncapd from Bocktown and tailgated in the Station Square parking lot before the afterparty. Yes, we tailgated an afterparty. She brought 4 growlers with her which shouldn’t be a shock since people in craft beer always come prepared. We feasted on Southern Tier Pumking, Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat, Woodchuck Fall and Atwater Vanilla Java Porter. All equally as good but the Pumking is my new favorite pumpkin beer.

The entertainment was plentiful as the REO Speedwagon crowd, groups for a wedding reception and a shit-ton of strung out college aged kids for a rave wandered around in brought clothes and white t-shirts. Unfortunately these 2 didnt make it to the party.

After party was at Bar Louie in Station Square and once again they lived up to their level of sub par service. Finally getting served we made our way to the back and did the podcamp traditional 649.

The shot this year – Cruzan Black Cherry rum, SoCo and Absolut Raz.  basically it was cough syrup.

The service was bad but the friends and view were amazing. Overall it was a good night. Sucked that I had a very minimal role since the 1st Podcamp happened but that’s a role a lot of us dad’s have to take these days.

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.

I’ve been a known advocate for craft beer for at least the last 5 years because of Should I Drink That but like every fan I have a weakness. Sometimes you just want to tie one on with something cheap that reminds you of simpler times like college or go back to your roots so you remember where you came from. I don’t care what the snobs say, everyone has one and for me that beer is Beast Ice.

I should say “was” me.

I owe it to my readers and myself to stay on course so with that I’m going to try and not drink one macro all year. Why may this seem difficult? We go to a lot of wedding receptions, sporting events, tailgates, private clubs and picnics where that is the only fermented beverage of choice. If I’m at one of your functions and I drink a coke don’t be insulted. Its not you its me

Baby O’s arrival has changed everything. Previously with Teaspoon I was able to put him to bed on a Saturday night around 8 and by the time Lushie was sleeping I could either go out or pick up a cheap case to get ripped while in chat or playing Xbox. Now my time to consume is very limited and won’t be wasted on fizzy yellow stuff.

It comes down to appreciation. My free time is very limited and valuable so I owe it to myself and to my palate to savor these moments. I’m not going to stop writing reviews but may scale down to only doing some choice events. Its mainly the in between time that has changed. I’m not going out making $400 beer runs anymore (or at east that I’m telling lushie about) but I will make a stop on the way home to pick up a beer for after the kids are in bed.

I’m working on finishing up the basement so I have room to start brewing/bottling plus add storage area for the beers I want to cellar. All of these things are to help progress my appreciation for craft beer and its culture. There are so many different aspects that I need and want to learn.

When June comes around and I get my degree I’ll be curious how I’m doing but it comes back to my theme for this year. A year of focus.

(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!

(click here to see the entire gallery on Flickr)

What an incredible evening! Tuesday night a lot of the work I’ve done on SIDT paid off when I was invited backstage to hang out with Zane Lamprey (and a few beverages) before his Drinking Made Easy show started at Mr. Smalls Theater. I was contacted a couple weeks ago by Zane’s PR people asking if we would be interested in talking with Zane. They knew of the podcast and thought we would be a great fit. Were we ever!

As we walked up to the door we were greeted at the door by Steve McKenna who was already downing some beers. Incredibly nice guy but that may have had to do with the fact I was carrying a box of  presents.

• 1 growler of East End Monkey Girl
• 1 growler of Erie Derailed
• 1/2 gallon of Rebel Yell whiskey
• 750ml Brookside whiskey
• bag of misc. swag from Bocktown whom also provided the growlers
• 1 Gray Kangaroo personal alcohol filter
• 6 pack of SIDT hangover preventer – a.k.a. Pedialyte

The “green room” I think it’s the old sacristy which is where we chatted up Marc Ryan. That’s right, Mr. Smalls is in an old church. Pittsburgh likes to convert old churches into venues for mass consumption of alcohol.

The interview with Zane turned out amazing and will be posted shortly. He was very welcoming and we really appreciate that he took time to hang with us 10 minutes before he went on stage. The man was in the zone. If his name sounds familiar, Zane was the host of a show called Three Sheets which aired on MOJO, FLN and, as he announced at the concert, Travel Channel will be airing all episodes. Zane said he’d be in touch again to give us an update on everything.

This was my first time seeing a comedy act on stage since I won my Comedy Central private party with Lewis Black so I forgot what it was like until that front row was blasted by the acts. LOVED it! People, when are you going to learn not to heckle the talent. You’re gonna get burned.

The tour is called Drinking Made Easy which is also the name of his show on HDNet this fall. In fact as he tours around America he is recording episodes. Unfortunately Pittsburgh got snubbed but we do hope he returns soon.

Zane gives you an education on the basics of alcohol which you may not know. From a craft beer angle I have to say he covered us rather well and showed what goes into beer and how its made. Afterwards we hung out with some SIDT fans which I do have video of and will get on You Tube shortly. It goes along with the EP we recorded for so you’ll need to sit tight for this week.

I’m not a fan of books and in fact I hate reading but after picking up Zane’s book “Three Sheets: Drinking Made Easy! 6 Continents, 15 Countries, 190 Drinks, And 1 Mean Hangover!“ I finally found something I can get into and not get bored outta my skull. Once I finish the book I’ll write a review.

Its been almost a week and I’m still geeking over it. It’s good to be the SIDT.

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!

The Beer Wench and I sat down for a chit chat over email about my beer blogging, Should I Drink That, my own personal beer history from the first one I ever drank at age 16 (and still have the bottle) to why I does what I does now n’at. You’ll find out more about me that I haven’t said in interviews before and you can also check out the other fantastic beer bloggers she’s talked to.

Read the interview here!

Raise a pint and leave a comment here or there or everywhere

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!