The People’s Republic of Flying Dog is now in session. It’s happy hour at Flying Dog Brewery, so here is your latest dose of irreverence.

GABF Beer Dinner @ Brauns Bar & Grill in Denver, September 26

Last year during GABF we had a beer dinner at Brauns Bar & Grill in Denver. It was so awesome that we’ve decided to host another beer dinner there this time around. We’re offering you a five course meal with Flying Dog beer pairings for only $35.95, which is a tremendous steal during these cash-strapped times.

GABF Beer Dinner at Brauns Bar & Grill
Saturday, September 26th at 6:30PM
Brauns Bar & Grill
1055 Auraria Parkway
Denver, Colorado 80204

Take a look at the event page for more information, including the menu with Flying Dog beer pairings. Or, buy your ticket online right now. Seating is limited, so don’t delay - you may miss out.

Let’s Party At FBAG (Not To Be Confused With D-Bag)

FBAG, our 2nd annual (and free) party during GABF, is going to be bad ass! Short for “Flying Dog, Brats & Gonzo”, FBAG attracted over 750 thirsty Flying Dog enthusiasts last year, and we’re expecting more of the same this time ’round.

We’ll be pouring our very special 20th Anniversary beer, so come be some of the first people to ever try this unique beer. Intrigued? Find out more at FBAG.

We’ll also be cooking our world-famous Gonzo Bratwurst for you, and live music will once again be provided by Denver’s own Rob Drabkin Band.

Check out HD video from last year if you have any doubts about showing up this year.

FBAG - Flying Dog, Brats & Gonzo
Friday, September 25th, 2009
3-6 PM
Flying Dog Brewery’s Denver Office
2401 Blake Street (enter on S. Side of building)
Denver, Colorado 80205

Just In Case GABF Wasn’t Enough Beer For You, We’re Doing Events During Denver Beer Fest

Denver is the latest city to jump on the “Beer Week” bandwagon, with Denver Beer Fest. The 9-day Beer Fest kicks off this weekend, and runs all the way through the Great American Beer Festival. Flying Dog Brewery is excited to take part in the festivities, with some great events coming up over the next couple weeks.

September 20, 2009: Broncos Kick Off Party @ The Paramount Cafe

September 22, 2009: Battle Of the Brews @ The Paramount Cafe (Meet our QC & Sensory Goddess Gwen Conley)

September 23, 2009: Meet The Brewer @ Falling Rock Tap House

GonzoFest: So That Happened

GonzoFest rocked everyone’s socks off. We had a sold-out crowd of 3,000 people flock to our Frederick, Maryland brewery last Saturday to party with Flying Dog Brewery. We sampled all our beers, had tons of great live music and held an epic Hunter S. Thompson lookalike contest.

There’s so much that needs to be talked about; we’ll be posting some photos and video to flyingdognews.com in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for what went down. Long story short, people had a great time and we were super stoked that so many great fans of Flying Dog came to party with us, Gonzo style.

In the meantime, check out a very Hunter S. Thompson-esque blog entry about GonzoFest at dcbeer.com: Beer and Loathing (and chili nachos) at Gonzofest

Cheers! Until next time,
-Josh

Twitter Taste Live on April 18: Drink Beer With Flying Dog Brewery. And Also Not Have Any Pants On.

Pants. They’re sooooo overrated. The problem with no pants, however, is that you generally are getting kicked out of your favorite places when you choose not to wear them (I’m somewhat of an authority, as I wear shorts every day of the year). Places like the zoo, bars, and church have a strict “pro-pants policy”. We can’t do much about church and the zoo, but if you’re all about drinking beer in your skivvies, we can help with that.

On Saturday, April 18th, we’ll be participating in Twitter Taste Live: Flying Dog Edition. Check out the #TTL website for more about what this means, but in a nutshell, if you partake, you’ll be drinking Flying Dog beer along with a shit-ton of other beer-drinking folks in an online forum. We’ll all be sampling our Canis Major series of beers.

To participate, follow these easy steps:

1. Go out right now and buy our Canis Major brews (not to be confused with our April Fool’s Joke, the Canis Minor Series).
2. Get yourself a Twitter account. It’s free, it’s easy (while you’re at it, follow @flyingdog). If you already have one, skip this step and instead drink a Gonzo Imperial Porter.
3. On the 18th, go to this website from 8-10 EST and login with your twitter credentials.
4. Join the conversation about our beers. You’ll get to interact with consumers from all over the world, and you never know, you might meet some new drinking buddies-which is good, the old ones *were* starting to get on your nerves, right?

Get To Know Gonzo #3: Gonzo Books Keep On Coming

Hunter’s been gone for a few years, but the books about him keep coming out. Last month saw the release of a new one by Jay Cowan, called Hunter S. Thompson: An Insider’s View of Deranged, Depraved, Drugged Out Brilliance. I haven’t read this, but did see it displayed prominently at one of the best independent bookstores in the world, Denver’s Tattered Cover. Maybe we should have a book club. Read a review here.

We’ll be bringing you something Gonzo-themed from the world each time the newsletter comes out. Have a link to send us? Email it to joshm [at] flyingdogales [dot] com.

It May Be Snowing At Gonzo Ground Zero, But Woody Creek White Is Popping Up Around The Country

A spring storm is going to hit the Colorado Rockies this week. Paired with some decent snow from last weekend, it might not exactly be summery up in Woody Creek, Colorado (the birthplace of Flying Dog Brewery). All the same, since consumers love our Summer Seasonal so much, we’re bringing Woody Creek White to you a little earlier than you’d normally expect. Baseball’s season just started, plus it’s going to be in the 80s in Austin, Texas; that’s summery enough for us. Woody Creek White is making its third appearance to retailer shelves near you. If you don’t see it on shelves yet, ask them the following: Give me a Woody!

If you’re in Denver for the Rockies home opener on Friday, come by the Blake Street Tavern afterward to have your favorite Belgian Wit, Woody Creek White! Out in Maryland? Then swing by Firestone’s in Frederick.

Did You Get Your Tickets For Savor?

Well, we hope that you did get tickets for Savor, because we heard yesterday that they sold out. If you didn’t get tickets for the premier craft beer and food pairing event of the year, we’ve got a saying for you: Tough Tittie. Either that, or scour the D.C. Craigslist Ticket section for more.

Here’s what we’re bringing to the party:
Woody Creek White, paired with Chicken Breast a la Blanche de Chambly
Gonzo Imperial Porter, paired with Espresso Sambuca Parfaits

Here’s a list of all the beer and food pairings at Savor.

Cheers! Until next time,
-Josh

The People’s Republic of Flying Dog is now in session. It’s happy hour at Flying Dog Brewery, so here is your latest dose of irreverence. 

The Pilgrims Drank Beer, Keep Up The TraditionThanksgiving - to some, a day to be thankful for all that we have. To others, it’s an excuse to watch football, get drunk and say all the horrible things you’ve wanted to say to your family for the last year. Lucky for you, once you’ve unloaded your alcohol-fueled diatribe, there are always the present-giving holidays of December to make up for what you probably shouldn’t have said in the first place.

So it might not go perfectly with the “fam-damily,” but we want you to be as prepared as possible, in terms of your beverage consumption. We feel that Kerberos Tripel goes splendidly with your Turkey-day meal. Don’t believe us? Check out this video of Matt, our VP of Brewing Operations, talking about Kerberos. And read a blog entry at beerdinners.com about pairing Kerberos with a Thanksgiving sandwich.

Plus, if you have to watch the Lions play, a strong beer will help make the pain go away.

So the Pilgrims probably didn’t drink beer at the first Thanksgiving, mainly because they were concerned about having enough food to survive. If they had the resources, they definitely would have had beer, though. Want to read more about it? Check out beerinfood.com’s (exhaustive) coverage.
Video: GABF Notable Drunk #2 - Zane Lamprey What makes someone a notable drunk in our eyes? Well, if you’re Zane Lamprey, it’s because you get paid to fly to exotic locales, meet new and interesting people from different cultures, and ultimately get drunk with those people. Zane, the host of Three Sheets (a TV show about getting drunk), was gracious enough to grant us an interview while we were at the Great American Beer Festival. He was every bit as nice as you’d imagine from watching him on the television, but we caught him early, so he wasn’t drunk yet. But Zane’s reputation precedes him.

Watch installment #2 of our Notable Drunks series.

Win An Awesome Beer Label BagKat runs our labeler. She also makes stuff - like this cool little bag, completely made out of things she found here at the brewery, including the labels that go on our bottles. Want to win one of these cool little bags? It will make for a splendid holiday gift for that special lady in your life. If that person is a man, it would be an awesome “European Men’s Carry-All”. For more info, check out our blog entry over at flyingdognews.com; it’s simple to enter. Contest ends at high noon EST on 11/30/08.

While you’re there, poke around to see what else we’re doing on the blog, including our ongoing list of Gonzo Gift Ideas for the Holiday season, and other great things we’re posting daily.

Our Twitter Page Gets You A Daily Fix Of What’s Happening At Flying DogThis newsletter only comes out twice a month. If you’re not getting your Flying Dog itch scratched enough, we have a variety of online options for you to hear from us on a more frequent basis. Our favorite these days is the Flying Dog twitter page.

What is this twitter, you say? Well, it’s a place where you can write about whatever you want, but the catch is that you only write 140 characters (the length of a text message). We update lots of times each day about new goings-on at the brewery, contests, and links to people writing about our beer.

It’s free to set up an account, and then you can follow us. Then, on your twitter.com home page, you can see every time we update. And if you respond to a message with @FlyingDog in the tweet, we’ll be sure to see your message. Come converse with us at twitter! You can also just check in on our page every day to see updates, but we really love twitter and love conversating with our loyal Republic of Flying Dog.
What People Are Saying About UsThe links below are mostly
unsolicited outside opinions about our beer and our company from the
media and internet. Read what people are saying about us:

Home Brew Beer stops by the Flying Dog tasting room

Awesome Flying Dog desktop background

Flying Dog makes this list of Wine of the Month (yes, wine)

Gary Busey discusses Hunter S. Thompson

Great 10 minute Dogtoberfest videocast from BeerAmericaTV

Beeradvocate.com - Discussion about our Canis Major mixed 8-pack