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.

Nothing Says Valentine’s Day Like Horn Dog, Doggie Style and In-Heat Wheat

Admit it: you’ve forgotten that this Saturday is Valentine’s Day. Also admit that you’ve totally spaced on a gift and right now you’re freaking out because you didn’t get your significant other jack shit. Especially when you consider that Friday is the 13th (pretty spooky), this is pretty much going to be a crazy weekend.

Back to the aforementioned forgotten gift. As long as there’s a liquor store or bar near you, you’ve got a romantic present of Flying Dog beer. Our beers like Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale, In-Heat Wheat Hefeweizen, and Horn Dog Barley Wine are the perfect beverages for this day of love, if you get our meaning. Or if you got your special someone some chocolate, think about pairing it with Gonzo Imperial Porter.

In some cases, these gifts can help dull the pain of another year in a loveless relationship (no, we don’t condone drinking your sorrows away, please get help). And if you’re one of those poor souls who is going out to a bar to find someone “special for the evening”, please remember to “wrap it up” - we’re not sure that we want any little ones that look half like you crawling around this time next year. Plus having Syphilis is for suckers.

Don’t believe us that Flying Dog works? Well, check out this great spec ad that someone once made about us. And for another awesome Valentine’s Day-themed ad, Lando Calrissian throws it down for us, malt liquor-style.

Haiku up the Wazoo

Fall hops green drying
Barley kernel starts malting
Sit well with belly
     - Brewmeister General Matt Brophy,
       written while brewing a batch of
       Snake Dog IPA last fall

Pairs well with sausage,
dry hopped with fruity aroma:
Snake Dog IPA.

Haiku - one of the most elegant forms of poetry. Short, sweet, and rigid. Gaining popularity in 17th century Japan, Haiku is something that most all schoolchildren have to do as part of their poetry unit in school. Well, I had to, at least. The rigidity of the prose allows for creativity to come in a simple 5 syllable, 7 syllable, 5 syllable format.

Anyone can write a haiku, and right now (as we talked about last time) you can enter the Flying Dog Twitter Haiku Contest to win some free shit. More details, including the rules, are here. Get your entry in by February 18. That’s one week, for those of you playing at home.

Please be creative, because that’s really important to us. To make life even easier for you, we’ve figured out how many syllables some of our favorite beers and Flying Dog terms are, so if you’re lazy, we’ve pretty much given you like 1/3 of your haiku already.

3 Syllables
Flying Dog

4 Syllables
Gonzo Porter
Road Dog Porter
Woody Creek White

5 Syllables
Flying Dog Brewery
Hunter S. Thompson
Snake Dog IPA
Garde Dog Biere De Garde
Horn Dog Barley Wine
Tire Bite Golden Ale
Kerberos Tripel

6 Syllables
Flying Dog Brewery
Old Scratch Amber Lager
Dogtoberfest Marzen

7 Syllables
Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale
Double Dog Double Pale Ale
In-Heat Wheat Hefeweizen
Woody Creek, Colorado
K-9 Cruiser Winter Ale

Help Your Favorite Craft Brewery Win A Contest (a.k.a. Shameless internet Marketing)

WE WANT YOU…to help us achieve worldwide beer domination by voting for Flying Dog. The Full Pint, a blog about beer that we like to read, is having a contest. A contest where you get to vote for your favorite East Coast Craft Brewery. After some groveling, we were able to get Flying Dog Brewery added to this list (why we were left off, we’re not sure, but we’re happy to be on it now). After a few weeks of voting, it’s a “two dog race” between Flying Dog and Dogfish Head breweries. And although we love our craft beer brethren over at DFH, we want to win this shit.

So go to this contest and vote for Flying Dog (and leave a comment on the page too, if you want). The Full Pint deserves to hear from the entire People’s Republic of Flying Dog on this one. We’re not giving out any awards or prizes if you vote, but you will get the satisfaction of being part of an unstoppable mob, powered by the best beer brewed on the East Coast. You get one vote per computer, and you can vote until February 26.

Don’t Waver About Savor

Savor, the beer and food pairing festival in Washington D.C., are now on sale for the general public. You can’t buy these tickets at the door and it’s probably going to sell out. Flying Dog Brewery is really excited to be a part of this unique festival once again (even though the website no longer features a photo of Neal, our Prime Minister of Marketing, on it). We’ve submitted our beers and suggested pairings to the powers-that-be, but that information is still not public yet. Rest assured, we’ll be bringing you some of our best and brightest beers to pair with some great food.

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.

Wee Wee. Haw Haw Haw. Garde Dog is Back!

Wee wee…haw haw haw. Garde Dog Biere De Garde, our Spring seasonal beer, is a French style. But unlike the French themselves, this Biere de Garde won’t surrender on taste. Garde Dog has a lighter body and is subtly sweet but also has a complex yeast character and balanced malt profile. Traditionally brewed in the winter and consumed in the Spring and Summer months, “Biere de Garde” means “beer for keeping,” but you’ll have to pick it up soon because it’s just a seasonal brew.

As you might remember from Garde Dog’s debut last year, the artwork features an awesome drawing of a guard dog. Little known fact: The illustration also has something we ended up taking out - a huge pile of dog crap which was right next to the Garde Dog. We personally loved it, but decided to take the moral high road. Plus, we didn’t want the hassle of probably having to sue various state governments to use the image (much as we did when a certain state took Road Dog off the shelves in the 90s). See the Art Of The Week at the bottom for a visual.

Toast Your Facebook Friends With The New Flying Dog Beer Application

Facebook. It seems like everyone’s using it these days. If you’re not on Facebook, it’s probably time to finally bow to peer pressure and join up.  Especially now that you can send your favorite people beer using the brand new Flying Dog Beer application.

Well, you can’t send a beer digitally yet. I guess it’s something about the beer that comes out on the other end not being as hoppy (or alcoholic) as we intended. But you can show your Flying Dog pride off to your friends by sending them an image of our beer, thus initiating them into the People’s Republic of Flying Dog. Ultimately, this is just another program in place to help us achieve worldwide beer domination. The more beers you send to your friends, the more you’ll be rewarded by unlocking new brews.

You’ll have to be logged into Facebook for these links to work. While you’re there, you should also join our Facebook fan page. Questions? Email us at bullshit@flyingdogales.com.

We’re Sponsoring America’s #1 Eighty-Wheel Sport

Amidst the clutter of all the eighty-wheel sports in the world, one sport comes to mind: Roller Derby. I know that some of you were thinking about the 5-way 16-wheel semi demolition derby that is sometimes on certain sporting channels at 5AM on a Tuesday, but that doesn’t come close to the level of popularity that Roller Derby enjoys these days. Flying Dog Brewery is sponsoring one of the most famous Roller Derby leagues on the planet: Baltimore, Maryland’s own Charm City Roller Girls. We can’t back that up with any evidence, but we can tell you that when you go to the Wikipedia page for Roller Derby, there’s a photo of the Charm City Roller Girls, right at the top (here’s their Wikipedia page). If that kind of internet super-stardom doesn’t mean something these days, does anything really mean anything? We’d like to think not.

The Roller Girls’ next bout is on February 21 at the DuBurns Arena in Baltimore. Flying Dog beer will be on tap. What else do you need? Get your tickets at missiontix.com.

We’re Having a Flying Dog Twitter Haiku Contest - Win $50 Gift Certificates!

17 syllables. 5. 7. 5.

That’s Haiku. And we’re having a Twitter Haiku contest. Here’s how to participate:

1. Write a Flying Dog Haiku. “What’s a Flying Dog Haiku,” you ask? That’s for you to decide and us to judge.
2. Post it on twitter with “@flyingdog” at the beginning. the @flyingdog is not part of your haiku.
3. Do it before Noon on Feb 18, 2009.
4. The top 5 haikus will be chosen by our esteemed panel of Neal Stewart (Prime Minister of Marketing), Josh Mishell (Visual Viceroy),  Jim Caruso (Flying Dog CEO), Stephanie Kerchner (PR and Events Ninja) and maybe a few more people.
5. Yes, it should be creative.
6. Yes, we like to see our name in lights, so including something about Flying Dog earns brownie points with the judges.  Maybe something about Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, Ralph Steadman - you get the point.  Go to our website for some creative motivation.
7. The top 5 Twitter Haikus will receive $50 gift certificate to our online store.
8. Must be 21 to enter and/or win.
9. All entries must be posted to Twitter.com by NOON, Feb 18.
10. The judges decision is final. Believe us, they’re not screwing around.

And yes, this contest was inspired by Beer Haiku Daily.

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