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Holiday Beer Pairings (Or, How Our Holiday Card is Actually Useful This Year)It’s December 17, and that means that the gift-giving holidays are just around the corner. First of all, we at Flying Dog Brewery would like to extend to you a special holiday greeting, in the way that only Flying Dog could do it. Check out our Holiday Card over at flyingdognews.com - our Visual Viceroy, Josh, would like to sincerely apologize to our friend (and artistic cohort) Ralph Steadman for bastardizing his art for this card.

Now that that’s out of the way, we’d also like to offer up our beer and food pairing ideas for you, since this is the time to be stocking up for the holidays. Even if the company isn’t exactly what you hoped for (and who doesn’t love having in-laws staying with you for a whole week?), at least you can show off your beer pairing prowess. See below for pairings for three popular December holidays.

Christmas Pairings:
Sharp Cheddar and Crackers: Double Dog Double Pale Ale
Candied Yams: Old Scratch Amber Lager
Ham or Turkey: Kerberos Tripel
Pecan Pie: Gonzo Imperial Porter

Hanukkah Pairings:
Latkes and Apple Sauce: In-Heat Wheat Hefeweizen
Brisket: Gonzo Imperial Porter or Road Dog Porter
Jelly Donuts: Kerberos Tripel

Festivus Pairings:
Meatloaf: Old Scratch Amber Lager

Do you have more holiday food and beer pairings we haven’t thought of? Email us at bullshit@flyingdogales.com and we’ll post it to our blog. You’ll be a pretty big deal.
Gonzo Gift Guide For Those Who Haven’t Done Their Shopping Attention slackers: If you haven’t ordered the perfect holiday gift for your loved ones through our online store by now, you’ve most likely missed out on the chance for it to show up on time. If you’re feeling lucky, you can order ASAP through our store today, but we can’t guarantee that your shit will show up before that fat jolly guy breaks into your house through the chimney and steals your cookies. Which may be better, because we don’t want Saint Nick to steal your awesome Flying Dog Hoodie (which is new to our merchandise kennel this week).

If you’re looking for something that’s absolutely, positively going to show up on time, we have a few Gonzo Gift ideas for you:

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and illustrated by Ralph Steadman - A wonderfully twisted story accentuated by the great twisted art of Ralph Steadman. $13.57.

Gonzo (book) by Hunter S Thompson (Author), Steve Crist (Editor), Johnny Depp (Introduction) - A great Hardcover book for the Dr. Gonzo enthusiast in your life. $18.99.

The Gonzo Tapes: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson - 5 great CDs of Hunter Thompson, recorded between 1965 and 1975. $44.49.

If these don’t strike your fancy, check out the Amazon searches for Ralph Steadman and Hunter S. Thompson.

Fear and Loathing in Vail, ColoradoOne of our favorite festivals of the year is the Big Beers, Belgians, and Barleywines Festival in Vail, Colorado January 8-10. Now in its ninth year, this festival dedicated to beers over 7% ABV gives you the chance to try wonderful beers from a ton of different breweries. We’ll be showcasing our Canis Major series of brews.

Flying Dog is also honored to be one of the breweries chosen to host one of the two wonderful beer dinners that are part of this unique festival. Matt Brophy, our VP of Brewing Operations, will be your host for the Friday night beer dinner, along with Vinnie Cilurzo, Owner & Brewmaster of Russian River Brewing Company. It’s either sold-out or close to it, so if you’re interested, check out their website, STAT. Here’s what Matt Brophy himself has to say about this unique, high-altitude festival:

“I’m looking forward to the Belgians and Barleywines Festival because I feel it will give Flying Dog a fantastic opportunity to showcase some of our most interesting and remarkable beers. We are also very happy and flattered to be participating in such an amazing beer dinner with Vinnie and the truly unique Belgian beers that Russian River is so well known for.”

For those of you who can’t attend, we’ll be writing blog entries, making videos, etc. about the festival for you to experience it second-hand, basically telling you why it stinks that you missed this.Sticks and Stones May Break Our Bones, But Words Give Us A Little Bit Of An Ego BoostThe links below are mostly
unsolicited outside opinions about our beer and our company from the
media and internet. Want to see more? Check out our twitter page. Read what people are saying about us:

Flying Dog flag flies proudly in Iraq

Vote for Tire Bite in the BCS Championship (today only!)

A nice Road Dog Porter review

Rate our beer with Beerdo on Twitter and win some cool shit

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. Some email services will block the newsletter format. If you see a black screen please view the newsletter at FlyingDogBlog.comRaise A Glass To Those People 75 Years Ago Who Decided That Drinking Alcohol Wasn’t
Such A Bad Idea After AllBeing people who make beer, we’re all about drinking beer (in moderation, of course). This coming Friday marks the 75th anniversary of the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, effectively ending that dark time in our history - you know, the time when we had to pretend not to drink while everyone was visiting a Speakeasy. So while you’re out with your friends on Friday night, use this morsel of knowledge we just dropped on you to impress your friends, and maybe you might even score because of it.

Video: Chris Rippe Races Into The Sunset Something we did a few years back was to host the Flying Dog Beer Drinker’s Marathon, where marketing lackey Chris Rippe kicked Eric Warner’s ass in a short race and was rewarded with being President for a day.  Well, two weeks ago we were at it again.

Chris raced his boss, Neal “I’m Kind of a Big Deal” Stewart, around our brewery. The pace was furious, especially considering the quantity of beer that was imbibed - at one point in the evening, Rippe was drinking Double Dog out of a 32-ounce stein we gave him as a going away present. Anyhow, we filmed the debauchery and are letting you fine people check it out. Does Rippe defend his honor? You’ll have to watch to find out. Click the image to watch it all go down.

There is also some sadness in this video. Why, you ask? Well, a great friend of Flying Dog has left our family to pursue greener (and snowier) pastures in the mountains of Colorado. Chris, Flying Dog’s Baron von Marketing, is no longer with us. He’s chosen to abandon his friends at the Brewery and is looking to open a drinking establishment up near Woody Creek, CO - where our brewery was born. So if you’re one of the hundreds of folks who Rippe owes money to, you now know where to find him.

Do Your Holiday Shopping, Doggie StyleUnlike some flying sled-riding figures who give out presents only to those on his “nice list”, we at Flying Dog don’t think that the naughty should get left out this holiday season. Maybe if you were especially naughty, you deserve double the gifts. Our online store has great gift items for you, including some awesome gift packs.

Check out our Deal of the Week (on the sidebar of our newsletter) to save on a 4-pack of our t-shirts. Or if that’s not what floats your boat, check out all of our gift packs. It’s cold across the country these days (it was snowing or raining in almost every outdoor football game on Sunday), so maybe a hoodie is the perfect gift for your special someone.

Looking to get your bounty of Flying Dog merch before Christmas? Order online no later than December 15 to ensure that your shit arrives on time. We want you to have what will most likely be the best gifts under your tree. Plus if you order online through us, you can do it with no pants on, if you so desire. Double bonus.

Looking for more Gonzo-themed gift ideas? Check out our “gift ideas” category of flyingdognews.com. We’ll be updating this list over the next few weeks, so keep your eye there for unique “Gonzo-themed” gifts.
Did you save 33% at our online store on Black Friday?Last week, we posted over at FlyingDogNews.com about how you could save 33% at our online store on Black Friday, through our Flying Dog Beverage Stimulus Package. Our thoughts were that by saving you money on holiday gifts, you’d be able to afford more beer. Were you one of the lucky ones to cash in? If not, keep your eyes peeled on our twitter site for other unique, limited-time deals like this. We post a link to all of our blog entries at twitter.com/flyingdog, so this is totally your place to check so that next time you can score some sweet shit at a discount.
What People Are Saying About UsThe links below are mostly
unsolicited outside opinions about our beer and our company from the
media and internet. Want to see more? Check out our twitter page. Read what people are saying about us:

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