How Will I Miss You If Don't Ever Leave?

     The first day of fall has started just like the last 50 or so days. Rain, rain and more f-ing rain. I had to get my chainsaw out to cut down all the mushrooms that have been growing here. I know they're magic because they never stop growing.  I mean, when they are as big as a tree, we got problems. I also think I saw my first dolphin at Lake Kepler and by the end of this weekend I might be seeing the Kepler Mountain Monster here too.
     In other news, it has been another wild week on the roller coaster beer festival ride. It gets tough trying to get return e-mails, texts and phone calls from all the vendors at times. Those poor beer folk are getting over 50 plus messages a day from various people begging for their beer. Hell, I can't even send them a smoke signals, since it f-ing rains every day. How they keep their sanity doing all this, well, I have a good idea how.
     Now,  if I have to say I am waiting to dot the i's and cross the t's one more time to somebody asking about future vendor's,  I'm going to scream. Oh wait, I just said it. CRAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!              
Ticket sales are starting to hum along now and hits on the Beersgiving site are moving at a right smart pace. July 318 hits, August 517 and so far in September, 705. I now know one thing about putting this fest together, there ain't going to be enough beer for me when it's finally over.

Not So Deep Thoughts

     A whole day without rain. I'm almost in shock. Kinda like my readers and fancy schmancy blog ratings. Yeah, it's tough trying to put things together for a festival, not to mention 2 Twitter accounts, 2 blogs, 2 Facebook accounts. A trip to the mother country of Belgium for 35 people and an occasional foray into work. Then the constant e-mails, text messages, the out of the blue phone calls, yada, yada, yada. You get the drift. All good intentions go straight to hades after I do all the fest stuff. But I still love you. And I will try every now and then to reward you with my expertise of the written word. Or what my English teacher would probably say " A exquisite piece of drivel"

     I am trying out this map/fest gadget thingamajig on the side here to see how it works. So far I noticed my local time is different, but that is because I live on Kepler Mountain, where there are polar ice caps, volcano's and some type of magnetic fields that makes people drink large amounts of beer. I noticed through all my deep undercover work that a lot of people still check this blog out for some fest info. So, here is some fest info.

                              Craft Beer Bus and Don "Joe Sixpack" Russell. Perfect together.
That's right, you heard me. Mr. Sixpack is teaming up with the CBB and Bridgewater's Pub to come to Beersgiving. Why hell, CBB is teaming up with the Blue Dog Pub out of Lansdale too. Why I hear that they will have a bus coming out of Reading. Damn! Now that's what I am talking about. Let's see if we can get Jack and Lew on one of those buses too. Now all I got to do is get those nice brewer folk and high falutin distributor's to finish dotting the i's and crossing the t's. Then I will be half way there.....

A Happy Day

   Any day you wake up is always a good one. With this never ending heat wave, any day you wake up and it's not 90 degrees out is even better. Throw in a little afternoon shower, turn off the AC for a night or maybe two and just listen to the fan bring in some good old fresh air. Then sit down and check the e-mails and listen to the voice mails of the day. It was a good day. A very good day that got better. Now everyone knows that tickets went on sale at various places for the fest. In these woof woof days of summer, who's really thinking about anything in November, well besides me that is. We have to get thru August and Labor Day and another end of the world scare, which is also the same thing as Parkerford's Halloween Party if you know what I mean.
So let me help you think about November with this piece of news, coming on board to Beersgivng, we welcome: Avery, Anderson Valley, Bells, Flying Dog, Hebrew, Left Hand, Smuttynose, Southern Tier and Yards.

Weeeeeee Doggies!

A Ticket A Tasket, My Delivery Basket

     Yesterday was day one of the delivery of tickets and posters to my fine friends in the beer biz. My day started off with my semi usual trip to the Phoenixville Farmers Market to buy some lovely fruit goodies such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and a couple of peaches. They also had a hummus stand from Lancaster area called Freshapeel Hummus. I got the chipotle lime flavor and a sampler taste later at home (half the container) confirmed to me that this was some damn tasty stuff. Just start making it in 5 gallon sized tubs and call it a day. Oh wait, they do. Maybe they need a trip to a beer fest....

     After the stuffing of the envelopes, I grabbed the posters and headed to the first stop of the day, Ye Olde Craft Ale House. It was there where I met my co pilot for the day, no not God, just my friend Dunny. We refrained from beer just this one time as we had some type of schedule to keep. Next stop was Capone's in East Norrition where we ran into several troublemakers from Victory, TNSC members and future baby daddy. One quick Blind Pig, which by the way really didn't taste all that piggly and we were on the road to Tj's. Jeff wasn't there because he was out with his high priced other girl, but the lovely T was there to help us out. We snuck in a couple of beers and a bite to eat and then hit the road to Union Jacks. One beer inside with some fine folks I haven't seen in awhile from the old Northside days. And one beer at outside bar to wake up from all the AC and lack of sleep I had from the night before. It was then back to the CAH for one last beer and a small bite before I drove my sorry tired ass home to relax and watch the the movie The Town and the Phillie's whoop on the Pirates.

Today I will make my way to the Drafting Room and Sly Fox Phoenixville for ticket day part two. It will not be as long as yesterday, that's for sure. The real world is calling me and I don't mean the tv series.

Logo Building Blocks

Here is the logo for the beer festival from the fine folks at Virtual Farms. Might make a nice hat or t shirt don't you think?

What A Long Strange Trip It's Been

    When I start quoting the Dead, you know the heat has finally gotten to me. It was almost this time last year when I began the quest of trying to put together my first big beer festival. And I am quite sure that I have teased you more than any french tickler in the world could have. There were a few ups,  but unfortunately there was a couple of big giant downs. It looked like all hope was lost and I was destined to be stuck in the corner with a beer dunce cap for the rest of the year.
     Well, I threw my cap on the floor and busted out of that little corner of the room. I went and put my Smiths and Cure records away and stopped staring at my shoes. (Bonus points for that musical reference) This time it's for real. No turning back. Not sleet, rain, hail, snow or the Kepler Mountain volcano erupting will stop me now!

ON NOVEMBER 19 2011, FROM 2PM TILL 6PM SHARP, AT THE HISTORIC SUNNYBROOK BALLROOM IN POTTSTOWN, I PRESENT BEERSGIVING, A THANKFUL CELEBRATION OF THE SEASONS FOOD AND BEER. TICKETS WILL BE $50 AND WILL GO ON SALE AUGUST 1 AT SUNNYBROOK AND AT SEVERAL LOCAL WATERING HOLES.

Damn, that's a lot of caps, but it had to be done. Now before all the threads start about what brewer is bringing what and what food will really be there and is the price too high cause I am making thousands of dollars off you suckers, let me pull a Richard Millhouse Nixon on ya. Let me make this perfectly clear, I will not make one cent off this fest. All proceeds AFTER we pay all the vendors goes to the Sunnybrook Foundation to continue fixing up the property. Booya!

I guess the next question out of your mouths is, information please Mr. Dan. You may always check in here for some fine info, but the place you need to go is Beersgiving. Now she is a pretty rough looking blog right  now, but that soon will change in a big, big way. You got my word on that.