Solar Bears Out Of Hibernation

The Renegade Reps love 'em some hockey.  Woefully, being fans of northeastern sports - none of us have had a team to pull for in the state of Florida.  That all changed when the Orlando Solar Bears announced they would return to the ice.  I myself have seen the Solar Bears live some years ago before their league folded.  I dug the vibe of the Home Team and was not at all happy when the league went under.

Well, earlier this year the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) announced they had approved the Minnesota Wild affiliate Orlando Solar Bears to "come out of hibernation."  Season tickets?  Oooooh yeah!

Game 1 finally comes around on Friday, October 20 and off to the game we go.

First of all, the Arena was sold out and the crowd was abuzz over the new team.  The food vending has improved from hot dogs and popcorn to all types of adventurous food (for a stadium) and they have installed a Gentleman Jack Lounge and lots of Jack Daniels at the bars.  This makes me personally very happy, being a lover of Jack, but they threw in an extra bonus that I did not even know - they charge the same price for Jack, Single Barrel Jack, and Gentleman Jack!  Not that a $9.00 pour makes you feel great, but at an arena, nine bucks for Gentleman Jack does not sting so much.

On that front, the arena has also brought in some craft beers from Craft Brewers Alliance (Kona, Widmer, Red Hook, etc.) and have picked up Guinness and Heineken.  Not so bad for Florida.

When the team announcements began and the crowd was fully seated, the energy was insane.  When the players came onto the ice, being introduced one-by-one it was easily apparent that this team was here to stay.  There was an immediate love between these fans and this new franchise.  The biggest cheers came for team captain Ryan Cruthers, in part due to the simple fact that he is captain, but he had also been the team's top goal scorer thus far and had led the team to an 8-2 win the previous night at the Florida Everblades out of Estero.

The visiting team jumped out to a 1-0 lead and that was quite a buzz kill.  However, when the Solar Bear Mathew Siska netted the next goal, the place went total bat-shit.  It was incredible.  The sirens, the lights, the cheers and whistles of the crowd - unreal.

This Solar Bears team is very soft on the boards, but is certainly not afraid to throw off the gloves and get down.  They are also not afraid to use their bodies to block shots.  Patiently aggressive, watching this team is gonna rock.

The game continued on with the teams swapping goals and tying 3-3 going into overtime.  After a 5 minute overtime, it was shootout time.  The first 5 scorers did not hit the back of the net, so it became and goal-for-goal situation with the Everblades shooting last.  Scary to watch.  The Bears finally took a lead when the 6'5" Kyle Medvec skated toward the net and just let loose a massive slapshot over the goalie's stick side.  That score was met, unfortunately by the next Everblades skater and the shootout continued until Sean Lorenz hit the back of the net, leaving goalie John Curry to save the day.

When the Everblades skater tried to put the puck to the blocker side, he was stuffed and the crowd once again blew the roof off the arena.  An unbelievable way to bring a team back to their home crowd.

This game had it all - tons of fights, awesome goal scoring, and a shootout victory to ice the cake.  This year is gonna be great.  Cheers!

Nona Tap Room - Anniversary Party

Nona Tap Room is celebrating their 2nd Anniversary and we were lucky enough to be able to take part.  The Renegades get to see a lot of different types of beer bars with all different types of staffs and clientele.  I appreciate them all for different reasons and I really like Nona Tap Room because it is a place where you can go get some great beer on draft, really good and good-looking food, and enjoy an atmosphere that does not force you to bring out your inner beer geek.  Sometimes I just wanna spend an afternoon drinking really good beer with fun people and Nona is great for that.

For their anniversary, Nona is carrying several of the brews in the Renegade Portfolio and I dig it.  Five drafts to be exact including Chimay White, Boulder Hoopla, Boulder Mojo, Hobgoblin, and Monty Python's Holy Grail Ale.  A great selection and we are going to have a good time working with a well-rounded selection.

A little about Nona Tap Room:  They carry 50 drafts and 50 bottled beers.  The food menu carries a nice selection of pub food that has been done in a very -well-presented fashion with some nice twists.  They carry the classic chicken wings, jalapeno poppers, and chicken fingers then go a little upscale with calamari, shrimp skewers, and steak kabobs.  They also make a fish and chips that looked awesome and a crab cake sandwich and veggie sandwich for pescetarians such as myself.   The menu is much larger than I have even mentioned here.  Check out the menu at:  https://nonataproom.com/menu/

Anyway, myself and Renegade Rip walk in and are greeted by some really friendly faces including 4 service staff and John, the General Manager.  We sat at the bar and ordered some brews.  The girls behind the bar were very quick, friendly, and offered some good conversation.  John came over and sat with us to chat for a bit.  There was some college football on and we started watching some Penn State.  Watching their kicker miss 4 field goals was not fun.

They have 3 televisions over the bar, a great sound system, and an electronic menu board that is beautiful.  Come to think of it, the entire place is very well done and has a very comfortable feel to it.  You can tell they put some effort into planning out the place.

The place started to fill up around 2:30.  I mean, it began to really fill up.  nice to see a place with such a great presence in the middle of the daytime serving some great beers to a nice audience.  It got so full, in fact, that John headed to the back to help cook some food.  Another nice thing - seeing a manager getting their hands dirty to make it happen.  The team just seemed to be really in syn with each other and as busy as they got, noone on the staff lost their cool.  Awesome, awesome people.

The real party was to start later at night, but Rip and I had other requirements so we had to take off around 5:00.  Tell you what - I really like this spot and although it is only their 2nd anniversary, I have feeling they will be around for a long time.  Cheers!

Rip and Mellow Mushroom

So my boy Rip has been getting out and about a lot more than I have lately.  He's been all over Florida tasting out beer and getting to know folks who I'll never get a chance too.  Lucky man selling great beer to lucky people.  I was very excited when he set this little shindig up, as I have been wanting to do more business with the legendary Mellow Mushroom and I am dedicated to getting some Hazed & Infused going throughout this can of delicious pizza purveyors.

As it turns out, the night Rip set up this event was perfect, as we had some Hazed flowing and a great crowd to slurp up its dry-hopped deliciousness.  As we all know by now, I have an uncommon affinity for Hazed & Infused and just love it when we get an opportunity to educate new folks on how deceptively complex this brew is and how much flavor you can pack into a 4.85% abv beer.  Uncommon indeed.


So on this Thursday night of nights, we had organized a great pint night with some raffle items that are really exciting.  One of the great things that I love about working with Boulder Brewing is that they have some of the best wearables in the business.  Two things that really get folks going are the great "Get Hazed" license plates that work as decor, but look unbelievable on the front of a beautiful vehicle (such as a red 1970 Ford Galaxie Convertible, pictured below :-))

The other little piece of foresight that the brewery had is making wearables for the girlies.  As it turns out, the beer industry tends to look after the male consumers a little more than the ladies and very few make clothing for the ladies.  The girls go crazy over the girly tees that Boulder offers and it always gets them charged up when they win one in a raffle.  Not only that, but I have yet to see a lady who does not look absolutely HOT in a Boulder short - or hat for that matter.

The Renegade Mobile

This night was no different as you can see.  We poured a ton of Boulder Beer and got those not initiated into the Boulder world.  We love our beer, we love our fans, and we love making people happy.  Here's to the folks at Mellow Mushroom for allowing us to make that happen on this night.  Cheers!