As a conglomerate privately owned businesses, Renegade Reps is a vehicle for creating entrepreneurs. Through creating inter-related businesses and putting them in the hands of those who may not otherwise be able to begin a business of their own, Renegade Reps hands a profitable and reputable new concept over to people who can make the most of them. We continue our relationships with cooperative small business that help each other create that mystical "synergy" that we all talk about.
Boulder Brewing made one of those serendipitous mistakes that turned into gold when they produced the "Bad Moon Risin'. I place it in parenthesis because apparently the brewery was issued a Cease and Desist by a Maryland brewery who owned the name and summarily changed it to "Black IPA". There was so little of it, who cares. The point is that the original "Bad Moon Risin' was an unbelievably delicious and boozy 10% black IPA that occurred when a brewer accidentally placed some black malt on top of the Mojo Risin IPA and created this dark, roasty, hoppy brew.
No matter anyway, since we only got two 5 gallon kegs of it in Florida with no promise of it going much further than that. If you remember, we reviewed this a bit ago when a select two bars got the early edition of Bad Moon Risin' and we drowned our happiness in its' deliciousness.
So I got word a bit ago that they had held some back and aged it in Bourbon Barrels. Whaaaaaaaaat?
We distributed these two kegs to two of our favorite Florida locations - The Ale and the Witch in St. Petersburg and Cafe Davinci in DeLand. Renegade Vinnie was lucky enough to work The Ale and the Witch event which actually occurred during the New Moon. The second keg, the one at Davinci is laying in wait. Keep your eyes peeled and "yaw eah to the groindstone" and we'll announce the tapping at Davinci. Cheers!
After what seemed like years of planning (and a month of teetotalling prior), the Boulder Brewing Beer Crawl in downtown DeLand finally arrived. Thanks to the generous donation of beer from Jeff Brown of Boulder Brewing, we were able to raise money for Mainstreet DeLand.
A few things about Boulder brewing if you're not privy: Boulder Brewing is Colorado's first microbrewery, having been established in 1979.
These guys have seen many, many breweries come and go. Makers of the legendary Hazed and Infused dry-hopped ale, Boulder Brewing received the 43rd brewing license ever issued in the United States. Not only is their beer great, they are also PACE Certified as a green brewery and take tons of steps to help save the environment. In fact, every 6 pack of Boulder beer you buy, you can feel good knowing that the carriers are made from 100% recycled paperboard! This company is truly a company that I feel very lucky to be affiliated with. So we put together this little beer crawl to raise money for Mainstreet DeLand. Mainstreet is the organization that is responsible for keeping DeLand vital and they do what they can to ensure people keep coming downtown. A little-known thing about Mainstreet is that most of the events they carry on are money losers. This being the case it's always nice to help raise money for them and help aid in those events such as Monsters on Mainstreet where the kids can come out and trick-or-treat during Halloween season. This is also an organization that I'm proud to be a partner with and I'm always enthused at their activity. We were able to involve 10 different location for the crawl and had 5 different beers to choose from. This way, folks could cherry pick where they wanted to drink and we could ensure they could be in their comfort zone. The 5 beers that we had ran the gamut of styles: Hazed and Infused, Mojo IPA, Sweaty Betty Hefeweizen, Kinda Blue, and Singletrack Copper.
Thanks to the hard work put on by my buds at S.R. Perrott, we had a banner made for each locale that had the name of the restaurant and the Boulder Beer they were serving. This way, people could just walk up and know what was being served. With some of the crowds that developed, that was a good thing. The banners ended up beautiful and I was especially proud of the giant Boulder logos on them - but of course I'm biased.
The locations cover nearly the entirety of downtown: Abbey, DaVinci, Bill & Frank's Brickhouse, The Elusive Grape, Casey's on the Corner, Issues, De La Vega, Mainstreet Grill, The Grotto, and Dublin Station; all took part and all poured massive amounts of brew!
I began my adventure losing a weight loss bet, but was comforted by a delicious gift of some brews that my buddy Mike at Dunedin Brewery gave me from his trip out west: Fort George brewery out of Oregon. We had cans of their Vortex IPA, the Cavatica Stout, and the Quick Wit, which was an unbelievable Belgian Wheat with lemongrass - Yum!
So me and my buddy Defran caught a little buzz at the house and then headed downtown for some brews. First stop - Abbey for some Hazed. I can't get enough Hazed. The wonderful thing about this beer is that the heavy dry-hopping produces a massive floral aroma but the additional hops does not add bitterness so you get a huge nose, huge flavor, and and easy finish. I absolutely love this beer.
Walking out, Steve was hooking up some Hoopla Pale Ale outside and I had to have a glass. Another interesting beer. This one was a collaboration beer between the brewery and Kyle Hollingsworth of the band The String Cheese Incident. See video insert of the story behind Hoopla. This is another that I love because you can have quite a few and not see palate fatigue on it.
Next stop was to Casey's to get me some Sweaty Betty. In my opinion the most underrated beer in Florida. This is an extremely flavorful bavarian wheat that has massive aromas of banana and clove and is so incredibly beautiful on draft. It appears like you'd imagine white stained glass would when you put it in the sun. A gorgeous beer with a gorgeous name. I dig it!
And on to Davinci to have some Mojo IPA. This one is a very citrusy IPA and at 7ish percent alcohol is no lightweight. We do well with the Mojo and it always makes me look forward to the Mojo Risin' Double IPA that we get in January. Awesome IPAs all the way around.
At Davinci we had a few glasses of whiskey, too. Always my first love, I just can't say no to whiskey in any of its forms and when I see someone order a glass of Jack, I just hafta have one myself. What can I say? The point is, I was getting pretty loopy at this point and one of my favorite bands to watch in DeLand, The Republik.
So, a quick Singletrack at Issues and back to Abbey. Singletrack is a neat little beer. A very flavorful amber ale that just packs a ton of flavor into a very drinkable brew. The Singletrack in glass, we head to Abbey and on to see some Republik.
This is a band that is definitely worth checking out. They travel nationally, but play quite a bit in Florida. I own one of their CDs that have their own material on it and they are quite good songwriters as well. Talented band and they seem like nice fellas too.
Once inside, I settled back in with my Hazed & Infused and relished in how great my world is. Great band, great night, great cause. Very happy with how everything went and I'm proud of all involved. Big thanks to everyone who took part. Cheers!
For those of you who don't know, the Renegades work closely with an animal rescue group, Animal Rescue Konsortium, which is a no-kill shelter for animals. These kind folks are all heart and no funding, so we try to include some fundraising whenever possible. In this case, Mr. Dan Reed at Davinci allowed us to do an entire day of fundraising; giving us some live music, space to bring animals for adoption, and allowed us to do a hot dog eating contest. Very cool of him and we raised some decent funds to help keep the animals alive.
To start, I received a call from Mr. Terry Jorgensen who let me know that he had an emergency and couldn't make it, but left a check for the cause under the door at Davinci. As it turns out, he left a VERY generous donation and it became a great start to a beautiful day.
Additionally, Mr. Jim Campbell offered up his musical services and played the event gratis. He also brought some musical guests with him and they all through out some great tunes.
Add to all this, Casey's On The Corner donated the hot dogs for the eating contest AND donated $1.00 to the cause for every dog sold. We are very lucky to have folks like this who are willing to help out a cause, especially during an uncertain economy.
We auctioned off some of the limited prints and some rare brews, including a Westvleteren 8 that drew in a $25 donation from West Costa who also picked up a print for $50. Very generous of him.
All in all, we were able to generate $1002 for the animal rescue and made some great connections for volunteers to work at the center.
If you'd like to help ARK in any way, please contact them and offer whatever you can. I have included the link here to their website and you can follow from there.
Boulder Brewing made one of those serendipitous mistakes that turned into gold when they produced the "Bad Moon Risin'. I place it in parenthesis because apparently the brewery was issued a Cease and Desist by a Maryland brewery who owned the name and summarily changed it to "Black IPA". There was so little of it, who cares. The point is that the original "Bad Moon Risin' was an unbelievably delicious and boozy 10% black IPA that occurred when a brewer accidentally placed some black malt on top of the Mojo Risin IPA and created this dark, roasty, hoppy brew.
