Are you a Dog Person?

4 09 2010

Attention Dog People! I have great news – you can bring your cuddly-wuddly waggly little guy to SIPtemberfest!

But not everyone is a Dog Person, so we ask you to be considerate of a few things for for all the People People out there:

  • Please keep your loyal companion on a leash at all times. And by that, I mean: you holding on to the leash that your dog is on, not your dog running freely with a leash as an accessory, flapping in the wind.
  • Even the smartest, best trained dogs don’t clean up after themselves. Please bring a “doggy bag” just in case! Nobody likes stepping in that  $@!#.
  • This is a family event so if your dog doesn’t do well with children or is aggressive with other pooches, or enjoys stealing food from unsuspecting victims,  please leave your otherwise amazingly lovable  furry friend at home!
  • If the weather is rainy (big IF – everyone take a moment to visualize sunshine!) please leave your dogs at home. While the mountain is dog friendly, the Basebox is not. So even if the weather is great and you can bring your fluffy faced friend, you can’t bring ‘em inside.

So exercise your better judgment and “Mad River Glen, Bring Your Dog if You Can!”

treat?!

m





Bring it.

3 09 2010

Labor Day Weekend is here! The last breath of summer for most of us! Which means that fall is on our door step which means that SIPtemberfest is in mere weeks! OMG! So before you go off on your assorted Labor Day adventures, do yourself a favor and buy your tickets right now! Then you can ease in to vaycay mode knowing that you got your tickets to the coolest little beerfest before it sold out! Phew!

Now that that’s taken care of, here’s a list of things I’m bringing with me on my Labor Day adventures. The coolest thing about this list is that  it will hopefully be the same list you use when getting ready to come to SIPtemberfest, in addition to your tickets, of course!

BRING IT:

  • Sunglasses Sunny Gs have tons of uses. They obviously keep the sun out of your eyes, but they are also great for blocking the occasional projectile beer cap or champagne cork. They make a fantastic hair accessory or emergency mirror to check for greens in the teeth. And for the creative types they can open up a world of inventive photo ops.
  • Flip flops Nothing says warm weather more than toes. Our little piggies love to feel the sunshine on them when they go to the market or eat roast beef, as the song goes. They also dry off quicker than closed toe shoes when they get wet from water, or say, beer spilling…
  • Camera Everyone LOVES to have their fun times captured and posted immediately to Facebook, right? Well, maybe not all of those photos belong online, but bringing your camera will ensure that you will remember the part when [fill in the blank] happened to [insert friend's name here] and then [something else] happened and the [hopefully not cops] came and it was really funny!!
  • A little extra cash Having an extra buck or two in your pocket can really come in handy in case you want to buy a souvenir tshirt, if you run out of gas, need to place a bet, need to cure the hiccups, want to make some dollar bill origami, etc.
  • Your Entourage What’s a party if no one shows up? Bring your friends with you! You have to have someone to laugh at (or with…) and to blame things on (because you certainly didn’t do it!) and you’ll need a camera man, a designated driver, a sunblock supplier, a money loaner, a stylist, your agent, your stunt double, a couple of body guards, maybe some groupies and such. Bring the whole team because the more the merrier!

Have and Happy and Safe Labor Day weekend everyone!

Cheers,

m





Vendor Profile: Trapp’s Family Brewery

2 09 2010

I got to go to Munich, Germany this year to visit some friends. There I was treated to all sorts of German normalcies: the crazy red hair, the cleavagy dirndls and strapping lederhosen, the extremely fallic, yet proper way to eat Weisswurst, and of course, I was reeducated on the way a good quality Helles Bier should taste… and be served.

‘Eine grosse bier, bitte,’ is all you need to know. After one visit to the famous Hofbrauhaus I was pretty much ruined. Screw a pint glass, I’d like a litre of beer, please. As a tourist, I absolutely MUST drink from a mug that makes makes me look like a Hobbit when I hold it. And then I have to have another and another… anyway… you know how it goes.

Long story short, when I came back to the states and went out to the bars, I was still on Munchen time and wanted a really good Helles beer, not a porter, not an IPA, not a fruity beer. I wanted a nice, clean refreshing Helles beer, and waddaya know? Waiting for me at the Three Penny Taproom was a delicious Munchen Helles Lager from none other than the new Trapp Family Brewery.

So, “eine grosse bier, bitte!” It may not be served in a gargantuan stein like at the Hofbrauhaus, but it was exactly what I was looking for.

Of course I couldn’t be happier to announce that the Trapp Family Brewery will be at this year’s SIPtemberfest [PROST!] You will get your own chance to get your German on and try a proper  Helles or whatever other tasty brew they choose to bring. I simply encourage you to avoid the German socks-sandals combo. Some people can pull of the outfits and the hair, but trust me: no one can rock the sock-sandal thing…

Prost,

m





Be a Winner, the Final Round

1 09 2010

Man, this was a tough decision with so many awesome entries! But in the end, the winner for Be A Winner, Round 2, The SIPVIP Caption Contest is (keyboard drum roll please…  Margaret Hess who entered this gem right before the buzzer! Margaret- your SIPVIP package will be waiting for you at the gate when you arrive! Contact me with a comment here or an email to megsevents@gmavt.net if you have any questions!

Is this the line for the bathroom?

And then there was one… SIPVIP Contest left! What on earth is this contest gonna be?

Horse walks into a bar. The bartender says, “Hey Mister, what’s with the long face?”

That’s right – The Final Round of the Be A Winner SIPVIP Contest series is a Best Beer Joke Contest! The winner will receive the awesome SIPVIP  Package which includes:

  • Two tickets to the 2010 SIPtemberfest, including the 10 tastings and the souvenir glass that comes with each one
  • Two awesome new SIP euro stickers
  • Two super cool new SIP t shirts, designed by New Duds
  • Two foliage lift rides good on the day of SIPtemberfest
  • Two vouchers for food

Enter your beer jokes (please keep them in the PG-13 rhelm) by either commenting on this post or on our Facebook Invite. You may enter up to three jokes and you have until





Vendor Profile: Woodchuck Hard Cider

31 08 2010

How much Woodchuck would a woodchuck chug if a woodchuck could chug Woodchuck?

That’s right, my gluten-intolerant friends, we will have gluten-free delicious refreshing yummy Woodchuck Hard Cider for you at this year’s SIP! [Social!]

Woodchuck Hard Cider, started “way back in 1990″ in Middlebury, Vermont. They chose the name in honor of all those woodchuck Verrmon’rrs whokin speak so sloow-like that they’rrre-eally hrrd t’undrstand, eh-yeah.

Over the years, Woodchuck Hard Cider had grown and changed, but like all things Vermonty, they’ve managed to stay pretty much the same through it all. Their hard work and dedication to their craftsmanship has produced an impressive line of Hard Ciders that will please every pallet. Their most popular style, the Amber is a true old fashioned hard cider. There are Raspberry and Pear varieties as well as the lip-pursingly tart Granny Smith, and my personal favorite 802 Dark & Dry. And on top of their Core (ha ha! Get it?!) Line of ciders, they also have four seasonal versions that will satisfy at any time of year!

So what will they bring to SIPtemberfest? Well, if there’s one thing that goes really well with autumn, it’s gotta be cider, so bring it all! And then we’ll really see how much Woodchuck that woodchuck can chug!

Cheers,

m





So much to say…

30 08 2010

I don’t know what you thought, but this past weekend, it didn’t exactly feel to me like fall was coming anytime soon. Mid to high 80s, blue skies, sunglasses and even sunburns. (I never learn…) Nevertheless, SIPtember is right around the corner!

And it’s no secret that I have a personal bias for cooler temperatures and other reasons to head to the ski area, so I say BRING IT – it simply means really good things are about to happen!

In the SIPtemberfest News Department:

  • Congratulations Mark Drapa! You just won one ticket to SIPtemberfest! Yeeeehaaa! Please comment on this post, or on the Facebook Invite, or email me at megsevents@gmavt.net so we can confirm and set that puppy aside for you.
  • Vendor Profiles start this week! Got any questions for them? Let me know and I’ll see if I can get the scoop on what they’ve got on tap for the SIP.

In the Don’t Forget Department:

  • Time is running out to enter our SIPVIP Caption Contest! Enter by midnight on Aug. 31 for your chance to win a killer SIPVIP package. There’s only one more contest after this! Work the odds in your favor!
  • You have two more chance to win our weekly drawing for SIPtemberfest tickets! Simply RSVP yes/maybe to our Facebook Invite. This is just too easy not to enter!
  • You should buy tickets online! It’s quick and convenient and you can print your tickets right from your printer! Do it now before you forget and it’s too late!
  • You can buy tickets from a real, live and wicked cool person by heading to either The Three Penny Taproom in Montpelier, VT, or Hostel Tevere in Warren, VT. There are only a limited number of these tickets so move it or lose it!!
  • You can get these posts emailed to you so you don’t miss out on a single piece of insider info! Just click on Fresh SIPS in the top right hand corner of this screen!
  • Take a moment and visualize sunshine and flip flops and great beer and hanging out on the porch at MRG with all your friends, Saturday, September 25!

Thanks and cheers!

m





A beer by any other name

27 08 2010

Microbrewers are a creative lot. Beyond being beer savants, these guys are far more inclined to use trippy and off-beat graphics rather than classic blue ribbons and coats of arms. They use puns worthy of a *badumpbump-crash*,  and names that could finish with ‘that’s what she said.’

But let’s face, a smartly made beer is worthy of also being a smartly named beer. Seriously. You know if you see a beer called “I’ll have what the gentleman on the floor is having,” that you are totally going to try it. Am I wrong?

No Walter, you’re not wrong… but I digress…

So in honor of all the smartly made brews out there, what’s your favorite beer name ever?

Don’t forget to get your tickets!

Prost,

m





Autopilot

26 08 2010

There are somethings you do with such ease and/or regularity that it’s like being on Autopilot. A good example would be like getting out of work and meeting your friends at your local bar for a couple beers, some food and good old fashion face-time fun.

And wouldn’t it be nice if you could, oh, say, buy your SIPtemberfest tickets while you’re at it?

OMG guess what?!?

You can!

A limited number of tickets will officially go on sale on Friday, August 27 at the following locations (but I bet if you sweet talk these guys, they’ll hook it up as soon as they can!) And please don’t forget to tip your bartenders generously!

And now my apologies for this terrible segue, but here are a couple of youtube vids of one of my all time favorite movies AIRPLANE! Yeah, I know they don’t really have anything to do with this post, but you say Autopilot and by brain goes directly to the first clip, and then I had to watch the trailer… You know how it goes. ;)

“What the hell is going on up there?”

“Now, Johnny, what can you make out of this?”

What’s your favorite AIRPLANE! quote?

m





Let’s Hang!

25 08 2010

You guys are the best!

You share SIPtemberfest’s Facebook Invite with your FB friends, you retweet our SIPtweets to your followers. You tell your friends about SIPtemberfest and how much fun you had last year… SIPtemberfest wouldn’t be half the fun without all the awesome help we get from YOU!

And now you can print out posters to hang at your office, your local health food store and any other community posting wall that you walk by! You can also print out our fun table top cards – just cut and fold! They make a great way to brighten up your work space or surprise your sweetie when you use it as card with tickets inside!

And stayed tuned because we will be announcing the LIVE TICKET SALES LOCATIONS tomorrow – sign up to get these posted emailed to you so you don’t miss out!

So thanks everyone!





The Vermont Life

24 08 2010

Ya know, I really really like Vermont Life Magazine. They do such a great job “exporing the dynamic culture” of our awesome little state!

Hardly an issue goes by without me spotting a friend in a photo or one of my favorite local businesses reviewed. This issue there is a great write up of The Alchemist.

The photos are stunning and the articles are amazing.  Plus they list all of the greatest events taking place in the Green Mountain State. For example, I learned that Bill Cosby, Keith Urban and Justin Bieber will be at the Champlain Valley Expo August 28 – September 6 – something for everyone! And, I learned that the Great Greg Brown will be gracing the Higher Ground with his presence in November.

And oh hey! Check that out! There’s photo and a little write up for SIPtemberfest on lucky page #7 (and 8!) in the latest issue! Imagine that!?

If you don’t have a copy already, may I highly encourage you to pick one up or even subscribe to Vermont Life. If you’re way ahead of me on this, then don’t forget to tell your friends about this awesome publication (and also about SIPtemberfest, naturally!)

Prost, (and don’t forget to get your tickets!)

m