Flagstaff, AZ—Mother Road Brewing made the fatal mistake of informing The Daily Discord about an important event. On February 5th they combined forces with Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery to brew one spectacular Super Brew. It’s kind of like that Wonder Twins thing, but instead of rings they use vats. Wonder Twins activate, form of ethanol! Video preview at the end of the article!
And, yes, we will be releasing the entire video on this momentous day, theoretically soon. For some history, about a year ago there were only four brewpubs in Flagstaff. Mogollon Brewing recently closed, but three more cropped up in its place, which begs the question is slaying a brewery like killing the hydra? You lop off a head only to find more sudsy heads emerging in its place?
Hey, just be thankful I didn’t go with my original Mead-dusa joke. You would have immediately turned to Stone…Brewing.
Hey, I’m working here…
Anyway, it all started when the Discord crew attended the local Brew Ha-Ha on January 19th—which is also where we found and hired our new cameraman Greg, who hence forth shall be known as Greg!
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| Alex Bone, Cokie McGrath, Mick Zano and The Pharmacists at Brew Ha-Ha |
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Yeah, I’ve been working out a little. Actually, that guy in the back tried to photo bomb us, so we showed him…by turning him into me! Take that, brew fest photo bomb dude.
I didn’t cover the Brew Ha-Ha for the Discord this year—not because it wasn’t fun—it’s just I’m getting lazy in my old age. If you want to get the true flavor of Flagstaff’s premier winter beer festival, check out my coverage from last year here.
Oh, but when my agency’s CEO made a surprise appearance this year, for my day job, I was just thankful the gang talked me out of my “great idea”.
“Hey everyone, let’s all run up to him and dump our beers on his head like it’s Gatorade and we’d just won the big game!”
Yeah, my friends…I’m kind of surprised they stopped me.
Meanwhile, at the Brew Ha-Ha we ran into the founder of Mother Road Brewing, Michael Marquess. He is already a bit too familiar with the Discord gang, but despite this fact remained shortsighted enough to tell us about his little Deschutes collaboration thing on the 5th. The idea was for Deschutes personnel to drive from Bend Oregon to Flagstaff Arizona and pair up with Mother Road as part of their initiative to support your local brewery.
Mike started brewing as a hobby in 2000 but now, 13 years later, his shiny new brewery was just recognized by the city of Flagstaff as the Business of the Year—narrowly beating out The Daily Discord, which has over 11 viewers, because our fans go to 11! Mr. Marquess was then presented with the key to the city, which in retrospect the Mayor now regrets as he got the town as far as Sedona before being pulled over by police. It’s sad, really, because no matter how big The Discord gets I can’t see the Mayor handing us anything. That bridge has sailed…or something.
We were able to corner Mike for an interview and here’s how it all went down:
Zano: I have only one question for the founder: why, night after night, do you serve this man (pointing to Alex Bone) when you know what’s going to happen? Isn’t doing the same thing over and over again the definition of insanity?
Marquess: My license states I have to treat and serve everyone fairly, even when he is—shall we say—less than himself.
Bone: (towering over both of us) I’m more than myself!
Zano: I just want to say, your black IPA is phenomenal, your recent Anniversary brew is phenomenal, you are a real up and coming brewery in this little town. Wouldn’t you say your black IPA is your signature beer?
Marquess: Yes.
Zano: Then please tell me how do you brew a black pale ale? That’s an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp or …wait, I have more. I prepared them (Zano reaches into pocket).
Marquess: We can argue all day about Cascadia ale, American black ale, so just call my beer Lost Highway—
Bone: I saw the movie Lost Highway.
Marquess: —keep drinking it, and we can agree to disagree on whether you can call it a pale, or black, or whatever the hell it is.
Zano: I love this man!
Marquess: We like you guys too, but please stop downloading that stuff you’re downloading off our free internet. I keep getting letters from my internet service provider.
(Our answer to this important accusation is best left to our video response. Hint: it involves dolphins.)
Alex Bone then interviewed Casey Carhart of Deschutes Brewery and asked him questions ranging from demonic possessions to zombie apocalypses. Bone isn’t well.
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| Alex Bone, Mick Zano, and Casey Carhart of Deschutes Brewery |
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This is another reason I Iove Deschutes. Doesn’t this sound like the perfect event?
The video captures more of our antics and our ultimate ejection, but we really feel we accomplished some important work that day, or at least that’s what we keep telling ourselves… Our official apology to both breweries is included in the video, coming soon! Check your spam folder. Until then here’s the opening. Enjoy.
