Celebrate vinyl and beer at Dogfish Head's Record Store Day
Dogfish Head is gearing up for Record Store Day on Saturday, April 21, a nationwide event that originated in 2007 and has also become a celebration internationally to recognize independent record stores and its culture.
Music aficionados gather to commemorate independent music where a handful of lucky patrons will receive vinyl and CD releases made exclusively for the special day.
Milton brewery Dogfish Head has partnered with American rock icon, The Flaming Lips, which wrote a song about the brewery's newest member of the family, Dragons & YumYums beer.
Dogfish Head Brewpub General Manager Ryan Schwamberger talks about the celebration at the brewpub in Rehoboth Beach.
What exactly is Dragons & YumYums beer made of?
It is a tart pale ale brewed with dragonfruit, yumberry, passionfruit, pear juice and black carrot juice.
And The Flaming Lips composed a tribute song about it?
Yes. As a means to bring independent beer and independent music together for a promotional piece for Record Store Day.
Flaming Lips are a pleasure to work with and they are super passionate having written a cool song about our beer.
Wayne Coyne is the front man of the group and he composed two original songs for a vinyl record using two of the ingredients from the beer as the characters for the songs: “The Story of Yum Yum and Dragon” and “Pouring Beer in Your Ear.”
This is the first beer that we know of that has its own theme song. Also, the records are actually translucent filled with the Dragons & YumYums beer in the middle of the vinyl. And, yes, it is playable.
We are super excited to be releasing this beer. We are really proud of it.
How many promotional records are available?
We are giving away 100 records, but only two on April 21. The exclusive beer-filled record locations will be throughout the month of April in Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Arizona, Illinois, Colorado, Georgia, Virginia, Florida, Texas and Bear, Delaware. For a detailed list go to Dogfish.com website events page.
The event on April 21 kicks off at Chesapeake & Maine at 11 a.m. with a music-themed brunch and music provided by DJ Siege. There will be Record Store giveaways including posters, pint glasses, stickers and more.
We are giving one beer-filled record away at the Milton Brewery Tasting Room at 4:30 p.m. We are also doing a special bottle release featuring 200 bottles of Bourbon Barrel Aged Oak Aged Vanilla World Wide Stout, (that is a mouthful to say) and that is from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
We will be giving one beer-filled record away and a prize pack at the brewpub between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. during the live OC 98.1 broadcast followed by DJ Shady Lady spinning vinyl records and handing out another prize pack between 9 p.m. until midnight.
If you are into original music and original craft beer, this sounds like a fun event.
It really is. We really get behind Record Store Day. At the pub, we have always supported live original music every Friday and Saturday night at 10 p.m. so being able to include Record Store Day with an original artist is the right thing for us to be a part of and it is probably one of the only days of the year where we have a DJ playing tunes on a weekend.
We are also bringing back some of our more popular beers, which will be released on April 20 and we also have a beer called Mixed Media which is a play on beer-wine hybrid.
It is the closest thing we have produced where it is still considered a beer. We tried a beer like this in the past so it is definitely something we have already explored and have had a lot of success with it and customers have truly appreciated it.
How long have you been involved with Dogfish Head, what do you enjoy about your role when you are promoting new beer and original music daily, and how long have you been a fan of Dogfish Head before becoming officially employed?
I have been here for four and a half years. It is great because this does not feel like work when I can come here every day to get behind events and products that I am super proud of.
Personally, I have been a fan of the Dogfish products for dozens of years and one of my favorites is the 60-minute IPA — that is my go-to and the beer that got me interested in craft beer — my gateway beer.
I actually moved to Delaware because of Dogfish. I originally worked for Disney.
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So. In essence, you moved from a position at Disney World to the “Disney of Beers” in Delaware.
Exactly, Dogfish Head is definitely a unique, fun destination for craft beers.
What can Dogfish Head fans look forward to in the future?
Construction should be concluding by late May with a new brew house, new distillery, new merchandise shop, and an outdoor seating area that will be dog-friendly again.
IF YOU GO
Record Store Day
Where: Dogfish Head, Rehoboth Beach
When: Saturday, April 21
Cost: Free to attend
Info: www.dogfish.com