Friday, December 19, 2014

Beer Flights at the Bird Tonight

Straight from the press release:

"Greetings all fans of the Dark!

Dark Matters' Film Festival presents our second annual Dark Brew Festival. Kick off your Horror Bites: Winter Solstice weekend with an amazing array of vintage and one-off beer flights at the Bird of Paradise (5409 Gibson Blvd. SE).

We are featuring Stone Xocoveza Mocha Stout on draft -- the perfect dark and spicy brew to toast our festival. Santa Fe's Santa Sidra Cider will be on hand to provide samples of their superior Seca (dry) and Ligeramente Dulce (A Tad Sweet) bottled ciders.

Featured bottled beers include Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, Old Rasputin XVII Anniversary Barrel-Aged Stout, Straffe Hendrik Heritage 2012 Oak-Aged Quad, Traquair 2020, Rogue XS Old Crustacean (2012, '13 & '14), XS Dead Guy and Morimoto Imperial Pils; Odell 180 Shilling & Trellis Garden Ale; Deschutes Black Butte Porter, New Belgium/3 Floyds Grätzer (yay, zombies), Biira Montegioco Fumigant, and many more. Flight pours will be 6 oz. per beer.

And come early, because we're offering a bucket-list opportunity: 1.5 oz pours from Samuel Adams' Utopias 11 for only $10.50. Courtesy of the Bird of Paradise, we'll be raffling off an (empty but still highly collectible) Utopias bottle during the event.

Admission is a suggested $5 donation that goes towards the Dark Matters Film Festival. The event begins at 6:30 PM on Friday, December 19th.

Then come to The Guild Cinema (3405 Central Ave. NE) on Saturday, December 20th for an equally amazing assortment of dark delicacies as we present Horror Bites!!! -- our annual collection of the best short genre films from around the world. We're presenting three programs, sorted into Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and Animation. Screenings are at 4, 6 & 8 PM.
We are also pleased to co-sponsor the highly praised new horror film, The Babadook (2 PM and 10:30 PM). William Friedkin, director of THE EXORCIST, named it the scariest horror movie he has ever seen. Glenn Kenny (RogerEbert.com) called it "the first capital-G “Great” horror movie of the 21st Century."

Updates and further details can be found on www.facebook.com/darkmattersfilmfestival "

Appropriate that a beer tasting to benefit such a dark subject would be held in one of the seediest areas of town. You could take the area east of San Mateo and south of Central and quarantine it and I would never miss it- except for the Bird of Paradise. IT has employees who care about their beer selection regardless of the fact that 90% of the customers are after their Four Loko fix. And empty bottles, even as prized as the one being raffled off, become just that: empty bottles, when you're moving house and see just how many empty bottles and growlers you're going to have to pack. I won't be bidding on that Utopias empty, though I love the idea of splitting up the full bottle and selling pours. I saw this done in Boston and they were selling pours for $15, so you're getting a bargain. And who doesn't want some more of that elusive Bourbon County. Not mentioned in the release is that Mad River John Barleycorn Barleywine bottles will be sold for only $3 each.