15,000 beers

This email was forwarded on to me.

Hello Brewers

As some of you know, Ellie and I are nearing the tasting of our 15,000th beer. This is an invitation to bring a beer and join us for a tasting at the Brickskeller on April 4th where we will write notes on #15,000.

When we turned 10,000 (we sometimes feel that old) we auctioned off a small event at the Brickskeller and raised some money for Children's Hospital. We want to do things a bit differently for this occasion for several reasons.

Our 10,000th beer was from the Pelican Brewery in Oregon . It had won a medal at GABF so we were pretty confident it would be a good beer for the occasion. It was.

But this time, we want the beer to come from one of you, our friends in the mid-Atlantic who have given so much to those of us who live here and appreciate good fresh beer. And we can't imagine anyone that we'd rather share the occasion with than the those who attend tastings at the Brickskeller and RFD and --especially-- you brewers who have joined us there so often. I've had more fun with you guys on the stage of the Bricks and RFD than I can describe. Ellie and I have visited most of your breweries and we feel truly fortunate to live in this area because you are a part of it.

We also want to use the occasion to raise some serious money for Children's Hospital. Last time we raised several hundred dollars. This time we hope we can raise several thousand. Dave Alexander has offered to send 100% of the admission price for this event to Children's Hospital. To maximize the amount we can send to the kids, we're asking everyone to pay the $50 admission to the event -- Ellie, me, and you included. We didn't come to the decision to pass a universal hat lightly-- we know all of you give generously in many ways throughout the year-- but it became clear in talking with several of you that many of you were actually enthusiastic about using this as a way of adding perhaps as much as an extra thousand dollars to the pot.

The 15,000th will work this way. We assume at least some brewers will bring a beer we have not tasted. We'll put the names of those we have not tasted in a hat and draw to determine which beer will become our 15,000th. I'm hoping that will generate some nice publicity for you (the 10,000th got some pretty nice write-ups).

If you don't have a new beer for us, we'd still love to have you bring a beer and celebrate the event with us.

I honestly don't know whether this event will draw interest from 3 or 4 brewers or most of the 30-something of you. I know the notice is short, even for me, for an event you weren't anticipating. We already know some of you can't make it on that date-- and we're most definitely not going to be insulted if you're not there. We chose the 4th because it's the best open date at the Brick anytime near the time we expect to hit 15,000.

I suppose this whole thing is subject to postponement if either Ellie or I come down with some sort of sudden and severe liver disease, but I'm trying not to think about things like that.

Hope we'll be seeing you on the 4th.
Bob & Ellie Tupper

Yes, Bob. I will be there at the Brickskeller, on 4 April, representing Hugh Sisson and the brewers of Clipper City Brewing Company. And to celebrate with you, I'll be bringing a keg of our new Holy Sheet Uber Abbey Ale.

[update: the event itself]