Jammin' with Willie Carmichael

Another rockin' night at Cork Cellars for our Winter Music Series. Sat. night, Jan. 31st, Willie Charmichael arrived with his son-in-law in tow. Ted plays the upright bass - HOW coll is that. They played to a full house all night keeping us entertained and laughing. We had special guests in the audience - muscians Micheal Daly - who will be playing at Cork in April, Dan Chavers - a local folk artist, and Brad Tisdel - of the Sisters Folk Festival and a local favorite artist who has played at Cork Cellars last year.

The Winter Music Series is in full-swing - if you haven't been able to make an event yet, don't fret, you have 2 more months of music to put on your calendar! The only Sat. we do not have music planned is Feb. 14th. If you're looking for more Willie: he's coming back on Feb. 28th. Feb. 28th will be a VERY special night - it will be my last night at the shop before I have my 2-month maternity leave - I look forward to a big, swinging night of music and friends, and look forward to seeing you all there!

Other performers scheduled in the upcoming weeks: Feb. 21st: NTT. Feb. 28th: Willie. March 7th: Little Fish. For all the upcoming events check out our event list! See you soon.

A Jolly Pumpkin Good Time

Another great event we planned (didn't really plan, but it worked out) was a visit to the Jolly Pumpkin Brewery in Dexter, Michigan late in December 2008. Explaining my business to a friend, I mentioned I sold several micro-brews at the shop, including a Jolly Pumpkin beer from Michigan. My friend informed me that the Brewery was indeed close to Ann Arbor and that they did offer tours! Well, imagine my surprise when I called them that they were having a private tour later in the week that we could join - so we set our calendars and headed out on the assigned day!

Jolly Pumpkin Brewery is a unique Brewery in the heart of tiny-town Dexter, just west of Ann Arbor, MI. It's unique, in that, there are VERY FEW breweries that age all of their beer in wood casks (wood barrels that are exactly the same as wine barrels). The combination of ingredients, and time in the barrel differs with each beer. It was an incredibly fun learning experience - and fun to taste all the different beers!

The Brewery, itself, is located in a small building, just a block off of the downtown main street. It's completely unassuming - in fact, we had trouble finding it, as all the signage they had was a small decal on the front door! They typically don't offer the place as a "tasting room" - it's really just one big room jam packed with barrels, boxes, and brewing equipment.

The owner, Ron, his wife, and a handful of employees made the tour fun. Ron showed us around the brewery and offered up some of his tricks and trades to making the great beer. One point I should mention, Jolly Pumpkin Brewery does not make pumpkin beer. It turns out that the owners were drinking beer one night contemplating the name of the brewery they were about to start - and Jolly Pumpkin Brewery stuck out as an enjoyable, fun, funny, and easy going name - and it stuck! It was more than several years into it - and at last years batch, that a very formal request was offered for them to make a seasonal pumpkin beer...and they finally did. It was quite delicious! That's our brewery tour group with owner, Ron (picture to the left).

So, in short - we had a Jolly Pumpkin good time visiting this great brewery in Michigan, and are proud to offer these beers at our shop in Sisters, Oregon. Look for a Jolly Pumpkin Brew tasting at our shop in March or April of 2009! Cheers.