Bicycle Beer Delivery for New Belgium

Yes, this post is as cool as it sounds: today I helped deliver the first 22 cases of New Belgium beer in Dayton via bicycle. I even foolishly—and intentionally—chose the longest and hilliest of the three routes: up to Belmont Party Supply before rolling down Wayne to end at 5th Street Brewpub. Why, you may ask? Because I’m a glutton for good times! Along the way, we also hit Tank’s, South Park Tavern, and Dublin Pub.

I was told to show up at Bonbright Distributors at 3:00, so I put on all the warm clothes I could find, strapped the panniers on, and rolled out. Once there, we got everyone organized into three groups, and packed up all the beer. Sadly, I did not plan effectively as others in regards to strapping the beer down on the bike (sorry, I was last minute), and instead had to break open the case of deuce-deuces and put them in the panniers. So lame. Thus, I didn’t get to roll around with the beer strapped to the back of the bike. Stupid bad planning! We did take the now empty box along for delivery purposes, though. Once we headed out, it was straight up Steward Street for the long slow climb to Belmont. We took a break on the way up at Tank’s, and then rolled to Belmont, where Gus Stathes happily took our delivery. The one upside after leaving Belmont was that it was all downhill the rest of the way. The one downside to all that free coasting, however, was the wind chill and dropping temperatures from the disappearing daylight. Still, the coast down Wayne Avenue was less
annoying than most other road biking in Dayton as there was a mass of other riders and we were also carrying beer—there was none of the usual honking and cursing I’ve come to expect from my fellow Daytonians for foolishly deciding to ride a bike on the road. One of my favorite moments of the afternoon was watching Rob from Thai 9 and Giri from Cavalier try and hide from the camera when we were delivering beer to South Park Tavern. You know, that whole conflict-of-interest thing. Hilarious! After a quick delivery to the Dublin Pub, we hit 5th Street Brewpub, where we stopped long enough to toast our success and drink a couple of bottles of the Fat Tire we just delivered. Delicious! It was then onto Brixx Ice Co. for Ranger IPA and Fat Tire on tap, and to trade delivery stories with the other two groups, and hear about the trip down to Jungle Jim’s, which would be quite a trip in this weather! After a couple of pints of Ranger, I called it an evening and headed towards home. All in all, a super-awesome event, one that I wish happened more regularly. Tom Helbig, one of the riders in my group, made a video of the event you can find here. Bikes and beer, beer and bikes. Word.

(12/11/2013)