Victory Beer Blog

Life in a growing American brewery

17-Syllable Success!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 1:21pm

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today, we’re sharing the love by announcing the winner of our winter Inspired by Victory contest.

You chose a winner
“The Last Malts” claims Victory!
with forty-nine votes.

You have spoken — or typed, — and based on all of the comments, one haiku seemed to be the most inspirational. Clocking in with more than double the comments of any other 17-syllable submission, “The Last Malts” has claimed victory!

Our favorite comment in favor of this poem was from the eloquent Michael who wrote: This poem made me thirsty, then weep, then pee my pants. Now, that’s high praise! Other stand-out comments supporting Steve Krementz’s work include:

Beneath the froth of these tender lines, one finds a deep empathy with the entirety of the human experience. Mr. Krementz deserves more than to just be declared the victor of this contest, I believe he should be made poet laureate of the United States – perhaps the western hemisphere.

Any Haiku that can inlist (sic) the word “Huzzah” gets my vote. Superb!!

In order to rack up 49 comments in support of his haiku, Steve surely had some loyal friends and family submitting comments on his behalf. Like the time-honored tradition where the popular kid gets the most votes, Mr. Krementz used his cool status to secure the win. Kudos! $50 and some Victory goodies will be on their way to you shortly.

Honorable mentions include:
“Beer Traveler” from Brian Altschul, with 24 comments.
“Prima Prose” from Sherri L Clyman, with 21 comments.
“Have Your Beer and Drink it Too” from Maddy Weber, with 20 comments.
“Malty Marriage” from Peter Cunniffe, with 16 votes.
And the one that gave our voting panel the most giggles (despite only garnering one vote), “Reviewer Lingo” from John Blatz.

Thank you all for being Inspired by Victory and for making this contest our most successful so far. We’ll announce our next Inspired contest in April, so get ready for your next chance to win.

To enjoy all of the inspired submissions check out our contest page.

Haiku To You

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 5:52pm

We are absolutely floored by the haiku submissions many of you sent to us as part of our Inspired by Victory Winter Haiku Contest. Who knew that so many Victory fans were poets? Now we are really curious, which came first: the poet or the booze?

The purpose of the Inspired by Victory contest series is to find out how our brews stimulate your creative side. Based on what we received, it seems that our creations (and the possibility of a cash prize) transform beer drinkers into poets.

How did we form this hypothesis? Based on the whopping 145 haikus we received. That, and the fact that even Brewmaster Bill Covaleski couldn’t resist playing along.

Enjoy his verses below and then head over to our contest page to comment on your favorite fan submissions.

bitter becomes sweet
a reverie unfolding
I sip my HopDevil

made by bill and ron
this liquid delights me so
head of barley bliss

did I hear my name
adrift in a hoppy sea
Storm King, it is you

with a task to do
aimless I now wonder at
this Golden Monkey

- K.N.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy — Contest Winner Announced

Monday, October 31, 2011 at 9:05am

There were so many gourd-geous entries in our Inspired by Victory: Pumpkin Carving contest that our esteemed Victory judges couldn’t decide on one winner. So instead, they turned to the power of the people, letting the number of comments determine the winning Jack-O-Lantern.

And the winner is . . . V for Victory, entry number one, carved by Chris Foresta. Cheers Chris, Victory is yours!

Thank you again to everyone who sent in photos of their creatively carved pumpkins, and to those of you who took the time to comment on them. Stay tuned for our next Inspired by Victory contest, which will be announced in January.

Check out all of the inspired carvings here.

- K.H.

Carving out the Rules

Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 1:24pm

We get pretty excited about the Inspired by Victory contests here at the Victory offices. So when the first entry in the pumpkin carving contest came in last week, a group of us gathered ’round the computer and waited with baited breath while the photos from a Victory fan named Josh loaded. Would it be the Victory V? Horace Hop Wallop? The HopDevil? Bill’s face?

Nope.

Now, while we can all agree that is a pretty awesome Jack-O-Lantern, and it might in fact be what happens to Josh when he can’t get a Golden Monkey, the pumpkin unfortunately doesn’t follow the rules. (Rule number one being, it must feature a Victory logo, slogan or brand image. But while we’re in parentheticals here, can we take a moment and think about what the mini pumpkin is supposed to represent, if the large pumpkin is Josh when he can’t get Golden Monkey? Josh, we hope you’re not eating small pumpkins. Or small people for that matter, since that is a cannibal pumpkin.)

We did really like Josh’s pumpkin, and decided to use said gourd to illustrate and amend some of the contest rules.

Rule number 1: Your pumpkin must feature an image of a Victory logo, slogan, brand or brand character.

Addendum: It can also feature the face of one of the Victory co-founders, either Bill or Ron, but you have to actually carve their faces on the pumpkin.

Rule number 4: The pumpkin must be carved. Painted pumpkins don’t count. Neither do foam or craft pumpkins. It has to be a real pumpkin, like the kind you would find growing in a field.

Addendum: Tattooed pumpkins that are also carved are acceptable, as long as the carver has a matching tattoo. Photographic proof will be required.

Rule number 7: Cutting off the top of the pumpkin and filling it with beer also does not count. Please don’t do that. Victory beer does not want to be consumed from a pumpkin, it wants to be consumed from a glass.

Addendum: It’s cool if your pumpkin actually drinks the beer.

UPDATED: Get carving out there, we want to see more Victory pumpkins! Remember, check out the rules, carve it up and e-mail a photo to inspired@victorybeer.com by Monday, Oct. 17. We’ll post the photos on Tuesday, Oct. 18 and announce the winner on Halloween.

 

 - K.H.

And the Victory goes to…

Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 8:38am

The submissions for our first-ever Inspired by Victory contest made us laugh, cry (the good kind), scratch our heads and then applaud our awesome fans for their creativity.

The panel of judges convened last week for a viewing party and a vote. We did a bit of bantering, but ultimately the decision was unanimous.  And the winner is…

Choose Your Brew!

By incorporating four of our beer brands into one video, the Choose Your Brew crew immediately caught the attention of everyone on the judging panel. We loved the creative idea, the host’s ridiculous clip-on moustache and the somewhat inappropriate double entendres from Mr. Golden Monkey. But what really had us rolling was Mr. Prima Pils’ interesting German accent. It truly was inspired.

Honorable mention (and a bunch of Victory goodies) goes to:

  1. Victory in Space by Victory Dog for the overwhelming number of comments it inspired. We loved the music video concept and the great editing work.
  2. Victory on a Bad Day for making it a good day for us. We were certainly sucked in to the song and the dizzying effects.
  3. Victor Victorson for making Headwaters Pale Ale part of his fitness regime. Also, kudos for keeping in touch with grandma.

We ask all participants in the contest to please send an email to inspired@victorybeer.com with your name, your video name, mailing address and t-shirt size so that we can send you your winnings.

Thanks to the success of this contest we are thrilled to announce that we will be continuing the Inspired by Victory contest series. Check back in a week to see what our next challenge will be and what you could win by participating.

To watch all of the amazing submissions, visit our contest page.