The DuClaw Real Ale Festival just got bitchier.

Over the past few weeks, we asked you to vote on Twitter on the two firkins we’ll feature at the DuClaw Real Ale Festival Saturday, September 11 in Bel Air, MD.

The winners? Raging Bitch Belgian-Style IPA and Gonzo Imperial Porter. Matt Crow doesn’t like to be told what to do very often, but these selections brought a smile to his face.

Thanks for voting and we’ll see you there!

Matt Crow wants you to tell him what to do. (We bet his wife would love that kind of attitude.)

On Saturday, September 11, we’ll be participating in the DuClaw Real Ale Festival in Bel Air, MD. And Matt, our Capital Division Sales Manager, wants you to tell him what firkins to bring.

Here are your choices; please pick two (2):

• Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale
• Snake Dog IPA
• Raging Bitch Belgian-Style IPA
• Gonzo Imperial Porter
• Double Dog Double Pale Ale
• Single Hop Imperial IPA, our latest one-off with Simcoe hops

Send your vote to Matt via Twitter (@FlyingDogCrow) and include the hashtag #IWantThisFuckingFirkin - and remember to pick 2.

We’ll announce the winners the week leading up to the festival.

For more information and to purchase tickets for the fest, visit the DuClaw Real Ale Fest website.

We’re not very a very patient bunch, especially when we’re hot, bothered, and worn down from the dog days of summer.

So when that first batch of our fall seasonal, Dogtoberfest Märzen, goes into the tank to ferment for 49 days (the longest out of all of our beer), we’re a touch antsy.

But when this sleeping beast of 100% imported German hops and malt awakens from its fermentation slumber, we’re excited. So excited that we shoot video of it on the bottling line and set it to trendy music:

Break out your leiderhosen and dust off your stein, jungen und mädchen. Dogtoberfest is coming!

Yesterday, we got some pretty awesome news.

A panel, put together by The New York Times’ Eric Asimov, reviewed the nation’s best American Pale Ales. Our Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale was rated No. 1, beating out the likes of Samuel Adams, Dogfish Head, Oskar Blues, Lagunitas, and Sierra Nevada.

“Our consensus favorite, the Doggie Style Classic from Flying Dog, was one of the hoppier beers in the tasting, with a clean, crisp, almost bracing bitterness, like a pilsner,” Asimov said. “For a beer that calls itself ‘classic,’ it pushes the boundaries of the pale ale style. Nonetheless, it was fresh, balanced and a pleasure to drink.”

In addition to our individual accolade, Asimov touched on the kinds of things that get us out of bed in the morning.

“Nowadays, American brewers are among the most creative in the world, in the vanguard of pushing and transforming established styles of beer.”

He continued, “all of us were impressed by the consistently high quality of these beers. American brewers seem to have this style down cold, although we found more than a few variations on the theme…What all these beers had in common, however, was balance and harmony. You could drink them over a long afternoon in the sun, whether at a ballgame, a barbecue or the beach, and still feel refreshed and energetic.”

Read the full New York Times article. Obviously, we recommend perusing it with a cold Doggie Style in hand.

Chances are you have wasted hours of your life trying to find your car keys. You know the drill: Anger, cursing, and irritation of the highest order (especially when you discover them in the most obvious place).

The misplaced cell phone is another beast: Anxiety and fear quickly followed by panic. (That’s right. You didn’t need insurance on that fancy new smart phone.)

Similar emotions can be felt when you can’t find Flying Dog beer. But not anymore:

Introducing the new “Find Our Beer” feature on our website*.

Now, whether you are in Plano, Texas or Peabody, Massachusetts, it will only take seconds to locate your favorite Flying Dog brews at the location nearest you. All you need is your zip code.

* Flying Dog Brewery apologizes in advance if making it easier to find our beer results in more lost keys and misplaced cell phones.

In Fear and Loathing in America, Hunter S. Thompson described his “homebase fortress” in Woody Creek, Colorado as “a very important psychic anchor for me, a crucial grounding point where I always knew I had love, friends & good neighbors….When I made that hairpin turn up the hill onto Woody Creek Road, I knew I was safe.”

No matter where our road takes us, we will always remain loyal to our own Colorado roots - from Woody Creek to Aspen to Denver.

This Thursday, June 24, we’re opening up a new Denver tap room to feed our frenzy of Rocky Mountain fans, friends, and neighbors.

From 4 to 6 pm, we’ll be giving out free samples of our 20th anniversary Raging Bitch Belgian-Style IPA and summer seasonal Woody Creek White Belgian Wit. Additional pints and bottles can be purchased for $4 to $5, along with Flying Dog merchandise.

The tap room is tucked away on the corner of Broadway, Arapahoe, and Park Avenue West. Admittedly, it’s a little tough to find (even when we aren’t a few pints into the night). The address is 2330 Broadway, Suite 104, but a map’s a a bit more helpful:

The tap room will be open throughout the summer on Thursdays and Fridays from 4 to 6 pm.

A moving collection of black and white photography, accompanied by raw, authentic essays, Phlogs: Journey to the Heart of the Human Predicament, is Flying Dog founder George Stranahan’s latest book with co-author Nicole Beinstein Strait. It was recently the winner of the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Awards in the Coffee Table Book/Photography category and the second place winner in the Non-Fiction Book category.

This Wednesday, George will be at Flying Dog’s new Denver tasting room from 5 to 7 pm signing copies of Phlogs. The event is free and open to the public. We’ll be giving away a few signed copies of Phlogs, along with free Flying Dog beer and munchies.

From there, George will be heading over to The Tattered Cover in LoDo for a signing at 7:30 pm.

Not in the Denver area? Order a copy of Phlogs. Consuming copious amounts of Flying Dog beer while reading is optional.

Due to thunderstorms looming over the Washington, DC area, the 4th annual Bow Wow Pow Wow in Adams Morgan has been rescheduled for Sunday, May 2 from 11 am to 5 pm. It will still be held at the original location: Marie Reed School at the 2200 block of 18th Street, NW.

Working with the Adams Morgan Main Street Group, Flying Dog Brewery is sponsoring the festivities for our two- and four-legged friends, which will include:

• Maryland’s Dog Whisperer
• Dog training clinics
• Canine freestyle dancing and agility demonstrations
• On-site pet adoption
• Vendors

To learn more, visit the Bow Wow Pow Wow website.

Flying Dog is also partnering with Adams Morgan bars and restaurants for a series of “Yappy Hours” leading up to the event. Keep an eye on the Events Calendar on our website for details.

Last Saturday’s 2010 World Beer Cup became the world’s largest commercial beer competition with 3,330 beers entered by 642 breweries in 90 beer style categories.

No stranger to the World Beer Cup, our Vintage 2007 Gonzo Imperial Porter received a Silver Medal in the Aged Beer category. (In 2008, it won a Gold Medal in the American-Style Imperial Stout category.)

Delicious in all forms, as Gonzo Imperial Porter ages, the roasted, coffee notes change to smooth chocolate and toffee flavors, which softens the hop bite. Although alcohol notes are not noticeable in newly packaged Gonzo, they become even less as it ages.

The thrill and anticipation of Major League Baseball’s opening day has come and gone, but Flying Dog is here to stay.

Our Snake Dog IPA is on draft at all of the craft beer stations at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore and our In-Heat Wheat Hefeweizen is on draft at Nationals Park in Washington, DC.

Whether your screaming “How ’bout them O’s!” on Eutaw Street or chanting “Let’s go Nats” on the Riverfont, you can now support your local brewery while rooting for the home team.