Over the past month I’ve had the opportunity to create several new videos at Speakeasy Ales & Lagers, aided by an investment in a new full frame DSLR, the Nikon D810. The upgrade was long overdue and the results have been spectacular. The first project was a short video for Barrel-Aged Old Godfather Barleywine, and an even shorter fifteen-second promo for Massacre Belgian-style Imperial Stout.

The video for Barrel-Aged Old Godfather Barleywine documents blending day at the brewery. That’s when the barrels, aging beer 1-2 years, are emptied and combined with a fresh batch right before packaging. The goal was to simply illustrate the process and provide some general information about the beer. Production time was an afternoon of shooting with my new camera, and less than a day of editing. The long form version is a minute and thirty-two seconds long. I also created a fifteen second cut for publication on Instagram, which is about the attention span for online video these days.

The second video, promoting Massacre Belgian-style Imperial Stout, is an entirely different animal. It’s short and to the sensational point, finished in a style I’m calling Ken Burns meets Quentin Tarantino. The beer is released each year to coincide with the anniversary of the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. I took a few photos in our tap room, found a great sound effect, and pieced it all together in iMovie. Fifteen seconds isn’t a lot time, but the format is an interesting challenge, and may have a higher impact in the end.