Before You Sip Consider, Should I Drink That?

Dormont resident Doug “Father Spoon” Derda, 35, became interested in craft beers back in the late 1990s with his first taste of Erie Railbender, produced by Erie Brewing Co. Being a native of Erie, it was a perfect pairing and he hasn’t looked back on a boring beer since.

After moving to Cranberry, he met Brad “Sick Puppy" Brown, who also had a love of exotic beers. The pair started traveling around looking to taste the newest and best beers in town.

After finding a few podcasts on the Internet that focused on unusual and out of the ordinary adult beverages, the duo started to discuss creating an audio podcast all about craft beer.

Since this show is about having fun, the pair decided to create online names to use to make things more interesting. Derda’s nickname in college was Spoon. Father was added when he started forgiving people for all of the stupid things that they did while intoxicated. Brown has a sick and twisted sense of humor, so Sick Puppy was a perfect fit, and their Internet identities were born. 

After going back and forth trying to decide on a title, most ideas just didn’t seem quite right. They came up with the show’s name by realizing what question they were asked most in bars. What should I drink? They turned that into ShouldIDrinkThat.com  in 2006. 

Their expectations were to do five shows. With five years and 70 episodes under their beer glass, they record their podcast once a month and receive over 6,000 hits per episode.

Most episodes revolve around a theme, even though they tend to go off topic on occasion. Their first podcast was on Cinco de Mayo and featured all Mexican beers. 

According to Derda, "the show is for the everyday beer drinker who wants to try something beside Coors, Miller and Budweiser products," while Brown taps into the fine art of home brewing that he has a passion for. By design, most beers reviewed are available in the Pittsburgh area.

Although they do not consider themselves to be beer elitists, they will be honest in their opinion while reviewing beers. Derda’s favorite beer, besides the one currently in his hand, is Southern Tier Gemini Unfiltered, and the most unsavory beer he’s ever had is Chelada, which is a mixture of Bud Light and Clamato.

If getting your fill of craft beer once a month isn’t enough for you, Derda, being a social media enthusiast, also keeps up a craft beer blog where he explores deeper into the craft culture.

With more than 1 million downloads on iTunes, Derda is exploring new horizons. His vision is to expand the show into satellite radio to be able let loose a bit more; and a possible video show on the Internet to let the show become more interactive with its viewers.

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