Bringing the people together. What a concept! We mean, riots bring people together, don’t they? And so do funerals, until the after-ceremony lunch is over and every member of your family competes to see who can ditch the bill the fastest. Hoyt Smith is an OG in bringing people together and making you get down, and tonight at Peaks and Pints he will be doing just that celebrating the 33rd anniversary of the MTV’s Top 20 Countdown with an 1990s rock explosion during our SudsPop music and beer series. No death or anger required.
Every month Peaks and Pints invites a craft brewery to create a three-hour soundtrack, pour its craft beer and award prizes during zany games. We call the Monday nights “SudsPop.” Fort George Brewery is our SudsPop guest brewery in March. Tonight, instead of zany games, Fort George sales executive Smith spins from Peaks and Pints’ loft with trippy visuals on our 130-inch screen. The Astoria, Oregon’s beers will flow from our Western red cedar tap log.
Smith has been spreading the Fort George goodness in Washington state since September 2015.
“Actually, I started selling beer before that fateful day in September 2015,” says Smith. “I was a backup buyer for Whole Foods in Seattle. My store sold singles of Fort George Vortex IPA and Cavatica Stout, which were in my alcohol budget, and my wheelhouse stylistically.”
In August 2015, Smith made a social media comment about a tasty Finnriver Lavender cider, unaware Fort George Sales Manager Tim Ensign’s wife, Jana, was the national sales director for the cidery. “Fort George needed a sales rep for Washington, and Tim, the El Jefe of sales, was given the task,” explains Smith. “I had hung out with Tim when he was up visiting Whole Foods. I was 5 minutes south of the Canadian border when I received a Facebook message from Tim offering me the position. I told him I’d let him know when I got back to the country. I started September 1st.”
As for DJing, Smith founding the passion via his first garage band.
“When I was 14, my first garage band, The Outlets, played for an eight-grade graduation at Rattlesnake Elementary School in Missoula, Montana,” explains Smith while sipping at Fort George Brewery The Optimist IPA. “We got done setting up, and weren’t going to play for a bit, so I plugged in my portable CD player and had a book of CDs that I just played through before we performed.”
He was hooked, and so was Missoula. Smith spun at many of his high school dances, as well as a wedding or two. He still spins in Seattle, as well as plays guitar for Hounds of the Wild Hunt.
Come together at Peaks and Pints tonight, enjoy The Optimist IPA, May The Oats Be With You Stout and other Fort George craft beers while DJ Hoyt takes you back in time to when Adam Curry and Kennedy ruled the music airwaves.
SUDSPOP WITH FORT GEORGE BREWERY, 6 p.m., Monday, March 13, Peaks and Pints, 3816 N. 26th St., Basecamp Proctor, Tacoma, no cover
