What’s that in the sky?
It’s a bird!
It’s a…wait..is it a bird?
Does that bird have beer?
It’s that bird delivering beer?
Huh. How about that?
You have to check out this awesome video just posted by Vancouver Island based Phillips Brewing & Malting Co, who just delivered their new craft Pilsner with a bird. And not just any bird…a bald eagle. (Although I gotta admit, a beer-delivering-pigeon would be pretty cool, too. Maybe they’re saving it for the sequel.)
Well…not actually a real bald eagle, but a drone! Phillips had trained a real bald eagle named Hercules to deliver the beer, but he was grounded due to red tape from the Ministry. Instead, Hercules ended up at the controls, piloting the drone himself.
Hercules is a rescue eagle that lives at The Raptors in Duncan, an educational facility dedicated to the conservation of birds of prey. This isn’t the first time he’s been involved with video. He flew with a GoPro for David Suzuki’s ‘Nature of Things’ TV show.
The video is the conclusion of a campaign that gathered winners of the Phillips ‘Beer From A Bird’ contest gather on a yacht in Vancouver, to be the first in the world to get their beer delivered by a drone-bird.
The high-flying campaign launched 6 weeks ago. On the website beerfromabird.com people entered to be the lucky recipient of feathered delivery. The website also features videos of the bird in training, an interview with personnel at the Raptors facility, and even footage of Hercules picking the contest winners…with his beak.
I actually just tried my first Phillips a few weeks ago when I was visiting Victoria, but the guys behind Phillips Brewing & Malting Co. are known for their originality. They have resident artists at their Willy Wonka style brewery, they built their own 32 foot-long Gypsy Wagon beer sampler and – in their constant quest for quality ingredients – are the first brewery in Canada with a malting facility.
The brewery’s founder Matt Phillips explains the Beer From A Bird campaign Revised Quote: “We love experimenting. When we consider why we should do something, we often find the answer to be ‘why not’. That’s why we transformed a 53’ tractor trailer into the ultimate mobile pub, and why we’re the only brewer in Canada to malt our own barley in-house. Plus, eagles are majestic, bold and beautiful; beer is often the same.â€
I’m already excited to see what they do next, but until then, cheers to Phillips for creating the world’s first beer-delivering bird on a drone!
