Ray Deter Is Remembered By Dan Shelton

 

Ray Deter Is Remembered By Dan Shelton

On Monday July 11, 2011 a huge group of people gathered for a Second Line memorial march for Ray, and on Wednesday July 13 a formal memorial service was held for close friends and family at the beautiful Marble Cemetery, coincidentally located opposite the backyard wall of D.B.A. Manhattan. Ray passed away on July 3 from injuries he suffered when he was hit by a car while biking to work on June 27.

The beautiful, moving service was followed by a reception at D.B.A., with the taps flowing freely, and a most elaborate spread of incredible food, which honored Ray's penchant for enjoying "good stuff." More like great stuff.

The bar was filled with many giants of the East Coast craft beer world, some traveling from afar, paying their respects. One whom was Dan Shelton, who was not only a colleague of Ray, but a close friend as well. The two "beer hunters" took numerous trips to Europe in search of obscure beers and breweries to expose to others. A number of very entertaining videos were made on these trips and will hopefully be made available soon.

In the meantime, we asked Dan to tell us something about Ray. What he said reaffirmed our perception of Ray as a guy who loved life and lived it on his own terms. Ray was a huge presence in the beer world as well as in our local community. Sadly gone, but never forgotten.

Ray Deter's Second Line

We had planned on having more than one podcast this week. But technical issues in recording an interview with one of Ray's close friends set us back a week. But we managed to at least post this podcast in honor of our friend Ray Deter, who passed away on July 3rd as the result of injuries sustained when he was hit by a car while on his bike. It's simply a sound recording, without an intro/outro or narration, from a memorial gathering held in his memory.
Ray's Second Line podcast

 

I couldn't count the throngs of people who showed up in front of D.B.A. East Village on Monday, July 11, 2011 to join in a New Orleans-style Second Line procession in celebration of the life of Ray Deter, but it was clear that Ray had a lot of fans, friends and admirers.

With a mix of sadness for the loss of a good guy, a good friend and a beer scene icon mixed with the joy of his legacy and happy memories, a colorful band of spirited kindred souls followed an impromptu collection of various horned instruments (sousaphone, trumpets, saxaphones, clarinet), drums, tambourines, washbord, bells, whistles -- even a melodica! -- playing some soulful N'orlans standards, like Basin Street Blues.

The procession began at D.B.A. on 1st Ave. with many carrying candles, hoisting colorful umbrellas and waiving white hankerchiefs. It traveled west on 3rd St., spilling into the street, then south on 2nd Ave., turning east on 2nd Street to Ave. B, making it's way to Ray's home on East 6th Street, where there were repeated cheers of "RAY!" and much whooping it up!

I recorded a nice section of "When the Saints Go Marching In" with some inspired horn solos on my digital recorder. Though the sound quality is iffy, it does catch a bit of the spirit of the march. I don't think anyone will forget this high-spirited, utterly unique (for NYC) celebration, just as none of us will ever forget the high-spirited, utterly unique Ray. In heaven there is only the BEST beer...

Central Mass. On The 4th Of July

B.R. and I spent a few days over the 4th of July weekend in Belchertown, Mass., the home of SHELTON BROTHERS IMPORTERS. (FULL DISCLOSURE: B.R. is an employee of Shelton Bros.) Yes, a beer importer located in a place called BELCHERtown. And while we thought that we'd be able to get some kind of coherent interview with the notorious founder of one of the most reputed importers of craft beer, Dan Shelton, over the weekend, let me just set the scene for you:
A lake-side Independence Day party; beer flowing from noon till midnight; an endless supply of bottles of the best beers from Germany, Belgium, England and elsewhere; and keg of HIGH AND MIGHTY "BEER OF THE GODS" on the deck, just for good measure.

After numerous sudsy swims (one involving floating about among a dozen beer denizens, beer mugs deftly kept above the waterline and the floating dock acting as the watery supply depot), by the time we got around to hitting the record button on the mini-disc player, it was kind of a lost cause.

To make it even more lost, I forgot my mini-disc recorder when we left.

The worse loss of the weekend, though, was that of RAY DETER, the founder of DBA, who passed away Sunday night after a week unconscious in the hospital following a bike accident -- Ray was toasted a number of times over the weekend.

Adding to everything else, I inadvertently downloaded the "lake app" to my Blackberry (in other words, the phone went for an unscheduled swim). And though we might have lost many things that weekend, all was not lost!

We were pointed in the direction of the very hidden away LADY KILLIGREW pub at the Montague Book Mill.

A Steep Drop to the Mill Stream Below the Lady Killigrew

It's about as beautiful a stream-side woodland setting that you could ever wish for in a secret country pub. I had a dark TRöEGS DOUBLE BOCK, while B.R. opted for the lighter Belgian wit style -- CISCO's LADY GREY. At first the double bock seemed the better choice, with it's fullness and richness, but in the warm summer afternoon air, that gave way more and more to a heavy licorice-like flavor that was hard to finish off. Though we made a new bug-pal who loved it!

We seriously got this bug, which is hard to see, drunk. Please don't tell the A.S.P.C.B(ugs).

The CISCO was perfect, though, with mild tartness, lightness and refreshment. The book shop next to the pub was insane! Anyone who might like to get lost in a maze of new and used books of every subject, strewn about in a creaky old mill building -- you've got to plan a visit.

There were many beer moments at many different locations over a short three days, but one of the best was our first ever taste of local brewing heroes HIGH AND MIGHTY. We were delighted to BEER OF THE GODS, a crisp satisfying Pilsner on draft at THE DIRTY TRUTH in downtown Northampton (the beer bar in town), as well as their full-bodied, flavorful Stout, DOUBLE HEADED BEAST. The next day we got to try their XPA, which is basically a very easy to drink, completely balanced Pale Ale. Want an "extreeeeme!!!" pale ale? Don't order this. This is strictly for simply like well made beer.

We tried the XPA at one of the the most idiosyncratic bars that we've visited in a while, the BRASS CAT in East Hampton, Mass., a place that sports maybe 8 taps and a diverse bottle list, all varied enough to please bikers, townies, tourists, beer geeks, drunks, weirdos, moms, off duty cops and your uncle floyd, all of which could be expected to be seen at the bar on any given afternoon. It's a beautiful bar and should be visited for that reason alone, but the beers and free salted peanuts in the shell from the barrel are added incentive.


Why were we in Easthampton? To meet Peach and to see the (possible) future home of HIGH AND MIGHTY.

Could this be the future site of 20bbl fermenters of Beer of the Gods?

And if so, will they leave the pin-up pictures from a previous tenant from god-knows-which decade?