pumpktoberfest #34 - one leaf to rule them all.

film: leprechaun
beer: greenport harbor leaf pile ale

as someone with a good bit of irish ancestry, i'm fully aware of the two irish stereotypes--the drunk & the leprechaun. both stereotypes are completely hilarious & i fully endorse further comedic use of the two. case in point: the 1993 horror film leprechaun, a film that launched a six-film franchise with such amazing direct-to-video concepts as leprechaun 4: in space & leprechaun: in the hood. it was the first film role for jennifer aniston, a role she took after spending a season on the short-lived ferris bueller TV series. it also features that dude who played a manchild in pee-wee's big adventure. he plays a manchild in this film too, so i guess that's sort of his thing. the leprechaun's played by warwick davis, who was willow in willow & wicket in return of the jedi.

the movie begins with this totally irish dude named daniel o'grady returning from a trip to ireland with a surprise for his wife--a pot of gold that he acquired after capturing a leprechaun. little does he know that the leprechaun is TOTALLY EVIL & has stowed away in his luggage. he finds out soon enough though, as the leprechaun kills his wife. he's only able to fight the leprechaun off by showing him a four leaf clover & then trapping him inside a box with the clover on top. things would've been just fine but then o'grady tries to torch the box & burn the house down but ends up having a stroke...leaving the leprechaun trapped in the box.

in fact, he's SO trapped in the box that ten years later, when jennifer aniston & her dad rent the place out for the summer, the box is still in the basement, untouched. when rachel & her dad arrive, there's a team comprised of this dude nathan, his lil bro alex & ozzie (the aforementioned manchild) who are around working on the house. one day the manchild is snooping around in the basement when he comes across the box with the leprechaun in it. he ends up knocking the four leaf clover off of the box, allowing the leprechaun to escape...so i guess the way it works is that the four leaf clover can trap the leprechaun in the box if it's sitting on top of it but if it's sitting on the ground next to the box, it doesn't work. i know you can't very well critique the reality of a film about a leprechaun but c'mon now.

nobody believes that ozzie's seen a leprechaun though. alex only believes him because they follow a rainbow & find a bag filled with a hundred gold pieces at the end. that spells bad news for them though, as the leprechaun wreaks tiny vengeance on anyone who tries to steal his gold. to make matters worse, ozzie accidentally swallows one of the gold pieces. for the rest of the film, they try to fight off & avoid the wise-cracking leprechaun, who keeps reminding us that he wants "ME GOLD." well highty-highty shillelagh, he talks JUST like an actual tiny irishman! overall, the film's tolerable but jennifer aniston's attempt at playing a rich girl fish out of water on the farm is just plain awful. what can you really expect from her though? even this early in her career, she could only play one character--jennifer aniston. luckily, the film's so ridiculous that it's hilarious. without that, it'd be unwatchable.

in honor of great leaves all across the world, a few times this pumpktoberfest i've travelled up to williamsburg to visit the gibson & get myself a pint of greenport harbor leaf pile ale. the leaf pile's not a new pumpkin beer this year but it's only available on tap, so by the time i finally got around to trying it last year, pumpktoberfest was already over. because of the tap-only thing, it's the only beer i've tried from greenport harbor but based on the leaf pile, i definitely want to try more of their brews. it's their autumn ale, one that they describe as "a slice of pumpkin pie in a glass." that description's pretty much par for the course though, as most brewers claim that their pumpkin beer embodies the spirit of a pumpkin pie.

i guess it was like pumpkin pie in a glass. it's a dark orange beer with somewhat of a hazy body to it that smells sort of like of pumpkin pie, as it's made with ginger, cinnamon, allspice & nutmeg. luckily, compared to many of the pumpkin beers out there, it goes easy on the spices but still works them into the flavor. the cinnamon's definitely the main spice in the mix. with the toned down spices, the pumpkin flavor sort of peeks through. all together, it's a well-done pumpkin beer, one that brings the pumpkin pie flavor without being overpowering or overly sweet. since it's late in the pumpktoberfest season, good luck finding it though. these days you might have better luck finding a pot of gold. of course, if you do find a pot of gold you'll be haunted by an evil leprechaun...who will throw out hilarious one-liners at you...which will be awesome...but he'll also try to kill you...which will NOT be awesome.