May 2, 2013
Paying homage to nearby Utica, three Hamilton graduates have created punny “Utica is Brewtiful” t-shirts, available for sale exclusively online. Though all three were decidedly less interested in clothes when they were members of the original Hamilton Varsity Streaking Team, Adam Bedient ’04, Carrie Turvey Moores ’05 and Craig Moores ’05 are now the proud cofounders of Utica is Brewtiful (UIB).
“The ‘Ithaca is Gorges’ staple has haunted me since adolescence,” said Turvey Moores, a Clinton native who has had the UIB idea for a few years but only recently decided to design the shirt.
“If you bring up the concept of Utica to anyone who has lived in upstate New York for more than a year, it transcends geography, and becomes almost a meme unto itself; the colloquial accent, chicken riggies, the boilermaker, hot sauce and blue cheese on pizza, the Forever Leather guy, half-moons, Utica Club and Matt’s Brewery … the list goes on,” she says, noting that the lake effect snow and frequent cloud cover makes for “hardy” but “extraordinarily good-natured” people who love drinking beer.
In keeping with the Utica theme, even the names of the UIB tee colors make reference to Utica’s unique offerings; colors include “chicken riggie red,” “cloud cover grey” and “halfmoon cookie white.”
Turvey Moores and Bedient, who were raised in Clinton and have known each other since the first grade, have instilled in Moores, who grew up in Albany, a love of Utica and Utica Club.
While Turvey Moores and Moores, who are now married, met during the first day of orientation for studio art majors, Bedient and Moores “fell in love while shotgunning Utica Clubs outside of a Bundy party,” reports Moores. And Hamilton love abounds within the company; the background picture for the UIB website features a grinning Sean Tice ’06, founder of a thriving company called Brooklyn Slate. (http://www.brooklynslate.com)
When asked about the college student conundrum of purchasing beer for quantity or for quality Bedient responded that an ideal night “transitions seamlessly from a six-pack of Saranac Trail Mix into one to five cases of Utica Club.” A proponent of Matt’s Brewery, Moores said that a forty of Old English is “ideal for tubing the Oriskany Creek on a hot day.” Turvey Moores discloses that her favorite local beer is the “Utica Corona,”a Utica Club with a slice of lime.
Moores is now a general surgery resident at Yale New Haven Hospital, Turvey Moores does marketing and social media for a Connecticut private school and Bedient makes movies; however, all have visions of success for UIB and schemes for expansion. Turvey Moores imagines having a UIB “Union Suit,” one-piece long underwear that originated in Utica. Bedient dreams of tie-dye tanks and “beer helmets for our retro-novelty partiers.” Moores said,“If only a few people ever wear our shirts with pride, the company will be a success.”
To order your own UIB shirt, visit http://www.uticaisbrewtiful.com. The Hamilton community is encouraged to like “Utica is Brewtiful” on Facebook and post “Hamilton <3’s Utica” to automatically enter to win a free tee which will be raffled off on May 31.
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