Common Man Cocktails

Common Man Cocktails is a daily Video Show featuring Derrick Schommer and Doug Petersen and is part of the BitStreamTV, LLC network first launched on July 26, 2008. The show highlights a new cocktail recipe five days a week, usually submitted by their fans, which involves creating the cocktail and performing a taste test for their unique "tasting notes" and description of the cocktail design. Every now and again there are additional episodes which go through spirit infusions, spirit tastings and product/accessory reviews. To date, there have been 1059 Common Man Cocktail episodes.

A new DIY cocktail episode airs on Tuesday - Friday and one on Sunday entitled Sunday Night Shooters. The show, which has been airing on Youtube, iTunes, iFood.tv, and Mevio for years currently has over 18,000 subscribers on their Youtube Channel. Fans of Common Man Cocktails have learned better buying techniques for spirits, how to best utilize the products they own at home and which spirits work best in a cocktail. Since the creation of the show, viewers have found themselves becoming more comfortable making cocktails for friends and a few have used Common Man Cocktails as a launching point for applying for bartending positions.

History

Once started as a basic audio podcast in which the host and four co-hosts talked AbOUT everything drinking (this explains the “everydaydrinkers” moniker) but has since formed into something HD-video related. Common Man Cocktails, the "main focus and effort of our production is a show on how to make cocktails and we do it with enthusiasm and energy, like all things should be done."

The first youtube episode entitled EverydayDrinkers: Perfect Mai Tai was uploaded on July 26, 2008 and started out with three episodes a week. However, as optimization of editing and time for each show became easier to handle, the show moved to a five episode a week format. There have only been a few weeks in which Common Man Cocktails was unable to air, one which was due to Derrick Schommer's son being diagnosed with Leukemia. However, even during the treatment in the hospital Derrick and his wife would film on Friday nights and release an episode each day.

The entire production of Common Man Cocktails began as a 2-person job with Derrick Schommer hosting every episode and camera work, sound and editing performed by his wife Jennifer Schommer. Over the years, a number of guest hosts have been on the show with Derrick's cousin Douglas Petersen becoming a permanent fixture on August 28, 2012. Jennifer Schommer has also taken on the role of managing the life stream chat room to interact with fans and read questions and comments to the show crew during recording.

To celebrate the 4th year of cocktail recipe video creations, Common Man Cocktails released their 4-Year Anniversary Flashback: There And Back Again in which Derrick Schommer flashes back through the episodes from the past, explains the situation with his son Leukemia diagnoses and gives more background details about what has gone into the creation of the cocktail show.

On July 16, 2012 Common Man Cocktails signed with FullScreen.net a youtube advertising partner and on December 12, 2012 The 3rd Annual Streamy Awards announced the nomination of Common Man Cocktails in the DIY / How-To category.

Show vs. HOWTO

Common Man Cocktails is a cocktail recipe show, which goes through the creation ("howto") of building a specific cocktail but extends the show through Derrick and Doug's personality, life adventures and questions of the day to their audience all wrapped in a light hearted casual humor. Unlike a typical 2-minute howto video, Common Man Cocktails ranges from 6–15 minutes in length and works hard to keep their community involved and engrossed in the show. This includes commenting and responding to the audience through youtube, in the show's new LIVE format or e-mail; fans love to interact with the host in a more back-and-forth manner compared to traditional TV programs.

Recording Schedule

Common Man Cocktails is a daily cocktail show but it is recorded once a week with five show tapings back-to-back. Usually, the show is tapped on a Friday night and edited on Sunday night. Each episode is then released on their schedule day-to-day. Historically, most fans thought the show was tapped once a day because Derrick Schommer would change his shirt after each cocktail so it looked as if the show was only taped once at a time. This process was tedious and eventually he revealed that the show was tapped all in one sitting; each cocktail is then poured out after the show so to finish all episodes and remain sober.

On January 18, 2013 Derrick Schommer and Common Man Cocktails will head to Gordon's Wine for a live tasting event to get more cocktail exposure into the hands of liquor and spirit buyers in Massachusetts.

Common Man Cocktails LIVE

Starting in July 2012, Common Man Cocktails started running live recordings of their show, typically on Friday nights at 7:30PM GMT-5 on UStream. Fans login and watch all the behind the scenes action and show setup for each episode while being able to see all five shows tapped all at once and then watch them again on Youtube or through one of their distribution channels.

Recipe Submissions

Common Man Cocktails is very user-driven in content with almost all episode recipes being submitted by their audience. From mixologist, bartender to cocktail enthusiast hundreds of recipes are submitted each month to air on the show in future episodes. Each episode is credited with the submitter and can range from very sweet and easy to make cocktail creations to the more classic pre-prohibition cocktail design.

Each recipe attempts to utilize different spirit brands to build more consumer exposure to new brands by using the spirit on the show, text-based reviews and, more recently, video based spirit reviews.

Industry Advertisers and Sponsors

Common Man Cocktails has given many brands an opportunity to show their labels to a very specific cocktail audience. To date, Common Man Cocktails has had a few great sponsors including:

• Tito's Vodka
• Ecco Domani
• G'Vine Gin
• Veev Açaí Spirit
• 10 Cane Rum
• Haamonii Smooth Shochu
• GarnishBar.com
• Partida Tequila
• AwesomeDrinks.com

Distribution and Channels

• iFood.tv - Featured Video Show
• Mevio.com (Men's Category)
• Youtube
• iTunes - Top Featured Arts > Food Category
• Roku
• Boxee

Awards

• 2010 Blogger Spotlight - Perfect Puree's Beverage Artistry for new cocktails
• 2012: Streamy Award for Best DIY or HOWTO Series (nomination)

Family Show Spin-Offs

On September 16, 2012 Derrick Schommer's children launched their first web video show called Mocktails4Kids taking after their father. The Two hosts, ages 7 and 9, are more than likely two of the youngest hosts of a youtube channel. The show takes after Common Man Cocktails by creating non-alcoholic versions of cocktails including the kids own inventions and ends with tasting notes as guidance for non-alcoholic mocktail enthusiasts.