Tap Handle #834: Pinglehead

September 04, 2024

Tap Handle #834: Pinglehead - Danse Macabre

Tap size: 10.75"

Rarity: hand-made, 50 or less seen, brewery closed

Mounting: 3/8" ferrule on 5/16" anchor bolt

I avoided Pinglehead's tap for several years, as it gave me a "toy on a stick" vibe, and I'm not a fan of evil clowns staring at me from across the room. But after watching Museum Restoration Artist Kelly repaint one for a friend and seeing how amazing it turned out, I had to have one for myself. I got one for a great price but it was missing the label. Looking through photos of taps, I didn't really like the checkered pattern they used, although I recognize that it fits the clown theme. Turning to Pinglehead's beer labels, I was struck by the artwork for their Danse Macabre Pumpkin Barleywine. The art was created by Kyle Robert Willis, an artist local to the Jacksonville, Florida area and a friend of the brewery. As a big fan of Barleywine beers, I knew this was the beer style and art for my tap. The problem? I was going to have to create my own tap label since it didn't exist anywhere. So I took a shot at it but had some problems, including scratching it and air bubbles. My label making skills have improved since this was originally made, so I'll probably make a new one. The tap itself is pretty simple, with the name of the brewery in red sculpted letters across the top, an evil looking green-haired clown head, and a shaft/base with signage area for a label towards the bottom. What does an evil clown have to do with Pinglehead Brewing? I have no idea, the design is a mystery to me. I've seen about 30 of these hit the secondary market over the years, although a few of those were probably the same tap changing hands. Lately these have become harder to find, possibly due to the brewery closing in 2023. The historical price has been between $50-$100, with some occasionally hitting the $150-$200 range. In 2022 the tap took a big jump in price, and one that was listed immediately after the brewery closed sold for $300! Only one has appeared this year at the time of this writing; it did not have a label and sold for $142.

Pinglehead Brewing was founded in Orange Park, Florida in 2011. Brewer's Pizza opened in 2009 as a brewpub with a small brewing component which was used to make house brews by brewer Michael Payne. The pizza-based brewpub occupied two store fronts in a strip mall near the Orange Park mall. After Payne departed to open his own brewery in 2011, his assistant Keegan Malone took over brewing operations. Malone's training was hands-on at Brewers, continuing to brew house beers on their 5 barrel system under the newly-founded Pinglehead Brewing name (a sister business to Brewer's and located in the same space), but Malone won an annual scholarship given out by the Florida Brewers Guild, and subsequently received training at the Siebel Institute in Chicago. Brewer's Pizza received a brewer's license in 2012, allowing them to expand brewing operations and distribute their beers to other local establishments. The name Pinglehead was invented as the mythical god of “Big Beer”. Pinglehead consisted used the term "Big Beer" to describe their offerings, and their motto was "beer with an attitude". The water for their beer came from the Floridan Aquifer.

The brewpub dedicated a half-dozen taps to Pinglehead brews, with another 20 taps serving offerings from popular brewers such as Cigar City, Ommegang, Anderson Valley, Abita, Brooklyn, Bells, Lazy Magnolia, and more. They also had a cooler with about 50 bottled offerings. Their signature food was their “Florida Smacker” pan pizzas. Reviews of Pinglehead beers were mostly positive over the following years, but in 2023, the owners of Pinglehead and Brewer's Pizza announced that they were closing. They said that the brewpub was not financially sustainable, having been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and they were not able to recover from. They tried offering special events and deals to remind people of their local connection and the good products they brewed, but it wasn't enough. The bills kept piling up and the sales kept slowly trending down. After thanking their customers and inviting them to buy some of the restaurant's decor as a souvenir, they did an about face and announced that a business connection would handle all of the tangible items belonging to the brewpub, so they were no longer able to sell tap handles, art and other merchandise.

Pinglehead's Danse Macabre was a pumpkin barleywine, made with English malts and hops, a pumpkin spice blend from All Spiced Up in San Marco, Madagascar vanilla beans, and real pumpkin, and then barrel aged. It had a malty, sweet, pumpkin and pumpkin spice flavor. Danse Macabre was only available as a seasonal beer in October.