If you’re a regular follower of the bizarre and wonderful world of YouTube, you probably remember this video that made the rounds a few years back, in which Dan Aykroyd pitches his very own diamond-filtered vodka brand, Crystal Head. Aykroyd is a self-proclaimed spiritualist with an interest in UFOs, and he wrote Ghostbusters because of a fascination with the occult. The video itself deals as much with these factors as it does with the booze, which is what makes it so oddly hilarious—no one really thinks of vodka when they think of ghosts, nor do they expect a legendary comedian to take either thing all that seriously. The Internet responded with the urge to buy crazy shit that the Internet tends to have, and Crystal Head became a relatively well-known brand—even John Hodgman took a glug for the sake of Web giggles.

As part of SF Cocktail Week, of which Crystal Head was a sponsor, Aykroyd himself attended a party and cocktail competition last Friday at Matrix Fillmore. Leaving the house at 10 am to go drink vodka in the Marina with Dan Aykroyd was one of the stranger outings I’ve had to explain to my friends, but I’d be damned if I was going to miss the opportunity to clink glasses with a Blues Brother.

There was a lot of waiting and nibbling on brunch bites for the first hour, but finally, Aykroyd arrived, clothed in a shiny, vintage-looking waistcoat over a white button-up and jeans. He’s obviously aged and thickened over the years, as we all tend to do, but he didn’t suffer unduly in comparison with the Dan Aykroyd of 27 years ago, who regularly appeared in the loop of a Ghostbusters DVD on the club’s flat-screen TVs.

Before the competition began, Aykroyd gave a brief presentation on Crystal Head’s virtues: its lack of common additives like glycol, citrus oil, and cane sugar; its base of pure Newfoundland water (Aykroyd is Canadian, and Crystal Head is made at one of Canada’s government stills); and its nifty, skull-shaped bottle (which some enterprising consumers have turned into a bong). He showed flashes of wit throughout his lecture, but it’s clear that he takes this product seriously. Rightfully so. In a saturated market of crappy celebrity-endorsed vodkas (we’re looking at you, The Situation), Crystal Head is definitely no slouch; it recently took a double gold medal at the SF World Spirits Competition.

Once Aykroyd wrapped up his presentation, the competition began, with nine bartenders from around the city preparing drinks for the judges: Aykroyd, Stoli brand ambassador David Ruiz, and Crystal Head rep Nicole O’Neill. They narrowed the field down to four drinks, and Aykroyd signed bottles and took photos with guests as the final four bartenders prepared enough for the whole group to consume. Everyone agreed afterwards that he’d been nice and relatively normal, without a lick of diva behavior.

Chris Webber of the HiFi took first place with his Crystal Keek’en, which combined pineapple chunks, vodka, peppery bacon simple syrup, and pineapple-infused seltzer. The result was breakfast-friendly and delicious, a Hawaiian pizza (well, minus the pizza part) in a glass. Joel Baker, who recently took over the cocktail program at the Burritt Room, came in second with the balanced, rosemary-infused Head Change, which incorporated
Aperol, St. Germain, lemon juice, and peach bitters.

And then, as quickly as he’d come, Aykroyd was gone, leaving a litany of Sharpied glass skulls and a group of tipsy bartenders in his wake. Perhaps he was answering a call from another dimension. Perhaps he wanted lunch. Either way, I learned a lot about vodka from Dan Aykroyd, and if encounters with crystal skulls have taught us anything, it’s that knowledge is the real treasure, right?****

By Allie Pape