We drink Heavenly Feijoa Tripel, which is a Lips of Faith collaboration between New Belgium and Brasserie Dieu du Ciel (Montreal).

We were recently made aware that the music selection on this show has been decidedly non-female in nature. This topic could be argued from any number of different angles, but, a quick scan of the EPISODE GUIDE reveals that, indeed, there are only a handful of female musicians involved in the list, and only one who could be considered a “female artist” … Carly Rae Jepsen. (Aimee Mann doesn’t count.) So this week, we decided to [begin to] swing that pendulum the other direction with a song from Kathleen Edwards. Are we going to feature female artists non-stop until we’ve established some sort of balance in the episode guide? No. Are we going to ensure there is some sort of equitable split between female and non-female artists in our musical selection moving forward? Absolutely not. We are simply acknowledging the disparity and pledging to be more aware of our decision making.

We drink No Apologies Imperial IPA from Blue Point Brewing Company with the one and only Bernie Dawg, the force behind Bernie’s Dawg Blog (http://www.berniesdawgblawg.com), and a contributor at Blog on Draft (http://www.blogondraft.com). He is also prolific on the Twitter (@berniedawg). His online efforts generate literally hundreds of millions of pageviews per second. Literally. We have so much in common with him, not having him on the show was creating a tear in the space/time/internet continuum, despite none of us having actually ever met him. Well, the tear has been sutured. You are welcome.

We debated the song selection at length. Ultimately, I reached into the archives for a neutral number from Sorta, mostly because I didn’t want Russ to have a meltdown in front of guests.

The second of two episodes recorded in “Studio A” at Tall Brown. Dogfish Head 75-Minute IPA is a blend of their 60 Minute and 90 Minute IPAs which is then bottle conditioned with maple syrup. It tastes … just how it sounds, actually.

KEN Mode is a “metallic hardcore-influenced noise rock band” (wikipedia) from Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Russ manages to stay surprisingly zen about the whole thing despite several pokes with a stick.

A funky, spicy beer and a funky, spicy song. It’s like a Food Network Special up in here! We drink Sneak Attack from 21st Amendment. We are fans of 21st Amendment, because cans and because art and also because beer. We actually reviewed 21st Amendment’s Monks Blood on our VERY FIRST episode, which you would know if you ever bothered to look at the handy dandy Episode Guide. I can’t do everything for you.

META SIDE NOTE:
Speaking of the Episode Guide, during this episode, Russ wondered aloud what sort of traffic the Episode Guide might generate as a result of me mentioning it on every single episode. Well, I will tell you that the Episode Guide is the 3rd most visited page on the site. The most visited page, not surprisingly, is the home page, and the 2nd most visited site is actually … Episode 28 (Monday Night Brewing and Alt-J). And now you know.

The song this week is by Buke & Gase (pronounced Byook and Gayce). I talk a lot about how I shouldn’t like this band but I actually like this band. It is a conundrum. We also talk about their use of 3-over-2 polyrhythms (aka hemiola, THANKS RUSS). Russ, mentions that the syncopation sounds ‘dirty’. Subsequent listens reveal that yes, it may not be what one would call precise. Also, near the end of the song, there is healthy use of 4-over-3, which is totally different. Oh my god, just listen to it.

READ THIS WHOLE THING. It contains updated, post-recording information about the beer – Barrel-Aged Bigfoot Ale from Sierra Nevada.

This is a big episode. Big beer and big music. Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale is on a short list of standard bearers for American Barley Wine, and it has been for 30 years. They recently released a barrel-aged version of the beer, and everyone lost their damn minds. Not that we blame them. We were lucky to snag a couple bottles.

We found some information Barrel-Aged Bigfoot from SN Product Development Manager, Bill Manley, on beeradvocate.com. We had some additional questions about the beer, so we reached out to Sierra Nevada directly. Manley responded directly, but, unfortunately, his response came in a couple days after we recorded, so we’ll have to incorporate the info in this here episode description.

At the 5:00 mark, in reference to the fact that regular Bigfoot is 9.6% ABV and Barrel-Aged Bigfoot is 12.2% ABV, I ask, “How is the barrel-aged version bigger?” I asked whether this was a special batch specifically for barrel aging. Manley responded:

This was a special batch designed for barrels. The same recipe as our regular Bigfoot release, just brewed with the intention of barrel-aging. It was brewed in Spring, whereas the usual brewing period is in December. It was brewed in Feb-March 2011.

There were also rumors that there will be more of this beer released soon, possibly even this year. I asked if more details were available. Manley’s response:

Definitely not this year. We’re planning to re-vamp and expand our barrel program, and ideally, would like to do several barrel-aged releases per year. Right now, we’re so tight with capacity that we don’t have the opportunity to expand the program much further. As the new North Carolina brewery comes online and we have a little bit of opportunity for expansion, we will build a better infrastructure for beer and barrel handling and will expand the releases after that point. We’re hoping to do another BA Bigfoot release in 2014, but no more for this year.

Also, I sarcastically refer to Manley as a dick because of his reference, on beeradvocate, to the existence of a Pappy-barrel-aged Tripel that never made it to market. Upon repeat listens, my sarcasm may or may not be obvious. SARCASM, you guys.

As for the music, it is hard for me to begin to capture the sheer magnitude of NOMEANSNO, so I’m not really going to try. They are, quite simply, one of the greatest bands that has ever picked up instruments. I opted for Rags and Bones off the Wrong record. The boys over at slewcast did an all NOMEANSNO episode way back in May, 2011 that does far greater justice to the band than we could ever do. Download the MP3 here.

The Valentimes episode! We drink a sexy beer from Ommegang and listen to a sexy song from Jim James, who you may more familiar with as the front man for My Morning Jacket. Sexy.

Here’s the official video for the song. Not as sexy.

Coffee Stout and the Descendents. I’m actually kind of annoyed it took us this long to think of pairing coffee beer with the Descendents, but I’m more shocked it took us this long to talk about a beer from Lagunitas, a brewery we both think very highly of.

This was a fun episode, but going back and listening, all I can think of are all the things we failed to talk about. Take Lagunitas for instance. We love Lagunitas. Yet we completely neglected to mention that they are in the midst of a $9.5 million expansion that includes a shiny new 250-barrel brew house, a brew house that was destroyed in shipping and had to be rebuilt. We also completely whiffed on mentioning that Lagunitas is building a second brewery in Chicago, which will also have a 250-barrel Rolec brew house. Lagunitas has more going on than maybe any other American craft brewery and we failed to mention 100% of it. No, we called the 800-number on the bottle and listened to their outgoing voicemail message. We should be buried in ad revenue any minute, right?

And despite what I thought was total worship of the Descendents while we were recording, I somehow failed to begin to capture the significance of their place in my life and my friends’ lives growing up. I failed to mention that instead of drinking or drugging, my friends and I would sit at IHOP for hours and hours (and hours) drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and having conversations that sounded like we were reciting Descendents lyrics. That seeing ALL open for Bad Religion on 7/25/1992 is still one of the greatest days/nights of my entire life, full stop. That I went for coffee (at a different IHOP) with Bill Stevenson, whom I consider a major musical influence, and talked about drums when ALL came thorugh Atlanta in 1995. That, with Davehog on vocals, the members of Avalauncher formed a Descendents cover band called Pretendents and played one awesome show in Vancouver, WA.

So, like I said, this is a fun episode and I like it a lot. But it’s not what I envisioned coming out on the other end when we pressed record. Oh well, such is the risk with improv and zero ounces of preparation. Onward!

This is an episode dedicated to the Team HIDI campaign. The short version: Atlanta chef Ryan Hidinger was diagnosed with stage IV gall bladder cancer in late December. Team HIDI was formed by Ryan’s friends and family to help manage the fight of his life (the long(er) version). The response has been massive. Russ and I care deeply about this cause because we both like Ryan a whole helluva lot, and the world would be a bleaker place without him in it.

We recorded this the day after attending a Team HIDI benefit that raised over $160,000. In less than a month, they’ve raised over $300,000 total. The Atlanta food and beverage scene has coalesced around this [hyper-worthy] cause like nothing I’ve ever seen. So as not to risk distorting the message or any facts, please go read all of the words, look at all the pictures, and click on all the links at the official Team HIDI website. Amazing stuff.

We tried to pick a beer and a song that aligned with the Team HIDI theme. We picked Porcine Unidragon from Clown Shoes and 16 Days by Whiskeytown. Give a listen to hear our thematic justification.

This week we sit down with Nick Nock, head brewer of Atlanta’s own SweetWater Brewing Company, and talk about their LowRYEder IPA. The interview was recorded in one of SweetWater’s cavernous tasting rooms, hence the soothing din of HVAC in the background. Since we had the ear of the man who brews the stuff, we dig in to some of the finer details of the LowRYEder recipe. We also talk about Sweetwater’s massive expansion from a 50-barrel brewhouse to a 400-barrel brewhouse, which is nearing completion.

The song is “Something Stank” from George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, who, COINCIDENTALLY, will be headlining this year’s SweetWater 420 Fest. People of Atlanta, this year’s 420 Fest is your chance to see P-Funk for free. That is all.

We drink Silent Night from Mother Earth Brewery in Kinston, NC. Kinston is in the Eastern part of North Cackylacky, near absolutely nothing (according to Google Maps). Mother Earth started sending beer to Georgia in 2012. Silent Night is a delicious stout, which is a good thing, because, as we failed to mention on the recording, Silent Night costs $20 for a 750ML bottle. Not sure how I feel about that.

We do not listen to a NEW RADIOHEAD song, because there isn’t a NEW RADIOHEAD ALBUM that was just released. We actually listen to a song from a Thom Yorke side project. Thom Yorke is best known as the SINGER FOR RADIOHEAD. The project is called Atoms For Peace (Site features autoplay audio, no I’m not kidding) and features Flea and some other dudes. I ended up having stronger feelings than I expected about the song, much to Russ’s delight. Mea culpa: I am aware I used the phrase “bleeps and bloops” (or some version of that) FAR too many times, and I am sorry for that. The song is called What The Eyeballs Did, and it doesn’t seem to appear on the track listing for AMOK, so I have no idea what is going on. RADIOHEAD RADIOHEAD RADIOHEAD.

Ugh. Yes, we listened to and discussed a Blink-182 song, mostly unironically. More on that in a second. We quaffed a 32oz. “growlette” of a beer from Twain’s Billiard & Tap called Dirty DIPA. This beer is credited to Twain’s because it was brewed at Twain’s, but it is actually a collaboration between Twain’s and Sweetwater. The Dirty DIPA is an interesting beer and we have a long, contemplative discussion about it. We understand it is probably more fun for us to drink beer and talk about it than it is for you to listen to us drink beer and talk about it. We understand.

Blink-182. Sigh. Russ mentioned a while back that he saw they had something new coming out. At first, I laughed it off. But then I realized it could be a good opportunity for us to explore a song that causes me pain as opposed to the way we usually do it (with the Russ and the pain). My only regret is that we actually played the whole song. I need some Carly Rae Jepsen to cleanse my palate after this and I am not even kidding a little bit when I say that.

A THING WE FAILED TO MENTION ON THE PODCAST: Dirty DIPA is part of the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild Collaboration Series. A portion of the proceeds from each of the beers in the series will help the GCBG continue to advance the interests of Georgia Craft Brewers. Other Collaborations in the series include(ed): Terrapin & Moon River, Wrecking Bar & Wild Heaven, and Max Lagers & O’Dempsey’s.

We ring in the new year with a celebration of deliquency–reviewing a beer and song both firmly lodged in 2012. The beer is the Vertical Epic Ale series from Stone Brewing Co., which is actually eleven beers. We reviewed all eleven beers dating back to February, 2002 and we got so drunk that Russ wrote and recorded a 16-minute drum solo and I tried to drink a futon. LOL SIKE WUT! We drank two vintages from the Vertical Epic series. Listen for the deets.

The song is from last year’s Menzingers album, On The Impossible Past. I am on the record as a Menzingers fan, and, despite listening to OTIP when it was released, it didn’t get much time in my ear holes last year. So, I wanted to get them into the 1 Beer 1 Song archive before their last album gets too terrible old. Get this, Russ likes it. Don’t let him tell you otherwise.

CORRECTION: In this episode, I talked all about how the Menzingers are on Fat Wreck Chords. Turns out they are on Epitaph Records. Anyone familiar with these two labels will surely understand the mistake, but that doesn’t make it any less incorrect. Starting out the new year right! Sigh …

We wrap up the year with 3 beers, 3 songs, and a whole lot of navel gazing. Obviously, that much content takes a little longer to get through. This episode weighs in at 1 hour 9 minutes and change. If that makes you tired to read, just know that I cut out A LOT of aimless rambling. The three beers are Anchor Brewing’s 2012 Our Special Ale, The Meddler from Odell Brewing, and Firestone Walker’s very tasty Double Jack Double IPA.

The songs are “Spiritual Rights” from the High on Fire album Vermis de Mysteriis, “Letter in Icelandic from the Nanette San” off John K. Samson’s Provincial album, and “True North” from the upcoming Bad Religion release of the same name.

We weave together the beers and songs with some earnest reflection on 2012 and some light name-calling. The final version of this episode came out noticeably quiet overall, perhaps because of its overall gerth, or, more likely, because I am a moron. One of my resultions for the new year is to establish some audio consistency if not actual audio quality.

Bye.

R5 Whiskey from Charbay is whiskey distilled from an entire batch of Bear Republic’s Racer 5 IPA. Now that I have your attention, we obtained a bottle and drank it. And by we, I mean Russ, myself, and SETH! Seth has been a quasi-intentional influence on the show on a number of different occasions, so we were glad to finally sit down and chat with him, you know, ON THE RECORD.

So, yeah, Hop Flavored Whiskey. I’m not sure if we did a good job explaining that this is not actually whiskey that has been flavored with hops, rather it is a whiskey that has been distilled from a very hoppy beer. In fact, if I saw this on the shelf, the phrase Hop Flavored Whiskey would make me think, “Wow, that sounds gross,” and I loooooooooooooove hops. You know what liquor needs a hop-flavored version? Gin. Seriously, you guys, hop flavored gin. You guys. CHARBAY!! Hop flavored gin. Tequila might also work. Anyway, this whiskey is much better than the label makes it sound. We drink it and talk about it. So, you know, listen to the episode if you’re into hearing us … do that.

Seth picked the song. I gave him the parameters that it should be either new or important. He went with a track of the recently releases solo album from Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard. The album is called Former Lives and the song is called Bigger Than Love. It is a duet with Aimee Man. LISTEN TO IT.

We’ve been getting a little full of ourselves lately, so we thought we’d kick it old school with an episode that only lasts 14 minutes. The Abyss from Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon is one of the best imperial stouts in America, simple as that. We drank a bottle from 2010. No, seriously, I’m not going to waste any more words on you.

Russ picked the song this week. The Devil’s Crayon by Wild Beasts (pronounced BEE-ahsts). I compared them to David Byrne like six or 18 times during the episode. Upon a second listen, all I hear is a British version of Rusted Root. Which is to say … not really my cup of tea. But that’s totally fine! Some of my best friends are not really my cup of tea. You know I didn’t mean it like that. Come on.

Nothing like starting an episode with a 90-second correction. We reviewed Elevated IPA from La Cumbre Brewing Company in Albuquerque, NM under the assumption it won the Gold medal for American IPA at GABF this year. Well, it did win the Gold Medal for American IPA at GABF. Problem is, it won last year (2011). This year’s honors go to the IPA from Tap It Brewing Company in San Luis Obispo, CA.

Following the post-mortem investigation, I realized that if any of the “2011″ indicators had been poisonous snakes, I would have been dead weeks before we recorded this. It’s written clearly in the email from beerjobber.com, it’s written all over the Elevated IPA beer can itself (see upper right corner of can label above), and it is all over the La Cumbre website. Apologies to both breweries. But rather than scrap the episode and re-record it, like even semi-professional, we have opted to make things complicated and awkward. ONWARD!

[LOUD WHISPER] HEY, TAP-IT, SEND US SOME IPA SO WE CAN COMPARE IT TO LA CUMBRE. [/LOUD WHISPER]

Speaking of beerjobber.com, I have enjoyed using their service so far. They first hooked me with an email right before the presidential election urging people to vote Republican by ordering the NOBAMA BREW from Huebert Brewing in Oklahoma, or vote Democratic by ordering the Entitlement Porter from Blue Point Brewing Company, or vote independent by ordering them both. I ordered them both. We recorded an episode and compared them. At this point, we have no plans to post said episode. If you don’t have anything nice to say, something something. Anyway, Beerjobber.com: Approved. We will continue to use them.

Following our theme of annual superlatives, we listen to the #1 song on Paste Magazine’s 50 Best Songs of 2012, which is “The House That Heaven Built” by Japandroids off their album Celebration Rock. I like Japandroids. I almost love them. But, as we discuss, there’s something about two-piece rock groups that I just cannot abide.

We visit Atlanta’s own Monday Night Brewing and spend some time with the venerable Jonathan Baker discussing the finer points of recipe formulation, business modeling, and, obviously, Bryan Adams. We drink MNB’s Fu Man Brew, a Belgian-style Wit. Before we started recording, Jonathan showed us around the new brewery, which they hope to bring online early in 2013. We are especially interested to see how the combination go-kart track / foam dance party room is going to work. (Following the visit to the brewery, we tacked on a 5-minute review of MNB’s Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale. I’m telling you guys, the gifts just don’t stop flowing over here. I hope you realize how good you have it.)

We let Jonathan pick the song because we are gracious hosts, and that song is called ‘Breezeblocks’ off the debut album from alt-J called An Awesome Wave. This is not a song that Russ or I would have picked (mostly because of our mutual ignorance of the artist), which leads me to believe that we should have someone else pick the song for every episode. And the beer. And write a script. Now accepting applications for Programming Manager. This is not a ringing endorsement of the song, mind you, it has some nifty parts and it also has some cheezy parts.

ANYWAY, listen to this crap. It’s awesome. Also, longest episode to date.

A note about the audio – the original levels were extremely low, so I ran the speaking portions through Levelator. The results are much better than the original, but there is some harshness in spots. SORRY. At least this isn’t some deviation from our normally high audio standards, because it is literally different every time we record.

Once again we start with some songage before moving on to the beerage. I failed to share the beauty of Mastodon with Russ as I had planned in Episode 26, so we get that out of the way right up front. Russ was stoked. The riffage from 3:37 (of the podcast) to the end of the song is the stuff dreams are made of. After the song, I showed off the snazzy 9-second-long Blood and Thunder ringtone I made a couple years ago. You can download it below. That’s right, two episodes, two ringtones. I believe ringtones are soon going to be the new text messages, you guys. Invest with confidence.

Mastodon – Blood and Thunder ringtone .m4r file (iOS ringtone)

Mastodon – Blood and Thunder ringtone .mp3 file

So, THE BEER. This week, we happily quaff the 2011 Barley Ryne from Terrapin Beer Company in Athens, GA and Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes (BFM), in Jura, Switzerland. We did an awesome job speculating on the origins of this beer and the version brewed at BFM that preceded it, and ended up saying several things that were probably incorrect. And we actually prepared for this a little bit. I spoke with someone at Terrapin and they set me straight. For the purposes of chronology, we will call them Version 1 and Version 2:

Version 1 – Barleywine brewed at BFM in Switzerland in early 2011. Aged in oak Rum barrels. Contains notable (good) funkiness from the barrel-aging process. Served in 11.4 oz. swing-top bottles (pic). This is NOT the beer we’re drinking for this episode.

Version 2 – Barleywine brewed in September, 2011 at Terrapin. Aged on borbon oak. More representative of a traditional American Barlelywine. Oh, look, here’s an info sheet (PDF) on the beer directly from the, er, turtle’s mouth. This IS the beer we are drinking in this episode.

We have both versions and will likely do a comparison episode at some point in the future. Or not. You’re not the boss of us.

OH GOD, THE SONG. We listen to Spirits Stampede from Pg. Lost off their recent record, Key. I try, badly, to summarize the genre known by many as post-rock. Russ … well you’ll just have to listen.

New Holland Brewing from Holland, Michigan is new to the Georgia market. We enjoy one of their flagships, the Dragon’s Milk Ale Aged in Oak Barrels. And when I say we enjoy it, I mean we enjoyed it, because it is a very enjoyable beer. But you’re going to have to be patient because it takes us until the 4:00 mark to even mention the beer.

We actually start the episode with a little musical discussion. We were touching base on the Mountain Goats song from Episode 25, and Russ did an impression of what a ‘chipped’ note sounds like. You can hear this impression at exactly 1:44. It is … special. So special, in fact, that I isolated the noise and it is now the notification sound my phone makes whenever I receive a text.

I’m serious:

Click here for the ‘chipped’ noise .m4r file (iOS ringtone)

Click here for the ‘chipped’ noise .mp3 file

The musical conversation continued with a brief analysis of my deep contempt for RUSH, who were playing live in Atlanta when we recorded this episode. Sigh. I just don’t get the Neil Peart worship. Stiffest drummer ever. OH LOOK AT ALL MY DRUMS AND PADS AND CYMBALS AND TRIGGERS. I thought about embedding a video for reference, but I’m not sharing my space. If you are having trouble sleeping, watch Peart’s solo on David Letterman from last year.

Whatever. Let’s see, what else. Apparently Russ has some Jewish ancestry he is either suppressing or unaware of because he says Mazel Tov twice in this episode. We analyze Sprayberry Bottle Shop’s Twitter handle.

Oh right, the song! We headed down the path toward listening to a song from Mastodon, but took a sharp turn at the last second and opted for a song from West End Motel, featuring Mastodon’s own Brent Hinds. Russ was nervous at the beginning, but his anxieties were soon eased marking TWO EPISODES IN A ROW he has enjoyed the song. All attempts at description on the podcast and on this blog are failures, so you’ll just have to listen. Song starts around the 12:00 mark.

We drink The Cowboy Smoked Pilsner from Evil Twin Brewing. I mention that Evil Twin is from New Zealand. I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE I GOT THAT INFORMATION, but it is wrong. I blame Blake. They are originally from Denmark, but they contract brew all over the place. Regarding the brewery name, Evil Twin, I correctly indicate that the proprietor of Evil Twin, Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, is the brother of Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, the driving force behind Mikkeller. Whether the name Evil Twin has anything to do with IRL brotherhood, I have no idea. One quarter teaspoon of preparation would have prevented this entire paragraph, and yet, here we are.

The beer. It is interesting how the quality of the beer affects the quality of the banter. Smoke, as a flavor, is risky in general, especially so when dealing with a light style like Pilsner. We struggled a little bit with this one, not going to lie.

The song. I like the Mountain Goats an awful lot, but this was for Russ. In fact, I thought about having him write this paragraph, but I think I read somewhere that WordPress posts have a 900,000 word limit. This episode is worth listening to if only to hear how fast Russ is capable of speaking immediately after the song ends. Oh my god he talks so fast. I’m so excited. I’m so scared.

UPDATED: I was completely wrong about the song. The horn work is great. Tony’s crappy laptop speakers strike again. Sorry Mountain Goats ^R