Beer and Pavement

In case you hadn’t figured it out, I blog about beer and music. Rarely do these two interests fit together, at least in quality, but I find a way when I can. There are the Hi-Life/PBR-guzzling indie rock fans or the craft brew-drinking fusion jazz dudes. In these instances, high quality beer does not match high-quality art. There is a disconnect.

Of course, the idea of high-quality music is way more subjective than similar thinking about beer. You can love Phish or Steely Dan¹ and appreciate Magic Hat #9 and make an argument that you enjoy good music and beer. I won’t spend this post putting down those opinions because your heart is in the right place. You listen to the one Phish bootleg from the ’93 tour and it sounds amazing to you². The vegetable in a bottle of #9 suits your tastes for respectable craft beer³. I get that. However, when you choose to see No Age/Pavement/Sonic Youth while swigging a can of PBR, knowing that the occasion should demand something better for your pallet, that is unacceptable⁴.

My point is that great beer should be paired with great music. I think you know where I stand on music⁵. I won’t argue my band versus yours. However, drinking swill because it’s cheap is not doing the experience of a great live show or essential record any good.

That said, I wanted to mesh my two interests. Since I am only a consumer of music, I decided to brew a beer in honor of one of my favorite albums by my favorite band. I present to you: Wowee Zowee Double India Pale Ale!

It doesn’t always work, but somehow this beer turned out. It’s a dank, dirty, stinky mess of a beer⁶. The aroma of grapefruit smacks you in the face as you open the bottle. It’s not even in the glass and you can tell what’s coming. The beer sticks to the sides of the glass⁷, almost to the point that is looks more like potato starch than beer residue. The Simcoe⁸ does not overwhelm the palate as the other hops and the strong malt backbone balance things out. And there’s booze. Lots and lots of booze⁹.

How does this fit with Pavement’s third proper LP?

I don’t know that I could have answered this question when I formulated the recipe. I knew that I wanted to make a big DIPA with lots of high-alpha hops. The recipe is a bit insane as far as the amount of ingredients. Folks worried that it would be too sweet or too bitter¹⁰, but the huge amounts of malt extract and a pound of hops balanced the scales. All that has nothing to do with the music.

Wowee Zowee the album, like the beer, is boozy and loopy throughout. There are moments of sweetness as well as bitterness, making both hard to swallow. Either way, both are packed with ingredients and complexity that somehow come out coherent and plausible at the end, momentarily staining the walls of your glass and your cerebral cortex in the most enjoyable way. I sometimes forget how much I like my homebrews and big, hoppy DIPA’s just as I’ve lost touch for periods of time with Wowee Zowee. Of course, whenever I reconvene with either, I get it again¹¹.

I will never be able to create an album like Wowee Zowee (or any Pavement album for that matter), but I was able to create a beer that does one of my favorite records justice. Next up is a listening party with just my beer and Wowee Zowee on vinyl. Great beer can pair with great music.

Notes:
¹Actually, you can’t enjoy either…I’m kidding. Just don’t play that shit in my house…I’m kidding again. No. Seriously. Don’t ever play a Phish CD in my house EVER…I kid. No, I don’t.
²Of course, you’re stoned out of your gourd, but that’s besides the point.
³It doesn’t mine, but I can except that Magic Hat is a green-conscious microbrewery. So, they deserve some support and respect.
⁴Even when one cites cost, I can’t accept bad beer at a good rock show. Instead of drinking five PBR’s for about $10 at 4.7% ABV, drink a bomber of Avery Maharaja at 10.3% and actually enjoy your beer the same way in which you can enjoy your music.
⁵Like: Pavement, Sonic Youth, Wolf Parade, etc. Dislike: Phish, Miley Cyrus, Lil Wayne, etc.
⁶These are actually good things in a beer. Sure, some will be turned off by such a beer, but it’s at the very least more interesting than a bland, rice-based beer with it’s fizzy yellowness and three hops.
⁷This is known as lacing, considered a sign of quality in a beer. Wine drinkers say that the wine has “legs”. Same thing.
⁸Simcoe is a hop that gives a beer a grapefruit flavor/aroma. It’s a high-alpha hop, so it also provides a lot of bitterness and character to the beer.
⁹Original estimates had this beer somewhere around 11%. That’s rather ridiculous for an extract homebrew. I bet it actually lands closer to 10%, but it’s boozy either way.
¹⁰A common concern among fellow brewers was that I’d never be able to fully ferment all that sugar, causing bottles to explode. Also, it was suggested that the beer would be just sugary and sweet. Then they worried about the hops making it too bitter, almost on the verge of undrinkable. Then they put the two together and just wanted to drink the beer.
¹¹I still remember the road trip back from Coney Island where I saw the first ever Siren Festival. One of my traveling companions put on WZ and I fell in love with the album all over again.