BEER INTERVIEW: Rob from Sleeper's Awake!

Hello again! I have a real treat lined up for you tonight, in the form of a beer interview with Rob Bradley, lead guitarist for one of my favourite bands of this year, Sleeper’s Awake. Shortly after I reviewed their latest album Trancension a couple of weeks ago, Rob added me on Facebook and it turns out that he’s a beer geek. HELL YES! Lisa from Hold Tight PR suggested I do another of my beer interviews which Rob seemed pretty excited about so here it is...

But first... stream the album while you read... it's awesome:

Beer:

What’s the craft beer scene like where you are in Ohio? Which breweries beers should we fine British folk try to get a hold of? Ohio has an awesome craft beer scene! We are from Columbus and in that city alone there are some really great micro-breweries. My personal favorite is Barley’s. Their Scottish Ale and Centennial IPA are both excellent beers. Sadly they don’t bottle. As for the rest of Ohio, I try and take a trip to an Ohio brewery once a month hahaha. Great Lakes in Cleveland rules! Their Imperial IPA, “Lake Erie Monster”, is delicious. As for their year round more available beers, Dortmunder Gold lager, Burning River Pale Ale, and Commodore Perry IPA are all great. Aside from Great Lakes you should try and get a hold of Brew Kettle (4 C’s Pale Ale or Old 21 DIPA), Hoppin’ Frog (Boris the Crusher Stout) or Rivertown (their Roebling Porter is great especially if you can get it on nitro). Kedar has fond memories of being mouth raped by Hoppin’ Frog’s Hop Dam Triple IPA. I found it to be delicious.

If I visit Columbus, where should I go to drink awesome beer? First and foremost, Barley’s! Like I said, they are by far my favorite. I usually am there once a week at least drinking and playing cards with my girlfriend Lindsey.  There are some other great ones too. Seventh Son is new but has some great stuff. North High Brewing is great too (you can also brew your own beer there).  As far as non-brewery places are concerned, Bob’s Bar and Kobo are some of the best beer places around. Good people, good beer. That swill slinging bastard Chris Burnsides A.K.A.  “Ambrose” will probably just tell you to visit the Budweiser plant. He disgusts all of us. From here on out, let the term “Ambrose beer” represent everything we hate in beer; your macro-lager, adjunct filled, cow piss.

How do you feel about the pace that the craft beer scene in the United States is moving? Can we take the corporate bastards? Much to the chagrin of that Miller Light drinkin’ son of a bitch Ambrose, the craft beer scene is awesome in the United States! I really believe that we have some seriously world class beer in this country. That being said, the demand for macro-lager urine is still huge in this country and probably always will be because it’s crazy cheap and their marketing is nothing short of brilliant. However, it is really exciting to see more people view beer like they would a great wine or scotch. Beer drinkers are slowly losing the Homer Simpson sort of stereotype (beer gut hanging out, belching drunk). Beer is every bit as complex and layered as a fine wine is. It’s nice to see that people are starting to see that. 

East Coast U.S. or West Coast beer? West Coast. Oregon and California are front runners there. Stone, Rogue, North Coast, Sierra Nevada, Ninkasi, the list just goes on and on. 

British or Belgian beer? British. Samuel Smith’s India Ale was one of the first beers I really loved back when I was about 21, 22. It was hoppier than anything I had tasted at that time and was kind of an eye-opener for me. I was in college at Ohio State then so drinking Ambrose beer was the norm but when I tried the India Ale, I was hooked. Chris and I got into beer at about the same time so I believe we both tried the Sam Smith.

German or Czech beer? Czech. I love a good Pilsner every once in a while.

Cask (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cask_ale) or Keg beer? Depends on the beer. I LOVE cask beer but I am not going to be too into a cask Pilsner. A great IPA, DIPA, or stout on cask is awesome. One thing we really fuck up in America is that we serve our beer way too cold! You can’t taste anything when it’s that cold! Of course, Ambrose beer has to be basically frozen to be drinkable. I know I look like a prick when I go to a place and request a room temperature glass instead of the frozen one they want to give me. When you get a great cask beer it is awesome though.

Bottled or Canned beer? A lot of breweries are switching to cans because they seal better, protect the beer better, etc. I have no real preference. Sierra Nevada just made a switch to using a lot of cans. Still delicious.

Favourite style of beer? Double IPA for sure.

Favourite British ale? I’ll probably have to stick with Sam Smith India Ale. It’s a real nostalgic thing for me.

Favourite Belgian beer? Chimay Blue. I also used to like Leffe Blonde a lot.

Favourite German beer? I know it’s not too ground breaking an answer but there is a reason that people like Ayinger Celebrator. Ambrose just loves it.  

Favourite Czech beer? I have to confess that Pilsner Urquell is one of the only ones I have had. I have had a lot of Czech style beers, but not many from the Czech Republic. Someone needs to let me come visit them in Europe!

Favourite American Beer? That’s tough but I will probably say Bells HopSlam from Kalamazoo, MI.

American or European beer? I have to go with American just because I am limited in the amount of good European beers that I can try.

3 Favourite breweries in the whole world? Great Lakes, Founders, Three Floyds

3 Favourite beers in the whole world? Bell’s HopSlam, Great Lakes Lake Erie Monster, Ninkasi Tricerahops DIPA.

What’s the best food and beer pairing? Any beer with nachos. High class, I know.

What was your first ever alcoholic drink? How’d that go for you? Funny story. When I was about 4 years old, my parents took me to a wedding where they had a literal fountain of champagne. Apparently I went up and filled my little cup up with champagne a few times before my parents or anyone noticed what I was doing. Needless to say, we left the wedding shortly after my parents realized what had happened.

What’s the most absurd thing you’ve done while drunk? It was actually the day after but I was so hungover and feeling so badly about my irresponsibility the night before that I decided, “I need something to be responsible for to make up for this.” I bought a cat. That’s right Lisa Coverdale; a cat. 

What’s your favourite city to drink in? Portland, Oregon. So many breweries. An alcoholic’s delight.

If Jesus turned water into beer instead of wine, what would the beer be? Nothing Ambrose would drink.

Mandatory musical section:

I recently reviewed Transcension and it was fucking awesome. I can’t stop listening to it! What direction are you planning on taking your next release in? Thanks man! Glad you enjoyed it. We pretty much immediately started writing for the next album as we tend to get very bored, very quickly. The new stuff is still very heavy in a lot of parts but also very melodic and for lack of a better term, kind of “pretty.” We want the new stuff to really continue to showcase Chris’ voice. We have always felt that his voice is kind of the connecting point for a lot of listeners. We feel we did a decent job of that on “Transcension” but we would like to continue to push that element further. We are also planning some out and out just crazy, super proggy, pieces as well.

And when are you going to come over to England so I can see you live and geek out with you over beer? Very soon I hope! There is a lot of beer out there for us to try! We probably should base any tour schedule around towns with breweries in them.

Many thanks to Rob for taking the time to tell us all about the breweries of Ohio, the way he became an alcoholic at the age of 4 and for advising us not to be hungover because you might buy a cat!

Sleepers Awake can be found on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/SleeperRock

And on Twitter here: http://www.twitter.com/SleeperRock140

Cheers!

Nate

http://www.boozebeatsbites.com

http://www.twitter.com/NateDawg27

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The Session #76 - Compulsion

The Session is a monthly event for the beer blogging community which was started by Stan Hieronymus at Appellation Beer. On the first Friday of each month, all participating bloggers write about a predetermined topic. Each month a different blog is chosen to host The Session, choose the topic, and post a roundup of all the responses received. For more info on The Session, check out the Brookston Beer Bulletin’s nice archive page.

This month’s session is hosted by Glen who writes Beer Is Your Friend and is all about the deadly art of Compulsion when it comes to buying beer.

Beats: Sleepers Awake – Transcension review

The album starts out with a heavy yet groovy stoner rock groove, leading into some soothing yet aggressive vocals. Later on in the song, the music turns quite mesmerising. The Augur is how you start an album correctly. Burdened is up next and starts with vocals leading into melodies that kinda fuck with your head a bit when paired with heavy basslines and almost marching band style drumming. Apparitions is chilled out the whole way through but with the heaviness of the guitars just sticking around in the background. The album continues with this fast and heavy yet slow and melodic progressive stoner groovy ting. It’s great. There’s something for everyone in there! It’s instrumentally skilled, vocally skilled and the lyrics are great.

I seriously can’t stop listening to it. The whole album is like if Devin Townsend were to have a three-way with Tool & Mastodon. Contender for album of the year? Hell fucking yes!

Sleepers Awake – Transcension is out on 17^th of June, both digitally and on CD.

Check ‘em out on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SleeperRock  

Nate

The Mikkeller Distribution Debacle - an official response

As you probably now know, Brewdog have exclusive UK importation and distribution rights for Mikkeller beers. A few of us on Twitter noticed that a fair few online shops are no longer stocking Mikkeller beers as now that Brewdog are importing the price has been hiked up in comparison to when they were able to buy and import direct from Mikkeller.

Now I was a bit hasty on slagging Brewdog off, as I always am because I like ranting. I really should’ve gotten all of the facts first but I’m bloody useless. Rob from Hopzine was also very hasty in blogging about it so the response is targeted at him too. My buddy Luke now runs Brewdog’s online shop and he told me to contact Martin Dempster to get more of an insight so I thought I’d share my email and his response.

What I said:

“Basically, Brewdog now has exclusive rights to import and distribute Mikkeller beers in the UK and we've noticed that since you've taken control, the prices of Mikkeller beers on your online shop are considerably higher than they were priced elsewhere when other retailers were able to buy direct from Mikkeller. Following on from this, since Brewdog has taken control of Mikkeller beers quite a few retailers I buy from have decided to stop stocking Brewdog beers due to the fact that they'd  have to sell Mikkeller beers are a considerable mark up to what they previously sold them for.

So my question to you is...

What exactly does Brewdog hope to gain by taking total control of Mikkeller importation and distribution in the UK? and What are the benefits to consumers?”

Martin’s response was very concise and proved that there are benefits to retailers and consumers (but not to him!). See below (skip to the bottom for key points if you don’t have time to read all of this):

Same Game, New Rules

You don’t need to be that observant to realise that I’m a miserable bastard but lately it’s been a lot worse due to a combination of real life things and not just this hilariously miserable fucker you see on twitter. I’ve realised I need to make some drastic changes and set some new rules for myself in order to be happier (certain things have been emitted due to obvious reasons). I decided upon this last night when I was unable to sleep.

I’m gonna jot them down here and review them every month to keep track of what I’m doing. You probably don’t care much beyond my beer writing but fuck it, ignore it if you’re that way inclined.

I’ve never been very good at keeping to rules but I’m really gonna try my hardest because I absolutely need to as I’ve not been able to sleep due to various stresses including never having any money and constantly being drunk (may be related).

1)      Don’t go out drinking on weeknights (unless it’s a special occasion)

2)      Don’t buy take home beers (unless it’s the weekend)

3)      Don’t buy shit take home beers (Yes, that includes Carling sadly)

4)      Don’t drink at home (Unless I’ve ordered beer online or have weekend leftovers)

5)      Only go out on either Friday ­OR Saturday night

6)      Only go out two weekends a month (unless it’s a special occasion

7)      Only go out of Norwich one weekend a month (unless it’s a special occasion)

8)      Cut all of my hair off (I’m having a bit of a crisis yes but also long hair is getting annoying)

9)      Use computer/tablet/TV less when I’m at home

10)   Read more (also: learn more about beer)

11)   Review at least one album a week

12)   Don’t lend money or extend credit (unless it’s a life or death situation)

13)   Don’t borrow money (unless it’s a life or death situation)

14)   Make lunch at home and take it to work instead of buying lunch every day

15)   Buy a bicycle instead of paying extortionate bus prices

16)   Don’t moan about meaningless beer related things

17)   Stop being such an arsehole to people

18)   Finally buy a new suit

I’m sure I thought of more than 18 but fuck it. What I hope to achieve is to be able to sleep better and have more money more of the time leading to me being a lot happier.

Why I’m sharing this with you, I do not know but ah well. Hopefully this will work out. It probably won’t as I’m fucking shit at sticking to things.

Have fun.

Nate

Booze: Dead Crow Bourbon Flavoured Beer review

A while ago whilst browsing on The Publican's Morning Advertiser, I came across an article about this Dead Crow Bourbon Flavoured Beer from SHS Drinks who are famous for the alcopops brand WKD. This sparked a rather long discussion on Twitter (as it always does) with the lovely Melissa Cole and my good friend Jay.

Now as you may have previously seen, I'm all about reviewing this kind of weird monstrosity from evil corporations so I just had to get my hands on this. I heard that it was available in 4 packs from ASDA but I didn't really want it quite enough to warrant the trip to ASDA, nor did I want 4 bottles of it.

So this brings me to today. I was rather looking forward to the catastrophe that is tonight's episode of The Apprentice where the candidates have the task of creating a new and unique flavoured beer, so much that I went for a pint after work (actually, those things may not be connected). After my delicious pint of Golden Triangle Red Square I swung by Get A Round, arguably the best beer shop in Norwich to pick up a few takeouts and that's where I saw this for the lowly sum of £1.69. I just had to have it because it ties in nicely with The Apprentice tonight.

Anyway, enough rambling. How is the beer?

Brewery: SHS Drinks
Beer: Dead Crow Bourbon Flavoured Beer
Style: Flavoured Lager
ABV: 5.5%

Look:

Kind of amber in colour so darker than your average mainstream lager fizzy head that dies down quickly.

Aroma:

Smells like very sweet marzipan and a tiny hint of your average mainstream lager. I have no issue with mainstream macro lager but marzipan can fuck right off.

Taste:

It tastes like cheap... like VERY cheap 19p for 2 litres Tesco cola mixed with Foster's and sweeteners.

Mouthfeel:

Very fucking gassy. I almost burped upon first gulp.

Verdict:

Yeah, you guessed it. It's fucking vile. WHY THE FUCK DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?

Enjoy tonight's episode of The Apprentice. Who knows, they may brew better beer than this! I'd like to think so anyway...

Nate

London's Brewing Up a Shitstorm

6am. That's the time I got up on Saturday to get the 7:30am train with Ben, Jay & Lee to go to Free Comic Book Day & London's Brewing Beer Festival. 6am. I don't even get up that early when I have work during the week. Thankfully the train journey was made bearable throughout my tiredness with awesome company and Stone Vertical Epic 12.12.12. A bit special for train beer and very delicious.

As soon as we got to London, we headed to Forbidden Planet comic book shop - and got lost in the process - as it was free comic book day. We queued up and claimed our free comic book goodie bag and spent about an hour looking at the various books and memorobilia before heading to the Convent Garden area for cupcakes.

After spending about a fucking hour trapped on the central line sweating our tits off we finally got to Bethnal Green tube and walked down to the London Fields Brewery taproom. We saw that the queue of London's Brewing was massive and not moving so we decided to pop in there for a drink. We were quite disappointed that there was no draught beer available, just bottles but we went for it anyway as Sid and Glyn had alerted us that London's Brewing wasn't even open yet, despite it being half an hour after it was meant to open. I had their Unfiltered Lager which is awesome with the lemony flavours with yeasty notes and the grainy yet refreshing mouthfeel.

We finished out beers and decided to queue up where we were alerted by my mate Ian on the other side of the crash barriers that it's really not worth our time as it's taking forever to get served. Apparently they were handing out refunds which we considered but by the time we got to the front of the line they'd apparently run out of money.

We finally got inside and were handed a 2/3 pint glass, a programme and a stamp card worth 9 x 1/3 pints and headed into the first room where we were shocked by the almighty and unorganised queue. Because of the depth of it, we couldn't actually see what beers were on so we had to grab a spot and hope for the best. After 40 minutes I finally got served an EXTREMELY short pour of Weird Beard 5 O'Clock Shadow which was the best beer of the festival for me. It's an IPA with big peachy flavours and a nice bitterness but is also very smooth at the same time.

I then wanted to try Weird Beard's Mariana Trench but was informed that the keg tap was fucking labelled wrong and it was actually Windsor & Eton Republika. How the fuck do you do that?

We wandered through to the cask room to find that it was queued to fuckery and impossible to get in. Looking at both rooms it appeared that they had sold way too many tickets.

We got to have a few more beers, not as many as we had liked though as every time it took about 30-40 minutes to get to the fucking bar.

I mentioned earlier about short pours and well, every time I went to get 2/3rds of a pint I was given just over 1/3rd but they stamped my card for 2, the robbing fuckers. I didn't pay £20 to go to a beer festival and just drink foam. The keg taps were fucking stupid, they were like the taps you probably have in your kitchen or bathroom and way too pressurised meaning all they could do was pour head and to actually even get a third it took about 10 minutes.

It was the most stressful beer festival or event of any kind that I've ever been to and if I wasn't in such awesome company, I would've fucked off as soon as I got there.

I feel cheated and ripped off.

What a fucking mess.

Nate