Brewed Beverage of Choice: A Tall Glass of Rogue Uber Pils
Lately I have been reading a book on the history of Jazz by Grover Sales…A great book for a novice like me who knows some of the history but cannot play a lick of music. Yesterday I finished the section on the advent of Be-Bop with Diz, Charlie Parker, and Monk. So when I got to the brewery I threw in some Bud Powell and let the chaos begin.
It occurred to me that the microbrewing revolution has followed much the same path as jazz, meaning that it started off with the a blend of folk and the luxuries of modern life. It then progressed on in strikingly progressive fashion to traditional styles. In Jazz this would be the big band/swing era. In brewing it was the making of IPA’s, ESB’s, and Stouts. And now we in the industry are in the Be-Bop Brewing stage blurring the lines of conventional style.
Unlike in Jazz where the musicians became bored with the rigid code of the big band which coincided with the lack of profitablility of the big bands, the brewing industry is far from losing its profit margin, but the brewers have started getting bored. So like Diz and Parker, they began to toe the line of tradition making up things that prior would have been thought of as mad. Dogfish Head Brewing on the East coast is a great example of Be-Bop Brewing. Beers such as a Double IPA, India Brown Ale, or the Uber Pils were taboo just a mere 5 to ten years ago. Now thanks to the line-skewers they are just as commonplace as the ESB and the Oktoberfest.
So as I was engulfed in making one of our company ales, in my brewing zen, my thoughts carried to how I wish I could be a Be-Bopper. I have always been a bit progressive in thought growing up in a small farming community in Wisconsin. I listened to Diz as early as age 16 when others in my class were into Metallica, Genesis, and Madonna. Much like Kerouac the music spoke to me. But could I bring his Boprosity to brewing?
Unfortunately for me my ties to tradition are too strong. Skewing the lines here and there can happen some of the time for me making a tasty discordant pint. But on the whole my brewing and my beers are, I would like to think, closer to a Basie piano line rather than a Monk-ian solo. Like Basie I let the rhythm section of water, yeast, malts and hops do much of the work with a bit of ivory ticklin’ from me. The result is more subtle but just as pleasing to the tastebuds.
At the end of the day I finished with a crescendo of pulsating brewing rhythm reminiscent of Diz and Bird’s amazing combo. Apparently the music must have gotten to me. So I locked up, hopped on the bike and train, came home, popped open a Dogfish Head Raisin d’Etre, and then turned on some Lester Young on the turntable. The mind and body had been working all day so it needed some Be-Bop mixed with a bit of luxurious tradition. Ahhhhhh….This is the life!
Prost!
the confucian brewer