Until recently, these were largely separate obsessions. Then, this came along.
I found this gem, literally, at my doorstep. A few weeks ago, I got a package from a friend of mine in Washington DC. Inside, amidst a few other brews and a copy of the Weekly Standard (we have a strange sense of humor) I found a bottle of Brother Thelonious, a new powerhouse beer from North Coast Brewing Co. Boy did my eyes grow wide. A 9.3%-alcohol ale named after one of my favorite musicians ever, complete with a hugely awesome illustration on the bottle?
Sounds great, right? And here's the real kicker: it's actually damn good beer, too. Not just novelty-good. The beer doesn't really scream "Monk!" when you taste it, but, then again, what would that even taste like? (dissonant? idiosyncratic? staccato?)
Like one of my other favorite beers, Brother Thelonious is a drink to savor. I sipped mine over the course of a two hour movie and that felt just right.
The North Coast Brewing Company really knows how to sell a product. They know that jazz enthusiasts can be punishingly nerdy. Just name any arbitrary product after Bud Powell, Coltrane, or Mingus and we'll be interested. In Minneapolis a while back I stumbled into a coffee house serving only jazz-themed espressos, lattes, and smoothies. You should have seen the look on my face. I got a Monk coffee-drink, an iced, sugary concoction that was basically like anything at Starbucks. But of course I loved it. Seeing the words "Thelonious Monk" on the overhead menu made that drink almost worth the $4 I paid for it. I wasn't just getting a morning dose of caffeine. Those two words made that drink an experience. This is the mind of a jazz listener. Jazz, this thing we love, appears so little in popular culture so, when it does, we pounce. At least I do.
I just noticed a "Merchandise" tab on the beer's website. This is bad news. Posters, hoodies, mugs ... am I gonna be that big of a sucker and buy Brother Thelonious goblet? Almost certainly.
UPDATE: I just called a local beer vendor and learned that North Coast no longer does business in the state of Iowa. Boo-urns. Looks like I might have to cross that creepy threshold and begin buying beer online.
2 comments:
I had a really great night with some friends and a sixer of Big Foot last week.
Worst hangover of my life the next day.
This, I find, is a significant drawback to super high-alcohol content beers.
Hey, Jenna. It's nice to hear from you.
Regarding your Bigfoot experience, I always heard that better beer reduces the likelihood of a hangover. Maybe, though, that's just a myth used to hawk pricey sixers of Bigfoot et. al.
I say give Sierra Nevada's behemoth brew another shot. As you say yourself, you did have "a really great night" drinking it, right?
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