Hip Hops: October 2009 Archives

If you've never heard the infamous, backward, demonic tape loops that supposedly told Charles Manson to "rise up" and catalyze the race war by killing Angelenos, what are you waiting for?

It's a revelation alright! The birth of sampling, creepy subliminal messages in pop, and essentially the first industrial-rock song.

But for all its Satanic reputation, we believe the only thing truly mystical about "Revolution 9" is how such a scattered amalgamation -- real audio fusion -- could be born out of the mundane. Record execs talking about wine transforms into eery speaking in tongues. Ringo breathing, Paul strumming a lullaby, and the orchestral tune-up for "A Day in the Life" suddenly becomes some horrible apocalypse of sound at the hands of Yoko and John... a brutalizing police force, crying cows, songs in Swahili, fires burning, flappers laughing, babies breathing, sex and burping, goats bleeting, some weird, experimental psycho therapy sessions....

So, too, have the simple, mundane grains and yeasts of a SoCal brewer been twisted, looped, reverbed and reversed to produce what is unarguably a true fusion of beer styles: Stone's Vertical Epic 9.

Stone calls it a "Belgian-style imperial porter," hinting at the 9% booze and its alluring black-brown hair dye color tone. But absent from such a wacky description is the utter surprise of what seems to us like a Double Hefe - chocolate-vanilla banana weed brownies made with Arrogant Bastard Ale, say. Smashed somewhere inside are stout notes, sweet ice cream float material, and authentic Dubbel characteristics. But notably absent, despite their own "Belgian" reference, is any of the cloying beet-sugar tickles that fatty trappists are known for. Perhaps its laying on the cutting room floor somewhere...

Pouring quickly bucks a massive frothy head from this cheeky bitch. We inhaled rings of smoke and herb, but more like a smoking a clove-scented kretek mind you, than hitting your typical San Diego ganja-hop vaporizer. Diving in, there are sweets and spices (cumin candies) swirling around a steady, slightly oily mouth-feel of strong dark beer.

Sitting at a half-lit dining room table, we took this bottle down in, oh, about 9 minutes. Staring into empty cups after, we looked for rewind singing "Can you take me back where I came from? Momma can you take me back?"

Dairy Pairy: Torta La Serena, a raw gooey sheep's milk cheese from the outer reaches of Spain.
Soundtrack: The Beatles, "Revolution 9"

In the beginning of our love affair with suds, the known universe was limited to whatever our shoulder tapping foraging produced. Back then most of our decision making was determined by whatever 12 packs were stacked high with $8.99 price tags front and center.

Fat Tire, the flagship beer from New Belgian Brewing Co., was a common buy and a welcome bargain bin find. When our elder friends finally scored fakies, trips to more specialized beer destinations produced Trappist ales and fancy accompanying goblets. A drunken realization of New Belgian's bottle-cap design led to the great epiphany of drinking the Fort Collins micro brews in glasses branded by Chimay and Unibroue; $8.99 never tasted so good.

As our taste in beer grew, we grew away from New Belgian. Occasional six packs were bought, but the special release bombers and cork-tops that our eyes were trained to find never appeared from Fort Collins. We just assumed they didn't exist...

As is the case on the rarest of occasions: we were wrong. New Belgium not only makes a grip of ales we've never seen in California, but they have been making sour beers for years -- apparently even before the Great American Beer Festival recognized the style as a category in their annual ale orgy.

La Folie is a both a sign of the times, and a sign of all time. Aged in French oak for one to three years, blended and bottle conditioned just like its Flemish forefathers, this red ale bleeds...red. Tart and plucky in all its woody tannic glory, little carbonation produces a whole lot of lightness. A weird lightness; the kind that betrays the mind into guzzling something far from the yellow end of the color-wheel in 90-degree heat. The yeasts and age make for cherry and rhubarb overtones that digress into a malty whiskey mash, the perfect alcoholic accompaniment to the dog days of summer.

Awesome disclosure: New Belgian's brew master's is a former Rodenbach heavyweight, giving an even further validity to La Folie. Don't call it a clone: this beer manages to bridge the gap between Rodenbach and Duchess de Bourgogne, while maintaining a very accessible drinkability that begs for better distribution (please). The 'Lips of Faith' series is a glimpse of what has been going on in the cellars of one of the fastest growing Micro breweries of the past 20 years. Hopefully we'll see some more of these bottles in L.A.

The crusade against Corona has a new free-lance: keep limes at a distance. Under the influence of La Folie, the green might make you see red.

Dairy Pairy: Brebirousse D'argental; runny washed rind sheep's milk cheese that tastes like a barn.
Soundtrack: Dinosaur Jr.'s Feel the Pain