Portland Beer Week, The Battle of the Brewery Bands; Entry 073

Great Beer Adventure

Have you ever wanted to have your socks blown off from an entire week of beer, food, rock bands, and even Donkey Kong? Then you should plan a trip to Maine’s Portland Beer Week, where this episode was recorded.

Amanda and Tim Bissell from Gneiss Brewing Company shared a drink at the Banded Horn Brewery before Tim’s performance in the Battle of the Brewery Bands. The Banded Horn is set up in an old textile mill sat by the Saco River. The mill used to work in conjunction with other mills along the river, much like a modern day industrial park, or a brewery! Tim finds that the collaboration it takes to brew beer parallels nicely with musicians in a band. There are certain rules and formulas that apply, but the amount of creativity that can be applied is near endless.

What Were They Drinking?

Amanda: The Mountain – a 12% russian imperial stout brewed at Banded Horn.

Tim: Daikaiju – a complex double IPA with notes of black pepper and mint, also brewed at Banded Horn.

Side Note: a quick google search of “Daikaiju” led me to a progressive rock band with the same name. They seem to have a theme of old school Japanese monster movies and sound like “BEAUTIFUL RADIATION OF HYPER-DIMENSIONAL SPRINGY SOUND MAKING DIVINE PSYCHIC WIND FOR YOUR SPECIAL DEFENSE!!!”

More On Beer, Music & Sweet n’ Salty

Tim was remiss to discuss Gneiss’s first batch of brewed beer. If you would like to taste it you’ll have to take a trip underground…in a sewer. He admits that the first batch he ever homebrewed wasn’t going to win any gold medals either, but it didn’t kill him. The same goes for when Tim picked up the guitar at a young age. Despite having to play quietly for years at his parent’s request, he stuck with it and could eventually play any alt-rock 90’s song.

Curiosity has led to many great beer and food inventions. Tim finds that curiosity and actually liking something can sometimes be hard to separate, like the taste of butter popcorn jelly beans. But you shouldn’t be afraid to be bold. Put pretzels in your ice cream. Embrace sweet and salty as 2016’s pumpkin spice. And if you want to find the epicenter of all things chocolate and salt, head to Wright Chocolate House in Limerick, Maine. We hear it’s fantastic.

Crank up the volume in this week’s episode for a full helping of brew band rock goodness. Sing along if you know the lyrics, and drink along if you have the beer.

Links
Gneiss Brewing Company

Portland Beer Week
Banded Horn Brewing

Social

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Bonuses:

First, a video from the evening:

http://greatbeeradventure.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Banded-Horn-Gneiss-Brewery-Band.mp4

And for your audio pleasure; the last hour of the evening. It includes all of the Banded Horn & Gneiss set, Don Littlefield’s AMAZING acceptance speech for the beer ambassador superlative, the voting & the winners being crowned for Best Brewery Band!

http://greatbeeradventure.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Banded-Horn-Gneiss-Set-Dons-Amazing-Speech-The-Winners.mp3

The post Portland Beer Week, The Battle of the Brewery Bands; Entry 073 appeared first on Great Beer Adventure.