I had a lot of preface to this article going over my latest attempt to open a beer while grilling, but that was detracting from the main theme of this article: celebrity beers.
Those of us of a certain age remember the phenomenon that was “Billy” Beer, endorsed by President Jimmy Carter’s beer-swilling brother. Actually, the stuff disappeared before I was old enough to drink it. Somehow, I think that put the kibosh on the whole idea of beers named after real people.
Fast-forward to the craft beer boom. The hundreds of local breweries out there begin naming beers after some of their hometown heroes: Flat12 Bierwerks of Indianapolis’ Hinchtown Hammerdown, named for Indy Car driver James Hinchcliffe; SchillingBridge in Pawnee City, Nebraska had one for native son Larry the Cable Guy. Go ahead. Guess what it’s called.
Then there are the performing musicians who have become craft beer fans, or who get their own beers to sell at their concert venues. Kyle Hollingworth of the jam band Strong Cheese Incident has overseen several collaborations along their tour stops. The alt-rap group Nappy Roots has collaborated on beers with Against the Grain in Louisville, KY, and Monday Night Brewing in Atlanta. Best known, perhaps, is Iron Maiden’s Trooper, made by Robinsons of Manchester, England. It has managed to be placed in bars and stores outside of their tour dates, and the band’s members have also collaborated of variants.
Which brings us to Def Leppard Pale Ale, sent to me by Elysian Brewing of Seattle. This beer is planned to be on sale during their July 14 concert at Wrigley Field with Journey. It will also be available at Chicago bars like Old Crow Smokehouse, Smoke Daddy, Brickhouse Tavern, Rizzo’s Bar & Inn and others. So I’m popping the beer inside while my chicken is roasting outside, in the rain.
We have a 6% abv pale ale, described as having Cascade, Chinook, Simcoe and Magnum hops. The pour is a golden amber color, or perhaps “color,” with a big, foamy, off-white head.
I admit, the smell was somehow off-putting at first, perhaps too much pine or tropical fruit from the hops. Perhaps some funk in the can’s headspace after a hot ride from UPS. But that cleared off to leave a nice hoppy nose, mostly of guava and mango.
Oops, here comes some more rain. Put the cover back on the grill, back inside to finish. The taste has a similar tropical fruit hop to it, with the resin more to the background. Malts have a very light toast, but are present in enough quantity to match up with the hops. This ends up as a decent pale ale, more of an APA than a British IPA. And as a celebrity endorsed beer, it certainly stands up better than, say, a Landshark Lager or something called “Badass.” I wish I could make a snarky remark about”Billy” beer, but I was just slightly too young to take that bullet.
