Dogfish Head Unveils Miles Davis-Inspired Beer, Bitches Brew
Beer visionary Sam Calagione and his colleagues at Dogfish Head Brewery have unveiled Bitches Brew (official site here), to commemmorate the 40th anniversary of Miles Davis' epic jazz record of the same name.
Dogfish's Bitches Brew is described as "a bold, dark beer that's a fusion of three threads imperial stout and one thread honey beer with gesho root, a gustatory analog to Miles' masterpiece."
The beer's label features the late Mati Klarwein's famous artwork from the original album.
Sam Calagione talked about the beer in April at Dogfish's annual Off-Centered Film Festival:
"We just did the test batch our pub. It is a threaded beer which means multiple primary fermentations [...] and then you blend them together from multiple threads. It is a blend of Tej, which is the native African beer which is actually honey beer. They use gesho root because hops don't grow in Africa and gesho is the bittering component that counterbalances the sweetness of the honey. That's one thread. Three threads is an imperial stout with Muscovado sugar. Post-fermentation, we'll blend those together to make Bitches' Brew and that will come out in August." (Watch the video of Sam's discussion of Bitches Brew.)
Materials on the release of Bitches Brew (the beer) note that Sam Calagione has long had a strong affinity for the Miles Davis record:
Calagione was drawn to the alchemical spirits in Bitches Brew right out of college, acquiring a copy of the album "within months of the first time I brewed a batch of homebrew in my apartment in New York City. I listened to it when I was writing my Dogfish business plan. I wanted Dogfish Head to be a maniacally inventive and creative brewery, analog beer for the digital age. You could say that my dream was to have Dogfish Head, in some small way, stand for the same thing in the beer world that Bitches Brew stands for in the jazz world. You can imagine how excited we are to be doing this project 17 years after I wrote that business plan."
Dogfish's Bitches Brew will be available in 750ml bottles in August 2010. (No word on if it will be served at the upcoming -- and also visionary -- Batali/Dogfish project Eataly.)
In the vein of Bitches Brew-- here's Dogifsh Head's Sam Calagione freestyle rapping at the 2010 Off-Centered Film Festival:
Sam from Dogfish Head Rappin' from CraftAustin.com on Vimeo.
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First Posted: 06/07/10 06:09 PM ET Updated: 05/25/11 05:40 PM ET