Dogfish Head Craft Brewery today announced the release of Bitches Brew to commemorate the original release of the milestone jazz album, Bitches Brew, by jazz legend Miles Davis.
The new beer by Dogfish Head 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.” It also features the “the album’s iconic artwork, created by the late Mati Klarwein, on its label, Dogfish Head’s Bitches Brew will be unveiled at Savor, An American Craft Beer & Food Experience tonight at the National Building Museum, Washington DC. The beer will be bottled in 750ml bottles and released through Dogfish’s distribution network in late August.
From the press release:
The newly created ale is designed, according to Dogfish founder and president Sam Calagione, “as the ultimate partner for chili or spicy curry chicken” and best enjoyed “sipped cool, not cold, from a snifter or red wine glass while listening to the Bitches Brew album.”
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.”
“There’s a spirit of innovation, of creativity and individuality, that’s at the core of Miles’ music,” said Adam Block, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Legacy Recordings. “Sam and Dogfish Head approach their art from the same place and consequently the marriage is an easy and cool one.”
Later this year, on August 31, an anniversary edition of the recording — two, actually: a Legacy Edition and a deluxe Collector’s Edition — will be released on CD.
Is Sam becoming the beer world equivalent of Orange County Choppers making beers for corporate clients for money? That’s not extreme, it’s pimping. If you take away the gimmick beers of DFH what’s left besides 60 minutes.
I respect the question, but in answer, I think not. Pimping for something as culturally treasured as a Miles Davis opus widely recognized as an important landmark in the evolution of jazz, one of the least commercialized genres in music? Certainly there’s not much money to be made there.
As far as the gimmick beer designation, everyone has their own taste. If your favorite DFH beer is the 60-minute IPA, then it makes sense you wouldn’t care for most of the others from DFH, nor perhaps many of the numerous big-hopped, wood-aged, or extreme offerings from other American craft brewers continuing to be released to small but enthusiastic audiences (read beer geeks). You’re in line with most of the country in that respect, who also don’t care much for instrumental jazz.
But I will point out that many people keep buying these “gimmick beers” year after year, as DFH’s numbers will show. They spend very little on advertising.
I will respectfully raise a glass of Burton Baton to your 60 Minute and cheer on the dialogue with regard for diversity of opinion. . .
Actually the Palo Santo Marron is my favorite DFH. However when you make a beer by chewing corn and spitting it out I think you are running out of good ideas. Just my opinion. And I admire Sam a bunch.
Sam certainly isn’t the first – Lagunitas (Petaluma, CA) did at least FOUR celebratory brews (strong ales) that featured Mothers of Invention album covers on the labels; the brews’ release dates were on the 40th anniversary of the albums’ original release dates … what I’m curious about is what’s made that stop, as there have been none in the last 18-24 months.
As for DFH, I hope some of that brew will be available on tap when I visit their Gaithersburg MD pub over the July 4 weekend; I’m an SF Bay Area “geek” who’s big fan of a lot of their products.