2:40 Distractions: Mother Beer

The great and generous Bill Zurat deposited this on my desk earlier this week, and I laughed for about half an hour.  Right now I'm drinking it.  It is an IPA made by the Lagunitas Brewing Company (Petaluma Ca.) called "Freak Out!", honoring the 40th anniversary (in 2006) of the Mothers' big freaky debut.

What did Frank Zappa have to say about beer?  Basically that it made people militaristic nincompoops who play football, march, and cheer a lot.  No doubt, when they're drinking soda-beer made out of corn syrup and sugar.  Regarding Zappa, I am a fan, but it's right to remember that he was a cranky cranky man with a low regard for subtlety and a whole lotta not nice to say. 

And how does this beer taste?  As you'd expect it to taste: bitter.  Not that I've got a problem with that.

Within this blog: More beer here (and here); more Zappa here, here and here.

:

Comments

[Chardman]

Cool looking cover, even though Frank would've probably hated being made into a beer brand.
Maybe they should've made Waka Jawaka Java instead.

[Vic Perry]

Yeah, I mean Jonathan Swift never wrote a word about disco, hippies, valley girls, huskies, or Tipper Gore. But several hundred years from now Frank Zappa will still be the ultimate satirical authority on these timeless, timeless concerns, and "Zappaian" will replace "Swiftian" as that word in the dictionary, only it will be found under "Z" instead of "S", to be exact.

[Boris]

Careful, it actually has a fairly high alcohol content - caught me off guard!

[Banyon II]

Wasn't this guy (Zappa, natch) pretty sober save for his love of the cigs? Maybe I'm mistaken.

Doubt this'll make it to my town.Too bad, I am a sucker for potable tie-ins.

[just john]

I've said before that a great potential Zappa-related beer name is Penguin in Bondage Beer.

The ad would feature young, wealthy professional guys playing a hard round of tennis, and afterward, on the way to the clubhouse, one turns and says to the other, "Y'know, Ted, I feel like a Penguin in Bondage!"

[Scott]

Just John, that's a really great idea! I would watch that ad, and then I'd watch it again. Boris, indeed, the beer's somewhere north of 7% abv - not quite whimsey-inducing alcohol content, but it'll make you fall down a bit more than you're prepared for.

[PTBartman]

You fail to mention that beer also is the proper drink to drink if your a biker trying to get your big titty girlfriend back from the Devil.

[Dale Hazelton]

Folks, check out Leeners.com for TrueBrew beer making kits. You can get porters, lagers, ales etc, add things like coffee beans for a chocolatet taste, peppercorns for bite, herbs, fruit, additional hops etc to your primary ferment to customize the mash anyway you like. You can make about 2 cases of beer for $25 to $35 depending on the kit you buy. You'll need a stove, big pot and a carboy or plastic fermenter with airlock.....all available online.

Or was this actually a post about Zappa?

[Jay]

I think Frank said some nice, non-cranky things. I remember one:
"The power is really in the hands of the few. And a lot of them are OUTSIDE of the government, because the government is like partly controlled by the military and partly controlled by big business." - 1967

[Jessica]

Lagunitas makes a fine, fine IPA* regardless of the label, but is tastier from the keg than from the small bottle. Still, I'm running out to get this one post haste.

*Lost Coast's Indica Pale Ale is also worth a try.

[Power Sherlock]

On the 43rd of June 19999, Frank Zappa said 'everyone has got 48 eggs for hands but no one can see through glass - who's the real idiot'. Johnathon Swift once said 'his hammers smell of lazy air'. I totally agree with both of them and but think they are both wrong, that someone else is right and better, and then I think surely they are both themselves and one doesn't have to be better than the other. Or is this a blog version of Big Brother? Cheers.

[Vic Perry]

This is a blog version of Gilligan's Island, the one where the stranded castaways try to escape by "voting each other off the island."

[J. Sterling Ellison]

While Frank didn't take illegal drugs (which continues to surprise people new to his music) he did indeed like a beer now and again. I have audio of a number of interviews where Frank not only mentions that he's drinking a beer, but that he is in fact quite drunk. During his illness, family and friends would gather at his place once a week to enjoy pitchers of frozen margaritas. So, for Frank, it was nicotine, caffeine, and the occasional alcoholic beverage.

[listener monica]

it's good beer!