#draught punk

At DP HQ we fancy ourselves as not only trendsetters, but trend predictors. And as we give 2014 the double bird along with so many boring cream ales and highly anticipated yet nonstarter follow up records, we have begun to set our slightly blurred gaze upon the oh so bright and promising 2015 horizon. So take notes, Punklings, we’re as sure as shit the truths in the following paragraphs will take hold in the coming 12 months, or we’ll at least do our best to make them facts.

1 | Canned Sours

Cans were so 2012, sours so 2013, innovation so 2014, so obviously canned sours will be so 2015. Pluses: not even the craftiest of breweries can manipulate our American born idea that cans=cheap and thus the sour price pendulum may swing back to a more reasonable fucking place, it may expose more idiots to the lushness of well made sours (but do they really need to know that?), and provide a more reasonable amount of the splendid tart nectar for a single session. Minuses: Unfortunately for most breweries, sours are still a mixed bag, so you could end up with six duds instead of just the one, some beers are just better with proper packaging and presentation although all the the greatness cans are, they just aren’t that. And we foresee a lot of drain pours from confused, under educated, over zealous craft toe dippers. -Chris

2 | Suburban Breweries

Just like so many mid-30s-stay-at-home-moms, several new brewers’ eyes are caught by the unreal $-to-sqft opportunities found outside of our craft urban meccas. Being hip is overrated, and if you can swallow a little longer commute and a strip center address, opening up a brewery out of town is a no brainer. So what if you share walls with a tanning salon and a Subway, you’re living your dream of crafting mediocre beers for the craft fat (see below) dads who are just as dead inside as you soon will be. Oh, but those sweet sweet suburban city incentives will surely dull the constant reminder that you have compromised. But then again, it’s still probably better than your day job was. -Chris

3 | Craft Backlash

Its inevitable.  And it happens in 2015.  With the escalating projection of 4000+ breweries and brewpubs in the US, the scramble for available ingredients (including elusive hops and a poor barley crop) will actualize into two major problems for the beer industry: high prices and poorly developed beer.  As competition increases triplefold for the freshest and edgiest hops, brewers who can and will spring for them will certainly be forced to pass off the overhead to the consumer. Unlucky brewers will be forced to learn the ropes with finicky or less appealing ingredients, while still being forced to pass off a premium price to the consumer, ultimately alienating a vocal audience who finds the value of other disposable items on their wish lists more important than craft beer. -Eric

4 | Flagship Army

About the only thing that can take down this massive culling of craft beer supporters and superfans (besides the cost of beer) is a renegade fleet of Beer Advocate-ish idiots, unaware of their lots in life to chug Code Red Mountain Dew and master Microsoft Flight Simulators.  Look folks, the rarities just ain’t gonna help keep the lights on, other than to build buzz for a developing brewery — and in addition to that, looking for rarities in the wild without some sort of distributor hook-up or store clerk connection is a fucking nightmare.  Our prediction is that craft beer enthusiasts will return to establishing their fandom by buying brewery mainstays en masse, invoking a bit of a resistance towards taking a long lunch to hunt the least obtainable beerstuff. -Eric

5 | Taproom is the New Bar

This prediction is more so for our localized region of Austin/TX. It’s sort of a no brainer, and obvious in more beer progressive states, but our cavemen passing as legislature have finally come around to realize that breweries are not the fast track pathway to hell they once believed and that a locally well produced product in a hot market is actually great for our state’s economy. So as we witnessed tasting rooms expanding their hours and days open in 2014, we believe that the savvy craft consumers are and will continue to firmly plant ass in seat and bend elbow at brewery tasting rooms more and more in 2015. -Chris

6 | Craftsexual

While we are predicting a bit of a craft beer backlash from a general audience, the more drastic fans of the culture will adopt an entire lifestyle devoted to 100+ IBUs and whiskey barrel aging.  A craftsexual man will have a calculated look of heavy-haired ruggedness, rubber boots, and overalls, as if to suggest a recent brewing session, and the women will look the same but with better beards.  Craftsexuals will only date other craftsexuals or drink a beer made out of a puncture-capable can brewed within a 150 mile radius of their current location. -Eric

7 | Brewers will not wear beards

Fearing the chance of being mistaken for a Craftsexual or Hopster, rather than an actual professional, expect to see brewers move to a cleaner look in 2015. - Eric

8 | Brewery playgrounds

As the laborers in the brewing industry age towards the fertility stage, so too will their progeny develop into manic toddlers.  In response to the beerbaby boom, breweries will begin establishing themselves as family-friendly destinations, similar to the wave of acceptance seen in Las Vegas in the mid-90s.  Expect this trend to evolve until the teenage years, when adolescents of such ilk are doted on far less than cute three year olds in Funkworks tees.  At this point, breweries will return to their more natural, adult-oriented functionality, just as Vegas did in the Mid-00’s. -Eric

9 | Craft Fat

Don’t kid yourself. We all know as you expand your palate, you are exponentially expanding your waistline. Every 50 check ins on Untappd is another belt eye hole lost to the ethers. And as activities like craft beer paired with disc golf, or craft beer paired with cycling begin to lose foothold to just craft beer paired with more craft, our BMI’s are growing as fast as the craft scene in general. Justy give in, take down those Twitter and Facebook profile pics from 25 pounds ago and embrace your (much more robust) self in 2015. Or you know, cut out those lunch beers and go for a fucking walk every once in a while. YOLO! -Chris

10 | The W(hatever)TF Pack

If the breweries won’t give us (exactly) what we want, well, we as consumers are just gonna take it. Well, we’ll buy it first, THEN TAKE IT! Beer stores are inching towards allowing their customers to personalize their own packs by offering singles from any sixer in the store. This is not a new concept, as more beer-established states have been offering this service of liberty for years (Big10! Big10! Big10!).  Brewers will eventually take note and do some flagship mixpacks of their own at the brewery — even customizing portions, such as the 3-pack for single dads and 100 packs for Tinder users. -Eric

11 | Dethroning the Old Guard (The Top Five craft beer producers)

Episode 13 Side A wt Stephanie Meyer of San Tan Brewing

This episode here, Punklings -- Episode 13 of the locally celebrated and nationally admired Draught Punk beer + music podcast  -- is the definitive answer to the perennially begged question, “Why do we even fucking bother?”

And that is because this episode fucking kills it.  Kills it to death.

For our lucky number 13, we invited beer patriot Stephanie Meyer who serves as the Texas brand rep for San Tan Brewing out of Chandler Arizona; a brewery who has recently undertook the ambitious endeavor of satiating the thirsts of 26.5 million Texans with some of the country’s finest hot weather beers made right over there in the Sonoran Desert.

Chris and Eric, as is typical of their staunch “No Bitchassedness” policy, hold down their end of the bargain with solid indie rarities and their coordinating adult refreshments.  As usual, we think its our best episode yet.  And lo!  There is a Side A and a Side B, remember?

So take a listen to the first half of Draught Punk Episode 13 and crack open a cold coconut water if you work at a place that sucks; or maybe a cold San Tan if you already have your H.R. emails filtered to spam.

As always, a reminder to SUBSCRIBE to Draught Punk’s iTunes feed and our Spotify playlists.  Subscribing is easy.  And fun.  But also easy.

So, from the haunted dentist office recording studio atop the legendary Draught House in Austin, Texas, here is Draught Punk Episode 13 featuring Stephanie Meyer.

Cheers then.

-DP

Episode 12-Side A Wt Spencer Tielkemeier of Oasis, TX Brewing

So, who’s ready for another Side A ear-fucking, courtesy of Draught Punk?  

Well, alright, fine.  We’ll take our time with you, ease into your brain.  Make you love us and not forget us.  And just when you think you might be able to quarantine us to an unused recess of your mind, we’ll hit you with the B-side.  Sounds pretty amazing, right?

For now, though, lets just go ahead see where this episode takes us, okay?  We’ll stay over the shirt.

Coincidentally -- as sex symbols go at least -- Draught Punk invited the Notebook-era Ryan Gosling of Austin Brewers, Spencer Tielkemeier of Oasis, Texas Brewing Company, to join the program and discuss how imminently sexy their beer would become once they get six packs and beautiful haircuts.  We’re talking Ryan Gosling in Crazy, Stupid, Love caliber beer, here.  Really.  We got to taste it.

And as beer’s natural bedfellow, there are plenty of Emma Stone-quality jams to pair with all this boozin’ and lovin’.   

So, click ahead to join Chris, Eric, and Spencer, as they advocate for quality beer and musical individuality in the hauntedly abandoned dentists office atop the legendary Draught House in Austin, Texas.

As always, remember to subscribe to Draught Punk’s iTunes feed and follow our tweets cos we are very fucking interesting drunks.  Following is easy.  And fun.  But also easy.

Enjoy Punklings.

Cheers!

-DP

Wait, so, erm … what the hell happened to Episode 7?  Did we all collectively miss the 2013 Best-of-Draught-Punk show in all of its ultra-modern glory? Or are we all just drunk?

Well, no.  Or, yeah.  Who knows?  Maybe.  

The reasonably hilarious truth is, Episode 7 of Draught Punk was more like Dad Punk – complete with the perils of having nine-to-fivers, very small children, and too many other soul-consuming projects and hobbies — so much so, that the quality of its content suffered and we decided to scrap it entirely, banishing the seventh iteration of Draught Punk to the Special Features section of our imminent straight-to-home-video LaserDisc.

While we totally regret being unable to showcase the spectacular beer gifted to us by pals-of-the-show, Austin Beer Garden Brewery with their Hell Yes Helles, and Daniel Clay with Community Beer Company’s Mosaic IPA, we wouldn’t have wanted to misrepresent the badassery of their beer and generosity with our whiskey dick.

What we CAN offer, however, is an olive branch called Episode 8, complete with your fresh-faced hosts — Chris and Eric – who have slowed their levels of alcohol intake from Miley Cyrus down to about Justin Bieber levels since December.  Along with our guest, Tom Thornton (Eater Austin, Texas Monthly, Austin Culture Map), and set in a darkened drink.well. (who graciously provided a recording space), we think it’s a fantastic show.

Tom brings along his vivid musical imagination, providing a great twist on our typically beer-centric ‘casts.  If you love indie-approved Top-40 pop; 90s, burnout, where-are-they-now-type lead singers; slightly-pedantic musical collabs; and the critique of a Buzzfeed millenial – you’ll love this episode.  We even talk about beer!  Great beer!

So, CLICK ONWARD to find out which six killer tunes started our 2014, and which six beers you’ll need to run out and try post-haste.  

Also, this is our forever-reminder to SUBSCRIBE to our Draught Punk’s iTunes feed and our Twitter feed.  DO IT.

Thanks to our guest Tom, drink.well. for hosting us, and, of course, all you Punklings out there for listening to the show.

Subscribe to our SPOTIFY playlist

Download Episode Eight

Cheers!

-DP

Download Episode Four.

  Honestly, we could have just packed it in after our last episode, and had a nice two-hour send off with one of our favorite brewers in Austin, casting Draught Punk into the eternal archives of the intercray and glad-handing ourselves on a job well done.

But that wouldn’t be very punk of us at all.  

No, we’ve made these graves, and we are determined to lie in wait for someone to toss the dirt on this project -- but it won’t be us.  It feels as hearty as ever -- and this time, we think we’ve brought you our best show yet.  

With a nice run of good fortune, DP was granted access to a professional recording studio by friend-of-the-show, Alex Franco, and his man on the switches, IT director Kasey Johns.  As our guest host, we were able to coax the ethereal Emma Janzen of The Austin American-Statesman’s Liquid Austin to donate her words, music, and beer, as long as we promised to behave ourselves.  We really tried.

Chris starts off the broadcast with a ‘wraiths-are-coming-to-suck-your-soul’ vibe by intro’ing with The Sword’s “Iron Swan”, who recently kicked off their mini-tour of the US in Austin with the debut of their collaborative Extra Special Bitter brewed by Real Ale.  Coincidentally, that beer is named Iron Swan.

Eric cooools everyone’s metal boners with some flaccid indie folk by Volcano Choir, which is just Justin Vernon (of Bon Iver) by a different name and a different set of collaborators.  But the song “Dancepack” is still roses.  Alongside all the falsettos came Community Beer Company’s Texas Pilz, also a collaborative project made together with the Texas Tavern League.

Emma then brings her own brand of storminess with Daughter’s “Human”, and discusses the possibility of our listeners allowing Emo back into their hearts. She further complicates our emotions with Stone Brewing’s Smoked Barleywine, which, as you will hear, can choke a horse.

Chris demonstrates 90s Emo gig-dancing/posturing and shares what is so far the most egregious band name of DP’s entire podography in The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die.  They’ve got a song called “Gig Life” and we break down Emo’s impending 4th wave -- but before we can off ourselves in despair, we share a growler of Live Oak Brewing’s baby-fresh Dunkel.

As is typically the case, Eric sexts your brain with a romantic indie jam in Arctic Monkeys’ “Do I Wanna Know?” before sharing a magically delicious, but woefully out-of-season Gingerbread Stout by Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company.

At this point, the gang should be done for, but Emma graciously shares a muled bottle of Two Brothers Brewing 91 Shilling Scotch Ale, brought to us all the way from Chicago, before reigning it all together with a spiritual aria by AFI called “I Hope You Suffer”.  Is she sending the boys a message?  

Click LISTEN to find out (and don’t forget to subscribe to our iTunes feed, too!)

We’d like to genuinely thank Alex and Kasey at Mix 94.7 and Emma from Liquid Austin for helping with Episode 4.  And as always, we thank you, Punklings, for hanging with us and ingesting our personal preferences in music and beer while you tap away at the keyboard in your office.  We’re probably doing the same thing right now, too.  Truly we appreciate your support and we’ll see you soon.  

We finally play you out on Washed Out’s All I Know from his newest album Paracosm.

Cheers!

-DP

Download Episode Three.

  Draught Punk was due for a chin checkin’ after getting all cocky about its first two bangers, and episode three was nearly derailed by an aggregate of pre-recording misfortune, including a failed soundboard, a couple rounds of interim whiskies while we smacked idiotically at the machines, and then shotgunning cans of beer for the dual effect of calming our frustrations and as creative lubricant for a very unathletic rendition of H.O.R.S.E. played on a Lil Tikes’ Adjust and Jam basketball hoop in the backyard, as one does.

But after a few hours of horse play (pun!), the gang was back on the pirate radio waves by means of some VERY generous assistance from goofus-Eric’s neighbor, gallant-Dave and his Magic Mic.  We’re just the talent here, folks.  We can’t be expected to be the roadies too.  Plus, we were already too hammered to think about wires and knobs and science.  

Apart from roadies, we might also need to hire some security to protect us from ourselves.

Oh, and to add to the chaos, we invited a very special guest -- Black Star Co-Op and Brewery’s master brewer, Jeff Young --  to join in on the fun.  While a hubristic basketball player that ultimately sealed his fate by being too cocksure, he DID prove to be an excellent guest and co-host, helping to retain Draught Punk’s title of #1 in Awesome.

Eric starts off the show with Franz Ferdinand’s “Right Action” from their forthcoming album Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, whilst gushing -- quite literally -- over Prairie Artisan Ale’s Prairie Saison Ale.  

Chris follows upwith The Pixies latest effort, “Bag Boy”, while leading a discussion of where the band stands in terms of relevancy in the 2000-teens.  He then satiates the gang with Austin Beerworks’ summertime stash,  Einhorn Berliner Weisse, to much satisfaction and approval.

Jeff, kicks the party into 16th gear with 2013’s indie-anthem “The Mother We Share” by Glaswegians CHVRCHES, and discusses Scotland’s contribution to the global music scene.  To pair with the Scottish thematics, Jeff shares Black Star’s Epsilon, a Balcones Brimstone Whiskey Barrel Aged Scotch Ale that pretty much takes this show to the 5th dimension spirit world.  

Eric snakes back around to piggyback on the indie-approved pop sprinkles of CHVRCHES with a bouncey jam by Charli XCX called You (Ha Ha Ha).  Along for the ride is the equally saccharine seasonal release Rubaeus Raspberry Ale from Founder’s Brewing, as they extended their generosity in the form of for-review bottles for Draught Punk.  We enthusiastically thank them for that.

Jeff segues back into more Scotland-inspired tunes with a cover of Black Eyed Peas “Boom Boom Pow” by completely opposite-genre’d Maccabees.  Its a bold contribution that collaborates very well with another potable version of his own brewing mastery: Vulcan IPA, which has a boom boom pow of citrus and piney hops that left us feeling all biscuit-arsed.

Chris completes the circuit of music and booze with the controversial “Blood On the Leaves” by Kanye West while conducting a controversial side-by-side of Jeff’s own Berliner Weisse called Waterloo against Austin Beerworks’ Einhorn.  But one questions, is Waterloo even a Berliner Weisse?  Its our very own examination of the fermented equivalent of ‘Ye’s Yeezus vs. Jay-Z’s Magna Carta.  

Have a listen and find out what they hell we’re even talking about.

As always, we thank you for hanging with us and digesting our buffoonery as we get drunk and listen to our current favorite music.  We serenade you out with the sweet sounds of Belle & Sebastian’s “Dear Catastrophe Waitress” on the heels of their wildly successful ACL Live performance in July.  

We’ll be hitting you up again in the months ahead.  

Cheers!

-DP

Yep, you asked for it and the gang from Draught Punk is back with a second episode of craft beer snobbery and indie music insufferability.  We think that this officially makes us a podcast series now, and thus will begin to openly entertain syndication offers from media outlets who have been searching the far reaches of the internet for sour-mouthed, dude-bros who love to expound on their miserable daily lives through the medium of high-gravity alcohol and underground grocery store rock.

Chris is the lead-off this episode, with a sample of Mikal Cronin’s track “Am I Wrong” from his 2013 Album, MCII.  Meanwhile, the gang samples and discusses Southern Star’s Valkyrie Double IPA, their attempted recreation of their widely approved Pro-Am ‘12 DIPA.  He also addresses an annoying musical ear-worm, which he tries and ultimately fails to place onto his co-hosts.

Shawn, who ghosts for Aaron this episode, contributes like an 80th minute super-sub with his donations of “I Sat by the Ocean” by Queens of the Stone Age and Heavy Machinery Part 2 by Austin Beerworks.  After two back-to-back DIPAs the episode really starts to aerate like a bottle of flavored fortified wine.

Eric completes the first round of music and beer discussion with a double-shot of jams from Crystal Fighters’ latest release.  As the sprightly “You and I” and “LA Calling” play, the gang dabbles in a couple of equally light hits, Festina Peche from Dogfish Head and Grand Cru from Rodenbach.

Chris segues into the flowy rhythms of his trademarked super-group samplings, this time with  Somebody Sweet to Talk To from She & Him, a band that consists of mega-virtuosos Zooey Deschanel and M Ward.  The gang then pops a sample of the highly-anticipated forthcoming release of Atrial Rubicite from Jester King with resounding approval.

Finally, Shawn reigns the second episode all back in with the consistency of Real Ale’s Hans Pils held together by the epically composed Phosphorescent slow-burner, “Song for Zula” and the coastal stylings of Surfer Blood’s “Demon Dance”.

As always, we are emphatically grateful to Humordy.com for the generous donation of their studio space and to producer Bryan Gutmann.  Thank you for listening and we will hit you back up sometime in July.

Download the episode here.