April 28th, 2013 - "Why Baby, Why... Did You [Take My Beer And] Make Me Let You Go?"

The Meista here with another rockin' pairing for you...  So I usually try to avoid pairing "best of" and "greatest hits" albums, but I couldn't decide on an actual studio outing from Dokken (too many good albums!), so today you get a pairing of "The Very Best Of Dokken" and a Viennese Lager from Bohemian Brewery!

Dokken hit the scene in the late 1970s and was unfortunately, lumped in with the "hair" metal bands of the 1980s.  Dokken always stood out for me as an insanely talented and straight-ahead rockin' band as opposed to some of those other "hair" metal bands.  Sure they wore make-up and somewhat silly clothes, (didn't we all in the '80s?) but they had the chops to back it up and proved time and time again that they were a kick-ass and incredibly talented band!   George Lynch's guitar work (on each and every track) alone is enough to leave you shaking!  Hell, just listen to those guitar acrobatics on "Tooth And Nail"!  Don Dokken's voice is just great... a solid vocalist with a wonderful range!  Jeff Pilson has always been one of my favorite metal bassists!  And Mick Brown beats the hell outta those drums!  "Breaking The Chains," "Into The Fire," "Alone Again," "The Hunter," "In My Dreams," "It's Not Love," "Dream Warriors," "Mr. Scary," "Too High To Fly"... goddamn... that's a lot of influential and inspiring rocking going on to say the least!!

And speaking of rocking... how 'bout some Viennese Lager from Bohemian Brewery?  This is the stuff baby!  A staple at my house, this medium to full-bodied Vienna Style Lager is a brewed in the traditional three step decoction boiling process with fine Pilsener and dark roasted malts giving it balance and richer flavor.  It pours a cloudy, reddish copper (it looks like a glass of clover honey!) with a white, frothy head that dissipates fairly fast leaving only traces of lace.  The nose is mellow, but very inviting with notes of light biscuit, toffee, and butterscotch.  There are also some sourdough notes as well.  The flavor is malty, slightly sweet, and hoppy.  There are notes of toasted bread, subtle caramel, a little citrus, and some nice bitter undertones from the hops.  You get a little dextrin buttery flavor as well.  Very clean, very smooth and drinkable, the Viennese is a great session beer, perfect for straight-ahead rocking with the likes of Dokken!

Cheers!!