October 23rd, 2015 - Rainbows, Pink Dragons, and Stickee Monkees??

A special treat for you tonight my friends!  Your buddy the Meista here getting heavy with a pairing of "Harmonicraft" from stoner rock band Torche and a wonderful Stickee Monkee from Firestone Walker Brewing Company's Proprietor's Vintage Series!  This pairing goes out to bad-ass Barrelhouse manager Marcus... cheers buddy!!

Album Info:

• Artist: Torche
• Title: "Harmonicraft"
• Recorded: 2012 at Pinecrust Studios in Miami, Florida
  Release date: April 24th, 2012 (3rd studio album by Torche)
• Record company: Volcom Entertainment
• Production: Torche (mixed by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou)
• Album cover art: Santos
• Personnel: Steve Brooks (guitars and vocals), Andrew Elstner (guitars and vocals), Jonathan Nuñez (bass, guitars, and keyboards), and Rick Smith (drums)
• Musical style: Stoner metal/rock, sludge pop/metal, doom metal, post punk
• Sound: Of their sound, Brooks described Torche: "To me it's mostly a combination of everything we listen to collectively as a band. We take what we like from what we grew up on and use it as creatively as we can. I think the meshing of different sounds comes naturally just because we all have different musical backgrounds yet have a ton of common interests."  This is heavy duty, sludgy goodness! 
• Major themes: Torche's lyrics tend to be a bit abstract and metaphorical.  Themes seems to deal with sexuality, life and death, relationships, and mental states... among other things.
• Tracks: 

1. "Letting Go"
2. "Kicking"
3. "Walk It Off"
4. "Reverse Inverted"
5. "In Pieces"
6. "Snakes Are Charmed"
7. "Sky Trials"
8. "Roaming"
9. "Skin Moth"
10. "Kiss Me Dudely"
11. "Solitary Traveler"
12. "Harmonicraft"
13. "Looking On"

Brew Info:

• Brewery: Firestone Walker Brewing Company (Paso Robles, California)
• Website: http://www.firestonewalker.com/
• Brew: Stickee Monkee (from the Proprietor's Vintage Series)
• Style: Belgian Quadrupel (Quad) / Central Coast Quad
• Serving: 22 ounce bottle
• ABV: 13.4% 
• IBUs: 45
• Ingredients: Turbinado brown sugar from Mexico and Belgian candi sugar.  The malts and hops are "undisclosed".
• Pour: Mahogany brown (like Coca-Cola) with a creamy mocha head.
• Nose: Toasty, oaky, sweet, and very boozy, the nose of the Stickee Monkee is chalk full of banana, molasses, brown sugar, coconut, bourbon, spiced rum, leather, oak barrels, butterscotch, vanilla, and dark fruits (plum, raisin, fig).
• Taste: Like the nose, the taste is full of fruit esters, sweets, spices, malt, and booze, There are big notes of  soft banana, plantains, honey, molasses, brown sugar, bourbon, raisins, prunes,
• Mouthfeel: Full-bodied with low carbonation, the mouthfeel of the Stickee Monkee is thick, sticky, rich, and smooth with a boozy bite and a dry finish.

Overall pairing: The Stickee Monkee from Firestone Walker Brewing Company is about as close to perfection as you can get to a Quad!  Those rich, boozy, complex flavors are nothing short of amazing... and pairs wonderfully well with the heavy, sludgy, complexity of Torche's brilliant "Harmonicraft"!

Cheers and hails!!