As we previously covered in our “Beer Drinker’s Guide To Summer Music Festivals” piece, the folks at Goose Island and Pitchfork Festival Chicago have one of the more exciting beer selections at the festival each year. Beyond Goose Island’s typically sumptuous selections, the brewery collaborates with an act playing the festival each year to create a craft beer unique to the festival—which is really one of the cooler aspects of any music festival’s beer scene.
Run the Jewels began the tradition in 2013 with “Run the Jewels”, a Belgian-style wheat ale that promised to cure your cottonmouth. The festival’s 2014 incarnation saw Sharon Van Etten’s dry-hopped “SVE Kolsch,” and last year Chicago’s own Chance the Rapper teamed up with Goose Island for “No Collar,” a Helles-style lager.
This year the brewery again kept it local, collaborating with garage rockers Twin Peaks on “Natural Villain,” a “garage lager” that the band said was inspired by some of their favorite beers like Pacifico and Sol.
Jared Jankoski, Goose Island Brewmaster shared his thoughts on the process:
“Working with the bands each year is awesome. Each group is different and we try to understand what inspires them and makes them tick. What do they drink when they practice, create or perform? For Twin Peaks, we came up a garage lager, named “Natural Villain.” A lot happens in a garage, and you need a beer to go with it. These guys are total garage, and I just felt like it fit them.”
Twin Peaks makes sense as this year’s highlighted act, as 2016 looks to be a big year for the band, which is currently touring to support Down In Heaven, their most accomplished album to date. As anyone who has seen the band’s raucous live show can attest, Twin Peaks sounds best at high volumes with at least a beer (or seven) floating around in your stomach. I typically leave the band’s shows wearing quite a bit of lager by the evening’s end, so this seems like a match made in Beer Heaven (or down in beer heaven I suppose).
Based on the descriptions, “Natural Villain” seems to be the perfect beverage for a music-and-sunshine-filled summer afternoon in Chicago, and Twin Peaks drummer Connor Brodner had this to say about the collaboration:
“We were fortunate enough to get together with Chicago born and bred Goose Island and collaborate with them on our very own beer for Pitchfork fest. It’s inspired by some of our favorite beers like Modelo, Pacifico, and Sol. We also got to design the label and give it our lil’ western twist. It’s gonna be poured up at some of our favorite Chicago bars the week of Pitchfork too, so everyone’s thirst can be quenched!”
Check out the Goose Island/Twin Peaks video: