[Sponsored Post]
As we announced in full recently, Brooklyn Brewery’s Mash tour is hitting the road again in 2016, with stops in nine world cities, including London, Stockholm, Chicago, Philadelphia, Paris, Washington D.C., Boston, Austin and New Orleans.
First up is merry old London, May 11-15. As in every other iteration of The Mash on this tour, the festivities will be broken up into multiple events structured around a full weekend.
Feast – May 11
Each Mash begins with the Feast event, and London’s will be an extra-special kick-off at SoHo favorite Smoking Goat. Brooklyn Brewery chef Andrew Gerson will tag-team with the Smoking Goat crew on an exciting menu that pairs alongside some of the brewery’s rarest beers. As with most of the events in the course of the Mash, the communal nature of the meal is emphasized. Beers on display include Sorachi Ace, Scorcher IPA, Barrel-aged Black Ops Russian imperial stout and two “Ghost Bottles” from the Brooklyn vaults: Original Kriek and a kettle sour aged in cognac barrels on mangoes.
Free Show from Metz – May 12
Brooklyn Brewery will present a free show from raucous Canadian rock band METZ on Thursday, alongside openers Hey Colossus, at St. John at Hackney Church, one of London’s very best venues. Expect a thunderous show from the notoriously bombastic METZ, and a full bar stocked with Brooklyn Beer for everyone in attendance. Beers available include Brooklyn classics: Summer Ale, American Ale, Brooklyn Lager and East IPA. See our interview with Metz below.
Beer Mansion – May 13-14
The crown jewel of any Brooklyn Mash event is undoubtedly Beer Mansion, which is being hosted in London on two nights: 7-11 p.m. on Friday, May 13 and 5-11 p.m. Saturday, May 14.
Presented in a “choose your own adventure” spirit, Beer Mansion will take participants through an industrial warehouse-turned hip art gallery, M.C. Motors, where various beer rooms will offer a selection of delights. Brooklyn’s Gabe Barry will present rare and experimental beers in the Barrel Aging Room, while the balancing charge of bitterness and tropical flavors in the IPA room will bring drinkers back down to Earth. At the same time, the courtyard outside will feature live music from The Graveltones and Messenger, games, pizza from Voodoo Ray’s truck, and because there was obviously a glaring lack of beer at this event, more beer.
Brooklyn’s tap list at this event is too long to reasonably list, but it includes several unreleased beers from the Brewmasters Reserve and Quarterly Experiment series. Additional guest breweries include Thornbridge Brewery, Forest Road Brewing, 40ft Brewery, Redchurch Brewery and Beavertown Brewery.
A £10 ticket to Beer Mansion gains you access to M.C. Motors, beers from Brooklyn Brewery and some local brewing friends, and plenty of other surprises. Tickets are available right here.
DIY Dinner Party – May 15
Chef Andrew Gerson will again take center stage at London’s DIY Dinner Party, this time stepping back from cooking to teach the diners a thing or two. Chef Gerson will show off some secrets of preparing an all-from-scratch beer dinner, as participants roll up their sleeves and join in at Cactus Kitchens, home of the Michel Roux Jr. Cooking School. Separate groups of participants will prepare different courses before coming together to share them all in a family-style meal. And of course, there will be plenty of Brooklyn Beer offerings, including Scorcher IPA, Local 1, Summer Ale and Intensified Coffee Porter. Tickets for the DIY Dinner Party are going for £35 and are available right here.
An Interview with Metz
Paste: Metz II came out a year ago, which was also the last time Paste spoke with you. How have those songs grown on you? And how has your perception of them changed?
Alex Edkins: We always hope that they grow in a positive way! They can stretch out and also, of course, that they have the ability to make us happy and also make people in the crowd connect to the music. I think that’s definitely happened with the new material. It’s a lucky thing because we don’t mind touring so much and we don’t mind playing the songs. They’ve grown in a positive way. I’ll say that for sure.
Paste: It looks like your tour schedule has been pretty crazy, especially internationally. You toured Southeast Asia earlier this year?
Edkins: Yeah, it shocks us, even that we get the opportunity to do that! It’s funny. We’ve been trying really hard to do less. After the first record, we toured it for almost two years, so we’re consciously trying to cut back. But great opportunities have been put in front of us and we just feel fortunate and so we go with it. Going to Japan and Singapore and China and South Korea was totally amazing and great experience for us.
Paste: And you’re heading to back and forth to London and Europe multiple times this spring and summer, starting with Brooklyn Brewery’s Mash tour…
Edkins: This upcoming gig is something that we wanted to do after the All Tomorrow’s Parties thing fell through. We were really excited getting over there and playing with some of our favorite bands ever and then that fell apart. This popped up and we thought this might be a bit of a make-up for that.
Paste: I find deliciously ironic that this upcoming Brooklyn Brewery show is at a church that hosts services regularly and has a daily Bible verse on its website. How do you feel about playing super loud punk and noise rock in this kind of venue?
Edkins: You know what? I didn’t even know that! That’s news to me! I’m certainly not a religious person, but to be honest, I have really fond memories of playing in basements of churches and legion halls and really weird DIY venues when I was younger. They were the only places that would let us use their rooms and stuff. So you know, I think it might even be a little bit of a throwback to that. So I don’t have an issue as long as it doesn’t sound like total garbage! We’ll just go with it and see what happens!
Paste: Well generally those old churches in Europe and the U.K. have amazing acoustics, so I’m sure it’ll be fine!
AE: Yeah. Sometimes they’re not used to the volume or the harshness of the set. If the room is made for a choir or an orchestra it could be a problem. But you know, no biggie!
Paste: Well on the flip side, I did read that Time Out London called it one of the best places in town to catch a gig.
Edkins: Oh, amazing!
Paste: Since we’ve been talking about how much you’ve been touring, I have to admit: I almost expected you to be hoarse and that your voice would be scratchy talking to me now. How do you keep your voice in tact?
Edkins: [laughs] It’s never been an issue! And recently, actually, we’ve been home for a long period, longer than we normally give ourselves. So we’ve been focusing on a new record and doing lots of writing. We’re actually at our rehearsal place right now! We’re just chugging away on new stuff and haven’t been gigging too much over the past three months, so I’m feeling good!
Paste: So because this is a beer-sponsored gig, are you and the guys beer drinkers?
Edkins: I’ll say that I like it all! We’re not doing against our beliefs by doing this show!
More information on the 2016 Brooklyn Brewery Mash events in each city can be found at the event’s main website.