A beer with my name on it

[randy_byers]

Jeff Alworth at Beervana reviews a new brew from Portland's Upright Brewing called Billy the Mountain. According to Alworth, it's their version of a traditional English old ale, which is a style I really like, and this one is aged in pinot barrels with brettanomyces clausenii (not to be confused with the brettanomyces bruxellensis used in Belgian beers), which apparently gives it a bit of tartness.

So it sounds like a beer I would love to taste, but it's also true that "Billy the Mountain" was the first Frank Zappa song I ever loved with all my heart. I'll always remember the first time I heard it in 1978 or 1979, which for various reasons I really shouldn't describe in detail here, but suffice it to say that one of my clearest memories of that night is my friend and ex-co-worker Phil's face looming over me, where I was lying flat on my back on the floor in his apartment struggling to breathe because I was laughing so hard at the song, and Phil's face asking, "Are you okay?" Sounds like this beer might put me in a similar state. Now if I can only track down a bottle of it.

Comments

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Well, color me green. I never saw Zappa with Flo & Eddie (that was too early for me), although I did see Zappa with a different group twice in 1978 or thereabouts. I also met Howard Kaylan (a.k.a. Eddie) at a World Fantasy Convention back in the '80s or '90s (John Shirley had brought him), and I drooled all over him.