Dave Witte and Tired Hands Collaborate on Play Fast Beer!

It’s hard not to see the irony in drummer Dave Witte—he who has “Play Fast” tattooed across the knuckles of his hands—collaborating with a brewpub called Tired Hands. Witte’s hands, which have pounded on quite an array of extreme albums—from Discordance Axis to Municipal Waste—don’t ever seem to get tired. But Witte put his hands to work in collaborating on a beer with Tired Hands owner Jean Broillet IV (pictured above at left).
“Jean asked me if I wanted to do a beer together named after ‘Play Fast,’ which I have tattooed on me,” Witte explains. “With Jean’s expert guidance, the beer turned out great. After all, I’m not really a brew master. It was basically me pouring my ideas into the tank and Jean fine-tuning it to make it great like everything else he brews.”

The brew of those labors is a strong habanero stout called, of course, Play Fast. Not surprising, since Witte is a self-avowed “stout nut.” Here’s how Tired Hands describes it: “Brewed with a plethora of specialty malts and oats, conditioned on house-smoked (maple wood) habaneros and locally roasted (Reanimator) coffee. It has notes of dense chocolate, earthy coffee, honey, burnt sugar, ephemeral smoke and blast beats.”

The beer was released last night at Tired Hands, where Witte and Broillet presided over a night of metal and beer-themed music trivia. A handful of music-savvy attendees went home with some sweet musical swag Witte brought to give away to the trivia know-it-alls at the event.

Wanna try Play Fast yourself? Gotta get yourself to Tired Hands in Ardmore, PA, while it lasts on draft. It’s not available in bottles, so don’t ask.

Photos courtesy of Scott Kinkade