Brewtal Truth

Todd Haug, one of the most important figures in the union of underground beer and underground metal, is joining the ranks of Three Floyds brewing! 

Ever since TRVE Brewing opened in Denver in 2012, we’ve been fans. It’s hard not to like a drinking establishment dedicated to both craft beer and metal worship and TRVE has been all about both since day one. We’ve featured TRVE and owner Nick Nunns in our “Brewtal Truth” column in the past and we…

A recent inquiry from occasional Decibel contributor and Slayer biographer D.X. Ferris gave us the idea for this week’s online Brewtal Truth column. Comrade Ferris wanted to know, “Why does bottled Guinness (plain bottles) seem more carbonated to me than canned?” The answer: nitro. The bottled version of Guinness is typically carbonated in the same…

Prepare to be Brewtalized, Chicago! The first The Brewtal Truth Guide to Extreme Beers book signing event in your city happens today from 4 to 7 pm at Northdown Taproom & Cafe (3244 N Lincoln Ave). Apologies for the last-minute notice, but there were a few loose ends that needed to be tied up before…

One of the least brewtal beers we included in our Brewtal Truth Guide to Extreme Beers had to have been Shmaltz’s He’Brew Jewbelation Sweet 16. Well, the beer itself was pretty insane—16 hop varieties, 16 types of malt and brewed to 16% ABV—but the pastel-colored label, complete with little dancing unicorns, didn’t accurately represent the…

Why does Canada’s Frenchiest province, Quebec, love Belgian-style beers so much? Is it the shared language? Is it something in the Quebec palate? Or is it just disdain for anything English in origin? We have no idea, but if we want a killer Belgian brew without going to Belgium, there are plenty of options from…

We have two beer loves that are in direct contrast to each other: malty German brews and über-hoppy North American brews. These two things have nothing in common taste-wise. They are, of course, brewed with the same ingredients, but the ratios and the particular types of key ingredients used—such as hops, malt and yeast—are dramatically…

We’ll get the self-congratulatory crap out of the way right up front. We’ve been writing about craft beer in America’s only monthly extreme music magazine since 2009. No one else was writing about beer and metal at the time. So, we’ll go ahead and plant the we-were-there-first flag in that one. But, if you’ve been…

Apologies first off, if you go looking for this specific beer and can’t find it. Consider it an example of the kinds of beers that are subject of this week’s online Brewtal Truth. The topic at hand is “gypsy brewing,” or if you find that term offensive, “itinerant brewing.” Basically, if you’re a brewer, but…

Back in the mid ’80s, long before every outdoor structure was skateboard-proofed, a bunch of California skate punks turned the urban landscape into their own skate park. This was the birth of street skating, where everything from concrete walls to empty pools to parking medians were fair game for pulling off some sick move. This…

Last week’s Q&A with Exit-13 vocalist Bill Yurkiewicz got us thinking about Belgian beers. Actually, we’re frequently thinking about Belgian beers, but this is a good time of year for drinking the the big, high-ABV ones—and there are plenty of them out there. It also made us consider the “classics” of the beer world, iconic…

Long before there was a Brewtal Truth column in Decibel or Municipal Waste was celebrating the Art of Partying or Three Floyds was making beers for its favorite metal bands, Bill Yurkiewicz and his grindcore band, Exit-13, were not only drinking amazing beers from around the world, they were writing songs about them. Yurkiewicz, who…

We had tons of juniper bushes in the area we grew up in Colorado, so the smell of gin was familiar to us long before we ever drank it. We used to squish the berries between our fingers and smell their pungent, spicy odor. Sure, not all gin is heavy on the juniper, but it…

Anyone who’s sampled more than a few craft beers can attest to the fact that it’s not always clear from the label what’s going to be inside the bottle. Oh sure, it might say something like “Brettanomyces-fermented Belgian quad aged on oak with cherries and bottle conditioned,” but figuring out what that’s going to taste…

What’s the connection between craft beer and metal? We hear this question a lot. Well, specifically, we are asked this question a lot since our craft beer book, The Brewtal Truth Guide to Extreme Beers, was published last November. For people who aren’t necessarily into both things, it’s hard to see the commonalities. On the…

Do not fear the can. The can is a beer drinker’s friend. Especially when the beer is coming all the way from Maui. It protects and helps keep the product inside cool (metal chills faster than glass) and fresh. The folks at Maui Brewing Co. would be foolish to package their product any other way,…

Since our Brewtal Truth column first appeared in Decibel nearly five years ago, it was inevitable that this day would one day come. All we needed was to find the perfect partner, and when we learned about Denver’s TRVE Brewing Co. in 2012, we knew that they were it. So, after many bestial sacrifices, summonings,…

In our latest Brewtal Truth column in the February issue of Decibel, we queried Magrudergrind guitarist RJ Ober about his job working as a sales manager for Victory Brewing. One of the things he mentioned, which was left out due to space constraints, is the fact that he had the honor of naming the brewery’s…

As far as we’re concerned, this is imperial (or Russian imperial, if you prefer) stout season. This is when it’s time to bring out the big guns, the sipping beers for those dark, cold winter evenings. Dark weather demands dark beers, and these are some of the blackest out there. It’s a fallacy that all…

It was as easy to predict as the Seattle Mariners’ annual late-spring implosion: Decibel’s Top 100 Black Metal Albums of All Time caused some consternation amongst black metal fans. Shocking. This is, however, a crowd not hard to provoke. They seem edgy, a little overly serious and prone to interhole-induced fits of rage. Which makes…

OK, I’ll admit up front that this is a total asshole post. It was my intention when I started doing these weekly Brewtal Truth posts to specifically write about beers that are fairly widely distributed in the U.S. and available now. I have made an exception on a couple of occasions, but this one is…

I’m not trying to steal the thunder from next Friday’s announcement of the Decibel Magazine 2014 tour lineup, but there’s another Decibel-related tour that’ll be taking place a little sooner than the new year. OK, this one won’t be as loud or as sweaty as the upcoming Decibel Magazine Tour, and there definitely won’t be…

If there’s one thing that Germany seems to love it is adherence to tradition. Germans love their metal old-school and their beer made from just four ingredients: water, malt, yeast and hops. Which is the way its been brewed since the Reinheitsgebot (German Beer Purity Law) was established in 1516. So for nearly 500 years…

We know, we know, this Trooper beer is old news. You’ve seen a bazillion blog posts on every metal website in the internetiverse about it and maybe, if it’s available where you live, you’ve even tried it. It’s an Iron Maiden beer, so of course you have. But it’s actually more than a typical “big-name…

There are all kinds of new products popping out of the woodwork in the Decibel Universe right now. You may have heard of this limited-edition 100th Issue Show: The Movie DVD that’s just arrived at dB HQ. Then there’s the Top 100 Black Metal Albums of All Time special issue that’ll be the perfect holiday…

With Halloween now behind us, we can leave behind the pumpkin beers—is it me, or were there like a thousand of these things this year?—and move on to the big winter warmers. This is a time of year when the darker, heartier and higher ABV beers start to show up. In fact, it wasn’t that…

It’s not even officially “out” (even though you can already download it if you have a digital subscription), but we’re already getting heat via Twitter for our new Brewtal Truth column in issue #110 where we take to task metal bands for flying the flag for Coors Light in their band promo photos. In one…

Given the opportunity to write about craft beer every month in Decibel has been eye-opening. The idea that our “Brewtal Truth” column would have lasted more than four years (and counting) and even spawn a book—The Brewtal Truth Guide to Extreme Beers, out in November—is pretty amazing. Now it’s time to bring a little “Brewtal…

Given the opportunity to write about craft beer every month in Decibel has been eye-opening. The idea that our “Brewtal Truth” column would have lasted more than four years (and counting) and even spawn a book—The Brewtal Truth Guide to Extreme Beers, out in November—is pretty amazing. Now it’s time to bring a little “Brewtal…

Given the opportunity to write about craft beer every month in Decibel has been eye-opening. The idea that our “Brewtal Truth” column would have lasted more than four years (and counting) and even spawn a book—The Brewtal Truth Guide to Extreme Beers, out in November—is pretty amazing. Now it’s time to bring a little “Brewtal…