My Last Pint #18 – James Watt
Photo: James Watt
For the last few years, James Watt and the BrewDog crew have been making quite a stir. Or maybe I should say making waves, crashing on the shores of the US. They’ve been brewing “Beer for Punks” since 2007 out of Scotland’s North East Coast. In three short years they have become one of the leaders in the European Craft Beer boom. In addition to their full line of brews they’ve kept busy with collaborations beers with the likes of Stone, Cambridge Brewing and Mikkeller and battling with Schorschbräu for the world’s strongest beer.
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Photo: BrewDog's website
MLP: What would be the last pint of your life?
JW: This is all very depressing. It would depend I guess on how I am going to die. Again very depressing. I tried to figure this out and it involved me trying to pair beers with different eventual death scenarios for myself. A hoppy IPA before being eaten by jungle animals, a black lager before a hungry shark finds me rather appetizing whilst I am diving, a saison before being light-sabered by Vader, a bottle of World Wide Stout before I die in a car crash (causality?), a cheap generic lager before being taken out by the Budweiser mafia and a lambic before being crushed herd of stampeding human size Easter bunnies.
The unfortunate thread running through all these scenarios is me dying before my last pint. Not much fun on a leisurely Sunday morning. Rather than die I would rather just give up drinking. So let’s assume there are no hungry sharks or stampeding bunnies or Budweiser mafia and I am simply giving up beer, forever. Upon further reflection this is only slightly preferable to the bunny fate.
As for the beer, I would brew one specially for the occasion. Since this would be my last beer it would have to be my masterpiece, my great symphony with the inherent tragedy that I will only drink it once. I would try to combine a few different things that I am passionate about in the beer. It would be a big imperial stout, with cocoa nibs and a twist of chili. I would then add loads of raspberries after fermentation. After that I would age it in single malt Scottish whisky casks for 2 years before bottle conditioning it in old rum bottles which I will scavenge from a sunken pirate ship.
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What would be the setting for your last pint?
The North Atlantic. Aboard the Ocean Quest which was the setting for our Atlantic IPA. In my spare time I am a north Atlantic Captain and have worked on fishing boats all my life. I would be drinking the beer out on the deck (in nice weather) whilst watching the sun set over the horizon as it burns a red trail through the ocean. The beer drinking would be so monumental that the sunken Pirate ship would rise up from the ocean floor and sail once again. The pirate brethren would then welcome me aboard the ship and I would begin my post-life beer as a pirate captain, sending as many ships carrying Stella, Heineken and Budweiser to the bottom as possible. The vessel would be crewed by salty sea dog versions of the Easter bunnies.
Chess?
What would you eat with your last pint?
Nothing. Although I love beer and food pairings, if this is going to be my last ever beer, I want the focus to be 100% on the beer itself. I might have a little snack afterwards though, and another little snack after that. I may turn to comfort eating to console my post beer existence. Either that or I will need to find a new hobby. Chess anyone.
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Drinking Buddies
With whom would you drink your last pint?
Darth Vader, Bracken the Dog and Winston Churchill.
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Thanks James!