So many bands have beer now. It's gotten so out of hand that we have a whole category of posts dedicated to it. In the last three months alone, we got new brew announcements from Slayer, Behemoth, Cannibal Corpse and Motorhead. You can now add Opeth to that prestigious league of brewers.
Opeth today announced they are teaming with Northern Monk Brewery out of Leeds, UK to release their first beer: an imperial stout, with 9.2% ABV. The description sounds salivating:
Limited to just 1700 660ml bottles the 9.2% ‘XXV Anniversary Imperial Stout’ is a one off brew. Descended from the strongest Stout Porter brewed in Britain in the 18th Century it's brewed with 10 different malts for uttermost complexity of flavour – big, dark and full in mouthfeel, expect roasted flavours with underlying notes of rich chocolate, cinder toffee and coffee. Designed to sip slowly and share with friends, drink one now and save one as the flavours will develop over time.
Frontman Mikael Akerfedlt is pumped about the beer:
‘Even if we’re musicians firstly, we’re beer drinkers secondly. Kind of. Let me rephrase: We love beer. We love good beer. We’ve turned into culinary connoisseurs of late. Not too much snobbery however. We just love good food and drinks. So when we were approached by the fantastic Northern Monk brewery to do a Opeth signature beer we simply could not turn it down. But believe me, we’ve turned down zillions off offers to do alcoholic beverages with the Opeth logo on it. Northern Monk are great. They have great ideas and makes great beer. They even invited Fredrik and Axe down to the brewery for a walkthrough of their premises in Leeds. Needless to say, they got both of them drunk, but we also managed to get our own brand of signature beer down to a tee. And Axe and Fredrik know their beer, from years of over-indulging. And now it’s ready. One is a top of the line Imperial stout that can be matured up to about 25 years. We’ll also have a lovely pale ale out in early 2016. I know we’re not the first band to do our own beer, and not the last. All I know is that it’s a top quality beer and I will certainly enjoy having my own little stash in the cooler for Christmas. Cheers! (Clonk!)’
The bottles go for £12.00 and you can purchase on the Northern Monk Brewery website. Sadly, it looks like they only ship in the United Kingdom. Can somebody send me a brew?
