Brewery: Wicked Weed Brewing Company (Collaboration with Jester King Brewery)
Beer: The Parking Lot
Style: Grisette
ABV: 5.2%
Character: Foeder-aged farmhouse, dry-hopped with Mandarina Bavaria and Huell Melon hops
Ratings: BeerAdvocate: 4.02/5 | Untappd: 3.99/5
Metal Connection: MACABRE – Gacy’s Lot (John Wayne Gacy)
BeerMetal Rating: 4/5
It was announced on May 3rd, 2017 that Anheuser-Busch InBev purchased Wicked Weed Brewing, which caused quite the uproar in the Craft Beer Community. The fans were yelling boycott, and even some of the industry’s big hitters were doing the same. I bring this up because there was a friendship between Wicked Weed Brewing (Asheville, NC) and Jester King Brewery (Austin, TX). I believe Jester King Brewery was one of the first places in TX to purchase WIcked Weed Beer. Jester King was to attend the Funkatorium Invitational, Wicked Weed’s annual sour and barrel-aged beer festival, which following the news of the Wicked Weed sale to AB InBev, respectfully pulled out of, along with 50+ other breweries, whioch led Wicked Weed to postpone the annual event, and reimagine their original idea. It was crazy shit! Also, Jester King worked on a collaboation beer with them in the form of The Parking Lot Grisette. On the same day as the Wicked Weed sale announcement, Jester King took to Facebook to release a statement about them pulling out the Funkatorium Invitational. They also stated that they will no longer be carrying any Wicked Weed at their brewery any longer, and they will not be doing any more collaborations with them, due to a core principle of not working with any Big Beer Companies like AB InBev and the like.
The bottle I have said it was bottled on January 15th, 2016. Wicked Weed’s official commercial description for this beer was: The Parking Lot Grissette is a foeder-aged, tart farmhouse ale brewed in collaboration with our friends at Jester King Brewery. Like so many of our ideas, this rustic beer, dry-hopped with Mandarina Bavaria and Huell Melon, was dreamed up in a parking lot session during a climbing trip with our Texas friends.
I used a stemmed pokal glass for this one. The color was burnt orange/copper. It was topped with a 1/2 inch off white foamy head, which remained as a thin layer all the way down leaving small bubbles down the glass.
The aroma was barnyard funk, herbal, little woodsy, mild citrus/lemon, and melon.
The taste had the same characteristics as the nose, but more lemon in taste. I was picking up a melon flavor after each sip, as well. The aftertaste is fruity and funky with a cereal grain taste. All of this was backed up by the funky barnyard, woody, and herbal flavors.
The body was light-medium. Had moderate carbonation. The mouthfeel was smooth yet tingly, and The Parking Lot Grisette had a semi-dry finish.
Overall, I enjoyed this beer. I do believe this was my first ever Grisette beer. As it was enjoyable, it wasn’t anything spectacular. It was a pretty basic Farmhouse funky beer. But like I said, I really enjoyed it. I would love to try more beers in this style to have something to compare to. I guess I could just compare this to a Saison, even though a Grisette is meant to be lighter than the Saison.
Metal Connection: Macabre is a band that has been kicking around the music scene since 1984, being an early influence on the Death Metal & Grindcore movement that soon followed that era. Since their inception, they have been playing fast music that has sounds of Punk, Death Metal, Thrash Metal, Crossover Metal, Grindcore while mixing in some fun stuff like nursery rhymes, Christmas carols, childhood songs, and movie music all while singing about serial killers. The band themselves say they play “Murder Metal.” I have been a fan of this unique and amazing band since I got into the Extreme Underground Metal world, so I would say around 1992-3. I first heard a couple of songs, “Exhumer”, and “Embalmer” from their 1989 full length, Gloom. I was hooked from the very beginning. Some people find Macabre annoying, or a bit too weird, but not me. Bring on the weirdness, I say. Their second full length album, Sinister Slaughter was released in 1993, originally on Nuclear Blast Records. This album cover is a parody of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles. Instead of the famous people like on the The Beatles cover, Macabre has serial killers all over it, surrounding them. Brilliant! The Metal Connection for The Parking Lot Grisette is the song “Gacy’s Lot,” a song about the infamous serial killer, John Wayne Gacy. This song has a very happy sounding opening riff, which is something Macabre is famous for doing throughout their career. The lyrics talk about buying a building a house on the old John Wayne Gacy lot, where he used to live. There on this lot is where they found twenty eight dead bodies of his victims. Such a psycho! Enjoy the happy tune everyone!
Beer Metal Media 