Debuting in our Atlanta taprooms May 29, The Bock Is Hot is a collaboration beer between Monday Night Brewing and Hip Hop Heads, a brewery-in-planning. It is the product of a rip in the multiverse: the rare collision of parallel lines. Both Monday Night Brewing and Hip Hop Heads Brewery respectively started as just a group of three guys in Atlanta hanging out, brewing beer in their driveways, and spitballing: “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if we made this homebrewing hobby into a business?”
While Monday Night found its early musical (and somewhat ironic) inspiration in Bryan Adams, Hip Hop Heads were aptly drawn to hip hop–creating experiential playlists to accompany each brew they make.
Fusing their love of beer, music, and Atlanta culture, the breweries joined forces and conceived of The Bock Is Hot, a Maibock that faithfully adheres to German brewing tradition. A bready malt aroma emanates from a classic mash bill and is complemented by the nuances of noble hops. In production for the better part of three months, with a great deal of spunding time, this 6.9% ABV golden liquid is criminally good.
When it came time to hatch the collaboration beer’s recipe, the breweries started from scratch. “We actually all came together with no end goal in mind,” says Lance, one of Hip Hop Heads’ Co-Founders. “We knew the brew would be coming out in the spring, so we were thinking of what kind of beer would be indicative of that time period: something crisp, refreshing, with a slightly higher alcohol content.”
Monday Night’s Brewmaster, Peter Kiley, chimes in.“I said, ‘You know, what you’re talking about is a Maibock.’ Choosing this style was such a weird path–I would have never imagined that this would be the beer we were making–but the fact that we’re making it demonstrates to me the Hip Hop Heads’ real passion for understanding and preserving beer.”
Dwight, Lance, and Joe, the founders of Hip Hop Heads Brewery, are all educators by trade, teaching in the Atlanta school system for the past twenty years. Teaching is hard work, and after long days of dealing with preteens and tweens, they would kick back and unwind over craft beer. The backdrop to their beer sessions was always hip hop. Like most brilliant plans, their idea to start their own brewery arose “after beer five or six.” The ball started rolling after Dwight’s wife bought him a homebrew kit (almost exactly what happened with Monday Night’s origin, when two of our co-founders were simultaneously gifted homebrew kits). Wives: Consider yourselves warned.
“We started building our own recipes and that prompted us to allow other folks to taste our beer. People thought it was actually pretty good. Then we started adding the playlist to it and making it an experience that we could market and brand and sell. And then it was like, what if we did this thing for real,” says Joe, Hip Hop Heads’ Co-Founder.
It’s only a matter of time until the trio creates their own space where hip-hop music and craft beer blend into a hallmark Hip Hop Heads experience.
“It’s more than just sound coming through the speakers,” muses Joe. “We’ll have experiential elements happening in the space that connects craft beer and hip hop together. There’s trap yoga. There’s hip hop paint and sip. Hip hop trivia. There’s all sorts of things that we can do within the space to provide that experience.”
In the spirit of enjoying a beer as a complete sensory experience, Monday Night Brewing and Hip Hop Heads Brewery will be celebrating the launch of their collaboration beer on May 29from 2-5 pm at Monday Night Garage. There will be a live DJ, merch, and of course, The Bock Is Hot will be flowing on draft and available to-go in 16oz 4 packs.