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Punk Rock Bowling & Music Festival 2014
Punk Rock Bowling invites the positivity of the punk community, allowing everyone and anyone to see bands that they can knock off their bucket list. This festival invites a vast and diverse array of people influenced by this subculture. One can see skinheads, rockers, crust punks and of course the spiky hair punk rockers that make up the popular novelty postcards. … read more
Aiden Chamberlain: The Northern Light
It happened that I skated with Aiden Chamberlain once before at a spot with rails set against a white-brick building. We skated those for a while until someone decided that we’d check out a hulking rail that was just across the street. Only two of the group of about eight had the guts to huck themselves down the green, daunting monster. One of those kids was Mr. Chamberlain. … read more
The Cold Truth on Warm Beer
Occasionally, we beer drinkers can find ourselves in a bit of a beer bubble. It’s easy to forget that that many of the great beer styles that we enjoy come from regions of the world that are as foreign to us as a BYU singles ward. These beers were not just created to help you “get your sexy on”—they were primarily created to be necessary nutritional staples in the regions from which they hail. Why you’re drinking a beer has as much to do as what kind of beer you’re drinking. Centuries ago, when you were having a beer, it was because the water was bad or because it was a more practical way to stretch your harvest’s yield, and temperature has a lot to do with that. … read more
Chocolate Stout Cake (With a Little Arsenic)
When SLUG offered me the chance to make a goddamn beer cake, I was not about to say no, even if I am about the worst example of domestication I know. I called the Martha Stewart of the metal world, my dear friend Lady Arsenic of local band Arsenic Addiction, and asked if she’d be interested in helping me create this heavenly dessert. To keep chocolate off the camera, my wonderful partner in crime, SLUG photographer Matt Brunk, offered to document the debauchery. … read more
Avenues Proper: Prost To The Proper
I’ve always hurt for that olde-worldy town pub feel in Utah—dimly lit and warm, complete with woodworked furnishings that welcome all walks of life to casually learn about the nearby company—where I can drink something from a house keg and enjoy the finest classic beer food known to man. The ascending Avenues have bolstered Avenues Proper, letting in some natural light, but the concept of a laidback place to sit back and watch the world spin is starting to carry itself out of the Berger Straße and onto the Bonneville benches. … read more
Let’s Just Get Along: Craft Brewery Trademarking
It’s another beer issue, and I have been granted the opportunity to gripe to you readers about some bullshit that is happening within the craft brewing industry that makes me livid: trademarks and bitchy brewers! With over 2,400 active craft breweries operating in the US and another 1,000-plus in the midst of planning and opening, there is bound to be some crossover with brand names and labels. The repercussions of these name changes that fall on the brewery can result in thousands to tens of thousands of dollars spent in re-labeling, product waste, signage reproduction and graphic alterations. … read more
Raising The Bar
Simple, clean, satisfying beer has four primary ingredients—yet, the flavor combinations and styles are plentiful. Those who truly appreciate the crisp bite of an IPA or the cool, refreshing quality of a lager can go on forever about things like the palate and bouquet of their favorite fermented beverages. However, it takes a special kind of person to bring that information to the masses and create a unique experience for the consumer. Salt Lake City’s Beer Bar is a place where a like-minded group of beer aficionados have come together to provide just such an experience. … read more
In Blurry Focus: Utah Brewers Guild
On one of the most beautiful days on record this year, I shunned the sunshine to settle into a seat deep down in the basement of the BeerHive Pub (128 S. Main). With a chilled glass of barleywine about halfway drained, I soon found myself sitting across from Phil Handke, the President of the Utah Brewers’ Guild. With a Master’s Degree in Communications, he certainly seemed like a business-minded professional—a pragmatist unafraid of raw, hard numbers, whose qualities may prove very useful as the Guild grows and develops a stronger lobbying voice for the brewing industry in our state. … read more
Why is The Bayou Firkin With My Beer?
The 20th Century, for the most part, wasn’t a very beer-friendly time in U.S. history. Prohibition, for example, all but destroyed centuries of beer-brewing knowledge in the United States. When we emerged from the beer dark ages, as a people, we were at the mercy of those beer companies that had managed to survive the 13 years in brewing exile. The beer wasn’t bad beer, but it was mass-produced with adjuncts (corn, rice, millet, etc.) and was limited to European-style lagers. Now, having the benefit of a decades-long craft beer boom, we enjoy damn near every style, type and method of the beer brewing process. … read more
Wild About Sour Beers
Malted barley, hops, water and yeast—if there’s one thing that beer has going for it in the world of fermented beverages, it’s the great diversity of flavors that a brewer can coax out of these four main and important ingredients. For many beer drinkers, when the word “beer” comes to mind, tastes of light-toasted grain and grassy/floral bitterness pops into mind. This is what mainstream beer has been for so many people over the last 120 years, but there is a style of beer that goes back centuries, which owes its existence to necessity and ungovernable factors: the wild ale. … read more
Dear Dickheads – June 2014
Dear Dickheads,
When a group of kids came longboarding into my store and asked me how to remove an evil spirit from their Ouija board, I had to think about it for a minute. There are so many layers of fractal stupidity inherent to the question that it was impossible not to answer it sarcastically. It seemed incredible to me that a group of teenagers would possess within them the power to behold the forbidden knowledge of the Realm That Lies Beyond, but also tragically lack the necessary training to release a bonded spirit from their service. And why did they think some guy working the counter at a board game store would know about it? It’s not like I can afford to go to wizard college. This is why we can’t have nice things.
… read more
Second Annual SLUG Cat Presented by Metro 05.24
On Saturday, May 24th, SLUG held it’s second annual SLUG Cat alleycat race through the streets of Salt Lake City. Various spots spanning from downtown to Sugarhouse were used as checkpoints for riders on all different types of bikes. … read more
