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That Time Jack White Reupholstered an Elephant Trunk · Sips, Suds, & Smokes

• 0:18
  Brought to you almost live from, um, the dude in the basement studios.
• 0:22
  Why?
• 0:23
  Because that's where the good stuff is. It sips suds and smokes with your smoke and host the good old boys suds. It's time for more suds.
• 0:56
  Hey, there. Welcome to another sud segment. I'm one of your hosts, good a gal, juliana. And today with me at the table is good a boy, tim.
• 1:09
  Hello, I'm here. It's me. I'm tim.
• 1:11
  Very good.
• 1:12
  Thanks for joining us, everyone.
• 1:14
  Good a boy, Dave.
• 1:15
  That's tim over there. Just so you know.
• 1:19
  Tim and Dave.
• 1:20
  That's Tim and Dave.
• 1:21
  Tim and Dave show guest starring juliana.
• 1:24
  Featuring juliana.
• 1:25
  Yeah.
• 1:26
  Wow. Okay. Juicy, huh? So juicy. Yes.
• 1:32
  Well, you know, most of you listening out there probably just think of us as a beer show.
• 1:38
  And, well, we do sit around drinking beer, talking about beer and belching.
• 1:45
  Yeah, that's pretty much all we do.
• 1:48
  That's not true. Sometimes we wait. You said belching, right?
• 1:53
  Yep.
• 1:53
  Okay. That's all we do.
• 1:55
  But we're more than just beer. Well, I am, anyways.
• 2:01
  Well, tim might be too.
• 2:03
  I, um, am.
• 2:03
  Yeah. Not sure about you, though, Dave.
• 2:07
  No, I'm not.
• 2:08
  No.
• 2:09
  Yeah. So that's why we're starting a club.
• 2:11
  It's called beer club.
• 2:16
  Well, we're starting a club called beer club because we're about more than just beer.
• 2:23
  Yeah, that's right, Tim. Beer club is where we pick an album, we listen to it, and then we pick a beer to pair with it. So, see, it's more than just beer. It's beer and music.
• 2:38
  But we still get to drink beer, right?
• 2:40
  Yes, Dave. Uh, of course we still drink beer. Who'd listen to us otherwise? I mean, come on.
• 2:49
  You picked today's album, so why don't you tell us about it?
• 2:52
  Sure.
• 2:52
  So today's album is elephant. See how I say that?
• 2:57
  Elephant. Because we're, um fonzie the white drip eyes. No, it's elephant from the white stripes. It was released originally on April 1, my birthday, uh, 2003. And recently, they just did a 20th anniversary reissue on it, so wow. 20 years ago, we first got introduced to little Jackie white and his seven nations army.
• 3:24
  Wow.
• 3:25
  Pretty exciting. I think. It was a groundbreaking album. Lo fi.
• 3:31
  Very simple, stripped down musicality.
• 3:33
  But it was also our first real introduction as a world, as a nation, as a universe to the genius that is the third man, jack white.
• 3:49
  Little bit of a boy crush, I guess. I don't know. Not really.
• 3:51
  Uh, he's got funny hair, but other than that, he's pretty cool.
• 3:55
  Hey, doesn't everybody?
• 3:56
  We've all got our sure.
• 3:59
  Okay, we'll go to voidchim. Why don't you give us the suds ratings, and then we'll be on our way.
• 4:05
  Yeah.
• 4:05
  So today we'll be discussing and rating these beers that we chose with these suds ratings plus our signature belching sounds. Here are those ratings now.
• 4:17
  One, that sucks. Give me anything but a bud.
• 4:23
  Two, was that a belch?
• 4:28
  Three, uh, what a relief.
• 4:33
  Four, a body really should not make that sound.
• 4:38
  Uh, and five, listen to that hang time. Give me another.
• 4:50
  Thank you.
• 4:52
  Thank you.
• 4:53
  Okay, so we can't play any clips from Elephant, unfortunately. But we encourage you, our listeners, to check it out for yourself if you already haven't.
• 5:04
  And if you haven't, I'm sorry. Get out from under that rock.
• 5:10
  Whoa.
• 5:11
  Yeah, but isn't it kind of cute and nice and amazing if you haven't heard this album?
• 5:20
  Yeah. I mean, can you think of living in a world where you don't know it exists and then you find out it exists, and then it's like, how did I sure.
• 5:27
  Right up until April 1, 2003.
• 5:31
  All right, well, we all weren't celebrating your birthday 20 years ago for your was it your 21st birthday then?
• 5:39
  Yeah. I'm fresh and new.
• 5:41
  Yeah, you're fresh.
• 5:42
  And I'm glad I can finally drink beer.
• 5:44
  You know, you've never found out an album that you look up and like, oh, my God, this was from the never heard of this. Why didn't you're mad at people for never telling you about it?
• 5:53
  Most of the ones Juliana collects.
• 5:55
  Yeah, exactly.
• 5:57
  There's a beauty there's a beauty in not knowing Elephant.
• 6:01
  475 year old men in England who have heard of this album.
• 6:05
  She's like, You've never heard of this?
• 6:06
  Yeah, it's huge.
• 6:08
  This is what I grew I grew.
• 6:09
  Up on this kling clang, clang, bang, bang. Yeah.
• 6:13
  It's a know, I can't wait for her album when she picks one.
• 6:18
  Someday you'll have a great appreciation of Prague rock.
• 6:22
  Yeah, someday.
• 6:23
  Someday.
• 6:24
  The Klang brothers do Irish folk songs.
• 6:27
  Uh, brother. Well, for those of you that have either listened to it or need to listen to it, obviously we encourage you to get it on vinyl because vinyl is the best way to listen to any form of music. However, you can also find it streaming online. And there's a 20th anniversary reissue that's pretty cool, too.
• 6:51
  Okay, dave, why don't you kick things off for us?
• 6:55
  Cool. So, um, kicking it off because I'm kicking it old school. So I think even if you don't really know the album, most people probably know Seven Nations Army because it's played at, like, sporting, uh, events. It's been in movies.
• 7:13
  It's kind of all over the place. And it's sort back. So the White Stripes started in Detroit. It was Jack White, who was a part time furniture upholsterer and, uh, beat Poet in coffee shops. That's halfway true. And, um, Meg White, uh, who was either his wife or his sister, uh, or maybe both, but probably at least one of those. And so, uh, she learned how to play drums.
• 7:49
  Uh, he was already a drummer in bands. And then he taught her to play drums. Then he was playing guitar and stuff. And so then they started playing around. And then they got hooked up. They were all, like, making out and stuff. And they were making music. It was cool. So then they made this.
• 8:05
  So, uh, you know, Seven Nations Army is known as like a really great song. And everybody thinks that it's one of the best bass lines in rock music.
• 8:17
  But actually that was played on a guitar. I don't know. In fact. So anyways, I think this was, uh, a groundbreaking American rock album. I think it really introduced him to the world and a lot of the world to a really scaled down version of rock music when things were still like really big overproduced and things like that.
• 8:42
  Anywho, the beer that I've paired with it dun dun, Dun is Dogfish Head 120 minutes. IPA clocks in. I think this batch clocks in at 18% ABV.
• 8:59
  Wow.
• 9:00
  So it is an over the top American hard rocking barley wine. Really, you don't this thing, um, slaps you in the face. Uh, you get hit like you were hit by a seven nation army.
• 9:16
  Yes, it's aggressive.
• 9:19
  It's loud, it's aggressive. But it's got depth to it too. And you can tell it's well made.
• 9:25
  They can have been making this beer for this long without knowing that they're doing it right. And it stood the test of time through all the different little fluctuations and trends of beer nerds over the last several years. Kind of like Seven Nation Army or, um, Elephant has stood the time over the last 20 years since it first came out.
• 9:48
  That's why I picked this beer.
• 9:49
  That's fair.
• 9:50
  Absolutely.
• 9:51
  Yeah, that's fair.
• 9:52
  And Sam Calgioni from Dogfish Head loves music. Huge music. Guy always does things for a record store day every year.
• 10:01
  So I just felt like this is a great beer to pair with a great album.
• 10:08
  Yeah, it makes total sense.
• 10:11
  They're both aggressive, complex.
• 10:17
  When I drink the dogfish at it, part of me is like, wow, what were you thinking? Why did you make this?
• 10:23
  What are you doing to my body?
• 10:24
  Uh, but I guess the answer is for the art.
• 10:28
  Like, they have the ability and put it out there. People love it.
• 10:33
  It's like, why did you do this? Because I could.
• 10:36
  Yeah, sure.
• 10:38
  And I remember when it first came out and my mind was blown. Like, why would you just why? I had a big why in my head. Because I just thought it's so over the top and it's so too much. And who's going to drink this? But everyone was drinking it, right?
• 10:58
  I mean, you had to share your bottle because there's no way you can just chug that bottle yourself. I don't normally anyways. Yeah.
• 11:09
  Uh, it almost feels like the White Stripes and really Jack White have been that way the whole time that he's really been out. He's very over the top in everything he does. Uh, but he's really just about the art and the music. Just like Sam. He's just about the art and the beer.
• 11:31
  Yeah. Can you be over the top and stripped down to the core at the same time.
• 11:39
  Think about there's no real adjuncts in this or anything.
• 11:42
  Exactly.
• 11:43
  Bunch of barley. It's a huge amount of malt and a huge amount of hops in, um, a pretty resilient, uh, yeast strain.
• 11:53
  Yeah, I know. They have some crazy innovative techniques that they've figured they just figured out what works for them to keep it fermenting. Way past what it should be.
• 12:01
  Yeah. Way past what nature would dictate. Exactly.
• 12:08
  But it's still impressive. And honestly, this past year, it's safe for me to say that I've become more like the pendulum has swung around and I'm more lagery and more basic ingredients in a beer than the over the topness of the past few years, however. So I was thinking, oh, God, I'm going to be, like, taking one sip and I'll be done with it.
• 12:33
  But I really appreciate the artistry that is in this beer. And again, standing the test of time.
• 12:40
  Yeah. Just sipping on anything that's 18% ABV.
• 12:46
  Yeah.
• 12:47
  It's crazy.
• 12:49
  Sure.
• 12:50
  Uh, that's big for a wine.
• 12:53
  Absolutely.
• 12:54
  Really?
• 12:54
  Anything short of a liqueur or something.
• 12:57
  Totally.
• 12:57
  This is big.
• 12:58
  But it's pleasant.
• 13:00
  Yeah.
• 13:01
  But it's still and it's absolutely beer.
• 13:03
  Yeah.
• 13:05
  You cannot take right.
• 13:07
  Steel, beer flavored beer.
• 13:09
  Yeah. You could strip it down and that's what it is. It's a beer. It's just a big, bold beer.
• 13:14
  Kind of like big old baby.
• 13:16
  Yeah.
• 13:16
  And they'll age really well. I guess this is like a newer one. Yeah. Looks like a label.
• 13:21
  Still pretty hot.
• 13:23
  It is. But the hops look nice, kind of.
• 13:26
  Freshish, which that would be the tricky part about if you sellered this, it would cool the alcohol a lot, but you would lose a lot of that upfront hot flavor.
• 13:39
  Yeah. I think it might be better fresh. Yeah.
• 13:44
  Okay.
• 13:46
  It's beautiful, though.
• 13:48
  Um, let's rate 120 minutes a four.
• 13:54
  Good job, Sam.
• 13:55
  Yeah. Really?
• 13:59
  Yeah. That's pretty rad.
• 14:01
  You go, girl.
• 14:02
  Well, and I could see why you would pair it with Jack White. Well, we'll be back with more musings in just a minute.
• 14:10
  It's not just the destination but, baby, the whole elation riding down this lover avenue m as slow as a willow blows m or as fast as the world wind grows we glide beneath the stars and cobalt blue.
• 14:39
  Look.
• 14:40
  To the left, to the right keep your eyes on the road, my darling wondering if we're only passing through open roads and open windows my hand is yours forever, sweet love our eyes ahead on these back roads with a view.
• 15:11
  Welcome back, everyone.
• 15:13
  Today's episode is part of our Beer Club series.
• 15:18
  Beer club. Beer club. The best club.
• 15:20
  We got to come up with a.
• 15:22
  Great no, that's it.
• 15:24
  Okay.
• 15:24
  Beer club the best.
• 15:25
  Beer club. Best club.
• 15:26
  Okay.
• 15:27
  BC squared.
• 15:28
  Okay.
• 15:28
  Word.
• 15:29
  Nice. So we have been talking about good old boy Dave's pick today of Elephant.
• 15:37
  Elephant from the White stripes from 2003 mhm.
• 15:43
  And we just finished good old boy Dave's beer pairing with this record. 120 minutes from Dogfish Head. Now we're going to move on to Tim.
• 15:53
  What beer did you bring to pair with this record?
• 15:57
  Well, I brought a beer called Phantasma from OEC in Connecticut.
• 16:05
  And it is a sour porter.
• 16:07
  It's A-M-9 beer. This one was blended in 2020. Blend number eight.
• 16:13
  That's what the bottle tells me. Um, and OEC is like, they do brew their own beer as well, but they are part of, like, an importer, so they do a lot of blends. And so this beer, it says, was their take on a German porter. And then they aged it in, um, Cab Solve Barrels, Merlot, and Marsala, and then soured it and reblended it.
• 16:40
  I like this.
• 16:41
  Yeah, thanks.
• 16:42
  I have to say, I don't know. What? A German porter. I don't know that I've really heard a German.
• 16:53
  Yeah, I'm with you. The bottle tells me that that uses wheat, oats, molasses and licorice root.
• 17:01
  Molasses. Interesting.
• 17:04
  So that's not rhine. Heiskaboot.
• 17:06
  That's a great point. It is not. So I'm not sure when.
• 17:10
  Maybe there's like a Baltic porter.
• 17:13
  No, that would just be a loggered porter.
• 17:16
  Yeah, exactly. I'm not sure. I mean, I imagine the molasses, although.
• 17:21
  You don't necessarily have to log this.
• 17:23
  Beer makes me want to have a German porter.
• 17:25
  Yeah, it, um, does. Absolutely. Well, that's the funny thing, is they talk about making this style, which seems kind of subtle, and then they sour and age it in three different red wine barrels and then reblend it, which, uh I mean, it tastes great, but.
• 17:38
  There'S a lot going on here.
• 17:41
  It seems simple, but there's a lot going on.
• 17:44
  Yeah, well, it's part of why I picked it. I mean, pouring it, it's like just jet black and just something about the White Stripes and Jack White and elephant and everything just feels very dark. But in my mind, the way the sourness affects us, it's deceivingly dark.
• 18:08
  It's approachable. Well, this beer is kind of maybe not as approachable, but there's more than just dark jet blackness to it. Yeah.
• 18:17
  I mean, there's a lot going on with this beer, but when you look at it, you're expecting these deep malty flavors.
• 18:28
  And then you get something that's sharper.
• 18:31
  Fruitier tart.
• 18:34
  Yeah, definitely. That lactic acid sourness. Um, you get some of the red wine flavor. Red wine sourness.
• 18:44
  A lot of fruit, like you're saying, too.
• 18:47
  Um, maybe that's from the original porter. I'm not sure. Maybe it's from the wine barrels.
• 18:53
  Yeah. At first glance, it seems like I don't know why, but dark beers are easy to judge a book by its cover. And then you get into and it's just very complex.
• 19:03
  A lot of people are afraid of dark beers because they're like, oh, it's going to taste like heavy, or whatever. That's why people won't drink Guinness. But Guinness is the exact opposite of this beer. It's like it's very simple, light, and straightforward in flavor. But when you drink this, this is the kind of beer that you want to sit and kind of think about it because you're like, let me see if I can pick out all the little things that I'm tasting and smelling in this beer.
• 19:34
  Yeah. And that's what I like about the album, too, is it kind of can change gears pretty quickly. It might get on a flow for a couple tracks, but then one song's.
• 19:46
  Country, and the next song is kind of rock and roll.
• 19:49
  Then it gets to blues. Um, but it all works and kind of fills in seamlessly. Um, which is I think what OEC as a brewery does really well is they do these blends and they're all sorts of different and all over the page. But most of them work.
• 20:10
  Almost all of them work. And that's tough to do, mixing wise and trying to not have an album or a beer be just, like, one simple, straightforward thing.
• 20:22
  Yeah. What'd you think about this beer, Julie?
• 20:25
  It's interesting because I'm like, searching for the molasses since I heard that there was molasses in here. And I get just the tiniest amount of it at the end. Okay, fine, that's cool.
• 20:39
  But it's just really interesting.
• 20:42
  And it takes me out of my comfort zone of what a porter can be or what a porter should be.
• 20:48
  You know what I mean? Almost like what this record is, because it kind of is alarming in a way, um, in listening to it. So, yeah. No, I'm really digging it. And the more that I taste this beer, the more flavors I'm getting and.
• 21:11
  The more as it warms up, uh, it kind of continues to open up and expand a little bit.
• 21:19
  Sure. And, like, the 120 minutes, this has a lot of artistry to it to be able to come out with something like this.
• 21:25
  Yeah. For real.
• 21:26
  Yeah. Well, I've known the White Stripes plenty and a couple of friends in college have been big fans. But I wouldn't say I know the albums intimately. And so as I'm listening to this one more, since we had talked about it and I listened to it as a complete album, it's funny in the beginning, it's sort of like with the differentiation. You get confused and you're like, okay, what am I getting into?
• 21:52
  And then it's like you let go of the need to define it like this porter, sort of and just go along for the ride.
• 22:04
  Yeah.
• 22:04
  Uh, because it has that little groundbreaking nature of, like, I don't really know that I've heard a complete album that's in the same vein, or maybe you have, but it's been done way after this one and probably took influence from it.
• 22:17
  Yeah. Not true.
• 22:18
  You definitely hear other albums and other sounds in it. I could see him getting it from this album.
• 22:25
  I like that though, about the beer and the album. Uh, after a few minutes, you just have to kind of let it be what it's going to be.
• 22:33
  Yeah.
• 22:34
  And enjoy trying to categorize it.
• 22:37
  Right. Whether a friend told you it was punk rock, garage rock, blues, whatever.
• 22:42
  Lo Fi.
• 22:43
  Lo fi. Exactly.
• 22:45
  Yeah.
• 22:45
  Cool.
• 22:46
  Well, I think we should rate this beer and this OEC is beautiful. And we're going to rate it a five.
• 23:02
  Just like how unique it kind of is.
• 23:05
  Yeah. Well, so the one that I picked up and um, thought about is the Petris aged Pale. Now.
• 23:19
  This is 7.3% ABV.
• 23:22
  Um, and this is brewed in Belgium.
• 23:26
  It is 100% uncut, not blended sour beer from their oak fooders and aged for two years.
• 23:33
  Um, and it's still a leading reference for sour beers worldwide.
• 23:38
  Interestingly. But what I love about it is that Petrus may not be one of the oldest breweries in Belgium, but they've been doing it for a long time.
• 23:49
  Mhm.
• 23:49
  And they have it dialed in. But when you think of Belgian beers, you certainly don't think of pale ales. Well, I think, uh, or pale.
• 24:00
  You know what mean the definition of a pale ale might be slightly different from sure.
• 24:06
  But in the grand scheme of things, I wouldn't necessarily think that they would have a lot of pales.
• 24:12
  Sure.
• 24:12
  So this is outside the box, which is what reminds me of Elephant.
• 24:19
  Sure.
• 24:20
  I mean, yes, it's very lo fi. And I know good old boy Dave lo Fi is one of your favorite.
• 24:25
  Right? Right. You're a lo fi junkie. And when I first heard this record, it kind of blew me away because it was simple but yet slightly complex. And it was outside the box of what was going on at the time when that was released, which is what.
• 24:43
  Attracted you to me as well. Right. Simple but complex.
• 24:47
  So much so.
• 24:48
  Very pale.
• 24:49
  Yes. Outside the box.
• 24:50
  Yeah, outside the box.
• 24:51
  Now I'm always inside the box, but whatever. It's probably too personal.
• 24:58
  Whatever works for you guys.
• 25:01
  Wow.
• 25:02
  We make it work. That's what she tells me.
• 25:04
  And it's a work in progress.
• 25:06
  No, just kidding. The hardest button to button. Yeah.
• 25:09
  Nice.
• 25:10
  Thanks.
• 25:11
  But it just reminds me, like, Jack White is a very passionate know when it comes to music. He's all in.
• 25:18
  Yeah.
• 25:19
  He doesn't half ass anything, so to speak. And I believe that in Petris is the same way with not only this beer, but the brewery in general. They try to stay relevant in a time when either whole acid or they.
• 25:36
  Don'T do it well.
• 25:37
  Right.
• 25:38
  Yeah. Unapologetic.
• 25:40
  Yeah, exactly. And to be a Belgian brewery, you almost have to be because this isn't a style or a region that is going to go with a lot of trends, if you will. You know what I mean?
• 25:53
  Right.
• 25:54
  They're sticking to what they do. They do it really well, exactly.
• 25:58
  And they're not lamenting.
• 26:00
  They don't have a hazy on their tap room wall.
• 26:03
  Yeah, exactly. They're like that's for losers.
• 26:06
  What do you guys think about this beer? Do you get diacetyl? I may just be making that up, but there's something it just tastes kind of buttery to me.
• 26:17
  M maybe a little. And that could be from and I'm.
• 26:22
  Not saying it's bad.
• 26:23
  The barrel kind of works for me.
• 26:25
  Yeah, it's got, like, a little slickness.
• 26:27
  There's a little zhujing here.
• 26:32
  I really like it. Uh huh. Just bitter enough.
• 26:36
  Yeah. I had to take a couple of sips to kind of, like, acclimate my.
• 26:41
  Palate, especially coming off the OEC beer. Yeah, there is a little slickness to it, but I remember the first time I had this, and it blew me away because I had been so used to certain Belgian styles, and this was not that. And it was kind of a revelation to me. Kind of like, what the right strike? What elephant was. It was a revelation to me because, again, for something being so simple but making so much sense and resonating to me that you don't need to have all the bells and whistles meaning, like, a big band sound to work anyway.
• 27:20
  True. Yeah, very true.
• 27:22
  So what do you want to rate this.
• 27:28
  Petrus?
• 27:30
  Yeah, we will rate this beer a.
• 27:35
  Four the aged pale ale, which you can buy as part of the petris power.
• 27:43
  Pack if you so desire, which is something that we actually did, um, a few years ago. Yeah, which was a lot of fun, being able to become our own master blenders.
• 27:56
  Yeah. Dave, did you have a favorite song on the album?
• 28:00
  So, obviously, Seven Nations Army is the hit, but I'm kind of with you. I think the hardest button to button was really good. And then, um, um what's it called? Girl. You don't believe.
• 28:13
  Girl.
• 28:13
  You have girl, you have no Faith in Medicine. It's such a funky, weird little song.
• 28:19
  I do like that one, too.
• 28:21
  Yeah, I do, too. And also, I, um want to be the boy to warm your mother's heart.
• 28:26
  That one's great.
• 28:28
  Yeah, that's a cool song, too.
• 28:29
  It's true that we love one another.
• 28:32
  Is a great one too. Yeah. But, I mean, it's a classic record, and it's stood the test of time as well, right?
• 28:40
  Absolutely. All right, well, that is going to do it for today. That's great stuff. Koda boy. Tim, thanks for being here.
• 28:48
  Yeah. Appreciate time hanging out with all these great sour beers and dogfish head. Yeah, for putting up with Dave.
• 28:56
  Koda boy.
• 29:02
  Dave 18%.
• 29:03
  You guys like it? Wow. This is good. Old gal Juliana, keep on chuggling and catch you next.
• 29:11
  Time.
• 29:11
  We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you're listening to us online, do yourself a favor and tap just tap it in the subscribe button.
• 29:20
  Give it a little tappy, tap, tap, tap a room.
• 29:23
  The easiest way to listen to our show is to ask Siri Alexa, Google, Uncle Larry, or whoever it is that talks to you on your phone play podcast, Sipsuds and Smokes. We love your feedback and you can reach us at info@sipsudsandsmokes.com. Our tasting notes flow out on Twitter and Instagram with our handle at Sipsudsandsmokes, and our Facebook page is always buzzing with lots of news.
• 29:49
  You'll also be able to interact with the thousands, millions of other fans on those social media platforms. Do us a favor take the time to rate this episode. If you're listening to us online, that's a big help to us, and we get to see your feedback as well. Come back, join us for another episode and keep on sipping.
• 30:21
  M this has been a one tan hand production of Sip, Suds and Smokes, a program devoted to the appreciation of some of the finer slices of life from the Dude in the Basement studios. Your host. The good old boys will see you all next.