Beer Thirty with Sean Sabatini of The Great Sabatini

The Great Sabatini

Perhaps you're familiar with The Great Sabatini.

Personally, I recall an album cover with a really whacked out looking muppet.

In the meantime between then and now, The Great Sabatini has released a new record, Goodbye Audio, which has been released on all sorts of formats.

Check that out HERE.

But for now, we're going to check in with the main Sabatini, Sean Sabatini, the Montreal native about what sorts of beer he likes to imbibe.

1. My personal favorite beer style is the might Double India Pale Ale. The best DIPA in the world is STLIPA by Urban Chestnut. Tell me about your favorite style. 

Up front, let me say I'm not a big connoisseur. Having said that, I'm not really into the IPA's, I'd take a stout over an IPA, personally, or a lager. 

I've even warmed up to some of the fruitier things here 'n there. An Ontario company called Wellington Brewery had a nice one called Against The Currant, but I wouldn't have more than one in a sitting. 

(NOTE: I brought back some Wellington beer after a visit to the duty free shop at the Niagara Falls border.)

2. Many international people have laughed at me for this, but American Beer is the best in the world. Not American Lagers, that piss water is best used for drinking 15 of them while you're at the karaoke bar, but American Craft Beer. Which nation is pumping out the best beer?

I feel like anyone who'd trash talk American beer at this point is stupid or ignorant. There seems to be a huge grassroots craft beer thing going on Stateside, which is great. It's happened here in Canada as well. 

This is good, because the big corporate breweries are making rot-gut piss and I pretty much refuse to drink any of it any more. When I was young, and I just wanted to catch a buzz, any swill would do, but I've outgrown that mentality, and it's nice to have options. That said, I don't think that a "nationalist" view on beer, or having civic pride in a beer, makes the best sense at this point... simply because there's good craft beer being made everywhere, it seems. 

But in my travels, the Belgians seem to be brimming with Beer-Pride, and with good reason, I guess. They take it very seriously over there, and I suppose they have for a long, long time. 

I've had some good ones over there. But I think it'd be moronic if a Belgian went to, say, Ohio on a trip and didn't try to seek out all the local craft beers and be open minded about it. If you love beer, you got to look for the good stuff wherever you happen to be. 

3. Even though I'm a giant beer snob, I'll drink beers that break the Bavarian Purity Laws. My personal favorite is Schalfly's Bourbon Barrel Imperial Stout. It's a might 22oz of 10% ABV Stout aged in bourbon barrels. It'll warm your heart and soul. That sounds great. It all sounded pretty Greek to me, haha. But I'd be game to try that. The Bourbon Barrel part piqued my interest. 

What beers do you love that break Reinheitsgebot? 

I had to look that up. I'm still unsure what may qualify at this point in history but as I mentioned before, I'm open to the odd thing that might be fruity or have some sort of foreign spice to it. 

The Blackcurrant beer I mentioned from Wellington was delicious and there's one from a Montreal company called Dieu Du Ciel called "Route Des Epices" which is a peppery rye beer which I love. 

Do those count?

4. Right now, you couldn't pin me down and get me to give my favorite St. Louis Brewery, though Urban Chestnut's STLIPA does put them in the lead...but if you put a gun to my head,it's Schlafly Brewing. What do you think of your local brewers? 

There are some local microbreweries here that I love. Dieu Du Ciel is my favorite, easily. But there's a spot called Benelux that makes some interesting beers.

Also, there's the long standing Montreal company Unibroue. They seem to have been doing it way before this more recent wave of craft beer trendiness took hold. 

They generally make much stronger Belgian style beers, and I'm not a huge fan, but once in a while I'll grab one. 

5. Hops or Malt?

Personally, I feel like a jerk for asking the question. Give me a malty Scottish/Scotch Ale or a hoppy DIPA...and I'm happy...but you got to pick one.

 As I said earlier, I'm not a huge fan of the IPA's. I'm always open to trying something. But I guess I'd be more on the malt side of this fence? 

6. Whenever I'm road tripping. I'm always bringing back beers. Ohio, Great Lakes Brewing. East Coast, Yuengling. Western New  York. Genessee. What do you bring home? 

This isn't something that I do, usually, but I have found myself appreciating good beer more in recent years and I feel like I could be the sort of guy who brings beers home after visiting out of town. 

My friend Jesse Matthewson of KEN mode is a VERY big beer nerd. When I saw him recently he had the van loaded up with beers he'd collected on tour. 

That sort of enthusiasm is infectious to me... especially when, whenever I happen to be in Winnipeg, he feeds me quality beer. 

Sometimes you learn to appreciate something through the passion a friend has for it. I learned about Dieu Du Ciel from a buddy (who lives here now) who insisted on going there every time he was in town. 

When I visit our drummer Steve in Cambridge, Ontario, he gives me Wellington brews. He is friendly with those guys and I haven't had one that I didn't enjoy.

But I'm more and more open to finding out about what's good wherever I happen to be. I don't drink often any more, or at least not to get messed up. So enjoying a couple good ones is a different sort of thing for me.