Beer Thirty with Bill Miller from Age of Truth

Age of Truth

It's really starting to seem like my future move to Philadelphia is the right idea for me as a metalhead.

More and more...bands from the City of Brotherly Love are coming into the queue of my personal conciousness and they're really kicking a lot of ass.

We all know that I love St. Louis, but and I'm sorry Redbait and Torchlight Parade, our local metal scene kind of sucks.

Yet we have a strong metal show going community.

Like, Heavy Metal Kilt Guy, we all know him. I've seen that guy in at least 5 different clubs.

But back to Philly, the loving city where fans huck batteries at baseball players....let's talk about Age of Truth. Check out their latest record, Threshold on BANDCAMP.

Now, let's have a couple beers!

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.

I am a DIPA guy too. We should get houses next door to each other. I would love to be able to knock up and ask if I could borrow a pint of flowery bitterness with an ABV 8% or above from my next door neighbor.

Would even go and buy a bathrobe for just the occasion. Haven’t tried the STLIPA yet as I am in love with New England style hazy IPAs lately.

Current favorites are Thomas Hooker #NOFILTER, Captain Lawrence Galactic Fog, and a local one from Funk Brewing called Silent Disco.

Everything from Funk Brewing absolutely crushes.

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? 

The people laughing are jackasses. America does a couple things really well and next to bombing people from fucking robot planes, beer is the other one.

I would say that the people that mock American beer are just uninformed about what has been happening. Can’t blame them as we have decades of historically shitty mega brewery dreck and it is only in the last fifteen years or so that America has changed the game in beer. You know how I know? Black IPAs.

Who else would think to make a Black India PALE Ale? America, that’s who baby. There are all these established rules and traditions in brewing that America has basically scoffed at and said “we are doing shit our way."

Good.

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. 

 What beers do you love that break Reinheitsgebot? 

I make my own rules and so should beer. Plus the historical record anytime Germans start making laws about “purity," well they haven’t been good.

One that I have been digging lately is a local brewer Levante and their beer Cloudy and Cumbersome.

It’s got oats in the grain bill that adds a nice angle to it. I’m not shy though, you wanna throw rye or raspberries or rainbow skittles in there, I will drink.

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? 

Philly and Pennsylvania have a great brewing tradition and that has been carried on with our craft brewers. I mentioned Funk Brewing and they don’t make a bad beer, but we have some real greats. 

Long-standing names like Yard’s, Victory, Philadelphia Brewing, Stoudt’s, Troegs, as well as newer names like Tired Hands, Free Will, and Pizza Boy Brewing.

We got good beer here, much more than just Yuengling.

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 gotta pick one. 

Both are necessary but it’s hops all the way for me. Nothing I love more than hoppy bitterness that feels like it is scraping the enamel off your teeth.

The beers that are timeless to me are the ones that manage to hit that perfect balance like Bell’s Two Hearted Ale. That beer to me has more balance than the entire Wallenda family.

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? 

Usually an exhausted liver. I don’t tend to take them home though, just enjoy beer in the moment. Though I am not above getting friends to send me the choice ones I can’t get here.

Which reminds me, where my Boston people at? Send me some Trillium! We need all the right ingredients making this new album!

Thanks Nik, cheers brother!