no corporate beer

What semblance of a metal and beer scene existed when you started the column?

The closest thing you could call a metal and beer “scene” in 2009 was 3 Floyds’ Dark Lord Day, held every spring at the brewery in Indiana. Brewer Barnaby Struve (R.I.P.) was curating a lineup of (mostly) metal bands to accompany the annual release of this very metal beer. The funny thing is the people attending DLD back then, for the most part, weren’t there for the metal at all! They tolerated it so they could get their hands on bottles of Dark Lord and get wasted drinking “whalez.”

What other writings have you published?

I started my first zine, Heavy Heroes, when I was in high school in Oregon, back in 1984, and have been writing about metal and all kinds of stuff ever since. I wrote for (and edited) Seattle’s The Rocket magazine in the ’90s, and from there I freelanced over the next two-plus decades— RayGun, Warp, MOJO and rollingstone. com. My first book, The Brewtal Truth Guide to Extreme Beers, was published by Lyons Press in 2013. Before I started writing about craft beer, I wrote a lot more about wine. I actually co-wrote a wine book, Island Wineries of British Columbia, which was named best wine book in Canada in 2011 by Gourmand International.

Is there any such thing as extreme beer anymore?

I think some of the boundary-pushing in the craft beer world has resulted in some silly, gimmicky beers. OK, maybe a lot of silly, gimmicky beers. But when beers that were once considered extreme (high-gravity IPAs, for example) become normal, where do you go next? Lactose, fruit, coffee? All of the above? No thanks. I’m obviously a champion for edgy beers and creativity, but I’ve also always been a proponent of balance and beers that maintain some semblance of beer-ness. As for what’s next, I couldn’t even begin to guess. Maybe there’ll be a pendulum swing toward beers that are brewed true to style, but brewed really well. Quality never goes out of style.

Do you still dabble in playing music?

Sadly, I don’t play music anymore, and my diminished hearing is the better for it. That said, one of the last bands I was in, Stymie, will be releasing an LP of some heavy stuff we recorded in the ’90s when we were Seattle’s best threeguitar band.

Mouth feels of the animal kingdom  Tepedelen pours out some of his signature collab beer with Wayfinder Brewing at the 2018 installment of this humble mag’s Metal & Beer Fest in Philadelphia