Hop-Heavy: Great Notion Brewing & Aesop Rock
Rose City magic. Great Notion Brewing & Aesop Rock. Image by FFP.
Shred a pair of earbuds and remedy your mood with a dose of Rose City magic.
Brewery: Great Notion Brewing (Portland, OR)
Artist: Aesop Rock
Beer: “MoMo” (7% ABV)
Song: “Kirby”
“MoMo”, one of Great Notion Brewing’s many delicious brews, is to be desired by lovers of the haze. The hazy IPA is truly a gift from God, and a divine reward like “MoMo” deserves an equal sipping partner. Allow me to introduce you to Aesop Rock, the indie rap legend residing in Portland by way of Long Island. Why these two? Because “MoMo” brings the chill, and chilling out max, relaxing all cool is good for your mental health. Aesop Rock’s “Kirby” is a song about his mental health and his cat.
Portland, Oregon is known for having a lot of rain, droves of gnarly homeless people, a perennial loser NBA team, and a lot of lovely breweries. Great Notion is one of my favorites from the Rose City, but that’s from a small sample size. I’ve tasted several Great Notion beers, and I’ll sample more, but this is the first Great Notion feature in a Hop-Heavy piece. For shame!
As with any proper hazy IPA, the first thing I noticed when I poured “MoMo” into the pint glass sip was the bouquet of hops. The label lets me know that these are hops of the New Zealand Motueka and Citra variety, and brother let me tell you that the citrus aroma was pungent. The next thing was how beautiful it looked in the glass. “MoMo” presented an opaque hue of orange, and it delivered a juicy flavor drip with only the slightest bitter flare in the finish.
“MoMo” hazy IPA. Image by Nick. M.W.
“Kirby” is the tenth track on Aesop Rock’s first self-produced 2016 album The Impossible Kid. It’s his best cover-to-cover. “Kirby” is a frisky little ditty with a wonky bass line that only Aes could rock. He threw some boom-bap drum riff and synthesizer in the marinade and produced a hit. Sure, you may have never heard of this song, or this rapper, but 12 million plus Spotify streams isn’t for your state fair stars. It’s his fourth most popular song on that streaming platform, and it’s one of my favorites because I have a cat now, and I’ve had cats in the past. I’ve also had dogs. I dig them both, but at the moment, our house is a one pet home (shoutout to my daughter’s leopard gecko. Suzy, you know what I mean).
This track is both simple in its beat structure and complex in its body. Aes Rock layers his lyrics thick with figurative language, and “Kirby” is no different. He makes you do some work to unpack his rhymes. If you can, you understand that he’s rapping about his long battle with depression and how his shrink suggested he get a cat when nothing else seems to help. Comedy. Cats are equally a source of joy and a source of frustration. Not sure that they are the cure for depression, but they can be a good time. I’m not suggesting that beer is the cure for depression, but a glass of “MoMo” and a dose of “Kirby” will bring a smile to your face.
