Hop-Heavy: Method Man & Haze Misconduct
Image by Nick M.W.
Wu-Tang rap savant meets Hatfield PA’s bruising hazy IPA.
Brewery: Imprint Beer Co. (Hatfield, PA)
Artist: Method Man
Beer: “Haze Misconduct” (Hazy DIPA, 6.8% ABV)
Song: “Bring The Pain”
How’s the beer?
Hockey is a sport of pain. It was born in harsh winter climates, and it is played on ice. My joints already hurt. Hockey players are nuts. They relish giving and taking hits. The sport embraces the occasional in-game fight. Where most sane people would want to hide a toothless smile, hockey players put theirs on display as a badge of pride. Hockey fans are borderline lunatics, too. They hail from the same frozen tundra of the northern lands (and Florida), and they embrace the same grit that’s rubbed into the flesh of every person born in a blizzard: rock salt, to prevent the ice from forming in their veins.
Folks in these parts of the world, where hockey reigns, like to drink. Beer is a birthright, and it is the perfect salve to soothe the pain of loving hockey. The good folks at Pennsylvania’s Imprint Beer Company (around 30 miles north of Philadelphia) understand this, and thus gifted hockey fans a brew that is perfect for your ice box and not the penalty box: “Haze Misconduct”
The most brutal thing about “Haze Misconduct” is the label artwork, designed by NON HEINOUS. This design is brutal and beautiful. I can feel the puck smash to the face and hear that eyeball popping out. The beer, though, is not brutal or punishing, like the sport it honors, or its label suggests. This beer is a delicious work of beverage craftsmanship. This hazy DIPA delivers smooth bitterness that I attribute to the dank and pulverized fruits and refreshing citrus. It had a slightly carbonated mouthfeel with just a flush of bitter in the after taste, but it was mild. I thought it was interesting to give a hazy IPA a hockey theme because I associate hockey with fall and winter in cold places, and I associate those seasons with other beer styles, like Belgian, stouts, porters and imperial beers. I don’t live in a cold-weather locale, so maybe I don’t know shit about what type of beer people drink when the ground outside is frozen. Plus, good beer is good in any season, temperature be damned.
“Haze Misconduct”, the smooth beer with the aggressive label, slapped around my tastebuds.
What about the music ?
A beer like that needs a proper bard, and who is more certified to bring the pain than the Ticallion Stallion, Method Man. “Bring The Pain”, the first single from Method Man’s debut solo album, Tical, is a natural pair with “Haze Misconduct”. Tical was the first post-Enter The Wu-Tang…solo project released, and RZA’s production was still in the early stages of his razor sharp run. He worked the kind of magic with that Jerry “The Iceman” Butler sample that would later earn Kanye West Grammy’s in a much more accepting time, when the gatekeepers of those awards would properly recognize rap music. Method Man was also on a heater back in those days, and “Bring The Pain” was a certified banger. It raced up the charts and paved the way for future success for Mr. Mef.
For his part on the track, Method Man rips it. He simply stepped to the mic and said, “watch this shit,” and then he dropped bars. He challenged any contenders to test the gun that won the old Wild West. He is him. “Bring The Pain” is a jam, and “Haze Misconduct” is the beer to sip while you let the now thirty-year-old track thump through your speakers.
