Uinta Brewing’s HooDoo Kolsch & Live and Let Die

Hey there, Drinkers!

It’s time to Live and Let Drink! Not a terrible motto, right? Too bad this BAAM combo isn’t exactly worthy of such optimism. Today we have Uinta’s HooDoo Kolsch-style ale and the 1973 Bond flick Live and Let Die. It’s a light (lite) duo with much promise and much disappointment. And since you already know how I feel about the whole ordeal, let’s read more about it!

In 1973, Roger Moore hit the James Bond scene with Live and Let Die, a film mostly remembered for its Paul McCartney theme-song. And rightfully so. That song is awesome. The rest of the film is largely forgettable. Not to say that the details of the film are forgettable, because many of them are actually quite memorable, but rather the film as a whole can be easily lumped in with most other generic Bond movies. So what actually stands out about this film? Mostly its location and its peripheral characters. Unlike most Bond film, Live and Let Die takes place largely in the United States and heavily features African-Americans in leading roles. Not that those roles are flattering or positive or racially sensitive but hey, at least they’re there, right? And maybe most memorable piece of this movie is the occasional henchman Baron Samedi, the extremely well-dressed/never-dressed undying Voodoo spirit. Accompanied by his hearty laugh, Baron Samedi is a weird Bond antagonist who has a very loose connection to the actual Bond villain and mostly exists to add color to the otherwise drab story. In fact, the story isn’t even drab. It’s muddled. I admit I wasn’t paying close attention (but who does for a Bond movie?) but it was very difficult to understand what was going on and why. Fortunately, in classic Bond fashion, the bad guy explains his entire operation before leaving Bond to die in an overwrought and under-thought death trap.

Live and Let Me Be Creeped Out

If you take a step back, you’ll realize that Live and Let Die is pretty much the exclusive basis for the Austin Powers movies. Bond is left die in several compromising but silly situations (death by crocodile farm, death by shark tank, death by over exposition!). He immediately sleeps with every female her encounters. The villain explains every detail of his plan over cocktails with Bond.  Bond has several highly specialized gadgets that very silly (magnet-buzzsaw watch). The villain dies in the most absurd way. And the villain’s secret lair includes a monorail. Seriously. How is that not Austin Powers? But on a serious note, as a true Bond fan, it is always upsetting to watch one of these lesser films. They kind of suck the magic and allure out of the franchise and leave behind a frustrating shell of a movie. To be fair, I still laughed and smiled during this movie. But I was definitely laughing at the movie in the least respectful of ways.

Sorry Roger Moore, this one was just not a winner.

Because guns are just blasé

And how about Uinta’s HooDoo Kolsch-style ale? Well, much like Live and Let Die, I was disappointed. Like the Bond franchise, Uinta puts out great products but sadly, this one seems like a bit of a dud. Full disclosure: I do not typically drink lighter beers like Kolsch’s as I find them to be lacking in complexity. I’ve had a few lighter beers when the weather gets warm but they are always my go-to. That being said, I found the HooDoo to be a bit too simplistic to make me a repeat buyer. It poured a nice, clean golden-yellow that I would expect from a Kolsch. Its aroma and taste were fairly similar with notes of straw malt and light, floral sweetness. The body was probably a little heavier than most Kolsch’s (I assume but again, I haven’t had many beers in this style) but overall it was mostly light and refreshing. The beer is not a bad beer, it’s just not great. It doesn’t do much to stand out against the multitude of summer beers that hitting shelves now. Maybe I’m just a Kolsch-noob and don’t know any better but if you Drinkers have any suggestions for similar beers, feel free to send them my way.

So that’s it, folks! A bit of a letdown of an evening with Live and Let Die and Uinta’s HooDoo (did you get the HooDoo-Voodoo connection?). The movie was flat and silly and the beer was a bit uninspired. But all of that aside, any time you can sit down after work with a beer in hand and a movie on your screen is a thing to be thankful for. Besides, how else can you appreciate the good if you haven’t experience the mediocre?

And as always keep drinking, my friends!

Tonight’s Tasting Notes:
Uinta’s HooDoo Kolsch-style ale:
-Golden yellow pour
-Light, refreshing carbonation
-Simple, sweet straw flavor

Live and Let Die
-Thin, unconvincing plot
-Leans heavily on absurd Bond stereotypes
-At least it has a memorable song?

Mission St. Hefeweizen & Dr. No

Hello Drinkers,

Tonight I’m a man on a mission with a Mission St. Hefeweizen and the James Bond original Dr. No.  And even though 007 is more of a martini guy, I think we can let it slide just this once.

Now, James Bond is always a man on a mission and no spy movie is more iconic (or parodied) than Dr. No. This movie really has it all: secret island bases to blow up, random hot women to bang, shark tanks to admire, world domination plots to explain and, of course, the obligatory half-Asian bad guy played by a white guy with robo-hands.

Robo. Hands.

Anyway, to our modern eyes this movie is incredibly cheesy and thin. Bond travels to a single location (Jamaica), follows several fairly simple clues and finds himself face-to-face with very congenial nemesis who works for one of the most poorly named organizations of all time: Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion. Or S.P.E.C.T.R.E. for those who still want to sound cool. Dr. No doesn’t want money or fame. He simply wants to cause the US Space Program a little trouble. No big deal. Now aside from the odd fact that a British spy has to deal with an American problem and the film’s underlying racism towards the Chinese, the movie is fun. It has all the tropes of a great spy movie and can be largely credited with the genre’s popularity. And at the end of the day, who doesn’t love a little James Bond?

Answer: This guy.

So while I was watching my favorite spy on his first mission on screen, I was slowly sipping on a Mission St. Hefeweizen (a beer made specifically for Trader Joe’s). For those who don’t know what a hefeweizen is, this beer is essentially a cool way of calling something a wheat beer or a white beer. Now I’m sure there are some technical differences among them but for our purposes they are all similar at their core. Compared to last week’s wheat beer, Blue Moon, Mission St. is more mellow and less fruity. It’s not less flavorful or boring, the taste just doesn’t jump out at you. It’s got a cloudy gold color (hefeweizens and wheats aren’t filtered) and a pours a thin head. By all accounts, it’s a good beer for the end of summer. It’s still fairly light and floral but isn’t as sweet as something you might want in the middle of the summer. While it didn’t do anything new for me, I wouldn’t mind picking this one up again if I’m looking for a casual (re: low ABV) sip or two.

Although both Dr. No and Mission St. Hefeweizen might feel like familiar ground for anyone accustomed to the genres, they are both solid and enjoyable ways of spend an evening on your couch.

And now for a quick bit of business. I, of course, am a I fountain of wisdom when it comes to arbitrarily pairing beers with movies. At times though, I get a little lonely when it comes time to pick a combo off of my extensive list. So with that in mind, if you ever have any ideas for beers, movies or a combination thereof, let me know and I’ll do my best to get it up quickly.

Keep drinking my friends! That is unless you have to drive home. Then you should stop drinking.

Tonight’s Tasting Notes:

Mission St. Hefeweizen:  
Cloudy, golden color.
Mellow, grainy flavor.
Solid beer but nothing out-of-the-ordinary.

Dr. No:
The original Bond. James Bond.
First example of all the cheesy stereotypes we love.
Bond bangs women who try to kill him. All the time.