In designing Beer Mag, our direction from the band Sheer Mag could not have been clearer. “Let’s try to make a beer for going to a rock show.” “Something you can drink a whole bunch of.” “Just really simple.” “We want people to shotgun this.” With that in mind, we began with the archetype of the industrial lager. Lightened with rice. Clean. Crushable. But much like how Sheer Mag filters decades of the American rock cannon through their distinctive vantage, wily musical chops, and robust sense of structure, we refracted the quintessential macro offering through our own brewing sensibilities.

Pale-but-flavorful Helles malt from North Carolina’s incomparable Epiphany Craft Malt provides the lager’s foundation. Then, in addition to Pilsen malt and flaked rice, Epiphany’s Tidewater Gold Rice – “the granddaddy of American rice” – animates Beer Mag with a delicate nuttiness and the slightest hint of sweetness. The grist’s nuances contrast nicely with subtle tropical brightness from hot-side additions of Nelson Sauvin – the only hop employed in making this beer. If we’re truly playing favorites tonight, you know how we feel about that expressive New Zealand cultivar.