Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: beer, Comics, entertainment, jason aaron

Booze Geek – Festus Rotgut Features Short Comic Strips By Jason Aaron

Published Sat, 04 Jul 2015 15:00:00 -0500

By Dylan Gonzalez

Beer: Festus Rotgut

Brewery: Arcade Brewery

ABV: 8%

I tell ya, it helps to be in a hockey league where the members are from all over the states. A good chunk of us happen to be big craft beer fans, so after our games, we gather together in a hotel room and commence a bottle share. Foul language and jokes at the expense of each other usually ensue. Anyway, one of my buddies happens to hail from Chicago, home of Arcade Brewery. Arcade's releases are all heavily geek and pop culture influenced and recently released a very unique beer.

The Festus Rotgut was a black wheat ale, but what is special about it is not so much the beer itself as the artwork. Each bottle of Festus Rotgut features a short comic strip written by Jason Aaron (Scalped, Thor: God of Thunder) and drawn by Tony Moore (The Walking Dead, Deadpool). The bottles tell the story of a cattle driver named Festus, escorting his herd through Rotgut Gulch. Suddenly, a horde of zombies rises from the ground. Festus battles his way through the horde and delivers his cattle, even if he is now one among the living dead. The townsfolk, clearly of the conservative lot, don't take kindly to this and attempt to drive him off. Festus, a hard working man who expects better treatment, even as a zombie, proceeds to gun down the entire town and pour himself a hard-earned pint. It's silly, but one can't deny the enjoyment of reading a comic while drinking their beer. As usual, Tony Moore delivers great artwork and Jason Aaron's prose hits the tone pretty damn well.

Anyway, onto the beer itself. Festus Rotgut was black in color and produced a thing but lasting head. It gave off the scent of chocolate and some roasted malt. When I got to drinking it (which felt great after a long day of hockey), I detected characters of chocolate, hops and roasted coffee. For a wheat ale, I did not get a lot of yeast or traditional wheat beer characters. It being a darker ale likely had to do with that. On the palate, there was some noticeable carbonation, but it was easy to drink. Overall, it was a solid brew. It just seemed more like a porter to me than a wheat ale.

Dylan Gonzalez happens to love beer and comic books and luckily found a place to write about both because he has no idea how to actually make money in the real world. He lives in a cave in New Jersey. Tweet him at @BeardedPickle, follow his own beer blog or email him at dylan.gonzalez1990@gmail.com.

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