Nomeansno’s John Wright: Beer and music have a “well-founded relationship”

Interview by Megan Cole

We recently spoke to John Wright of progressive punk band Nomeansno and pop-punk group The Hanson Brothers about his long love of craft beer and the release of his new beer, Punk Rauch, with Le Trou du Diable brewery.

Nomeansno and The Hanson Brothers have had impact on a lot of people out there, but The Hanson Brothers actually had a hand in brewing beer in a sense, didn’t they?
Le Trou du Diable was basically started by two punk rockers from Shawinigan, QC. They were big fans of Nomeansno and The Hanson Brothers. Andre Trudel, he was kind of the brewer, and Isaac Tremblay is now the director of the brewery, and I don’t know how Andre got into brewing beer, but Isaac bought him this instructional video I made back in the ‘90s called All Grain Brewing by Johnny Hanson, which was just a piece of fun we did for The Hanson Brothers selling VHS cassettes at shows. But it was an instructional video, I show you how to make all grain beer and I guess Isaac bought it for Andre, and 14 years later they have an award-winning brewery.

Things kind of came full circle then when you partnered with them to brew Punk Rauch. How did that fall into place?
We ended up playing out there on tour in Eastern Canada, and there was a hole in our schedule because we had a show fall through in Halifax, and Isaac just happened to be on the internet and noticed that there was a hole and got a hold of our booker and said he’d love for us to play at his brewery in Shawinigan. They booked us there and we had no idea, and we got there and that was when we got the whole story. They put on a wonderful show, the original brewpub is a wonderful venue, and the backstage was the brewery and when supper hour was over they cleared some tables and set up a stage. We had a great show and they filmed the whole thing. Then they said, “Look, you were a big inspiration and we want to do a collaboration with you on a beer, your recipe and you name it whatever you want, and we’ll brew it and put it out.”

That’s a pretty awesome opportunity. How did you decide what style and flavour to go with?
I was really into, and am still very much into, Bavarian lagers, but not really Bavarian, more Franconian lagers, which are centred around Bamberg, Germany called keller beers, and they are wonderful, wonderful beers. They are also the area in Germany that does traditional rauch beer, which is smoked beer. Rauch means smoke. Most Germans don’t particularly care for it, but it is a very old tradition of brewing, mainly before the advent of modern kilns for the toasting of the malts, all malts were smoked, they just couldn’t get away from it and it was quite a revelation when beer didn’t taste smoky. I went on the internet and found a traditional recipe and understood what it would take, but it wasn’t really my recipe. But it turned out what Andre was doing for many years, and is really a leader in North America, is barrel aging beers. They do a lot of barrel aging, and he does all sorts of experimenting with all kinds of combinations. When I was out there I had had their barrel-aged imperial stout, which was just unbelievably good, and I don’t even like imperial stout. It occurred to me, what if we do a smoked beer, like a traditional smoked beer, but let’s put it in a bourbon barrel, and that will be the twist. I concocted this recipe and made it a little stronger lager, and made it dark with some roasted malt, giving it a roasted character with the smoke, and the bourbon flavour and lots of oak. That’s kind of how it all came about. I happened to be on tour with Nomeansno this year and was able to spend a week after the tour working in a Bavarian brewery in the region of this beer that I really like. It was really a fun experience, I met a wonderful guy and we got along great and got more of an education on that style and region.

It’s pretty clear you and beer have a close relationship, but what about the relationship between beer and music? Those two seem to have been close friends for ages.
I think beer and music have gone together since time immemorial. People have been getting hosed and dancing around since before there were any written records of it. Probably thousands and thousands of years before there was any written record of it. Dance and music has always been a spiritual thing, and liquor has always been a spiritual thing, and they go together and always have and always will. This is a well-founded relationship. I don’t think it’s any more prominent now than it was before, but it kind of corresponds with the fact that craft brewing in general is making a big resurgence. It started about 20 years ago and flourished a bit, and a lot of those original breweries were bought out or whatever, but it has really blossomed again, and not just here in North America, and it really kind of started in the US, but it is happening in Germany and England, places that you would think they still have a strong brewing tradition, and they do. But, like everywhere, it was co-opted by corporations and the multinationals. It was all basically taken over and beers became factory beers like everywhere. People in England now want their real beer back and their little breweries. Everywhere there seems to be a reawakening with the joy of good, real, and fresh beers.

What do you think about the trend towards musicians getting directly involved in either making beers or just marketing them? Like even Kid Rock has a beer.
I think there is a bandwagon thing. I like to think I’m not on the bandwagon because I’ve been doing this forever. I didn’t just slap my name on a beer, I went and brewed it and developed the recipe. For me, it’s part of my life, and it’s a hobby for well over 12 years now, and it’s great fun. Punk Rauch is kind of like an amateur brewer’s dream. You get to go and do your own beers short of having your own brewery and this way I don’t have to have my own business. I am really happy to see craft beers doing well and it’s fun for musicians to get involved and be part of the fun.

John Wright’s Punk Rauch beer is available now through Le Trou du Diable.