Ocelot Brewing and Palehound Collaborate on Strawberry Paloma Sour Ale

On Wednesday, Ocelot Brewing will release U Want It U Got It, a 6% strawberry paloma-evocative sour ale made in collaboration with El Kempner’s ever-evolving rock project Palehound. This tart, fruity beverage was brewed to accompany the band’s triumphant fourth LP, Eye On The Bat, released in July via venerable indie Polyvinyl Record Co. The beer arrives one day after Palehound commences a long-awaited headlining tour, which stops at DC’s Union Stage this Saturday.

The collaboration shares its name with kinetic album cut “U Want It U Got It”. A basement demo later spiffed up with live drums, the song finds Kempner self-deprecatingly “dissing” their tendency to capitulate to others’ wishes and whims. With our U Want It U Got It, we sought to invert that dynamic. When Kempner shared their preference for cocktails and bright sour ales, our response was immediate: You want it, you got it. We collectively found inspiration in the paloma, a mixed drink of Mexican origins that gained popularity throughout the American southwest at the turn of the century before skyrocketing towards ubiquity in more recent years. Our paloma-esque ale was brewed with dry limes, then fermented with grapefruit, agave nectar, and, as a twist on the classic recipe, strawberry. And while hop expression is not central to U Want It U Got It, we nodded to the drink’s history with kettle additions of Zappa, a neomexicanus varietal native to the dry mountains of New Mexico.

Once our conversations with Palehound turned to the exterior of the can, Kempner expressed a fondness for Ocelot labels like Castle in Brooklyn and Apartment in Brooklyn that recall the colorful panels of graphic novels. And, of course, they want it, they got it. Illustrated by our creative director David Kammerdeiner, U Want It U Got It imagines an inclusive southwest saloon populated with characters and imagery from Eye On The Bat. A flight-impaired ostrich (“Eye on the Bat”). Possibly illegal Fourth of July fireworks (“Independence Day”). The household cat (“Good Sex”). Some plucked dandelions (“U Want It U Got It”). A red tour van idles outside while a sinister snake slithers atop the barroom floor – a wink towards the album’s iconic cover art, as originally envisioned by Kempner and knitted into existence by the artist Gaudmother.

Zippy and juicy, U Want It U Got It leads with notes of muddled strawberry jam, underpinned by vibrant citrus fruit and the essence of agave. This amalgam of flavors fit neatly into an approachable 6% beer… not unlike how Eye On The Bat sprawls mightily across an array of styles and guitar wizardry in a concise 29 minutes. Kempner’s ten songs are heartfelt and unflinchingly honest, while never losing their refreshingly dry humor. It’s just life, right?

Eye On The Bat is out now on Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music, and wherever else good people get good music. U Want It U Got It will be available at Palehound’s Union Stage performance, in addition to the beer’s release at Ocelot in Dulles, Virginia. The sour ale follows collaborations with The Clientele, Protomartyr, and Fucked Up earlier this year.