Polvo and Ocelot Brewing Forge Polvo Pils

From Ocelot Brewing:

Polvo is back. Kinda. Not really. Polvo and Ocelot Brewing made a beer. It’s a 4.6% Czech-style pilsner called… Polvo Pils. And it’ll be released here in Virginia this Wednesday.
 
What’s left to say about Polvo? The guitar heroes famously emerged from the early ’90s Chapel Hill scene, but they might as well have stepped out of an extraterrestrial portal. Then, as now, no one sounded quite like Polvo. Across six albums and three EPs for Merge, Touch and Go, and Merge again, the inimitable collective explored a heady stew of shapeshifting structures, alternate tunings, global influences, and the push-pull of melody and noise. For indie rock nerds, diving into Polvo’s dense discography has become a rite of passage, even as the band has remained dormant since 2013’s Siberia (a favorite among the Ocelot brew team of Jack and Rich Snyder).
 
There is no new Polvo music on the way. Founding members Ash Bowie, Dave Brylawski, and Steve Popson don’t have any plans to perform together. Polvo Pils exists because Ocelot heard via Merge that Brylawski, now a DC resident, had half-jokingly expressed interest in making a beer with us. And for over ten years, Ocelot has operated under a simple, unspoken tenet: If Polvo wants a beer, Polvo gets beer.
 
Our collaborative pale lager aspires towards the platonic ideals of Czech classicism: satisfying malt depth balanced by firm, but not distracting, hoppiness. Naturally, we went to the source for both inputs. Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner Malt –  floor malted in Czechia using regionally grown heirloom barleys – imparts notes of earthy honey, bread, and biscuit. Czech Saaz counters with a bouquet of fresh-cut herbs and grounding earthiness. In a lager conditioned for months, the two seamlessly enmesh. It’s total immersion, one might even say.
 
There is perhaps some irony in this equilibrium given Polvo’s penchant for off-kilter rhythms and a general aversion to orthodoxy. But the Czech pilsner is an undisputed classic, and as far as we’re concerned, so is Polvo. Plus, as it turns out, the band just really likes a clean lager.
 
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Polvo Pils will be available at the brewery on Wednesday, August 13. Ocelot and Merge Records will celebrate the brew dark age – in addition to the release of a new Superchunk XPA named Last Call – this Friday, August 15, at the Peel Gallery in Carrboro, North Carolina.
  
The lager follows previous Ocelot collaborations with Momma, Protomartyr, Sheer Mag, Superchunk, Palehound, Bon Iver, Lily Seabird, The Clientele, Mary Timony, The Fiery Furnaces, Fucked Up, of Montreal, Bad Moves, Slumberland Records, and Merge Records.

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Superchunk and Ocelot Brewing Reunite for Last Call XPA

If you’ve got a bell, then make it ring. On Wednesday, Virginia’s Ocelot Brewing releases Last Call, an exclamatory Extra Pale Ale brewed with legendary punks Superchunk. The beer arrives nine days before Songs in the Key of Yikes, the band’s cathartic 13
th
 LP for long-time home
 Merge Records.
 
Last Call marks Ocelot’s third collaboration with Superchunk frontman Mac McCaughan. The first two – a Czech pale lager and a dry-hopped pilsner – were developed in accordance with Mac’s avowed enthusiasm for sessionable lagerbier. So, imagine our surprise during last year’s Merge 35 festivities when he made a comment to us about a pale ale we had brought for performers hanging out backstage. “That Jawbone is pretty tasty,” the Merge co-founder confided. “A lot of flavor, low ABV.”
 
A lot of flavor. Low ABV. This would become the blueprint for Last Call. Like Jawbone, the opaque XPA pairs almighty Pacific Northwest Citra hops with a New Zealand varietal. Here, from mash-in to whirlpool to dry hop, the Shaky Isles are represented by Nelson Sauvin. Three forms of Nelson Sauvin, in fact. Our hand-selected Freestyle Nelson Sauvin, overflowing with notes of pink grapefruit and bright white grape. Kohia Nelson, a blend of Nelson Sauvin, Rakau, and New Zealand-grown passionfruit. And Super Sauvin, which laces Nelson Sauvin with thiol-rich Phantasm. Last Call is a maximal expression of tropical fruitiness… in a tidy 5.0% package.
 
We think the XPA is an apt fit for Songs in the Key of Yikes, a radiant album that’s brashly positive in the face of modernity’s endless dumpster fires. On the heels of 2022’s lush, relatively unplugged Wild Loneliness, the new record feels electric, both literally and figuratively. Of course, as we’ve come to expect from a Superchunk LP, it crams a serrated symphony of hooks, riffs, and disjointed poems into a compact 38 minutes and change.
 
The name Last Call is cribbed from the Scott Reeder painting that graces the cover of Songs in the Key of Yikes. The Midwest artist was even kind enough to let us use his work for our beer label. The next time he depicts a skeleton doomscrolling on a palm-laden beach, we know just the tropical beverage to put in its other hand.
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Songs in the Key of Yikes lands via Merge Records on Friday, August 22. Superchunk’s forthcoming U.S. tour includes a show at DC’s Black Cat on Tuesday, September 9.
 
Last Call will be available at the brewery this Wednesday, August 13. Ocelot and Merge Records will celebrate the beer’s release – in addition to the unveiling of Polvo Pils – on Friday, August 15, at the Peel Gallery in Carrboro, North Carolina.
  
The XPA follows previous Ocelot collaborations with Momma, Protomartyr, Sheer Mag, Superchunk, Palehound, Bon Iver, Lily Seabird, The Clientele, Mary Timony, The Fiery Furnaces, F**ked Up, of Montreal, Bad Moves, Slumberland Records, and Merge Records.