Real Ale Releases Second Collaboration with The SWORD

Lance Higdon, Beer Correspondent for the San Antonio Current, interviewed Head Brewer Schmitty and Lead Guitarist for The SWORD, Kyle Schutt, about our latest collaboration with the band:

Barring straight-edge hardcore compilations or youth group praise band worship albums, beer is an integral part of any record release show. It fuels the courage of stage divers. It gives indie-rock introverts the wherewithal to shake their fists and scream along. Drink enough, and you’ll think you understand all the words to “Louie, Louie”. It’s almost unheard of, however, to book a gig on the beer’s behalf. Well, Paper Tiger will flip that particular script this Friday, when the club hosts the debut of Real Ale’s Ghost Eye Oatmeal Stout, the Blanco brewery’s second collaboration with Austin metal/psych/shred stalwarts The Sword, who also happen to headline the main room that night.

Real Ale’s partnership with the band grew out of a series of hangouts between head brewer Schmitty (just Schmitty, thanks) and Sword guitarist Kyle Shutts at Austin pub The Draught House. Freewheeling conversations
turned into concrete proposals, which found their realization in the release of the Iron Swan English pale ale two years ago. Named for a Sword song and sold by the six-pack, it was a success by any meaningful measure, selling out two thousand-bottle batches. When The Sword began work on what would become their most recent record, High Country, Schmitty and Shutts saw the opportunity for a second round. Shooting for something seasonally appropriate and robust enough to fill a bomber, they decided on Shutts’ other favorite type of beer—oatmeal stout.

Read the full article at SACurrent.com.