I think one of the best memories I have of my father is somewhere in the haze of the first few weeks of college.

I was being driven home for a weekend, illness deeply sleep-deprived from a particularly debaucherous Thursday night (which, at that point, just took an embarrassingly small amount of light beer and sneaking into the college station to DJ with friends) Somewhere in the hour and a half long drive home, I let slip that I had been drinking the night before and met an uncomfortable pause that probably only lasted half a second. It wasn’t that I was scared he’d be thrown by this revelation of his 18-year old son touching alcohol upon entering college, but more so the cavalierness of me just openly discussing beer, this totem of the proverbial adult table, like we were suddenly equals.

“What kind of beer?”, he asked casually. “Budweiser,” I sheepishly answered. Another pause. This one was definitely longer. “Well, I’m a little disappointed,” he began. “I thought I raised you around better beer than Budweiser…”

I feel like we shared a lot about ourselves when we used to write the Father & Son Review Co. column, but I guess one thing that slipped through the cracks was how much my dad and I bond over brewing beer. The beer we’ve made has served as an apology to Ben Katzman for making fun of his ‘stache (sorry again, Ben), a form of payment for a Sheer Mag 7”, and a decent ice breaker at house shows, so I felt it was fitting to somewhat revive the ol’ Father and Son team to tackle Boston’s newest festival, the Copenhagen Beer Festival. Hopefully for this one last Father & Son go-around on AP, we accurately combined the two things we review best: beer and bands I like that my dad doesn’t get.

AP: We counted almost sixty breweries present… did you hit them all?

Tim: We covered a good amount of ground. I’m tired. Dad, you’re not sauced, right?

Dad: Nah, I’m probably a 2/10 after walking. I’m ready to fall asleep though.

AP: Let’s go over your list of favorite beers before nap time. 

Dad: Well, I stopped writing after a while…

Tim: [laughs] What kind of dad-journalist are you?

Dad: I was in the moment, taking it all in! I liked Magic Rock; they had one called The Bearded Lady that was this caramel-y chocolate porter.

Tim: Yeah, one of my highlights of the day was their Special Relationship bourbon barrel-aged ale… I kind of wanted to ask how they landed on “Special Relationship” as a name, but I chickened out.

Dad: You asked one of the breweries how they got their name though!

Tim: Yeah, there was a brewery called Angry Chair and I asked the guy working their booth why the chair was angry. He seemed a little taken off guard; I’m pretty sure he was a volunteer, so he didn’t know. Kinda dorky on my part. Their Chocolate Cupcake Stout was super good though!

AP: Any other questionable beer/brewer names?

Tim: War Pigs had a stout called “OhmyfuckinggodIcan’tbelieveyoufuckedmeup” or something.

Dad: Yeah, the one they couldn’t sell in America!

Tim: Good marketing.

Dad: Really? You’d call that good marketing?

Tim: I mean, we came over for the “fuckmeup” beer, so word-of-mouth worked.

Dad: Wait, I found some notes! I can’t even pronounce this brewer: Brow-er-wee-zrr-urr-rah-hrrrr…

Tim: Wanna run that one by me again?

Dad: [laughs] Nope.

AP: Were there any surprises?

Dad: I wasn’t sure about that Spanish beer.

Tim: Do you mean the alcoholic kombucha? Casita Cervecita?

Dad: Yep, whatever you said. [laughs] There were so many sour beers too.

AP: Are you guys fans of sour beers?

Dad: Not really. I prefer malty, hearty beers like porters, stouts, and ales.

Tim: And no IPAs.

Dad: Yep, no IPAs for me.

Tim: I feel like most dads hate IPAs, but it was kinda tough avoiding those today. I also had no idea how popular sour beers are right now. They’re kinda hit or miss for me. One of my favorites of the whole festival was Beavertown Brewery’s Earl Phantom, which was brewed with Earl Grey tea. I think that tea aspect of it sold the sourness for me.

Dad: Yeah, that was a little sour, a little different. There was just a lot of beers to please everyone’s palette, especially the European ones.

Tim: The most interesting surprise for me was the slushie beer.

Dad: That was a unique one. They had a Chocolate and Raspberry beer brewed, but then they filtered it into a slushie machine to make like an alcoholic slush. Unique taste, but I don’t think I’d get in line for it again.

Tim: Yeah, easily the biggest line of the festival… glad we tried it though.

AP: Any last beer shoutouts before we cover the music?

Dad: Wormtown and Idle Hands were good too! The one you got from Cigar City, the habanero cider! That was a very unique flavor, like “oh my god, I’ve never had that taste experience before.”

Tim: Yeah, I really dug that one too. I also want to shout out Beavertown x Boneyard’s Blood Orange IPA, Evil Twin’s Liquid Double Fudge Porter…

Dad: Oh yeah, the Evil Twin one was decadent! We went for a lot of decadent porters, but that one was the best.

Tim: Yep. Oh, and Gigantic’s Pipewrench Gin-Barrel IPA…

Dad: Which wasn’t that big, actually…

Tim: [groans] You’re terrible.

AP: Okay, let’s cover your usual beat: review the bands.

Tim: I was there last night too, so I got to see our dear friends in Vundabar…

Dad: Ah, that’s vunda-ful! [laughs] Big shout out to those guys! Hope they took dance lessons.

Tim: [laughs] I thought they were very good, dance moves and all.

Dad: Were they in all black with the chains on?

Tim: Nah, different color shirts, no religious paraphernalia-eating…

Dad: Well hey, they’re branching out, that’s good! Who else played last night? Yo la what? Yolo Froyo? There was frozen yogurt?

Tim: [laughs] So close. They’re called Yo La Tengo. Do you even know what YOLO stands for?

Dad: Yeah, I did. Hold on… still processing. Uh, is it “you only live once?”

Tim: YEAH! I didn’t think you’d get it.

Dad: Isn’t that a website?

Tim: Uh, you mean Yahoo?

Dad: No, Yahoo got hacked by Russians. But anyway, you said Yo La Tengo were my age, they had a following, but they had a couple of kids or something and now they’re coming back?

Tim: No. Well, sorta… the members of Yo La Tengo are around your age, but they’ve steadily kept their fanbase. They’re sort of like a mellow cult band of the ‘90s… is that weird? Like, a band that’s your age, but is relevant to people young enough to be your kids?

Dad: Music transcends generations if it’s good. You said it was mellow though? Can’t imagine that being good for Friday night drinking music.

Tim: I mean, most people were diehard fans that stayed. The rest were too drunk to leave.

AP: How about today’s bands?

Dad: The band that closed it down this afternoon was great…

Tim: Yeah, Mariachi El Bronx!

Dad: They were pretty upbeat, good music to send you off. They weren’t mellow, that’s for sure.

Tim: Would you say that one was your favorite?

Dad: I love horns, so that sold me. Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny, Tower of Power… I just love a band with horns. I definitely know I didn’t like the first one.

Tim: Tigerman WOAH!, they’re called.

Dad: Yeah, that guy’s voice… definitely deserves a “woah.”

Tim: To be honest, they remind me of a rockabilly band meets Dropkick Murphys, who I’m definitely not a fan of, but you like them. I’ve seen Tigerman twice at festivals and they seem likable enough!

Dad: Yeah, definitely Dropkick Murphys in there. His voice was just so low, so gravely… sounded like a couple scotches and cigarettes got him on stage.

Tim: I think Tremolo Beer Gut was both my favorite name of the festival and favorite band today.

Dad: Yeah, I was just thinking, “I kinda liked that surf band that played in the middle of the crowd.” No vocals, good musicians, just good chillin’ music.

Tim: Gotta love a surf rock from Denmark of all places.

AP: Any last notes?

Dad: It was fun, it was a great day…

Tim: It was weird getting recognized by a few AP readers out and about.

Dad: Yeah, that was bizarre! You gotta write about that; this guy comes up to us, shows us our photo on Instagram, and started talking to us about our reviews and beers.

Tim: Yeah, we’re low key famous now. I’ve only encountered that at shows with, like, bands we assumed we pissed off.

Dad: [laughs] Well yeah, cheers to that guy!

Tim: Yeah, cheers, man! Good fest! I think I have a tremolo beer gut now.

For photos from the festival, check out the gallery below.