Bach & Beer

Consecrator Dopplebock by Bell's Brewery--(the dopplebock names end with -ator)*

My Facebook memory for today featured a poster advertising a Bach and Brews event that I attended at a local brewery (Founders) a couple of years ago. I recently mentioned a special beer (Brandenburger Bock) that is brewed every year for the Bach festival in Winter Park, Florida.

It seems that Bach and Beer will forever be associated. As a German living in the 18th century, Bach certainly enjoyed more than a few pints, or steins, or whatever. I don't really know that much about his drinking habits. I'm not sure anyone does. He wrote a Coffee Cantata, but no Beer Cantata.

I attended the final concert ("Joyful Bach") of the Grand Rapids Bach Festival this year, at the newly built Christ Chapel of Cornerstone University, a program planned and conducted by the director of the Bach Festival, the former Grand Rapids Symphony conductor, David Lockington. The concert (#8 and free) featured selections from Bach's cantatas (he composed 300 of them! but not all survived) with 4 soloists, and the adult and youth symphonic choirs.

Perhaps he imagined this happier music after he had imbibed in a few Bock draughts. But I digress...

The acoustics in this new chapel were not ideal. That is as much as I will offer negatively about the evening. The use of a countertenor instead of an alto was particularly enjoyable. And the tenor and soprano sang right to us in this setting in-the-round. It was a good concert. I liked that Lockington spoke eloquently (with his English accent) about each selection, helping us to understand the context of the cantata selections.

We have all heard that Bach had 20 children, 13 with his second wife. Sadly, only 10 children survived to adulthood, several were named Johann and several became significant musicians and composers.

Along with the prolific composing that Bach engaged in during his 65 years on earth, becoming the still-celebrated, greatest composer of all time (and one in whose honor we name brews--and drink), he seems to have been prolific in the bedroom as well!

It was a long, warm and crowded concert. I attended with J. and O. and we became very thirsty. I was determined to have a German Bock brew, if possible, to top off the evening. The closest brew on the menu--of at least 30 taps at Gravity, was the Michigan-brewed Dopplebock, above. It is a lager, malty, with a nice amber color. It hit the spot.

 After the lengthy concert, the food, and delivering my friends back to their homes, I could not fall asleep ... perhaps thinking about the early hour the alarm (time change) was set for. It was not that I had too much alcohol--a modest 8% snifter. No, blame it on the Bach, not the Bock ... but it certainly was a double-Bach night!

*See ... I know something about beer--maybe even more than Martha (previous post).