Note: Dan Cochran and his new beer have been everywhere lately. While he has appeared on the cover of Business First along with a snazzy picture in the Alive, his beer, Four String Brew is spreading through Columbus like a dumpster fire on Campus. BW3, Brazenhead, Woodland's are all blowing through kegs and new locations are being announced weekly. There has been much confusion about the origin of this soon to be legendary new brewery. This is how it really happened. -Colin
A few years ago during rehearsal with the Lonely Bones, Dan suddenly stopped playing his trademark walking bass line during "Sad Drive" and said, "Guys, I need to talk to you about something". Herb, Rick and I all exchanged glances and I muttered, "Uh..yeah..sure...what is it?"
We turned down our instruments and picked up our beers and he said, "Guys I've been doing a lot of thinking these days about how much beer our band has been drinking during practice. After practice. Before practice. I mean look at us: It's 9:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning and Herb is already talking about whose turn it is to fly or buy"
Rick chimed in, "Dan, I don't think it's fair to criticize Herb. I mean, it is a legitimate question, that case of Milwaukee's Best is almost gone and it's not going to rebuy itself. And, we still have 14 more songs to run through. If i didn't know you better, I would say it almost sounds like you are suggesting that we run out of beer."
"I've got a bad feeling about this," said Herb.
Dan put down his bass, turned off his amplifier and sat down on the sofa. The room was silent except for the hum of the PA and Colin cracking open the last can of Beast.
"I think our band has a problem," Dan began. "Guys, we need to face the truth, we drink too much beer. And what's worse, we really drink way too much crappy beer."
Colin took a long pull on his can of lukewarm brew and said, "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Guys, I've run the numbers and it turns out that if we just built our own brewery, we would actually SAVE money over the long haul. Instead of running to the Quick-ee mart every 45 minutes, we could brew our own supply. What's even better, you guys know I make the best beer, so we wouldn't have to keep choking down this swill every Sunday morning".
Dan had a point. If he knows two things on this planet better than anybody, it's brewing beer and playing rock n roll. It was only logical. The rock n roll was covered, it was time to get some first class suds up in this place.
"I'm not gonna lie to ya fellas," Dan said. "This isn't going to be easy. It's gonna take a pretty big facility to produce the amount of sauce we need to keep this combo functioning properly. Good thing is I've found a spot right off 5th Avenue in Grandview. And you guys know how I visited hundreds of breweries during my touring days? I wasn't just drinking; I was taking notes and now I know exactly how I want to build it. Rick, didn't you read a book once or something?"
"Actually, Dan, I'm an engineer"
"That's great, Rick. You can help out. Colin and Herb, can you do me a solid and stay away from the brewery until I have a couple batches in the cooler? We'll never get any where with you guys around drinking everything"
Colin and Herb looked at each other and shrugged. "We'll do it on one condition: Once the brewery is up and running, we'll do a show where we can drink as much of your beer as we want," Herb said.
"Yeah," Colin added.
Dan said: "Gentlemen, it's a deal. Now who's up for a case of Keystone Light? Herb, I'll buy if you fly."
Four String Brewing Co. is holding a first anniversary part on Sunday, Feb. 24, at 1025 W. 3rd Av. Two New Beers! Vanilla Porter and Cherry Blonde. DJ Brian Phillips (CD1025, Pencilstorm) will be spinning tunes.
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Colin Gawel plays in Watershed and The Lonely Bones. He moonlights as a coffee shop owner and writes these bloggy type things when there are no customers. Visit him at colingawel.com.
