“Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.”
Pink Floyd’s 1975 synth-and-effects heavy dirge of disillusionment reverberates among the stacks of oak barrels filled with slumbering beer. There is always music playing in the climate-controlled barrel room at the Beachwood Blendery in Long Beach, California. Even when there are no brewers or cellarmen around, the barrels and the bugs serve as audience for a days-long playlist of classic rock and bluegrass assembled by Head Brewer and Blender Ryan Fields. “There’s a spiritual aspect of making beer, and you (have to) have the right music,” Fields says.
The music is one (near-tangible) example of how he imbues the brews with part of his personality. The idea of filling the space with melodic vibrations came from New Belgium Brewing’s famed “wood-cellar supervisor” Eric Salazar. “Eric suggested that it’s important to have music for the beer, so we installed speakers in the Blendery before we did our first brew,” says Gabe Gordon, founder of Beachwood BBQ and Brewing.