Calling all broken toys and bus conductors. Friends for life and English soft hearts. Strange boys and lemonade grrrls. On Wednesday, January 15, Virginia’s Ocelot Brewing – in tandem with DC’s Bluejacket – will unveil Stop What Yr Brewing, a collaboration with storied independent music label Slumberland Records. Brewed to commemorate SLR's 35th anniversary, the 6.8% IPA lands a few weeks before the label’s homecoming birthday weekend featuring a Friday fête at world-class beer bar ChurchKey and a celebrative Saturday concert hosted by Comet Ping Pong. zzubreebym
Slumberland’s story begins in the DC area, where towards the end of 1989, Mike Schulman and friends came together to DIY release the earliest works of Black Tambourine, Velocity Girl, and Lilys, among other local bands. Schulman (and thus Slumberland) would eventually relocate to Oakland, but the label stayed committed to seeking out and championing scrappy acts equally obsessed with pop and noise. Over the next three decades, Slumberland became home to beloved artists like The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Stereolab, Veronica Falls, Crystal Stilts, Joanna Gruesome, and The Aislers Set. And its dozen physical releases in 2024 – including knockout LPs from Lightheaded, The Umbrellas, Chime School, Humdrum, and Neutrals – evidence that the label’s ear is savvy as ever. To quote Schulman (aka “Papa Slumber”), Slumberland remains stubbornly dedicated to “the ephemeral pleasures of indiepop, regardless of which way the winds of fashion blow.”
We thought an IPA was a natural complement to that sentiment. After all, it is perhaps the most ephemeral of beer styles – vivacious, flagrantly fragrant, but constructed only for the here and now. In our collaboration IPA, we sought to channel the “out-of-time” quality of so many Slumberland LPs. Put on a given SLR release, and it can be near impossible to guess whether the music was recorded in 1968, 1988, or 2018. There’s a foot in the past, a foot in the present, and a head blissfully stuck in the clouds. Stop What Yr Brewing’s hop profile was designed to induce a similarly pleasant sense of disorientation.
From the boil through the dry hop, the beer showcases 2024 High-Oil Cascade grown by Yakima Valley’s vaunted Segal Ranch. Cascade has arguably been the definitive cultivar of craft beer since the early 1970s, and no one grows better Cascade than Segal Ranch – an operation that, like Slumberland, began in the Northeast before moving to the West Coast. But in Stop What Yr Brewing, we’ve combined that quintessential American varietal with new school hops: first, modern classic Citra during the whirlpool, and then after primary fermentation both the recently introduced Krush (formerly HBC 586) and our robust hand-selected New Zealand Riwaka. The result swirls with flavors and aroma of the past and the present – grapefruit peel, pine, resin, and orange meets mango, guava, peach, and fruit punch – against the backdrop of a modern hazy IPA heavy on oats, wheat, and a touch of rye. It’s soft and silky while still finishing dry and reverberating a briskly bitter kick.
Stop What Yr Brewing’s label proudly sports the bright, playful illustrations of Bay Area artist Kiki Petiford, including her rendition of the Ocelot guitar pick logo drawn especially for the can. The name, meanwhile, is an irreverent wink to “Stop What You’re Doing” by Lorelei, the DC-via-Virginia trio who put out their first SLR record in 1992 and are set to headline the upcoming anniversary concert 33 years later.
Slumberland has long been an enterprise that we at Bluejacket and Ocelot have cherished. The circular black-and-white SLR emblem confers all you need to know about a record: That its release is rooted, above all, in genuine fandom and excitement, whether the music contained within is jangly rock, distortion-drenched shoegaze, or interstellar synth pop. We’re honored with this beer to enter the influential label’s timeline of nearly 300 off-kilter offerings.
Stop What Yr Brewing will be available at Ocelot this Wednesday, January 15. The beer will make its debut outside the brewery at ChurchKey’s Slumberland Records 35th Anniversary Party and Pop-Up Record Shop on Friday, January 31. It will also be available the following night at Comet Ping’s Slumberland Records Anniversary Show, which boasts sets from Lorelei, Jeanines, and Lightheaded.
The IPA follows Ocelot collaborations over the last two years with The Clientele, Protomartyr, Mary Timony, Sheer Mag, The Fiery Furnaces, Superchunk, Bad Moves, Palehound, Fucked Up, of Montreal, and Merge Records. Founded by Adrien and Laura Widman almost a decade ago, the brewery is located in Dulles, Virginia.
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