A year or so later he decamped to Verona to found the Wisconsin Brewing Company and took Braumeister Kirby Nelson with him. Since the brewery was under
construction, Kirby concocted his test batches at the Great Dane and Vintage Brewing. With the "traditional Wisconsin lager brewery" having given
their very tasty Bavarian Lager the boot plus a hoppy cream ale and a
beer called Hopbock having been introduced as late-tenure brews from Kirby at Capital, it wasn't
totally surprising to discover that, in addition to an amber lager, a couple of
IPAs were amongst the test brews. A porter rounded out the line-up.
While it was not surprising to see the IPAs here – this was,
after all, the time of the IBU arms race when hopping beers to death with bitterness was all
the rage – it was disheartening. My plea to WBC to not abandon us lager lovers on the questionnaire
served along with the test brews proved to be a mainly quixotic skirmish in my
Kulturkampf with hop fetishism.
A medium fizz played well against a nice smoothness – are there
oats in this stuff? Where I was expecting the almost fuliginous, bitter flavors
of coffee and dark chocolate my tongue received moderate malt sweetness like
caramel and milk chocolate. A modicum of grassy hop taste also provided a mild
bitterness.
The hops took on a slightly spicy hue at the finish which boosted
the bitterness a tad. This combined with the fizz made for a goodly dose of
dryness.
I sure hope I am not hallucinating the changes to WBC's
porter over the years. Otherwise I am going to feel foolish. Regardless, this
is a very tasty beer. I appreciate its moderate sweetness, smooth chocolate flavor,
and the grassy hop taste.
Junk food pairing: Chocolate Lab goes well with taco
flavored Doritos – the kind in that ugly 70s bag.
If you have a hound with you, it can get in on the action with Porter's Biscuits, dog treats made with spent brewing grains from batches of Chocolate Lab.
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