Up a River That Snaked Through Portage County Like a Main Circuit Cable: Tomorrow River Helles by Central Waters Brewing Co.

This is the second Helles in a row that I have purchased with a slight bit of apprehension. In the last go round, I bought one by Young Blood Beer Company, a brewery here in Madison with a reputation for IPAs, fruited sours, and milkshake things. Well, that's their reputation in my mind, anyway. I found their Helles to be more of a Pils, as it was lacking in malt richness. Indeed, the label said that the malt was to play a supporting role in the background. And this time I was buying one from a brewery known for its barrel aged beers – Central Waters Brewing.

The brewery is located up in Amherst in the middle of Wisconsin. Having been founded in 1998, it is part of a cadre of Wisconsin breweries that seem to be going through a mid-life slump. I'd put Tyranena, Ale Asylum, and O'so into the group as well. Perhaps Milwaukee Brewing Company too. I have absolutely no idea what the bottom lines of these companies are like nor their production volumes. They all have good reputations, as far as I can tell. But their popularity and growth seem to have stagnated.

For example, remember when Ale Asylum built their new brewery that had an easily detachable south wall to accommodate future expansion? I believe the brewery is the same size as it was when built. And back in the day Tyranena was poised to be the IPA king with citrus-flavored IPAs before that trend was widely embraced but seems to have remained largely a south-central Wisconsin phenomenon. For their part, Central Waters made quite a name for themselves with barrel aged beers before a couple batches of their Peruvian Morning, a barrel aged Imperial stout with coffee, were recalled due to infection. This seemed to really take the wind out of their sails.

No doubt the rising number of craft breweries slowed the growth of these established outfits. At some point the novel became fetishized and so the tried and true were often passed over in favor of the new and this surely affected these more established brewers as well.

All of these breweries make some very tasty beers and perhaps they are not looking to grow by leaps and bounds and are instead more or less contented with their size. More or less, I say, as Central Waters recently announced that they're opening an outpost in Milwaukee.

Last autumn I visited friends in Stevens Point, near Amherst, and we made a trek out to Central Waters HQ on a whirlwind tour of the area's zymurgological attractions. There was a Helles on tap then and of course that was my choice. It was unremarkable, to my taste, and I found their barrel aged barleywine to be much better. But I believe in second chances and was happy to try the beer again thinking that perhaps the recipe had been tweaked.

But I can grab a Spaten Münchner Hell or a Dovetail Helles, iterations both of the Platonic ideal of a Helles, and drown in melanoidin gluttony so why should I settle for an inferior beer? Maybe the fault lies not with the brewers but with me. Am I making the best the enemy of the good? It is this profound Cartesian doubt I have that leads me to keep buying lagers from breweries that don't seem to make a lot of them despite my experience that such breweries don't brew them well.

Or do they simply not brew them to my taste?

Damn you René! Damn you to hell!

Tomorrow River Helles is named after a river that flows into Amherst and emerges on the other side as the Waupaca River. Or some such thing. I'm no fluvial expert.

After pouring some into my trusty glass, I found that it had a large crown of loose, white foam. Very nice. The beer itself was light gold and slightly hazy. I could see small specks of beer detritus floating inside evenly dispersed. Chill haze? Those bits were joined by the occasional bubble. The beer did not have a prominent aroma as my nose caught only a little bread and a sweet scent that was slightly floral but mostly smelled like berries. Odd.

The medium-light body was in line with an almost benign biscuit taste and a mild spicy/grassy hop flavor. There was a hint of honey sweetness as well. The finish was surprisingly dry with some spicy hop bitterness joining a lingering sweetness.

This was a very mellow beer to me. It was slightly watery as every flavor can be adequately described as having been "mild". It was a bit like an American pilsner without the corn. The promised rich maltiness of the Helles was nowhere to be found. I don't recall the version of this beer I had last fall at the brewery tasting like this. Granted, it wasn't a hotbed of Maillard activity, but it wasn't this watery either.

I looked at the bottom of the can and it said that it was canned on 1/29/21 so it was just shy of 6 months old when I sampled it. Was I simply tasting the results of age? When I think of beers that are too old, I think of them as having oxidized. The beer tastes like wort with a large dose of vermouth added to it. That wasn't the case here. This isn't to say that what I tasted wasn't age, merely that it, if it was, it was a new set of stale flavors for me. Perhaps it wasn't stored at the right temperature at some point in its life.

Anyone else out there try this beer?

Junk food pairing: Pair your glass of Tomorrow River with a box or Ritz Bits Cheese. These mini crackers sandwiches with cheese stuff in the middle will give the beer a grainy boost. And it's Wisconsin so you need cheese.