When the beers of Jack's Abby first appeared on shelves here in Madison last year, I always saw 3 or 4 of their "core" brews - their Bavarian pils called Post Shift, a blood orange wheat "radler" that doesn't appear to have any soda in it which means that it's not radler in my book, a West Coast style Hoppy Lager called Hoponius Union that I didn't care for, and/or their ganz ausgeizeichnet House Lager.
Then one day I noticed their first seasonal brew to reach these shores: an Oktoberfest, Copper Legend. Since I'd already filled my beer quota for that particular trip to the store, I put it on the list for next time. This routine was repeated for the next few stops at the liquor store and then one day Copper Legend was no more. I hope whoever bought it enjoyed it. I'm sure it was quite tasty.
As the cycles of nature forged ahead, snow blanketed the ground as autumn turned into winter and the shelf space that had held the Copper Legend was now occupied by Red Tape, their late fall amber lager.
Like cows, amber lagers are not something we lack here in Wisconsin. It's a style that the first batch of microbrewers in the state took to back in the day like a junkie to the needle. Capital's Wisconsin Amber, Sprecher's Special Amber, and Riverwest Stein by Lakefront all, to the best of my knowledge, came early in the days of microbrewing in Wisconsin and remain big sellers for their respective breweries. I think of them as foundational beers and they have ensured that an indigenous amber lager was available at many, if not most, drinking establishments in the state for some time now. And when brewmaster Kirby Nelson picked up his stakes at Capital and headed to Verona and the greener pastures of Wisconsin Brewing Company, beer #001 from their shiny new brewery was an amber lager that is now called Badger Club.
Now that I think about it, I believe that, when Kirby was doing test batches at Vintage Brewing out on the west side as he waited for his new brewing digs to be plumbed and equipment installed, it was an amber lager that he brewed first.
Add in the availability of Elliot Ness, a great example of the style from Cleveland's Great Lakes Brewing and Dovetail's Vienna Lager and it's clear that aficionados of the style here do not want for choice. (Why is the amber lager so popular in Wisconsin? Why does the Midwest have an especial proclivity for drinking this style?)
Just as with Kirby and WBC, it was an amber lager that got things going at Jack's Abby. Their website notes that Red Tape was their pilot brew after getting all of the relevant licenses they needed to legally operate a brewery. So what does Jack's Abby have to add to the amber lager beerscape here in Wisconsin?
My pour produced a glass of the loveliest amber color. The Polish part of me was enthralled and wondered if this stuff could be made into jewelry. It was just a touch on the dull side as the beer was the slightest bit cloudy. I'm not sure what caused this but the can does note that the beer is unfiltered and unpasteurized. I poured fairly well as I got a big head of foam that was barely off-white. And it lasted a while. There was a goodly amount of bubbles inside.
The aroma was wonderful with caramel and bread at the fore with some grassy hops and a mild roasty grain smell bringing up the rear. I also caught a faint hint of black pepper.
On first sip, I noticed a medium-light body and a solid, but not large, dose of fizz. I assume this stuff was lovingly double-decocted as my Maillard detectors went into the red, you might say, when the first thing I tasted was that marvelous bready flavor. Caramel malt sweetness was not far behind but it was a moderate dose and not cloying. I could taste some hoppy bitterness in the background mediating the malty flavors.
On the finish, that caramel sweetness stuck around a bit waiting for some herbal tasting hops to take hold. They added a medium amount of bitterness and just a tad less of dryness.
Amber lager lovers here are spoiled as it is and now they'll be even more so during the winter months when Red Tape is available. This is a great beer. The big bready flavor sets it apart from most of the beers listed above. Not only do I love the bread-caramel combo here, I also adore how those flavors taste discreet and come at your tongue sequentially. There's no bread in your caramel and no caramel in your bread. I also really like the hops here, especially at the end when they clear away the sweetness. Not overly bitter, though - just right.
Junk food pairing: Just as Red Tape deftly steers your tongue through a sea of bready and caramel flavors, pair it with a bag of Old Dutch Ripples All Dressed potato chips. Their blend of sweet & savory spices perfectly complements the dual nature of the beer.
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