Will they read of us with sadness for the IPAs that we let grow?: Holzhacker Lager by Bull Falls Brewery

While an IPA drinker won't die of thirst up north, I have noticed on my journeys to those parts these past couple years that the style seems less prevalent at breweries there than they do at their southern brethren down here in Madison. Just as the Romans could never subjugate those beer swilling barbarians beyond the Danube, it seems that the Simcoe-Citra-Mosaic Empire cannot quite bring amber ales and dark lagers to heel on the other side of the Wisconsin River.

Perhaps it’s a rural vs. urban kind of thing. At the risk of sounding like an old fart showering my bitterness on today's youth, I suppose age may also play a role here as I believe that the southern part of the state – with the bigger cities – tends to be younger than the northern part and so maybe younger people lean towards trendier, fruitier beers while less sweet tasting brews are closer to the hearts of the older crowd. 

A glaring exception to this rule is Brewing Projekt in Eau Claire which seems to jump on every bandwagon that passes within 100 miles (and makes me think that King Crimson is involved somehow). I suspect that they go through lactose and marshmallow compound #3020 by the truck load in addition to Simcoe-Citra-Mosaic by the ton. I wonder if Brewing Projekt’s eagerness to make their beers taste sweet and fruity helps explains why they are distributed in the southern part of the state while most other breweries in their region are not.

One of those breweries up north that does not distribute down here is Wausau’s Bull Falls. At least I don’t think they do. A while back their beers were to be found around town. And then they disappeared from shelves only to reappear…and disappear again. It's a real Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton kind of affair. To the best of my knowledge, Bull Falls brews are not on shelves nor in tap lines down here. 

It’s not surprising, really. While they do offer an IPA for those inclined to drown in fruity gluttony and a barrel aged stout for anyone in the spirit, their line-up is mainly non-fruity, traditional German and English styles (but no ginseng brews anymore which you'd expect from a brewery in Marathon County), i.e. – those not favored by the yuppies who fill the apartments on East Washington Avenue. My own experiences with their beers has been a mixed bag. I found their Schwarzbier to be lacking the Cimmerian hue demanded by the name and watery in taste. On the other hand, I enjoyed their Oktoberfest, which was brewed using the life-giving, er, I mean melanoidin-giving decoction method, according to Isthmus beer expert Robin Shepard.

Looking back at my previous Bull Falls reviews, which go back 7-8 years, I read that I have tried the beer at hand previously. However, I have no recollection of doing so. Was this because the experience was lackluster? I suspect not as I wrote that “I very much enjoyed” it. Perhaps my memory fails me because the experience was fleeting and several years ago. I can only recall that, upon the return of the brewery’s beers to Madison shelves, Holzhacker Lager was not to be found, by me, at least.

Last month I made a trip up to Steven Point to visit friends. While there, I stopped in at a grocery store to see if there were any northern brews that I could take home with me. I was happy to see some Bull Falls there and quickly snagged a 4-pack. I later looked up what “Holzhacker” meant and was thoroughly unsurprised to find that it was German for "lumberjack".

Holzhacker is a Helles and I was eager to try it again.

Surprisingly, I had another good pour for a review here after getting a nice, large head for my photo of another brew which I have yet to review. Holzhacker rendered a nice, just off-white head of loose foam. The loveliness was ephemeral as it dissipated quickly. The liquid was clear and of a light gold hue. Just gorgeous. A modicum of bubbles was to be seen inside. The aroma featured a luscious bready scent accompanied by that of grassy hops. My can dated back to June so it was nearly half a year old and I sat their imagining what it would have smelled like on the summer solstice.

My tongue was greeted a medium dose of fizz which was joined by a wonderful bready flavor (Maillardy goodness!!) which I figured was lovingly decocted from the malt, a herbal/spicy mix of Hallertau and Tettnang hop flavors, and a slight malt sweetness. Again, I pondered just how sprightly those hops must have tasted in the early summer.  On the finish, the malt flavors faded quickly like summer after Labor Day allowing a moderate hoppy bitterness to come through as well as a mellow dryness.

As I did back in 2015, I very much enjoyed this beer. It is a fine Helles. The melanoidin-laced toasty bread flavor was a bit more restrained than in Dovetail’s version of this style but it was still quite tasty and its restraint may have been due to age. Despite not being the freshest beer, Holzhacker still held up. Just a wonderful brew.

Junk food pairing: Holzhacker Lager is well complemented by Lay’s Spicy Hot Pot flavored potato chips. The malt flavors and fizz cut through the oily spiciness of the chips for the perfect pairing.

Fear of the Schwarz: Midnight Star by Bull Falls Brewery

Last autumn I was duly impressed by Bull Falls' Oktoberfest. I learned that the Wausau brewery expanded in 2013 and the new digs allowed brewmaster Mike Zamzow to do decoction mashes a process that many German brewers swear by. Decoction means drawing a portion of your grain-water mixture, a.k.a. – mash, boiling it, and then returning it from whence it came. Practitioners say that the process gives life to rich, toasty melanoidin/Maillard reaction-y malty manna from heaven that can be created no other way. Others poo-poo the claim and point towards the malt itself.

Not being a brewer, I can't say I fall on one side or the other. As a drinker, I can say that many German biers have a malt taste unmatched by most American brewers. Decoction? Maybe.

Regardless, Bull Falls' has made a commitment to German bier styles and brewing methods. This coupled with the fact that I love schwarzbiers made me eager to taste Midnight Star, their Schwarzbier. I've been unable to find it in Madison but grabbed a four-pack last month when I was up in Stevens Point.

The schwarzbier is a dark lager and I struggle to define a difference between it and its cousin the dunkel. Both have relatively light bodies like a pilsner or helles despite having the appearance of a heavier brew such as a porter or stout. I tend to think of the schwarzbier as having more roasted grain flavors – like coffee or chocolate – than a dunkel yet these malt flavors are much more subdued than in porter or stouts.

Midnight Star pours a disturbingly light mahogany. While my photography skills are quite poor, I think you can get an idea of how light it is from my picture. For contrast check out a couple other schwarzbiers – here's Night Wolf from Valkyrie and Metropolitan's Magnetron. Midnight Star is clear but saw no bubbles inside the bier. On the other hand, I did get a nice ecru head on my glass that was frothy and luscious.

Things fared better with the aroma as the malt gave a really nice bready smell as well as some of roasted grains. Also in there was a hint of some grassy hops. Midnight Star had all the flavors that I expected of it. Malt dominated the medium-light body with coffee and roasted grain flavors being the most prominent but there was some sweetness underneath. I couldn't taste much in the way of hops but the carbonation added a little dryness.

The problem was that, although the requisite flavors were present, they were too weak. The bier was a bit watery.

While there wasn't a lot of hop flavor to be had, the finish was dry anyway owing to a smidgen of hop spiciness, the carbonation, and a paucity of malt for contrast. My glass was left with a goodly amount of Schaumhaftvermoegen with thin streaks all around.

Sadly, Midnight Star was disappointing for me. I very much enjoyed their Oktoberfest as well as their helles and was expecting good things here. Unfortunately the bier is simply too watery as I suspected from its light color. A schwarzbier ought to be a glass of Stygian gloom, not allowing any light to escape its depths just like a black hole. The malt flavors here, although tasty, are weak and watered-down, not just more subdued as in a dunkel.

Although I have no plans to be up north in the near future, I do intend to try this bier again when I can. This must have been an off batch.

Junk food pairing: Until it's proven that Midnight Star can deliver the goods, pair it with easy-going things like plain potato chips or pretzels.

"O'zapft is" In a Can: Oktoberfest by Bull Falls Brewery

Another Oktoberfest review and today’s victim, er, exemplar comes from Bull Falls Brewery in Wausau. A newcomer to the Madison market, the brewery was established in 2007 by brewmaster Mike Zamzow and his father Don who named the brewery after the city's original appellation, "Big Bull Falls". This name referred to a stretch of rapids on the Wisconsin River which flows through town. 2013 proved an auspicious year for Bull Falls as the brewery completed a $1.5 million expansion and gained wider distribution. Cans of their brews finally hit store shelves here in Madison this past summer.

Bull Falls has a fairly traditional line-up of English and German styles. There's nothing extreme nor very much that would send Reinheitsgebot purists ducking for cover. Five Star Ale, an amber ale is the biggest seller while Hop Worthy IPA and a bourbon barrel stout seem to be concessions to current trends. Yet Zamzow's first beer for the brewery was Oktoberfest and the first beer brewed in the new expanded brewhouse a couple of years ago was Oktoberfest. According to Robin Shepard Zamzow brews his Oktoberfest using a German (continental?) brewing technique called decoction mashing which involves taking some of the mash (i.e. – the admixture of grains and water) and boiling it in a separate vessel for a time before returning it from the kettle from which it came. Shepard maintains that the process "accentuates the smooth malty flavors in the finished beer".

I'd heard that decoction mashing is what gives German beers that melanoidin/Maillard reaction flavor which I think of as being a bit like bread crust or lightly toasted bread. It's grainy but not sweet; it's rich yet not cloying. Having spoken with some brewers and read more accounts on the Interwebs it seems that American brewers are split. Some think decoction is what gives that flavor while others think it's the malt varieties. One of the great mysteries of our time.

Bull Falls' Oktoberfest pours a lovely deep gold color. It is as clear as the day is long. My pour produced about one inch of foamy off-white head. There were a few bubbles making their way upwards from the bottom of the glass. The beer looked so pretty and I just couldn't wait to breathe in its aromatic goodness. I found that there were the expected and most welcome bread and yeast aromas but there was also the smell of metal. It wasn't ferric to my nose and it also wasn't overpowering. I held out hope that this off smell didn't make it into the taste.

Thankfully it did not and my tongue was instead greeted by some fine, clean malt flavor, delightfully decocted. There was the bread as on the nose but also an earthy sweetness like fig or date. A touch of carbonation on the tip of my tongue and a pleasant bit of herbal & spicy hop bitterness did their level best to balance the malt but it was not to be. Still, they provided some nice contrast. It had a smooth medium body instead of leaning onto the thin side as had Lazy Monk's Oktoberfest earlier that day.

It finished with a bit of that stonefruity sweetness lingering along with a mild herbal bitterness. I have to admit that I have really enjoyed all the herbal hop flavors in these Oktoberfests the past several days. My glass had a nice ring of Schaumhaftvermoegen towards the top where the head had given way to the beer but nothing beneath it. Harumph.

Bull Falls' Oktoberfest is a solid brew. It looks gorgeous with its golden hue and ample foamy head. Any dirndl-clad maiden would be proud to be seen serving it. It tastes great too. I loved the decocted bready malt flavors. The beer also had a moderate malt sweetness which was fine but I prefer less. I will also admit to thoroughly enjoying the herbal hop flavor here after the more spicy flavors in the pilsners I'd been drinking previous to the Oktoberfest binge.

Junk food pairing: As has been noted here previously, deep fried cheese curds are the sine non qua of any Oktoberfest drinking session. Well, after the beer itself, that is. The salt accentuates the smooth malty flavors of the beer perfectly. And there's cheese involved too.