Just Like the Darkest Depths of Mordor: Brewhouse Coffee Stout by Central Waters Brewing Co.

 

Because I have reached that point in life when most of it is behind me and not yet to come, I often approach things through a historical lens. Such is the case here. Coffee beers always bring back a memory of drinking New Glarus' Coffee Stout on Easter '96 at the Paradise Lounge here in Madison with my roommate. The way I recall that day, the beer was new and novel to me and I had a great day drinking and shooting pool with nary a thought about some guy being nailed to a cross.

But the Internet, that ever reliable font of truth, says that New Glarus' brewmaster Dan Carey first brewed their Coffee Stout in 1994. I remember drinking their Edel Pils that year but no coffee-laced stout. Apparently the Feds were unamused that someone had put caffeine in their alcohol (or was that alcohol into their caffeine?) and put the kibosh on Coffee Stout until laws were changed and labels printed telling consumers that there was caffeine in that beer as if "Coffee Stout" didn't already get that point across.

So perhaps I was actually witnessing the resurrection (ahem) of Coffee Stout that Easter after a brief and legally mandated hiatus. Regardless of the veracity of my memories, the Interwebs say that New Glarus was the first to commercially brew a coffee beer. I think it's rather neat that the ur-coffee brew is from these parts and is still available today as New Glarus seems to make it every 2 or 3 years. I also think it's a shame that this fact is often overlooked in discussions about the brewery. The ubiquity of Spotted Cow, the awards given to Belgian Red, and their beers' availability being limited to Wisconsin tend to overshadow Dan Carey's pioneering efforts to merge barley pop and java.

Despite being groundbreaking, Coffee Stout seems to never have gone on to be considered a paragon of coffee beers generally. Even I tend to think of Founders' Breakfast Stout first when the subject of coffee brews is broached. Not far behind, though, is Central Waters Brewing located up in Amherst in the middle of Wisconsin.

I remember the early days of Central Waters, which was founded in 1998, as being filled with a variety of good brews such as Ouisconsing Red Ale and Mud Puppy Porter, a favorite of mine. I fondly recall drinking Satin Solstice, an imperial stout, with friends and all of us enjoying it immensely. They also had a pale ale or IPA with a crane or similar bird on the label. A nice variety of styles that were tasty. And then they moved towards barrel aging.

I am not sure when this was but I'd guess in the mid-2000's and it soon became their trademark. They probably had the premiere barrel aging program in all the land. (Sorry Tyranena.) One of their barrel aged offerings was Peruvian Morning, an imperial stout with coffee that was aged in bourbon barrels. Then in c. 2011 there was a bad batch of Peruvian Morning. And then again the following year. And the year after that. The upshot was that the brewery stopped making it for a while. Despite this, Central Waters became lodged in my head as one of the leading makers of coffee beer.

However, long before the troubles with infected beer, Central Waters was brewing Brewhouse Coffee Stout, Peruvian Morning minus the time spent mingling with bourbon. I am certain that I have had it in years past but am only now getting around to writing about it. My can was dated 10/20/21 and the Central Waters website lists it as a seasonal so I presume you can find this stuff every autumn.

Unless you hold the glass just right, you just see this darkness in your glass that allows no light to penetrate it. It's like Sauron brewed the stuff. But, in reality, it was of a deep chestnut hue. I got a goodly-sized tan head on top that lasted what I think of as an average amount of time. No surprise that the first whiff was dominated by coffee. Subsequent sniffing revealed dark chocolate, roasted grain, and just a touch of stone fruit – think plum.

This beer has a firm fizziness to it that complements its medium-light body. Again coffee was at the fore on my first sip. Bitter chocolate eventually came through as did roasty grain flavor. As the beer warmed, that plum made its way to the fore when I swallowed as did some mildly bitter coffee and chocolate tastes faded. There was a modicum of herbal hoppiness on the finish which lent a little bitterness and a gentle eucalyptus-like taste. It had a fairly dry ending with some astringency to boot.

I loved the coffee and chocolate flavors here. This isn't surprising as both are the result of Maillard reactions. Just as Wiccans venerate the cycles of Nature, such as the changing of the seasons, I venerate whatever it is carbohydrates and amino acids do in Maillard reactions. I am drawn to those flavors like a moth to the flame. I suppose there is an art to mixing coffee and beer. My preference is for African coffees because they have more of an earthy flavor to them vs. South American coffees which taste brighter with more of a citrus edge to them. Central Waters does not specify the type of coffee used here. Perhaps someday I can sit down and figure out how various coffees of whatever roast work in beer.

Future gustatory projects aside, that stone fruit flavor was welcome but I appreciated that it was subdued. My only gripe is that I found the beer just a tad overly astringent. Still, this was a great brew.

Junk food pairing: This is a big, bold beer with lots of Maillard reacted goodness so pair it with something from the grill such as Dutch Crunch Mesquite BBQ chips or Herr's Baby Back Ribs chips.

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.

A Surfeit of Festbiers

From Green Bay we now head southwest to Lake Louie Brewing.

Hypothesis: Tom Porter and the gang out in Arena brew a tasty Dortmunder Export and fine, if boozy, helles bock. And so, while they mostly brew ales, they have a proven track record with lagers. Odds were good that the brewery's first Festbier would be a winner.

Experiment: Lake Louie's Oktoberfest went the pale Märzen route with its gold color. The bier was clear revealing a goodly number of bubbles making their way up to a nice bed of white foam. All of that effervescence gave my tongue a firm, yet gentle, carbonic bite. Bread, a mild honeyed sweetness, and a touch of spicy hops came in the initial salvo while a bit of roasted grain and even a tad of toasty, Maillard reacted malt were noticeable upon repeated quaffs.

The lovely malt flavors quietly faded as the spicy hops grew louder as they took on some grassy tones leaving my tongue high'n'dry.

Conclusion: Really good. Easily the best Oktoberfest I've had this year from a Wisconsin brewery. Cheesehead brewers have basically shit the bed this Oktoberfest season sending countless German settlers a-spinning in their graves. Lake Louie's Festbier has a nice bready flavor, which, if it had been fuller, I wouldn't have complained. Plus the hops gave a nice bite on the finish. As a bonus, the Schaumhaftvermoegen was generous and pretty.

Lake Louie's Oktoberfest went well with Late July Bacon & Habenero tortilla chips which have what is likely the best bacon flavor on any chip anywhere, anytime.



Back up north to the Wisconsin interior and Central Waters.

The cicerone cries
Amidst the gadarene rush
To slumgullion



About 90 miles west of Amherst lies Black River Falls and the Sand Creek Brewing Company. They've got a nice little place up there.

Another Wisconsin brewery that specializes in ales. Methinks their Oktoberfest is their only lager. I give them credit for putting a brunette in a dirndl on the label, though, instead of a blonde. Thinking outside the box.

I have to wonder if Sand Creek exists but for the grace of contract brewing. This is not meant as a sleight – simply an observation. Or perhaps Wild Ride Eyepah sells like gangbusters and I am blissfully unaware. It's just that I don't see hordes of Chicagoans crossing the border in search of their beer. Hell, I don't see them around Madison much outside of liquor stores. Oscar's Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, a darn fine beer, used to be seen (by my eyes, anyway) more frequently in taverns and restaurants but is a relative rarity today. I guess not making grapefruit beer has taken its toll.

Onto the Oktoberfest…

Sand Creek apparently took a more traditional route with its Festbier as it was amber. Nice and clear, it was a lovely bier to be sure. The head was a light tan and I got about an inch of the stuff. Inside there were bubbles. Lots and lots of bubbles. It looked like it has having an embolism.

The aroma was, overall, on the mild side. What there was was led by caramel which didn't surprise me given the bier's hue. Just a little roasted grain peeked out from behind some grassy hops.

The taste too was, to put it kindly, mild. Again, a bit of caramel sweetness was most evident but that's not to say the bier was sweet. This was joined by some apricot-like fruitiness as well as grassy-peppery hops. If this bier was a palimpsest, then that would be the bit that got erased yet faintly bled through. On top of all this was a harsh, dry acidic bite from all of that carbonation. It was like Oktoberfest champagne. Zoinks!

As what little malt there was faded, my tongue was hit with a one-two combination of carbonic bite and very peppery hops which made things quite dry and equally as bitter. On the plus side, there was some nice Schaumhaftvermoegen in my glass with a few streaks of foam for decoration.

I get that Festbiers are not supposed to be as malty as doppelbocks. And while I'm not a big fan of Bohemian pilsener levels of hops in them but, if that's your thing, go for it. But for Pete's sake, have a good, firm bready, malty base. Sand Creek joins several other Wisconsin brewers who are putting out Oktoberfests that lack a solid grainy foundation. I had a Paulaner Oktoberfest a few weeks ago at a chain restaurant in the middle of mall Hades and it was great. It was shipped from Bavaria in who knows what kind of container an indeterminate amount of time ago yet it was superior to the Oktoberfests from just down the road a piece.

I am getting paranoid that my tongue is simply giving out. Is my brain malfunctioning? That Paulaner was a symphony of malt tastes in harmony. Bread, Maillard toastiness, a little doughy sweetness, and some roasted grains all played in time and accompanied by a chorus of hops. But it's like the brewers of my state are mired down in fourth grade strings class trying to play some twelve-tone Schoenberg while being led by a conductor doing the St. Vitus dance.

Junk food pairing: spray some Easy Cheese on Smoked Gouda Triscuits to accompany your Oktoberfest.

After the Beers of Summer Have Gone: Summarillo by Central Waters Brewing Co.

As I write there is still just under a week of astronomical summer remaining and Summarillo is a summer seasonal so, technically speaking, this review is quite timely.

Earlier this aestival season Central Water introduced its new summer seasonal, Summarillo. Billed as an India Style Pale Lager, it is hopped solely with Amarillo hops. Hence the portmanteau name. The IPL is a relatively new marketing gimmick crafted by American brewers to capitalize on the tendency of many lemmings drinkers to go rushing headlong towards any beer whose style incorporates the word "India" or a capital "I" in abbreviation of the word.

I'm not really sure what an IPL is. Sam Adams released one called Double Agent a few years ago while Wisconsin Brewing Company brewed an "India White Lager", an IPL crossed with a witbier. Leinenkugel's also has one. A working definition of IPL might be a pale lager that is hopped without Noble hop varieties or with them in addition to American hop varieties. Or something. Honestly, they're just Bohemian-style pilsners made without Saaz hops as far as I can tell.

I was rather underwhelmed by Double Agent, to be blunt, and WBC's take was all Frankenstein-like with the witbier being stitched onto the IPwhatever concept. So how does Summarillo compare?

It pours a brilliant, summery yellow for starters. Curiously enough, it was slightly hazy. I presume this was a chill haze. My glass was adorned with a lovely, pillowy white head that had Viagra-like staying power. I mean there was foam left at the bottom of my glass after the beer had been deposited into my maw. There was a healthy amount of bubbles in the beer making their way up to the perma-head.

Not being a lupulin expert I was not overly familiar with Amarillo hops going into this. The aroma, however, was redolent with its characteristic citrus, floral, and resiny bouquets. As someone who tends to drink beers hopped with Noble hops or other similar varieties (e.g. - Liberty, Northern Brewer), I found myself drawn to the Amarillo. It was like a siren's call tempting me to taste its elixir. Except it was a scent. A siren's scent tempting me to taste its elixir.

Unexpectedly, the malt was also present here with a bready scent. Being a bit cynical, I figured that the hops would be the be-all-end-all of the beer with the actual beer part of the beer being neglected. It was nice to be wrong, at least on the olfactory side of things.

The taste was similarly luscious. Those hops were front and center here with floral and citrus notes being most prominent but there were also a resiny taste and a peppery spiciness to boot. But, as with the aroma, the malt was not totally neglected here with a slighty sweet bread flavor in the background. Moderate carbonation lent a bit of dryness. It had a medium-light body but a slightly lighter mouthfeel owing to all those hops.

Summarillo finished clean and dry as you'd expect from a lager. A piney/resiny bitterness remained on my tongue for a spell while my glass was left with some really fine Schaumhaftvermoegen on all sides along with a large dollop of head at the bottom.

This beer was a most pleasant surprise. As a rule I don't care for India whatever beers because the hops are given free rein to run roughshod over the graininess. Summarillo is certainly a hop forward beer yet the malt is a vital component to the overall flavor and not a fleeting token essence buried deep in the background. I loved how the floral and citrus flavors from the hops combined to taste almost sweet. As I've drunk more gruits I've become appreciative of floral tastes in beer and I think that's a big reason why I liked the Amarillos. Plus Summarillo was hoppy without being extremely bitter which I greatly appreciated. I shall be seeking this beer out next summer and I cannot recall the last time I actually sought out an IPwhatever.

Junk food pairing: Pair Summarillo with Chicken in a Biskit crackers or, for braver souls, try a spicy hot chivda.

Central Waters + Local Option = A Little Death

Central Waters has teamed up with the bierwerkers of Chicago's Local Option to create La Petite Mort. (Is "la" a definite or indefinite article?)



La Petite Mort is a Belgian inspired Weissenbock brewed as a one off collaboration between The Local Option and Central Waters Brewery in Amherst, Wisconsin. A bourbon barrel aged version of La Petite Mort will be available in spring 2012.

When Central Waters decided to open its brew house for its first collaboration beer, Chicago’s Local Option was the obvious partner in crime. The resulting brainchild, La Petite Mort – a Belgian inspired Weissenbock – maintains the traditional characteristics of its Bavarian forbearer, with the added complexity of Belgian ale yeast. La Petite Mort is dark amber in color; maintains a rich, full-bodied mouth-feel augmented by caramel; mild and dark fruit. Rounded out by an unostentatious bourbon driven aroma from brief bourbon barrel aging, La Petite Mort is a complex ale, a marriage of distinctive styles, and an orgasmic experience for the taste buds that revel in its glory.