Prost!

This Früh Kölsch at Prost! was mighty tasty the other day in near 90 degree temperatures. I do wish they offered bier in quantities less than .5L. How about a .3L glass if you're not going to put my Kölsch in a Stange? Keep that bier kalt.

One word for craft brewers

CORIANDER

Leipziger Gose is such a tasty beer. Let it warm a bit and the coriander really shines.

Locally, outside of Delta Beer Lab, it's nigh on impossible to find a non-fruited gose. Skip the lime and let the spice flow!

Na zdrowie to Prost!

I finally made my first visit to Prost!, the German beer hall & restaurant which is the heir apparent to Essen Haus, if/when the venerable German restaurant/bar is demolished to make way for apartments or condos or a hotel or whatever is slated to take its place.

Housed in a former church, Prost! is a lovely space with stained glass everywhere.

A friend and I had lunch and I dined with a Früh Kölsch. The bier was delicious, full of bready/crackery goodness. And the food was very tasty. There were enough pickled vegetables on my plate to fell a horse and I think that I ate the equivalent of 2 cucumbers.

With such a lovely space, it's a shame there are TVs. On the other hand, the bier selection is pretty good. However, there was no gose, no altbier, no Dortmunder Export, no schwarzbier, and, most importantly, no rauchbier. But what's not to like about having drei Helles's on tap? Perhaps they'll put a Maibock on tap once Easter has passed.

The wurst was really good and we were told that it was artisanally made by, if memory servers, a Chef Mike somebody-or-other in Chicago. And the senf was sehr gut too. A nice little kick.

Smoky treats

I found some tasty, smoky brews at Steve's on Junction Road over the weekend.

Rauchbier is like the sin of the flesh; the more you have the more you want: Bamberger Rauchbier by Klosterbräu Bamberg

This may be my first taste of a German Rauchbier that isn't from Schlenkerla. A true red letter day!

Like BestMaid's pickle beer, this one was purchased in exurban Chicago. The clerk at the register was surely thinking I was a weirdo as I came before her with 2 packs of Rauchbier and one of pickle beer. Plus Malört and Underberg.

I don't recall having seen Klosterbräu's beer previously but I don't know if this means they started exporting to the States fairly recently or if they've been doing so for a while but the beer has finally made its way to the middle of the country after being available to coasties for some time. The bier came in cans and, according to Untappd, Klosterbräu Bamberg is a subsidiary of Privatbrauerei Kaiserdom, Bamberg's largest brewery. By large we're talking New Glarus size, not Miller. Perhaps the Damen und Herren at Kaiserdom are aiming for the American market. I only saw their Rauchbier which is, in my opinion, an odd choice if you are looking to gain market share in this country.

Can you imagine the management meetings about this?

Vee vant to penetrate zee American market.

Aber how do vee do so vizout an IPA?

Vee shall zend zem zee Rauchbier!

However a strange business plan they may have, to them I say willkommen!

Klosterbräu Bamberg dates back to 1533 although there is a mention of whatever it was called back in the Middle Ages from two centuries earlier. The can notes that the grand guaiacols, the fantastic phenols, and the scintillating syringols come from malt that is dried using the smoke from beech wood flames. Beech wood is traditional these days for Bamberger brewers but I'd bet their forebears used whatever hardwood they had at their disposal back in the day.

One thing the can didn't mention was what style of beer this is. Is it a Märzen? A bock? A Helles? Maybe it's just their own creation.

I was very eager to try this beer. How would it differ from Schenkerla's?

A big, firm tan head with staying power sat atop the liquid which was dark and opaque. Lifting my glass to a light and putting it at just the right angle revealed the beer to be a deep ruby-brown hue. It seemed to be clear. I mean, it's a German beer that's not a hefeweizen so surely it was clear. It looked like just the tonic for a chilly, overcast autumn evening. And so it smelled too. While the smokiness came first and was most prominent, it was a complex aroma with a bit of wood of the unburnt variety in addition to the usual fuliginous elements. There was also a hint of malty sweetness, mild stone fruit, and some spicy hoppiness struggling to be smelled.

The medium-light body was punctuated by a good, firm fizziness. Still, the luscious smoke flavor had a pleasing smoothness to it, at times. The smokiness was rather potent and tasted rather sprightly, as if it wasn't being dulled a bit by malty sweetness. Indeed, the beer had a clean smoke taste and was not the least bit sweet. The hops protested the grains vigorously and added a very nice spicy contrast. On the finish, the smoke lingered as the hops took on herbal notes that gained in strength to give firm doses of both bitterness and dryness. I also tasted bitter chocolate here once the smoke began to fade.

Sehr schön!

This is one fine bier. While it looks like the stuff in the pool that takes you to the Black Lodge, it has a fairly light body and is the very definition of easy drinking. It went down like water for me. I loved the smoke flavor and the way the other malts didn't get in the way of it so it had a sharper, "fresher" taste. Marvelous! It had a stronger hop flavor for me than any Schlenkerla beer I've had but I am unsure if this is because Klosterbräu uses more of the precious herb or if the Schlenkerla varieties I've tasted had their hoppy potency dulled by age. Also, I think Schlenkerla's brews tend to have more sweetness and bready flavors than this stuff.

I am unwilling to say that this is better than Schlenkerla or that Schlenkerla is better than this. However, Klosterbräu's Rauchbier is no shadow on a cave wall; this is definitely a Platonic ideal.

Junk food pairing: Klosterbräu's Bamberger Rauchbier pairs magnificently with Herr's Horseradish Cheddar Potato Chips. The folks at Herr's do not skimp on the horseradish which makes this perfect companion to the smokiness.

If you gaze long enough into a Schwarzbier...: Aecht Schlenkerla Erle by Schlenkerla

Occasionally I surf on over to the Schlenkerla website, which seems to not have changed since the Geocities era. This is wholly appropriate since the brewery began during the Middle Ages and seems centuries away from ever brewing an IPA. As I am browsing, I fall into a dream where I am in Bamberg. After a little Wandern through the Franconian countryside, I find myself rather thirsty and so I traipse through the Altstadt in search of refreshment. Looking up at one point, I see the brewer's star beckoning me into Schlenkerla's historic tavern. There I order a Rauchbier or swei or alle. I drink with gusto and rivulets of fuliginous goodness run down my beard. I try to lap it up with my tongue but, not being Gene Simmons, it just won't reach. Locals give the foolish tourist their best side-eye glances and then...and then my oneiric bliss ends because reality intrudes and I have to get back to work or take out the trash.

Until the day comes when I find myself in Bamberg, it seems as if I will have to make do with Steve's Liquor over on Junction Road. When I finally got fed up with the Woodman's by my house having stopped carrying Schlenkerla altogether, I zipped over to the west side hoping that Steve's could feed my need for smoke. And so they did.

Not only did they have the Märzen (if you carry Schlenkerla, you serve their Märzen, if nothing else), but they had the fairly new Fastenbier as well. Yeah, it was introduced in 2005 but, if your brewery has been around since 1405, 19 years is barely yesterday. Even newer, though - basically fresh out of the kettle womb - was the Aecht Schlenkerla Erle, a Schwarzbier, which seems to have been introduced only last year.

Not only is Schlenkerla trying out a new bier style here, but they're also using a novel wood for smoking their malt - alder. If memory serves, alder is used to smoke the malt that Alaskan Brewing uses in their annual delight, Smoked Porter. Alaskan's brew is the only one I've had (that I know of) that uses alder smoked malt so my experience with the stuff is limited. I recall alder giving a slightly mellower, almost sweeter taste, than the workhorse beechwood that, as I understand it, Schlenkerla has been using for ages. As in centuries. Not really sweeter but a little less sharp, not that Schlenkerla's brews have anything approaching an acrid taste, mind you.

The deep, dark brown liquid had a reddish tint to it and was topped by a fine tan head that stuck around a little while. "Black beer" is apt here as I couldn't tell if the stuff was clear (no doubt it was) or had any bubbles inside zipping upwards. I held the glass close to my eyes to get a better look and instead had a weird, unsettling Nietzschean moment. The aroma must have been assembled by the Bambergian Jean-Baptiste Grenouille because it has all the scents that I desire in a beer. First was the alder-laced smoke which worked hand-in-hand with a plum-like sweetness. A delicious breadiness held fast against the piquant smoke and was joined by some spicy hops and tinge of roastiness.

My first sip revealed a light-medium body with a moderate dose of fizz. Considering I've only ever had one Schwarzbier from Deutschland, Köstritzer, this all seemed par for the course. The heavenly smoke flavor made its presence known immediately and with it came a slight sweetness which I think was a bit of malt and a bit of accent from the smoke. Spicy/peppery hops were easy to discern but a faint breadiness less so.

The finish was surprisingly complex with the smoke yielding room on my tongue for hoppy bitterness and a bit of dryness as well. The smokiness then faded leaving a roasty malt taste to ride it out until I took my next sip.

Sehr Schön!

With the fizz being on the low side, this was a smooth tasting brew. I found myself drawn to the smoke-roasty combo like a junkie to the needle. The hops were applied perfectly. They added a nice spicy taste that made a fine counterpoint to all of the malty flavors yet the herb never dared try to stop the Maillard-guaiacol juggernaut. And the aftertaste was just great, going through various phases like the moon.

Junk food pairing: Grab a bag of Gardetto's Deli-Style Mustard Pretzel Mix. It's mustard mustard and not honey mustard with the unneeded sweetness. Plus you get their prized rye chips in addition to the pretzels. The brand sounds Italian but this is a Teutonic snack mix through and through. You might want to grab a couple bags as Erle is an easy-going 4.2% A.B.V. so you'll likely have more than one.

Prost! Sommerfest Block Party

Prost! Beer Hall is throwing a party - Sommerfest - tomorrow. German beer, food, and polka music, including some tunes spun by DJ Shotski and live music from The DB Polka Express.

Neues Rauchbier?!

I know the folks at Schlenkerla have been throwing in a new beer here and there over the past several years but this year, we get zwei in just the span of a few months.

Back in June, they introduced Aecht Schlenkerla Weichsel, a rotbier, a.k.a. - red lager.

And, any day now, if not already, the world can enjoy Aecht Schlenkerla Erle, a smoked Schwarzbier, a.k.a. - dark lager.

 

 

Considering how much I loved Schell's smoked dark lager, Chimney Sweep, I presume that it will be love at first sip for me and the Erle.

The Weichsel seems to have made it to these shores, though I dunno about Madison in particular. However, the Erle seems to have yet to make the trip.

 

It's like Christmas came early.

I Said Yes

Yesterday I just said yes to Oktoberfest with The Polkaholics and my first Märzen of the season - smoky goodness from Schlenkerla.

Bathed in eternal summer's glow: Last Stand by Short Fuse Brewing Co.

When Jack Frost hits the scene, then 'tis the season for one of my favorite beers, Tippy Toboggan from Vintage Brewing here in Madison. Tippy Toboggan is a Roggenbock, a Roggenbier amped up to bock-like proportions. When we’re in the bowels of winter and my bones are chilled to their very marrow by the coldest of winter nights, I am warmed and rendered mirthful by a glass of this heady brew with its bracing rye spiciness and pleasant mix of banana and clove flavors.

So, I’ve got winter covered but what about the rest of the year? Can’t I enjoy some rye-laced cheer during the warmer months too?

Sadly, Madison-area brewers don’t make a Roggenbier beyond Tippy Toboggan – that I’ve seen, anyway.

On a recent trip down south, however, I discovered that at least one Chicagoland brewery does brew a Roggenbier. Not only is it not a bock but it was available outside of winter.

Ooh la la!

That beer is Last Stand by Short Fuse Brewing Company.

I encountered them for my first and only time (until now) last fall when I grabbed some of their Dark Gourd, a coffee-pumpkin ale that was quite tasty. As with that beer, the Short Fuse website doesn’t so much as mention Last Stand so details are scarce. It looks like it has been brewed in years past and that this year’s batch came out in late summer. So maybe it’s a seasonal…?

Whatever the case, I was pleased as punch to see a Roggerbier on the shelf and quickly snagged a 4-pack of it.

Vigorous my pour was not because I was left with but a small tan head and it dissipated rather quickly. A subsequent pour, however, yielded a much more generous helping of foam which made for a pretty sight. The beer is a deep, dark chestnut that was basically opaque. If there were any bubbles inside doing their thing, I didn’t see them. When decanted properly, this is a fine looking beer. Roggenbiers are brewed with the same kind of yeast as Weissbiers and my preference for those is to have a stronger banana presence than clove. Here banana was all up in my nose when I took a sniff, although there was a little clove as well. A bit of black pepper was in there too which was probably a combination of hops and rye.

On my first sip, I caught a nice, solid fizziness cutting through the beer’s medium body. This was followed by the yeasty flavors starting with banana. Clove was less prominent while there was just a hint of bubble gum. Rye and wheat were layered underneath and some spicy hops brought up the rear. While I found the beer to be somewhat sweet, I suspect all of that banana flavor from the yeast added a little ersatz sweetness.

At the finish, the banana and clove faded, giving way to the spicy hops which did their best to add balance earlier. They only added a moderate bitterness here but I think they teamed up with all the fizz for a rather solid dryness to wipe away any fruity memories.

Last Stand was just great with all of the flavors I expected for a Roggenbier – spicy rye, banana, and some balancing hops – and it comes in at a more weather appropriate 4.5% A.B.V. A nice prelude to Tippy Toboggan season.

Junk food pairing: The subtle yet complex flavors of a Roggenbier cry out to be paired with a food of equal complexity and tastiness. So grab a bag of Slide's Curry Garlic potato chips to go with your Last Stand.

The Grand Parade of Shipping and Packaging: My Turn - Anthony by Lakefront Brewery

I don’t know who this Anthony fellow is, but I like the cut of his jib.

Wait. I do know who this Anthony fellow is because it says right here on the six-pack carrier: he’s a Shipping and Packing Technician. At Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee, that is. Anthony chose a Kellerbier for the 43rd iteration of My Turn, Lakefront’s series of beers with the styles selected by employees. If I lived in Milwaukee, I would get a job there and then start using those Mission: Impossible masks to impersonate my co-workers so that every My Turn brew would be a Rauchbier. As it is, though, I can’t really complain about a Kellerbier.

Not long after trying their new Kölsch, Bierzeit, I discovered that Lakefront now had a Kellerbier on offer. It was a welcome 1-2 punch of German-style lagerbiers. I think that the Kellerbier is fairly obscure in its homeland and is even more so here in the U.S., although a few years ago it seemed that the Keller Pils was poised to go from being completely unknown to just mostly unknown with a few breweries offering the style. Summit kept brewing the stuff even after the pico-trend had passed but it too is now gone. But, with new IPA variants in demand, surely a Keller IPA is on the horizon. (Maybe even a Keller Cold IPA.) Heck, most breweries wouldn’t have to do anything beyond tweaking labels and ad copy.

These days Weihenstephaner 1516 Kellerbier is not totally impossible to find while I don’t know of any domestic Kellerbiers to be found in Madison area beer coolers. Well, none that aren’t Anthony.

To the best of my knowledge, Kellerbier is simply beer that is unfiltered, usually a Helles or Märzen or, at least, something in that ballpark. The word means “cellar beer” and I think it refers to the beer being served right from the lagering cellar, i.e. – no intermediate filtering anything. I also read here that, traditionally, the cask that the beer is aged in has the bung left unplugged so Kellerbier has very little fizz.

The packaging includes the rather telic description “a German-style lager meant for summertime biergarten enjoyment.” Truth be known, I performed my thorough and highly scientific testing in my dining room and not at a biergarten. However, if someone from The Biergarten at Olbrich Park is reading this, please know that having Anthony on tap at your fine establishment would be most agreeable.

Anthony’s Kellerbier is a gold-tinged amber hue. There was the requisite haze beneath a nice, frothy head of off-white foam that had staying power. Bubbles could be seen inside. Apparently this Kellerbier was not lagered with an open bung. Or fizz got added later, perhaps. The aroma was a wonderful mix of grassy hops and bready malt with a touch of honey thrown in.

The first sip was heavenly as my tongue was caressed by delectable waves of malty goodness that tasted like bread that had been lightly toasted. A good fizz lurked underneath which helped make the beer’s medium body seem a bit lighter. In addition to bread, there was a little honey and some spicy hop flavors that kept things in balance.

On the finish, some of that luscious malt flavor lingers for short spell before ceding to a moderately spicy hop taste that adds healthy doses of bitterness and dryness.

I can certainly imagine this beer would be a fine companion down at the Biergarten. The fizz seems to be non-traditional feature here but with the great bready flavor, it is but a minor glitch.

Junk food pairing: The packaging says Anthony loves to cook BBQ so sit out on your porch or deck for that faux-Biergarten feel and serve Jay’s Barbecue potato chips with his Kellerbier.

Widersehen Pils, Hallo Kölsch: Bierzeit aus Lakefront Brewery

Have you ever felt like you were going to die? On a recent bike ride, I had that feeling more than once. Being quite out of shape, there were a few times when I was pedaling up that hill and I thought my heart was going to say, "Eff you, fatboy! I am done!" and just stop working, leaving me to clutch my chest like the gladiator in Life of Brian - "I think I'm about to have a cardiac arrest." Since I was cruising around the countryside, it was quiet and I kind of felt like the guy in that Edgar Allan Poe story as I could hear every beat of my ticker. It's always disconcerting when I override my brain's natural tendency to block out those internal sounds of my bodily functions, let me tell ya. I will take a pass on that sensory deprivation tank, thank you.

Thankfully for you, I survived my near-death experience and lived to write another blog post. When I got home, I was hot'n'sweaty and found myself craving 2 things: 1) grapefruit and 2) a nice cold Kölsch. #1 was satisfied by a trip to the supermarket where I scoured the fruit section and found just the right piece of citrus which I eagerly brought home. After gently peeling the skin from the grapefruit, I bit into its luscious, red flesh and found it tantalizingly tangy. Tiny rivulets of cool juice trickled down my chin as if I was a stunt double in 9½ Weeks. That was one of the best tasting grapefruits I've ever eaten.

Hankering #2 was satisfied with a bottle of the subject of this post: Bierzeit from Lakefront Brewery.

Bierzeit is a Kölsch-style beer and it seems that Lakefront has only brewed this style once before - a limited edition back in 2015 as part of their My Turn series. I find that rather odd as Lakefront is afraid neither of German bier styles nor of lagering. Looking at their website, Bierzeit is listed in the Year-Round beers category, which is nice. I also see that they no longer brew a pilsner year-round.

First they came for the Klisch Pilsner, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was more of an Eastside Dark kind of guy.

Then they came for the Lakefront Pils, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was more of an Eastside Dark kind of guy.

That's a shame as they made some fine pilsners. From what I hear, Riverwest Stein is popular so I think that's safe. But I wouldn't be surprised to see Eastside Dark go away. I mean, if the beer named after the brewery's founders got discontinued, what chance does a humble dunkel stand? That's got to be something of an ego blow when the brewery you got up and running with your blood, sweat, and tears stops making the beer with your name on it.

I generally have a high opinion of Lakefront. While I may not drink some of the styles they brew, I feel that they do a very good job (or better) on the ones I do. But there are some great Kölsches out there. New Glarus' Kid Kölsch is a fantastic bier as is Dovetail's version of the style. So how does Bierzeit stack up?

My photograph makes Bierzeit appear a more golden color than it really is so don't be fooled. It's lighter - more yellow than gold. Light gold, maybe? A creamy, white head lasted a long time. It had the slightest of haze to it and there were many bubbles inside rushing upwards. The best word for Bierzeit's aroma is "freshness". It smelled like cracker, grass, and a faint bit of floral and I could smell it even when my Stange was several inches from my nose.

The first sip had a very healthy dose of fizz. I tasted mainly malt which was largely a light, cracker flavor but there was also a slight doughy sweetness too. It was crisp with just a hint of fruitiness. Those malty flavors faded away after I swallowed leaving some gentle grassy/herbal hop flavors to do their thing. They provided a little bitterness and a mild dryness.

Bierzeit did, as Gaff said in Blade Runner, a man's job, sir, of satisfying my Kölsch desires. It was light and crisp (and 4.5% A.B.V.) - perfect for a post-ride cooling off. I wish it had a little less of that doughy flavor and a smidgen more of that fruitiness to it but I nitpick here because I love the style. This is an excellent brew and deserves to be in your Kölsch rotation along with New Glarus and Dovetail's versions. Now that Lakefront has abandoned the pils, I am hoping that Bierzeit sticks around.

Junk food pairing: For a semi-authentic Kölsch experience, get a bag of gouda flavored potato chips and sprinkle liberally with dried chives.

Who lubricates the machine joints with their own beer?: Schwarzbier by Köstritzer

Allow me to begin with a couple beery observations.

First, I noticed on a recent trek to the north that the imported German bier selection at the Woodman's up in Altoona dwarfs that of the one at the east side Woodman's here in Madison. While there weren't six packs of Leipziger Gose nor of Berliner Kindl Weisse, they did have more than one brand of Helles. Plus Ayinger. Not a deep selection of brews, but a fairly wide one. I am jealous.

Tangentially, the cooler space dedicated to New Glarus was yuge! Does the distributor pay for such acreage? Or is there genuinely very high demand, perhaps because of the thirsty hordes from the Twin Cities stopping in to stock their beer refrigerators?

Second, German brewers seem to be making a concerted effort to appeal to American drinkers. Here I refer to the large ones. Brewers, that is, not drinkers. While I have yet to see Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Dunstig IPAs, I am seeing more bier in those larger 16oz cans. I think I first noticed Radlers being packaged that way but the trend has since moved on to other biers. This must drive the Germans mad as they aren't equivalent to a nice, round fraction of a liter. Surely these cans are dedicated to the American market.

I wonder why they've changed the packaging. Are they losing market share? Or is it just routine maintenance to keep the brand presentable to the ever-wandering eyes of American consumers? Is it more profitable?

One of those brands that has Americanized their packaging is Köstritzer and I now see 4-packs of their Schwarzbier on cooler shelves. On a recent trip to the beer store I availed myself of the opportunity to try out one of these new-fangled cans. Beyond it having been a while since I'd had a tasty Schwarzbier from Germany, this would also allow me to compare and contrast it with an American cousin.

After my encounter with Storm and Stress, the Schwarzbier from Milwaukee's Gathering Place Brewing, I felt that I'd drunk something almost, but not quite entirely unlike Schwarzbier. For me, Storm and Stress was a bit intense, a bit too porter-like and not dark pils-y enough for the style. (Just like Sprecher's Black Bavarian.**) And so I figured I'd get an example of the style from the Fatherland to find out if my memory was playing tricks on me.

"But," I hear you ask, "is Köstritzer truly an archetypal Schwarzbier?" That I do not know. However, it does have the virtue of being the German Schwarzbier most readily at hand in these parts, i.e. - the only one.

My Köstritzer, quite unsurprisingly poured black. I mean it was opaque just like the best Captain Beefheart lyrics. (I'm looking at you "Ashtray Heart".) The head was tan and loose and there was only a little bit of it to be had. Likely my poor pouring skills. I smelled a little plum sweetness, a hint of coffee, and roughly the same amount of grassy hops.

That first sip was simply great and made me wonder why this is such a neglected style. A blast of fresh yeasty bread was followed by a hint of plum sweetness. There was also some roasted grain and wee bit of coffee too. Actually, I could taste more coffee depending on where the beer was on my tongue. There was a spicy/grassy hop flavor in the background but the hops came out in the finish which was rather dry but not particularly bitter. Some of that coffee/roasted grain flavor lingered at the end too.

Take all this and add some nice fizz and you've got a very tasty bier.

This Köstritzer sampling more or less conformed to my memories of it which come mainly from quaffing it at The Malt House. "Dark pils" is a good description. It a medium-light body akin to that of a pils and it's got the fizz of a pils. If I moved the beer around in my mouth and got it to just the right spot on my tongue, the coffee tastes really came to the fore. But, if I didn't drink it like I had a mouthful of Listerine, that flavor was much less pronounced. In contrast, Storm and Stress has much more coffee and roasted grain flavor when consumed normally which, to my mind, confirms my earlier judgement that it had porter-like qualities that the Schwarzbier, as conceived in Deutschland, doesn't.

As I wrote previously, I liked Storm and Stress but it is really a different kettle of fish. Köstritzer has a more delicate flavor, all around. Those roasty, coffee flavors are more an accent here whereas Gathering Place's take on the style made them much more prominent.

Junk food pairing: Pair your Köstritzer Schwarzbier with Lillie's Q Hot Pepper Vinegar Kettle Chips.

**I recently had Soul Memory, a dark lager from the Hacienda Beer Company. While not billed as a Schwarzbier, it had that same portery fuliginous taste.

A Proustian Moment: Hindsight German Pilsner by Working Draft Beer Company

In my relationship with Working Draft Beer Company, I use the rhythm method. I'll go to my local purveyor of barley pop and see some WDBC brews that look to be right up my Strasse and I want to try all of them. Then on my next visit I find that those beers are all gone and have been replaced with hazy/juicy/pulpy or whatever IPAs that I have no interest in and wish would go away forever. But, with some patience, beers of theirs that I want to drink eventually appear again on a return visit. It's like the circle of life. But different.

Earlier this year they had a Czech pilsner and then an ESB. Just dandy. Soon enough, however, the beer cooler situation turned hazy. It eventually dissipated to reveal that there was a Czech amber lager on offer. When that was gone, then the juicy returned. But we're back on the upswing here as I recently saw their German pils, Hindsight, in the cooler.

While the German pils doesn't exactly count as a rarity in these parts, there are far fewer of them brewed here in the Madison area than one might expect for Wisconsin. Capital and Great Dane each offer one year-round, although it's too bad that Great Dane's Verruckte Stadt lost its local color when it was renamed the less idiosyncratic, though more descriptive, "German Pils". Vintage, Parched Eagle, and Next Door all put out a German pils seasonally or perhaps just whenever the brewmasters feel like it.

Into the fray comes Working Draft. Or came, rather, as this is Chapter 5 of the Hindsight saga. I don't know if this simply means it's the fifth batch, the fifth iteration of the recipe, or something else. From what I can gather on the interwebs, chapter 1 of Hindsight came out in 2019 so they seem to brew it a couple times a year.

So what makes a pilsner German? The Czechs invented the pilsner but the Germans aren't stupid and they picked up on a good thing when they tasted it. A Czech pilsner has a fair bit of breadiness to it along with a healthy dose of Saaz hops. The Germans took the general framework but tweaked it a bit. They went easier on the malt and used a goodly amount of their native hops which proved to add more bitterness. Oh, and they gave it more fizz too.

The funny thing is that I've always found Czech pilsners to be more hoppy and more bitter than their German counterparts. No doubt there are various reasons for this including having sampled few pilsners from the land of the Czechs. While I've sampled many a pils from Deutschland, they probably, not unlike their Czech counterparts, weren't all that fresh. And just how representative are the pils from Krombacher, Bitbuger, Warsteiner, etc. of the style? The imported German pils on store shelves here in Madison are from larger breweries, some of which are parts of even bigger conglomerates. Are they the German equivalent of Bud/Miller/Coors swill? Or more true to style?

I don't know the answer to that quandary. But I do know that it can be had with a trip over to central Europe. Perhaps my impression is simply due to having had more Czech pilsners made here in the States where restraint in hopping is not a virtue than from the Bohemian motherland.

Now, onto Hindsight. Mine was canned on 5 June which made it pretty gosh darn fresh when I did my sampling.

It poured a crystal clear yellow with just a smattering of bubbles to be seen inside. Atop that was a nice white head of loose foam that stuck around for what I think of as an average amount of time.

I'll be honest with you, dear reader, and say that I was ill-prepared at first for my sampling. I opened the can and poured the beer but had trouble finding the right spot for a photo and then I couldn’t see my phone's screen because the brightness was turned down on it but not on the sun. And so my photo doesn't quite get the full head and there is condensation on the glass so it doesn't look quite as pretty as it should. On the other hand, it meant that my nose was tempted by Hindsight's aroma for longer than it normally would. And this was a good thing because it was simply delightful with hay, pepper, and citrus smells wafting about. When I moved my nose in closer, it caught a little cracker. I think I started to salivate at this point.

After wiping the drool away, I put the glass to my mouth and let 'er rip. The light body held some cracker taste mixed with a wonderful triad of hoppy flavors: grass, lemon, and a more general herbal one. The fizz was a model of effervescent perfection. It tingled my tongue just right and added a pleasant dryness but it let all of the grainy and hoppy flavors through. While there was some bitterness on the finish, I didn't find it to be as much as style guides admonish brewers to provide. The hops left lingering herbal and spicy flavors to hang out with a biscuit taste. It was crisp and moderately dry but, again, not as dry as my reading had led me to believe it should be.

It's obvious from the first sip that Hindsight is an excellent beer. No doubt the freshness was a big part for me. Opening the can and smelling those hops led me to a Proustian moment. At the very instant when those sprightly hoppy scents touched my nose, I quivered, attentive to the extraordinary thing that was happening inside me, you could say. It's that grass/hay kind of scent. It goes right to my limbic system and triggers something because I just adore that aroma. I am drawn to it like a moth to the flame.

To my taste, Hindsight just has it all. A mild yet very tasty malt flavor sits easily next to a wonderful zesty, green hoppiness with everything in perfect proportion. It's 4.8% and really hit the spot on a recent summer day.

Junk food pairing: To accompany such a delicate and exquisite beer, you should pair it with a big bowl of shrimp chips. Get the ones you have to fry yourself, if possible, as they'll be warm and greasy as well as light and puffy.

Tis the Season for Weihnachtsbier

While winter has not started yet here in Wisconsin, the temperatures have fallen and highs are generally in the 30s. The ground is bereft of snow so I am hoping for a few inches to cover up all of the leaves I didn't bother to rake up last month. As the weather gets colder, beers usually get stronger.

I believe that Weihnachtsbiers - Christmas beers - are a Bavarian thing. My understanding is that they're dark amber bock biers with an A.B.V. in the 6-8% range and that they become available by 4 December so that one can have a few and terrorize the neighborhood kids on the eve of St. Nicholas Day in your Krampus costume. Or for mellower folks to have a little warmth while strolling around a Christkindlmarkt.

The Germans are an orderly people and surely have well-defined parameters for what constitutes a bock and a doppelbock. (Or maybe they're all simply Starkbiers.) Now, whether the Weihnachtsbier is similarly defined or not, I don't know. It could be that merely slapping "Weihnachtsbier" on your label makes it so. Does it count as a doppelbock if it's not "Weihnachtsbierator"?

For all of the German heritage here in Wisconsin, I don't know of any breweries that proffer a Weihnachtsbier. Lakefront brewed one several years ago in their limited My Turn series because an employee named David chose the style.

Despite the absence of Weihnachtsbiers, there are plenty of bocks to be had. Zum beispiel, Next Door has Integrator, a doppelbock, albeit one with a Lenten bier name. And Capital has doppelbocks aplenty as it has for years. Varieties available now are apple, pumpkin spice, and this classic:

It's a weird world where a brewery with Kirby Nelson at the brew kettle doesn't have a doppelbock ready for patrons seeking a respite from the chilly weather. Perhaps he brews one now and again but the Wisconsin Brewing Company webpage is bereft of them. It's a shame that he has seemingly abandoned the style. Recall that Kirby's Manoomator, a wild rice doppelbock, was wonderful. Personally, I think a wild rice bock would be a great late fall brew. You can get your fill of Oktoberfests from July into Oktober but, when Halloween is around the corner and Thanksgiving on the horizon, a wild rice bock would really hit the spot after raking leaves. (If you do such a thing.) Plus wild rice is largely an upper Midwestern crop so it would be a regionally specialty that could sit nicely next to a cranberry lambic or a venison hazy IPA.

So what to drink when winter settles upon the Land of Cheese?

The old standbys for me are:

The funny bit is that, although Sprecher and Capital declare these to be their winter seasonal brews, they're not particularly heady beers. Winter Lager is a Bavarian Dunkel while Winter Skål is a Vienna lager. Each brewery has an annual, Black Bavarian and Wisconsin Amber, respectively, that I feel are more appropriate for this season. To my taste, Black Bavarian has a bigger body than Winter Lager while Wisconsin Amber is sweeter than Winter Skål, though slightly less potent. I would lobby for Winter Lager and Winter Skål to be available year-round after being christened with less frosty names.

Another bier that I look forward to every year when the leaves have fallen and snow is immanent is Tippy Toboggan from Vintage Brewing. It's a bock strength Roggenbier - think a weissbier with rye brewed to bock potency.

It's got that taste of banana and clove flavors that is familiar to weissbier drinkers the world over but it also has some spicy, earthy rye flavor. And I love rye. Just a great beer.

These are my holy trinity of winter brews. New Glarus' Back 40 Bock is a runner-up as it's not brewed with regularity. This time of year also brings a slew of beers flavored with various spices and sometimes fruits. I find these beers to be fine, if drunk in moderation. Great Lakes' Christmas Ale seems to be held in high regard but I am unsure if it's ever been in my mouth. I do like Sam Adams' Winter Lager, though.

While the Wisconsin Brewing Company neglects the bock at wintertide, they did brew a Pfeffernüsse spiced ale a few years back. Did anyone try this?

Can you recommend a good winter brew?

Gemütlichkeit on Monroe: The Freiburg Gastropub

Yesterday The Dulcinea and I took dinner at the neu Freiburg Gastropub over on Monroe Street. I'm not sure when it opened exactly but I believe that it was earlier this month. It had a nice interior with a tin ceiling and the place smelled of freshly cut lumber.



The staff seemed to be folks in their 20s and were notably not clad in lederhosen nor dirndls. We were allowed to choose a table and chose one with a view of the outside but not at a window. Water arrived shortly after we sat as did a basket with brot und a pretzel.



The pretzel was tasty as was the brot although it was fairly plain white bread. Gastropubs are too fancy for landbrot, I guess. The brot basket also had a small hoolie of a mild senf. Every table was adorned mit a crock of senf, spicy Düsseldorf senf.



I can testify that this stuff had some kick.

And then there was the beer. FG has a goodly German beer selection plus the requisite IPAs and assorted American microbeers. As I noted yesterday, the beer menu features an alt und a Kölsch, a feat beyond the ability of the Essen Haus for reasons unknown. The D and I went with the Aecht Schlenkerla Maerzen Rauchbier. They even had Schlenkerla glasses! Monroe Street isn't exactly the altstadt in Bamberg but the glass was a nice touch nonetheless.



Mmmm…full of smoky goodness with a bit of spicy hops on the finish. Ausgezeichnet!

After devouring the brot und pretzel, we were served our Vorspeise brat stickers.



Sheer novelty, of course, but they were pretty tasty. Wonton skins filled with some bratwurst and topped with mustard and pickled onion. The wurst was good although mild by which I mean I'd have like to have tasted a bit more nutmeg and coriander.

Soon enough the rest of our meal arrived. The D had Wiener Schnitzel while I went with the Rinderbraten.





The schnitzel was pretty good but I found the breading a bit bland. Don't get me wrong, breaded and fried pork is one of mankind's greatest inventions but I do like to season my breading for schnitzel with a pinch of salt, a dash of pepper, a couple smidgens of mustard powder – just a little something to accentuate the pork. My Rinderbraten was very tasty. The beef was tender and still quite pink in the middle with mustard seeds aplenty. The only shortcoming here was the paucity of gravy. Beef roast and mashed potatoes requires at least a gallon of the stuff. About those kartoffeln…they were exquisite topped as they were with diced bacon and fried onions.

I have no explanation for the sea-change in my palate last night but I actually ate my asparagus. My father used to pick it every spring from the railroad embankment by our house in Chicago and he tried to entice me into eating it but I always resisted. The German part of me has been ashamed of this gustatory shortcoming for years. Thinking that it had been a while since I last tried asparagus I decided to give it a shot once again and found that it wasn't so bad. The preparation was overly salty to my taste but the vegetable itself wasn't disgusting. And so I learned to appreciate asparagus. If they were still alive, my father would have been proud while my brother would have said that I'd gone over to the Dark Side.

For dessert we had a slice of Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, a.k.a. – Black Forest Cake:



This was fantastic. The cherries on the perimeter were perfectly tart while the cake itself had just the right amount of sweetness, i.e. – it wasn't very sweet. A Snickers bar probably has the same amount of sugar as the entire cake from which my piece came.

Overall Freiburg Gastropub was quite impressive. There was a slip here or a difference in taste there but, on the whole, the food was excellent. We generally went with more traditional German dishes but the menu features more contemporary fare. There were also options for vegetarians and others who are crazy enough to abstain from pork. The beer selection was impressive with a rauchbier, alt, and a Kölsch on tap. They even had stangen for the Kölsch which makes me shudder at the thought of paying $7 for .2 liters of the stuff, if the menu is to be believed. Sunner is just not that good, in my opinion. I'd consider paying that price if I were a bit tipsy and the Köbes was a frau wearing a low cut blue dress with her boobs hanging out playing the role of the damsel in distress with her fully loaded kranz weighing her down. Under such circumstances I might have to be a gentleman and step in to help.

Behind the bar is a board listing beers that were coming soon. Amongst them were Leipziger Gose and a brew by Prof. Fritz Briem. A manager-type was seated at the bar and struck up a conversation with us. I asked him which Fritz Briem brew he was going to have and he said that it'd be the 1809 Berliner Weisse. He also told me that he was trying to get his hands on a rare barrel of a pine flavored gose which I assume is Freigeist Geisterzug Gose, a spruced gose. Sehr interessant! Oh, and he was trying to make the switch from Sunner to Reissdorf as well.

It was really nice to see a restaurant concede that there is worthwhile German cuisine and beer outside of Bavaria.

A Little Bamberg In Madison

My Bierkampf rant about the lack of respect accorded to smoke beers in this town must have been the subject of a tweet judging by the hits it got and the fact that Chris Drosner, a.k.a. – The Beer Baron, himself left a comment.

Luckily not everyone avoids rauchbier like the plague. The shiny new Hop Cat downtown has Aecht Schelenkerla Fastenbier on tap (I guess when you have 130 taps you've got to attach those lines to something.) while the shiny neu No comments:

A Taste of Deutschland at Vintage

The Dulcinea and I went out to Vintage for dinner earlier this week. Scanning the beer menu I noticed that Scott Manning's gruit was still there so I ordered one after The D went in for a Maltiplicity Maibock. Alas, there was no gruit to be had. Instead I went for one of these:



It's Scotty's dunkelweiss. It was absolutely delicious with the dark malt giving some chocolate flavors that were complemented by the bananay esters from the yeast. Incredibly tasty take on a style that is much neglected by Wisconsin brewers. At least those that bottle/can. Somebody tell Dan Carey to brew Black Wheat again.

The maibock was also very tasty. As its name says, it is full of bready, malty goodness.



While chowing down we caught Scotty as he walked by and were graciously supplied samples of the above, his Berliner Geist, a Berliner Weisse which he said would be ready on Friday, i.e. – yesterday. It was warm and not fully carbonated but it was still tasty. Light and moderately sour, it portended a growler and me on my porch anon. Scott said that he was unsure if the kitchen would be amenable to making some Schuss. I shall find out if there is Waldmeister to be had there or not. Otherwise I shall have to concoct some myself.

Introducing a New Hop Variety. Sort of. Beck's Sapphire

I had a Beck's for the first time in ages a few months ago. It was my first since the conglomerate formerly known as Budweiser started brewing it in St. Louis. (Was the stuff for the U.S. market brewed in Germany prior to this?) I thought that it, like pretty much everything the conglomerate formerly known as Budweiser brews was watery. It certainly had more flavor than Bud but less than I remembered it having.

I thought about this when I heard that Beck's was introducing a beer brewed with a new(ish) variety of German hops called Saphir. I read that it was released in 2002 and is related to Hallertau but has more of a sweet, fruity, citrus-tangerine thing going for it. The hops sounded interesting so I thought I'd brave the waters of Beck's and give it a try.



Things started out promisingly enough as it poured a dark straw color which was a stark contrast to the sleek black bottle. It was clear and filled with bubbles running up. The aroma was good too. It had that nice biscuity smell that's common to pale lagers but there was also a very sweet scent which was partly bready and partly fruity. To my nose the latter was like strawberries. Lurking in the background was a spicy hops scent – what I'd expect from Noble hop, Saphir's ancestors.

The taste had some of the elements you'd expect from a lager like this; it was light on the tongue and had the aforementioned biscuit flavor. But it wasn't crisp and clean. There was this dull, mellow sweetness present that kind of tasted like the strawberries in the aroma. Very odd. Even odder was that, considering this beer was supposed to be featuring a new variety of hops, I really couldn't taste them. Unless, of course, that whole strawberry thing was Saphir fooling me. I certainly could not taste anything akin to tangerine or citrus generally.

Sapphire finished moderately dry and with some mild hop bitterness of the spicy kind.

This isn't an ungodly awful beer but it's certainly not good. I am left wondering where the crisp, clean lager qualities went and why I still have no idea what Saphir hops taste like. I thought the German Hüll melon hop variety was supposed to have strawberry nuances, not Saphir.

Junk food pairing: Japanese rice cracker snack mix but the stuff that has wasabi peas in it.

Bringing Bamberg to My Dining Room

A few years ago The Dulcinea and I were watching some travel show where the host went to Bamberg, Germany and toured the Schlenkerla brewery. This immediately made us thirst for some rauchbier. Then this person stopped in at some hole-in-the-wall restaurant and had a Bamberg Onion. This had two results: 1) I vowed to go to Bamberg someday and 2) we got really hungry and probably ordered a pizza. Since I can't go to Bamberg, I decided to bring a little of it to my home and made the titular onions.

The first thing you do is peel some onions and then scoop out their guts. I cried and cried doing this. Next time I hope to have a nice serrated melon baller with a comfy ergonomic grip to speed things up and make it easier on my finger. I took the onion guts and pureed them I did the same with a smoked pork chop. Then I mixed it all with some ground pork, eggs, bread crumbs, and seasoning. Aside from salt and pepper, I added mace and marjoram. What you're doing is essentially putting a smoked brat in an onion.

I went to the Jenifer Street Market to get my meat for this venture and was disappointed to find that, not only did they not have any of Nueske's smoked chops but that they were also out of ground pork. So I went to Jim's. I got some smoked chops and they ground the pork for me on the spot. It was so nice to be able to go to a butcher shop on a weekend when there was actually a butcher around instead of simply someone who can weigh and wrap meat. I suspect that there are no real butchers at the big grocery stores these days and perhaps a slight chance of the Jenifer Street Market employing one. Unfortunately Jim's has succumbed to the brat craze. By this I mean having only a smattering of cuts of meat and instead filling the display case with funkily-flavored sausages. If I hear one more word about how "sophisticated" Madison is in a culinary way, I am going to vomit. There are shopping days when I have a problem finding a simple cut of meat like a rump or chuck roast because meat departments and butchers are spending all their time combining ground pork with bulk powdered seasoning mixes from Sysco so all the sophistos can have their gyros, chipotle & sun dried tomato, and mac & cheddar brats. Meat counters across the land are inundated with these sausages as well as pre-stuffed this and marinated that. So I call bullshit on any notion that Madisonians are any more culinarily sophisticated than folks in Richland Center. With the filling done, you stuff those bad boys.

After about 45 minutes in the oven, you apply bacon and pop the root end of the onion that was hacked off earlier on top and return to the heat to finish.

 

I fucked this meal up twice. Firstly, I added too much mace to the meat. It wasn't inedible by any means but very strong. My second cock up came in the choice of beer for use in the gravy. One is supposed to use Schlenkerla's Märzen or one of their other common rauchbiers but I used the Oak Smoke which is much too hoppy for gravy. To add to my gustatory crime, I will also say that the pork was too fucking lean. No fat = crappy pan drippings. Due to circumstances, I ended up with ground pork from Woodman's instead of using the stuff from Jim's. Next time I need to have Jim's grind the stuff and make sure they add plenty of fat. And so I had to improvise and ended up making gravy that was passable. I can imagine what it must taste like when prepared correctly - smoked pork, bacon, rauchbier gravy - a cornucopia of smoky goodness. On the plus side, two 12-year old boys, whom I didn't think would be too thrilled about Bamberg Onions, enjoyed the dinner. Live and learn.