It has been several years since I've had a MobCraft beer. Started in 2012 here in Madison, they embraced the novelty of brewing beer recipes that were suggested by and voted upon by the hoi polloi. And via this crowdsourcing method, we got such beers as a pils brewed with durians & cashews and a Berliner Weisse made to taste like our unofficial state cocktail, the Old Fashioned. I found their brews to be hit or miss, frankly. Some were tasty while others leaned towards Archie McPhee novelty and away from beer.
Mobcraft moved to Milwaukee in 2016 and I seem to recall that a more stable line-up of less goofy beers began to coalesce shortly thereafter. They started brewing a Kölsch-style ale year-round, for instance. It was also around this time that I stopped paying much attention to MobCraft. I tired of the novelty brews and found their quality to be inconsistent. It seemed that some of their beers were just not brewed well or, at least, not to my liking. A beer or 2 was watery or I had a lager that tasted like someone had lagered a beer for the first time in their life or that balance of flavors was just a foreign concept. To my taste, things started tasting like mediocre homebrew.
And then earlier this spring I heard tell of a MobCraft rye lager brewed with caraway called Fish Fry Rye, an appeal to the traditional Wisconsin Friday night meal and the bread that comes with it at many establishments. The Wisconsin fish fry as we know it today originated during Prohibition when taverns began selling fish, something we have in abundance in our many lakes here. Large swaths of these customers were Catholics of German and Polish ancestry who were under papal injunction not to eat meat on Fridays.
In addition to fried fish, your plate comes with a potato of some kind, cole slaw, and a piece of bread or dinner roll. The smart crowd knows that a slice of rye bread is the way to go.
Well, I like rye. I like lagers. I just had to try it.
Fish Fry Rye looks quite appetizing. It's a perfectly clear, brilliant amber. The small white head in my glass went away quickly but a fair number of bubbles were to be seen inside the liquid. Taking a whiff, my nose got a big dose of grain - not quite bready and more like a hearty cracker. Just a hint of caraway lurked in the background while a small dose of spicy-herbal hops was to be had as well.
Taking a sip revealed a light body with a fine medium bit of fizziness. The grain taste was on the mild side and there was a little caramel sweetness too. It had more of spicy rye kind of taste and less of a sweeter, slightly nutty barley one. Other than being labeled a lager, I don't know if MobCraft considers this an American amber lager, a Vienna lager, a Märzen, or who. Caraway was noticeable but not prominent. Some herbal hops kept things balanced and crisp.
On the swallow, the grain faded allowing the piney-citrus caraway flavor to get a little more potent as those hops took on a white peppery taste and provided a gentle bitterness and a little dryness to go with it.
This was a good beer. I wish it had a slightly heavier body and Great Divide made a breadier tasting amber rye lager but this was still enjoyable stuff. MobCraft certainly spiced it right as I felt it had just the perfect amount of caraway. As the beer warmed a little, it got a tad sweeter but not a whole lot. A fine accompaniment to what is perhaps the quintessential Wisconsin meal.
Junk food pairing: Even if it's not Friday, head down to your favorite Oriental market and grab a bag of Lay's Roasted Fish Flavor potato chips and wash them down with a Fish Fry Rye. It's the next best thing to the genuine article.
