Fresh old beer: Alpenwald Altbier by Hinterland Brewery

Every time I encounter some Uerige on a liquor store shelf the beer lives up to its style and proves to be older than dirt. And so seeing an altbier of a much more recent vintage plus one that was brewed right here in Wisconsin got me excited. Perhaps more than was warranted.

The odd thing was the beer's name: Alpenwald. I like Alpenwalds as much as the next guy but the altbier's home is Düsseldorf and Düsseldorf is nowhere near the Alps. It's in west central Germany like Eau Claire is here in Wisconsin. Perhaps Americans are only familiar with Southern German culture and so lump everything German into a Bavarian box.

Hinterland brewed Alpenwald Altbier earlier this year as part of their 30th anniversary celebration. I am not sure exactly when it was released but I am thinking that it appeared sometime this past summer. My tardiness in doing a tasting was due to divorce, moving, and, if I am honest, depression; my tardiness in writing a post was due to being very busy and never finding quite the right moment to put things down in the ol' blog.

I don't think I've ever had even a reasonably fresh altbier from Düsseldorf or anywhere else in Germany for that matter so my understanding of the Platonic form of the style is an amalgam of things I've read and American versions I've tasted. I think of it as being malty with an emphasis on a kind of roastiness with little sweetness but not too malty. The hops should be assertive but not completely in your face. It's like the Midwest nice of beers - no extremes and just pleasant all around.

Despite my can not being straight from the canning line, it did have a best by date of 4/20/2026. I've kept it chilled and hope the distributor and Woodman's did too.

This was one gorgeous brew. A big light tan head sat atop the amber liquid which was clear as day. The foam stuck around a fairly long time and so I managed to get a not horrible photograph. There were lots of bubbles inside which made me slightly giddy because I have become a fan of fizz in my middle age. The aroma was of caramel, roastiness, and grass which is what I expected, more or less.

Also as expected was the nice, firm fizziness that complemented the medium-light body. I was pleased that the brew wasn't particularly sweet and that caramel flavor was minimal. It had some of that roasty taste along with a bread-cracker hybrid flavor that was aided and abetted by the addition of rye. All of this was balanced by a nice herbal-grassy hop flavor with a toothsome bitterness.

The malt faded quickly on the swallow and the hops were more than happy to fill the void. There was a nice briskness to the finish, hoppy and bitter but not overly so. Just a fine dry ending.

With an A.B.V. of 4.7% and a fairly mellow malt taste this stuff was very tasty on a warmer fall day. Just as a schwarzbier is often thought of as a black pils, the moniker of brown pils is not wholly unwarranted here. The fairly light body, the soft maltiness, and the zing of the hops all contribute; it's the malt's roastiness that offers a sharp delineation.

Sehr gut even if it comes from Green Bay and not Düsseldorf.

Junk food pairing: I paired my Alpenwald Altbier with a bag of Flint rye crisps (from Ukraine) with Bavarian sausage flavoring and the combo was excellent.

Altbier aber keine Gose

Very tasty stuff!

I really enjoyed the herbal-floral character of the hops. Methinks this one is more than deserving of a review.

When I was at Steve's Liquor, which is where I bought this bier, there was a Delta Beer Lab marketer pouring samples. I asked that he ask the brewmaster to brew their Gose again.

"The plain Gose?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied eagerly. "I want to taste coriander, not fruit." 

He proceeded to explain that the delicious elixir didn't sell well enough to warrant another batch. Sad. Maybe if they marketed it as an India Pale Gose - IPG - it would gain a following beyond me.

Oktoberfest season starts now

Seen yesterday, 25 June 2025:

Just in time for the summer solstice. Uff da! We're still 3 months out from Oktoberfest and horny deer running out in the middle of the road.

On the bright side, I tried this which I thought it was great.

A very fine blend of roasty and coffee flavors along with a little dark chocolate too. Nice green-spicy hops for balance. Light body - very reminiscent of a Schwarzbier. Highly recommended.

The Corona Diaries Vol. 50: April Is the Cruellest Month

(Guess Which Month 2022)

T.S. Eliot was onto something when he wrote that poem of his.

This time around, we truly have a corona diary. April began with my Frau breeding Covid. Her test result with the dreaded positive came back a day or two before she was to leave for Montgomery, Alabama. She has family down there and, sadly, one of her aunts had recently died so she was keen on being a comfort to her dad, who was already down there. In addition, she was looking forward to seeing some family she hadn't seen in years, despite the circumstances. Alas, it was not to be.

Even after she'd been sick for a few days, I was still feeling alright. I got up one day and noticed that the white stuff was falling so I availed myself of the opportunity to stop by my favorite urban woods on a snowy morning - Acewood Conservation Park. The temperature was in the low 30s so the snow was heavy and slushy and clung to everything.

It was just lovely there. A horse-drawn sleigh would not have looked out of place.

I noticed that an area on the north side of the park had been cut back rather severely. Now, I'm no forester so perhaps this is straight out of Maintaining Conservation Parks 101, but I was sad to see so many bushes trimmed into oblivion and so many trees felled. That area was thick with greenery in the past but it looks like it'll be a different scene ere long.

My suspicion is that removing all of that brush near the path will mean that more noise from the highway will make its way to the shoreline. We shall see, or hear, rather, how that turns out in a couple months.

Making my way to the pond, I saw that it had a smattering of mallards but was rather quiet overall.

I walked out onto that little peninsula hoping to get to the tip of it so I could get some panoramic pictures. Granted, my cameras don't exactly mimic Ansel Adams, but getting out into the pond a little way would afford me some nice views.

Approaching the end of the peninsula, I had my eyes to the ground trying to avoid stepping in standing water when a shrill cry scared the living crap out of me as a Canada goose flew out of a clump of empty stems just a few feet ahead of me. She landed out in the water a few yards away and was squawking out in alarm which caused another goose some 50 or so feet down the shoreline to get excited and start honking his own goosey klaxon.

I walked ahead a little way and discovered why I had two pissed off geese nearby who were closing in for the kill.

Once again, a mother goose had built a nest at the tip of this little peninsula. I did not envy her sitting on those eggs in the middle of a snowfall. But I suppose there wouldn't be any geese in the world if they simply gave up because of a little precipitation.

I could hear dad hastily approaching and he sounded none too pleased with the intruder so I beat a retreat back to the path. Eventually the parents-to-be quieted down after having cleared the nesting area of the pesky human.

I saw only one person walking the path so I basically had run of the park to myself. Despite the din of the highway lingering in the background, it was still rather serene and I allowed myself to just spend some time enjoying the scenery.

********

That night I began to feel unwell. Our half-hearted precaution of having me sleep in the guest room was a failure. Waking up needing to go to the bathroom, I got out of bed and realized that I had the chills and felt slightly nauseated. Come the morning I had body aches and a headache. I presumed that I had contracted Covid and this was confirmed a couple days later when I got my test result.

I took some time off from work and worked a few short days. When I wasn't sleeping, I got to enjoy lying around on our new couch which sat on our newly refinished floors. At some point the original owners gave up on the fine red oak planks and covered them with carpeting. When we tore up the ancient, ugly shag, this is what we discovered:

Not only was the original finish in rough shape, but it was of a fairly dark hue with a reddish, ambery tint. In anticipation of the floors getting a makeover, we (i.e. - my Frau) decided to paint the living room. The renter's white, which had been applied liberally around the house seemingly just before being put up for sale, was replaced by a light tan paint called Bauhaus Buff. Walter Gropius would have approved, right? I then figured that, as long as we're emptying the living room, we might as well get new furniture instead of stowing the couch and love seat which didn't fare too well in years past with kids jumping on them. We also tossed the old entertainment center. I rationalized the purchase by saying that buying new furniture saved me the cost of having to rent one of those storage pods.

So my Frau, the cats, and I moved into a hotel room for 3 days and returned to this:

Much better. The rooms are lighter now and I do not miss that amber glow that the old floors gave off.

Unfortunately, being ill meant that I missed out on a lot of fun. With gathering and mask restrictions being lifted and life continuing to return to normal, I had a busy April planned. First, I was unable to go see the band Nektar in concert. This disappointment was followed by missing all 10 or so movies at the Wisconsin Film Festival that I had purchased tickets for. I was to again judge processed meats at the product competition at the Wisconsin Association of Meat Processors convention but I was in bed cursing whoever it was that gave my Frau Covid instead of sampling bratwurst and large diameter luncheon meats. The day after that was Palm Sunday and Madison's Polish Heritage Club was holding their Easter bazaar for the first time in a couple years. Again, I was an achy mess huddling under a blanket when I could have been having fun, enjoying kielbasa and good company, in this case.

Speaking of Polish things, we celebrated Fat Tuesday with not only pączki, but also pączki beer.

Hinterland, a brewery up in Green Bay, brewed a beer that mimicked a raspberry pączki. While the pastries were tasty, the beer was gross. They started brewing it in 2020 and used 1,200+ of the tasty bundles of fried dough goodness in the brewing process. I don't know if they actually added the pastries to the brew kettle for this year's batch but I sure tasted a lot of raspberry flavoring.

********

Last autumn I heard that the rock band Jethro Tull, of whom I am a great fan, was soliciting tales from fans for a book that tells a history of the band from the fans' perspectives. I submitted a piece and a few months later I was told that it had been accepted for publication! And so a short essay of mine will appear in this book come September.

A brief excerpt:

"The next step for me on my journey into Tull was to return to the source of many a musical discovery for me – my older brother's tape collection. Eager for more flute-laden proggy goodness, I scoured it and eventually found a tape with 1982's The Broadsword and the Beast on one side and Thick as a Brick on the other. I immediately took to Broadsword with its loud guitars sharing space with synthesizers plus the flute and occasional mandolin. Thick as a Brick took longer but I eventually fell under the spell of its bouncy folk melodies and crazy time signatures."

********

Back in February, a friend came up from Chicago and ran a game of Call of Cthulhu. It's a pen and paper role playing game like Dungeons & Dragons but instead of a medieval fantasy setting with dwarves and elves fighting orcs, Call of Cthulhu is all about regular people trying not to succumb to madness when faced with cosmic horrors that remind them that mankind is but a puny, insignificant speck in the grand scheme of things. Storylines generally feature eldritch gods and the cultists who worship them along with the odd squamous half-man, half-fish hybrid thrown in for good measure. Oh, and all manner of unspeakable evils are loosed upon us poor humans.

We played a scenario that took place in the 1970s and I played the captain of a mission whose purpose was to land a crew on the moon to investigate a research station near the Shackleton crater which has stopped communicating with NASA.

Curiously enough, our shuttle craft looked just the like one in the TV show Space: 1999. Hmmm...Since it took place in the 70s, we made sure the men had very wide ties on at the conference they attended and I think most of the characters were smoking in the shuttle en route to the moon. One of the astronauts was Canadian and brought an ample supply of freeze-dried poutine on the mission.

My friend spared no expense in setting the right mood with a fantastical light show when we entered the cavern at the bottom of the crater, met the strange, unearthly creature there, and descended into madness.

My friend had also been a friend of my brother. After our game finished, we hung out for a spell and chatted.

About 10 years ago, he ran a Call of Cthulhu scenario called White Leviathan which was based on Moby Dick. It takes place from 1844-1846 onboard a Kingsport whaling ship. He, my brother, and crew were play testers.

My friend said that he'd been in touch with the game's creator. Since my brother had been one of the early players, he will be immortalized in the final version of the game. Likely his name will be that of a whaling captain on the wall of a New England tavern next to a harpoon. A fitting way to memorialize my late brother.

********

 
Bonus photo: we got a new ottoman that holds the cat toys and is in front of the picture window so Grabby and Piper can sit on it to watch birds and catch the evening sun. Here's a photo of Grabby enjoying it and it also features our lovely new floor.

Boreal Brew: Oktoberfest by Hinterland Brewery

I've not quaffed a whole lot of brews by Green Bay's Hinterland Brewery and have only reviewed a trio of them. They've been a mixed bag, in my humble opinion, but I am quite partial to Winterland with its vital juniper berry heat. But when I saw their Oktoberfest, I jumped at the chance to try it on for size.

If I were to describe Green Bay as being "up north" I would surely draw indignant comments from some fellow Cheeseheads. The whole concept of "up north" is arguably a state of mind or way of living rather than a physical place but I tend to think of it as being demarcated by a line that goes from Hudson to Oconto (roughly). Once you get north of Eau Claire and Wausau – then you're up north. Perhaps my definition was influenced by living near Eau Claire, but really, north of this line your conurbations get smaller and smaller and fewer and farther between. There's lots of forest, Indian reservations, and bears. People get around on snowmobiles and sleighs in the winter more than we do here in the southern part of the state.

And so, Green Bay is more mid-state. While the city is our third largest, its microbrew scene lags behind that to west in the center of Wisconsin where you have Red Eye, O'so, Central Waters, and Point too. I say "lag behind" meaning simply that Green Bay breweries don't seem to get as much publicity or have quite the reputation of their mid-state peers down here in the southern part of the state. Then again, at least they don't have it as bad as Eau Claire area breweries, many of which don't even distribute down here.

Hinterland, Titletown, and Stillmank all distribute to Madison (I don't believe that Badger State Brewing does, though) yet they are a bit like the Rodney Dangerfields of brewing down here – they don't get no respect. That's not true but they don't seem to have found a breakout beer, a beer that really makes a name for the brewery, a beer that can take them from yeoman to royalty, so to speak. Perhaps it's where I roam on the Internet, but praise for Green Bay breweries tends to be parceled out in words like "solid" as opposed to "stellar".

Perhaps Green Bay's microbrewers can make a name for themselves with Festbiers…

Hinterland's Oktoberfest poured a gorgeous deep gold color with a slight haze. My bad luck streak in pouring school continued with my glass getting a teensy bit of white foam up top that quickly transmogrified into a thin film. A smattering of bubbles inside the glass were making their way up.

As I was waving my glass around to see if the bier was more gold or amber, the smell of butter wafted into my nose. I was hoping it was just an illusion or a trick of the nose but, upon giving Oktoberfest a sniff, I caught a big wave of butter which was followed by caramel and black pepper. What a bummer. The disappointment was compounded by the fact that I had run into the same problem with their Weizen Bier. I tasted half a six pack of that before consigning the rest to a date with the Madison Water Utility. (This is in addition to a butterscotchy tasting bottle of Lakefront's Brandy Barrel Aged Cherry Lager. I have yet to open a second bottle.)

But stiff upper lip and all that so I plowed on and poured some into my mouth. I was quite surprised not to taste any butter. Instead I found that it had a nice little carbonic bite and that the black pepper made a return appearance. Indeed, the spicy hop flavor was quite prominent. There was little malt sweetness, just a bit of stone fruit and dough along with a mild bread taste. As the bier warmed, the butter flavor crept in until it overpowered the vein of Märzen goodness that I had found.

I tasted some lingering malt sweetness at the end which butted up against more of that spicy, peppery hop taste which I really liked. The hops added a modicum of bitterness and dryness. Just the perfect amounts, truth be told.

The peppery hops reminded me of Great Lakes' Eliot Ness just as did Tyranena's Oktoberfest, Gemutlichkeit. The line between a Vienna lager and an Oktoberfest, at least far as American brewers go, is pretty blurred. So blurred that Coke bottles glasses will do you no good. I tend to think of Vienna lagers as being a bit drier than their Bavarian cousins but that distinction seems to be going the way of the dodo.

But let me not stray too far from the big "D'oh!" here that is the big buttery aroma and taste. This is two styles in a row from Hinterland in which I tasted diacetyl. Either Hinterland has a quality control problem somewhere along the line or my gustatory organs are failing. Am I alone in this experience?

Moving beyond butter, Oktoberfest wasn't bad. Or it had potential. Or something. One thing it did have was the virtue of not being particularly sweet which I appreciated, but this was mostly due to the fact that grain taste was thin on the ground. The bier was also lacking in more savory malt flavors. There was little bread taste and a shortage of the Maillard reacted toasty taste (that is the gold standard for me) in the same way Venus has a shortage of water. I really liked the peppery hop flavor, though, and I think I am growing accustomed to Oktoberfests that aren't afraid to give hops something more than a bit part. Still, more maltiness is needed to make the contrast complete.

Junk food pairing: I've been thoroughly enjoying Cape Cod's Smoked Gouda potato chips lately so they get the nod with their smooth cheesiness and hint of smoke.

Lay's had a limited run of smoked gouda chips and I saw similarly flavored Triscuits last weekend. Smoked gouda snacks appear to be a pico trend. I approve.

From the Frozen Tundra: Packerland Pilsner by Hinterland Brewery

Pilsners are trendy these days, I guess. Green Bay's Hinterland Brewery resurrected their Packerland Pilsner in 2014 after a hiatus of 17 years. Demand for the beer just went away back in the late 90s. But now the pils is popular again with many brewers who primarily traffic in ales adding a one to their repertoire.

Sadly the Packers' season is over but fans who cannot get enough of the green and gold can always reach for a Packerland. After having had a bad experience with a brew that wasn't Packerland recently, I've been checking dates on beers. My bottle of Packerland dates back to around Guy Fawkes Day. So, while not born yesterday, I think it should be suitable for a sampling. This was the first time I'd had the bier so I didn't know what I was getting into. Would it be a Czech-style pils with a generous dose of spicy Noble hops? Or more like its German cousin with a hint of asceticism?

Packerland poured a light gold color and was quite clear. I only managed to eke out a small white head that went away rather quickly. However, there were lots of bubbles inside going up which made for a rather pleasant looking glass of bier.

I caught a crackery grainy smell as well as a little corn when I took a whiff. Quite frankly, I was surprised to not catch any hops in the aroma. Considering the bier's flavor, I wouldn't be surprised if I simply had a stuffy nose (it is January, after all) and was unable to detect some hoppiness. That light graininess was also caught by my tongue as was a little doughy malt sweetness in a clean overall taste. There was some hoppiness present here with a bit of grassy/spicy hop flavor that gave very little bitterness. Packerland certainly leaned towards the German version of the style in its restraint.

The finish was fairly dry with the malt flavors fading to allow some spicy Noble hop flavor to emerge along with (finally!) some bitterness. While my glass was not overcome with Schaumhaftvermoegen, there was some decent thinly-streaked webbing to had along with a lot of foamy specks.

While Packerland seemed to be aiming for German pilsner status, the hop flavor wasn't just moderate, it was nearly MIA. Packerland has a nice, delicate maltiness, but it sat waiting idly to host a party of Noble hops but only one or two of them showed up. Believe me, it is not often that I will proclaim that a beer needs more hops but this is definitely one of those rare occasions.

Junk food pairing: Keep it simple with Packerland and have plenty of pretzels and potato chips on hand. French onion dip would also be welcome.

A Winter Wonderland: Winterland by Hinterland

My previous review tasted a beer that was heavy on the juniper so, in keeping with that theme, I'm going to again engage with a brew that eschews hoppiness in favor of the coniferous. This time we have Hinterland's Winterland.

Hinterland is up north in Green Bay. From what I can tell, the brewery has a something of a middle-of-the-road reputation. I don't hear people bad-mouthing them but they also haven't found their break-out beer like Spotted Cow or Hopalicious – that beer known statewide and upon which their reputation is made.

Winterland, a porter brewed with juniper, is the brewery's winter seasonal. I believe the beer was first brewed or perhaps bottled back in 2010 but it took me until this past winter for me to give it serious consideration.

The beer pours a deep, dark brown that is opaque. When you look at it in the narrow portion of a glass, you can see that the brew is clear. My pour produced a nice, pillowy head that was tinted brown. And it hung around for a fair spell. As I drank, I got some pretty good lacing to decorate my glass. On the nose Winterland gave off a lot of that coffee aroma from what I take to be the chocolate or black malts. Oddly enough, there's also a slight berry fruitiness in there. And of course there's the resinous, piney goodness of the juniper.

One might expect a beer so dark as to absorb all of the light around it like a black hole to be heavy but Winterland has a nice medium body. It's slightly chewy but mostly smooth. The roasted grains are front and center with their bitter chocolate and coffee flavors but the juniper is no slouch either. When you pull a Winterland out of the refrigerator the juniper is definitely noticeable but the malt is still at the fore. As the beer makes is ascent to room temperature, the sharp piney flavor of the juniper grows. The effervescence complements the pine notes well here.

The brew finishes on a slightly bitter and dry note. It is here that my tongue became aware of the hops. While I'm not sure what varieties were used, they tasted like the Noble kind with a spicy, almost peppery, flavor that accented the fresh, resinous juniper very well indeed. Winterland weighs in at 7.5% A.B.V. which means it's a fairly potent brew but I couldn't discern any alcohol burn.

I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed Winterland and that it will be a go-to winter seasonal for me later this year when Boreas reminds us that the snow is once again on its way. Why I neglected to give it its full due until now escapes me. It is a hearty brew and I love juniper. Here the spice plays well with the prominent roasted grain and Noble hop flavors. The juniper also reminds me of Wisconsin's pinery up north and of venison since I like to cook it with the berry. In this sense Winterland is a fine addition to the Badger State beer portfolio as I appreciate brewers and beers that reflect their regional origins.

Junk food pairing: Try Jay's Onion & Garlic Ridged Potato Chips. Let the sharp, clean juniper go head-to-head with the pungent root vegetables on your tongue.

Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Drink This Beer - Berliner Weisse from Hinterland

A few years ago virtually no one outside of food microbiology circles knew what brettanomyces was and now, curiously enough, office drones around the country are raising glasses filled with the beer equivalent of limburger cheese extolling the virtues of the yeast. Sour beers are the latest trend in American microbrewing. It seems like sour English and Belgian styles are the most common but it's hardly surprising that the Berliner Weisse would get dragged along on the coattails.

The history of the Berliner Weisse goes back centuries and it was an exceedingly popular beer a couple hundred years ago. Today, not so much. It is a very light sour wheat beer that's low on hops. The sourness comes from an addition of lactic acid or some fine Lactobacillus bacteria although I've read that, back in the day, secondary conditioning allowed for brettanomyces to enter into the picture so drinkers could enjoy the lemony tartness of lacto as well as some of that barnyard flavor. At some point it became traditional to serve the beer “mit Schluss” or “with syrup” meaning a shot of flavored syrup was added to counteract the tartness. Waldmeister (woodruff) or Himbeere (raspberry) became standard flavors.

New Glarus brewed their Berliner Weisse for the second time this year and so Hinterland is only the second Wisconsin brewery I know of to brew this style and bottle it. I wouldn't doubt that various brewpubs around the state have made it and Lakefront teamed with Leinenkugel earlier this year for a batch served at the Wisconsin Restaurant Expo as well as at various bars during Milwaukee's Craft Beer Week, but as far as stuff you could grab at the store, pickings are slim.

As one would expect, Hinterland's Berliner Weisse poured a brilliant straw color with a lovely frothy head that went away all too soon. It was also pretty clear whereas the style is generally cloudy. All of those big champagne-like bubbles were highly visible. It smelled really nice with the sourness being rather mild here alongside a sweetness that reminded me of apricot.

Things were going well until I actually tasted it. The beer had the requisite lemony tartness to it and it came in a good quantity too. It was there and flavorful but not going to give you the Homer Simpson Super Sour Ball face. Beyond this, the beer had a lot of off flavors. Underneath the sour was creamed corn, for starters. And before the finish I tasted a soapy flavor. There was also a rather harsh, almost astringent, taste present as well. I wonder if there was a hopping accident. Mouthfeel was thin even for this style, in my opinion, and you could also taste those bubbles.

It finished with a not-unpleasant tartness that lingered.

I sincerely hope I got a bad bottle because this beer was just dreadful. It had a good tart flavor that was in the perfect proportion but all those odd stray flavors were just too prominent. Even lactobacillus couldn't change my impression that I was drinking mostly de-scented Ivory soap.

Junk food pairing: My best advice is to avoid this beer. But, if you're a masochist, try some habenero cheese puffs, if they exist, and rub them in your eyes. Hopefully you will be in such pain that you won't notice you're actually drinking this stuff. Otherwise, eat anything else you can get your hands on in large quantities.