One More Red Lager: Red Tape by Jack's Abby

When the beers of Jack's Abby first appeared on shelves here in Madison last year, I always saw 3 or 4 of their "core" brews - their Bavarian pils called Post Shift, a blood orange wheat "radler" that doesn't appear to have any soda in it which means that it's not radler in my book, a West Coast style Hoppy Lager called Hoponius Union that I didn't care for, and/or their ganz ausgeizeichnet House Lager.

Then one day I noticed their first seasonal brew to reach these shores: an Oktoberfest, Copper Legend. Since I'd already filled my beer quota for that particular trip to the store, I put it on the list for next time. This routine was repeated for the next few stops at the liquor store and then one day Copper Legend was no more. I hope whoever bought it enjoyed it. I'm sure it was quite tasty.

As the cycles of nature forged ahead, snow blanketed the ground as autumn turned into winter and the shelf space that had held the Copper Legend was now occupied by Red Tape, their late fall amber lager.

Like cows, amber lagers are not something we lack here in Wisconsin. It's a style that the first batch of microbrewers in the state took to back in the day like a junkie to the needle. Capital's Wisconsin Amber, Sprecher's Special Amber, and Riverwest Stein by Lakefront all, to the best of my knowledge, came early in the days of microbrewing in Wisconsin and remain big sellers for their respective breweries. I think of them as foundational beers and they have ensured that an indigenous amber lager was available at many, if not most, drinking establishments in the state for some time now. And when brewmaster Kirby Nelson picked up his stakes at Capital and headed to Verona and the greener pastures of Wisconsin Brewing Company, beer #001 from their shiny new brewery was an amber lager that is now called Badger Club.

Now that I think about it, I believe that, when Kirby was doing test batches at Vintage Brewing out on the west side as he waited for his new brewing digs to be plumbed and equipment installed, it was an amber lager that he brewed first.

Add in the availability of Elliot Ness, a great example of the style from Cleveland's Great Lakes Brewing and Dovetail's Vienna Lager and it's clear that aficionados of the style here do not want for choice. (Why is the amber lager so popular in Wisconsin? Why does the Midwest have an especial proclivity for drinking this style?)

Just as with Kirby and WBC, it was an amber lager that got things going at Jack's Abby. Their website notes that Red Tape was their pilot brew after getting all of the relevant licenses they needed to legally operate a brewery. So what does Jack's Abby have to add to the amber lager beerscape here in Wisconsin?

My pour produced a glass of the loveliest amber color. The Polish part of me was enthralled and wondered if this stuff could be made into jewelry. It was just a touch on the dull side as the beer was the slightest bit cloudy. I'm not sure what caused this but the can does note that the beer is unfiltered and unpasteurized. I poured fairly well as I got a big head of foam that was barely off-white. And it lasted a while. There was a goodly amount of bubbles inside.

The aroma was wonderful with caramel and bread at the fore with some grassy hops and a mild roasty grain smell bringing up the rear. I also caught a faint hint of black pepper.

On first sip, I noticed a medium-light body and a solid, but not large, dose of fizz. I assume this stuff was lovingly double-decocted as my Maillard detectors went into the red, you might say, when the first thing I tasted was that marvelous bready flavor. Caramel malt sweetness was not far behind but it was a moderate dose and not cloying. I could taste some hoppy bitterness in the background mediating the malty flavors.

On the finish, that caramel sweetness stuck around a bit waiting for some herbal tasting hops to take hold. They added a medium amount of bitterness and just a tad less of dryness.

Amber lager lovers here are spoiled as it is and now they'll be even more so during the winter months when Red Tape is available. This is a great beer. The big bready flavor sets it apart from most of the beers listed above. Not only do I love the bread-caramel combo here, I also adore how those flavors taste discreet and come at your tongue sequentially. There's no bread in your caramel and no caramel in your bread. I also really like the hops here, especially at the end when they clear away the sweetness. Not overly bitter, though - just right.

Junk food pairing: Just as Red Tape deftly steers your tongue through a sea of bready and caramel flavors, pair it with a bag of Old Dutch Ripples All Dressed potato chips. Their blend of sweet & savory spices perfectly complements the dual nature of the beer.

Going Up the Country: House Lager by Jack's Abby

My initial encounter with the lagers of Jack's Abby was a bust but it was my own fault. I should have known better than to drink an India Pale something that wasn't brewed in the UK. While it says "Hoppy Lager" across the front of cans of Hoponius Union, I believe it is actually referred to as an India Pale Lager elsewhere on the label. That's what I get for going off script, for stepping out from my beer comfort zone and trying something new - a steinkrug full of disappointment and sorrow.

The hop flavors were strong in that beer with an entire taiga of sharp, bracing piney taste paired with an orchard's worth of tropical fruitiness to make a heady brew that I found quite disharmonious. It was as if that couple from those old Reese's Peanut Butter Cups commercials were on my tongue but, rather than finding choco-peanut eudaimonia, they came to blows.

So I went back to basics and bought a 4-pack of Jack's House Lager, the brewery's self-proclaimed specialty. It is billed as a Helles Landbier with "Landbier" being German for "country beer". My understanding is that they're brewed to satisfy the brewer's predilictions and aren't about adhering to style guidelines. It is also my understanding that the term, as used in Germany, generally refers to beers made in rural areas and small towns, not large suburbs of major metropolitan areas. It's the stuff you find when you're out in the Podunkreich and stumble upon a rural hole in the wall where the the regulars don't speak English and just drink the Teutonic tonic on offer.

The only other domestic Landbier that I know of available here in the Madison area is Two Women from New Glarus, located in the small town of the same name which is nestled in the hills of southern Wisconsin. Both biers are pale lagers with an emphasis on malt instead of trying to kill you with hops.

Jack's House Lager is a lovely gold and quite clear yet the can notes that the beer is unfiltered. How'd they pull that off? Did they use some kind of esoteric brewing diablerie to clarify it? My pour produced a fairly small head of white foam that lasted an average amount of time. There was a goodly number of bubbles inside this aureate elixir. Despite the aroma being as expected, it was still a great pleasure to take a whiff and get a noseful of lightly toasted bread and dough. The Maillard is strong in this one! There was also a little grassy hoppiness.

I think I was salivating by this time, my whole body tightening just a bit in anticipation of that first sip. Oh, it was glorious! Maillardy malt goodness ran in torrents over my tongue with the flavors of fresh bread and toast leaving no tastebud untouched. A touch of honeyed sweetness lurked beneath all the bready tastes. Some peppery hops kept things balanced while a nice fizz kept the beer's body on the lighter side and provided some astringency.

For the finish, those malty/bready flavors slowly faded which allowed more of that peppery hop taste to come to the fore where they added moderate bitterness and firm dryness.

Ausgezichnet! I have Mayor Quimby's voice in my head right now saying, "This is a, uh, fine Landbier!" All these wonderful malt flavors, a fairly light body - this is easy drinking at its finest.

Junk food pairing: Jack's House Lager pairs well with Takis Nitro. These spicy taquito snacks bring the heat that satisfies and House Lager will put those flames out.

The Grain of Hoponius: Hoponius Union by Jack's Abby

A couple weeks ago I was doomscrolling through Twitter when I saw something that made me do a double take replete with record scratch sound and all: Brennan's was selling some brews from Jack's Abby, the lager mill out in suburban Boston.

I've wanted to try their beers ever since I first became aware of them. They brew lagers and only lagers so natürlich I was intrigued by these patient young upstarts. Although they eschew ales, the folks there are mindful of trends and so they have pale lagers made with the latest, fruitiest tasting hops as well as Baltic porters that have spent time aging in spirit barrels after being adulterated with pastry flavors. Such beers don't hold much interest for me but I certainly appreciate that they brew more than fizzy yellow stuff with Noble hops in it. More to my taste are Rauchbiers and unfiltered brews as well as highly non-Reinheitsgebot complaint ones such as a lemongrass lager, that aren't part of any hip trend.

On a recent weekend I made a trek out to Brennan's and found that they carried 4 of Jack's "Core" beers which are beers that they brew year-round, or mostly so, anyway. On offer were: House Lager (a Landbier), Post Shift (Pilsner), Blood Orange Wheat (Radler), and Hoponius Union (Hoppy Lager). When I saw that the Radler was 4% A.B.V., I decided to pass on it as I figured it was a flavored beer rather than a mix of beer and soda. Stiegl's Grapefruit Radler remains the gold standard for me.

I wasn't in the mood for a pils and thought that Landbier sounded like a very tasty option plus we don't have very many of them in these parts. I opened the cooler door and reached for a 4-pack of it when I made an audible worthy of Aaron Rodgers himself. Some kind of madness suddenly came over me and my arm moved to the left where my hands grabbed the Hoponius Union.

My post hoc rationalization was that stepping out of my comfort zone is a good thing. Embracing new flavors broadens the palate and builds character. And so on.

The can said "HOPPY LAGER" in bold, friendly, green letters. Brooklyn Lager is billed as a hoppy lager. I like Brooklyn Lager. So no problem, right? It was when I got home and turned a can around to read the back of the label that I understood what I had gotten myself into. There was ad copy to the effect of the beer being like a West Coast IPA but without the A.

At first I was horrified because of my indifference to, bordering on disdain for, American IPAs. Owing to this, I didn't know what West Coast IPAs were supposed to taste like any longer. However, I'd been enjoying Sierra Nevada Pale Ale lately and figured it would be like that, more or less.

Hoponius Union was a lovely gold color with a faint haziness to it which seemed to clear up after the beer warmed a bit. A goodly sized crown of loose, white foam lasted an average amount of time. There was a fair number of bubbles loose inside. The aroma was mainly fruity in nature with a mix of something tropical like a mango or passion fruit and a mélange of citrus scents redolent of grapefruit and orange. I also caught something floral in there too.

Taking a sip, I found that the beer had a medium-light body cut by a good, firm fizziness. Those fruity smells were here in the taste as was the floral bit. Something piney lurked below the surface while a faint malty/bread taste was beneath that. The floral and fruity elements faded on the finish allowing that piney/resiny taste come through. The bitterness was substantial, but not off-putting, and the finish rather dry.

Although Hoponius Union comes in 16 oz. cans, I found that 8 oz. was enough for me and I believe this was for 3 reasons. First, there is too little malt flavor. It's probably par for the course for an IPL these days, but both Brooklyn Lager and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale both have fine malt flavors and I guess I simply hoped there'd be more here. The last time I drank an India Pale Lager was back in 2016 and I could taste the malt. Old dog meet new tricks. Second was the Hawaiian Punch Effect where big fruity hop flavors give the illusion of the beer being sweet - and cloyingly so - even though it's not particularly sweet at all. Lastly, my tongue simply finds the fruity/floral & pine/resiny combination here to be just overly disharmonious. It's like they're two great taste that just don't taste great together. I am unsure if it is that mixture in and of itself or if perhaps it was the strength of the flavors here that caused such gustatory discord.

I lean towards the latter as I find the pine/fruit combination found in Sierra Nevada's classic to be quite tasty. I've had pilsners flavored with new fruity tasting hops but they were applied judiciously, giving those beers fruity accents. Here those flavors are about as subtle as Brian Blessed.

I am certainly not going to pour my remaining cans down the drain but I will split each with my Frau or perhaps use some to cook those habenero & carrot sausages she just purchased.

Next time I am sticking with my gut instinct and going with the Landbier. Or the pils. Or maybe both.

Junk food pairing: Try something spicy to go with your Hoponius Union like Paqui's Haunted Ghost Pepper Tortilla Chips.