Another imperial pilsner

The imperial pilsner is having a micro-moment, it seems.

New Glarus recently released one and now Lake Louie has their own take.

A bit less potent than New Glarus', a rich, biscuity malt foundation sounds tasty.

The winter's bitterness is lost

I checked my email today and saw that Lake Louie has a new brew: Winter's Tale.

Taproom only. It sounds not bad. And it was the Genesis song that came to mind first and then the work by Shakespeare.

And now Robin Shepard informs me that Wisconsin Brewing Company's brewmaster Kirby Nelson has a barleywine and a wild rice doppelbock (Manoomator Mk II?) coming later this month.

He, Robin, also notes that Full Mile Beer Company and Kitchen and Working Draft Beer Company have collaborated on a smoked Helles. I look forward to tasting this brew. 2025 will be the Year of the Rauchbier, I just know it.

There is no dark side of the loon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark: Dark Side of the Loon by Lake Louie Brewing

So what is the difference between Lake Louie's Li'l Louie Lager and their Wisconsin Vacation Lager?

This question came up as I was checking out their website in preparation for this very entry you have before you. They both appear to be Miller/Bud types of beers. Perhaps the former is akin to Miller Lite since it has a lower A.B.V. than the latter. Lake Louie's website is one where ad copy reigns and revealing the ingredients comes piecemeal, if at all.

This reminds me of an exchange I had on Twitter several years ago. A beer writer whose name I cannot recall (wrote for Forbes, perhaps...?) posted a tweet saying that Goose Island was coming out with a new beer, Four Star Pils. I asked him if it had been brewed with then new, fruity tasting hops or with more tried and true Nobley ones.

Bad mistake.

Almost immediately, if not in his first reply, the guy turned into a snide jagoff and began addressing me as if I was the Mrs. Grundy of the beer world. Accusations that I was an obstinate puritan unwilling to consider the new and novel came first. My retort was that I simply wanted to know the ingredients before I spent my money. I am merely a humble consumer and in no way was I opposed to the existence of pilsners with nouveau, fruity hops; I just wanted help in deciding whether to go all in with a 6-pack or to dip my toes in the water with a single bottle.

Before long, his pal Michael Kiser (the marketer behind Great Beer Hunting) waded in and went on the attack. At one point, I told the original fellow that he had changed the direction of the conversation and moved the goal posts - in order to be an even bigger jerk, in my opinion, although I didn't write that. He sneered back "I can move the goal posts if I want to." I could easily imagine the guy hunched over his keyboard writing in response to disaster victims who are short on potable water, "Let them drink Westvleteren."

What an asshole. So were they both, both assholes.

It took me years but I eventually learned my lesson and left Twitter. A few or more years ago I heard that my original interlocutor was no longer reported on beer for a living and I now see that GBH is on indefinite hiatus. I would be lying if I said I didn't feel even a smidge of schadenfreude.

So back to Lake Louie. Their site's description of the beer at hand, Dark Side of the Loon, says "This rich and complex American Stout finishes as smoothly as a majestic loon gliding across a moonlit lake in hunt of its prey." Just ad copy. Can I get a bit more than a simile, please? I don't know what makes a stout American beyond being made in America, perhaps. How does it differ from an Irish or English stout? My guess is that either it has been laced with Citra hops or it is very potent and I see that it's 7% A.B.V. Does it lean sweet or dry? Was it blended with a soured portion of IPA?

Dark Side of the Loon is a recent addition to the Lake Louie portfolio. I think heard tell of it a month ago or so. An email I received shortly thereafter features a picture labeling it as a seasonal so, once it's gone, it's gone until at least next fall. I was going to lament that a brewery that has Kirby Nelson as an employee lets an autumn go by without a doppelbock is a crime but I see that Lake Louie does now have one called Mallaggie, a Märzen doppelbock. Not sure if it's being packaged or is just available on tap. And, to be honest, I am not sure if Lake Louie operates independently of Wisconsin Brewing Company or who. Brewmaster Kirby Nelson may spend his time fulfilling brewing contracts while someone else keeps the Lake Louie lamp trimmed and burning.

Even if the Lake Louie website isn't particularly helpful, the can does note some roasty flavors in addition to the major selling point of smoothness.

How many other beer labels are there that depict nature all red in tooth and claw and bill?

This beer got brownie points right off the bat for having a head that stuck around while I fumbled with my phone's camera. It was a lovely tan hue and jiggled when I moved the glass. And the beer's name was true to its word as this stuff was positively Stygian. If I held my glass up to a light at just the right angle it appeared a deep mahogany but, for all intents and purposes, this was the kind of beer that H.P. Lovecraft would have had at his side as he chronicled the events witnessed by Randolph Carter. A strong smell of roastiness wafted into my nose as I took a whiff as did an astringent one. Was this stuff really only 7%? I caught some stone fruit too as well as faint bitter chocolate and some herbal hoppiness. No fruity hop aroma!

My first sip revealed a medium body and a decent fizziness. I tasted milk chocolate, plum, some roast, and that boozy taste. Oh, and some of that herbal hoppiness and absolutely no tropical fruit. The stone fruit and chocolate flavors faded on the finish allowing the hops to share some bitterness to make for a perfectly dry denouement. I found that the much-touted smoothness appeared as the beer warmed and indeed the stuff became positively velvety as it went down. The smoothness helped minimize the boozy astringency, which I appreciated.

Once up to temp, this is one very, very tasty beer. The chocolate/mild roasty flavors are really nice and I was happy Loon steered away from the more intense roasted flavors that lend more of a bitter/burnt taste. It's not that I don't like these flavors, it's that American brewers tend to overload dark beers with them whether they be stouts, porters, dunkels, or schwarzbiers. You don't need to use black malts in every dark beer. The hops lovingly balanced the overall taste perfectly. Plus they give just the right amount of dryness to complement the luscious, satiny finish.

Junk food pairing: Dark Side of the Loon will pair well with nutty, smoky foods such at Barbeque Nutchos or Smokehouse Nut-Thins.

New and winter brews

Lake Louie (nee Wisconsin Brewing Company) has a couple new brews:

It isn't clear to me if these are autumn seasonals or winter or who. I have a Dark Side of the Loon and am looking forward to sampling it.

Also, I want to say thanks to Lake Louie for making a change so that they now actually list their brews on tap at their website instead of lamely linking to a blatantly unhelpful Untappd.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Winter brews are trickling in. Capital's Winter Skål is available and Scottie at Vintage now has 30 Point Bock available over on the west side. Tiggy Toboggan cannot be far behind. I am not sure if Sprecher will release their Winter Brew or not. I wish New Glarus brewed Uff-Da bock every year. Regular bocks are a bit rare as it seems brewers prefer doppelbocks. Though New Glarus will have Cabin Fever out next month. I like it but prefer Back 40, if Uff-Da is unavailable.

I rather like Sam Adams' winter seasonals - I've had Winter Lager and Cold Snap. Ooh! Hofbräu has Winterzwickl and that sounds delicious. Not sure if any of it makes its way to these shores.

Too bad Lakefront no longer brews their Holiday Spice Lager. Well, they have a barrel-aged version but not your regular one.

Well, there will be plenty of good winter brews, I am sure. A Baltic porter here, a bock there.

Lame, Lake Louie, Lame

I was contemplating heading out to Wisconsin Brewing Company and enjoying a brew or two with some comrades - outside, if it was warm enough. So I head to the Lake Louie website and click on the big button that says "WHAT'S ON TAP" in friendly letters.

 

 

Expecting a list of what I could choose from on my visit, including limited test beers, I was disappointed to find that I had been unceremoniously dumped on the front steps of Untappd.

I am not on Untappd. Is there a way to get a list of what is on tap at the brewery if you're simply a visitor? I just see a list of what other people have supped and a short one at that. Presumably I could see more if I logged in.

If they've got Smoke Show on tap again, I am there.

This is lame. Why should I have to register with Untappd to try to scroll though a bunch of posts in the hope of being able to piece together a list of what's on tap?

This is lame.

Monk #47

I met some folks down at Wisconsin Brewing Company (or is that Lake Louie?) yesterday and was looking forward to trying out a couple newish beers. First was Move Ukraine, a pilsner made with sunflower seeds and some of my purchase would be donated to the titular charity to help Ukrainians rebuild homes destroyed during the war. The other was Dock Haus Gold, a Vienna lager.

Unfortunately, neither was available. Their Untappd page is woefully out of date.

Instead, I tried their Oktoberfest which, I am happy to say, seemed less sweet than in years past. I also saw a new beer or one that was new to me, at any rate: Monk's 47 Amber.

After viewing the description, it wasn't immediately apparent to me what differentiated this from their Badger Club amber lager or the late Dock Haus Gold. Cuz you know I'm all about Vienna and red and amber lagers these days.

Although rather generic and unspecific, it was not a bad description. Monk's 47 is not a super rich malt bomb, but certainly wasn't watery. It did have a pleasing malt flavor and just enough hops for balance. Went down easy.

A Real Smoke Show

Ooh!

Now brewed under the Lake Louie banner and called Smoke Show, a Grodziskie is once again on tap at Wisconsin Brewing Company in Verona.

While not available year-round, this beer can be found at the WBC/LL taproom maybe once every couple of years, which is frequent when you consider the style. Last time it was called Nostrovia Grodziskie. Grab some now or you'll have to wait until 2025.

It's nice to have a fan of Grodziskie down in Verona.

North to...Onalaska?: Northwoods Invasion by Lake Louie Brewing

Tempus fugit!

It's been two and a half years since it was announced that Arena's Lake Louie Brewing was to be acquired by Wisconsin Brewing Company. At the time, one of the advantages of the alliance would be that Lake Louie could take advantage of WBC's much larger facilities in Verona and perhaps brew some beers they'd not been able to back in Arena. Or, as WBC CEO Carl Nolen said in corporatespeak, "This new collaboration will allow us to utilize our scale to expand and enhance the Lake Louie portfolio."

Exactly what has been expanded and/or enhanced is unknown to me. However, Lake Louie does have a new summer seasonal called Northwoods Invasion. Now, exactly where Wisconsin's northwoods, a.k.a. – "up north", starts is a matter of some contention. For many Chicago folks, crossing the state line into Wisconsin means they're up north. But this is simply a lack of perspective on their part. Portage, a mere 30 or so miles north of Madison, bills itself as the "Gateway to the North". While there's some lovely country up there in Columbia County, it's still very much in the southern part of the state.

The two main contenders for the marker that signals the true start of the northwoods are highways 29 and 8. Highway 29 begins at Green Bay in the east, heads west-northwest to Wausau, where it tacks to the west until it gets to River Falls which is within spitting distance of the Mississippi. Highway 8 runs 45 miles or so north of 29. I think of Highway 29 as being the start of up north. Once you go north of it, there are no cities of any appreciable size nor any interstate highways. I mean, how can you tell me with a straight face that Chetek is not in the northwoods?

Regardless of where you feel up north actually begins, Northwoods Invasion is just the latest member of a series of Wisconsin pale lagers that trades on the reputation of "up north". I suppose Leinenkugel was ahead of the curve with their Northwoods Lager back in the day. Then there was Capital's recently departed Lake House Helles. More recently, One Barrel Brewing released Up North Wisconsin Lager while Lake Louie's parent company, WBC, has Wisconsin Vacation with a label featuring a cabin up by Barnes, a fish, and a buck. Well, it may not be a lengthy series but what can you do?

Oh, and you can add just about every beer from Northwoods Brewpub.

There. That's better.

So about this Northwoods Invasion. It's a pale lager and at 4% A.B.V., it's aims to be a summer thirst quencher. Although it may have been a brewery exclusive or something similar in past years, this is the first time it's been packaged, as far as I can tell.

As the visuals go, Northwoods Invasion was a beauty. I managed a better pour this time around and got a big, white head. It was a brilliant white and stuck around for a while so it made things look nice. The beer was a clear yellow with some bubbles making their way upwards. It smelled like a modern American beer with a prominent citrus scent along with something more floral and a big dose of sweetness.

Taking my first sip, I found that it had a medium-light body that leaned towards the lighter side, which is unsurprising here. That floral bit that my nose encountered was also keen on meeting my tongue with citrus flavors coming in a distant second. Lots of flavor from the hops but very little bitterness. Also, very little grain flavor – just a touch of cracker. A mild bitterness emerged on the finish and lingered, which I appreciated. Those floral and citrus tastes stuck around, albeit in diminished quantities, too.

It wasn't until I had already drunk the beer that I read that it was dry hopped with Citra and Nelson Sauvin hops. Dry hopping is the addition of hops after the boiling is done so you add aroma and flavors but very little bitterness. Now, I presume the Citra adds citrus flavors and that the Nelson Sauvin hops would add something vinous or grape-like, given what I've read about them. But I didn't taste anything wine-like here. Instead, I got that floral taste which reminded me of Central Waters' Summarillo, a dry hopped summer lager from several years ago.

I really liked Northwoods Invasion. The aroma was an enchanting blend of citrus and floral. The taste too had this combination and, while I do wish it had a little more bitterness, a firm fizz helped keep it from being cloying. It was light and refreshing, perfect for a hot summer's day.

Just as the head made for a lovely sight after having filled my glass, the lacing made for a pretty sight after I had emptied it.

Junk food pairing: A bag of white cheddar lefse chips is the ideal companion for your Northwoods Invasion.

A Surfeit of Festbiers

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

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

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

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

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

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



Back up north to the Wisconsin interior and Central Waters.

The cicerone cries
Amidst the gadarene rush
To slumgullion



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

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

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

Onto the Oktoberfest…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Taurus to the Left of Me, Cancer to the Right: The Twins by Lake Louie Brewing

Last year Lake Louie Brewing overhauled its line-up. Beers were shuffled around into various series and new brews were introduced as well. The transformation continued into 2015 and included the introduction of a maibock back in the spring called The Twins. The name is a reference to Gemini, a sign in the zodiac, but both the beer and Lake Louie gained a measure of infamy back in April when a Madison Craft Beer Week event featuring the brew was held at the Silk Exotic strip club and promoted with the catchphrase, "Grab hold of a pair."

Puerile humor aside, the maibock is a potent pale lager. Brewed and lagered over the winter, it's tapped in the spring and serves as a liquid transition between the dead of winter and the rebirth of life in the spring. Although associated with Munich these days, the bock was invented in the north-central German city of Einbeck. The brewers of Einbeck were renowned for their quality beers and legend has it that Duke Maximillian of Bavaria recruited an Einbeckian brewer by the name of Elias Pilcher in and brought him to Munich in 1614 to demonstrate his mad skills for the poor, backwards southerners who took the northern style like a junkie to the needle. They are the ones who bestowed the name "bock" onto the beer as a corruption of Einbeck.

The modern maibock came about in the mid-19th century when Hofbräuhaus took advantage of then-new malting techniques which allowed for paler malts. The result was the pale (helles) bock we enjoy today each spring. I've never traipsed around Munich in the springtime so I am unsure of what an authentic maibock tastes like. These lighter bocks are generally hoppier than other iterations of the style but there is disagreement as to the malt character. Should it be sweet or more bready? At the end of the day I suppose it's irrelevant and that there is likely a fair amount of variation.

Although released back in the spring, it is once again Starkbierzeit (strong beer time) and it seemed appropriate to pull a bottle of The Twins out from my cellar last week.

The Twins pours a lovely golden hue. I got a small off-white head that went away all-too quickly. Being clear, I could see that there were many a bubble going up inside the beer. The aroma was distinctively sweet with honey and apricot scents standing out. As befitting a style that is hoppier than your average bock, there was also some grassy hop aroma to be had which became more pronounced as the beer warmed.

Whatever may or may not be the "authentic" taste of a maibock, sweetness prevails here. It's a clean sweetness, though, with it coming from malt. I tasted a stonefruity flavor primarily, although there was also a bit of toffee in there. Those grassy hops made a welcome return from the nose into the taste. While not a particularly hoppy beer, the hops were definitely more pronounced that in other types of bocks. All those bubbles I saw translated into some bite. Not enough to really challenge the malt sweetness but, in tandem with the hops, the carbonation made for a nice little distraction.

The one thing which did throw down the gauntlet before the sweetness was the alcohol burn. The Twins is around 8% A.B.V. but it tasted even headier. While Galen would have lauded the sanguine properties of The Twins, Matt Kenseth would recognize this beer's ability to fuel his car. I suspect that one's interest in feeling the burn on the tongue is going to go a long way in determining whether you enjoy this beer or not.

At the finish the malt sweetness gives way to some hop spiciness and its attendant dryness. And there's the omnipresent vital heat from the alcohol as well. Schaumhaftvermoegen was sparse with only a few dots around my glass.

As I noted above, this is a boozy-tasting beer and I was surprised by the heat. Once my tongue became acclimated, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I am not a hophead. My preference for malt-forward beers was certainly satisfied here but I appreciated the extra hops too. Bocks are usually quite lean on them but I thoroughly enjoyed the additional bitterness and the grassy/spicy flavors in The Twins.

One of, if not the, first microbrews I ever had was Capital's Maibock. Not only did it serve as an introduction to quality beer but also to the concept of seasonal suds. And so I have to admit that the style has a special place in my heart. It's nice to have another local maibock to indulge in come spring.

Junk food pairing: The Twins is a big beer with very intense flavors. With such brews I prefer not to try and counter the beer but to complement it with other intense flavors. Bleu cheese and chilies are favorites. Dip some Buffalo Blue Cheese Pretzel Combos in a blue cheese dips. Or find a nice spicy potato chip like the Spicy Thai ones from Kettle Brand. This mélange of flavors is guaranteed to keep away the chill.

Feeling Sappy: Maple Surple from Lake Louie Brewing

Last year Lake Louie revamped their line-up, introducing a slew of new beers and renaming one as well. I reviewed one of those new brews, the fine Dortmunder Export Blue Peter, previously and it's time to taste another. Looking at the brace of Lake Louie Prairie Moon growlers in my kitchen, I can't help but think of how far the brewery has come since it began back in 1999.

While Wisconsin doesn't have a strategic maple syrup reserve like Quebec does I think of maple syrup as a quintessential part of Wisconsin culture. This is likely due in large part to the time I spent up north making the stuff with my father as the snow fell. I would empty the buckets from the trees into a holding barrel as my father added the sap into his custom made sap boiler. It was a labyrinth of stainless steel. A coffee can with a small hole near the bottom was setup at one end. The sap leaked from it into the boiler where it made its way around the steel walls of the maze. By the time it arrived at the opposite end, it was syrup and could be drawn away into gallon jugs.

Lake Louie debuted Maple Surple last spring but this year's batch was released in September. It's a brown ale with maple syrup added. (The name comes from the Roger Miller song "Dang Me" which contains the classic couplet "Roses are red and violets are purple, you are sweeter than maple surple".) I've not drank many brown ales in recent years and have no good explanation for this. They got lost in the shuffle, I suppose. Back in the 90s I had many a Pete's Wicked Ale and enjoy the malt emphasis of the style which is rather unassuming in contrast to the more brash pale ales which are all the rage these days.

Maple Surple has a beautiful amber hue and is quite clear. My glass was appealingly coiffured with a big, foamy ecru head that did a good job of sticking around for as long as it could. There was a goodly number of bubbles making their way up the glass. I presume that the maple syrup was added rather late in the brewing process because the aroma was rife with that woody, toothsome smell of maple syrup. There was a bit of sweet malt that was like raisin in the background but it was the pungent maple smell that stood out.

I was shocked – SHOCKED – that the maple syrup flavor was also king on the tongue. It was strong and sweet, though not cloyingly so. That raisin-like malt sweetness was here too as was a more savory roasted grain flavor. Some herbal hoppiness and the carbonation tried to temper the sucrose soiree. The beer's body was medium-light but veered towards the latter. And the maple syrup really gave it a very smooth mouthfeel.

On the finish I found that the maple flavor trailed off as the carbonation and more of that herbal hop bitterness took the edge off of the sweetness for a surprising dryness.

My glass was not left with a lot of lacing but there were a few nice strands around the glass.

I think Tom Porter of Lake Louie got the maple in Maple Surple just right. It's up front but won't put you into diabetic shock after one sip. There are 22 I.B.U.s of bitterness here which lend a nice herbal dryness on the finish and a minimal amount of contrast to the maple flavor. The beer would have benefited from more roasted grain flavor. Although the maple was applied in moderation, I still feel that more toasted grain flavor would have helped to keep Maple Surple from being close to a one trick pony.

While I liked Maple Surple, I can't drink many bottles of it. It's not extremely sweet but sweet enough to be filling after one. It comes in at 5.8% A.B.V. which means it can help ease the transition into autumn. The maple flavor also provides a nice alternative to the all of the fest biers and brews flavored with cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg that line store shelves at this time of year.

Junk food pairing: Pair Maple Surple with Biscuits and Gravy potato chips to kick the faux breakfast thing into overdrive.

A Scandal in Arena: Blue Peter by Lake Louie Brewing

There have been quite a few changes at Lake Louie these past several months. Coon Rock Cream Ale became Golden Booty and a slew of new brews were introduced in a trio of equally new series – the Dark Shadows, the Hop-A-Louie, and the Session. From my perspective most of the publicity has gone to the three new IPAs with some attention given to The Twins, a new seasonal Maibock, as it was the center of a minor brouhaha during Madison Craft Beer Week where it was featured at an event hosted at the Silk Exotic strip club. Less attention has been given to Blue Peter, another new beer which happens to be an Export or Dortmunder or Dortmunder Export, whichever term you prefer.

The Dortmunder arose, quelle surprise, in Dortmund, a city in west central Germany that was in the middle of the German industrial heartland where coal mining and steel mills ruled the day. It seems that the miners and millworkers in the 1880s took to a heartier brew to satisfy their thirst. The Dortmunder is a pale lager that sits between the pils and the helles. It's less hoppy than a pilsner but more so than a helles. It also has more malt sweetness than either style making for a slightly bigger beer. The style was extremely popular in Germany until the 1970s when the pilsner won out. It was also fairly big here in the States as I recall DAB ads here and I do believe that I saw TV commercials as well.

Blue Peter pours a beauty of a light gold, eh. It is clear and very effervescent. As you can see, I got a big, fluffy white head that had some staying power. If you look at the photo I think you can tell that the bubbles are rather large. I noticed that, anyway. They just seemed to be larger in diameter than your average bubble. There were also lots of bubbles in the beer working their way up.

My proboscis initially caught some fine cracker-grain aroma but this was followed by a sweeter malt scent that was reminiscent of apricot. There was also a bit of mild grassy hop to be had. The taste mirrored the aroma for the most part with that graininess goodness sharing the stage with a sweeter malt flavor that was less fruity here than in the nose and more doughy. I found that the hops tasted a bit more herbal than they smelled. The rather faint hoppy aroma belied just how prominent they'd be on the tongue. There was a clear herbal bitterness to be tasted. Not as bumptious as an American pale ale but rather about the same as a Czech pilsner which is probably not to style. Lake Louie's website indicates Blue Peter has a scandalous 45 I.B.U.s which is surely more characteristic of a Bohemian-style brew. The goodly amount of carbonation here accentuates the hop bitterness.

Blue Peter has a nice lagery clean and dry finish wherein the bready malt sweetness gives way to spicy/herbal hop bitterness. I'll also note that I didn't get much Schaumhaftvermoegen as most of the foam simply slid down the side of the glass.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm no Dortmunder Export expert. American microbrewers don't exactly flock to the style although Great Lakes' Dortmunder Gold is a notable exception. (Does anyone remember The Malt House's deals on Fauerbach Export? Ooh, I drank a lot of that stuff.) From what I can glean from various websites, Blue Peter seems mostly true to style with additional hop bitterness being the main, if not only, deviation from the norm.

But this is not a hanging offense. The extra malt here keeps the hops from getting out of line. The beer's medium body and 5.8% A.B.V. prevents it from being, to my mind, a real summer tippler. But, then again, my vocation involves sitting behind a desk and no physical labor. Three cheers to Tom Porter for brewing a rather neglected style and for brewing it well.

Junk food pairing: The extra hops in Blue Peter means it pairs well with the grease and salt of deep fried cheese curds. Skip the ranch dipping sauce and go for bleu cheese dressing and drown yourself in Dortmunder dairy gluttony.