It's August...

...and that means Halloween candy.

Also, Oktoberfest bier and fall seasonals. (From Lakefront here.)

Is this oyster stout fresh?: My Turn - Aidan by Lakefront Brewery

I am finally caught up on my salt & vinegar chips reviews and this post will get me caught up on beer reviews.

Aidan is Lakefront's - what? - 800th entry in their My Turn series? Well, maybe not quite that many but I am happy to see that it continues nonetheless. It has turned out some tasty brews and is the only way to get the venerable Milwaukee brewery to brew a smoke beer. "Smoked" and "rye" on the label drew immediate interest from me and I ogled the 6-pack with a male beer gaze. I mean, these are the two best things you can do to a beer. But what about that "oyster"?

Pulverized oyster shells were used here, not the meaty bits. Chemistry dictates that the calcium carbonate in the shells aids in clarifying beer and the practice dates back to the late 19th century, if AI is to be believed. The calcium carbonate gets proteins and yeast, which can make a beer cloudy, to coagulate and settle to the bottom of a brewing tank where they can easily be separated from the precious clear elixir.

Huh.

So do the shells add any flavor of the ocean? Lakefront says it adds a "subtle mineral quality". Interesting.

If memory serves, Aidan came out over the winter and my can had best by date of 04May2026 so I squeezed this in just under the wire.

My pour produced a big, tan head that had true staying power. The liquid was a deep, dark brown and admitted no light to pass through it. I don't recall the last time I saw a brew as Stygian as this one.

 

I see an oyster stout

And I want it brewed up black

 

Well that makes about as much sense as clarifying a beer that one cannot even see into. Ha ha! Who am I to question the folks at Lakefront?

 

I assume the oyster shells did their thing and clarified the beer but we'll never know. The aroma was roasty with a bit of sweetness that was redolent of haw flakes.

 

Taking a sip I found that it had a nice bit of fizz to it. The body was light-medium which took me by surprise as I figured a 7.1% A.B.V. stout would be on the heavier side. While I sampled it more or less straight out of the refrigerator, I found that the key to mining Aidan's vein of smoky rye deliciousness was to let it warm up.

 

This is something I need to work on with ales. I've gotta practice letting them warm up a bit instead of immediately consuming them in a sipping frenzy like that great white shark nomming on poor Chrissie Watkins.

 

Once I let my glass of Aidan enjoy a little bit of the temperate temps of spring, it took on many wonderful flavors. A general roasty taste was joined by milk chocolate giving a solid stouty base. A little stone fruit, some all-too mild smoke, and a hint of sweetness added to the mix. The rye wasn't spicy to my taste but rather is was earthy. I am beginning to suspect that rye becomes "spicy" in beer via melding with hops in a certain way. When I sup a Roggenbier such as, say, Tippy Toboggan, the rye has a mellow earthiness to it, a grainy flavor less sweet than wheat but not a sharp peppery one or a brisk turpene-like burst. As for the hops, they had a nice herbal aspect to them and let my tongue know they were there but the were not overpowering.

 

The grainy flavors lingered a bit on the finish and, as they faded, some dark roast coffee came into the picture before the herbal hop flavors came in. Bitterness and dryness were both middle of the road and made for a satisfying denouement.

 

Beyond wishing the smokiness had been a bit more prominent, this was one tasty brew. I was surprised that the malts didn't seem to add any bitterness as most American stouts (& porters too) generally have a fuliginous flavor from black malts or whatever kind of deep, black, burnt malts they use. Instead, Aidan had a nice, rounded roasty taste. Was this the result of the types of grains used? Or did the oyster shells have something to do with it? Honestly, I didn't catch that promised "subtle mineral quality". Maybe it was really subtle. Or perhaps that rounded malt quality is also known as a subtle mineral quality. After all, the both have the word "quality" in them.

 

Regardless, Aidan's malty profile was simply delicious. Roastiness, rye, and smoke made for a luscious pas de trois. Plus sweetness was held at bay and the delightfully light and nimble body belied the fairly high booze content.

 

Aidan was a great treat for me and I hope it's not too long before the My Turn series yields another brew with smoky malt in it.

 

Junk food pairing: If you have any Aidan lying around, drink it up for heaven's sake! And pair it with a bag of Mrs. Fisher's Dark potato chips. The extra sugars in the spuds yields more Maillard goodness and allowing you to drown in roasted gluttony.

A brace of bocks and sayonara snakes

When I went to the liquor store last weekend I noticed that Lakefront is not messing around when it comes to helles bocks. They had a couple on offer.

Have they brewed the honey bock before? I cannot recall. It was just nice to see a brace of bocks to push back against the 8 gillion IPAs.

I see that they have also resurrected Snake Chaser. 

 

 

When did this go away? Was it around last year? Not sure when this came back. Regardless, it's good to have it back for a little St. Patrick's Day cheer.

Smoke? Rye?

I will be doing a thorough investigation of this beer.

E-S-B - it's dynamite!

With an impending trip to the UK (hopefully), I decided to get in the mood by drinking like a Brit. Lakefront is helping out with this ESB.

I took it out of the frig and let it warm a bit. Very tasty! Smooth maltiness with a really nice leathery kind of taste. Just enough herbal hops too. Well played, Katie.

Brew Freunde: Bräu Buddies by Lakefront Brewery and Hofbräu München

I am trying to recall how I heard about Bräu Buddies. Either I read about it in Lakefront's newsletter or I stumbled upon it on one of my periodic strolls through their website checking on what the year-round pale lager is these days. East Side Dark and Riverwest Stein have stood the test of time, I suppose, while the pale lager spot seems to change every year or 2. (Probably less frequently, truth be told.) Klisch Pilsner, a Czech-style pilsner, which was, I believe, one of the brewery's first brews, went the way of the dodo. I think it was replaced by Lakefront Pils, a German-style pilsner. From there it gets murky.

Did Bierzeit, a wonderful Kölsch that seemed to be in the Lakefront line-up all-too briefly, come next? What a shame. I felt a bit spoiled for choice for a little while there between it and Kid Kölsch.

Did Lakefront Lager come next? A "Premium Lager", I avoided it because I associate those words with Miller/Bud clone type brews. The pale lager annual spot is now taken by Dive Beer which appears to be another Miller/Bud type American lager. Oof.

Looking at the list of beers no longer made at the Lakefront site, I feel sad that Cherry Lager and Holiday Spice are long gone. Wisconsinite was tasty; why did it have to die? Boo!

Oh well.

So somehow I stumbled upon the existence of Bräu Buddies, a collaboration between Lakefront and Hofbräu München. Described as a "rustic, German-style lager" and having been brewed with Melanoidin malts, I just had to try it. And so I snagged a six-pack.

Similar to my procrastination in taking notes for that hibiscus kombucha, I went through at least a six-pack before I ever busted out a pad of paper and pen. I was just too busy slaking my thirst. But eventually I did take some notes and took a photo or two.

The brew was light yellow to gold, depending on which part of the glass I was looking at. Clear as day and topped by a white head that lasted an average amount of time, I spied a few bubbles inside. It looked mighty purdy. A Helles? A Landbier? I dunno but I do know that the aroma was marvelous with a luscious breadiness no doubt from that Melanoidin malt while the hops gave a grassy scent.

Taking a sip, I was entranced the beer's medium-light body which held untold depths of toasty-bready-biscuity malt goodness. Not particularly sweet, the Maillard-inflected flavor was joined by grassy/herbal tasting hops. Not too strong but a bit more than enough to balance the malts. There are Saphir hops in here but I never caught anything fruity. Maybe something a little something floral in the aroma but I never tasted the tangerine that websites assure me are part of the Saphir flavor arsenal.

The breadiness lingered on the finish a bit while the hops, having taken on a more spicy note, gently faded in to add moderate bitterness and slightly less dryness.

This, this should be Lakefront's year-round pale lager. With its high melanoidin payload, Bräu Buddies hits the spot with a rich malt taste that I couldn't get enough of which explains why I've purchased multiple six-packs of it. I am feeling spoiled for choice again as this beer is a fine complement to New Glarus' Two Women, another rustic/country pale lager full of mouthwatering Maillard temptation.

Alas, I suspect Bräu Buddies' days are numbered and it will be consigned to the Lakefront Beer Graveyard before summer. What a bummer.

Junk food pairing: Bräu Buddies' label features a pretzel and this is a fine idea to accompany a can of the stuff. I suggest a bag of Rold Gold Selects Flamin’ Hot® Honey Mustard twists.

Dan Carey's Imperial Period: Imperial Pilsner by New Glarus Brewing W/Dan Carey

Upon hearing that New Glarus was to release an imperial pilsner, my mind immediately said, "I've had one of those before!" and I recalled thinking that the ostensible pils was really just a helles bock given an "imperial" moniker for marketing cachet. Wasn't it from 3 Floyds? Then I recalled that Point had brewed one for their Whole Hog series but I never reviewed it. Going back through my blog, I realized it was, in fact, an imperial helles from Southern Tier that seemed to me better described as a helles bock.

I also discovered that Lakefront brewed an imperial pilsner as the 9th entry in their My Turn series, Pilo. Furthermore, Chicago's 5 Rabbit Cervecería brewed one as well called Super Pils. (R.I.P. 5 Rabbit.)

New Glarus' brewmaster, Dan Carey, discussed the beer on the latest episode of New Glarus Brewing Podcast W/Dan Carey which I listened to with great interest and, by the time it came for me to sample one, I had forgotten everything he said about it except that it wasn't a big version of their regular strength pilsner, Pilsner. The label doesn't say what variety pilsener this is an imperial take on, though. It does say, however, that there are German and Czech malts in the recipe along with a trio of German hops: Diamant, Hersbrucker, and Spalt.

While I still feel that imperial pilsners are just helles bocks trying to get above their raisin', I chose this brew over New Glarus' other new beer, Tailwagger, as it is spring, the season for pale bocks.

This has to be one of the few beers from New Glarus that has the A.B.V. on the label - 8.7%. Dan Carey is not a boastful man, from my experience, so maybe this was to alert consumers who might stumble across one of these thinking, "Oh look, a pilsner! Pilsners are light colored, easy going, highly quaffable beers with a reasonable amount of alcohol."

Imperial Pilsner is of a slightly darker yellow than your typical German pils yet not quite the golden color of a helles bock. There was a smattering of bubbles inside that floated up to the big head of pure white foam. The aroma was very pilsnery with cracker, bread, and hay/grass to be had.

My first sip had a medium dose of fizz to it and revealed a medium-heavy body, the first real sign of the imperial here. That variety of grains in the recipe yielded a rich bready flavor (after decoction) [Mmm...decoction...] along with some honeyed malt sweetness. My tongue was pleased to also taste a bit more than enough grassy-herbal hops to balance out the big malty taste. The bready sweetness lingered on the finish for a bit until the hops, having taken on a spicier flavor, really dried things out and gave a firm dose of bitterness.

My sampling began with Imperial Pilsner right out of the refrigerator. At the nice cold temperature, sweetness was moderated and this stuff went down easily, not unlike a regular pils. As the liquid warmed, the honeyed sweetness became stronger and the beer became more bock-like. I scrambled to down the stuff before it became cloying and soon enough I had an empty glass before me as my head buzzed. I also found that I was a bit peckish.

I suppose that it was the extra hops that gave this brew a pilsner quality to distinguish it from a run of the mill helles doppelbock and I really appreciated the extra bitterness they gave to the cause to counter all that malt and the very dry finish. And that bready malt flavor was simply savory and delicious.

Imperial Pilsner is a fine spring beer but go easy on it and/or share your can with a friend or loved one.

Junk food pairing: Pair your Imperial Pilsner with a bag of Herr's Carolina Reaper Cheese Curls. Actually, with this beer's potency, get multiple bags. They have a rich cheesy taste and the chili dust adds a firm, though not deadly, heat to complement the hearty hops.

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.

Autumn Scenes '24

I bought some Wolf River apples, the leviathans of the pomaceous family.

Lapacek's presses a mean cider.

A small flock of turkeys cleared the grass under the bird feeder in the backyard of stray seeds that the house sparrows have shoveled off the feeder. House sparrows are the messiest of eaters. I think they prefer sunflower seeds and just cast off the millet and wheat and whatever else is in the feed.

Maple trees are aflame!

I spied Lederhosen in the store windows of Stillgood's recently.

Aside from the cooling temps and lovey colors, fall brings seasonal beers and one of my favorites is Lakefront's Pumpkin Lager. It is actually brewed with pumpkin and has an emphasis on the allspice, to my taste. Plus, it's lagered so the usual sweetness in these kinds of beers is replaced by a nice crispness. I always look forward to this brew.

I had the chance to thank Russ Klisch, president/owner of Lakefront, personally for this stuff last month at the Cap Times Ideas Fest session on craft beer. In addition, I offered a suggestion...

With the AC off, the windows are open and Piper gets to enjoy the fresh air.

On a recent cool night, my Frau had a fire.

Therese Dreaming of Dunkel: My Turn - Chopper by Lakefront Brewery

As I type, the latest in Lakefront's My Turn series is Chopper, a Munich-style Dunkel. Chopper is the brewery's controller which, if the bottle's label is to be believed, means he sits in an office with a picture of Amatino Manucci on the wall behind him as he calculates the brewery's finances on an old Texas Instruments calculator.

The My Turn series, which allows employees to brew a beer of their choice or have a beer of their choice brewed, has had some appealing brews as of late. The kellerbier was great but I didn't taste a Vienna lager, Berliner Weisse, and Dunkelweizen which all sound tasty and are most welcome as the brewery embraces the IPA ever more strongly. It's not that non-IPAs have all gone away, but Lakefront used to brew a nice variety of beers but it's gotten kind of less so.

Bitching about the ubiquity of IPAs is like shooting fish in a barrel. I get it. But I remember when Fixed Gear was a red ale, not an IPA. (I also remember when they brewed it too.) There was a witbier, a mild, an ESB...I adored their cherry lager. These days it's largely IPA this and barrel-aged that. Oh well.

One area they seem to be a pioneer in instead of a follower is with non-alcoholic beers. Just as they were on the bleeding edge of gluten-free brews, they now seem to be the leaders of NA beer brewing. I don't drink NA beers but good for Lakefront. While I miss the non-IPAs of yesteryear, I will find solace in the wonderful variety of the My Turn series.

Chopper ran the numbers and found a Munich-style Dunkel wouldn't break the bank. It's a close cousin to their Eastside Dark, which is described as a Bavarian dark lager. They have some malts in common but different hops. I presume the same yeast is used in both. A side-by-side comparison would be neat but, since I don't get paid to do this, you're stuck with just the one beer.

Chopper is a lovely bier. Dark copper and ruby-tinged, by right, it should have had a big, light tan head atop it but my pour only produced a modicum of foam and what was there disappeared rather quickly. No doubt my poor pouring skills on display once more. As is proper with Munich-style Dunkels, it was clear. The aroma had some prominent milk chocolate along with roasted grain and stone fruit smells.

Looking at the bier, I didn't see many bubbles but my tongue was greeted with a nice, medium dose of fizziness. Roasty grain, a little milk chocolate, and bit of bread gave the bier a full flavor despite having only a medium-light body. On the swallow, those malty flavors faded allowing a moderate bit of spicy-herbal hoppiness - think black tea but "greener" - to come through and deposit some bitterness and dryness which both lasted a while on my tongue.

I brought some of this over to a friend's house for a homebrew day and he, a professional brewer type, was delighted by this bier. And so was I. While I wish it was a bit breadier tasting, I really enjoyed how the hops kept the sweeter inclinations of the malts in check. Its light body made for some easy drinking and refreshment on a chilly winter day of sparging and stirring.

It has been a while since I've had an Eastside Dark so I am going from memory here. This is very similar to Lakefront's beloved annual. I think the chocolate is more prominent in Chopper and that it's a bit breadier than Eastside. Methinks I shall have to get some Eastside Dark to refresh my memory.

Junk food pairing: Pair your Chopper with a bag of steak flavored Cheetos. The faux beef flavor goes with the roasted grain flavors in the bier and cheese just goes with everything.

A Brace of Dunkels from Milwaukee

The latest My Turn brew from Lakefront in Milwaukee is a Munich-style Dunkel from a fellow named Chopper.

And don't forget that Sprecher's Winter Lager is also a Munich-style Dunkel.

Jeepers. Sprecher's website is now almost wholly dedicated to soda with beer getting but a single page under the About menu. It's like their beers are an afterthought. Only the regular releases are listed there. The On Tap page lists a Doppelbock but they are sure in no hurry to promote it. I have to wonder if Sprecher is going to get out of the beer business altogether as they seem to have almost given up on it.

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.

Did you know "vanilla" comes from "vagina"? No, really.: Baltic Fire by Lakefront Brewery

Yesterday I wrote about the advent of coffee beer in 1994 just 25 miles to my south in New Glarus. And today I have read that the term "Baltic porter" was first used that very same year by Bill Yenne in his book Beers of the World although it was über beer geek Michael Jackson that seems to have popularized the term 4 years later. There truly was more to the 90's than grunge, cargo pants, despair, and indifference.

While Slavic food is severely underrepresented in the Madison dining scene today, a restaurant called Russia House spent much of the 1990s evoking images of Sean Connery romancing Michelle Pfeiffer and dishing out borscht and vodka to folks downtown. I was sad to see it go but was very happy to see the opening of Arbat Russian Restaurant in nearby Fitchburg sometime the following decade. I have fond memories of chasing away the winter chill there with hearty platefuls of pelmeni and stuffed pork loin. And to wash it all down I was able to choose from a full array of Baltika beers with my favorite being #6, their Baltic porter.

English beer historian Martyn Cornell has written about the history of this style so credit is due to him for what follows.

The short story is that the Poles developed a taste for English porter in the 18^th century with a particular fondness for something called the "double brown stout" which sounds like it was a much, um, stouter porter than its more workaday cousin. I suppose it isn't surprising that the Poles had a taste for a stronger brew considering their hostile neighbors. You too would seek out a more potent potable if the Prussians, Russians and Austrians invaded your country and wiped it off of the map as happened in 1795 when the state of Poland was terminated and would not reappear for 120+ years.

Fast forward to the 19^th century when lager brewing was all the rage and some entrepreneuring Polish brewers applied it to their beloved porters. And voila! The Baltic porter was born.

Until an international standards committee comes up with a mutually agreeable definition of what exactly constitutes a Baltic porter, I will continue to labor under the characterization of a beer that is a dark lager around 8% A.B.V. that is otherwise a porter.

It's a fairly uncommon style here in Madison, as far as I can tell. When I am at a liquor store in Chicago, the shelves have Baltic porters from various large Polish brands such as Okacim, Zywiec, and Perła in addition to Baltika, which is a Russian brewery. Unlike Chicago, Madison does not have a large Polish/Polish-American population and so those beers don't show up on our shelves. Thankfully some craft brewers are happy to help fill the gap. Last winter I tasted a Baltic porter from Milwaukee's Third Space Brewing called Ice Bear. And late last autumn another Milwaukee brewery, Lakefront, gave us Baltic Fire, a Baltic porter with vanilla.

Lakefront is one of the progenitors of the Wisconsin craft beer industry having opened in 1987. Their Riverwest Stein is not only tasty, but also a stalwart of the beer scene here. It's one of those brews that does a yeoman's job in places that don't have menus that are printed in a typeface so small you need a magnifying glass to read because they need to fit in all the trendy IPAs and hard seltzers they serve on a single sheet.

While I am inclined favorably towards Lakefront, my Spidey senses tingled when I saw that their new Baltic porter was made with vanilla. Additives in beer can have some tasty results but American brewers tend to use them with all the subtlety of Donald Trump at a beauty pageant. So, I was a bit leery about this Baltic fire stuff yet I tried it anyway because a Baltic porter with vanilla sounds delicious.

Baltic Fire looked dark brown with a slight reddish tint. Its clarity allowed me to see lots of bubbles bopping around inside. My photo, as usual, doesn't capture the beer in all of its glory as the big tan head exited stage right hastily. As someone who enjoys dark beers, I can say she was a looker and had me chomping at the bit to take a sip. Taking a whiff, I caught vanilla. Lots of it. "This must be what it's like working at the McCormick vanilla extract factory," I thought to myself. Subsequent sniffs revealed some stone fruit and coffee smells.

My first sips revealed a good fizziness – recall all of those bubbles – and a medium bodied dark lager with a hint of coffee and a large dose of vanilla. As in, had I just fallen into a vanilla extract vat at that McCormick factory? Heavens to Murgatroyd, that was some potent vanilla! Not surprisingly, that taste lingered after I swallowed though a little fruitiness emerged along with a hint of dark chocolate. Then I tasted some hoppy bitterness and a rather unpleasant extracty astringency.

Sadly, my additive-induced wariness proved correct. This beer was not for me. The vanilla was just too much and suffocated the wonderful porter flavors. Those coffee and chocolate bits need to breathe! I hope that Lakefront tries again and uses a lighter touch when it comes to the vanilla because I think there are some complementary flavors here that are simply out of balance.

Junk food pairing: Pair Baltic Fire with something that will replace some of the lost porter flavors. Go with a bowl of Brownie Supreme Chex Mix Muddy Buddies.

The Corona Diaries Vol 37: Evidence of Autumn

(mid-September 2021)

There is a tree across the street that began changing color in late August. At first it was just a handful of leaves scattered here and there. But a few more turned every day and, before I knew it, the scene out front was clothed in green and yellow - evidence of autumn.

It mocks us every time we look out of our picture window, serving as a reminder that cooler temperatures are on the way along with leaves to rake. Not far behind that will be snow in need of shoveling, icy sidewalks to traverse, and ever increasing heating bills.

While I like winter, I sometimes wish we could fast forward through fall. It's a time of endings. Birds migrate away, the trees lose their withered leaves, plants die, and so on. It'd be nice to get through that phase more quickly and just arrive at winter with all of its lovely snow, the cups of hot cocoa, and the Frau's nightly jeremiads issued from the folds of her electric blanket about how cold she is.

But polar vortices are still a few months away and I intend to enjoy the autumn as much as I am able. This will involve taking in the colorful foliage, fresh apples, pumpkin dishes, not sweating immediately upon exiting the shower, et al. Right now I am trying to schedule one last lawn mowing for the year. Can I make it until October? Since we lost 2 out of our 3 trees, my lawn doesn't get anywhere as leafy as before and the first mow of spring mulches the previous autumn's leaves, getting rid of the evidence of my laziness.

As the seasons change, so do my eating habits. In addition to foods that are freshly harvested, cooler weather means heartier fare. I have started by grabbing a bag of the fall seasonal coffee from my favorite coffee roaster.

The folks at Just Coffee Co-op roast the beans longer which brings out the, well, roastier flavors. The darker roasts of cold weather coffees have smokier aromas and more dark chocolate flavors. A slab of Pan de Muerto and a cup of this stuff will start your day right on a chilly autumn morning.

I've also begun to drink seasonal beers. Yesterday I bought a six pack of some pumpkin beer from Milwaukee's Lakefront Brewery.

Most pumpkin beers are sweet and cloying and strive to mimic pumpkin pie. What I like about this brew is that it's less sweet and more earthy tasting with a nice ginger zing. It's a beer that just happens to have the same spices in it that pumpkin pie does and is not some misguided neo-alchemical attempt to convert the dessert into liquid form.

I hope to use up a bag of charcoal before the weather makes grilling impossible (or impractical, at least) but have also been contemplating slightly heavier, more filling types of foods. Being of Eastern European stock, cooler weather gives me the urge to cook buckwheat groats. I don't have any memories of being served kasha while I was growing up but it's possible that I was. I found a recipe for groats with Brussels sprouts and, since my Frau loves the sprouts, I am going to whip up a batch. Or give serious thought to it, at the bare minimum.

I also would like to make some bigos - Polish hunter's stew. In the past I have made a quick, down & dirty version of it but perhaps I'll try something a little more traditional with more treats from the forest like venison and perhaps dried fruit. Stay tuned.

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One day last week when I was working from home, I heard a bird call coming in through a window. It was a loud, stuttering cry that sounded vaguely familiar yet I just could not place it no matter how hard I racked my brain. Wandering over to the window, I looked out at the nearby trees but saw nothing out of the ordinary. A scan of the canopies revealed the usual suspects: crows and sparrows and finches who were going about their daily routines of eating, pooping on my car, and chasing one another. I returned to my work.

Almost as soon as I sat down, I heard the call again. Back to the window I went to peruse the scene. Giving up on the trees, I looked elsewhere. It was then that I saw it. There was a lone Sandhill crane on the corner across the street! I grabbed my camera and ran downstairs.

My luck was in that day because, when I got downstairs, the crane had crossed the street and was in our front yard.

The gods must have been really happy with me because it came right up to our picture window to peck at some of the bird seed that had fallen from the feeder there. (The cats love having a feeder right in front of window.) I think that's millet growing there on the left from fallen seeds.

There were gentle thumps as it pecked at the cover to the window well that had a lot of feed on it because birds are incredibly messy eaters. Even messier than cats!

Had I not been so excited at having a crane in the yard and instead been thinking clearly, I would have gone out the back door and come around to get some photographs without a window in the way. Our cat Piper was snoozing in her cat house directly beneath the picture window and I chided her sotto voce for sleeping instead of checking out the avian visitor.

I wondered where our other cat, Grabby, was as she loves watching the animals outside while perched in various windows around the house. Sleeping, I figured. She's 13 and generally hits the rack after breakfast. (She promptly rises at 3:30 and petitions us for chow even though she knows full well that dinner isn't served until 5.) I went over to our front door to get a better view of the crane as it had started walking down the block and found Grabby keeping a close eye on the proceedings.

Sadly, I had to call into a meeting for work and so ended my bird watching. However, I was able to hear its resounding call from the window next to my desk for a while before it finally left the area.

While I am on the subject of avian friends, I finally managed to get a decent photograph of a blue jay.

Blue jays are pretty but they're jerks who chase other birds off of our feeder even though there's plenty of tasty seeds to go around.

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Several entries ago, I told of how my Frau and I drove out to the town of Marshall to pay a visit to the new incarnation of our favorite Mexican restaurant. And, afterwards, we decided that we would have dinner there the last Tuesday of every month.

On our most recent visit, we found that there were bags of pears scattered around the joint with notes attached to them that read "FREE! GRATIS!" Apparently, the restaurant was given a free case of pears, presumably by their produce vendor, and was giving them away to customers.

We took a bag. I mean, who doesn't like free produce? At home we pondered just what to do with them until the internet provided the answer: clafoutis.

The Frau made it. You fan the pear slices out at the bottom of a pie dish and then add a custard. It was wonderful! She enjoyed it so much, she made a special trip to the grocery store a couple days later so she could whip up a cherry clafoutis.

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My latest excursion to the cinema was to see the Swedish film About Endlessness by Roy Andersson. He is reported to have said that this is his last movie. I seem to recall that his 2014 film, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, played at the film festival here several years ago. And his You, the Living is on my To Watch list. But this was the first time I'd ever seen one of his films.

It's a series of vignettes that uses a mix of very droll humor and absurdity to illustrate human existence. Some scenes portray the vagaries of Fate which push characters to extremes while others lure the viewer into simply observing the mundane. A few scenes stand out for me.

A priest who has lost his faith appears multiple times. In one instance he goes to his medical doctor begging for help but is rejected because it is closing time. There's pathos here but also some very dark humor.

In another scene, an immigrant father holds his daughter's corpse. A voice over narrator informs us that he did so to protect his family's honor but that he had changed his mind.

In a much lighter vein, at one point we see a trio of young women walking down a path and come to a café. Upbeat music can be heard coming from inside and the women spontaneously burst into dance.

The movie is very interesting stylistically. Each vignette was shot very theatrically with a completely static camera and there are no cuts. I found that this technique focused my attention or, at least, provided less distraction. Instead of feeling that my attention needs to shift from one character to another with cuts to closeups of various faces, I get the whole scene at once. I was able to take in facial expressions and observe where people sit or stand in relation to one another at my leisure. I felt like I was able to watch the scenes unfold at my own pace rather than being prodded by the editing.

Highly recommended.

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Bonus photo: I got a new phone recently and the camera app has some special effects that you can add to your photographs. Here's a psychedelic picture of Piper. Imagine, if you will, some sitar playing in the background.