Auf wiedersehen, Metropolitan Brewing

Following on the heels of news that Valkyrie Brewing and the Parched Eagle are closing and/or for sale, comes word that Chicago's Metropolitan Brewing is to close next month.

The beloved Chicago brewery and taproom will close after service on Dec. 17, owners Doug and Tracy Hurst announced on social media Tuesday. The taproom along the Chicago River will be open its normal hours every day until then except for Thanksgiving, the owners said.

Metropolitan’s closure comes after nearly 15 years in business and follows a last-ditch effort to save the brewery from mounting financial trouble.

I am going to miss my annual fall trek to Binny's where I would stock up on Arc Welder, Metro's rye dunkel, a favorite of mine. As in favorite beer of all-time, not just of Metropolitan's.

Best of luck to the Hurst's.

2020: A Year in Beer

As 2021 approaches, there are many Best of 2020 lists going around. A fellow Cheesehead who started a beer blog just this week made sure his first post was a list of his favorites from this year. I too thought I'd take a look back at some of the best suds I've had in 2020.

I drank many beers that I really enjoyed over the past 12 months. Certain brews, such as Tippy Toboggan, a Roggenbier by Vintage Brewing here in Madison, would make my list every year. It's just that tasty. I have sung its praises here previously so, while I drank my fill this year, I excluded it from the list. Looking back at the beers I drank from 2020, I see many that I've had in years past. They're good so I return to them. I even had a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for the first time in ages.

New Glarus' Coffee Stout, one of, if not the, first of its kind remained highly tasty in 2020 as did Rocky's Revenge from Tyranena which is one of the first barrel aged beers I ever had and it remains a favorite. As a lover of smoked beers, I have to say Karben4's smoked porter, Night Call, is really great even if it is merely lightly smoked. I could go on in this vein for a while. But I won't.

Before I get to the list, let me add a few random observations:

1) The only Madison-area brewery that went out of business this year (due to Covid) was Rockhound. (To my knowledge, anyway.) I'd been there only a few times but I enjoyed their hefeweizen and thought they had good food. R.I.P.

2) Sprecher's Maibock and Oktoberfest stand out from those of other Wisconsin breweries because they have wonderful bready flavors instead of letting malt sweetness run amok. The new owners don't appear to have changed things too much out there in Glendale but they have brewed an NEIPA and it looks like they're continuing Sprecher's move towards being a beverage company as opposed to a brewery.

3) Breweries in the northern half of Wisconsin get too little coverage down here in the southern part of the state. While it's to be expected that they don't dominate beer chatter in the 608, it nevertheless sometimes feels like there are no indigenous breweries outside of the Milwaukee and Madison areas. To be fair, some joints up nort have limited or no distribution here. And I'm ambivalent about this. On one hand, I'd love to have some more boreal beers available here on Madison shelves. On the other, it's nice to be presented with something new and different when I travel north.

Now, on with the show.

I have both kinds of beer on my list: pale and dark. We will start with the former.

On a summer trek to Chicago I picked up Helles by Dovetail and Metropolitan, Windy City breweries both.

Helles is a fairly rare style these days for Wisconsin breweries, as far as I can tell. Capital stopped brewing their Bavarian Lager in 2010, or thereabouts and its replacement, Lake House, just isn't the same to my taste as it lacks the toasty malt flavor. Wisconsin Brewing Company had one called Ol' Reliable that went the way of the dodo. I see one from various breweries every so often but they generally taste like the amateur zymurgological experiments of a novice cicerone.

Two of our neighbors to the south each have a Helles that just oozes melanoidin-y goodness. These are the best Helleses I've had from American breweries and, if I didn't have to travel to buy them, they'd (mostly) obviate the need for those Paulaner Lager purchases I make. But, pursuant to #3 above, they do make for a nice treat when I go to Chicagoland.

Now onto the dark side.

I cannot honestly claim to know much about Czech beer styles. And beyond a Bohemian or Czech-style pilsner, the Czech Republic, sadly, doesn't seem to inspire American brewers the way Carmen Miranda's hats do. Reading Evan Rail's descriptions of Czech brews makes me thirsty but those beers have been very much a mystery to me. This year, however, I got to sample three different breweries' takes on Tmavé Pivo, or Czech dark lager.

Now, whether any of these tasted like something I'll find in Bohemia when I visit, I cannot say. Leos Frank of Lazy Monk Brewing up in Eau Claire is Czech by birth so I have some reason to believe his brew has a measure of authenticity. And, truthfully, Next Door and Working Draft's piwos were very similar to Frank's with highly roasted malt flavors that ranged from coffee and chocolate to slightly burnt/fuliginous.

As a dark beer lover, this near cornucopia of piwos of a style new to me was sheer delight.

These brews stood out, not only for their sheer deliciousness, but also because they are rare or rarish styles. I certainly consumed other beers that were very delicious, but I have chosen to observe some brevity for this post.

And so that's my list proper. However, I do want to mention a couple runners up from smaller, lesser known breweries.

Valkyrie's Swan Maiden is a Kölsch-style beer and was really good. Located up in Dallas, brewmaster Randy Lee still brews on converted dairy equipment, to the best of my knowledge. When I visited the brewery there were no computers nor automated grain hoppers. Just Lee dumping sacks of grain into vats before grabbing a paddle to stir. Homebrewing writ large? Perhaps. But Swan Maiden was a wonderful beer with a delicate malt flavor and a light fruitiness from the yeast. Indeed, it was better than most examples of this style from American brewers who have much larger and more heavily automated facilities. Valkyrie's beers are a great bonus when I am in the northwest part of the state.

And then we have Saccharifice, a German Pilsner from Parched Eagle here in Madison. Brewmaster Jim Goronson has a small brewhouse in the basement of the building he rents that must surely qualify as nano. Lacking the space for extended lagering, Goronson still managed to produce a really good pils with a light malt touch accented by the fruity flavors of Hüll Melon and Mandarina Bavaria hops. The fruit taste is not overpowering and there's still some bitterness to be had.

(My podcasting partner and I interviewed Jim and you can find that episode here.)

There are some of my highlights of 2020. 2021 begins soon and we shall see what it brings. I predict lots of alfresco quaffing welcome in the spring.

It Is Real, It Is Rael: False Dichotomy by Two Brothers and Metropolitan Brewing

When I first heard that one of my favorite breweries, Chicago's Metropolitan had collaborated with another Chicagoland purveyor of suds, Two Brothers Brewing, I was ambivalent. This is no slight against Two Brothers. I've only tasted one of their beers so I am still very much developing my opinion of them. No, my bit of apprehension was due to the fruit of their collaboration, False Dichotomy, is an India Pale Lager.

What exactly constitutes an IPL is debatable. It's whatever the brewer labels as such. Still, I tend to think of the style as being a lager whose primary hop flavor or flavors are not those of Noble hops, i.e. - the hops have the taste of fruits and flowers. Perhaps my apprehension is completely irrational as I've consumed IPLs before and they were plenty fine. But I just can't help but shudder when I see the word "India" on beer label. It's a Pavlovian thing. It's a dislike of trendiness thing. I fear that I'll see Metro's brewmaster Doug Hurst dressed like he's in Ultravox courting the ironically mustachioed outside 1871 with his new India Pale Dunkel called USB Charger that is dry hopped with nameless experimental hops that smell like corpse flowers and taste like guava Jolly Ranchers.

I trust that his co-proprietor Tracy Hurst would put the kibosh on such a thing should this nightmare scenario ever come close to fruition.

Despite all this, I went out and bought a six pack when the bier was released earlier this month.

False Dichotomy, contrary to my photograph, pours a nice yellow – much lighter than my poor picture suggests. It was nice and clear with a big crown of soft, white foam. There were bubbles aplenty inside making their way up my glass.

If the bier looked like your typical pilsner, then the first sign that all was not as it appeared came in the aroma. Not knowing what hops were used I was surprised to smell some very spicy/grassy hops along with a touch of honeyed sweetness. Nothing out of the ordinary so far. That is until I noticed a rather floral hop scent that reminded me of Amarillos in its sweetness.

So Two Brothers and Metro had opted to not give us something from way out in left field; there was still some Central European tradition to be found in the bier which perhaps explains its name.

I noticed that honey-like malt sweetness on my tongue first. False Dichotomy is 7.2% A.B.V. so it's hardly surprising that the grains assert themselves. Being a lager, it has a clean flavor which lets not only the malts but also what must be an arsenal of hops compete for the drinker's attention. Initially it was that floral thing from the nose that hit me. Not overpowering but distinctive. Then further in the background was a mellow fruity/melon-like hop taste. This, presumably, came from the German Huell Melon hops, a rather new variety. Towards the end the hop flavor changed again into something more traditional – a Noble peppery taste. Amidst all this was a modicum of carbonation.

False Dichotomy finished with the peppery/spicy hoppiness developing into a bitter vortex of dryness, tasting a lot like a Czech pilsner. As I'd expect from a pils, my glass was left with some great Schaumhaftvermoegen with big streaks all around.

False Dichotomy is a fairly big bier being 7.2% A.B.V. but it's medium-light body makes it drink easier than similar brews appellated with another dreaded I-word – imperial. The bier really takes you for a ride with its hops. Noble hop flavors sit astride nouveau Central European ones. All things considered, False Dichotomy isn't that bitter a bier. While it is hoppy all the way through, it doesn't get bitter until the end. And I really appreciated that the malt was always there no matter where I was on the hop roller coaster.

Despite the many good things about this bier, I remain ambivalent about it. I'm undecided about the strong, bitter spicy hops next to the mellow melon ones. Individually these flavors are quite tasty but next to and melding into one another, well, I'm just not sold on the idea. I drank most of a six pack trying to decide – and believe me, I did not have to be restrained and have the bier poured down my throat - yet remain on the fence.

Junk food pairing: try some jalapeno popper stuffed pretzel bites with your False Dichotomy. Just as the bier blends the New and Old Worlds so do these pretzels with traditional Bavarian pretzel goodness surrounding a tender center of spicy cheese gluttony.

When It's Cold Outside and You Want to Drink In: Afterburner by Metropolitan Brewing

Chicago's Metropolitan Brewing began distributing here in Wisconsin this past spring which means I can enjoy their beers more often instead of having to wait for trips down south. Co-founders Tracy and Doug Hurst are both from Wisconsin: she from the Milwaukee suburb of Greenfield and he from right here in Madison. Doug attended the UW and took the infamous Plants and Man course where you can brew beer in lieu of writing a paper. A roommate of mine in college took this class and brewing the beer became a project involving everyone in the house and my first involvement in the production of the sweet, sweet nectar.

Metropolitan opened in 2008 and has been forging its own path ever since. Perhaps because of the Hurst's Wisconsin upbringing (and hence exposure to breweries such as Capital and Sprecher) as well as the time Doug spent in Germany learning his trade, the fateful decision was made to brew lagers with no concessions to the preternatural preoccupation with hops. I met Tracy earlier this year when she was in town introducing drinkers to her beer and instead of boasting about a brotastic cascade of citrus hop flavors, she emphasized the comity between malt and hops.

The brewery currently has three annuals along with six seasonals. Afterburner is Metro's Oktoberfest that is released in September (instead of July). I'm not sure when Metropolitan began brewing it but I do believe that it was draught-only early in its life and was first bottled in 2013.

Afterburner is a beauty of a beer, eh? It is a lovely light copper and clear. My pour produced about ¼" of loose, off white head that dissipated fairly quickly. Either that or I spent a long time trying to get a decent photograph. Surprising to me was that there were only a few stray bubbles going up. This beer appeared almost still. The aroma was full of malty goodness. There were biscuity notes but also some sweeter ones that were akin to figs and a hint of caramel too. My nose also caught just a hint of spicy hops.

The beer's medium body was replete with a great combination of malt flavors. As was expected, there were bread/biscuit tastes along with some stonefruity sweetness. As Afterburner's copper color let on, there was also a welcome roasted grain flavor that was like well-done toast. It had a bit of nuttiness to it as well. Lurking underneath the malty mélange was a bit of peppery hop in addition to a little dry bite from the carbonation.

The clean malts gave way at the finish to a moderate dryness from both the carbonation and some mild spicy/peppery hop bitterness. My glass was left with just a little Schaumhaftvermoegen towards the top.

Afterburner is perhaps the very model of a modern Märzen beer. The clean maltiness is spearheaded by bread and biscuit flavors but bolstered by a touch of sweetness and the nutty taste of roasted grain. This winning combination is kept together by the hops which never seek to overpower, only to complement. I can't find any info on the ingredients so I don't know what kinds of hops were used nor if German malts are in the recipe. Afterburner is 6.1% A.B.V. so it is perfect for chilly October evenings.

Junk food pairing: Deep-fried cheese curds. I cannot even begin to describe the depths of malt gluttony you will wallow in when eating deep-fried cheese curds with your Afterburner.

Uh-oh, little girl, Maillard reaction - And it tastes like this!: Heliostat Zwickel by Metropolitan Brewing

Wowzers! Zwei zwickels in one summer! First I had Urban Chestnuts' version and now I have Metropolitan's Heliostat, the brewery's summer seasonal available on draft only to maximize freshness. (Is New Glarus' Yokel a zwickel?)

When I wrote about Urban Chestnut's brew I admitted that I was flummoxed as to the difference between the zwickel and the kellerbier or if there was even a difference to be had. I was also unsure if they were distinct brewing styles or descriptors of serving processes, i.e. - are these beers simply unfiltered/unpasteurized helles lagers? Truth be known, I still don't know. But once more unto the breach…

Heliostat pours a brilliant straw in color – a pretty summer brew, to be sure. However, I was taken aback when I wiped the condensation from my glass to find that it was clear. Zwickel or kellerbier makes no difference – either is to be unfiltered. Where was my yeast and all the attendant B vitamins? Since the beer seems to be distributed in July, I can only imagine that the yeast had done some settling by early September. He who hesitates is lost, right?

On the nose Heliostat had that wonderful biscuit aroma that I expect from hell German biers as well as a grassy hop bouquet. Heliostat surprised me when tasting it as it had a very prominent taste of fresh grassy/floral hops. I wonder what type of hops was used here? Northern Brewer? Whatever they were, they were incredibly tasty with an almost fruity note to them. More floral tasting hops, please. In addition to the wonderful hoppiness the fantastic Teutonic malt aroma translated to the tongue with cracker and bread crust flavors. Carbonation added a hint of dryness while some doughy sweetness lurked underneath it all.

Heliostat finishes clean and dry with a lingering grassy/herbal hop bitterness. It also left some really nice Schaumhaftvermoegen on my glass.

What is best in beer life? To crush citrus hops. See IPAs driven before you. Hear the lamentations of the hop heads.

Despite the absence of the yeasty haze, Heliostat is a fine beer. Very fine indeed. It has those melanoidin-y/Maillard reaction-y bread crust malt flavors that I crave so dearly in no small measure. The icing on the cake are the fresh grassy and floral flavors from the hops which are the closest thing to the month of May (in a boreal clime) to be captured in a glass that I've ever experienced. Despite prominent hop flavor, Heliostat is not an especially bitter beer. The wonderful malt flavors are somewhat in the background but are by no means hidden behind a hoppy miasma. Heliostat has a medium-light body and is 5% A.B.V. which means that it's not a session beer. It is, however, almost preternaturally good at chasing away the summer heat, if only temporarily.

Heliostat is, to the best of my knowledge, still awaiting your growler at Whole Foods here in Madison.

Junk food pairing: Pair Heliostat with something spicy. I recommend Kettle Brands' Spicy Thai potato chips. However, Flamin Hot Cheetos will do if you can't get to a higher end purveyor of junk food.

Willkomen in Wisconsin, Metropolitan Brewing

Chicago's Metropolitan Brewing recently announced that they'll begin distribution in Wisconsin come May Day so you can raise a glass of their fine lager to the proletariat or cool yourself off after leaping over your Beltane bonfire. To celebrate, Ale Asylum will be hosting a welcome party on Wednesday, 29 April.

If the Metropolitan folks show up you know it will be fun. I am hoping to attend so I can wrap my lips around some of their Arc Welder rye dunkles. It is the nectar of the gods.

Thank you, Doug Hurst, for our daily liquid bread: Generator Doppelbock by Metropolitan Brewing

Here in the depths of winter it's always nice to have a stronger beer to help get you through the chilly nights. Doppelbocks are a good choice for me. These beers date back to the 17th century when the Paulaner monks in Munich brewed a "double bock" to sustain them through Lent. Mind you, in these days of double/trippel/quad/imperial madness, one might think that doppelbocks traditionally were gigantic beers but they were only slightly higher in alcohol than normal bocks, landing the realm of 7% A.B.V. The monks had their monastic duties to attend to, after all, and the abbot wouldn't take too kindly to his sheep showing up at vespers all shitfaced. Still, it's not unheard of for some varieties to hit double digit A.B.V. The Paulaner monks eventually named their liquid bread "Salvator" and the practice of adding –ator to the names of doppelbocks caught on.

The folks at Metropolitan Brewing in Chicago released their take on the style, Generator, back in December, if memory serves. I am unsure if this marks the brewery's first doppelbock but I do believe that it is the first time they've bottled one. I am also fairly certain that Generator is their first winter seasonal to be bottled. At 8.2%, it's perhaps a bit more boozy than tradition dictates but it will certainly keep you warm and provide enough sustenance until Metro's spring seasonal, Iron Works Alt, is released.

Considering the vast quantities of malt that go into this style, it should be no surprise that Generator pours a deep, dark sepia. And even my lousy photo reveals that it's clear. I got a nice tan, pillowy head which lasted a goodly while which I found surprising since I thought that alcohol tended to 86 foam. My glass was left with a modicum of Schaumhaftvermoegen. Doppelbocks are about the malt and Generator smells nice'n'sweet. I detected honey and stonefruit along with some black licorice and even a hint of grassiness from the hops.

Generator is sweet on the tongue as well - I caught toffee flavor as well as bread – but it's also clean. All of those fruity flavors were lagered away. It is a smooth beer and, considering all of the malt that went into it, it had a much lighter body than I thought it would have. Indeed, this stuff goes down easily – perhaps a bit too easily. Also surprising was the hop presence which is stronger than in most doppelbocks I've had. Here the spicy hop flavor is fairly intense veering near to black pepper and while it doesn't outdo the malt it does a yeoman's job in trying.

This is a very fine doppelbock. It tweaks the liquid bread formula a little bit with some extra hops but doesn't stray too far from the tried and true doppelbock legacy. It is also deceptively drinkable with a lighter body that means it'll go down easily for a while before the alcohol catches up with you.

Junk food pairing: A big beer like Generator demands spicy pork rinds.

More Than Meets the Eye: Magnetron from Metropolitan Brewing

Chicago's Metropolitan Brewing is one of my favorite breweries. They brew tasty beers and refuse to populate their line-up with IPAs like a bunch of lemmings. Instead Metro offers fine beer of a more Teutonic nature. Last year they tweaked their line-up and started bottling seasonals with Magnetron, a schwarzbier, being the late autumn/early winter entry.

As far as I can tell, the difference between a schwarzbier and a Munich dunkles is that a schwarzbier goes easier on the malt and isn't as sweet as a dunkles – a milder dunkles, if you will. The thing is, I've had beers that are considered to be schwarzbiers that had had more malt flavor than some dunkles. The line between the two styles is a bit blurry for me. For instance, Sprecher's Black Bavarian is categorized as a schwarzbier yet it emphasizes the malt more than Capital's Munich Dark which is, taxonomically speaking, is a dunkles. Methinks only a trip to Germany can solve this conundrum. Since that's not going to happen in the near future, I will have to content myself with domestic brews like Magnetron.

Magnetron looks black from afar but closer inspection of the narrow part of the glass reveals it to be clear and a very deep reddish brown. I didn't get much of a head on my pour which may very well have been my fault. What foam I did get went away fairly quickly. The nose was fairly sweet – like apricots or plums – along with a bit of coffee from the roasted grains.

The beer tasted much like it smelled with some stonefruit-like sweetness sitting alongside the roasty chocolate and coffee flavors. Don't get me wrong here. These flavors are present but not strong. What we have here is very much like a pilsner – clean and restrained – but with some bonus features. The body is medium-light – a bit heavier than a pilsner yet lighter than something like an amber lager. You can taste the bubbles here so the mouthfeel is smooth and sprightly. There isn't much hoppiness to be had until the finish which was dry and featured a little bit of spicy noble bitterness.

While the Magnetron's dark color mirrors the short winter days, it's nothing like a stout or porter. It is not heavy, there is no burnt grain taste, and no single flavor towers over the others. This beer balances malt sweetness and roastiness in a smooth elixir with a bit of noble hops thrown in for good measure and a classic lager finish.

Junk food pairing: Drink Magnetron with Snyder's Bacon Cheddar pretzel pieces. This is a German style of beer so you are basically obligated to eat pretzels with it. But here you have bacon flavoring to complement the roasty grains and cheddar because, well, you pair beer with cheese, right?

Goodbye Coney Island, Hello Off Color, and WBC Hits Shelves

Sad news, for me anyway. I discovered this morning that a subsidiary of the Boston Beer Company, Alchemy & Science, has purchased the Coney Island brand from Schmaltz Brewing. That in itself isn't bad but news that the new owners will "probably pull back distribution of the Coney Island beers to just focus on the New York metro and New Jersey markets" is.

I like to grab a bomber or two of their brews when I'm in Chicagoland and I guess that's not going to be possible anymore. Too bad. I reviewed Albino Python here and Sword Swallower here.

Speaking of Chicago, not only will I have a couple new flavors from Metropolitan within my grasp when I'm down there later this month, but also some brews from Off Color. As per Binny's blog, Off Color's first two bottled brews will be available – Troublesome, a "blended" wheat beer and Scurry, a dark honey ale. Troublesome is a blended gose concoction which involves a "somewhat uninteresting" wheat beer commingled with "an overly acidic & funky beer fermented solely with lactobacillus". Scurry continues the rare German bier style trend by being a Kotbusser, an ale made with honey and molasses – not unlike Berghoff's Germaniac.

Why the odd styles? Co-founder John Laffler said, "If you go into Binny’s, there are 50 well-made (India pale ales). Why the hell would you throw your hat in that ring? Plus this is what we’re more interested in."

I look forward to trying their brews.

Has anyone tried Wisconsin Brewing Company yet? Their beers hit store shelves yesterday when I was unable to consume. A friend said he thought the porter was awful but that the amber lager was good. He also remarked that the lager tasted slightly differently than Capital's but that the difference was not worth paying $.50 more per six-pack. (Capital is $6.99 at Woodman's while WBC is $7.49.Unless prices have been raised recently.)

It's quite a stark contrast between Off Color and WBC. OC is reluctant to jump on the bandwagon and play the IPA game. On the other hand, WBC has a brewmaster with a professed fondness for German lagers and who had never commercially brewed an IPA before yet half his portfolio now is IPAs.

"Give Me Lager or Give Me Death!"

From our neighbors to the south at Metropolitan Brewing.