You know when you feel déjà vu: Tailwagger Amber Ale by New Glarus Brewing

When I first heard that New Glarus had a new beer out called Tailwagger, I felt a strong sense of déjà vu. Wasn't that the name given to their barleywine back in 2006 or thereabouts? Indeed it was. In fact, the puppy that appeared on the label nearly 20 years ago has returned seemingly having not aged a day to grace the one for the Tailwagger nouveau. Like Dorian Gray, but different.

When I learned that the 21st century Tailwagger was an amber ale, I got another flash of déjà vu. It felt like I had been transported back to the mid-1990's when Fat Tire was still in its infancy but steadily gaining in popularity and Pete's Wicked Ale was everywhere good (American) beer was sold as was Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Here in Madison, Capital's Special Pilsner, Sprecher Amber, and New Glarus Edel Pils represented the home team. (I don't recall much Lakefront around at that time though I am sure Riverwest Stein was to be had.) It's a shame that New Glarus didn't release Fat Squirrel contemporaneously with Tailwagger for a real 90s throwback extravaganza.

Unlike in the mid-90s, I don't drink much amber ale these days but I am always up for tasting what Dan Carey and the rest of the brewing crew at New Glarus have come up with. Well, almost always. I have yet to take the plunge into their Splash malt beverages, for instance.

It's nice to be have more daylight these days as I really enjoy taking a brew outside. They look better in sunlight too. As you can more or less see above, Tailwagger is - quelle surprise - amber. And clear as can be. A smattering of bubbles made their way up to a lovely light tan head. As I was outside in close proximity to lilac bushes and freshly laid cedar mulch, I tried my best to separate the smells of the yard from the smells of the beer. To wit: the aroma was caramel, grass, and a hint of biscuit. Things were off to a fine start.

My first sip revealed a smooth, medium-light body accompanied by some very nice fizz. While I tasted caramel, it wasn't particularly sweet. There was also a slight roastiness and bit of stone fruit. The hops tasted grassy-herbal to me. Not a lot but rather just enough. When I swallowed, there were some lingering caramel and biscuit flavors that were quickly joined by grassy hops. Bitterness and dryness were both on the mild side.

I thoroughly enjoyed Tailwagger: The Next Generation. My notes say "Excellent!", in fact. Aristotle would have appreciated this brew as there just seemed to be the right amounts of everything with nothing in excess except general tastiness. It simply has that amber ale arete. I greatly appreciated the restraint in sweetness and how the caramel taste was complemented by biscuity malt. The light body made it go down easy.

Junk food pairing: Pair the new Tailwagger with a bag of Guinness Rich Chili crisps.

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.

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.

Imperial Radler?!

New Glarus Brewing has announced their spring beer line-up and there's an Imperial Radler in the Thumbprint series along with a Milk Chocolate Stout.

 

 

Since a radler is usually 2%-2.5%, does that mean an imperial version will be 4% A.B.V.?

 

It's nice to see the return of both Kid Kölsch and Pilsner.

 

 

Throw in Two Women, a Landbier(?), and there'll be a lot of fine lagers on store shelves this spring.

Uff-da, it's cold out!

My survey of winter beers continues. 

I was happy to hear that Uff-da has returned. It's been a favorite of mine ever since New Glarus brewed it for the first time back in - what? - the mid-90s? That malty goodness kept back the chill on a recent evening.

Glühbier

For reasons unknown, I decided to mull some beer earlier this week. I found a recipe that sounded tasty and I carefully adjusted it for fewer servings.

This inaugural attempt at mulling beer would be done with all New Glarus beers - Uff-da and Back 40 bocks. I had them at home already and figured a little variety might be interesting instead of going 100% Uff-da.

The recipe calls for cherry juice and I completely failed to find it in anything less than a quart. So I will have to use it to marinate meat as well as subsequent mulling attempts. I figured buckwheat honey would add a complementary earthy/grainy taste instead of something more floral. The bag of mulling spices was already open and I could not recall how long we'd had it.

Into the pot it all went. Also some lemon juice from one of those lemons in the background.

20 or so minutes later I sampled. A nice beer/malt taste and the mulling spices didn't seem overwhelming. The problem was it had a serious bitterness to it. I tripled or quadrupled the honey. A bit more cooking and I had a glass.

I could taste the grains of the beer and the honey provided some defense against the bitterness but it was still very much there. On the plus side, the spices tasted just right.

I'm not sure what the bitterness was. At least some of it was hops, surely. But, rather than strictly following the recipe's spice doses, I just took a pinch and threw it in. I am wondering if I added too much clove/mace in that pinch. The thing is, I didn't find their flavors to be very strong. Maybe an overdose goes into bitterness territory easily instead of an ever-increasing blast of that earthy-smoky taste.

While I finished the glass, I tossed the rest thinking about what to change for my next attempt.

Edel Pils Returns

Nice to see that the original New Glarus brew, Edel Pils, has returned. Unfortunately, it's a brewery-only release.

As part of New Glarus' 30th anniversary, we welcome back Edel-Pils! The brewery’s first brew, Edel-Pils uses specially selected Bavarian yeast, European and Wisconsin malts, and Bavarian and Wisconsin hops. Edel-Pils is sold exclusively at the brewery Beer Depot! Cheers! 🍻 pic.twitter.com/zoIifeowBi

— New Glarus Brewery (@newglarusbrew) June 7, 2023

Beware; for Dan is fearless, and therefore powerful: Pilsner by New Glarus Brewing

Before there was Spotted Cow, there was Edel Pils.

My memory is that I first tasted New Glarus beer in the late summer or early fall of 1994 when my then girlfriend and I lived together in a flat on the isthmus. She had recently turned 21 and celebrated having attained the age of majority by heading to Pinkus McBride and bringing home a 6-pack of Edel Pils by this new brewery just south of town. I was an instant fan of the beer and remain one of the brewery nearly 29 years later.

At some point, Edel Pils disappeared, its place usurped by Spotted Cow, although it has returned periodically over the years. Overall, though, the pilsner just didn't seem to have a big place in the New Glarus line-up for a long time. Unfortunately, when the brewery revamped their website fairly recently, the "Beers We Have Known and Loved" section went away so I am relying on my imperfect memory here. Hometown Blonde was a pils and a really tasty one but, alas, just like Edel Pils, it came and went.

About 5 years ago, they released a limited edition pilsner called Mistral which featured the eponymous hop from France. Things seemed quiet on the pilsner front for a spell and then last year came 22 Pils, brewed with a variety of malts and flavored with a new (or newish, anyway) German variety of hops called Diamant. 

As a consumer, it seemed that there were some pilsner wheels turning down in New Glarus, but they were grinding slowly. However, this means they were grinding fine and this spring we got Pilsner, a new seasonal, named with typical Wisconsin reserve and humility.

It seems that Brewmaster Dan pieced this one together with ingredients from various pilsner brewing traditions. It's a bit German and a bit Czech; a bit old school and a bit neu. Malts are double-decocted in Central European brewing tradition and then joined with a panoply of mostly newer hops: Diamant, Mittelfrüh, Saphir, Select, and Hallertau Blanc. It seems that 22 Pils was merely a trial run for this, Dan's latest attempt at the perfect pilsner. Is this his gesamtkunstbier?

Clear as day and a refulgent yellow, Pilsner looked wonderful in my footed New Glarus pilsner glass which I brought up from the basement for the occasion. There were some bubbles inside which floated upwards to the large, white head of frothy foam that proved to be in no hurry to dissipate. Even if the flavor wasn't right, at least it had the perfect pilsner appearance. The aroma was heavenly with traditional biscuit and grassy scents joined by a hint of something fruity, something like white grapes with a little pear.

My first sip revealed a light-medium body along with a good, firm fizziness to it. The grainy taste was mainly biscuity with just a hint of doughy sweetness. A bracing herbal hoppiness provided balance and crispness and there was also a melon-like fruitiness too. On the finish, the grainy taste went auf wiedersehen and allowed the herbal-fruity hop combo to come to the fore with those new-fangled ones giving a melon-pear taste. They also gave a very pleasant medium dryness and bitterness to the finale.

Ausgezeichnet!

This is a fine pilsner. Very fine, indeed. It has more maltiness than a German pils but less than a Czech one like Pilsner Urquell. It really tasted like Dan split it perfectly down the middle. Similarly, your tongue gets a bracing dose of Noble hop flavor here but also subtle fruity ones. To the best of my knowledge, 3 of the 5 hops used here (or listed on the label, anyway) impart fruity flavors and/or aromas and I really appreciate how they are all accents and not assertively trying to make this beer into Hawaiian Punch. They provide a nice counterpoint to the more traditional pilsner flavor but really, they're all working together here instead of one standing out. Just great. And my empty pilsner glass was left with some mighty fine lacing. Visual perfection.

I hope Brewmaster Dan continues his quest for the perfect pilsner and that he throws some rye into the next batch.

Junk food pairing: This is a wonderful, complex beer that demands a subtle food pairing. Try a bag of Lay's Cucumber potato chips with your Pilsner.

Road Slush 2023

A fine stout from New Glarus.

Now Legal in All 72 Counties!: Java Lava by Pearl Street Brewery

Sometime in the mid-1990s.
South central Wisconsin

A black sedan makes its way past the endless kalberwurst fields of Green County on Highway 69 and eventually pulls into the small southern Wisconsin town of New Glarus. The car's tinted windows draw some attention but the locals mainly shrug off the dark glass. Hans Luchsinger looks up from the alphorn he is tuning for just the briefest of moments as the town's newest visitors cruise by his shop before resuming his work.

"Must be some city slickers from Madison," theorizes Alfred Streissguth who is turning onto 69 on his way to the Glarner Stube as the mysterious car turns off of the state highway and onto County W. 

The black sedan pulls into the parking lot of the still fairly new brewery, New Glarus Brewing Company. Taking the stall closest to the entrance, the front doors open simultaneously and the sound of yodeling is heard for a split second before the engine is shut off. Two figures, a man and a woman, exit the car clad in long black overcoats, their faces obscured by mirrored sunglasses.

The pair approach the front door and knock 3 times. No more, no less. Just 3 times. They can hear a bottle drop onto the floor and some indistinct profanity on the other side. After about 30 seconds the door is opened by a mustachioed man of slightly taller than average height who appears to be in his mid-30s. He wears lederhosen and a Tyrolean hat. His mustache has a small patch of white foam on it and the man quietly blurts, "Ope!" before hastily licking it away.

"H-Hello?" he asks hesitantly.

Simultaneously - almost mechanically - the visitors reach inside their coats and pull out ID.

"We're from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Are you Dan Carey?" they inquire.

"Yes, I am."

"May we come in?"

"Sure." Dan leads them past empty barrels and stacks of bottles ready to be filled to the brewery's break area which is a small room with only a couple tables with chairs and a vending machine that dispenses Swiss cheese sticks and Landjäger. The woman glances into the vending machine and notices all of the holes in the cheese. She decides that the sticks are not a good value.

The government agents stare at Dan who could only see his reflection in their sunglasses when he looked back. Eventually he gets the hint and sits down. His interlocutors remain standing.

The woman methodically pulls her coat open and Dan's heart skips a beat as he sees a shoulder holster containing a pistol. However, the agent instead sticks her hand into an inside pocket and proceeds to pull out a bottle of beer. New Glarus beer.

"Is this your beer, Mr. Carey?"

Dan looks at the bottle which had a deep blue label that proudly proclaims "New Glarus Brewing Co." above "Coffee Stout".

"Yes, that's my beer," he replies with more than little pride. 

The agents turn to look at one another in unison, as if their movements were mechanically synchronized. Smiles of the "We got the bad guy!" kind appear on their faces.

This time the man spoke. "Mr. Carey, did you know this beer is illegal?"

"Oh jeez! It's just beer. With coffee."

"Just beer," the woman repeated mockingly. "Just beer, he says."

Her partner smirked and continued, "Mr. Carey, coffee is not an approved ingredient in beer. The government cannot allow unregulated admixtures of alcohol and caffeine to be thrust upon an unsuspecting public. You're going to have to come with us."

"What?!" Dan pleaded incredulously.

Dan Carey was never seen again. His disappearance is listed as "Unexplained" in the gevernment files.

Afterwords:

Not too long after Dan Carey's disappearance, coffee became an approved ingredient in beer.

*********************************

It's been a while since I've had a Pearl Street Brewery brew. I think of them as one of the breweries that time forgot. They've just melted into the background and become part of Wisconsin's craft brewing scenery. Like Tyranena, to my mind.

I don't mean to demean here because I like their beer. It's just that they're not trendy. People don't seem to be waiting with bated breath for their new IPA or any such thing. Pearl Street is a stalwart, not a trendsetter and that's fine by me.

And thanks to the sacrifices of Dan Carey and the folks in New Glarus, Pearl Street and anyone else who cares to can brew and sell a coffee beer. And they do. For the venerable La Crosse brewery it's Java Lava, a coffee stout. The earliest mention I could find of it dates to 2011 and it gave me the impression that it wasn't brand-spanking new but not a veteran brew either. Perhaps it was a brewery-only thing at that point, soon to be bottled. Today it is looks to be one of their flagship brews and available year-round.

Coffee beers are generally like cocktails in that you mix them. You brew some beer and then brew some coffee and mix them together. As a fan of coffee, I'd love it if brewers gave more info about the coffees they use in these kinds of beers. Light roasts taste different than darker ones. I personally prefer African coffees above others because I find that they have an especially tasty terroir. Maybe someday some brewery will do a series of coffee beers with various roasts of various coffees. How would a stout made with lightly-roasted Ethiopian coffee tasty compared to one brewed with a darker roast of the same beans?

Pearl Street notes that Java Lava is brewed with Guatemalan coffee but doesn't note the roast.

Regardless, this stuff looked like motor oil as it poured into my glass. It's about as Stygian a brown you can find. A small, frothy tan head looked very nice but lasted just long enough for me to get a photo of the last of it before it was all gone. Clarity was impossible to determine at first but it later proved to be clear. I smelled a slightly sweet plum scent, some dark chocolate, roasted grain, and, of course, coffee.

On my first sip, I caught a good, firm fizziness and a medium to medium-lightish body. There was delicious coffee flavor to be tasted as well as a bit of mild dark chocolate and roasted grain. Although a malty sweetness grew as the beer warmed, it remained restrained. There was also some bitterness to be had with some of it coming from the coffee and the rest from hops.

That tastilicious coffee lingered after I swallowed and a bracing herbal-spicy hoppiness washed over my tongue. And so the finishing touches were a bit dry and bitter but nothing outrageous. Just a nice green kind of flavor to stand in contrast to all of the dark, roasty flavors and that malt sweetness.

I really enjoyed Java Lava. It was a glassful of wonderful roasty flavors and positively gluttonous for someone like me who enjoys coffee and beer. I think the Guatemalan coffee added a fruity tasting brightness to the flavor that complemented the bitterness. It was sprightly and kind of sharp, overall. Good stuff.

Junk food pairing: Grab a can of Koh-Kae peanuts with the coffee flavor coating. They'll add a little sweetness and creaminess to round things off.

Thumbprint 6: Weizen Doppelbock by New Glarus Brewing Co.

Back in 2021, New Glarus Brewing bid good riddance to the worst of the pandemic and its lockdowns with Gyrator, a doppelbock that eased me into winter with a rush of malty goodness and a nice buzz. Apparently others were similarly smitten and we collectively made Gyrator into a hit. Well, as big a hit a New Glarus beer that isn't Spotted Cow can be, I guess.

Realizing they had stumbled onto something good, Dan Carey and his brewhouse minions (with the blessing of Deb Carey, of course) went the doppelbock route again last fall and loosed Weizen Doppelbock upon us late in the autumn.

The weizen doppelbock is, as far as I know, a bigger, chewier, more potent version of the venerable hefeweizen/weissbier, a.k.a. - the German wheat bier. The style involves boiling a bunch of wheat that has been bolstered with some barley and then letting the resulting proto-bier mingle with a particular type of yeast that poops out tasty phenols and esters that your tongue thinks are like banana, clove, bubble gum, et al. Today I learned that this yeast strain is called Torulaspora delbrueckii. I suppose a weizen doppelbock is just this formula with more ingredients.

While hefeweizens are fairly common, their doppelbock cousins are not. When it comes to this style, I immediately think of Tap 6: Mein Avenitus from the German brewery Schneider Weisse - G. Schneider & Sohn. It is the platonic ideal of a weizen doppelbock from a brewery that turns the popular drink into an art form. They seem to have weissbier in their blut and brew various takes on the style: cloudy, clear, bocky, eisbocky, extra hoppy, aged in wine barrels, und so weiter.

In addition to increasing my yeast knowledge today, I have also learned that the name "Aventinus" refers to the Bavarian historian of that same name, a.k.a. - Johannes Turmair, who lived from 1477-1534. Now, why the bier was named after him is as of yet unknown to me. Perhaps it's just a tribute to a local boy who done good for himself.

For their part, New Glarus seem to have taken a cue from Tap 6. Their weizen doppelbock appears to be rather traditional, if the text on the bottle is to be believed. No mention of added fruit nor the use of experimental hops; no kveik-torulaspora hybrid yeast for that Norwegian farmhouse weizen taste.

 

The beer came with a lovely firm, light tan head of no small volume. And it had staying power too, owing, no doubt, to all of the protein from the wheat. (60% wheat, I hear.) It was deep copper in color and cloudy. I could smell banana even though my glass was several inches from my nose. Moving it closer, I also caught bubble gum and a wheaty-grainy aroma. Although it had been a while since I'd had an Aventinus, I felt my memories of it come flooding back in every sip of estery goodness.

Although it had a medium-full body, there was also a hefty dose of fizz here that kept my tongue from being cloyed by all the malty sweetness. Banana and bubble gum were the most prominent flavors from that special yeast, but there was a hint of clove in there too. That sweetness was a bit like raisin and balanced by some hops which had a herbal, vaguely minty taste. And there was the taste of wheat as well.

The fruity flavors lingered on the finish as the sweetness faded. Something like mild cinnamon entered the picture here as the hops gained in strength. They, along with some boozy heat, made for a nice dry, bitter finish that stood in stark contrast to the big malty sweetness that I had just swallowed.

My tasting was done in February and this weizen doppelbock made a fine companion on a chilly night. Furthermore, I can recommend its muscle relaxing qualities after shoveling snow. The label notes that it was double decocted but I didn't detect much, if anything, in the way of the toasty bread flavor I associate with that process. Maybe it was just me because, when I see "weizen", I immediately start thinking of banana and clove and all of the flavors from the yeast and how I prefer the former. Perhaps I was concentrating on that and not any traces of Maillard reactions and this steered by tastebuds in a certain direction.

Regardless, this is a very fine beer. I hope that the trend continues this autumn with a roggenbier brewed to bock strength so I can have a taste-off with Tippy Toboggan.

Junk food pairing: When drinking one of these Weizen Doppelbocks, shake hands with beef and pop open a bag of Lay's Kobe Steak flavored potato chips.

The Corona Diaries Vol. 74: Down Highway 53 There's a Place Called Osseo

(late October 2022)

(Listen to the prelude.)

As happened last year, October rolled around and I found myself with a fair amount of vacation time to use before the end of the year. So I once again planned a trip up to the northwestern part of the state. And just like last year, my first destination was Osseo to meet a couple of friends from high school for dinner and drinks.

On the way up, I stopped at the Black River Falls rest area. It has a lovely scenic overlook a short walk from the parking lot. You go up Bell Mound and then take a boardwalk around it to the overlook.

 

The historic marker noted that the area was home to a mine owned by the Jackson County Iron Company and that the mine’s buildings and pit would be visible from the overlook. I looked and squinted and looked again but couldn’t see them. Later I realized that the marker dated to 1976 and that the pit mine was handed over to the county and had become Wazee Lake at some point in the intervening years. My Frau and I took a swim there back in 2009 and it is magnificent. Water clear as day. Most of the lake is rather shallow but the open mine bit is a genuine abyss and I am told that people dive there to get their certification.

A 30-mile drive north and I was once again in Osseo which lies in the far northeast corner of Trempealeau County. Founded in 1857, the origin of the name is lost in the mists of time but the best theory is that it comes from the name of a character in Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha" which was published the previous year.

My time in Osseo last fall saw no shortage of rain and I abandoned my plans to walk a stretch of the Buffalo River Trail as the storms had left many large puddles. This year was dry and warmer, even if the sun wasn’t always shining. I parked, pulled my bicycle out from the back of my car and was off.

It wasn’t long before I realized that I hadn’t put on my shoes which didn’t have mesh sides and kept the wind out. While it was certainly warmer than last year, it still wasn’t balmy out. I cursed as it dawned on me that I had forgotten to pack my other pair of gym shoes and my boots. It seemed that I was destined to have cold feet on this ride.

Although it had rained the previous night, the storm wasn’t of biblical proportions so standing water was merely sporadic. But the crushed gravel wasn’t always firm and my tires sank in for much of the ride. Not deeply, mind you, but my legs did get a workout.

The trail is about 36 miles long and stretches from Mondovi to the west of Osseo to Fairchild to the east. It follows Highway 10, more or less, and is a former rail corridor. The railroad was built between 1887-1890 by regional lumber baron Nathaniel Foster. (I have once source giving his middle initial as G while another C.) Foster owned lumber yards in Mondovi and Osseo as well as Eleva and Strum, two towns which are in between those two. Originally called the Sault Ste. Marie & Southwestern Railway, it would become part of the Omaha Railway and finally the Chicago & Northwestern. The tracks were abandoned in 1975 and dismantled the following year. Eventually the Wisconsin DNR bought it and turned it into the Buffalo River Trail you see before you.

The DNR website explains that the Buffalo River was so named because early French explorers had christened it Riviere de Beeufs since the area was home to many bison back in the day.

The Buffalo River, which I remember being called the Beef River when I lived in the area, looks more like a creek as it wends its way from Osseo westward where it eventually meets the Mississippi River.

Although the river runs right behind my old high school, I don’t recall ever going to its shores while a student there.

I saw no other people on the trail but I did see a young buck who was probably sniffing around for a doe.

No doubt he’ll be running for dear life in a month or so when gun season opens.

Farther down the trail near Strum was this fine dome home. I did not expect to see the legacy of R. Buckminster Fuller in rural Trempealeau County.

When I got to Strum, my feet were rather cold so I turned around and headed back to Osseo instead of continuing on to Eleva, as had been my original plan.

I checked in at my hotel and took a shower before my next destination which was Burly N Bucks, a tavern which held the promise of beer, food, and good company.

It was a rather nice small town watering hole. I was impressed with the tap beer selection which included Leinenkugel’s from 30 or so miles up the road in Chippewa Falls as well as a couple brews from Sand Creek, again 30 or so miles away but to the south in Black River Falls. Not only was I grateful that there were some fine brews to be had, I also appreciated that the taps had a regional bent. Of course there was Spotted Cow but also Capital’s Wisconsin Amber. 16oz pours of Oscar’s Stout from Sand Creek were a mere $3.25, half the price you’d pay in Madison, I’d bet.

I was to once again meet my friend Jason and a newcomer, Brad, who was unable to attend last year because of his goofy work schedule. This time around, it was Nick who would be a no show.

We had dinner and chatted the night away. Brad and I hadn’t seen one another since 1990 and it was a pleasure to attempt to catch up on over 32 years of life. He seemed to be much like he was in high school, a bit aloof and happy to let others do their thing as long as they let him enjoy a modicum of solitude and the quiet of the country. In between reacquainting ourselves with one another and reminiscing about our high school years, we solved a few of the world’s problems and were flummoxed by kids these days.

Just like last year, no photos were taken. I don't know if this is because we're men, because we're Gen Xers who didn't grow up with smartphones or what. The thought of taking pictures never even occurred to me, although I'd like to show my Frau more examples of the type of people I grew up with.

I felt badly because I had intended to bring up some Nutkrack candied pecans again but completely forgot. On the other hand, Jason bestowed the gift of soap upon me with a couple bars from Chippewa Falls’ newest purveyor of soaps, Ope! It’s Soap. They were beer soaps with the Leinenkugel’s brand. I hope that this gift was not an indication of a hygiene deficiency on my part.

Unlike me, my friends had to work in the morning so we didn’t stay out too late. The plan now is to see one another more often than once a year. Something to work on.

I returned to my hotel, kicked back, and set out to finish the book that I was reading.

********

By all rights, I should have read it back in 7th or 8th grade but didn’t. I also neglected to do so in high school, although I did read Twain’s short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” then. Several years ago I dipped my toes into the Twain waters once more when I read Letters From Earth. But never Tom Sawyer nor Huck Finn. Having finally read the former, I would say that I should have done so back in 7th grade.

While I enjoy Twain’s writing immensely, I couldn’t help think that it was truly meant for 12 year-old me. Still, there were some funny bits such the scenes in the church which poke fun at religion. I also laughed when Tom and Huck are planning to become rogues and Huck suggests they have orgies because that’s what bad guys do, never mind that he has no idea what they are.

I had a couple chuckles while reading it and am happy to have gotten this classic of American literature under my belt but it's not something I plan to return to.

********

The next morning I arose planning on investigating the remains of a town no longer on the maps. But first I made a trek over to Osseo’s general store, Stockman's Farm Supply & More, where I bought a pair of boots and some decorative Indian corn which now hangs in our dining room.

Impulse buy.

The previous night Jason had told me that someone had opened a gaming store in town recently. And so my next stop would be Boards & Bricks.

The store boasts a large selection of Legos, puzzles, board games, and a smattering of role-playing game materials.

I ended up buying a little puzzle of Madison.

At 500 pieces, we stand a chance of assembling it in one night and not having to let it sit out at the mercy of the cats.

Wondering how it was that such a fine store opened up in a very small town, I struck up a conversation with the woman behind the counter. She told that it was opened back in June by a gentleman who had moved to the area from Utah(!) and his dream was to own a gaming store. (I guess Mormons just aren't into Settlers of Catan, Dungeons & Dragons, etc.) Well, he made his dream come true…in Osseo. I wish him the best of luck.

As we were talking, the woman glanced out the front windows. I followed her gaze and saw an older gentleman putting a couple of pies into the back of his car.

"I've seen people carrying pies all day," she noted.

You see, just 2 storefronts down was the Norske Nook, famous for its pies. It's a small chain (4?) of Norwegian restaurants scattered around the state. However, the original (OG, as the kids say these days) Norske Nook is directly across the street from the gaming store.

Puzzle in hand, I made my way back to my car and headed west. On the way out of town, I saw this sign:

All your needs taken care of in one spot.

On Highway 10, I ran into a sight I saw a lot of up north - tractors on the highway.

One thing I was not able to do in Osseo was stop in at the Northwoods Brewpub. They have a rye ale to die for but it’s not brewed year round so its availability is a total crap shoot. Oh well. The brewery is in a former condensery - a place where water is removed from milk to make evaporated or condensed milk - and the lovely old building makes for a nice spot to have a brew and a meal.

My next stop was to look at the remains of the long lost town of Hadleyville.

********

Bonus photo. I found another (inoperable) pay phone! This one is inside a little neighborhood grocery store in Madison.

The Son of Dan's Irresistible Commands: Black Currant 22 by New Glarus Brewing

The impending release of a new fruit beer from New Glarus Brewing is perhaps the most prosaic beer news a Wisconsinite can hear. It has all the novelty of road construction in the summer. When isn’t New Glarus engaged in some kind of alchemickal diabelerie conjuring beer from fruit (and vegetables) and grain?

Back in July, if memory serves, I heard that the venerable brewery to the south was to be unleashing Black Currant 22 come August. On one hand, it sounded interesting as blackcurrant is not an ingredient commonly found in beer, at least here in the States. On the other, the last 2 or 3 New Glarus fruit beer creations have been cloying, syrupy, and basically undrinkable for me. I contemplated not bothering with Black Currant 22 and found myself with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other locked in mortal combat for my liver's soul.

Devil: Yuck! It’s a fruit beer!
Angel: But it’s New Glarus.
Devil: Yuck! It’s a fruit beer!
Angel: But it’s New Glarus.
Devil: Yuck! It’s a fruit beer!
Angel: But it’s New Glarus.
Devil: I want you to go out and kill! Kill! KILL!
Angel: WTF?
Devil: Wait. You’re not David Berkowitz. Sorry.

In this heated battle, it was the angel that proved victorious and so I brought home a 4-pack of the contentious brew.

Blackcurrant berries grow on shrubberies (Ni!) in northern and central Europe and northern Asia, according to Wikipedia. This explains why my past experiences with the fruit were exclusively from Polish jams. As the Black Currant 22 bottles note, the berries are on the tart side and I was hopeful that the tartness would prevail over sweetness here.

Black Currant 22 is a lovely deep purple. (Duh, duh, duh. Duh, duh da-duh!) The foam is purple too but my pour didn't produce much of it and what little there was fizzed away rather quickly. I think it was clear but certainly not translucent. The aroma was pleasantly unexpected. There was the anticipated sharp fruity/berry component but there was also a sour-lemony scent too. Also not expected was a hint of leather. A faint grassy smell rounded things out.

Despite the paucity of foam, the beer had a firm fizziness to it. Blackcurrants are more acidic than their red and white cousins and this stuff proves it with its mighty tang. The body was medium-heavy and I expect that the sweetness I tasted underneath the berry tartness was from the malt. How to describe what blackcurrant berries taste like? The best way I can think of is cranberry plus grape. Yeah, I know someone of a botanical inclination will dismiss this as a puerile description of their true taste but it's the best I've got.

When I swallowed, I found that the tangy fruitiness lingered long after the sweetness faded. I suppose hops may have contributed a little bitterness here but everything on the finish tasted of the fruit to me.

I breathed a sigh of relief after my first sip. This is very tasty stuff and not a cloying fructose bomb as the tart berries and fizz combined to keep the sweetness at bay. The tangy fruit flavor is simply delicious. Plus its purple hue makes for a lovely looking glass.

Junk food pairing: Pair your Black Currant 22 with a bag of Chex Mix Muddy Buddies Brownie Supreme and let the acidic fruitiness tangle with the chocolate goodness of the Chex Mix.

Sometimes I've believed as many as two fictional things before Beer:30: Kid Kölsch by New Glarus Brewing Co.

A few years back when New Glarus released its initial batch of Kid Kölsch, my first thought was, “Oh good! Glad to see New Glarus brewing a Kölsch again. It’s been a while.” They do that – brew a fantastic beer and then leave you hanging the next year when it’s nowhere to be found. For example, Coffee Stout and Cran-bic are simply great beers that we deserve to have every year but they seem to come and go at the whim of a capricious brewmaster. Much to my chagrin, I soon discovered that their previous Kölsch was like Sinbad’s Shazaam – it didn’t exist and was merely a false memory.

How did that happen?

Perhaps recalling (correctly, by the way) that they had brewed an altbier (Don’t believe me? Here’s a link for proof.), I just mistakenly assumed that Dan Carey and Co. had also brewed its cousin from downriver, the Kölsch. I mean, if you’re going to brew one Obergäriges (top-fermented) Lagerbier, you might as well brew both, right? On the other hand, my mental lapse may have been a sign of encroaching senescence.

Disturbingly, it was déjà vu all over again a couple weeks or so ago when I was writing a review of Bierzeit, the Kölsch from Lakefront, another brewery that’s been known to lager a beer or 2 or 20 and was brewing the style for the first time. I noted that -

SPOILERS!


 

 

…we here in Madison are blessed with some fine Kölsches including the one by New Glarus. I went to make a link to my review of Kid Kölsch but found that I had never actually written one. (Ooh! I guess this makes for déjà vu x2.) It would appear that I am making a good argument for senescence here. Since I didn’t have a review of Kid Kölsch and the odds are good that it would come in handy in the future, I resolved to write it. And so here we are.

I adore the Kölsch and it’s a regular in my refrigerator as the temperatures start climbing in the late spring. The style is a native of Cologne where it is served .2 litres at a time in a tall, thin cylindrical glass called a Stange. At the breweries there, the servers, who are called köbes, dress up in blue jackets and carry a bunch of Stangen on a circular tray called a Kranz. Some of them are apparently quite surly and will likely appeal to patrons of Ed Debevic’s. Nonetheless, they keep fresh, cold Kölsch in front of you. I once asked my wife to don a naughty köbes outfit and give me some Kölsch service. She too was rather testy and all I got out of it was a black eye.

Kid Kölsch is a lovely light yellow and slightly hazy. I think that the Kölsch is supposed to be clear as per the Kölsch Treaty of 1986 (which ended the Great Kölsch Wars) but I am certainly not going to complain as Kid Kölsch was double frickin’ decocted for extra malty goodness!

!!!!

I managed to get a lot of foam in my Stange which was white and firm. There were many bubbles in the glass and they seemed smaller than normal. The aroma was just delightful with a bit of straw joined by some cracker as well as a touch of pear and a hint of something floral.

Those smaller bubbles seem to have generated a milder fizz while the decoction regimen made for a very tasty cracker flavor with definite bready overtones that carried some wheatiness with them. Despite all of the luscious grain flavors, it was quite light-bodied. Lurking underneath was a spicy hop flavor and a bit o’fruitiness that was pear-like but also had a berry thing going as well.

The malty flavors and that dash of fruit faded quickly on the finish to be replaced by a spicy-earthy hoppiness that, along with the fizz, gave a medium level of bitterness and dryness. There was also an astringency here but it gave a gentle bite and left no marks.

When it comes to Kölsches from Cologne, I am a Reissdorf kind of guy. They just do the crackery malt flavor with a touch of fruitiness and just enough hops thing perfectly and their beer is the touchstone of the style for me. Kid Kölsch does the same thing but is much fresher. It looks like New Glarus introduced it in 2019 and I believe they’ve brewed it every year since, but don’t quote me on that. Going to buy that first six pack is my newest spring ritual. When I see Kid Kölsch on the shelf, I know that warmer weather, road construction, and mosquitoes are on their way.

Junk food pairing: Kölsches go well with cheese puffs and you can’t go wrong pairing your Kid Kölsch with Cheetos White Cheddar Puffs.

Your craft lager, buddy it's most too light. But my 22-pils will make everything alright: 22 Pils by New Glarus Brewing Co.

When I was at the brewery in New Glarus, I noticed that the gift shop had DVDs of Tale of the Spotted Cow for sale. I didn't buy a copy but now I wish I did because I am having trouble remembering dates. Whenever it was that New Glarus started selling their beer - 1993? 1994? - they were selling Edel Pils. And maybe Belgian Red too. I cannot recall when that was first introduced but it was early.

Wait.

According to local beer scribe Robin Shepard, Belgian Red was their third brew. I'd swear on Shepard's life that Edel Pils was first so what was second? Copper Kettle Weissbier? I bet that documentary would tell us. Regardless, Belgian Red is still brewed today.

And Belgian Red deserves to be brewed today because it's a wonderful beer. Spotted Cow pays the bills and gets most of the press but what other American brewery was brewing a Belgian-style fruited sour beer in 1994ish? In Wisconsin? Of that quality, too. Belgian Red was sui generis there for a while in Wisconsin beer coolers. Plus, it wasn't long before New Glarus introduced one of, if not the, first commercial coffee stouts. Coffee Stout is still brewed today, though it seems to be a biennial brew.

But Edel Pils? I don't know when it was last made. Seems like it is around once every several years, perhaps. Too bad. I recall drinking it starting in 1994 and loving it. Brewmaster Dan Carey proved his brewing ability for all to taste with it. And then, somewhere along the way, the pilsner fell out of fashion and the New Glarus beer roster moved on. The style pops up now and again as a limited edition, made in smaller quantities and sometimes available only at the brewery. As best I can recall, the last pilsner New Glarus made was Mistral back in 2018. Well, until now.

22 Pils was released this spring and is available only at the brewery. Described as a German Style Pilsner, it was made with a blend of "American, German and Czech heirloom Pilsner malts". Sounds excellent. The wort underwent a Double Decoction Mash - ausgezeichnet! The beer was then topped off with whole cone Diamant hops aus Deutschland.

Wait. Dia-what?

They are a rather new variety having been introduced in 2019. I wasn't able to find a Diamant Hops for Dummies site so I found myself parsing brewersese. One site made it sound like climate change is making life rough for growers of Noble hops and that Diamant was bred to survive the coming apocalypse thrive in the new environment in which we find ourselves. Uff da! That doesn't sound good.

A pils from New Glarus is a special occasion so I dug out a pilsner glass from the basement. I poured kind of, um, aggressively and ended up with a very large head of firm, white foam that proved to be in no hurry to go anywhere. The liquid was yellow and clear as day. A goodly number of bubbles were found inside making their way upwards. The last time I wrote about a pilsner I confessed to loving their aromas which remind me of summer with their green hoppy scents melding with a light maltiness. Well, this bier had that in spades. Beyond that, there were also hints of fruitiness and a little something floral. Simply wonderful.

It had a good, solid fizz to it as one would expect from a pils. The malt flavor was that tasty cracker-biscuit hybrid plus a little toasted bread thrown in for good measure. It was, after all, doubly decocted. The Diamant hops gave that herbal/spicy flavor which one expects from a Teutonic hop but there was also a fruitiness that was berry/melon-like. Depending on the sip, the beer could taste rather sweet. Not that it was; I think it was simply a stronger fruit flavor from the hops fooling my brain into believing this brew was laced with fructose.

On the finish the malty flavors faded leaving the more fruity elements of the hops to linger a short time before the more traditional spicy taste came to the fore. The denouement featured firm bitterness and dryness to make you forget the faux sweetness.

Ausgezeichnet! The malty flavor here is just great and I really enjoyed the hoppy tug-of-war between the herbal/spicy and fruity flavors. Fizziness is just right as is the astringent taste. And by "just right" I mean perfect. Crisp with a little bite but never distracting. I really hope there's a 23 Pils because this stuff is simply fantastic.

Junk food pairing: a unique pilsner like this demands a unique food pairing. Try a bag of Mrs. Fischer's Dark Jalapeno chips with your 22 Pils. These darker, extra-Maillardy chips have a little chili zing to them and go perfectly with this crisp, flavorful brew.

Just Like the Darkest Depths of Mordor: Brewhouse Coffee Stout by Central Waters Brewing Co.

 

Because I have reached that point in life when most of it is behind me and not yet to come, I often approach things through a historical lens. Such is the case here. Coffee beers always bring back a memory of drinking New Glarus' Coffee Stout on Easter '96 at the Paradise Lounge here in Madison with my roommate. The way I recall that day, the beer was new and novel to me and I had a great day drinking and shooting pool with nary a thought about some guy being nailed to a cross.

But the Internet, that ever reliable font of truth, says that New Glarus' brewmaster Dan Carey first brewed their Coffee Stout in 1994. I remember drinking their Edel Pils that year but no coffee-laced stout. Apparently the Feds were unamused that someone had put caffeine in their alcohol (or was that alcohol into their caffeine?) and put the kibosh on Coffee Stout until laws were changed and labels printed telling consumers that there was caffeine in that beer as if "Coffee Stout" didn't already get that point across.

So perhaps I was actually witnessing the resurrection (ahem) of Coffee Stout that Easter after a brief and legally mandated hiatus. Regardless of the veracity of my memories, the Interwebs say that New Glarus was the first to commercially brew a coffee beer. I think it's rather neat that the ur-coffee brew is from these parts and is still available today as New Glarus seems to make it every 2 or 3 years. I also think it's a shame that this fact is often overlooked in discussions about the brewery. The ubiquity of Spotted Cow, the awards given to Belgian Red, and their beers' availability being limited to Wisconsin tend to overshadow Dan Carey's pioneering efforts to merge barley pop and java.

Despite being groundbreaking, Coffee Stout seems to never have gone on to be considered a paragon of coffee beers generally. Even I tend to think of Founders' Breakfast Stout first when the subject of coffee brews is broached. Not far behind, though, is Central Waters Brewing located up in Amherst in the middle of Wisconsin.

I remember the early days of Central Waters, which was founded in 1998, as being filled with a variety of good brews such as Ouisconsing Red Ale and Mud Puppy Porter, a favorite of mine. I fondly recall drinking Satin Solstice, an imperial stout, with friends and all of us enjoying it immensely. They also had a pale ale or IPA with a crane or similar bird on the label. A nice variety of styles that were tasty. And then they moved towards barrel aging.

I am not sure when this was but I'd guess in the mid-2000's and it soon became their trademark. They probably had the premiere barrel aging program in all the land. (Sorry Tyranena.) One of their barrel aged offerings was Peruvian Morning, an imperial stout with coffee that was aged in bourbon barrels. Then in c. 2011 there was a bad batch of Peruvian Morning. And then again the following year. And the year after that. The upshot was that the brewery stopped making it for a while. Despite this, Central Waters became lodged in my head as one of the leading makers of coffee beer.

However, long before the troubles with infected beer, Central Waters was brewing Brewhouse Coffee Stout, Peruvian Morning minus the time spent mingling with bourbon. I am certain that I have had it in years past but am only now getting around to writing about it. My can was dated 10/20/21 and the Central Waters website lists it as a seasonal so I presume you can find this stuff every autumn.

Unless you hold the glass just right, you just see this darkness in your glass that allows no light to penetrate it. It's like Sauron brewed the stuff. But, in reality, it was of a deep chestnut hue. I got a goodly-sized tan head on top that lasted what I think of as an average amount of time. No surprise that the first whiff was dominated by coffee. Subsequent sniffing revealed dark chocolate, roasted grain, and just a touch of stone fruit – think plum.

This beer has a firm fizziness to it that complements its medium-light body. Again coffee was at the fore on my first sip. Bitter chocolate eventually came through as did roasty grain flavor. As the beer warmed, that plum made its way to the fore when I swallowed as did some mildly bitter coffee and chocolate tastes faded. There was a modicum of herbal hoppiness on the finish which lent a little bitterness and a gentle eucalyptus-like taste. It had a fairly dry ending with some astringency to boot.

I loved the coffee and chocolate flavors here. This isn't surprising as both are the result of Maillard reactions. Just as Wiccans venerate the cycles of Nature, such as the changing of the seasons, I venerate whatever it is carbohydrates and amino acids do in Maillard reactions. I am drawn to those flavors like a moth to the flame. I suppose there is an art to mixing coffee and beer. My preference is for African coffees because they have more of an earthy flavor to them vs. South American coffees which taste brighter with more of a citrus edge to them. Central Waters does not specify the type of coffee used here. Perhaps someday I can sit down and figure out how various coffees of whatever roast work in beer.

Future gustatory projects aside, that stone fruit flavor was welcome but I appreciated that it was subdued. My only gripe is that I found the beer just a tad overly astringent. Still, this was a great brew.

Junk food pairing: This is a big, bold beer with lots of Maillard reacted goodness so pair it with something from the grill such as Dutch Crunch Mesquite BBQ chips or Herr's Baby Back Ribs chips.

Slow Spiral Into Winter: Gyrator Doppel by New Glarus Brewing

Back in the early autumn, New Glarus released Gyrator Doppel, a doppelbock. "That darn seasonal creep," I said to no one in particular. "Lent it ain't," began my jeremiad to the Brewers Association which somehow never got sent. Truth be known, I enjoy doppelbocks outside of Lententide but generally reserve them for the chill of winter. It was still quite a bit too warm for drinking beers of this style, to my taste, in late September. Now that it's December and Jack Frost is nipping, I am taking the plunge.

The beer's label is interesting and may be the brewery's first to have an ichthyological theme as I can recall no Walleye Weiss nor a Small Mouth Sour. ("That's good bass!" - Dan Carey) Let's look at the description and start with this bit: "Dan’s re-discovery of whole cone Diamant hops grown at his urging in Hallertau, Germany". Wait, wait, wait. Dan Carey, co-owner/brewmaster/whatever of New Glarus Brewing Company can get a foreign hop grower some 4,200 miles away to do his bidding?! Does Dan have some compromising photographs?

It vood be a real shame if diese Fotos ended up on der Internet…

When Carey isn't "urging" German hop growers, he can be found Googling long lost grains. To wit: "Over ten years of his personal heritage barley research…"

The blurb on the label then goes on to note that the brew was double decocted, lagered for 10 weeks, and then took some R&R in the bottle for another 6 months. This is not just some brief diversion from brewing endless gallons of Spotted Cow.

If all of this time and effort wasn't enough, Gyrator was released in 6-packs for the same price as Cow. I don't mean to knock Spotted Cow here (I like it much more now that the corn has been removed), but rather to express astonishment that what could have been a fairly expensive limited edition release available only at the brewery instead sits on store shelves next to and at the same price as New Glarus' more workaday beers that weren't made with obscure heritage grains and bespoke hops. I think my sixer cost $7.49. Craft beers are luxury items, to be sure, but this is like getting an Aston Martin for the price of a Lexus.

As with most beers, the doppelbock has its own lore. In short, the story is that the monks of the Paulaner monastery in Munich (or its environs) developed the rich, malty sweet style in the 17^th century to provide their daily bread in liquid form during Lententide. As with countless other tales about the origins of beer styles, this one too appears to be blatantly untrue. It seems that the doppelbock was initially brewed for a feast and eventually became a regular part of the monks' diet year-round instead of being reserved for a mere 40-day stretch of cenobitic austerity. Still, it's an engaging bit of legerdemain that is sure to be repeated by beer-loving doofuses like me for some time to come.

My pour produced a big, loose, tan head that went away quickly and noisily. It looked like I had just poured myself a Coke with bubbles carelessly exploding as I tried to get a decent photograph amid the din. Gyrator is a lovely deep chestnut and clear too. I saw a smattering of bubbles inside. It smelled sweet, as I expected, with aromas of caramel, raisin, plum, and milk chocolate dancing around in my nose.

Those scents made their way to my tongue with raisin and milk chocolate being most prominent. Caramel brought up the rear along with a smidgeon of roasted grain. Fizziness was middle of the road but enough to keep the sweetness from becoming cloying and give the beer a mild astringency. The sweetness faded on the finish leaving a little lingering raisin/caramel and allowing a hint of bread to come through. Then a herbal-floral hoppiness kicked in and added a firm dryness which makes you forget that you just drank about half of your recommended daily dose of carbohydrates in one sip.

I was surprised to discover that Gyrator wasn't as sweet as I had expected it to be. Sure, it was full of rich malt goodness and was chock full of sweet flavors but the sweetness itself was moderated perfectly. And that toasty bread flavor at the end (a result of decoction, surely) was a treat. In addition, I really liked how the hops came in and made for a dry finish which pleasingly contrasted with all of the grainy flavors.

I am not well-drunk when it comes to doppelbocks. My brain's entry for them is "Something-ator. Oh, it's a big, malty sweet doppelbock!" But I think I am going to have to revise it to include language about Gyrator being the Platonic ideal of the style.

Just food pairing: With such a great beer, be sure to pair it with something a cut above your typical junk food. Since I like to drink doppelbocks in cold weather, I suggest something warm with my favorite being SuperPretzel Soft Pretzel Bites filled with Pepper Jack cheese.

The Pome of Dan: Pear 21 by New Glarus Brewing

The humble pear doesn't get the attention that its cousin the apple does. What do people know about them beyond that partridges in their trees make nice Christmas gifts? It wasn't a pear that Eve ate which led to the downfall of Man, it was an apple. (Well, hypothetically.) And when the pear does come up for consideration, it gets thrown into phrases denoting negative things such as "go pear shaped". Poor fruit. Less infamously, note that Anheuser-Busch didn't decide to make Busch Light Pear, they went with Busch Light Apple.

"If the mega-breweries won't make pear beer, we will!" cried Dan Carey to the lead brewer above the din of the Spotted Cow bottling line, and the assistant brewers darted forward to the brew kettle.

And so they did. Pear 21 came out in August.

From my admittedly very limited view of the Wisconsin beer scene, Pear 21 seems to have been a flop. I did not see much attention given to it unlike its fruity predecessor, Lots o' Peach 21. I found that beer to be cloyingly sweet and had high hopes that Pear 21 wouldn't be a fructosian punch to the pancreas when I bought a 4-pack of it.

New Glarus is being a bit cagey about the exact nature of Pear 21. Their website merely says that it tastes like pear and offers the noncommittal "Inspired by Berliner Weisse styles of brewing". It's not that New Glarus needs to brew according to strict style guidelines or within the bounds prescribed by tradition, it's that I'd like to have more of an idea of what the beer is like beyond the fruit in the name. Oh well.

Seeing Berliner Weisse mentioned in the description, I sought out a fancy glass. Alas, I found neither a champagne flute nor a stemmed wine glass in the kitchen so it was the unstemmed wine glass for me. My pour produced a small, loose, white head that went away quickly. The beer was a light gold and a little hazy. There was a modicum of bubbles visible inside. Presumably it was not inspired by the traditional level of carbonation of the Berliner Weisse as it did not have the ebullient fizz of even New Glarus' own takes on the style.

The aroma was absolutely wonderful – it was indeed lots o' pear. The only other scent I caught was a hint of citrus.

Don't be overly sweet! Don't Be Overly Sweet! DON'T BE OVERLY SWEET!

I took a sip and found that it tasted a lot like it smelled: positively pomaceous! But it was very sweet. The beer didn't feel particularly treacly on my tongue yet it tasted rather syrupy. All of the tartness that I had expected from the Berliner Weisse reference on the label was buried underneath the sweetness just like the bass on …And Justice For All. You could discern it but only if you swished the beer around in your mouth and really, really concentrated. As with the aroma, there was a faint citrus flavor in the background. On the finish the fruity sweetness lost some of its power and its retreat meant that a tad of sourness was able to peek through.

Like its peach predecessor, this stuff tasted like a Libby nectar to me. It was just too sweet, too syrupy. On the plus side, the pear flavor was simply delicious. It genuinely tasted like fresh pear. I am curious to know how this beer became so sweet. Was it really that full of malty sugars? Was sweetened pear juice added? Either it needs to have the sweetness lessened greatly or the fizz and tartness boosted by orders of magnitude.

What do you do with such a cloying beer? Maybe cut it with some club soda? I can definitely see braising pork with it.

Junk food pairing: Pair your Pear 21 with something to cut through the sweetness like salt & vinegar pork rinds.