Rye lager? Make it so.: Rye Lager by Phase Three Brewing Co.

Years ago my annual trek to Chicago TARDIS down in lovely Lombard, Illinois meant a visit at Binny's where I'd eagerly snatch up some Hoss, a rye Märzeny kind of brew from Denver's Great Divide. At some point, that beer, quite unsurprisingly, stopped gracing Binny's shelves in the fall when I was there. This made me sad because this autumnal pilgrimage had become a tradition and Hoss was (is?) a great beer. Oh well. All good things and whatnot. As time wore on, I became inured to being rye lager-less as the winter solstice approached.

Until this year.

Chicagoland has many a brewery which can make perusing the local beer shelves at Binny's something of a chore because a lot of breweries means a lot of IPAs. As in a number that feels like it approaches infinity. There's a mesmerizing quality to scanning the shelves as the letters fly by...I-P-A. Soon every beer looks to be an IPA. And so it was last month. Until I ran across Phase Three's Rye Lager. Could it really be? The IPAs beneath and above and to either side beckoned me.

"Come taste of our faux tropical fruit..."

I felt like Captain Picard in that Star Trek: The Next Generation episode where he's being tortured.

"There are four-packs of rye lager!" I roared back in defiance of the Citra siren calls.

Shaking off my hypnotic haze, I found that indeed there were four-packs of rye lager staring back at me from the shelf. I already had two Rauchbiers, a Dovetail flavor I'd never had, plus multiple brews from abroad. Did I really need more beer?

Yes!

Phase Three is a brewery in Lake Zurich, Illinois, a northwestern suburb of Chicago. I have no doubt seen their brews before but don't recall ever having tasted any of them. Without meaning to sound overly cynical, I admit to tempering my expectations. There were a lot of Phase Three IPAs on the shelf too so could they pull off a decent lager?

Luck was on my side and I managed to capture one of my pours where there is some head. My glass was happy to have a lot of the light tan foam and, thankfully, it stuck around a while. The brew was a lovely clear amber and I saw a fair number of bubbles inside. No haze; a good start. My luck continued as I took a whiff and smelled grains: a bit of bread, at first, and then some earthy rye. A berry-like fruitiness followed as did some herbal hoppiness.

A medium-light body held a firm fizziness. My initial sips were malt madness with bready and doughy flavors complemented by that earthy-spicy rye goodness. The hops stayed below the fray but I could taste their herbal tentacles weaving themselves between and among all those malt flavors. The rye and a touch of malty sweetness lingered on the finish but eventually ceded to the hops which took on a deliciously spicy aspect. Fizz and hops united for a mellow dryness accompanied by a gentle bitter bite .

What a wonderful surprise. I had my doubts about what appeared to be another IPA factory dipping its toes into the lager waters but Phase Three meant business. For me, this was an easy drinker despite being 6.6% A.B.V. and I had a hard time sitting there with a rye lager in front of me and not pouring it down my maw. The rye flavor was great and benefited from the beer not being particularly sweet. Plus the hops complemented the malt flavors perfectly and I appreciated how they orchestrated a refreshingly zesty finish.

I hope Phase Three brews this again next year so that rye lager returns as an autumn tradition.

Junk food pairing: Pair P3's Rye Lager with a big bag of Mike's Hot Honey potato chips from Utz. (Utz's Mike's Hot Honey potato chips?) The mild sweetness from the honey and potatoes will complement the rye perfectly. These chips don't burn like the fires of Hell but that little bit of heat goes well with the hops and really accentuates their peppery taste on the finish.

First Tippy Toboggan of the season

I shoveled 6-8 times during and after the last snowstorm. Roughly every 3 hours during the day I bundled up, grabbed my shovel, and proceeded to scrape the sidewalk. Then, when the storm was done, it took a couple rounds to clean up and dig out the driveway after the plows had come through.

All of the shoveling used muscles this desk jockey doesn't normally use. When I need some muscle relaxant after a hard day of shoveling snow, I turn to Tippy Tobbogan from Vintage.

Welcoming Winter, Tippling Tippy

You know winter is here when Tippy Toboggan is on tap. I had dinner at Vintage the other day and had my first Tippy of the season.

A Roggenbock, it's one of my favorite beers and heralds the arrival of winter for me along with the solstice.

I also sampled Z-Quester, a toasted kernza amber ale. Kernza is a new grain and its use in Madison garnered an article by Robin Shepard in Isthmus recently. It was a very tasty beer and the grain nouveau lent a very nutty flavor, to my taste.

Bathed in eternal summer's glow: Last Stand by Short Fuse Brewing Co.

When Jack Frost hits the scene, then 'tis the season for one of my favorite beers, Tippy Toboggan from Vintage Brewing here in Madison. Tippy Toboggan is a Roggenbock, a Roggenbier amped up to bock-like proportions. When we’re in the bowels of winter and my bones are chilled to their very marrow by the coldest of winter nights, I am warmed and rendered mirthful by a glass of this heady brew with its bracing rye spiciness and pleasant mix of banana and clove flavors.

So, I’ve got winter covered but what about the rest of the year? Can’t I enjoy some rye-laced cheer during the warmer months too?

Sadly, Madison-area brewers don’t make a Roggenbier beyond Tippy Toboggan – that I’ve seen, anyway.

On a recent trip down south, however, I discovered that at least one Chicagoland brewery does brew a Roggenbier. Not only is it not a bock but it was available outside of winter.

Ooh la la!

That beer is Last Stand by Short Fuse Brewing Company.

I encountered them for my first and only time (until now) last fall when I grabbed some of their Dark Gourd, a coffee-pumpkin ale that was quite tasty. As with that beer, the Short Fuse website doesn’t so much as mention Last Stand so details are scarce. It looks like it has been brewed in years past and that this year’s batch came out in late summer. So maybe it’s a seasonal…?

Whatever the case, I was pleased as punch to see a Roggerbier on the shelf and quickly snagged a 4-pack of it.

Vigorous my pour was not because I was left with but a small tan head and it dissipated rather quickly. A subsequent pour, however, yielded a much more generous helping of foam which made for a pretty sight. The beer is a deep, dark chestnut that was basically opaque. If there were any bubbles inside doing their thing, I didn’t see them. When decanted properly, this is a fine looking beer. Roggenbiers are brewed with the same kind of yeast as Weissbiers and my preference for those is to have a stronger banana presence than clove. Here banana was all up in my nose when I took a sniff, although there was a little clove as well. A bit of black pepper was in there too which was probably a combination of hops and rye.

On my first sip, I caught a nice, solid fizziness cutting through the beer’s medium body. This was followed by the yeasty flavors starting with banana. Clove was less prominent while there was just a hint of bubble gum. Rye and wheat were layered underneath and some spicy hops brought up the rear. While I found the beer to be somewhat sweet, I suspect all of that banana flavor from the yeast added a little ersatz sweetness.

At the finish, the banana and clove faded, giving way to the spicy hops which did their best to add balance earlier. They only added a moderate bitterness here but I think they teamed up with all the fizz for a rather solid dryness to wipe away any fruity memories.

Last Stand was just great with all of the flavors I expected for a Roggenbier – spicy rye, banana, and some balancing hops – and it comes in at a more weather appropriate 4.5% A.B.V. A nice prelude to Tippy Toboggan season.

Junk food pairing: The subtle yet complex flavors of a Roggenbier cry out to be paired with a food of equal complexity and tastiness. So grab a bag of Slide's Curry Garlic potato chips to go with your Last Stand.

The Evil Rye: Böse Roggen by Excel Brewing Company

It is a testament to my tenure in IT that whenever I see this bier bottle, I don't think of doing well at some endeavor but rather of spreadsheets and green Xs. Excel the brewery is an adjunct (pun intended) of the Excel Bottling Company in Breese, Illinois. Breese is downstate, east of St. Louis, in the land that gave us Uncle Tupelo.

The brewing operation began in 2012 and Excel completely revamped its line-up in 2014. The bier at hand, Böse Roggen (German for "evil rye"), was a result of the changes. The special insight that rye and dark lagers are match made im Himmel is apparently unique to Illinois as the only other instance I know of this spectacular combination is Arc Welder by Chicago's Metropolitan Brewing.

Excel began distributing to the Chicago area about a year ago, it seems, and I picked up my six pack three weeks ago out in the burbs.

Böse Roggen appears to be totally black until you hold it at an angle to the light where you can see that it's really a very deep reddish brown. My best guess is that it was clear but I can neither confirm nor deny that one. While I have a thing for bright, pale beers with big, fluffy white heads in the summertime, this one had a big, loose tan head that lasted a fair while and radiated its own dark aestival beauty.

The Excel webpage notes that Böse Roggen is made up of 50% rye which is a combination of rye malt and chocolate rye malt. The more I think about chocolate rye malt, the more I think it should be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Food or perhaps be mentioned on those gold discs we affix to interstellar probes to demonstrate to the aliens out there that we come in peace and that at least some of us are epicureans.

Getting back to the bier, my nose beheld all that rye. You could smell its spiciness. But there was also the chocolate part of the equation with roasted grain, bitter chocolate, and coffee in equal parts to the rye making for a complex yet balanced aroma.

And that wonderful, earthy spiciness came through quite well to my tongue. Joining it were the requisite Schwarzbier tastes of coffee and chocolate, the latter being less bitter here than on the nose. The carbonation was pretty mild as was a grassy hop flavor. Overall a nice, clean lager taste with an emphasis on rye and dark malts.

All of those dreamy malt flavors dissolved into a hoppy finish that was a bit on the peppery side. This made things rather dry - not Bohemian pilsener territory but rather dry nonetheless. There was some Schaumhaftvermoegen with a couple decently-sized patches as the odd speck of foam.

Ausgezeichnet! The big dose of rye pays off here, to my taste, with the grain's prominent spiciness being a real treat to both my nose and tongue. As a fan of dark biers, I loved the schwarzbier base with its rich coffee and dark chocolate flavors that the chocolate rye malt added. And being a schwarzbier also means that Böse Roggen has a fairly light body and a clean, crisp lager taste. (It comes in a 4.8% A.B.V.) Rye and dark malts are two of my favorite ingredients and so this bier was like winning the lottery for me. The only problem with Böse Roggen is that I've got to cross state lines to get my hands on it.

Junk food pairing: For a sweet indulgence, pair Böse Roggen with some Dark Chocolate Crunch Pretzel Crisps and let the chocolate melt into the dark roasted flavors of the bier. On the savory side grab a bag of smoked gouda potato chips. The creamy cheesiness complements the bier's smooth taste while the smoke does the same with the rye and roasted grain.

The Cryptozoological Brew: Rasselbock by Goose Island Beer Company

Chicago's Goose Island is one of the elder statesmen of craft brewing having opened back in 1988 as a brewpub. So the uproar when the brewery became a subsidiary of A-B InBev back in 2011 was hardly surprising. Some people vowed never to buy their beer again as Goose Island had "sold out" to the enemy, it had abandoned its hometown. As far as I can tell today, very few people care about who owns Goose Island as long as there is Bourbon County Stout to be had. Never having been a big consumer of GI's beer, I can't say whether their brews have gotten worse since the sellout but I've heard commentary that beers no longer brewed in Chicago just don't taste as good, such as 312. On the other hand, the consensus is that the Bourbon County line remains top-notch.

And so, while I'm strictly unqualified to judge whether GI's beers have gotten better or worse since becoming a subsidiary of a Belgian mega-corporation, I am going to judge the latest release in their Fulton & Wood series.

Fulton & Wood beers are experiments. They are chances for GI folks to flex their creative muscles. From what I can tell the series began back in 2012 and has evolved into an exercise for everyone in the company. What may have begun as a chance for brewers to get away from the IPA routine has become something involving accountants, marketing people, and so on in addition to brewers. A bit like Lakefront's My Turn series, I suppose, but more collaborative, perhaps.

I recently purchased a six-pack of Rasselbock as the words "German style Dark, Rye, Wheat beer" caught my attention. Sehr interessant. A dunkel roggenbock, eh? I had to try it.

While rasselbock sounds like a long-lost style of bier, it is, in fact, the name of the rabbit-like creature out of German (Bavarian?) folklore on the label with horns, wings, and fangs. It's the bearded Spock of jackalopes.

I felt a bit like Benedict Arnold drinking this bier as I simply adore Vintage Brewing's Tippy Toboggan, the only other roggenbock of which I am aware. Tippy is one of my favorite biers of all-time so I am hoping that Vintage brewmaster Scott Manning never reads these words.

My bottle was filled last month on the 19th so it was reasonably fresh when the bier made its way into my glass. Rasselbock pours a deep, dark chestnut. Maneuvering my glass as best I could, it appeared to be clear. I also spied a goodly number of bubbles inside making their way up to a firm, tan head that stuck around for a good, long time.

The label didn't lie: the pungent aroma was full of banana as well as some clove. The yeast used here is from Weihenstephan, a Bavarian brewery known for its weissbiers. Rasselbock smells magnificent. Those phenolic/estery scents were prominent in the taste. Again, I found banana to be stronger with the clove in a more supporting role although clove moved towards the fore as the bier warmed. The carbonation added a touch of dryness as did the rye which added its usual tasty earthy/spiciness. I also tasted a little vanilla, just a smidgen of caramel sweetness, and a hint of roasted grain.

For the finish Rasselbock cleaned itself up and allowed some spicy/grassy hop bitterness and flavor through to end things on a rather dry note. My glass was left with some nice Schaumhaftvermoegen as broad streaks lined most of the interior.

As Darth Vader once said, impressive. The banana and clove flavors from the yeast are simply juicy and piquant yet allow plenty of room for the malty flavors, which range from earthy to sweet, to come through. Rasselbock uses Midnight Wheat which lends color to beer, but alas, it adds precious little roasted grain flavor, which I was hoping to taste. Can't have everything. The bier is 6.8% A.B.V. and has a medium body so it's got some heft yet it's not cloying or heavy.

Junk food pairing: I find that roggenbiers go very well with pretzels, especially pumpernickel pretzels. If you can't find any, go with warm soft pretzels dipped in a sharp processed cheese food sauce.

What-Ifs, Maybes, and Might-Have-Beens: Roggen Gold by Schlägl

I'm in media res of clearing out the beer in my basement. Now, I don't mean the big brews aging on a shelf in the corner but rather the other ones on the floor. Occasionally I'll run across a real gem that escaped my mind. It is rescued in the nick of time and a fine gustatory experience is had. At other times I run into beers have eluded me for just too long and they've taken a turn for the worse. What follows is one of these latter cases. Sadly.



I found a bottle of Schlägl Roggen Gold at a Binny's in suburban Chicago back in the past immemorial. Stiftsbrauerei Schlägl is an Austrian brewery while their Roggen Gold is a rye ale.

I absolutely love rye in beer. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that I love rye in beer styles that I like. Aw hell, it even makes IPAs palatable – Founders Red's Rye IPA is a great beer. I feel so ashamed that this beer got lost in the shuffle. This being the case, I have written not a review but a tantalizing glimpse of what may have been.

Roggen Gold pours a gorgeous light copper. The beer is aesthetically pleasing on its own but it gets bonus points because I've been drinking so many beers that are yellow in color lately (Goses, Berliner Weisses, Helleses, a Zwickel) and this stands in stark contrast. The beer was hazy and there was lots of particulate matter floating about. Oops. Despite the beer's age, it was still rather effervescent. I got a decent head that managed to last a little while and there was a goodly number of bubbles going up.

The aroma was all malt. There was bread dough, honey, and then the earthy rye. The taste was very similar with a pronounced honey sweetness and some spicy rye goodness. The finish was rather sweet with just a touch of spicy hop flavor in there.

For whatever reason I think of roggenbiers as being weissbiers with rye. I was wondering if it would taste anything at all like a weissbier and it didn't. But I have to admit that I'm not sure if this is because all the esters/phenols dissipated over time along with any semblance of hops or because those banana/clove flavors had never been there in the first place. Roggen Gold had a nice medium-light body and I couldn't help but think what this stuff must have tasted like had it been fresh(er). The rye was prominent here in both the nose and on the tongue. I dream that it was the same lo those many years ago.

Chatoe Rogue's Roguenbier Rye Ale

Chatoe Rogue is a series of beers from Oregon's Rogue Ales which feature ingredients grown by the brewery itself on land that it leases from local farmers. Here, Roguenbier Rye Ale is brewed with barley, rye, and hops that Rogue grew themselves. Considering just how much this much this endeavor must cost, I am surprised that bombers of Chatoe Rogue beers are only $7 at Jenifer Street Market. Contrast this with the $15 bombers of The Great Dane's barleywine this past winter.

Roguenbier is a roggenbier, a German rye ale. A cousin of the hefeweizen, the roggenbier replaces the wheat with rye but uses the same type of yeast. Although Germans have been brewing with rye for ages, my understanding is that the roggenbier as we know it today is a very modern invention, dating back to the 1980s. I suppose that in a nation so steeped/mired in tradition the roggenbier is the black sheep of the deutsche bier familie but I think it's a wonderful idea.

Rogue's take on the style begins with its deep reddish brown color that borders on the opaque. It looks like a heady elixir that means business. The stuff is bubbly and I got a decent head but it didn't stick around long. It certainly had one of the odder aromas my nose has taken in for some time. The smell was toffee-like but a musty, smoky toffee. But there was also that banana-tinged ester aroma lurking in there.

On the tongue, Roguenbier has a medium body. The first thing you taste is the sharp, black peppery rye flavor. Soon enough, however, the spicy hops appear and join the show. While not at IPA levels, the hops here are much stronger than I thought they'd be and compete with the rye for your tastebuds in a spicy-bitter showdown. Sadly, the mellow banana flavors of the esters produced by the Weissbier yeast are quite subdued and only make an appearance near the finish which is slightly bitter and dry.

Vintage's Tippy Toboggan (Full disclosure: I know Scotty the brewmaster.) takes a different tack by letting the rye give a firm accent to the beer without overpowering the yeast or the other grain. And the hops contribute to the balance instead of competing for dominance. Truth be told, I could barely taste the malt here. TT is a bountiful medley of grainy, spicy, and fruity flavors that is quite sessionable at 4.7% ABV while Roguenbier is TT's older, wilder brother that emphasizes the bolder flavors and packs a bit more punch at 5.5% ABV.

I personally prefer Tippy Toboggan but Roguenbier is a good brew. The former I can drink all night while splitting a bomber of the latter with The Dulcinea proved to be just the right amount.

Junk food pairing: Let the moldy, spicy goodness of the creamy cheese food product filling of Buffalo Blue Cheese Combos melt over your tongue while drinking Roguenbier.

Vintage Brewing's Tippy Toboggan

I love rye. It makes kick ass beer, fantastic bread – it's the yeoman grain. Its gluten bits don't work too well so people don't make all rye bread – some ingenious/desperate Slavs excepted. It doesn't have the sugars that barley does so it isn't used as the primary grain in beer. But rye is so tasty. You just add it to something and the tastiness quotient goes up exponentially.

For centuries rye bread was the staple for Northern and Central Europeans. Germany grew more rye than wheat until 1957. So it should be no surprise that the Germans have the roggenbier, a rye ale. I have never seen an example of the style imported from Germany although Paulaner brews one so it's not like we'd be looking at some tiny brewery in a tiny village looking to ship the stuff over here. Since I can't get my hands on any from the vaterland, I am going to have to make do with Tippy Toboggan roggenbier brewed by Scott Manning over at Vintage.

Don't get me wrong – I am not complaining. My Xmas gifts last year included a Vintage growler and a gift card so, when I saw TT was available, it was a no-brainer. I really need to stop trying to take photos of beer on my table as it plus the artificial light adds a red/orange hue to photos. Here it's not too bad. Still, take it from me, it pours a majestic deep reddish brown. The foaming action was moderate and I don't recall a lot of Schaumhaftvermögen.

Tippy Toboggan is a cousin of Vintage's hefeweizen, Weiss-Blau, as they both are brewed with a Weissbier yeast. Hence TT's aroma which featured banana in addition to malty sweetness. Roggenbiers are not very hoppy and I didn't get much bitterness until the finish. The taste mirrored the aroma in that banana and vanilla were dominant but the grain bill was 40% rye so the yeasty flavors were accompanied by the pronounced rye earthy zing. This was all followed by a moderately hoppy finish. Surely there is a really lengthy German word for that feeling on your tongue which is at once heavy yet also light. TT is that way. They emphasis on malt fools you into thinking you've got a rather viscous liquid in your mouth but it is really thinner. The beer is not heavy or cloying but there are so many wonderful flavors involved that your tongue is fooled into thinking that you're quaffing something really dense.

I absolutely love this stuff. TT quickly became one of my favorite beers. You've got the fruity notes from the yeast, the spiciness from the rye, and the bitter hop finish – it's all there. My only complaint is that Scott releases this stuff in late winter when I would love to be drinking it in the summer.

Junk food pairing: Grab a bag of Pierniczki alpejskie śliwkowe. They complement TT well with fruity sweetness, some earthy spice, and a dash of dark chocolate bitterness.