Helles of the Gods?: Lake Mills' Finest by Tyranena Brewing Co.

Realizing I was early, I decided to seek out some breakfast. At the time I worked for the Wisconsin Historical Society and was in the Dells to work on the computers at the H. H. Bennett Studio. Either I’d completely misread the site’s hours or had discovered that the people who worked there had a more European view of punctuality during the off-season and so I was left with some time to blow before the doors would be opened. I drove around looking for a diner but there wasn't one to be had amidst the Tommy Bartlett signs and goofy tourist attractions which lure young Russian women with the promise of prosperity and Illinois vacationers with the siren call of water slides and bumper cars. Tired of cruising the streets of Wisconsin Dells like a desperate junkie in need of a bacon fix, I spied a Denny’s and hastily made my way there despite my better judgment.

Walking in, I found the host, a man in his early 20s, at a lectern. He looked me in the eyes as I said, “A table for one, please.” His gaze was then drawn down to my chest and my work ID which was hanging there on a lanyard.

“So, you work for the Historical Society?” he asked.

“Yes,” I replied, shaking off a perplexed look as I just realized then that I was wearing my ID and that he was not, in fact, endowed with psychic abilities. Little did I know that I'd just run into a subscriber to the Fortean Times.

With a bit of excitement in his voice he said, “My friends and I have a paranormal group here in town.” His eyes widened as he eagerly continued, “And we’ve got a lot of stuff on haunted houses and Bigfoot. Would you have any interest?”

If eye rolls made noise, mine would have made a sound audible back at my office in Madison. A Triumph the Insult Comic Dog-like commentary began running through my brain which asserted that this Egon Spengler wannabe’s mom surely drove him and his friends around in an old station wagon loaded with cameras and homemade ectoplasm detectors to the supposedly haunted houses. Having made a snap diagnosis, I briefly thought about telling him that the recommended course of treatment is to get laid but kept my own counsel.

Instead, I excused myself by pleading that I was merely an IT drone and have nothing whatsoever to do with Wisconsin or history. The look of disappointment on his face almost made me feel bad. He seated me, I had breakfast, did what I needed to do to those computers, and then drove back to Madison.

I related this little tale to a co-worker of mine whose job seemed to mainly consist of telling the Department of Transportation whether or not the new highways they always want to build would destroy, say, a Native American effigy mound, pave over a Native American burial site, or trash anything of historic value in the name of shaving .002 seconds off someone’s trip to Menards. Little did I know that he encountered members of the Erich von Däniken fan club on a regular basis.

“Pfft. That’s nothing,” he scoffed. “A couple weeks ago, a guy called me to say that he’d been out walking in the boonies when these spirit orbs just suddenly appeared and he wanted us to investigate. I asked him what he'd been smoking because I wanted some but he insisted he was sober as a judge. I said, 'They're will-o'-the-wisps,' but he kept saying they were spirit orbs.” If eye rolls made noise, mine would have been a mere peep in contrast to the Stentorian roar his eyes would have sounded out and been heard throughout the Upper Midwest.

He continued, “And then there’s this other guy that calls me every couple of months or so saying he’s got photographic evidence of pyramids in Rock Lake. They’re just fucking piles of rocks!”

Rock Lake is in the town of Lake Mills, about 25 miles east of Madison. Also in Lake Mills is the Tyranena Brewing Company which has brewed the beer that is the subject of this blog post, Lake Mills’ Finest. It is rather unhelpfully billed as simply a lager. This laconic description, that would never be foisted upon an ale, has burned me in the past and I have come to learn that, when an American craft brewer calls something simply “lager”, it’s generally their take on Miller and Bud. It’s a light American lawnmower lager.

I was weary when I first saw Lake Mills’ Finest thinking it fell into this category. But local beer scribe Robin Shepard described it as a Helles in his review and sang its praises, so I figured I’d give it a shot. Besides, brewmaster Rob Larson is a brewer of no mean talent and, although he focuses on ales, I’ve enjoyed his lagers through the years. The taproom at the brewery is really nice and cozy and you don’t see industrial equipment until you go to the bathroom. Also, I appreciate how their beer names and labels reflect Lake Mills and small town life more generally. They even had a pale ale called Stone Teepee in tribute to those pyramids that lie submerged in the depths of Rock Lake waiting...dreaming...

Lake Mills' Finest was a lovely, brilliant yellow and clear as day. My pour produced a nice head of frothy white foam that stayed around long enough for me to get a picture of it. And there were plenty of bubbles. It looked tempting. The aroma was green. My initial sniff caught a big dose of grass or hay followed by a little cracker and a bit o’ honey. There was also a faint berry fruitiness too.

Those bubbles translated into a hearty fizz. The malt had a biscuit flavor and a mild doughy sweetness. Grassy hops could be discerned in the background and no doubt kept the malt in check. On the finish it was exeunt malt and hello hops which were again a bit grassy, perhaps slightly white peppery tasting. The hops were mild, though, providing just a touch of bitterness and dryness.

I really liked this beer. It had a nice, gentle malt flavor with just enough hops for balance. (Had things been any gentler, we would have been in Miller/Bud clone territory.) In addition to its easy going crisp and clean flavor, it’s something like 4.5% A.B.V. which means it would be a most genial companion at your local biergarten in the summertime. (I believe this is a summer seasonal.)

Junk food pairing: When you’re down at the biergarten slaking your thirst with a Lake Mills’ Finest, be sure to have a bag of Snyder’s Honey Mustard & Onion pretzel pieces with you and a can of Easy Cheese at the ready.

What's In a Beer Name Anyway?

I recently came across the new label design for Great Lakes Brewing Company's Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. In contrast to the previous one, the picture looks more foreboding, more perilous, which it certainly was for the ship and its crew on that day in 1975 when it sank. Regardless of the label's exact appearance, I have always appreciated the Great Lakes/Upper Midwestern reference. Our world is becoming increasingly homogeneous and I appreciate things that are local and idiosyncratic - reflective of the place from which they originate, even if it's something simple like a beer name or label. Those of us in the middle of the country do not need to follow each and every trend from the coasts.

Great Lakes Brewing took a regional outlook when naming their porter. The Edmund Fitzgerald went down in Lake Superior in either Michigan or Canadian waters, I cannot recall which, not in Lake Erie on Cleveland's north side. Nonetheless, seeing the label got me thinking about beer labels that celebrate place, that do a little something to illustrate the ortgeist of the brewery's community. 

I suspect that I initially noticed this kind of thing several years ago with Goose Island before they were absorbed by the A-B InBev Borg. They offered 312 Urban Wheat and Green Line Pale Ale.

312 is the area code for downtown Chicago while Green Line is one of the L train lines which apparently ran near the original Goose Island location. 

As for Wisconsin labels, it seems that many a brewery draws on imagery from the state. Northwoods Brewpub has, for example, Wall-I-PA named after the fish popular in northern parts of the state, although it is found in the northern part of the U.S. generally. New Glarus has the ubiquitous Spotted Cow, Back 40, Uff Da, and probably others. However, I don't believe New Glarus has ever had a beer named after something or someone from New Glarus and I am unaware of any Northwoods brews that owe their names to Osseo or its previous home, Eau Claire. Of breweries that take that kind of hyperlocal naming to heart, Milwaukee Brewing Company is first to my mind. Well, perhaps not their labels exclusively, but also their packaging.

For instance there was Increase Wheat.

It was named after Increase Lapham who moved to Milwaukee in 1836 and cataloged the plants in the area and the shells he found on the shores of Lake Michigan. He founded the Wisconsin Natural History Association and was Chief Geologist of the State of Wisconsin for a time.

Another one of their beers that comes readily to mind is their milk stout, Polish Moon, which is the nickname of the Allen-Bradley clock tower on Milwaukee's south side which was heavily Polish.

More recently the design for MKE IPA feature the "People's Flag of Milwaukee", presumably a response to the city's official flag which is rather busy and gaudy.

Also from Milwaukee is Lakefront's Eastside Dark which features the gothic stylings of the North Point Water Tower.

A bit west of Milwaukee in Lake Mills is the Tyranena Brewing Company. They do a good job of reflecting Wisconsin in their beer names and labels. But they also aren't afraid to showcase the Lake Mills area. For instance, there was Stone Teepee Pale Ale whose label featured the supposed stone pyramids in Rock Lake which is on the west side of town.

The Madison area doesn't seem to exactly have a surfeit of beers with names that relate to it. We do, however, have Ale Asylum's Madtown Nut Brown.

Now why Burke and Hare seem to be on the label is beyond me. Or is there some Madison lore depicted on it of which I am unaware?

Wisconsin Brewing has Badger Club, which is named after the official state animal, and Boom Run, a nod to the lumber industry - up north. Capital Brewery has Supper Club in honor of the state's unique culinary establishment.

On the other hand, Great Dane's German Pils was, I believe, once known as Verrückte Stadt, i.e. - Mad Town. Peck's Pilsner is named after the proprietor of Madison's first public house, Rosaline Peck. Rockhound Brewing (R.I.P.) had Greenbush Pale Ale, named after the neighborhood they resided in.

The Madison area's four lakes, State Street, the "lost city" of Lake Forest, flamingos, Frank Lloyd Wright**, the Capitol, et al provide plenty of fodder for beer monikers. But Madison area breweries generally eschew the local when it comes to beer names and labeling. Or is there some kind of Babcock beer with lactose that I've simply never seen? A hibiscus brew with pink flamingos on the label that has escaped me? Am I completely missing beer upon beer named after local places and people?

**My understanding is that Madison's House of Brews (R.I.P.) tried to use something FLW-related in a beer name and discovered his family was not keen on this.

Ein Prosit, Ein Prosit: Gemutlichkeit by Tyranena Brewing Company

Poking around the Tyranena website I see that they no longer offer Stone Teepee Pale Ale. That's too bad because that label used to make me laugh. You see, at a previous job there was an historic preservationist who would get exasperated with people who brought up the subject of the supposed stone pyramids underneath the waters of Rock Lake over in Lake Mills, home of Tyranena. He'd get calls from "researchers" wielding "proof" that the mounds of stones were man-made and aligned with the sidereal movement of the heavens. These calls were in addition to ones such as the time someone phoned him up to breathlessly relate how she saw "spirit orbs" rising up from some Native American effigy mounds.

So, just to get his goat, I'd ask him about the pyramids. If he was in a good mood, I'd get a pair of rolling eyes and a moderately curt, "Shut up." And if he were in a bad mood, I'd get, "There are no pyramids. They are just piles of rocks!"

Tyranena is something of an underrated brewery, in my opinion. I think it enjoys a good reputation generally but doesn't seem to have an "it" beer. Honestly, I am surprised that Bitter Woman never became the official state IPA. It came out in – what? - 2002? Scurvy, an IPA with orange zest, predates the current citrus IPA trend by a few years, if not more. And Rocky's Revenge? They were barrel aging back in 2004, long before it became de rigeur. It's like brewmaster Rob Larson is so ahead of the curve that he's behind it now.

Gemutlichkeit, Tyranena's Oktoberfest, is a "limited seasonal" and is only available in Wisconsin. It complements the brewery's other autumn seasonal, Painted Ladies, a pumpkin spice ale which is apparently not limited. Perhaps the brewery has only a limited amount of space to dedicate to lagering.

Gemutlichkeit is a burnished gold color and as clear as day. This puts it in the camp of the newer, paler Wiesn style. Sadly, I managed to pour the bier and basically produce no head. My inability to simply create foam was astounding. All I could manage was a white film atop the bier that doesn't even count. There was a smattering of bubbles in the brew itself.

Dinner was on the stove when I drank my bottle of Gemutlichkeit so it's possible that my nose was skewed here. My caveat aside, I smelled grain which was not sweet but more bready as well as some hops that were grassy-floral. The recipe calls for both Liberty and Tettnanger hops but I'm not sure which one contributes more to the aroma. I think of the latter as being like spicy, almost like black pepper so I am going to guess it's the Liberty here.

Those Tettanager hops made themselves known in the taste, however, which had a distinct bit of pepper to it. The malt tastes here were of bread as well as biscuit and some sweetness too which had both toffee and honey flavors. Carbonation was firm, though not big while the medium light body leaned more towards medium and was clean'n'lagery.

For the finish the malt flavors found themselves gently swept aside as the spicy/peppery hop flavor came through. Overall it was not very dry or bitter but there was just enough hop to chase away the lingering malt sweetness. Curiously, there was no Schaumhaftvermoegen to be had.

It had been several years since I'd drank a Gemutlichkeit and I enjoyed it as much now as I did then. Honestly, I was strongly reminded of Elliot Ness by Great Lakes with the peppery taste. There is a nice bready flavor to be had here, though not a strong Maillard toastiness, but it is subtle with the malt sweetness over shadowing it. This is not to say that Gemutlichkeit is very sweet, but I would have liked a bit more of that bread flavor so as to give the sweet taste a run for its money. I really liked the peppery hop flavor, though, and how it remained steadfast throughout.

Junk food pairing: My Gemutlichkeit went well with some Cape Cod Smoked Gouda potato chips as well as a handful of pretzel sticks.

From the Cellar: Dirty Old Man by Tyranena Brewing Co.

In the process of organizing the beer in my cellar, I came across this one: Tyranena's Dirty Old Man, an imperial rye porter that was aged in rye whiskey barrels. To be honest, I was not sure when this beer was released but I put it aside anyway.

Dirty Old Man is part of the brewery's Brewers Gone Wild series, which features big brews made in limited quantities. It seems that this beer was brewed for the first time in 2008 and that my bottle dates from 2012. I also discovered via the Interwebs that only 40% of the brew was aged in whiskey barrels. This would explain the rather modest 7.9% A.B.V.

Tyranena has been barrel aging since long before it became de rigueur for everybody and their mother to barrel age everything they can get their hands on. (We now have barrel aged coffee, tea, pickles, mustard, maple syrup, honey, et al.) Their Rocky's Revenge, brewed for 12+ years, is a brown ale blended with a portion that has been aged in bourbon barrels. It was probably the first barrel aged beer I had and is extremely tasty.

So how did Dirty Old Man fare over the past few years?

Like any porter, it poured a deep, deep brown that looked black in my glass. A very thin tan head made a very brief appearance. Staring into the beer all I could see was Stygian gloom so I can't say whether or not there were any bubbles inside. It seems quite unlikely, however, given the paucity of foam.

At the time I sampled the beer I was unaware that only a portion of the beer was barrel aged. And so I was surprised when I took a whiff and didn't get drunk off of the fumes. The whiskey was certainly there but I also able to catch a little roasted grain and coffee in there too. On tasting I noticed that these elements were reversed. The malt flavors – coffee, mostly, with some roasted grain and bitter chocolate – were out front leaving the whiskey to bring up the rear. There was just a hint of the rye to be had in the form of a little dry spiciness.

While there were a lot of great flavors here, it was quite obvious that time had taken its toll on Dirty Old Man. It had a syrupy malt sweetness to it that signaled oxidation. I will say, however, that this was one of the smoothest, most velvety beers I've ever tasted that wasn't nitrogenated. Dirty Old Man finished with some lingering bitter chocolate taste and bit of boozy heat.

Despite the wear and tear, my Dirty Old(er) Man wasn't bad. The sweetness was bearable as the great coffee and bitter chocolate malt flavors combined with the booze to offset the effects of age. I am hoping that Tyranena brews this beer again because I would imagine it that it is excellent fresh. Plenty of whiskey flavor but not enough to make it rocket fuel. Instead it melds with the great taste brought by the dark malts. And I'd love to be able to taste the rye grain more.

The current Brewers Gone Wild selection is Benji's Smoked Imperial Porter Brewed With Chipotle Pepper. This beer, on the other hand, is quite fresh having been bottled last week.

At the Bottom of a Dark Wisconsin Lake: Headless Man Amber Alt by Tyranena Brewing Co.

After my disappointing experience with Port Huron's Amber Alt I decided to follow my whim and keep on the altbier path. Surely there must be a tasty one outside of Düsseldorf. Next up was Headless Man Amber Alt from Tyranena.

Tyranena was founded in 1998 which makes them pretty ancient in Madison area craft brew world. To put it in Lord of the Rings terms, Capital, founded in 1984 or '85, is like Ilúvatar. It was there at the beginning. (And doesn't Kirby Nelson look like ol' Eru?) Brewmaster Rob Larson and his minions over in Lake Mills, about 25 miles east of Madison, are like one of the Ainur who, along with others, sang the sweet microbrew song in the 90s (and 2000) to give us the craft beer world we have today. The brewery has a nice tasting room and also a fine outdoor area. It's a friendly atmosphere with hounds running around and people having a jolly time. It's been a while since I've been there but their chili cook-offs were a hoot.

Headless Man pours a beautiful amber as opposed to the more traditional copper. It is clear and effervescent. My photo shows the nice tan head my pour produced and there was a fair amount of bubbles in the glass going up, up, up! The aroma was very sweet-smelling with both caramel and fruity – like plum - scents present.

Considering the aroma I was surprised by the flavor. It had a slight fruity/apricot sweetness and a dryness from the carbonation, was readily apparent, and the mix of German hop varieties. I found it to be a bit watery and light on malt flavor. The beer didn't taste like it had been lagered or at least not lagered long enough. Like Port Huron's altbier, Headless Man had a medium body but was remarkably lacking in malt flavor. I found this to be blatantly odd because I've never known a Rob Larson brew to be lacking in flavor. It may be flavors I don't want to taste but a watery beer from him? Unheard of.

Headless Man finished dry with a lingering spicy hoppiness and left some really nice Schaumhaftvermoegen on my glass.

Sadly, this was another drain pour. I've had Headless Man before and I don't recall it tasting like this. I think I must have hit an unlucky altbier streak. Maybe Woodman's singles cooler malfunctioned. It was just too watery and those fruit flavors just didn't belong. Something must have gone awry down in Lake Mills. Hopefully my memory isn't playing tricks on me. because I thought that, when things are going right, this is a tasty, malty brew. At 5.25% A.B.V. it's a bit bigger than the classic altbier and approaches sticke alt potency.

Junk food pairing: As with Port Huron's curiously similar altbier, I'd pair Headless Man with steak-flavored potato chips like Ruffles MAX Flame Grilled Steak chips or Herr's Kansas City Prime Steak flavored chips. The latter are or were to be had at Woodman's East along the opposite side of the dairy aisle wall.