Oshkosh Beer Sampler: Schell’s Chimney Sweep

A slanted and endless survey of what’s pouring in Oshkosh, tallied one beer at a time.

What: Chimney Sweep, a gently smoked black lager from August Schell Brewing, New Ulm Minnesota. This beer is 5.2% ABV.

Where: Your best deal is at Festival Foods where they sell sixers of it for $6.99.

Why: Personally, I’m on a Schell’s kick, but aside from that there’s something primal about drinking a good smoked beer on a snowy winter’s day. There was a time, after all, when almost all beers made from malted barley had a smokey element to them. Prior to the latter half of the 1700s and the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, direct-fired malt kilns were heated by burning wood, peat or some other smokey combustible. The result was a malt saturated with smoke and that flavor would carry over into the mash tun and the finished beer.

Chimney Sweep goes fairly light on the smoke, but it’s certainly there. It pours just a shade shy of black with a creamy, tan head. The aroma is of slightly over-baked brownies with bacon on the side. The beer has a full, rich malt flavor with a subtle, smokey twang threading through chocolate, caramel and roast. There’s a well-thought-out and prominent level of bitterness in the finish that I really liked. It helps to define all of the beer’s flavors.

For best results, drink Chimney Sweep from a Willi Becher or a Dimpled Stein and linger over it; allowing the beer to warm and the smoke aspect to come to the fore. Pairing it with a handful of smoked almonds works very well.

I’ve been enjoying Schell’s beers over the past year. I loved the Berliner Weiss from them that I mentioned yesterday. They also make a very good Pils and a Vienna lager that are easy to find in Oshkosh. In fact, Festival is selling a Schell’s 12-pack sampler for $13.99 that includes both of those beers along with Chimney Sweep. It’s a good introduction to a brewery that does well putting their own stamp traditional styles.

Oshkosh Beer Sampler: Framboise Du Nord

A slanted and endless survey of what’s pouring in Oshkosh, tallied one beer at a time.

What: Framboise Du Nord brewed by August Schell Brewing Company of New Ulm, Minnesota.

Where: The retail beer shop in Gardina’s in Oshkosh. They sell it in caged-and-corked 25 oz. bottles for $13.50.

Why: For starters it’s an interesting take on an old style of wheat ale, but more importantly it’s delicious. At it’s base this is a Berliner Weisse, a tart and acidic style of German ale that has its origins in the middle-ages. These days, it’s often served with a dollop of woodruff or raspberry syrup to cut the beer’s sourness. Schell’s saves you the trouble by adding a few tons of raspberries to the beer at the end of primary fermentation. That big dump of fruit kicks in another round of fermentation that leaves the beer light bodied and intensely aromatic.

At my house, it went down like this...
Pour... Effervescent and pink with a brittle, white head that dwindles quickly.
Aroma... Raspberry jam with some lemony candy on the side.
Taste... Raspberry... and then more raspberry. Then sweet and tart apples. Along the way, a pleasant and milky sourness balancing the sweetness. Finishes fast and very dry.

A winner in every respect. Think of it as a German version of a Lambic. True to style, this is a low-alcohol beer with an ABV of just 3.7%. To make the most of it, serve a generous pour in a large, bowl-shaped schooner. For a few moments of bliss, pair it with smoked fish.

Firkin Tapping Cancelled at Gardina’s

FYI: Due to the icy fisting winter is giving us, Gardina’s has cancelled the firkin tapping scheduled for tonight (Tuesday, January 28). It will be rescheduled. More to come....

Oshkosh Brewing Company Demolition

Here’s a short video I’ve put together about the lead-up to and the demolition of the Oshkosh Brewing Company’s Doty St. brewery in 1986/87.

Summer is Coming, But Until Then...

The Oshkosh area has a few, good-looking beer events on the immediate horizon. Here’s a quick round-up.

Friday, January 24: At 7 p.m., Dublins will have a special tapping of Big Bad Baptist from Epic Brewing Company. This is an 11% ABV Imperial Stout brewed with Cocoa nibs and Coffee beans. RateBeer gives it a 100 score.

Tuesday, January 28: Gardina's Beer Bar Series returns with a firkin tapping. They'll tap a cask of Tallgrass Brewing’s Buffalo Sweat Oatmeal Stout aged on raspberries and chocolate. The firkin will be tapped at 6 p.m.

Saturday, February 1: The 5th annual Fond du Lac BrewFest. Hundreds of homebrews and pro-brews to sample. Tickets are $30 in advance; $40 at the door. Check out their website for more.

Wednesday, February 5: Barley’s Beer Sampling Series at Barley & Hops. Start time is 7 p.m. Featured brewery will be 3 Sheeps Brewing of Sheboygan. A host of other commercial and homebrews will be available to sample. Advance tickets are $20 at Barley & Hops.

Saturday, March 8: Hops & Props 2014. Oshkosh’s largest beer sampling returns to the EAA AirVenture Museum. Tickets are $75 for the general tasting and a $125 for the VIP Dining Experience. Wow. See the Hops & Props website for ticket info.

And if that ain’t enough: Oshkosh Brews N' Blues is just 149 days away. Summer is coming. Really... it is.

Oshkosh Beer Sampler: A Couple of Bottled Belgians from Gardina’s

Last Friday, I stopped in at the retail side of Gardina’s and picked up a couple bottles of beer that turned out to be especially good. Moving from light to dark, here’s what I happened upon.

Somerset Saison is brewed by the Wild Beer Co. of Westcombe, England. It’s a pale, Belgian Farmhouse Ale with a dense, rocky head and a florid aroma that offers a rush of tangerine, ginger and dry spice. That leading tangerine note is courtesy of the hops. They’re using a good amount of American-grown Sorachi Ace for this beer. The fruit and spice elements of the aroma are just as prominent in the taste. The beer is tart and citric with an underpinning of Farmhouse funk and a quenching bitterness. It finishes fast and dry. And it’s every bit as drinkable as it is complex. I love it when a beer can have this level of flavor intensity, yet remain one that you crave multiples of. Its ABV of 5% invites that, but at $5.95 for an 11.2 oz. bottle you’re more likely to keep it at one or two.

Now to the dark: Triporteur From Hell is a dark Belgian Ale brewed by B.O.M. Brewery of Bree, Belgium. This is an interesting set-up. The beer is brewed on a contract basis by a former homebrewer who roasts and bakes his own malts then brews with them within 24 hours of their being finished. Can you taste that in the beer? I think you can. The beer pours a deep brown with dark fruit, sweet caramel and mild roast in the aroma. This one is all about malt flavor: I get threads of chocolate, caramel, fresh coffee and figs. There’s just a hint of sourness in the finish that balances those lush malt flavors. Delicious. This is a fairly light bodied beer that goes down ridiculously easy. It’s 6.6% ABV and Gardina’s is selling 25.4 oz. caged and corked bombers for $9.99.

What’s in Your Basement?

More pictures! I’m swimming in them. And after yesterday’s post, it occurred to me that I ought to be slapping more of them up on this blog. So, here we go...

Here’s a few that recently came my way from my buddies Steve and Janet Wissink. While doing a pre-spring clean, they discovered some gems hiding in their basement. As always, click the picture to enlarge it.

We’ll start with a few 1950s barrel glasses from the Oshkosh Brewing Company.

And Here’s a 1940s Würtzer Beer “Schnitt” from Peoples Brewing of Oshkosh.

More from the 1940s... Chief Oshkosh Beer poker chips.

Bottle caps from Peoples. I’m guessing these are from the 1950s.

Plastic keg caps from Peoples, probably from the 1960s.

One more: this comes from Nick Belville. He recently acquired this Peoples 1/4 barrel. Nick’s going to put it to good use. He’ll add oak chips to the  barrel and use it to age his homebrewed cider.

Oshkosh Brewing Company Emblem & Demolition Pictures

Today we have a guest post by fellow Oshkosher Thomas Denow. I'd like to add one thing to Tom’s story: the pictures you’ll see below date from December 1986/January 1987, when the demolition of the Oshkosh Brewing Company was underway. For a larger view of any of the pictures, just give them a click. Now, here’s Tom.

Back in the 1980s I realized I had undeveloped film in my camera. Not remembering what pictures were taken I took the film in to Camera Casino on Main St. in Oshkosh.  After they were developed I stopped in Oblio’s Lounge to look at the pictures and have a beer. I was pleasantly surprised to see the photos of the brewery, especially the Chief Oshkosh emblem. I immediately remembered taking the photos and that I took multiple shots hoping to get a good picture of the emblem. I picked the best of the bunch to have an enlarged print made for framing. That day Mark Schultz who was bartending at Oblio’s also requested a print which is still displayed in the bar.

I lived in an upstairs apartment across from the brewery in the 80s when it was being razed. Wanting a good picture of the emblem in its original environment, I had waited until the weather was right and sun was in the proper position, hoping for the best photo. Some of the photos are not in good focus but all are included that were taken at the time.

When this picture was taken I remember talking with Paul Winter, who grew up across from the brewery. He won the auction for the emblem. He said he had gotten a little caught up in the bidding spending more than he had expected. Eventually he sold it back to the city.

Are You an SOB?

You love good beer. You look forward to the experience of trying a beer you’ve never had before. You’re fascinated by the culture of beer and its unprecedented revival. You’re amazed by the awakening of your own palate and the fact that you’re turning into a beer geek. The next step is obvious. You begin brewing your own. Here’s a way to get started.

The Society of Oshkosh Brewers, more commonly known as the SOBs, will hold one of their regular club meetings tomorrow night (Wednesday, January 15) beginning at 7 p.m. at O’Marro’s Public House in Oshkosh. You don’t have to be a member to sit in and bend elbows with about 40 or so men and women who are as infatuated with beer as you are. Better yet, most of them are brewers and happy to share everything they know about the craft of making beer, mead, cider and wine at home. If you’re looking to start brewing, but not sure where to start, these are the people to talk to.

If you go, here’s what to expect: the club assembles in the banquet room of O’Marro’s. There’s always someone from the club hanging around the door; just walk up and tell them you’re there to check things out. They’ll send you in the right direction. After a brief bit of club business, the homebrew will start going around and the gab about brewing and beer begins. It’s always a casual affair and everyone is welcome. For more about the SOBs, check out their About Us page on the SOB website. Better yet, just come on down to O’Marro’s tomorrow and say hello. You look like you could use a beer.

The Story of Chief Oshkosh Beer and How to Brew It

With The Chief currently on tap at Fratellos in Oshkosh, I thought now might be a good time to look under the hood of the storied beer that inspired it. Let’s dig in.

A History of Chief Oshkosh Beer
Chief Oshkosh Lager Beer was the best selling beer ever produced in the City of Oshkosh. Over the course of its 44-year production run, the beer underwent several reformulations as its brewers strove to satisfy the changing expectations of consumers. But it started out not even being beer at all.

Chief Oshkosh Prohibition Brew

The Chief Oshkosh brand was introduced during Prohibition in 1928 as a non-alcoholic “near beer.” The recipe was developed by Felix Gertsch, brewmaster of the Oshkosh Brewing Company (OBC). According to OBC advertising, Chief Oshkosh was “a regular brew, made and aged in the old way, but the alcohol has been removed by a special vacuum process – not boiled out.” But getting people to buy the stuff was always an uphill battle. In Oshkosh during Prohibition, there was little need for those with a thirst for beer to settle for the something with a “Beer-like character” when the real thing was so readily available. The city was awash in full-strength homebrew and bootleg beer.

In 1933, the first Chief Oshkosh that could truly be called beer was released. The Cullen–Harrison Act, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 22, 1933, subverted the Prohibition Amendment by reinterpreting the meaning of the term “intoxicating liquors.” Now brewers were able to make beer that contained alcohol levels of 3.2 percent alcohol by weight (4% ABV). Brewmaster Gertsch retooled his recipe and Chief Oshkosh Beer was born. It was a mild, pale-gold lager, made of 6-row barley, corn and hops and immediately became the brewery’s flagship brand.

After the full repeal of Prohibition on December 5, 1933, Chief Oshkosh was given another boost. Though OBC had contended it saw no reason to increase the strength of it’s beer, OBC quickly followed the lead of other brewers and increased the alcohol content of Chief Oshkosh to just over 4.5%. The beer was immediately popular and by the end of 1934, OBC had produced more than 45,000 barrels of Chief Oshkosh Beer.

Chief Oshkosh Lager Beer, circa 1940s

For the next 17 years, Chief Oshkosh would be brewed according to Gertsch’s 1934 formulation. I’ve yet to come across the brewers logs for this period, but there is enough existing information to get a fair idea of what the beer may have been like. Though  fuller in body, slightly darker and somewhat more hop-driven than the premium American lagers that exist today, the beer would immediately be recognizable to most modern beer drinkers. Capital’s Supper Club would be perhaps the most comparable of the beers that are currently available, though it too would be less substantial than the Chief Oshkosh of the 1930s and 1940s.

American beer styles had begun growing less robust even before Prohibition and the trend towards lighter beer accelerated after repeal. Chief Oshkosh Beer was swept along in the pale wave. In 1950, Chief Oshkosh was redesigned again to make the beer lighter. OBC Treasurer Lorenz “Shorty” Kuenzl described it as a “Pilsener beer that would appeal to all kinds of beer tastes in people.” Analysis of the beer by Chicago’s Siebel Labs returned this report:

The sample submitted can be judged most favorably in every respect... The product pours with a creamy, stable foam showing attractive volume and texture. The beer is clean, smooth on the palate, fairly aromatic with a bare touch of wininess, yet mild, as well as pleasingly hopped... The sample was given a very good rating in blindfold taste trials.

A 1951 Advertisement for Chief Oshkosh

The folks at Siebel weren’t the only people impressed by the new Chief. The beer’s popularity grew immensely. By 1953, OBC was regularly producing over 60,000 barrels of Chief Oshkosh Beer annually. I’ve come across numerous brewers logs, tasting notes and other materials related to the production of this version of Chief Oshkosh. These are the basis for the recipe presented below.

Chief Oshkosh Beer changed again in 1961 after David Uihlein purchased the brewery. The new recipe substituted corn syrup for corn grits and the brewery began using hop extracts. The changes didn’t go over well with Chief Oshkosh drinkers. Sales of Chief Oshkosh went into a steady and prolonged decline. By the late 1960s, the beer was a shadow of its former self. It had become an adulterated brew, sold cheap. Its reputation destroyed.

In 1971, the Oshkosh Brewing Company closed. Its brands were sold to the neighboring Peoples Brewing Company of Oshkosh. And for a brief period spanning 1971 and into 1972, Chief Oshkosh Beer was produced by Peoples Brewing. When Peoples closed in 1972, the brewing of Chief Oshkosh Beer came to an end.

Brewing Chief Oshkosh Beer
This is a homebrew version of the 1950's Chief Oshkosh Beer. This recipe is based on information that originated at the brewery.

Style: Premium American Lager
Boil Volume: 7.5 Gallons
Batch Size: 5.5 Gallons
Efficiency: 75%
Boil Gravity: 1.034
Original Gravity: 1.046
Final Gravity: 1.012

A 1971 Chief Brewed at
Peoples Brewing, Oshkosh

Alcohol By Volume: 4.52%
IBUs: 20-25
Color: 2.5-3 SRM

Grist
6-Row Pale Malt: 6.5 pounds (70%)
Flaked Corn: 2.75 pounds (30%)
Extract brewers would need to perform a mini-mash and then supplant the remaining grist with either Light or Pilsen malt extract.

Hops
.7oz Cluster boiled for 60 mins to achieve approximately 19 IBUs
.3oz Cluster boiled for 10 mins to achieve approximately 3 IBUs

Yeast
Wyeast 2035 American Lager / Average Attenuation: 75%
Ferment at 50º F

Process
Mash in at 154º F / Rest for 60 minutes
Boil for 90 minutes
At OBC, they used corn grits that they gelatinized by boiling. They also employed a step mash to break down the bullish protein content of 6-row malt. Neither method is required for the recipe presented here.

Fermentation
Primary Fermentation: 10-14 days @ 50º F
Secondary Fermentation: 4-6 weeks @ 36º F

Carbonate the beer to 2.5-3 volumes

The Return of The Chief

Last week, Fratellos in Oshkosh brought back The Chief and that pleases me to no end. It’s a Classic American Pilsner and is based upon the version of Chief Oshkosh Beer that was brewed here by the Oshkosh Brewing company from 1950-1961. The beer is easy drinking, yet substantial, with a creamy mouthfeel, a mellow bitter/sweet flavor and a fast, dry finish that urges you back to the glass. When done well, I love this style of beer and this is an excellent example of how good it can be. When you taste one like this, it becomes a little easier to understand how the American Pilsner came to so throughly dominate the American beer landscape.

This is the second time that Fratellos has put The Chief on draught. The first tapping was back in September 2012. In May of 2012, Jay Supple of Fratellos had the idea of recreating one of the bygone Oshkosh beers to coincide with the release of The Breweries of Oshkosh, the book Ron Akin and I had written about the history of brewing here. For a couple of reasons, I suggested we do the 1950s version of Chief Oshkosh. For one, it was the best known of all the beers that had once been made here. More importantly, I had slew of information about the make-up of the beer. In the course of researching the book, I had collected a solid base of material for recreating the 1950s version of Chief Oshkosh, including brewers logs, chemical analysis of the beer and some fairly detailed tasting notes. And I knew it was a good beer. I had brewed it several times myself and served it to numerous people, some of whom were quite surprised that a true American Pilsner isn’t the insipid thing that the big brewers have made it out to be.

In late June of 2012, I turned over my collection of information and a recipe I had used for the beer to Kevin Bowen, brewmaster at Fratellos/Fox River Brewing Co. Kevin modified it to fit his brewhouse and went at it. When the beer was served three months later, I thought it was fantastic. And the two pints of The Chief that I had yesterday were every bit as good. Of course, you can see my bias here and when it comes to this beer I make no claim of impartiality. I love that I’m able to step up to the bar and get a taste of the sort of beer that was once common in Oshkosh. The only problem is, this is going to be another limited release of The Chief. Get it while you can.

Oshkosh Beer Sampler: Dark Voyage IPA

A slanted and endless survey of what’s pouring in Oshkosh, tallied one beer at a time.

What: Dark Voyage IPA, A 6.5% Black IPA from Capital Brewery of Middleton.

Where: All the big-box grocery stores in Oshkosh. I’ve seen it at a couple of mini-marts, too.

Why: Because it’s an interesting beer in at least a couple of ways. It pours to a deep, chestnut brown with a sticky tan head. The aroma is of fresh and leafy American hops with an undertow of toasty malt. It’s a fairly bitter beer, but not overly so. The hop flavor is grassy, slightly resinous and it blends well with the flecks of roast and chocolate flavors that fill out the body. The finish is pleasingly bitter. I’m not much for this style, but this is one of the better integrated examples I’ve had. I’m working on my second six-pack and enjoying it quite a bit.

Here’s the other part that’s interesting to me: Through much of the 19th century, English brewers produced hoppy porters that were shipped to British troops stationed in India. We all know about the IPAs that the Brits were sending to India, but some brewing historians contend that there were probably more highly-hopped porters shipped to India than IPAs. As I’ve been drinking Dark Voyage, the thought of those hoppy, English porters keeps returning to me. The malt profile of this beer is very much like that of a porter and the name – Dark Voyage – is evocative of those tall ships carrying a cargo of dark, hoppy beer on the long voyage to India. I wonder if that’s what the folks at Capital had in mind when they dreamed this one up. I hope so.

Fond du Lac BrewFest is Coming February 1

The 4th annual Fond du Lac BrewFest is less than a month away and it’s shaping up nicely. This year, they have 26 breweries signed on to pour more than 200 beers. The fest will also feature a “Homebrew Alley” where 13 Wisconsin homebrewing clubs – including a few of us SOBs from Oshkosh – will be serving over 100 different homebrews.

Aside from all that good homebrew, one of the things that sets this beer party apart is the number of brewpubs that participate. These brewers serve up beer you can’t typically get outside of their pubs, so it’s a good chance to get in front of some new brews without driving all over creation to get them. Between the pro-brew and the homebrew, there’s sure to be plenty you haven’t swallowed before.

The Fond du Lac BrewFest takes place Saturday, February 1 from 2-6pm at the Fond du Lac County Fairgrounds. Tickets are $30 in advance or $40 at the door. Here in Oshkosh, you can purchase tickets at O’Marro’s Public House or at the BrewFest website, where you’ll also find more info. For you Facebookers there’s this. If you go, stop by the SOB table and say hello. I’ll be pouring my homebrewed Midwest XX Mild based on a recipe from 1901. Bet you haven’t had a beer like this one before. See you in Fondy!

Beer Ads in Oshkosh No. 21: Beer for the Bed Sheets

Click to Enlarge

Last month I posted about the Beer Brewing Rahrs of Wisconsin and mentioned that having three distinct breweries within 60-miles of one another carrying the same name sometimes led to confusion among beer drinkers. In Oshkosh, if you bought a beer with the Rahr name on it, you naturally assumed that the beer was brewed here in town over on Rahr Ave. But that wasn’t always the case. Here’s an example of how muddy the situation could be.

This ad appeared in the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern on Wednesday, May 27, 1953. The Rahr beer being advertised here wasn’t from Oshkosh, though. It was from the Rahr Green Bay Brewing Corporation, a point easily missed if you didn’t bother to read the small type. This came at a time when the Rahrs of Green Bay were attempting to aggressively expand their market and grow their brewery. From 1952 to 1953 production at Rahr Green Bay jumped by more than 20%. In 1953, the Green Bay brewery produced 42,663 bbls of beer, a respectable amount for a regional brewery in Northeast Wisconsin. By comparison, the Rahrs of Oshkosh produced just 7,100 bbls of beer in 1953. Meanwhile, the Oshkosh Brewing Company output for 1953 stood at 57,752 bbls; while Oshkosh’s other brewery – Peoples – produced 34,098 bbls. Anyway you look at it, that’s a lot of beer for a few small breweries.

We’re gradually clawing our way back to those production levels. Stevens Point Brewery now produces well over 60,000 bbls annually and Titletown Brewing of Green Bay recently announced that in 2013 the brewery surpassed the 20,000 bbl marker. And this time, they’re not trying to entice us with a cheap set of pink bedsheets. The lure is good beer. It’s the way things ought to be.

Catching Up, Nosing Around and Moving Along

Well, that all seemed to go flying by pretty quick. Hope your Holidays were rewarding and relaxing. Now, let’s get back to the beer. We have lots of catching up to do; like rust, beer never sleeps.

We had a hell of a year for beer here in 2013, and 2014 is already looking good. You can find out what a bunch of our local beer mavens have planned for this new year in my Oshkosh Beer Garden column in the January Oshkosh SCENE. It’s available all over town.

There are some good looking beer events coming up in January. The first of them is tomorrow night (Friday, January 3) at Dublin’s. They’ll hold a vertical tasting of Central Waters’ highly sought after Bourbon Barrel Stout. They’ll have the 2011, 2012 and 2013 vintages on hand. For $6 you can line-up all three and compare/contrast to your heart’s content.

On Monday, January 13, O’Marro’s Public House will host a beer and whiskey dinner. The eight-course meal will be paired with various whiskey’s and beers (there’s even going to be some homebrew in there). It’s $30 and begins at 6:00 p.m. Seats are limited, so stop in at the pub to reserve your space. For more details, checkout the Facebook Event Page.

A couple nights later on Wednesday, January 15, Dublin’s will host a Rush River Beer dinner. This will be a five-course meal paired with five different beers from Rush River Brewing of River Falls. A place at the table is $30 and, once again, space is limited, so reserve your seat in advance at Dublin’s.

On Tuesday, January 21, Gardina's Wine Bar & Cafe will present the sixth installment of their Gardina's Beer Bar series. Adam at Gardina’s has a few beers he’s considering for the event, but hasn’t settled on one just yet. I’ll pass that info along when he makes his selection.

If you've been reading this blog for a while you already know that I love Bock beer – those rich, hearty and strong lagers that’ll keep you from freezing up during this frigid weather we’re having. At the moment, there are a couple of excellent Bocks flowing in town you might want to check out. Fratellos is currently serving up a classic example of the Doppelbock style. Their 8.5% Defibrillator Doppelbock is a full-bodied dark lager with a silky texture and just enough bitterness in the finish to balance its lush malt character. For a lighter example of Bock, check out New Glarus Cabin Fever Honey Bock. This is an entirely approachable, 6% beer that’s crisp and slightly sweet. I’ve seen Cabin Fever at a bunch of places around town including all the big-box grocery stores.

There’s more in the offing, including festivals in February and March, but that’ll have to do for now. As always, there’s more on the way.