A Beer Time Capsule

Whether you call it craft beer, microbrew, speciality beer, or what have you, beers of distinction have had a home in Oshkosh for more than 150 years.

Jody Cleveland and I are going to explore the history of these unique beers on Thursday, October 27, at 6:30 pm at the Oshkosh Public Library. Admission is free and so is the beer we’ll serve in conjunction with our talk. It’s the beer I want to get into here.

We’ll serve samples of four beers Thursday night. The beers have been brewed from recipes based on research into the periods when these beers were originally brewed and drank in Oshkosh. Here’s a quick rundown of the beers we’ll be pouring.

Oshkosh Salvator
This was produced in 1858 by Oshkosh’s Busch Brewery, forerunner to The Fifth Ward Brewery. As the date would suggest, this will be the most rustic of the beers we’ll have on tap. It’s a full-bodied, deep-amber lager with a noticeable hop bitterness. By the way, the hops used in this beer are descendents of hops grown in Winnebago County in the 1850s. This beer truly is a time capsule in a glass.

Kuenzl’s Kulmbacher
This one is based on an 1875 beer brewed by Lorenz Kuenzl at the Gambrinus Brewery in Oshkosh. It’s a dark lager of the sort that was once exceedingly popular here. An all-malt beer in 1875, Kulmbacher was a favorite of Oshkosh’s German immigrants who brought a thirst for the beers of their homeland to their new home in the new world.

Peoples Old Derby Ale
Oshkosh brewers didn’t dabble much in ale, but here’s an exception. Peoples began brewing Old Derby Ale in 1937. The original iteration was an American interpretation of an English stock ale. This is a medium bodied ale with a pronounced hop flavor supplied by cluster hops.

Chief Oshkosh Red Lager
This beer marks the beginning years of the specialty beer revival in Oshkosh. Produced by the Mid-Coast Brewing Company of Oshkosh and brewed at the Stevens Point Brewery, this first appeared in Oshkosh in 1991. It’s an all-malt amber lager akin to a Vienna lager. This was the first American “Red Lager” and the first craft beer to be canned.

There you have it. Hope to see you Thursday and share some beers with you. Prost!