Oshkosh Beer

Closing Time

2011-04-22T10:22:00.000-05:00

After 228 posts, the Oshkosh Beer blog has arrived at its end. This has been a lot of fun, but it’s time for me to move along. If all goes well, I’ll have a new blog up and running this fall that will be all about Oshkosh (with maybe a little beer thrown in here and there). When that happens, I’ll put a post here with a link to the new blog. Thanks for reading!

Oshkosh Beer Timeline

A 12-Pack Tour of Oshkosh Brewing History

2011-04-19T18:04:00.000-05:00

I’ve always liked to think of this as an interactive blog. A place that might inspire someone to actually do something... such as drink beer. Or in the case of this post, go out and tour the sights of Oshkosh’s incredible brewing history.

Below you’ll find a couple of links. The first is a direct download of a PDF containing a five-page, self-guided tour of Oshkosh’s beer brewing past. The tour includes directions for finding the locations of all the old Oshkosh breweries and is loaded with images and interesting facts. Hopefully, you’ll want to print it out and take a tour of our city’s beer brewing past. If nothing else, you can use it as a concise roadmap to the history of commercial brewing in Oshkosh.

If you’d rather not download the file, you can use the second link to view the tour as a web page. It doesn’t look as nice as the PDF, but it’s good enough to give you an idea of what this is all about.

This sort of history can sometimes seem remote, but it comes alive when you’re able to get out and tromp around on the ground once occupied by the people who made that history. Here’s a guide to some good Oshkosh ground to go trompin’ around.

1) Direct download of the Oshkosh Beer Tour PDF

2) Web Page view of the Oshkosh Beer Tour

Hopfen und Malz, Gott erhalt’s!

2011-04-07T15:30:00.000-05:00

We’re smack-dab in the middle of one of those transitional gaps in the beer drinking year. The Bock season is winding down, but it’s still a little too early and damp for the beers of summer. That’s good. It’s during these lulls that you usually find a few interesting oddballs drifting in. With that in mind, here’s a triad of recent arrivals on the Oshkosh beer scene that’ll confuse and amuse your taster in a most pleasing way.

Let’s start with the oddest of the bunch. New Glarus is calling their new Two Women Lager a “Classic County Lager”. What exactly that means is beyond me. There’s an educational spiel on the label that mentions Christ, Sumerian women and Norse society that further confused me, until I finally just gave up and drank it. Best idea I had all day. This is a strange, little beer and I like it. It pours to a clear, deep bronze with a clean, bready aroma and a first draw that’s surprisingly fruity. Reminded me more of an Altbier than a traditional lager, but the flavors come along so soft and round that it makes all those esters seem about right. It finishes with a dry, cookie-like bit of malt and an exceptionally clean hit of light bitterness. It’s a subtle beer; a brew you can pay no mind to and drink like mad, if you so choose, but if you show it some attention, the reward will be worth it.

Now to the deep end of the pool to greet an altogether different breed of New Glarus, a beer they’ve named IIPA. Meaning double IPA; or DIPA, as the knobs call it. Anyway, this Imperial India Pale Ale is the first release under New Glarus’ new Thumbprint Series of beers. Apparently they’ve ditched their “Unplugged” thing for a label featuring a Bunyanesque thumbprint shaped like Wisconsin. Unfortunately, my ADD (Alcohol Deficit Disorder) prohibits me from giving a shit. On to the beer! Whoa... This thing smells like they just pulled the hops out. It pours hazy and golden with an enormous aroma of citrus, passion fruit and pine. The first thing that came to mind after I’d made it part of my inner being is that this brew is like an amplified version of Moon Man blasting from an amp that goes to 11. The hop flavors are bright and clean right up to the point where the bitterness consumes everything in its path leaving your ruined mouth to pucker on the residue of syrupy malt. That said, I can’t imagine a hop lover not going for this beer. I also can’t imagine drinking more than one of them (and at 9% I probably wouldn’t anyway). And I pity the beer that follows it, because your palate is going to be too wrecked to taste it. Go to it hop fiends!

Our last ride on this wave to oblivion is a new seasonal offering from Big Sky Brewing. Heavy Horse Scotch Ale hit town a couple weeks ago and since we don’t seem to get a lot of Scotch Ale around here, I nabbed it straight off. It’s an almost 7% Wee Heavy that arrives deep brown and reeking of caramelized sugars and the sightly metallic aroma of roasted malt. This is a chewy, near-sweet beer with a pleasant depth of malt flavor, that gets cut too short by an overabundance of bitterness in the finish. On the other hand, that bitterness clarifies the palate and keeps you coming back for the next sip. Maybe it’s a little too wee to really be a Wee Heavy, but that’s being fussy. A good beer for any malt lover and a fine warmer on cool Spring evening.

All three of these brews can be found at Festival Foods in Oshkosh, but to get at the New Glarus IIPA, you’ll need to dig a little. They’ve got it hidden behind the last of the New Glarus Unplugged beers that they’re trying to move out. They like to make things difficult, don’t they? Ein Prosit!

Looting the Old Brewhouse

2011-04-06T17:05:00.000-05:00

The Final Days of the Brewhouse

Here’s an odd little tall-tale about coincidence, the decline of the American brewing industry, juvenile delinquency, and an Oshkosh Irishman named Shawn O’Marro.

Our story begins in the days of yore; or abouts 1984. A young Oshkosh man, who shall remain anonymous, was milling about in a condemned building on Doty Street engaged in the sort pillage and plunder that comes naturally to young men who locate themselves in such environments. This wasn’t just any condemned property, though. This was the once majestic brewhouse of the formally revered Oshkosh Brewing Company.

Unfortunately, our young hero had arrived somewhat late to the looting. The Oshkosh Brewing Company had been closed for more than a decade and in the intervening years it had been abused by scores of vandals, arsonists and delinquents who found it an easy and alluring target. There wasn’t much left of the place by 1984, but our young friend didn’t leave empty handed. Tucked away in a back room he found a stash of old receipts (in 1962 you could purchase a half-barrel of Chief Oshkosh for $12.00) and packs of 1960s beer labels from breweries big and small across the country. He grabbed all he could and fled. Back at home, he carefully arranged his swag into photo albums where the collection moldered away, forgotten and ignored for years.

Enter Shawn O’Marro.

Our young friend was now an adult with a problematic computer. Shawn offered to help the man out and as payment relieved him of the three books of stolen breweriana he had assembled years earlier. Coincidentally, this would be the first time Shawn actually received payment for repairing an ill computer and it dawned on him that perhaps he could employ his skills to earn more than just beer labels.

This led Shawn to a new and somewhat short career, which in turn provided him with the cash he needed to launch O’Marro’s Public House. So, Oshkosh may have lost a brewery, but if you twist the logic of it just right you’ll see that the loss resulted in the establishment of a great pub. And now I need a beer.

Here’s a slideshow of the spoils of our young man’s illicit adventure with musical accompaniment by Rocky Bill Ford & His Sunset Wranglers.

The Flying Dog Act Wednesday Night at Barley & Hops

2011-04-05T14:40:00.000-05:00

Time, once again, for the best damned beer deal in town. Every six weeks or so, Nate at Barley & Hops gives the floor over to a brewery of merit and let’s them show their stuff. This time the spotlight lands on the venerated Flying Dog Brewery of Frederick, Maryland. Just $10 gets you through the door and the chance to drink all the Flying Dog brew you care to from 7:00 - 10:00 Wednesday night (April, 6). Really, where else can you go and pay ten bucks to drink quality beer for three hours?

All your favorite Flying Dog beers will be on hand along with a few limited release surprises, I’m sure. As always, the evening’s list will also include an assortment of other brews, boozes and wines, so unless your completely adverse to the pleasures of alcohol, you’re sure to find plenty you’ll like.

As Nate says, “TEN BUCKS!!??!! That's F*@#!'n Crazy!!” Maybe, but sometimes crazy is good!

First Breweries of Oshkosh: Part 5 - The Fifth Ward Brewery

2011-04-04T17:38:00.001-05:00

In the mid-1850s Oshkosh was coming into its own. What had been a backwater wilderness 20 years earlier was now a thriving city with more than 4,000 people and a burgeoning reputation for liquid indulgence. Beer was a central component in the lives of many who had come to Oshkosh and though the city already had two breweries, there was more than enough demand to support another. It was exactly the sort of place Tobias Fischer and August Weist were looking for.

Both Fischer and Weist were born in Germany and trained as brewers in their homeland before leaving for America. It appears Fischer was the driving force in the partnership. Fischer was 46 years old when he left Germany in 1854 and when he reached Oshkosh two years later he had the resources needed to finance the launch of the brewery. But when it came to the brewing aspect of the operation, Weist was certainly Fischer’s equal. Weist was a certified Brewmaster having served a full apprenticeship in Hirschberg, Germany undertaken at the age of 15. He came to America in 1856 and just eight days after his 27th birthday in October of that year, he and Fischer purchased a single acre of land at what is now the south west corner of High and New York Avenues. The developing and under-served north side of Oshkosh now had a brewery of its own, albeit one that would prove to be provisional.

Fischer and Weist were barely settled in when another young brewer named Christian Kaehler landed on the north end of town. Kaehler, who was born in Oldenburg, Germany in 1833, had emigrated to America in 1853 and may have come to Oshkosh at the behest of Tobias Fischer. If Fischer hadn’t invited Kaehler to Oshkosh, the two certainly didn’t waste any time finding common ground. In August of 1857, August Weist left Oshkosh for Princeton where he would establish the Tiger Brewery. A month later Fischer threw his lot in with Kaehler. The two consolidated their operations and in September of 1857 purchased land at what is now the south east corner of Algoma Boulevard and Vine Avenue. Here they established what came to be known as the Fifth Ward Brewery.

But Fischer’s partnership with Kaehler was as short lived as his collaboration with Weist. In February of 1858 Fischer began pulling out of Oshkosh. Over the course of the year, he sold his holdings to Kaehler and then left to brew beer in St. Louis, which then had the largest number of breweries in North America. Kaehler, meanwhile, was now 25 years old and had the Fifth Ward Brewery all to himself.

The Fifth Ward Brewery would be the last of the Oshkosh breweries to be established prior to 1860 and though it held its own for almost 25 years, the operation appears to have been wedded to the past. Kaehler had learned to brew at a time when the German brewing regimen had gone unchanged for several centuries, but with the coming of the 1860s, advances in brewing science and technology were revolutionizing commercial brewing. Kaehler, however, seemed to have little interest in reaping the benefits of such developments. The growth of the Fifth Ward Brewery would remain stunted over the years as its production lagged far behind that of other Oshkosh breweries. And in comparison to the encroaching breweries of Milwaukee, Kaehler’s output was minuscule. By 1879 the Fifth Ward Brewery was producing less than 200 barrels of beer a year, and though it was an increase over the brewery’s previous output, it was still less than half of what was being produced by Rahr Brewing, Oshkosh’s next smallest brewery.

Small as it was, the brewery seemed to hold a special place in the memories of early Oshkosh residents. Some fifty years after it closed, Kaehler's brewery became a topic at a gathering of “old settlers” held by the Winnebago County Archeological and Historical Society. They described the brewery as consisting of several buildings, some of which were sunk low into the ground. This would have been in keeping with a typical set-up for a lager brewer such as Kaehler who relied upon cooler temperatures to ferment and age his beer. The panel recalled that Kaehler’s entire plant was surrounded by a high, board fence and erroneously remembered it as being just one of two breweries then in Oshkosh. In fact, there were six Oshkosh breweries in operation during the period. That the group could only recall the largest and smallest breweries of the era says more about Kaehler’s position in the community than it does about the state of Oshkosh brewing during that time.

Though Kaehler’s brewery was modest, by the 1870s he had managed to parley his earnings into a larger success. As early as 1866 Kaehler began buying vacant parcels of land that surrounded his brewery. As the northern end of Algoma Boulevard became a destination point for the newly affluent, Kaehler found himself holding a portfolio of highly coveted deeds. Throughout the 1870s Kaehler subdivided and sold off the properties at a handsome profit and with the coming of the 1880s it appears the brewery had became something of an afterthought for him.

By 1882 Kaehler’s Fifth Ward Brewery had ceased production and the following year Kaehler used his new wealth to purchase land on an island off the coast of Washington. There he finished his days as a gentleman farmer.

The north side of Oshkosh would remain without a brewery for more than 100 years, until 1995 when the Fox River Brewing Company established its first brewpub just two blocks north of the Kaehler site.

What was once the Kaehler brewery is now a green space that falls within the grounds of the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh. The land is crossed by a footpath and legend has it that if you stroll through the area on a cool autumn night when the breeze is light you can still draw the heady aroma of fermenting lager yeast... if you’re carrying a vial of it with you.

The “Worst” Beers in Oshkosh

2011-03-31T09:20:00.000-05:00

Most Thursdays this space is taken up with notes about notable beers currently pouring in our town. This Thursday is going to be different. Instead of harping about “Good” beer, today it’s going to be all about “Bad” beer. Or should that be “Popular” beer? Perhaps it’s no coincidence that some of the best selling beers in Oshkosh also happen to be some of the worst beers. That is, if you you believe the rankings compiled by the top two beer review sites, Beer Advocate and Rate Beer. And Oshkosh is hardly alone in it’s love for lousy beer. These are some of the best selling beers across America.

So here they are, the five “Worst” beers that you can currently purchase in Oshkosh ranked from the very worst to the somewhat less worse based upon amalgamated scores of the lowest rated beers on the Beer Advocate and Rate Beer websites.

Michelob Ultra (BA-3/RB-5)
Natural Light (BA6/RB-3)
Natural Ice (BA-9/RB-2)
Bud Light (BA-5/RB-11)
Budweiser Select 55 (BA-10/RB-6)

Notice a theme here? Each these beers are made by Anheuser-Busch InBev, the foul monolith that earlier this week bought out Goose Island Brewing. Expect to see Honker’s Light Ice Ultra Ale coming soon.

For the sake of pure research I thought I ought to go out and actually give the worst beer you can purchase in Oshkosh a spin. Here’s what I found: Michelob Ultra is an innocuous waste of water that doesn’t even rise to the level of bad. It has a very light aroma of canned corn and tastes like seltzer water. The most notable sensory aspect of the beer is auditory. When you pour it out, the carbonation goes into a state of terminal flux and the beer sounds like a five-year-old with a mouthful of pop-rocks. I suppose what’s most offensive about this beer is its price. I paid $5.69 for a six-pack of Ultra and that’s about the going rate. For that kind of money you can get a six-pack of something pretty damned good from Point.

All right, so Michelob Ultra may be quite bad, but for my money, it’s just not bad enough. If you’re up for something really bad, I mean something harboring actual flavors that will offend and repulse, I’d suggest Axe Head Malt Liquor by the cunning Minhas Craft Brewery of lovely Monroe, Wisconsin. Here, my friends, is a bad beer you can literally sink your teeth into. This gummy, astringent syrup comes in a 24oz “King Can” and if you’re able to empty it you’ll achieve the royal glow usually reserved for inbreds and other genetically impaired types. If you want to have some April Fool’s fun, pour it into a goblet and pass it off on the nearest beer geek as a Belgian Triple. You’ll fool them until that moment when the piercing sting of caustic alcohol hits the back of their throat and then slices up their innards. Now that’s fun!

It’s time for us beer snobs to get out of our comfort zones and explore some of the truly “unique” flavors the beer world has to offer. Get off your high-horse, comrade, and take a stumble down the low road of flavor and liver damage. After all, there’s more to life than good beer... but not much more.

First Breweries of Oshkosh: Part 4 - From Konrad to Kuenzl, the Evolution of the Lake Brewery

2011-03-28T10:28:00.000-05:00

1858 Map of Oshkosh Showing Location of Lake Brewery

The long-forgotten cradle of Oshkosh brewing is now occupied by an unassuming ranch-style home just south of Ceape Avenue at 74 Lake Street. Here is where a German immigrant named Jacob Konrad, who purchased the land in July of 1849, established Oshkosh’s first commercial brewery. And though Konrad would leave Oshkosh by the mid-1850s, the incredible lineage of his brewery would extend to 1972 and the closing of Oshkosh’s last full-scale, production brewery.

The earliest days of what came to be known as the Lake Brewery have been obscured by time, but the picture begins to clear in 1854 when Jacob Konrad sold his brewery to a lively German émigré named Anton Andrea. Born in Frankfurt in 1822 and educated in Switzerland, Andrea became a Major in the Hungarian Hussars and was forced to fight against his native country when Hungary revolted against Austrian rule in 1848. Andrea turned fugitive, fled to Turkey and made his way to Constantinople where he embarked on a ship bound for America. In 1849 he arrived in Oshkosh.

Andrea’s 30 years in Oshkosh would prove to be as picaresque as his life in Europe. He was elected to the first Oshkosh City Council in 1853, made and lost several fortunes, was burned out on six occasions, and at one time or another sold everything from groceries to clothes to liquor to real-estate. Ironically, the one thing Andrea may not have done was brew beer. Andrea didn’t come from brewing background and unlike the Oshkosh brewmasters of the period, he didn’t live at the brewery. The 1857 Oshkosh city directory shows two other brewers, Casper Haberbusch and Louis Keller, working at the Lake Brewery during the time it was under Andrea’s name, indicating that this may have been the first brewery in Oshkosh where the beer was made by someone other than the man who owned the brewhouse.

What is certain is that by 1862 Andrea’s role at the brewery was tangential at best. That year, Andrea leased the Lake Brewery to a 35-year-old brewer trained in Saxony named Leonhardt Schwalm. Schwalm’s tenure at the brewery was even more brief than that of his predecessors. In September of 1865 his lease on the Lake Brewery expired and in October Schwalm bought a parcel of land on Doty Street where he and August Horn established Horn and Schwalm’s Brooklyn Brewery. Incidentally, that same tract would later be home to the Oshkosh Brewing Company.

Meanwhile, a new brewer had occupied the Lake Brewery. Immediately upon Schwalm’s removal, the brewery was taken over by a 30-year-old German-born butcher from Stevens Point named Gottlieb Ecke. With the backing of a short-term business partner named Edward Becker, Ecke assumed control of the brewery in September of 1865 and a month later purchased it outright from Andrea. Along with the purchase of the brewery, Ecke also acquired from Andrea several lots west of the brewery on Harney Avenue. Ecke was looking to the future.

An inventory of the brewery from 1865 reveals a dated facility geared to meet the the needs of an earlier era. Not only had brewing methods rapidly progressed in the intervening years, Oshkosh had as well. The Lake Brewery came into being at a time when Oshkosh’s population barely exceeded 2,000 people. By the end of the 1860s Oshkosh had over 12,000 residents and if Ecke was going to keep pace, he’d need an updated, more efficient brewhouse.

In 1868 Ecke began setting up a new brewery a block west of the original Lake Brewery on the additional lands he had purchased from Anton Andrea. The brewery was located in the area that now falls within the addresses of 1239-1247 Harney Avenue and was fully operational by 1869. Unfortunately, death would soon intervene. Just two years after the completion of his brewery, Gottlieb Ecke died on a Sunday night in November of 1871. He was 37 years old. Oddly, the circumstances of Ecke’s death went unreported in the three Oshkosh newspapers then in publication. The only notice of his passing appeared in the Oshkosh Times, which printed a two-line obituary that failed to even include his full name, listing him simply as G. Ecke.

Ecke left behind a wife, four young children and a mountain of debt taken to finance construction of the new brewery. A brewery which appears to have remained idle for the next year. Unable to keep the business running, Charlotte Ecke, the widow of Gottlieb Ecke, was forced to sign over possession of the brewery to her late husband’s principle creditor in March of 1874.

Lorenz Kuenzl

If there was any good that came from the rapid dissolution of the Ecke brewery, it was that the man who assumed Ecke’s place in the brewhouse would prove to be the most accomplished of the early Oshkosh brewers. Lorenz Kuenzl was born in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) in 1845 where, at an early age, he became an adept in the art and science of brewing beer. Kuenzl came to America in 1871 and made his way to Stevens Point where the 31-year-old brewer married a 21-year-old Barbara Walter. Kuenzl was probably in Oshkosh by the close of 1874 and the following year took over the Ecke brewery with the help of his brother-in-law, John Walter.

The Oshkosh brewing scene of the mid-1870s was an embarrassment of riches. In 1875 there were six breweries in Oshkosh, four of them north of the river, and though the population of Oshkosh was rapidly gaining, a brewery looking to carve a niche for itself needed something special. Lorenz Kuenzl fit the bill.

Kuenzl christened his enterprise the Gambrinus Brewery in honor of King Gambrinus, the patron saint of brewers, and quickly established a reputation as a maker of quality beer. Although the Gambrinus Brewery would soon be outpaced in terms of production by the rapidly expanding Oshkosh breweries south of the Fox River, no other Oshkosh brewery could claim the variety of beer that Kuenzl produced. Kuenzl targeted his output to that segment of the Oshkosh populace longing for the lagers of their German homeland. Among the beers in the Gambrinus line-up were a malty Vienna lager; a Bohemian lager that emphasized hops; and a full-bodied, dark lager familiar to the Kulmbach region of Bavaria. Kuenzl knew his audience and confined the lion’s share of his advertising for the Gambrinus Brewery to the Wisconsin Telegraph, Oshkosh’s German language newspaper. The ads were simple and direct with Kuenzl’s name featured prominently beneath that of his brewery followed by a brief list of the current brews. Obviously, Kuenzl was addressing people well acquainted with stylistic differences among beers. No further explanation was required.

Though his ability as a brewer may have been a match for the quality he desired, Kuenzl’s funds were apparently not the equal of either. Kuenzl and Walter lacked the capital to purchase the brewery outright so instead leased the property from Henry Timm, a carpenter living at what is now 621 Ceape Avenue. Timm was a friend of the Ecke family and had purchased the brewery immediately after Charlotte Ecke had lost it to foreclosure. The relationship between Kuenzl and his landlord would prove to be sometimes contentious, but the atmosphere inside the brewery was familial, to say the least. Along with his brother-in-law John Walter, Keunzl’s brother Andrew also worked at the brewery and in 1879 Gottlieb Ecke’s now 16 year-old son, Otto, went to work alongside the Gambrinus crew in the brewhouse his father had built.

With the start of a new decade, though, things at the brewery began to change. In May of 1880, Kuenzl and John Walter dissolved their partnership, but more significantly, Kuenzl now found himself facing a competitive disadvantage. Although the Gambrinus Brewery was relatively new, its capacity was dwarfed by two new brewhouses on the South Side of Oshkosh. Both John Glatz’s Union Brewery and the Brooklyn Brewery of Horn & Schwalm had recently been rebuilt and each was capable of producing three times the quantity of beer Kuenzl could make. Worse yet was the new threat posed by the enormous breweries of Milwaukee now sending train cars full of beer into Oshkosh in an attempt to claim the market for their own.

As other small Oshkosh breweries began to fade, Kuenzl somehow managed to hold on. Although limited by the constraints of his brewery, Kuenzl continued brew to his own standards and in 1883, under threat of eviction, raised enough capital to purchase the brewery from Henry Timm. Lorenz Kuenzl had finally made The Gambrinus Brewery his own.

For the next 11 years things remained just that way. Then came 1894. Battered by a disastrous economic slump and their relentless adversaries from Milwaukee, Oshkosh’s three leading brewers - Horn & Schwalm, John Glatz, and Lorenz Kuenzl - joined forces to form the Oshkosh Brewing Company. The conglomeration would result in the largest, best-known brewery Oshkosh would ever know. Although, Kuenzl’s brewery was by far the smallest of the three, his influence on the new company would be disproportionate to his share of the firm’s assets. Kuenzl was named superintendent of the Oshkosh Brewing Company and it’s clear from the early roster of beers it produced that Lorenz Kuenzl was responsible for establishing the new company’s brewing regimen.

With the formation of the Oshkosh Brewing Company, the Gambrinus Brewery was converted into a bottling facility. Three years later, Lorenz Kuenzl died at the age of fifty-three due to complications of edema. Following the construction of the Oshkosh Brewing Company’s new brewery in 1911, The Gambrinus Brewery was dismantled and the surrounding property sold as residential lots.

What began as Oshkosh’s first brewery on Lake Street and later evolved into the breweries of Ecke and Kuenzl helped form the basis for what became Oshkosh’s premier brewery. When the Oshkosh Brewing Company folded in 1971, its signature brands were assumed by the Peoples Brewing Company, the last of Oshkosh’s large-scale breweries. A lineage that joins 123 years of brewing history in our city had reached its conclusion.

A Trio of Midwestern IPAs

2011-03-24T10:45:00.000-05:00

As the American craft beer scene continues its rise, it’ll be interesting to see if regional differences take hold among styles of beer. In a country such as Germany, where local beer never entirely lost its appeal, regional variations on style are taken for granted and though our beer culture is much younger, similar distinctions are already beginning to occur here.

Probably the best example of regional styles in America can be found among IPAs. In each part of the country these are extravagantly hopped beers, but a Midwestern IPA is something quite apart from an East Coast or a West Coast IPA. East Coast IPAs tend to be drier and have a more restrained hop aroma and usually feature a long, bitter finish (think Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA or Smuttynose IPA). Typical West Coast varieties rely more on a billowing floral hop aroma and a burst of hop flavor with less malt underpinning (try Sierra Nevada’s Torpedo Extra IPA). And in the Midwest we’ve got a style all our own. Here the IPAs tends to be a bit more aromatic than the East Coast model with a creamier, full body and a finish that’s bitter and sweet.

You can parse this stuff all day, but it doesn't come to much if you're not going to drink-up so let’s get to some beer! Here are three Midwestern IPAs that fit just about perfectly into what is becoming our regional style.

We’ll start with the IPA closest to home. Fratello’s just put on their Hoppy Face IPA and it’s straight-out of the Midwest IPA recipe book. The aroma is a gentle blend of floral hops and sweet malt and those qualities carry over into the first draw. There’s a creamy, honey malt character that comes along that’s soon cut through by a substantial bitterness that lingers until the next drink. This is a fine beer and one to appreciate while it’s fresh.

Founders Centennial IPA was recently on tap at Oblio’s, but it’s been missing from the store shelves lately. Now it’s back at Festival Foods. This is a classic Midwestern IPA that pours to a dull gold with an aroma that any homebrewer will immediately recognize: it’s that smell of hops hitting the wort that rises up as you begin throwing your hops into the brew kettle. This is a big, chewy beer with plenty of caramel malt to balance the burst of hop bitterness that quickly presents itself. If you enjoy hops and malt employed to their utmost, you’ll love this beer.

Finally, we’ve got another beer that after a winter absence has made a return to Festival Foods. Three Floyd's Alpha King Pale Ale may not call itself an IPA, but then labels lie all the time (you think Miller Lite is a true Pilsner?). Whatever you call it, this is a beautiful beer and a great example of a Midwestern IPA. It’s a bronze, cloudy beer that looks like something real in comparison to most of today's sissified, filtered-to-death ales. The big beige head bubbles up the good stink of Cascade hops laced with sweet malt. It starts mellow and malty with a full compliment of fruit esters, but all that gets pushed to the side by a bitterness that builds into an almost spicy sort of heat. Neat trick, that one. It’s the perfect palate cleanser and a great beer with anything fried.

Now that Spring is in full flower (yes, I am delusional and in complete denial of the reality outside my window) it’s time to get back to the beers that reek of mother earth. I’ll take mine sticky and bitter.

The “Best” Beers in Oshkosh

2011-03-23T09:49:00.001-05:00

In an effort to avoid everything I really ought to be doing, I’ll sometimes piss away an hour or so browsing the rantings of fellow beer geeks who inhabit Beer Advocate and Rate Beer, the titans of beer review websites. Both sites contain millions of beer reviews and each has its own special formula for aggregating all those reviews into neat lists that attempt to assign a ranking to the beers that get the highest marks. Each site’s top-100 list is loaded with brews that are impossibly obscure and few that are sold here. But if you merge the lists, there are a number of them we can get our hands on without having to leave town. So here they are, the “Best” beers that can currently be purchased in Oshkosh in order of their overall ranking.

Bell's Hopslam Ale (BA-18/RB-21)
North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout (RB-48)
New Glarus Raspberry Tart(BA-65/RB-62)
New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red (BA-62/RB-87)
Unibroue La Fin Du Monde (BA-77)
Bell's Two Hearted Ale (BA-97/RB-63)
Duvel (BA-98)
Bell's Kalamazoo Stout (RB-100)

There’s no denying these are all quality beers, but are they really the best beers available to us in Oshkosh? That’s for each beer lover to decide. Off hand, I can think of a few that I’d like to see in there, including Central Waters Brewhouse Coffee Stout (it won’t be available much longer), Chimay Première (the one with the red label), or maybe even Sprecher’s Black Bavarian (if you’re in the mood for something with a bit less alcohol). If nothing else, the list might give you an idea about what to grab the next time your wandering down the beer isle. You could do a lot worse.

Here’s the complete Beer Advocate Top 100 List.
Here’s the complete Rate Beer Top 100 List.

First Breweries of Oshkosh: Part 3 - George Loscher’s Oshkosh Brewery

2011-03-21T09:46:00.000-05:00

By 1852 the village of Oshkosh was rising fast. There were now approximately 3,000 people living in the area that was soon to declare itself the City of Oshkosh and among the swell was a habitually thirsty assortment of wood workers who needed a brewer to meet their needs. Enter George Loscher.

George Loscher (sometimes spelled Loescher) was born in Bavaria in 1819. There’s scant record of his life in Europe, but it’s likely that Loscher was trained as a brewer from an early age. Both he and his brother Frederick established breweries shortly after emigrating to America and Loscher’s advertised proficiency as a maltster indicates that he was versed in the German brewing tradition prior to his arrival here.

1858 Map Showing Location Of the Oshkosh Brewery

It appears George Loscher came to America in 1851 and in September of 1852 he and Frederick Loscher purchased a modest parcel of land on Lake Winnebago where they established their new brewery. The brewery was located on the south side of Bay Shore Drive west of Eveline Street among land currently addressed as 1253 and 1283 Bay Shore Drive. It was the second brewery here to be named the Oshkosh Brewery and that name, along with the brewery’s location and time of its inception, raises a number of questions. In the summer of 1852 and just a block west of the Loscher’s Oshkosh Brewery, the Oshkosh Brewery of Joseph Schussler was nearing its end. Whether the Loscher’s appropriated anything more than the name of their brewery from Schussler isn’t clear, but the possibility that there was a more substantial connection between the two breweries remains.

In any case, George and Frederick Loscher’s new Oshkosh Brewery was probably up and running by the end of 1852, but it wouldn’t remain a brotherly operation for long. In August of 1853 Frederick Loscher moved to Menasha where he launched a brewery of his own and the following December sold his stake in the Oshkosh Brewery to his brother George.

What little information has survived from the period indicates that George Loscher was a versatile brewer. His background in Germany predicates that Loscher was trained as a lager brewer, but in the early years of the Oshkosh Brewery Loscher produced ales, as well as lagers. His adaptability served him well. Production and storage of cool-fermenting lager beer would have been next to impossible during Oshkosh’s sweltering summer months in the years before mechanical refrigeration was a viable option. Ales, which can be fermented at cellar temperatures, enabled Loscher to brew year round and had the added benefit of appealing to Oshkosh residents who had come from the East Coast and England and were accustomed to drinking porters and stouts. Loscher’s neighborhood in particular was a mix of English and German immigrants and meeting their expectations was no doubt essential to his success. The longevity of Loscher’s brewery bears this out. Each of the two brewers that had preceded him in Oshkosh were out of business within five years of their start. George Loscher’s Oshkosh Brewery produced beer for 38 years.

The era Loscher inhabited was a volatile one. Oshkosh was growing and changing rapidly and Loscher evolved with it. His success enabled him to buy up tracts of land surrounding the brewery and Loscher, who would prove to be something of a wheeler-dealer, seems to have had little reticence about mortgaging his holdings to the hilt. In 1859, he put the brewery in his wife’s name, perhaps employing the vagaries of Wisconsin’s marital property laws as a shield against his creditors, and continued adding to his holdings.

The Loscher family was moving up. George and Regina Loscher had lived at their brewery for 18 years, but after 1870 they and their seven children relocated to a new house across the street. The move was emblematic of Loscher’s success as he became the first Oshkosh brewer to live in a house separate from his brewery. But Loscher wasn’t the only brewer in Oshkosh doing well. By 1870 there were six breweries here and the most robust among them were on the other side of the Fox River. Horn and Schwalm’s Brooklyn Brewery and the Union Brewery of John Glatz were the first breweries located on the south side of Oshkosh and both were off to quick starts that threatened to leave their north-side competition in the dust.

Loscher may have been struggling with more than just the competition. His brewery was now the oldest in Oshkosh and by the late 1870s would have appeared antiquated in comparison to the brewhouses of his rivals. Loscher may have even ceased brewing for a time as the decade came to an end. The Oshkosh city directory of 1879 does not list the Oshkosh Brewery as active and surveys of brewing capacity in Oshkosh from 1878 and 1879 omit Loscher’s brewery, altogether.

Loscher wasn’t finished, yet, though. He began construction of a new brewery on property he had purchased 15 years earlier at what is now the north east corner of Frankfort Street and Bay Shore Drive. The new Oshkosh Brewery was fully operational by 1880, but it may have been too little too late. In the intervening years, the south-side breweries had expanded their capacity three-fold and were coming to dominate the market. Loscher was now in his 60s and nearing his end. In 1884, just four years after the completion of his new brewery, George Loscher died at the age of 65.

Following the death of George Loscher, the Oshkosh Brewery remained active for several more years. Loscher’s son William had assumed control of brewing operations, but the best days of the brewery were well behind it. William Loscher moved into the brewery and, sometimes helped by his brother Fred, but just as often going it alone, ushered the brewery into a new era that was less than hospitable for small operations such as his. It wasn’t just the south-side competition he had to contend with. Now Oshkosh was being targeted by Milwaukee breweries that could produce in a day what would take Loscher a year to brew. The Oshkosh Brewery didn’t stand a chance. By 1890 the brewhouse had gone dark.

After the close of the Oshkosh Brewery, William Loscher would work for Lorenz Kuenzl at the Gambrinus Brewery for a time, but soon left brewing behind him. There was one last flicker of hope for the Oshkosh Brewery, though. in 1898 a majority of Oshkosh’s saloon operators began toying with the idea of starting a brewery of their own to circumvent the taxes levied against the barreled beer they purchased for tap sales. Their plan was to re-equip Loscher’s Oshkosh Brewery and hire a brewer to make beer for them. Unfortunately, the scheme never came to fruition and the Oshkosh Brewery was dismantled. Today the quiet, upscale neighborhood along the lake that was once home to the Oshkosh Brewery betrays not a hint of its beer-soaked past.

No Green Beer Here

2011-03-17T09:12:00.000-05:00

The day has arrived to collectively attack our livers with black, Irish liquidation. But when the St. Patrick’s Day hangover has lost its grip, you may find yourself wanting something a bit more substantial in the way of malt and hops. Here’s a couple of brews to persue when you’re back on your feet again.

Let’s start with the dark one. Over at Dublin’s they’ve just added Goose Island’s Pepe Nero to their tap line-up. It’s a Saison and a breed apart from its straw-colored brethren. This Saison is black. The aroma is more typical with a good balance of sweet malt and peppery spice. Pepe Nero is brewed with peppercorns and as you drink it you’ll notice the spiciness they impart, but that aspect isn’t overdone. The beer is light bodied and refreshing with enough Belgian earthiness to keep it continually interesting. It finishes dry with a reserved, lemon-like sourness that’s just prominent enough to clean the palate. At 6% it’s very easy to enjoy a couple of these. I liked this beer quite a bit.

Meanwhile, at Festival Food in Oshkosh a recent brewing of something completely different has arrived. The 2011 batch of Central Waters Illumination Double IPA was brought in on Tuesday and it’s a beer geared for lupulin addicts in need of a heroic fix. Illumination is large in every respect with an ABV of 9% and well over 100 IBUs. But for all that, the beer is surprisingly approachable. Eventually, it’ll kick your ass, but it’ll shake your hand first. Illumination pours out bright and golden with a gust of clean, pine aromatics. The initial flavors are almost gentle. At the front end all those hops come in like peach, mango and tropical fruit with a near candy-like sweetness. It doesn’t stay sweet long, though. Soon enough, a huge wave of bitterness washes all that away and you’re left with a mouth that’s good for nothing other than more of this beer. Oh, and there’s malt in there somewhere, too. I’m sure of it. I just can’t taste it. After about the third pull you’ll feel the heat flushing your face and the world will be a brighter place. I suppose that’s the reason they call it Illumination. If this sounds like your brand of pain, you’ll want to get on this beer quick. Festival has a limited supply and it’s fresh as can be, with this first batch having been bottled in late February.

But all this is for later. Now’s the time for an ocean of black stout, corned beef & cabbage and plenty of good craic. Sláinte!

Oshkosh Homebrew Grab Bag

2011-03-15T09:48:00.000-05:00

Are You an SOB?
If you were at Hops & Props a couple Saturday’s ago you may have noticed that the stand drawing the most traffic was that of the Society Of Oshkosh Brewers. There’s good reason for that. Although there was plenty of great commercial beer in the offing, there’s really nothing quite like the taste of a well-made homebrew. The SOBs have been an integral part of the Oshkosh beer community for 20 years now and if you’d like to get an up-close and personal glimpse of what the club is all about, tomorrow night is your chance. The Society of Oshkosh Brewers will conduct their regular monthly meeting beginning at 7:00 p.m. Wednesday evening at O’Marro’s Public House. If you’re a homebrewer or thinking you might want to become a homebrewer (or even if you’re just interested in good beer), stop down at O’Marro’s and see what the club is all about. The public is always invited. If you sit in and decide the club is to your liking, you can join their ranks and become a card carrying SOB. And, yes, they do carry cards. For more SOB info check out their shiny new website where you can get an overview of the club and download their March newsletter.

More Grain at NDC
If you’re an Oshkosh homebrewer you’ll be glad to see that Nutrition Discount Center at 463 N. Main St. has expanded their homebrew section by adding six bulk-bins of different crystal malts. NDC may not have the largest selection of homebrew supply in the area (that would be the Cellar in Fond du Lac) but they have a good selection of starter kits and extracts and do a nice job of keeping all the basics on hand. They’re the place to go to when you get caught short on supplies and need a little something to rescue your brew day.

Sesquicentennial Ale
You can’t blather about homebrew without throwing in a recipe. At least, I can’t. Here’s a timely brew from Fox River Brewing that they first shared with Oshkosh homebrewers back in 1998 when they were putting out their short-lived “Brewspaper”. This recipe was intended to approximate the sort of beer that was popular here in 1853, the year Oshkosh became a city. I have this on tap at my house right now (I tweaked it a bit, making it a dark beer and fermented it as a lager instead of an ale) and if this is really the sort of stuff they were drinking in 1853, those folks were living pretty damned good! It beats hell out of the macro-swill that typifies our time. Better yet, if you brew it this weekend you’ll have it ready for April 1st, which will be 158 years to the day since Oshkosh voted in its charter and became a city. Prosit!

Sesquicentennial Ale
    Batch Size: 5 Gallons
    Based on 70% brewhouse efficiency
    Simple Infusion Mash @ 156º for 1 hour.

    Grain Bill

American 6-Row: 6.25 lb. (74.3%)
American Cara-Pils Malt .5 lb. (5.4%)
White Flaked Corn: 1.75 lb. (20%)

Hops

Fuggles .5 oz. (60 min boil)
East Kent Golding .25 oz. (30 min boil)

A Public Service Announcement

2011-03-10T09:17:00.000-06:00

As the shit storm rages, remember that it’s important to take frequent intermissions from the chaos and venom that color our days. And for those “special moments” there’s no companion like a very strong beer. May I suggest Sierra Nevada’s 2011 Bigfoot Barley Wine, a potent gem that recently arrived on the shelves of Festival Foods in Oshkosh.

This strong ale is the color of fresh blood on the pavement. The aroma is of caramel malt and citrus-like hops. The beer greets the mouth with malty sweetness and then delivers a heavy boot of alcohol. All that malt viscidity and ethyl alcohol, though, is soon cut to shreds by slash after slash of west-coast hop flavor. It all ends with a riotous bitterness that pairs very well with the rest of the god-damned day. Let it rage.

Gnectar of the Gnomes at O’Marro’s Public House

2011-03-09T09:56:00.000-06:00

Here’s a new reason to get yourself to O’Marro’s sometime in the very near future: They’ve just tapped two Belgian style beers you won’t want to miss.

First, there’s the incredible La Chouffe from the Brasserie d'Achouffe of Achouffe, Belgium. Gesundheit! La Chouffe is a strong Belgian Blonde Ale that manages to easily work in an ABV of 8% without compromising any of its delicate flavors. It pours with a pillow of foam and delivers a gush of floral and light fruit aroma. That’s what the flavor is all about, too, along with a dash of spice playing in the background. The beer finishes with just the right amount bitterness. A great, complex Belgian ale that’s not the least bit overbearing.

This is the first time La Chouffe has been on tap in Oshkosh and it looks like we may have more of its kind coming our way. Shawn at O’Marro’s says he’s hoping to dedicate one of his tap lines to beer from Belgium. La Chouffe is an excellent start to the series.

There’s more... just a couple handles down from La Chouffe, O’Marro’s now has 3 French Hens, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale from The Bruery. This is a blended beer with 25% of it aged in French oak barrels. It’s another big one at 10%, but it has a wonderfully smooth and soft mouthfeel that belies the alcohol. The beer leads with layers of dark fruit and sweet malt, but the richness of it is kept in check by an undertow of oaky tartness. This shit is so elegant you may want to raise a pinky as you tip it in.

The Bruery, by the way, is a small, up-and-coming California brewery specializing in Belgian style beers. This is their first appearance in Oshkosh, so here’s your chance to check them out. Cheers!

First Breweries of Oshkosh: Part 2 - Joseph Schussler’s Oshkosh Brewery

2011-03-07T08:49:00.000-06:00

In 1850 there were 431 breweries in the United States. Two of those were in Oshkosh.

In November of 1849 Joseph Schussler began setting up Oshkosh’s second brewery after purchasing more than an acre of land from Henry A. Gallup, an early Oshkosh settler. The plot was located on the south side of what is now Bay Shore Drive in the approximate area currently under the address of 1031 Bay Shore Drive.

Oshkosh Democrat September 6, 1850

By all indications, Schussler had ambitious plans for his new brewery. Shortly after purchasing the property from Gallup, Schussler and his business partner, John Freund, placed a series of advertisements in the Oshkosh Democrat announcing that they had “Erected a BREWERY in the village of Oshkosh” and were “prepared to supply the Tavern, Grocery, and Saloon keepers of the surrounding country with good Ale and Beer”. The advertisements end on a note that would be echoed by Oshkosh brewers for the next 120 years with Schussler and Freund promising that their beer was better than that “obtained from abroad under the title of ‘Detroit Ale’ or ‘Milwaukee Beer’”. Already the specter of Milwaukee lager was haunting the brewers of Oshkosh. Small-town anxiety aside, Schussler and Freund charged they were “confident in warranting a superior article”.

Schussler had every right to feel confident. He had arrived in Oshkosh with an impressive set of skills. Born in Baden, Germany in 1819 he was trained as a brewer and cooper (barrel maker) in his homeland before coming to America. Prior to his arrival in Oshkosh at the age of 30, Schussler had worked for several years as a brewer in Milwaukee and eventually came to be known for his ability as a brewmaster and his singular approach to beer making. It was reported that “His brewing method is different from others, and known only to himself.”

Early on it appears that Schussler’s Oshkosh Brewery was a success. By the summer of 1850 local businesses were advertising that they carried Oshkosh Beer and Schussler’s notices in the paper stating that he and Freund would pay the highest market prices for any quantity of barley indicate the beer had gained a following. But it seems that Schussler’s early success didn’t hold.

At the close of 1850 Schussler’s business partner, John Freund, appears to have encountered financial difficulties apart from the brewery. And on January 1, 1851 Schussler and Freund dissolved their partnership. Schussler acquired a new partner for the brewery, Francis Tillmans, and in June of 1851 took a second mortgage against the property. If Schussler was trying to leverage his holdings to finance his brewery, the strategy didn’t work. In June of 1852 Schussler signed his assets over to his creditors. The Oshkosh Brewery of Joseph Schussler would not be heard from again.

Schussler’s involvement with beer in Oshkosh doesn’t end there, though. He stayed on in Oshkosh, moving over to Wisconsin Street and putting his coopering skills to work to earn his living. It appears, though, that in 1860 he had returned to brewing beer in Oshkosh. In the census of 1860 Schussler, once again, identifies himself as a brewer. Where or what he was brewing is not revealed. There were three breweries operating in Oshkosh at this point. Schussler could have been pitching-in at any of them.

In 1861 Schussler’s story takes a tragic and somewhat odd turn. Following in his father’s footsteps, Schussler’s 12 year-old son August had gone to work at the Frey Brewery in Fond du Lac. On January 18, 1861 August Schussler was tending a machine probably used for milling grain at the brewery when he fell into the machinery and was instantly crushed to death. Within months of August Schussler’s death, Joseph Schussler moved his family to Fond du Lac and went to work at the brewery where his son had been killed.

1875 Advertisment for Schussler's Fond du Lac Brewery

Schussler remained at the Frey Brewery until 1865 and then returned to barrel making for several years before establishing his second brewery in 1872. That year Schussler opened the West Hill Brewery on Hickory Street in Fond du Lac. This time, things worked out better. The West Hill Brewery met with wide acceptance in Fond du Lac and by 1878 Schussler was brewing over 1,000 barrels of beer a year, an output that rivaled the larger breweries of Oshkosh. Schussler continued brewing into his 70s and in 1890 turned the brewery over to his sons. Soon thereafter, however, the West Hill Brewery faltered. Though Schussler would live to see the turn of the century, his Fond du Lac brewery folded in 1892. The beer career of Oshkosh’s second brewmaster had come to a close.

A Flight Pattern for Hops & Props 2011

2011-03-03T09:16:00.001-06:00

You know what it’s like... you crash through the gate at a beer festival and suddenly find yourself confronted by an ocean of delectable brew. The clock begins ticking. So much beer. So little time. What to do?

Easy. You find the stuff you haven’t tried before. You cruise past the brews you can get any damned day of the week and head straight for the beer that’s foreign to these parts. Beer festivals are all about trying something new and with that in mind, here are 10 beers that will be pouring at Hops & Props this weekend that you’ll have a hard time finding after the clock strikes 10 Saturday night.

We’ve got a long night ahead of us, so let’s warm-up our palates with something light bodied, crisp and German.

1) New Glarus’ Two Women Lager
Good luck finding this German style Pilsener anywhere else. Here’s a beer that’s developing a cult following based on its scarcity. Last I heard, it was going for $5 a bottle. Is it that good?

2) Potosi Czech Style Pilsener
The early word on this beer has been favorable. The only Potosi we’ve been getting around here has been of the ale variety, it’ll be interesting to see if they can pull off a lager.

        We’ll stay on the Wisconsin tip, but step things up a bit.

3) Capital Tett Doppelbock
We’re still in lager land, but miles from where we started. A big, malty, rich beer that will make the room glow.

        Time for some strange.

4) Dogfish Head’s Palo Santo
A 12% abv, roasty, brown ale aged on Palo Santo wood. What the hell is Palo Santo wood? I don’t know but I’m dying to taste it.

        Let’s wash away that malt.

5) Bear Republic Brewing
Doesn’t matter what you try, just get over there and drink. Most everything they brew is loaded with hops and great for stripping the dough from your tongue.

        It’s starting to feel like a beer fest, let’s bring on the Belgians.

6) Gnomegang
Here we go, a big Belgian Golden Strong Ale. This beer is the result of a collaboration between American Ommegang and Belgian Brasserie d 'Achouffe. Pull that snifter out of your back pocket and put it to work.

7) North Coast’s Brother Thelonius
A Belgian Dark Strong Ale that’s robust and rich as hell. Its easy 9.3% punch has a roofie-like demeanor.

        Utah? Beer? Yup!

8) Utah Brewers Cooperative
They’ll be pouring four beers - Polygamy Porter, White Label Belgian Wit, Hop Rising Double IPA, and Devastator Double Bock. We get none of them around here. Close your eyes and pick any two.

        We’re into the last leg of our journey. Time to go big... and black.

9) Oskar Blues’ Ten FIDY Imperial Stout
A huge (10.5%) Russian Imperial Stout. Tastes great until your head goes numb. You’ll need to rinse your cup after this syrup. Then again, at this point decorum won’t much matter. Get your tongue in there and lick that glass clean!

10) Founders Double Trouble Imperial IPA
This 9.4% hop bomb will be the last beer you’ll be tasting. You may drink other beers, but this will be the last one you’ll taste. The hop flavor and bitterness will cling to your mouth and even your Sunday morning coffee will seem to have been triple-hopped. It’s the beer that keeps on giving.

To hell, with my suggestions, chart a path of your own. HERE is the list of everything pouring at Hops & Props.

And if you’ve made it this far, I’ve got a secret just for you: There is going to be a beer named Bockscar Bock pouring at one of the stands (I’m not at liberty to mention the brewer) that is guaranteed to make you happy, wealthy, immortal and irresistible. This beer will change your life. It is the nectar of the Gods. Drink it... if you dare.

As of 9:05 a.m. tickets for Hops & Props were still available. Go HERE for details

First Breweries of Oshkosh: Part 1 - The Jacob Konrad Brewery

2011-03-02T08:29:00.001-06:00

March is going to be old-brewery month at the Oshkosh Beer Blog. Over the coming weeks there will be stories here about the first breweries to establish operations in Oshkosh. These breweries, for the most part, have been forgotten, yet they played an essential role in the development of our city. These were the brewers who initiated Oshkosh’s beer culture and laid the groundwork for what would become one of the vital brewing centers of the Midwest.

By today’s standard, these earliest of Oshkosh breweries would be considered pre-modern. For them, brewing was part mystery and part art with little in the way of science to trouble the process. They knew they needed yeast to make beer, but they had no idea why or how it worked. Pasteurization had yet to be developed and the age of Pilsner beer had yet to arrive.

Most of these early brewers were German immigrants trying to make the cool-fermenting lagers of their homeland at a time when mechanical refrigeration was nowhere to be found. So they cooled their beer with blocks of ice carved out of Lake Winnebago or the Fox River. The result was a strictly local product with grain and hops grown at neighboring farms. Welcome to the world of the mid-1800s and beer in Oshkosh.

The first commercial brewery within what is now the City of Oshkosh has been escaping notice for more than 160 years. And judging by its short life-span, it may have been escaping notice even while it existed. Our first brewer’s name was Jacob Konrad. He was born in Prussia in 1823 and probably arrived in Oshkosh in 1846. The exact date that Konrad began brewing beer for sale here is not recorded, but since Konrad’s life seems to have revolved around making and serving beer, it’s probably safe to assume he was fermenting something soon after his arrival.

By the close of the 1840s, though, we know that Konrad’s brewing operation was expanding. In July of 1849, he leased property on the east side of Lake Street along the shore of Lake Winnebago and by the end of the year, Konrad was successful enough to make his living brewing beer. But just barely. In 1850 Konrad estimated the worth of his brewery to be $500 or the equivalent of what today would be about $14,000. It was a small brewery in a small town. And it didn’t last long. It appears that by the time Oshkosh became a city in 1853, Konrad was ready to move on. Maybe he wasn’t fond of the fourth article in the city charter, which allowed for the city to license and tax anyone “dealing in spirituous, fermented or vinous liquors”.

After leaving Oshkosh, Konrad settled in Weyauwega where he continued to brew beer and later established a distillery. In the last years of his life, Jacob Konrad ran a saloon in Sniderville, about 35 miles north of Oshkosh. Perhaps, Oshkosh’s first brewmaster was serving Oshkosh beer, once again.

Out and About on the Hunt For Stout

2011-02-24T09:26:00.001-06:00

These days, the Oshkosh beer depots are being crowded with piles of Guinness Stout in advance of St. Patrick’s day. And that’s just fine. But if you crave a black beer that’s a little heartier than the Irish breed, there’s plenty of dark around town to sate your demon. The stout season has arrived, and the burnt-malt enthusiast will find no shortage of fine liquidation that’s black as the snow lining Jackson Street.

We’ll start out at Fratellos’ Fox River Brewing where they continue their tradition of bringing out a chocolate stout each February. Last year’s model was brewed with Seroogy's Chocolate. This year, they’ve gone a different route aging the beer on cocoa nibs. The result is an excellent, medium bodied stout with a reserved dark chocolate flavor. This is an exceptionally smooth stout and at 5.1% ABV it’s suitable for a few rounds. Check out Fox River brewmaster Kevin Bowen’s notes on the beer here.

Over at the north side Pick 'n Save they’ve brought in Milwaukee’s contribution to the shamrock season with Sprecher’s Irish Stout. As the bottle says, this beer is “Fire Brewed”, which means nothing and the fact that they call it an Irish Stout isn’t telling you anything, either. It lacks the dry, slightly bitter quality you look for in the style and instead comes across with a delicious, creamy stream of coffee and chocolate flavors that have nothing in common with Ireland. They may have gotten the name wrong, but they sure got the beer right. This is a limited release so get yours now!

By this time, all but the hardcore beer freaks have stopped reading so here’s a nugget for the diehards: Festival Foods in Oshkosh is now stocking one of the best beers in the world. This week they added Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout to their line-up. This 9% stout is something of a cult classic and one of the main reasons winter still exists. Get yourself someplace quiet, dark and warm and take a half-hour or so to sip this in and notice all those incredible flavors of licorice, coffee, burnt pizza crust, chocolate... Who needs a thaw when you’ve got beer like this!

That’s enough to get started, but there’s plenty more to explore. There are barrels of great stout to be had in Oshkosh right now. At Festival you’ve got Bell’s Double Cream Stout; Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout; New Glarus’ Coffee Stout; Central Waters’ Brewhouse Coffee Stout along with their excellent imperial stout, Satin Solstice; and over at Becket’s they’re pouring a fine black named Lilja's Sasquatch Stout. If all that’s not enough fer ya, get thee to O’Marro’s where there’s always plenty of Guinness.

Mid-Century Oshkosh Brewmaster Charles Rahr III

2011-02-22T11:17:00.000-06:00

Charles Rahr III

Charles Rahr III occupies a unique position in the pantheon of Oshkosh brewmasters. Though he came of age in the post-prohibition era, he first learned to brew from men who were steeped in the methods of nineteenth-century German brewing. Yet, Rahr was a modern brewer. As a graduate of the Seibel Institute of Technology he had learned the science behind the traditions he’d inherited. In the end, Rahr would be the last of the Oshkosh brewmasters to be versed in the science of brewing while still having a direct link to an earlier era of beer making.

Rahr’s brewing heritage recalls an age that seems especially distant now. His great-grandfather, Charles Rahr, was born in the Rhine Province of Prussia in 1836, years before the first Pilsner beer had been brewed or the discovery that yeast was responsible for fermentation had been made. After learning to brew, the elder Rahr emigrated to America in 1855 and in 1865 established The City Brewery in Oshkosh at what is now 1362 Rahr Ave. He operated the brewery until 1884 and was instrumental in the training of both his son, Charles Jr., and grandson, Carl. In 1917 Carl Rahr assumed control of brewing operations at the Rahr Brewery and in 1928 fathered a son he named Charles Rahr III.

For the young Charles Rahr III, brewing beer was part of everyday life. “I grew up across the street from the brewery,” Rahr recalls, “and from a very young age I helped out around the brewery. Even as a little kid I used to watch my dad brew the beer. It was our life.”

By the time he reached adulthood, Rahr was already well acquainted with the life of a practical brewer and after graduating from high-school, he balanced what he’d learned in the brewery with a more formal education in the business side of the operation. He attended the Oshkosh State College and later the Oshkosh Business College before taking brewing courses at the Seibel Institute in Chicago. By 1952 Rahr was back in Oshkosh and back at the brewery.

As the new brewmaster of the Rahr Brewing Company, Rahr picked up where his father had left off, brewing a distinctive beer that had a dedicated following in the Oshkosh area. In comparison to other lagers of the period, Rahr’s Elk’s Head Beer was something different. According to Rahr, the beer had changed little over the years and was essentially the same as that which the Rahr family had brewed prior to Prohibition. The composition of the beer confirms this. Four separate grains were used in the production of Elk’s Head Beer resulting in a lager that would have had less in common with its single-malt contemporaries than it would have with many of today’s craft beers.

At a time when most American breweries were doing all they could to make their product ever more bland and indistinguishable, Rahr’s Elk’s Head Beer harkened back to an earlier period. At the same time, Rahr Brewing was a precursor of things to come. Today we would recognize it as an artisanal brewery, making quality beer in small batches for a local audience. It was a neighborhood brewery surrounded by homes where much of the process was hands-on and Rahr remembers well the effort that went into brewing each batch. “We had a beautiful set-up for our brewhouse,” he says, “but making the beer took a lot of hard work.”

The process would typically begin a day before the actual brew day when Rahr would prepare the water for brewing and begin grinding the malt. The specially designed malt mill Rahr used came from the Gettleman Brewery of Milwaukee and was configured to tear apart the husk of the grain instead of crushing it, as was typically done. Rahr stresses that these seemingly small differences were important to the final product. “All of the brewers had access to the same or very similar ingredients,” he says. “What set you apart were the techniques you used to make the beer.”

Rahr usually brewed beer two or three days a week with brew days often beginning as early as 2:00 a.m. “It was a long day,” Rahr says and much of it was dedicated to an elaborate step mashing process that took place in a mash tun that could produce just over 100 barrels of wort. According to Rahr, “A large mash could take as long as five hours to complete.” Separating the wort from the grain and clearing it would often add another couple of hours as Rahr was a stickler for producing a clean wort. “That was an important part of it,” he says. “The wort had to be clear before it went into the brew kettle.”

After transfer into a steam-heated kettle acquired from Blatz Brewing, the wort would be brought to a boil. Rahr would then add the first of the beer’s three hop additions. Rahr Brewing used American grown hops from the Yakima Valley of Washington that would arrive at the brewery in bails. “We’d get bails and bails of those hops,” Rahr says, “and they had to be added to the kettle by hand. That part of it was strenuous.” After boiling for more than an hour, the wort was strained to remove the hops and passed over a chiller where it would cool to about 50º before being transferred to a fermentation vessel.

In the latter years of the Rahr brewery, the yeast used to ferment the beer was also supplied by Gettleman Brewery. “We’d go down to Milwaukee to get the yeast and bring it back in big, insulated milk cans to ensure that it stayed fresh,” Rahr says.
A typical fermentation would last about a week and when fermentation was complete the beer would be taken off the yeast and stored in a lagering tank in the cellar of the brewery where it would be held at a low temperature. Here the beer was given time to clarify, age and mellow before being carbonated with CO2 and packaged. If all went well, the beer could be ready for sale in about a month.

But it didn’t always go well. Rahr remembers a time when he missed one of the temperature raises while he was conducting the mash. The result would have been virtually unnoticeable to the average drinker. “We were very particular about our beer, though,” Rahr says. “I couldn’t let it go like that. We went back and blended that beer with another to be certain that the quality of the beer wouldn’t suffer.”

By the middle of the 1950s, though, quality beer was becoming a thing of the past. The age of industrial lager was here. Small Wisconsin breweries producing flavorful beer were forced to the margins by brewing corporations with inflated advertising budgets. Beer became less about flavor and more about image as the homogenization of taste was conflated with modernity and progress. The demand for quality beer rapidly shrank. Rahr Brewing faced the same bleak fate that beset countless other small brewers. From 1954 to 1955 sales at Rahr Brewing fell by 35%. When the brewery closed in 1956 Rahr was on course to produce less than 3,000 barrels for the year. The end of an era had arrived.

After the brewery closed, Charles Rahr III left brewing behind and eventually settled into a career as the director of Highland Memorial Park in Appleton where he worked for more than 20 years until his retirement. A half century later, though, he still often thinks about his family’s brewery. “You can’t help but think about it when you were there that many years,” he says. And the brewmaster in him still takes pride in his beer. “We were happy with our beer. We had a very good product. There was no horsing around. We purchased good ingredients and we knew how to use them!”

It’s Rhizome Time!

2011-02-21T08:57:00.000-06:00

A brief message from another season...
This may seem absurd in the face of yesterday’s terrific snow dump, but now is the time to start thinking about planting hops. The Cellar homebrew supply shop in Fond du Lac has begun taking pre-orders for hop rhizomes. If you’re considering growing your own this summer, you’ll need to get the ball rolling now so that you’ll have something to put in the ground when the Spring planting season arrives.

The Cellar is making available Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Fuggle, Glacier, Goldings, Hallertau, Horizon, Magnum, Northern Brewer, Nugget, Tettnanger, and Willamette rhizomes. Each of these are well suited to our climate and odds are if you plant early you’ll be able to brew with them this fall. And at $5.99 they’re a steal.

To place your order contact Dave at The Cellar.

We now return to our regularly scheduled shoveling.

Climbing the IBU Ladder at Dublin’s

2011-02-17T09:20:00.000-06:00

If you’re a lover of hops, you now have a golden opportunity to indulge your passion at Dublin’s in Oshkosh. Dublin’s currently has three American IPAs on tap that are practically begging for a vertical tasting that amounts to a running climb up the IBU ladder. Let’s get to it!

Start with Dogfish Head’s 60 Minute IPA.
• IBU: 60
• ABV: 6%
The Northwestern hop goodness of this IPA is nicely balanced by a dry finish that makes it perfect for calibrating your palate and preparing you for the bitter indulgence to come.

Next, draw a pint of New Belgium's Ranger IPA.
• IBU: 70
• ABV: 6.6%
You’re first gulp of this will give you a feel for what 10 additional IBUs add to a beer. This ale has a beautiful melding of floral and citrus hop flavors with just enough malt lingering in the background to smooth things out.

Finish with Stone Brewing’s Arrogant Bastard Ale.
• IBU: 117 (estimated)
• ABV: 7.2%
If you love hops, here is a beer that has the potential to forever alter your sensibilities. After this, few beers will ever seem quite hoppy enough. Everything about it is outsized. The hop aroma and flavors are huge with a bitterness that quickly chisels away its very substantial malt base. You owe it to yourself to try this beer at least once.

All that aside, you might want to keep your eye on the Dublin’s Tap List. They’ve got a good line-up right now and Steve at Dublin’s says they have a great bunch of beers coming in including Tyranena’s Down 'N Dirty Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, Sprecher’s Abbey Triple, and Dogfish Head’s Raison D'Etre. Stay tuned!

The Beginning of the Oshkosh Brewing Company: The Brewery that Dared Not Speak its Name

2011-02-16T10:05:00.003-06:00

On March 21, 1894 the Oshkosh Brewing Company was formed upon the merger of three Oshkosh breweries in danger of succumbing to a ruinous economy and a torrent of Milwaukee beer. The combine brought together Horn and Schwalm’s Brooklyn Brewery, located on the east side of the 1600 block of Doty Street; John Glatz and Son’s Union Brewery, at the foot of Doty Street; and the Gambrinus Brewery of Lorenz Kuenzl, situated in the area currently addressed as 1239 Harney Ave. The oldest brewery in Oshkosh, the Charles Rahr Brewery, remained the lone hold-out leaving it as the last family-owned brewery in Oshkosh.

Wisconsin Telegraph October 1893

1894 was a difficult year for the City of Oshkosh and the Oshkosh brewers in particular. Two of the nation’s largest breweries, Schlitz and Pabst, both of Milwaukee, were zeroing in on Oshkosh’s notoriously rapacious beer drinkers. Each company now had distribution centers in the city and were shipping beer in by the train load. Making matters worse was Oshkosh’s faltering economy. The depression that followed the panic of 1893 was exacerbated here as owners of the seven large Oshkosh millworks laid off workers and cut the wages of those they still employed. Faced with the prospect of a contracting market that was no longer strictly their own, the Oshkosh brewers were forced into a defensive posture. If they wished to survive, they had little choice but to join forces.

That the Oshkosh breweries should combine took nobody by surprise. The Oshkosh Daily Northwestern had earlier published a piece predicting the likely merger, but when the inevitable happened, the principals still attempted, in vain, to keep the matter private.

Oshkosh Brewing Co. Articles of Incorporation

The Articles of Incorporation for the Oshkosh Brewing Company are entombed in the basement of the Winnebago County Courthouse and hand written in pencil at the top of the document are the fading words “Do not publish”. The admonition accomplished nothing. Within a week of the document being signed, the Oshkosh papers were reporting the details of the merger. Commenting on the new company’s lack of ebullience, the Oshkosh Times noted that the “interested parties are very reticent about the matter and for some reason have attempted to keep it out of the papers.”

Wisconsin Telegraph April 1894

Even after it had been outed, the Oshkosh Brewing Company maintained a reluctance to recognize its own existence. In the weeks that followed the merger, advertisements for the separate breweries continued to portray them as independent entities. It would be almost two months after the company had formed before the Oshkosh Brewing Company finally owned up to itself.

Wisconsin Telegraph May 18, 1894

On May 18, 1894 the Oshkosh Brewing Company formally introduced itself through an advertisement in the Wisconsin Telegraph, a German language newspaper with offices just south of Main Street on Waugoo Ave. The advertisement goes well beyond the typical beer ad of the day. Framing a picture that is arranged as a composite of the three separate breweries, the advertisement lists all of the office holders of the new company, each of the six beers that it produced and the six bottlers of its product.

Yet, it would take time for the Oshkosh Brewing Company to become completely comfortable within its own skin. Three years after the merger, the company was still running advertisements delineating the Brooklyn Brewery and the Union Brewery. But by the late 1890s the old identities would give way to a more cohesive approach. And it would take a new threat to make that happen.

As the forces for Prohibition gathered steam, the Oshkosh Brewing Company took pains to point out all that it contributed to the community. From the 35 men it employed to the $40,000 it paid annually in taxes and insurance, the Oshkosh Brewing Company wanted it known that its survival was vital to the welfare of Oshkosh. The brewery that had taken its name from the city it called home had finally come into its own.

Gearing up for Hops & Props 2011

2011-02-15T09:01:00.001-06:00

Our wait is nearly over. The 2011 edition of Hops & Props, Oshkosh’s premier beer festival, is just a few weeks away. If you’ve been thinking about attending, now is the time to make your plans.

Hops & Props 2011 will take place Saturday, March 5 at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tickets for the tasting are $60; or if you’d like to go all-in, you can sign-up for the $100 VIP Beer School and Dinner hosted by Jamie Mastian of New Belgium Brewing and Becket’s Chef Mike Buckarma. The VIP ticket includes admission to the festival.

This year there will be more than 50 breweries pouring several hundred beers at Hops & Props. It’s more than you’ll ever be able to take in, so a little planning on that side of the gate won’t hurt either. To help you chart your course, here’s the Hops & Props 2011 beer list. I’m looking forward to checking out the Utah Brewers Cooperative, whose beers we’ve yet to see around here. They’ll be bringing in a couple I’m not going to miss.

Tickets for Hops & Props 2011 can be purchased online, over the phone or in person at the EAA AirVenture Museum. All the information you’ll need to get yours can be found here. Keep in mind, this is typically a sell-out event so don’t wait too long before moving on this one.

Have a Beer with Jim Lundstrom this Sunday at O'Marro's

2011-02-10T14:39:00.000-06:00

Let’s give this another go... Back in December there was to be a benefit for the Real Beer Man, Jim Lundstrom, who last year was run over by a ¾-ton truck while riding his bike. Lundstrom was uninsured at the time of the accident and was left with a smashed hand, a fractured knee and an overwhelming pile of medical bills. Unfortunately, the original benefit was scrubbed thanks to the first big snowstorm of the season, but now the time has come to give it another shot.

This Sunday (Feb. 13) beginning at 4 p.m. the Real Beer Man Needs Rehab Benefit will take place at O’Marro’s Public House in Oshkosh. There will be live music from Bobby Evans, The Mad Polecats, Mike Engle, Iggy Rae Vicious and Ryan Mahoney & the Man Grenade Explosion; along with beer specials, food, raffles and more. Best of all, you get to have a real beer with the Real Beer Man.

Over the years, Lundstrom has done plenty for the Oshkosh beer scene. He was a founding member of the Society of Oshkosh Brewers and while working for the Oshkosh Northwestern was one of the first reporters here to write about quality beer, a mission that he continues with his Real Beer Man column in The Scene. This Sunday, let’s show Jim our appreciation and have a great time doing it.

Central Waters Has an Answer to February

2011-02-09T16:30:00.001-06:00

Here’s the best antidote I can think of for our currently frigid state: If you can get your car started, crank it up and steer it to Festival Foods in Oshkosh where they now have the 2011 models of Central Waters’ Peruvian Morning and Bourbon Barrel Barley Wine. If these two behemoths don’t warm you up, consider yourself ready for the worms.

The Peruvian Morning is an 8.5% imperial stout made with fresh roasted coffee and aged in bourbon barrels. It’s an incredible beer. Outsized chocolate and bourbon fumes lead you to a delicious swirl of boozed-up coffee flavors that melt into a nice and easy landing that’s full of sweet vanilla. This is the best beer I’ve had since Saturday.

If Peruvian Morning isn’t big enough for you, go straight to the 11.5% Bourbon Barrel Barleywine. There’s so much going on with this one that it’s nearly overwhelming. The barrel aging produces a somewhat piercing bourbon aroma, but the flavor of the beer is much more settled. It starts like a liquid dose of turbinado sugar giving way to a jolt of alcoholic sweetness that makes your face glow. The hefty blush of caramelized dark fruit flavors that follow will coat your mouth and grip your insides. This beer is a physical experience! It’s quite good right now, but I’m really looking forward to seeing what it tastes like in a few more months (and if I can hold out, a couple more years).

Festival Foods in Oshkosh has a very limited supply of both of these beers. Four packs are going for $10.99 and they’re worth every penny.

Oshkosh’s Contribution to Great American Craft Beer

2011-02-08T15:22:00.002-06:00

Our own Fox River Brewing finds itself rubbing shoulders with the heavyweights of American craft beer in Andy Crouch’s recently released book, Great American Craft Beer. Crouch’s book is a panoramic snapshot of the American Craft beer scene with more than 300 profiles of noteworthy beers and he’s selected Fox River’s Winnebago Wheat as one of four American-brewed Hefeweizens for inclusion, calling it an “excellent” example of the style.

Good enough for me. It’s been a while since I’d had a Winnebago Wheat so seeing the Crouch book prompted me to go pick up a growler of it. I’d forgotten how good this beer can be. It’s light bodied and extremely easy to drink, but its billowing flavors of banana and clove make it continually interesting. And it reminded me of summer. We could all use a little of that.

A Book on the Breweries of Oshkosh

2011-02-07T11:02:00.001-06:00

In the early 1970s, Ron Akin and his son David were hunting for partridge in Forest County when they spotted a few cone-top beer cans that had been discarded alongside the trail they were walking. For David, the discovery was the start to a beer can collection that would eventually number over 1,200 and for Ron it triggered a lifelong passion for the history and memorabilia of the breweries of Wisconsin and those of Oshkosh in particular. Now, his fascination will culminate in a book.

Ron Akin is currently at work putting together a book that will tell the story of Oshkosh’s brewing past. His intention is to produce a richly illustrated volume that will give an overview of the history of commercial brewing in Oshkosh supported by a prodigious collection of photographs of Oshkosh brewery advertising from the pre-phobition era though the early 1970s.

Most of Ron’s initial research has been completed, but he’s at a point where he he’d like to collect stories from people who were associated with the breweries of Oshkosh. Here’s where we can help. If you are aware of a person who may have had a connection with any of the Oshkosh breweries, please contact Ron Akin via email at rkakin@sbcglobal.net. Ron hopes to finish this project within the year, so if you have a lead, he’d appreciate hearing from you as soon as possible.

In the meantime, you can get a glimpse into what Ron has in the works, by stopping by the Oshkosh Public Library and checking out the DVD entitled The History and Advertising of the Oshkosh Brewing Co. (go to the Oshkosh Public Library website and search Akin, Ron). The DVD captures the lecture Ron gave about the Oshkosh Brewing Company at the Grand Opera House in 2003 as part of the Oshkosh Sesquicentennial speakers series.

Of Beer and Busses and Hatchets Buried

2011-02-03T09:04:00.006-06:00

Smoked beer is a fairly rare bird. There aren’t many of them produced and those that are can’t seem to find their way to Oshkosh. But that’s all changed, now... at least for the time being. New Glarus Brewing recently released their Smoked Rye Ale and, for the moment, it’s readily available here in town. If you’ve never indulged in the fuming pleasure of a beer that smells like it spent all night hanging around a campfire, here’s your chance.

Smoked Rye Ale is brewed with smoked malts from Chilton, Wisconsin and Bamberg, Germany and the charred aromatics of those malts are what makes this beer. The nose is so overtly smokey that it’s influence on the taste is nearly overwhelming and if you take this beer in anything other than sips you’re going to feel as if you’re being asphyxiated. Take it slow, though, and you’ll get a nice range of flavors from sweet, dark fruit to barbecue sauce with a finish that’s somewhat sour and a little boozy. It’s an excellent beer, but to take the most from it, pair it with a food that can stand up to its strong flavors. Go with a good smoked cheddar or smoked salmon. Pickled herring makes for a nice match, too. Smoked Rye Ale is available at Festival Foods in Oshkosh and should be making its way to all the other good beer outlets in town soon.

Fond du Lac Brewfest
The big Brewfest in Fondy is this Saturday from 3 to 7pm. There are still a few tickets available at O’Marro’s Public House, so if you’ve been sitting on the fence about this one, it’s time to get off that fence and get on the bus. Shawn at O’Marro’s says he’s added a second bus to the junket that will depart from O’Marro’s Public House 2:00 pm Saturday. It’s shaping up to be a good festival featuring beers from a number of Wisconsin brewers such as Riverside (West Bend), Black Husky (Pembine) and The Grumpy Troll (Mount Horeb) that you won’t find outside of the small regions they serve. More info here.

Beer Mend

Back in the early 90s, Oshkosh was fortunate to have a couple of newspaper men named Todd Haefer and Jim Lundstrom who were dedicated beer enthusiasts. Lucky for Oshkosh, neither was shy about sharing their passion for good beer in the local paper. Unfortunately, Haefer and Lundstrom had a somewhat public falling out, but all that’s in the past. Well, maybe not all of it. Check out this new article by Lundstrom on the Scene website where Lundstrom gives his side of the story and tells of the recent reunion the two had at O’Marro’s Public House. And take a look at that picture on the left. That’s Lundstrom on the left and Haeffer on the right. But who’s the too-happy guy in the middle wearing the Pabst shirt? They’ll let any kind of freak run loose in this town, won’t they?

Barley’s Wednesday Night Beer Festival

2011-02-01T08:24:00.002-06:00

To hell with this snow, let’s drink some beer! And tomorrow night Barley and Hops will be the place to do it. Barley’s will be staging another of their Wednesday night beer festivals and this time the featured brewery is the Samuel Adams Boston Beer Company. Nate from Barley’s says they’ll have about two-dozen Sam Adams brews to try, along with about 25 other beers, boozes and wines for your sampling pleasure. If you go, be sure to check out the Sam Adams Imperial Series. These beer have been pretty much absent from our area for the past year, which is a shame because the series includes a couple of the best beers Sam Adams makes (the Double Bock and Imperial Stout especially stand-out).

The tasting runs Wednesday, February 2 from 7:00 - 10:00pm. At $15 it’s easily the best beer deal in town and if you slide in and get your ticket before hand it’s just $10. It’s a great deal. We, the beer freaks of Oshkosh, are lucky to have Nate at Barley’s keeping the good suds flowing.

A Window to the Past

2011-01-31T08:51:00.000-06:00

If you have a Facebook account and a few minutes to spare, check out this amazing collection of pictures of Oshkosh as it used to be. Park 'N Print of Oshkosh has been gradually building an album named Historic Oshkosh on their Facebook page to the point where it now includes 186 images of Oshkosh from decades past. If you live in Oshkosh there’s sure to be a few things in there that’ll catch your eye.

You can reach the album via this link.

If you’re not on Facebook, here are a few samples from the album concerning Oshkosh’s beer brewing past.

Here’s a picture of the Oshkosh Brewing Company as it would look if you were approaching the brewery from the south-east corner. That looks like a large pile of spent grain in the foreground.

Here’s the Oshkosh Brewing Company again, this time looking south from the corner of W. 16th Ave. and Doty Street. This is probably from the mid-1980s. The brewery was demolished in 1986.

Here’s a picture taken at the Rahr Brewing Company on Rahr Avenue. This looks to be from the late 1940s or early 1950s. That’s Blanche Rahr and her brother Carl Rahr, owners of the brewery.

Wouldn’t it be great to see these last two driving down your street!

Beer There and Everywhere

2011-01-27T10:11:00.001-06:00

The Oshkosh Beer blog went online exactly one year ago today. One hundred and ninety-five blog posts later, we once again find ourselves, with liver aquiver, gazing upon yet another selection of choice tap handles. Let’s get to ‘em.

It’s been 25 years since the last time Oblio’s brought in a barrel of what may be the worlds finest doppelbock and who knows when they’ll roll in the next one, so as beer freaks we all owe it to ourselves to get down there and drink deeply from the faucet currently drawing Paulaner’s Salvator Doppelbock. This is Bock supreme! A strong, full-bodied lager with a gale of toffee aroma and an incredibly rich malt flavor. Skip your next meal and indulge yourself in this delicious loaf of liquid bread.

If you’re craving a bock that’s a little less chewy, Barely and Hops has what you’re looking for. Nate recently brought in the New Glarus Cabin Fever Honey Bock. This is a much lighter bock that hearkens back to the traditional bocks of Wisconsin. A nice, easy-going, malt-forward beer that’s good for multiple pints.

All right, just because we’ve got all these bocks around town, doesn’t mean Spring is here. We’re still deep in winter, the season for imperial stouts. At Fratellos’ Fox River Brewing they recently tapped their always welcome Vader Imperial Stout. It’s been a year since the last time this was available in Oshkosh and this year’s version is choice. It’s a true Russian Imperial Stout, that pours pitch black and comes on big with the deep flavors of dark fruit and roasted malts. There’s a bit of alcohol in the finish to warm you up, too. Check out Brewmaster Kevin Bowen’s notes here.

One last stop: You’ve got to get over to Becket’s. They have a slew of new beers on and a couple you shouldn’t miss. Ommegang’s Abbey Ale, a great, American-brewed Belgian Dubbel, is pouring and they’re serving it up in a glass that’s perfect for the beer. I wish more places would show that kind of respect for their beer (and I wish less people would steal their beer glasses when they do). Also at Becket’s is Southern Tier's Old Man Winter Ale. Here’s another full-bodied, malt-laden winter brew that features a serious dose of American hops. But those punchy hops match perfectly with the beer’s big malt flavor. The balance of this beer is phenomenal making its 7% ABV drift by virtually unnoticed... until later.

So that’s the get-the-hell-out-of-the-house edition of this week's beer round-up. Beer is a convivial beverage, friends! Support our local good beer joints by getting out there and enjoying it in the company of your fellow quaffers. Prosit!

Oshkosh and the Dilemma of Canned Beer

2011-01-26T10:24:00.001-06:00

Seventy-Six years ago this week, Americans began putting beer in cans. On January 24, 1935 Krueger Brewing of Newark, New Jersey became the first American brewery to can its beer. And by the 1940s, the Oshkosh Brewing Company was doing the same. Oshkosh Brewing was the first brewery in Oshkosh to can a portion of their beer, using cans with cone shaped tops. The protruding top of the can made it possible to fill them using modified bottling equipment and thus save the expense of a separate packing line for their canned beer.

For smaller, regional brewers such as those in Oshkosh, canned beer was something of a menace. It added additional expense to their operation and made it increasingly easier for larger breweries to flood their market with beer. Canned beer maintained its freshness longer and was cheaper to distribute than bottled beer, virtually eliminating the geographical advantages the small breweries relied upon for their survival.

By the 1950s canned beer was omnipresent. The brewers of Oshkosh had to either adapt fully or go under. In 1955 the Oshkosh Brewing Company took the plunge by purchasing a new canning line and converting to the more familiar flat-top can. A year later, The Rahr Brewing Company of Oshkosh, which never made the jump to cans, went out of business. The Peoples Brewing Company of Oshkosh would be a late adopter to canning, holding out until 1963 before introducing its beer in cans. But for the brewers of Oshkosh, canned beer was a losing proposition. In the end, it represented one more competitive advantage that the large beer makers used to drive under small, local breweries like those here.

There is a bright spot to the story of canned beer in Oshkosh, though. In June of 1991, Chief Oshkosh Red Lager by the Mid-Coast Brewing Company of Oshkosh became the first American craft beer packaged in cans. The beer was years ahead of a trend that is only now coming to prominence. There are now more than 100 American craft brewers canning their beer, but when Jeff Fulbright, President of Mid-Coast brewing, started the ball rolling 20 years ago, craft beer in a can was a hard sell. “Back then, the idea that great beer doesn't come in a can hurt me,” Fulbright says.

There were, however, others who appreciated Fulbright’s effort. In 1992 The Beer Can Collectors of America chose the handsome Chief Oshkosh Red Lager can as their can of the year. The beer may be gone, but the can still looks great today.

The Beer Brewing Schwalms of Oshkosh

2011-01-25T09:37:00.002-06:00

Though last week’s post about Theodore Schwalm ended on a dour note, his death did not impede the rise of the beer-brewing Schwalm family in Oshkosh and beyond.

Arthur L. Schwalm

Arthur L. Schwalm was just two-years-old when his father, Theodore Schwalm, died in 1888. But like his father, Arthur was destined to become a beer man. His path to the beer business was nothing like his father’s, though. Prior to his brewery days, he attended the Oshkosh Teacher's College and then the University of Wisconsin where he earned a bachelor of arts degree and was captain of the football team. When he returned to Oshkosh, Arthur went to work in the bottling plant of the Oshkosh Brewing Company. He stayed with the company through the bleak years of Prohibition, eventually becoming vice-president of the brewery and in 1942, following the death of Otto Horn, was made president of the Oshkosh Brewing Company. Arthur L. Schwalm was 56-years-old.

He managed the brewery through its most expansive period and gained a prominence within the larger brewing community that few regional brewers enjoyed. He was vice-president of the Wisconsin Brewers Association and a director of the American Brewers Association. He would also be the last member of the original families who formed Oshkosh Brewing to lead the company.

When Arthur died in 1961 at the age of 76, he was still president of Oshkosh Brewing. The obituary that appeared for him in the Oshkosh Northwestern mentions that his interest in brewing was probably sparked by his grandfather, Leonhardt Schwalm, whom he never met. The piece omits any influence his father, Theodore Schwalm, may have had upon him. Two months after Arthur’s death, the company was sold to David V. Uihlein, of the family who controlled Milwaukee’s Schlitz Brewing.

A. Thomas Schwalm

From the vantage point of the 1940s, that ending to the story would have been entirely unexpected. Arthur Schwalm had groomed his son, A. Thomas Schwalm, to follow him into the beer making business and for a time, that’s the path he trod. After Graduating from the University of Wisconsin, A. Thomas Schwalm was trained as a brewer and was brewmaster for the Oshkosh Brewing Company through the 1940s.

But A. Thomas Schwalm’s brewing days came to an abrupt end in 1950 when his father-in-law, Oscar J. Hardy, died. Hardy was the owner and publisher of the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern and when he passed, A. Thomas Schwalm left the beer business and took over the paper with his brother-in-law, Samuel W. Heaney. Together they ran the Northwestern as co-publishers until 1994. A. Thomas Schwalm passed away in 1997. The following year the Northwestern was sold to Ogden Newspapers.

Thomas Hardy Schwalm

There was still beer in the Schwalm blood, though. A. Thomas Schwalm’s son, Thomas Hardy Schwalm, would follow the paternal tradition and establish a career in the beer business working for Schlitz, Strohs and in 1994 he became president of Barton Beers Ltd., then the largest independent beer importer in the United States. But Thomas Hardy Schwalm’s real claim to fame would be the SoBe line of teas and energy drinks. Yes, those big bottles filled with glowing fluid that you see at every gas station from coast-to-coast were conceived by an Oshkosh beer man. We’ve come a long way from Theodore Schwalm and the days of Chief Oshkosh Pilsner.

Early Bocks and the Decline of Oshkosh Civilization

2011-01-20T10:12:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago I made mention here that Hinterland’s Maple Bock had arrived in Oshkosh. It’s an excellent beer, but I failed to note that it is also a sign of the impending cultural apocalypse. Bocks, after all, are supposed to be Spring seasonal beers, but nobody seems to care about such things anymore. Why just the other day, I was sniffing around the beer isles and was accosted by two more insolent bock brews that successfully enlisted me in their degenerate plot to undermine the decorum of our once polite society.

All right, so that’s my obligatory, nonsensical rant. If you’re going to type up stuff about beer, you’ve gotta do that kind of thing from time to time. And bitching about bocks coming to market too early is an Oshkosh tradition, so I thought I ought to do my part to keep it alive. The oldest Oshkosh rant I’ve seen about the too-early bocks comes from an 1885 Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. They were complaining about it in May! It’s right next to a little article announcing that Krao the “missing link” would soon be on exhibit in our happy city. Enough, let’s get to the beer.

And Bock beer it is. Over at Festival Foods in Oshkosh the two recent bock arrivals that will pair well with your saliva are Capital’s Maibock and New Glarus’ Cabin Fever Honey Bock. They’re both excellent brews that’ll improve your weekend if you spend some time pressing them to your face.

The Maibock from Capital is a beautifully aromatic beer that reminds me of waking up to the smell of fresh bread. It’s a little towards the caramel-sweet side, just like a good bock should be, with a medium body that’s perfectly balanced by an earthy snort of noble hops that comes through in the finish.

The New Glarus Honey Bock is more in keeping with the sort of bocks that used to be brewed in Oshkosh in the mid-50s. It’s a pale-gold, malt-forward brew that’s ridiculously easy to drink. There’s nothing overt in the flavor profile, just a pleasing blend of warm, dry malt with a bit of sweetness and a sneaky bitterness that you’ll have to hunt to find.

Another bock that’s a good one to belly-up to is the Andygator from Abita Brewing that Dublin’s currently has on tap. This is another easy drinker that hides its 8% ABV maybe a little too well. It’s a smooth, fairly rich brew with an herbal hop ending that cleans the malt up, making for a surprisingly refreshing bock. You might want to keep an eye on Dublin’s in the coming weeks. They have some exciting beers on deck including New Belgium’s Vrienden, a funkified sour beer fermented with brettanomyces and lactobacillus. Should be interesting.

One last thing and completely unrelated to bock beer: Last night I was at O’Marro’s and watched as a good part of their tap line-up suddenly converted into beers that weren’t there when I walked in. Check out the updated Tap List and if you drop-in get at least one pint of the Honker’s Ale. It’s a classic ESB from Goose Island and the keg they’ve got on at O’Marro’s tastes fantastic. We should have more about O’Marro’s next week as Shawn is going to start bringing a round of beers that haven’t poured in Oshkosh before (if you like Belgians, you’re gonna love it). It’ll be posted here when it happens. Happy weekend!

The Abbreviated Life of Theodore Schwalm

2011-01-19T15:38:00.000-06:00

Theodore Schwalm’s life could have become one those stories that people in Oshkosh used to love to tell. The only son of German immigrants, he was born into circumstances that were less than ideal, yet ripe for success on a scale his forefathers could have hardly imagined. Sometimes, though, it just doesn’t work out the way it’s supposed to.

Horn & Schwalm's Home/Brewery

Theodore Schwalm was born in 1858, to Leonhardt and Maria Schwalm. When he was 8 years old, his father and August Horn established Horn and Schwalm’s Brooklyn Brewery on Doty Street just south of W. 16th Ave. That brewery became Theodore’s childhood home. Both the Horn and Schwalm families lived there along with a host of the brewery’s workers and when Leonhard Schwalm died in 1873, Theodore became the presumptive head of the Schwalm household.

He was fifteen now and also well on his way to assuming his father’s role as the Horn and Schwalm brewmaster. At this point he’d been living at the brewery for at least 8 years and though he had attended primary school, his real education undoubtedly took place in the brewhouse. That also may have been where he learned to drink. Alcohol would compromise much of his short life, but despite his incipient problem Theodore became a full partner in the brewery by the time he was 21 years old.

From 1880

His tenure as joint proprietor of the Brooklyn brewery didn’t get off to a good start. In 1879, the same year his name went on the signboard, the brewery burned to the ground. Three years earlier, Theodore, his mother, and his five sisters had moved to a new home across the street from the brewery (the house still stands at 1639 Doty Street), so although the family still had a place to live, their livelihood was in ruins. Not for long, though. Horn and Schwalm quickly rebuilt the brewery at a cost of $35,000 and by year’s end had a brewhouse that could outpace any in Oshkosh (much of that brewery still remains along the east side of the 1600 block of Doty Street).

On the face of it, things were looking up for Theodore. In April of 1881 he married and his his wife Sophia joined the Schwalm’s in their family home. Theodore’s alcoholism continued to escalate, though, and by January of 1883 he had become so debilitated that he was placed under guardianship. An abstract of the guardianship papers is unequivocal in its description of Theodore. The stark report identifies him as a “Drunkard”.

Two years later, in 1885, Theodore and Sophie Schwalm had their first and only child, Arthur. But Theodore’s decline continued. By 1887, at the age of 29, he was suffering from liver failure and in the fall of that year his conditioned worsened considerably after being thrown from a buggy.

On January 17, 1888, The Oshkosh Daily Northwestern reported that Theodore was gravely ill. He had been confined to his bed for the past two weeks and was not expected to live through the day. The following morning the paper reported that his condition had not changed. That evening he died. His death ascribed to “an affection of the liver”. The following Sunday, Theodore was buried in Riverside cemetery. He left behind a wife, a two-year-old son and a promising future to be claimed by others.

A Timeline of Beer and Brewing in Oshkosh

2011-01-17T22:53:00.001-06:00

Over the past year, I’ve been attempting to add stories to this blog about Oshkosh’s beer-soaked past. For the most part, I’ve simply been following what interests me and the result has been a grab-bag selection of Oshkosh beer history. So to provide context and give a more linear shape to those stories, I've added a supplementary site named Oshkosh Beer Timeline. It’s a thumbnail sketch of the history of brewing and beer culture in Oshkosh with numerous pictures and linked side trips into more detailed realms to help flesh things out.

Oshkosh Beer Timeline will continue to grow as additional stories and dates are added. A few of those stories are already in the works, but if there’s anything in particular you would like to see included, please, don’t hesitate to say so. Hope you enjoy Oshkosh Beer Timeline.

A Witte, A Stout and a Belgian Blackout

2011-01-13T09:19:00.000-06:00

It’s been a relatively quiet week on the Oshkosh beer front as the local outlets try to sell off their glut of holiday brew, but there are a few new beers that have made their way to town that you might want to soak up.

At Barley & Hops they’ve recently brought Ommegang Witte in on draught. You don’t see this beer on tap very often, especially at this time of year, when the heavier winter brews predominate. This is an excellent example of a Belgian Witbier with a good amount of spicy yeast character and a wonderful creamy/sweet malt flavor. It’s refreshing as hell without being insubstantial and a nice change of pace.

Oblio’s has something new on that’s a little more in keeping with winter. The Poet by New Holland Brewing is a classic oatmeal stout. It’s just the kind of beer you associate with January. This is a comfort beer. It has a beautifully slick texture delivering a warm and roasty malt flavor that’s balanced by just a touch of bitterness in the finish. This is an ale to spend some time with. It’s mild and easy to drink and it peaks about three pints in.

And finally, Shawn at O’Marro’s says that he now has all three of the Chimay Trappist beers available in bottle. Chimay Première (Red label) is the epitome of the Belgian Dubbel; the Grande Réserve (Blue label) is the classic Chimay beer and without equal when it comes to Belgian dark, strong ales; and Chimay Triple (White label), their light-bodied 8% golden beer that’s about as dangerous as any beer made. Plant yourself in Shawn’s Irish bar and go through the entire flight of Chimay’s Belgian beer and by the time you reach the dregs you won’t know where the hell you are. You won’t care, either.

Patrick Tribbey Tells the Nation about Beer and Homebrewing in Oshkosh

2011-01-10T08:42:00.000-06:00

Patrick Tribbey Brewing

It’s not every day that someone gets on a nationally broadcast radio show and talks about homebrewing and beer in Oshkosh, but Patrick Tribbey did just that on Saturday. Patrick, an Oshkosh homebrewer and member of the Society of Oshkosh Brewers, had a brief spot on Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know? this past Saturday wherein he extolled the virtues of homebrew while Michael Feldman cracked wise about worms and the abundance of beer in Oshkosh. This link will take you to Part 4 of the show. Dial the player forward to about the 10 minute mark to hear Patrick hold forth.

Beer. Beer. Beer.

2011-01-06T10:29:00.006-06:00

So much beer. So little time. So let’s get right to it.

We’ll begin over at Fratellos Fox River Brewing where every now and then Brewmaster Kevin Bowen sets out something that deviates wildly from the Fox River pattern. He’s just de-bunged Old Man Winter and much like last Spring’s Fox River Reserve, this is a connoisseur’s brew aimed at the tonsils of the local geeks. Old Man Winter is an Old Ale blended from beers one-to-three years old, aged on oak and then dosed with a brace of fresh hops. It all adds up to an excellent brew that’ll have you picking up new flavors with every draw. The beer features prominent esters wrapped around a sticky malt backbone kept in check by the bite of fresh hops and the dry, tannic aspect of the oak. Let it warm just a bit before you start in and this beer will open up in all kinds of ways. It’s one to seek out and at just under 7% it’ll give you a gentle kick in the pants. For more on Old Man Winter take a look at Kevin’s notes on the beer.

Now let’s head over to Dublin’s where they’ve got a few new things going, including Dogfish Head’s strapping Belgian Strong Ale, Raison D'Etre and Tyranena’s Sheep Shagger Scotch Ale. These are both malty, warming brews and they make a nice fit when you follow one with the other. The boozy, toffee and caramel aspects of the D'Etre dovetails well with the smokey notes of the Shagger. It’s kind of like following dessert with a cigar.

Time to stumble over to Festival foods where there are a number of relatively new bottles of interest. They’ve had both beers from Big Bay Brewing on hand for a few weeks now and I finally broke down and bought some. Big Bay is based out of Shorewood and brew their beer at the facilities of the Milwaukee Brewing Company. I read an article about the company in the Journal-Sentinel shortly after their start-up that left me with the impression that maybe these folks are more about marketing than beer. Slugging down their Wavehopper Kolsch and Boatilla Amber Ale didn’t do much to alleviate my suspicions. The Kolsch is the better of the two with a bready nose followed by a touch of DMS and a twang of Cascade hops in the finish. The Amber is utterly indistinct. There’s nothing here to offend, but nothing that’s going to keep you coming back, either. I can’t imagine reaching over anything by O’so, Central Waters or New Glarus to get to this.

Just down the isle at Festival there’s something a little more interesting. The Magic Hat Spring seasonal Vinyl Lager is in and like all the Magic Hat brews they’ve cloaked it with a pointless obscurity that promotes little more than confusion. Well, they got me. I took a quick look at the label and thought it was Vaginal Lager. So I bought it. Imagine my disappointment when I got it home. All that aside, I kind of like Vinyl Lager. It pours like a Bock and smells like a loaf of rye bread. It has a very pleasing and mellow malt character that goes well with its trailing bitterness. A good, steady drinking beer.

Another beer at Festival worth throwing your money at is Hinterland’s Maple Bock. This is what a Bock might be if it were re-imagined by the Belgians. It pours to a rich mahogany with a stunning aroma that leads with the maple and then gets around to all sorts of other stuff like cookie dough and caramel. I was expecting it to have a heavy body, but the mouth feel is more like a Belgian Dubbel. It drinks fairly light, though not without a complexity of flavor. The maple is there, but they don’t beat you over the tongue with it and creates a nice grouping with the vanilla and coffee flavors that keep popping up in the background. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I’ve been warming up to Hinterland in a big way, lately, and this beer cinches the deal for me. I won’t pass on anything they put out.

Just one more... I got hooked on Sprecher’s Winter Brew about a month ago when it come on at Oblio’s (at last check it was still pouring there). Now they’ve got a good-sized batch of it at the Northside Pick 'n Save that looks like it’s going nowhere fast. This is an excellent Munich style Dunkel Bock that’ll warm the innards of any lover of lagers. It’s a rich and full-bodied brew that’s perfect for a cold winter night. We’ve got no shortage of those in store, either. Stock up on this and watch that temperature dip. After a few nips it’ll be warm as July. Happy tippling!

The 2nd Annual Fond Du Lac Brewfest Draws Nigh

2011-01-05T09:13:00.000-06:00

Now that the atmosphere has cleared of the holiday-season debris, it’s time to turn our attention to events that really matter. Such as beer festivals. The first of the 2011 season will be the 2nd Annual Fond Du Lac Brewfest slated for Saturday, February 5, 2011. That may seem a bit distant, but like last year’s FDL Brewfest, this year’s event will sell-out so the time to set your plans and get your tickets is now. And that’s easy enough to do. In Oshkosh, just head over to O’Marro’s Public House where you can nab a ticket and sign up for the bus that’ll happily haul your sotted bulk down to Fond du Lac and back.

Visit the Fond Du Lac Brewfest website for all the pertinent info and while you’re over there take a look at the breweries they’ve lined up. The emphasis is on small, Wisconsin breweries who’ll be pouring beer you probably haven’t tried before. For example, take Black Husky Brewing - a nano-brewery located outside of Pembine in Northern Wisconsin. Black Husky makes great beer that’s virtually unavailable outside a 30 mile radius of their brewery and they’ve promised to brew a couple special beers just for this event. This is the kind of thing that makes a beer festival worthwhile. See you there!

Looking Back

2011-01-04T10:07:00.005-06:00

Here’s an incredible picture that Oshkosh historian and author Dan Radig has been kind enough to share with us.

This was the saloon of Adolph Baier located at the southwest corner of Ohio Street and 7th Ave. Baier was born in Austria and came to Oshkosh in the early 1880s. While also working as a wagonmaker for A. Streich & Bros., Baier ran this saloon out of his home at what would now be 601 W. 7th Ave from approximately 1892 to 1898.

The two corner signs on the building give us a clue to the date of the picture. The top sign is for the “Celebrated Lager Beer” of Lorenz Kuenzl’s Gambrinus Brewery. The lower sign is for Horn & Schwalm’s Stock Lager. After 1894 these two breweries would merge with The Union Brewery to form the Oshkosh Brewing Company, so in all likelihood, the image pre-dates 1894.

Gathered at the front of the saloon are, presumably, the Baiers. Adolph Baier and his wife Mary would eventually have nine children making this a somewhat early incarnation of the family. And look at all those beer barrels lined-up along the east wall of the home/saloon. Wouldn’t you love to know what the beer in those barrels tasted like?

Amazingly the Baier home is still standing and it’s in pretty good condition considering the years of use it has endured.

601 W. 7th Ave Today

If this is the sort of thing that fires your interest then you’ve got to check out Dan’s new book, Oshkosh Grocers of the South Side 1857-1978. It’s a jaw-dropping compendium of Oshkosh history that uses the hundreds of small grocers that once operated in Oshkosh as bellwethers for the change and development that has shaped our city. Dan says the book started as a “simple list of markets in town to use as a quick reference source and it spiraled out of control.” No kidding! At 668 pages this is the result of the best kind of obsession. It’s the sort of book you fall into and come up an hour later wondering where the time went.

Oshkosh Grocers of the South Side 1857-1978 is currently available in Oshkosh at Apple Blossom Books and will also soon be in stock at Sister's Restaurant.

The Central Waters Double Barrel

2010-12-30T15:35:00.001-06:00

Here’s something to make the new year a little happier: The most recent batches of Central Waters Brewers Reserve barrel series were packaged on December 14th and now they’ve arrived in Oshkosh. At Festival Foods in Oshkosh they have both the Bourbon Barrel Stout and the Bourbon Barrel Cherry Stout on the shelves waiting to be taken home and made part of your inner being. If you enjoy barrel aged beers, these are a couple that you shouldn’t miss. They’re aged in re-purposed, oak, bourbon barrels for up to 6 months resulting in big, smooth imperial stouts haunted by an undercurrent of bourbon. For the Cherry Stout they load eighty pounds of tart Door County Cherries into each barrel resulting in a beer that’s incredibly complex and surprisingly refreshing.

Check out the labels on these beers. Something has gone awry, here. Though the bottling date for each is marked as December of this year, the one is sporting a 2010 neck band while the other shows 2011. Misprint or left-over labels? Who cares! These are going for $10.99 a 4-pack at Festival and though they’ve got a pretty good stash it probably won’t last. Barrel on!

John Glatz and the Union Brewery of Oshkosh

2010-12-28T21:32:00.005-06:00

John Glatz

The forty-year journey of John Glatz from Baden-Württemberg, Germany to Oshkosh, Wisconsin is the story of an itinerant brewer who learned his craft in the old world, adapted it to the new world and finally found his home in a foreign city almost 5,000 miles from his place of birth. Glatz was born on December 24, 1829 in Pfullingen, a small town at the foot of the Swabian Alps in southern Germany. He began making beer at the ripe age of 14 and after serving his brewing apprenticeship, emigrated to America in 1853. That same year, Oshkosh became a city.

Upon arriving in America, Glatz went to Cincinnati. Its large German population and booming beer scene would have seemed a natural fit for an ambitious, 23-year-old brewer. But after three years of making beer there, Glatz was on the move again. He spent six months brewing in Philadelphia and then in 1857 went to Milwaukee where beer was becoming an essential element of the burgeoning city. For a time, Glatz appeared to have found his niche. He settled in as foreman of a South Side brewery and in 1861 the 32-year-old Glatz took a 19-year-old bride named Louisa Elser. The brewer from Baden had established a comfortable living. After 12 years of brewing someone else’s beer, though, Glatz wanted a brewery of his own. He found the opportunity he was looking for in Oshkosh.

In 1869 there was a new brewery in waiting at the south end of Doty Street. It had been built by Franz Wahle, who in 1857 had founded the Stevens Point Brewery. After selling the Point Brewery in 1867, Wahle moved to Oshkosh and began construction of the new brewhouse that would become the Union Brewery and the new home of the John Glatz family.

John and Louisa Glatz now had three children and shortly after moving into the brewery they were joined by Christian Elser, his wife Anna and their three children. In all probability, Elser was the older brother of Louisa Glatz, but he wasn’t just family, he was an experienced brewer, as well. The German-born Elser was 29 and prior to coming to Oshkosh had brewed at the Bavarian Brewery in Wauwatosa under the tutelage of Franz Falk, a master brewer from Bavaria. With almost 40 years of experience between them, Glatz and Elser were a significant addition to Oshkosh’s flourishing community of brewers.

When the Union Brewery went into operation in 1869 it became one of six Oshkosh breweries and within their first year Glatz and Elser produced a respectable 500 barrels of beer. The Oshkosh beer market was expanding and Glatz and Elser were poised to take a sizable portion of it, but first they’d be dealt a disastrous set-back. At 10 p.m. on a cold Friday in early December of 1871 the brewery that Wahle built caught fire. Firefighters soon arrived, but were unable to draw water. They watched as the Union Brewery burned to the ground.

The Union Brewery 1886

At the time of the fire Franz Wahle owned the brewery, but Glatz and Elser had insured the business for $6,000. When their claim came through in January of 1872, Glatz and Elser purchased the ruins of the brewhouse and the four acres of land surrounding it from Wahle for $5,400 - a figure that would today amount to about $135,000. And then they started all over again.

This time there would be no deterring them. In 1872 Glatz and Elser rebuilt the brewery and over the next five years more than tripled their original output. Though their methods were informed by centuries of German brewing practice, theirs was truly an Oshkosh beer made with locally grown hops and grain that Glatz himself malted at the brewery. Success came early and by 1878 they were making more beer than any other brewery in Oshkosh, producing over 1,500 barrels a year. An impressive figure considering the size of their market (Oshkosh’s population was then just 14,876) and the seasonal limitations faced by lager brewers in the years before mechanical refrigeration was commonplace. Oshkosh was quickly becoming a regional force in Wisconsin brewing and Glatz and Elser were leading the way.

Production continued to increase and in 1879 the Union Brewery surpassed its previous year’s effort by more than 100 barrels. But 1879 was also a pivotal year for the Union Brewery. In the fall of that year, Glatz and Elser dissolved their partnership and on November 7, 1879 Elser sold his interest in the brewery to Glatz for $13,000; a sum that would be worth about $288,000 today. Elser would go on to establish a meat market and beer bottling business on 18th Avenue between Doty and Oregon and Glatz kept right on brewing. He had eight employees working for him now, not including his son William, who at 17 would have certainly been old enough by his father’s standard to become immersed in the business of making beer.

The Oshkosh beer market, though, was changing rapidly. When the Brooklyn Brewery, just up the street on Doty, burned down in 1879, August Horn and Theodore Schwalm built a larger brewery in its place that would soon outpace the production of Glatz’s plant. But more troubling than the local competition was the “foreign” beer being brought in from Milwaukee. The Milwaukee brewers, Pabst and Schlitz in particular, had capacity advantages, which allowed them to flood growing markets such as the one in Oshkosh, making it difficult for local brewers to compete. Glatz battled back. He struck a deal with William Dichmann, proprietor of the leading grocery on Main Street, to distribute his beer and dramatically increased the capacity of his small brewery, eventually plateauing at an incredible 30,000 barrels a year. Glatz also began producing a series of to-the-point advertisements that never failed to include the lines, “As good as Milwaukee beer. And much cheaper.” It was a well-aimed retort coming from a man who had spent more than 12 years of his life brewing “Milwaukee beer”.

Glatz continued on as the sole owner of the Union Brewery until 1888. On May 1st of that year, he made his 25-year-old son, William, a full partner in the business. John Glatz was now 59 years old. His brewing career was nearing its end, but not before he would influence the next stage in Oshkosh’s development as a brewing center. In 1894 Glatz merged his Union Brewery with Horn and Schwalm’s Brooklyn Brewery and Lorenz Kuenzl’s Gambrinus Brewery to form the Oshkosh Brewing Company. Glatz was named vice president of the new company. His son William, who ten years later would become president of Oshkosh Brewing, was appointed treasurer. On April 12, 1894 John and Louisa Glatz deeded their brewery to the Oshkosh Brewing Company for $78,000, an amount that would now equal just over 2 million dollars. A year later, on April 25, 1895, John Glatz died at the age of sixty five.

The Union Brewery remained operational until 1915 when it was dismantled and its production moved to the large, modern brewery built by the Oshkosh Brewing Company on Doty Street in 1911. In 1976, the site of the brewery was bought by the city of Oshkosh and re-named Glatz Park. Today there’s little there to suggest the dynamism that characterized the years when the Union Brewery was running full tilt. The park is unmarked and mostly left untended. All that is left of the brewery are the outcroppings of the lagering caves that were at the foundation of the brewhouse.

Remains of Union Brewery Caverns 1975

But there’s a surviving structure just to the north of the brewery lot that may have been even closer to John Glatz’s heart. In the last year of his life, Glatz built a magnificent home that stands to this day at 2405 Doty Street. The house has recently been renovated and is as beautiful as it was when Glatz lived there. A legend that has drifted down through the years is that John Glatz used the smashed beer bottles of his competitors to adorn the peaks of his home, as if making a crown for himself from the shattered bones of his rivals. If you look up under the eaves of the house you can still see the pieces of beer bottles that are embedded at the crests. If the legend is true, John Glatz’s crown remains intact.

The Home of John Glatz 1894 & 2010

Thanks to Mike and Margie Douglas for their tour and pictures of the Glatz house. Thanks, also, to Dan Radig for pictures of the Union Brewery lagering caves.

2010-12-24T09:49:00.002-06:00

The Dark Season

2010-12-22T10:25:00.000-06:00

Yesterday afternoon at 5:38 pm we reached the winter solstice. The darkest part of the year is here and there’s nothing that brightens these short, black days better than a big, black beer. It’s time to go opaque.

Let’s start over at Fratellos' Fox River Brewing Company where they’re making something of a secret of the fact that this December marks their fifteenth year of brewing in Oshkosh. They’ve just resurrected the venerable Titan Porter, though, and it’s a proper companion for wondering where the hell all that time went. This is a porter in a rich and robust vein with a great aroma of toast on the verge of scorching. A healthy dollop of coffee and chocolate follow through in the quaff and it closes with a dry, dark-malt and hop bitterness that lingers until the next pull. Get it while you can.

At Festival Foods in Oshkosh, they’ve recently stocked up on a couple of worthy black beers. The Guinness Foreign Extra Stout is an odd, little ale that’s nothing like that other Guinness Stout you know about. When I say little, I mean that annoying European practice of sending us beer in 11.2 oz bottles instead of giving us the full 12. Aside from that, this beer is big enough at 7.5% and is heartier than you’d expect any breed of Guinness to be. Lot’s of smoky, charred malt aroma smolders off this one and the flavor comes on with a carbonic shot of burnt grain and bitter hops. The hop aspect of this surprised me; it’s almost American in execution. I don’t know that I’d make a habit of this beer, but it’s definitely one to seek out and experience.

And just in at Festival, all the way from trusty and rusty Kalamazoo, is our old friend Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout. This brew tends to come and go around here, but right now there’s a fresh batch waiting to get reacquainted with your liver. This is one of those comfortable stouts that’s easy to take for granted until you start drinking and remember all over again what a fine beer it is. The beer comes with all the standard, American stout features. It’s roasty and peaty and a little sweet with a nice zip of hops and it’s all balanced so well that only a dolt would miss it’s deliciousness. Ummmm.

All right, one last beer for those among us afraid of the dark. Festival now has New Belgium’s Frambozen Raspberry Brown Ale, a fruit beer that skips down the same lane as New Glarus’ Raspberry Tart. Frambozen isn’t going to blow you away with the sort of succulent unctuousness of the Tart, but it’s no slouch and one to put on your list if fruit beers with a Belgian slant are your thing. Also, the aroma and color is quite un-beer like, so if you’re having one of those days you could probably get away with drinking this at work. Just an idea.

The Beers of Christmas Past

2010-12-21T10:32:00.000-06:00

If you’re given to haunting the local beer depots you’ve undoubtedly noticed that the shelves are heavy with holiday beer these days. That’s nothing new in Oshkosh. Holiday beers have been a seasonal tradition here ever since the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. When full repeal arrived on December 5, 1933, both Peoples Brewing and the Oshkosh Brewing Company immediately released beer for the season that was stronger and more flavorful than their standard brews.

The seasonal beers soon became an important part of the breweries’ yearly output. Each year, sales of beer in Oshkosh would invariably fall-off with the end of summer and the Oshkosh brewers saw the holiday brews as a way to re-ignite the interest of beer drinkers during the slump of the cold months. It was a tradition that lasted almost 40 years.

Peoples Brewing described their Special Holiday Brew as a “High-Test Beer”. It a was full-bodied, higher-alcohol, lager brewed with Munich malt and aged for an extended period. The basic description of the beer would put it firmly within the Oktoberfest style. Down the street from Peoples Brewing, the Oshkosh Brewing Company made their Holiday Brew with a somewhat heavier body, yet lighter in color. Oshkosh Brewing boasted about the “warming” quality of the beer and its distinctive hop flavor. The beer was probably akin to what would be considered a Maibock or Helles Bock.

Unfortunately, all of those beers are gone. Now, all that’s left are the labels. Here’s to the beers of Christmas past.

Beer for Christmas By Clarence "Inky" Jungwirth

2010-12-20T08:10:00.000-06:00

Here's a different sort of beer story from our friend Inky Jungwirth

Clarence "Inky" Jungwirth 1944

During World War II, I was a beer drinker and also a member of the 24th Infantry Division. On Oct. 20th, 1944, the 24th Infantry was involved in the Liberation of the Philippine Islands and the intial landing on the Island of Leyte. Fighting the Japanese on that island was fierce and there were many American casualties. Initially, supplies were scarce due to the large force of Americans engaged in the fighting, but by Christmas of 1944 equipment and supplies had been increased considerably and we were able to meet the enemy on a superior basis. Supplies had increased so that by Christmas Day every G.I, including all those in actual combat, were given a Christmas present by the U.S. Army. It was a case of Beer! The beer was warm as there was no way it could be refrigereated in the tropical climate of the Philippine Islands and though I don't remember the brand of beer, it was the best present a G.I. could receive.

Our beer was stored on trucks, away from the combat areas, with each man’s name attached to his case. There were times, during combat, when we were relieved for rest after days without any sleep and during these periods each man was allowed a bottle of beer from his case. Only one beer was permitted, though, to eliminate the temptation to become drunk and escape the horrors of combat. Although the beer was warm, we beer lovers were in seventh heaven to have the taste of even a warm bottle of beer.

Each man’s small allotment of beer was highly valued. While we were in the Philippines, we were given our monthly army pay in Peso's, but there was nothing to buy and, in a sense, the money you were paid was considered almost usless. Most of us were single men who figured our days were numbered. You might be killed tomorrow or next week. Gambling was a relief from the stress of combat and it was nothing for expert crap shooters to make thousands of dollars in Pesos in a night of gambling. What to do with that money? It was not unheard of for a beer loving gambler to pay a thousand dollars in Pesos for another soldier’s case of beer. Non-beer drinkers took a chance that they might survive the war and sent the money home to a bank account. Both the non-beer drinker and the gambler were happy.

Somewhere on the Island of Leyte, today, there must be thousands of beer bottles left behind by American G.I.s. All of them empty of beer, of course, as not a drop of beer was ever wasted or absorbed into the air. We G.I.s who survived the Philippine Island Liberation and the war in Leyte will remember the taste of that "Liquid Gold" and the Christmas of 1944 forever.

A Quick Fix of Six

2010-12-16T09:33:00.000-06:00

If you don’t find yourself staring down a few good beers this weekend, it’ll be your own damned fault because there’s a lot of fine stuff flowing around town right now. Here’s a quick six of things you might want to make it your business to encounter.

Over at Festival Foods they recently brought in a couple of succulent seasonals from Bell’s Brewing of lovely Kalamazoo. Bell’s Christmas Ale is an easy drinking, malty brew along the lines of a Scottish Ale that fairly glows in your cup. Nothing funny in the way of Christmas spices here, just a smooth, mellow beer with tasty notes of caramel malt. Then there’s Bell's Cherry Stout, a handsomely priced sipper that’s going for $12 and change. It’s a thick, chewy ale loaded with creamy malt and balanced by a burst of sharp and tart cherry juice. You probably won’t reach for a second bottle of this in the same session, but at 7% it’s a good buffer to these cold nights we’ve been having. Also at Festival, they recently brought out the 2010 Sierra Nevada Northern Hemisphere Harvest Ale. Here’s a wet-hop beer bitched-up with spicy hop flavor that snaps the backbone of malt they’ve tried to balance it with. Forget about balance, it’s the hops that make this beer. If you like the grassy, lemony flavor of fresh hops this ale will make you happy.

Now for a couple brews you’ll need to belly up to the bar to gulp. At Fratello’s they have a Cream Ale pouring that’s more than the name implies. This isn’t one of those limp beers that tend to fall into this style, the Vixen Vanilla Cream Ale is a moderately robust winter seasonal with rich vanilla flavorings and just the right amount of heft at 5.9%. It’s a golden, hearty beer with a sweetish aroma that’s especially inviting. A good brew all the way around. At Becket’s they’ve had Hinterland's Winterland Porter going for a couple weeks now. Hinterland seems to be hitting their stride lately and this beer is another success for them. It starts with all the bold roastiness you’d expect in a winter porter and then it kicks in with a charge of very assertive piny hop flavors. It’s a surprising beer that ought to appeal to any hop-head.

Finally, and strictly for sentimental reasons, there’s that good, old Huber Bock that’s been pouring at O’Marro’s. Sure, you can go buy a 12-pack of this at a few of the local depots, but at O’Marro’s they’re serving it up in an old-fashioned jar-sort-of-mug that’s just right for this beer. I have a special affection for this lager as it was instrumental in triggering the beer geekery that still afflicts me. When I was way too young to drink legally I used to steal bottles of this from my old man’s stash. I loved every illicit sip of it. Never has such an unassuming beer tasted so great!

Brewing Chief Oshkosh Red Lager

2010-12-14T09:21:00.001-06:00

It’s happening again. The river and lake are choking-up with ice and the snow is mounded in every open space. To the early brewers of Oshkosh, these were heartening signs. It meant the new lager season was here. It was time to start making the cold-fermenting beers they had been trained to brew in their European homeland.

A hundred some years later, there are plenty of area homebrewers still taking their cues from the weather. When the air turns frigid, many of the old basements in Oshkosh hit temperatures in the 50 degree range, perfect for fermenting that good, old lager beer. And here’s a recipe for lager beer that ties all of it together.

Chief Oshkosh Red Lager was a modern beer that recalled the earlier days of brewing in Oshkosh. The last batch of the beer was brewed 16 years ago, in December of 1994, and it’s about time we bring it back. The beer was essentially a Vienna Lager with an interesting twist that made it quite different from the premium lagers of the period. There were no other lagers of the time making such liberal use of Belgian specialty malts, which gave the beer a distinctively rich malt flavor and red hue while maintaining a medium body.

The recipe below is the homebrew version of the beer based upon the final pilot batches Jeff Fullbright brewed at the Siebel Institute in November of 1990. If you want to go all the way with this beer, you’ll need to Krauesen it, but for those of us who don’t adhere to the Reinheitsgebot a basic carbonation of 2.0-2.5 volumes will do just fine. Let’s brew it!

Chief Oshkosh Red Lager

Boil Volume: 7 Gallons
Batch Size: 5 Gallons
Single-step infusion Mash at 152º
60 Minute Boil

OG: 1.048
FG: 1.012
IBU: 19
SRM: 11
ABV: 4.6%

Grain Bill
American Six-row Pale: 5.25 lbs (58.7%)
American Tix-row Pale: 3.0 lbs (33.6%)
Belgian CaraMunich: 8 oz (5.6%)
Belgian Special B: 3 oz (2.1%)

Hops
.4 oz Willamette Pellet hops (55 Minute Boil Time)
.2 oz Czech Saaz Pellet hops (55 Minute Boil Time)
.2 oz Willamette Pellet hops (30 Minute Boil Time)
.1 oz Czech Saaz Pellet hops (30 Minute Boil Time)
.2 oz Willamette Pellet hops (At flame out)
.1 oz Czech Saaz Pellet hops (At flame out)

Yeast/Fermentation
Wyeast 2035 North American Lager Yeast
Ferment at 48º-58º
When Primary Fermentation is complete, rack to secondary and lager at 10º cooler than your average fermentation temperature for an addition two-four weeks.

Christmas Cheer on Tap in Oshkosh

2010-12-09T10:07:00.000-06:00

During this time of wretched music and violent shopping, it’s good to set aside a few moments to appreciate the things that truly matter. Let’s start with Anderson Valley’s Winter Solstice Seasonal Ale and Three Floyds Alpha Klaus Christmas Porter. Yes! The rich and the bitter have arrived in Oshkosh to salvage the holiday season. ‘Tis the season to raise the dark cup and drink deep.

Anderson Valley’s Winter Solstice is pouring at Becket’s and Alpha Klaus is on tap at Oblio’s, setting them apart by just a few blocks geographically as well as spiritually. Both are medium bodied ales that deliver a load of flavor with a significant hop finish, but they each take a different path getting there.

Winter Solstice, at Becket’s, is the more traditional of these holiday brews. The aroma is close to Christmas cookies with ginger and nutmeg drifting up. The beer is semi-sweet and rich with a sticky, caramel malt flavor that builds as you drink it. And then comes a nice, smooth bitterness. At the very end all that rich, sweetish malt gets peeled away with a refreshing wash of bitter hops. It works as a great contrast to what came before it and makes the beer eminently drinkable. This is an excellent brew and at 6.9% it’s a fine match for the cold weather.

Meanwhile, over at Oblio’s, there’s Alpha Klaus - just the sort of beer you’d expect from Three Floyds. Lotsa hops and great brewing make them one of the most dependable breweries in America and their Christmas porter is everything it promises to be. The thing pours like liquified black chocolate and the aroma is enough to make you thankful for the smoking ban. Plenty of brown sugar and ground coffee in the nose of this beer and it’s all brought along on a clean breeze of piney, Christmas-tree smelling hops. I’m guessing there’s a fat dose of Challenger hops in this one because that evergreen flavor shoots all through it. The first few gulps bring a nice mix of caramel and roasted malts, but as you continue to drink those hops take over and the beer veers into IPA territory. This is a fun one and you’ll continue to taste it when you move on to your next as those hops keep working your palate. It’s the beer that keeps on giving. Who said Christmas is for kids?

Have a Beer with the Real Beer Man

2010-12-08T08:32:00.000-06:00

Back in the early 90s, when Euro-brews such as Heineken were what passed for good beer in Oshkosh, a strange man came to town to help us chart our way out of the light-lager doldrums that had gripped this city for more than 40 years. That man was Jim Lundstrom. In 1991 he was a founding member of the Society of Oshkosh Brewers and, as a reporter for the Oshkosh Northwestern, was one of the first people in Oshkosh to write about beer from the perspective of culture and quality instead of treating it as just another commodity. These days, Lundstrom edits The Scene where he continues to cover the Valley beer beat in his Real Beer Man column. Over the years, Jim has been a great help to the beer drinkers of Oshkosh and now he could use a little help from us.

Lundstrom - foreground - at the first
Society of Oshkosh Brewers Meeting 1991

On August 18, while riding his bike, Lundstrom was hit by a 3/4-ton truck with a snow plow attachment. The accident left him with a severely injured left leg and an overwhelming pile of medical bills. Jim is recovering, but he’s badly in need of physical therapy and, without insurance, is in a tough spot. Here’s where we come in. This Sunday, December 12, at O’Marro’s Public House in Oshkosh the Real Beer Man Needs Rehab Benefit will take place from 4-8 p.m. and it’s going to be a great time. There’ll be live music from Bobby Evans, The Madpolecats and that S.O.B. Mike Engle; along with beer specials, food, raffles and more. Best of all, you get to have a real beer with the Real Beer Man. Lundstrom will be on hand wearing the first official SOB t-shirt and he adds, “If any of the original SOBs are still mobile and sharp enough to be in public, be nice to see them show up at our old stomping grounds - the orignal SOBs met in an empty store in the complex where O'Marro's is.”

Shawn is going to open up the bar for the Packer game, so come down to O’Marro’s early and spend the day. Also, I’ll buy a beer from the O’Marro’s tap line-up for the first person who on Sunday can give me the correct answer to the following trivia question: What is the name of the only Ale brewed commercially in Oshkosh between 1935 and 1950. No help, no hints, no cheating. Good luck and we’ll see you Sunday!

The Return of Real Beer to Oshkosh

2010-12-06T10:55:00.000-06:00

Seventy-Seven years ago this morning, a few people in Oshkosh were waking to the first legal hangover they’d had in 14 years. The full repeal of Prohibition arrived on Tuesday, December 5, 1933 bringing to a close the long mistake that permanently altered the drinking culture of Oshkosh.

The change was unmistakable. The day after repeal, the Daily Northwestern noted that the death of the dry law was celebrated here “in quiet fashion.” There had been an afternoon run on the taverns, but according to the paper most of the celebrants were “old timers” who came of age in the days before prohibition. The Northwestern reported that, “there were only a few locations in which a typical reunion could be held. Many of the famous local bars of yesteryear are gone, snuffed out by the coming prohibition. Some have remained, but they are not quite the same, even though bearing a familiar title. Improvements have been installed, and a new atmosphere created.”

An especially dour aspect of the “new atmosphere” was the 3.2% beer, which was now the standard. Although the repeal of Prohibition eliminated the 3.2% alcohol limit that had been granted to beer eight months earlier as part of the Cullen-Harrison Act, the Oshkosh breweries made it known that they intended to continue manufacturing and selling the new, smaller beer in the period following repeal. Unless, of course, the public demanded otherwise. And that’s just what happened. The low-alcohol beer that had been so warmly received eight months earlier was just as quickly rejected. Within months, “real beer” was once again the norm.

The Oshkosh Brewing Company took particular advantage of the desire for a stronger lager by selling beer into areas where breweries had yet to recover from the prohibition era. In early 1934, Oshkosh Brewing was shipping beer to Illinois, Minneapolis and as far west as California. Unable to get new labels made in time for shipment they used leftover stock from the pre-prohibition days.

In Oshkosh the backlash against weak beer was immediate. In the months following repeal, higher-alcohol (typically around 5%) beer became something of a fad here. Peoples Brewing released a “High-Test” Holiday Brew for the 1933 Christmas season and throughout 1934 numerous advertisements appeared for taverns selling “High-Powered” beer. The biggest of them all was the 12% ale that the Tip-Top Tavern on Main Street offered on draught for a nickel a glass. Prohibition and the days of Near Beer were truly a thing of the past.

Tap Handle Rapture

2010-12-03T09:14:00.000-06:00

Every now and then we hit a point where a lot of good tap beer suddenly converges upon Oshkosh and right now were at one of those high tides. The tap menus to your left have all been updated (except for Dublin’s - a little help?) and there’s plenty of quality brew nesting in those lists. Here are a few of the highlights.

Central Waters Hop Harvest Ale is now pouring at O'Marro's and Oblio’s. This is a limited release, wet-hopped, homegrown Wisconsin beer that was covered here when it was first issued in bottles in October. A unique, highly drinkable beer. Also at Oblio’s is Sprecher’s Winter Brew, a chewy dunkel bock that’ll warm you right up.

Becket’s has a batch of winter brews going including Anderson Valley’s Winter Solstice Ale and Shiner’s Holiday Cheer - a dunkelweizen. They also have the great Central Waters Brewhouse Coffee Stout flowing. Looks like a nice way to spend a cold evening.

Fratello’s Fox River Brewing has brought on a couple new beers. I haven’t tried their Vixen Vanilla Cream Ale, but a guy who had it at the table next to mine was raving about it, so that might be worth looking into. Also, they’ve just brought on their German Pilsner, which is going to be the first beer I have tonight after I find my way out of work. I can’t even tell you how I’m looking forward to that.

And last, but nowhere near least, Barley & Hops, fresh off their recent Point Brewery tasting and visit from Brewmaster John Zappa is pouring Point’s 2012 Black Ale. I believe this is the first time this beer has gone on tap in Oshkosh. This is a mild, little devil and a beer that I keep going back to when I’m looking for something a bit lighter, but with good flavor. If you haven’t tried it yet, give it a shot.

Get out and have a great beer this weekend, there’s plenty of ‘em out there!

New Glarus Apple Ale

2010-12-02T09:10:00.000-06:00

The new Unplugged beer from New Glarus was finally delivered to Oshkosh last week on the back of a serpent promising sex, knowledge and immortality. Of course, that’s bullshit, but Apple Ale is definitely here and if you're up for a fall from grace reenactment this weekend, here’s the beer to do it with.

New Glarus has shuffled Apple Ale through their line-up a few times, now. Its first outing was in a fancy 750 ml bottle packaged like Raspberry Tart and Belgian Red, but that soon passed and the last couple times through it’s appeared as part of the Unplugged series. Regardless of dress, this a simple and beautiful beer.

Made with Wisconsin barley and a mix of apples grown in Gays Mills, the beer pours out like a clean, brown ale with a head that slips away extra quick, leaving you with a cup full of something that could easily be passed off as sparkling apple cider. It’s got that smell, it’s got that look and it’s got that flavor. The aroma is a waft of candied apples with a bump of cinnamon and is a dead-on forecast of the flavor to come. It starts with apple and gains a lactic creaminess as you drink it before finishing off with a nice, tart nip that keeps things from getting too sugary sweet. Hops? Malt? Forget it. Apple Ale is all about apples and that single note simplicity is really what’s most appealing about the beer. It all seems so effortless and straightforward and makes for a very refreshing change of pace from the big, sometimes unrelentingly complex beers that are typical of the seasonal brews this time of year.

A few weeks ago when Stone Brewing announced it was pulling out of Wisconsin, one distributor speculated that the reason Stone couldn’t make headway here was due to Wisconsinites being too “caught-up” in the local beers made by New Glarus, Central Waters, O'so, et al. With beers like this, how can you blame us?

Spelunking the Beer Caves of Oshkosh

2010-12-01T09:31:00.000-06:00

The beer cave is nothing new. Until the early 1900s, when mechanical refrigeration systems became a viable option, local brewers would harvest ice from Lake Winnebago for holding in insulated bunkers to create cold spaces. Here they would store, or lager, their beer for extended periods, usually a month or more, to allow the brew to mature and “ripen” before it went to market. The annual ice harvest was a massive undertaking. In 1910, the year before Oshkosh Brewing built its new brewery equipped with its own ice-making machinery, the company harvested more than 10 thousand tons of ice from Lake Winnebago.

Those days are long gone, but the beer caves remain. A hundred years later, though, the term has undergone an unexpected corruption. In the idiom of gas station operators, the beer cave is now the freezing cold room at the back of the store packed with a volume of straw-hued fluid that would have left our early brewers awestruck. A number of such beer caves have popped up around Oshkosh and most of them are about as interesting as the macro-brewed swill they proffer to keep the punters pie-eyed and jonesing for lottery tickets. But they’re not all of that ilk. We’ve got a couple beer caves in Oshkosh that are a cut above the rest, so let’s take a look at what they have to offer the not-too-discriminating beer snob.

Lets start on the south side of town. A quick trot north from where Glatz, Horn and Schwalm dug their beer caves almost 150 years ago, is the The Condon Party Mart Beer Cave at 1424 S. Main Street. This cave first went into operation two years ago and if you can get past the exorbitant prices tagged to the best of their stock, this is probably the top spot for beer shopping on the south side. The Party Mart treats their beer with a measure of respect by keeping most of it in the cave at a temperature that doesn’t encourage casual browsing. The selection is surprisingly good, too. In addition to the familiar craft favorites by New Glarus, New Belgium and Capital they’ve got a stash of beers you don’t expect to find at a gas station such as Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale and Three Floyd’s Gumballhead. The last time I stopped in I mentioned to the manager that I was surprised by the variety of beer in the cave and without missing a beat he said, “That’s our pride and joy.” If malted beverages comprise the majority of fluid you consume, you’ll probably go broke making the Party Mart your main source of liquid, but in a pinch this place is great.

Now to the north side where the Blue Moose Beer Cave at 708 West Murdock Avenue is like an abridged version of the American beer scene. This place has it all, from the lowest gut-rot malt liquor to the Belgian beers that set the snobs to babbling. Any gas station that regularly has the full line of Chimay on hand is OK by me. And there’s something good about seeing that high-toned ale neighbored with genuine retro-product like Schlitz Tall Boys and Schell’s Deer Brand. The Blue Moose Cave usually has a good stock of New Galrus’ Unplugged beers and always has the coveted Raspberry Tart and Belgian Red on hand. Recently they’ve been bringing in bombers of Goose Island including the Night Stalker Imperial Stout (sold out) and the excellent Sofie Farmhouse Ale. They take the extra step, too, of tacking up little, hand-written signs explaining to the uninitiated what these beers are all about. I’ve asked a couple people at Blue Moose who’s responsible for the good beer coming in and they’ve told me that it’s a group effort, that they have a couple beer lovers on staff. The prices are about what you’d expect from a convenience store (too damned high!), but I’ve seen worse. The only downside, is that the beer cave here tends to be a bit hit and miss. If you see something good you’d better grab it because it might not be coming back.

One bit of shopping advice - in places such as these you really ought to avoid anything that comes in a clear or green bottle. The good beer at these places sometimes hangs around longer than it should, amplifying the strain those sorts of bottles put on the beer. So if you grab some gas and a six of Newcastle Brown Ale there’s a good chance it’s going to be sour enough to make you pucker. I suppose that’s what I get for buying Newcastle.

Want a Beer Cave of your very own? Here you go!

Barley & Hess

2010-11-29T09:39:00.000-06:00

Zappa

We have a couple beer-inspired happenings on the agenda this week in Oshkosh that are worth noting, one very wet and the other quite dry.

First, there’s the Beer & Booze Tasting at Barley and Hops this Wednesday night. As usual, $10 gets you through the door and the opportunity to dip into a wide range of beer and spirits. This time the event will be hosted by Point Brewery and their famous Brewmaster, John Zappa. We tend to take Point for granted in these parts, but they’ve been turning out great beer for years, especially under their recent Whole Hog series. Zappa loves talking beer so if you’ve got an interest in the brewing arts here’s your chance to pick the brain of a master. The event runs from 7:00pm - 10:00pm and you can find find out more here.

Hess

Then on Thursday night, we’ve got something that’ll even suit the teetotalers among us (if there are any). At 6:30pm the Oshkosh Public Library will feature a presentation on the Frank J. Hess & Sons Cooperage of Madison which supplied many of Wisconsin’s breweries with white oak barrels during the first half of the 1900s. Gary and Jim Hess, grandsons of Frank, will be on hand to tell the story of the family business with barrels and cooper’s tools in tow. It’s amazing what these people were able to do with wooden staves and metal hoops. Gary Hess and Jim Hess have been touring the state with this presentation and their story is one any beer-inclined individual will find interesting. Oh, if we could only sample a bit of beer from those white oak barrels. More info here.

The Lineage of Oblio's – Part 2

2010-11-23T13:10:00.002-06:00

For Part 1 of the Lineage of Oblio’s, go here.

•

Oshkosh street names and numberings have undergone sweeping changes over the years. The street names and numberings in this post reflect the current addresses of the properties and buildings mentioned.

•

By the end of Prohibition in 1933, the life had been knocked out of the Dichmann Block. For decades, the building at 432-434 N. Main Street had been known to the residents of Oshkosh as a pleasure center, but those days were over. The Beer Hall had been run dry and the companion dining rooms, which occupied the north half of the space, had gone out of business. The new occupancy was far less convivial. Where there once was a Beer Hall there was now a failing clothes store. The dining rooms had given way to an appliance repair shop. Upstairs was a dentist pulling teeth. None of it would hold. The Great Depression was especially harsh on Oshkosh. For the first time in the city’s history the population had begun to shrink and the number of people working fell by more than 40%. After a disastrous 1933, the worst year of the Great Depression for Oshkosh, the building at 432-434 N. Main was listed as vacant.

The malaise would linger for several more years, but at the close of 1936 Oshkosh was slowly beginning to emerge from the depths of its slump. That year a Greek immigrant operating a pool hall on Main Street saw opportunity in the vacancy one door to his south. John Konstantine Kuchubas was born in Greece in 1884, the year the Dichmann Block was constructed, and had served in the Grecian Army before coming to America at the age of 18. Eventually settling in Oshkosh, Kuchubas married a local woman named Elsie Zwickey in 1916. Just prior to his marriage, Kuchubas had opened the Pastime Billiard Parlor at 440 N. Main Street, but when the bowling alley next door went under, Kuchubas moved his business to 436 N. Main Street, changed the hall’s name and took his brother-in-law, John Zwickey as a business partner. The Grand Billiard Parlor would become a fixture on Main Street, operating for more than 25 years and though Kuchubas would maintain his stake in the business he wanted something more. The pool hall didn’t hold a liquor license and now that Prohibition had been repealed there was money to be made from the revived saloon culture of Oshkosh. When the appliance shop at 434 N. Main moved out, Kuchubas saw his opening.

John K. Kuchubas

The next time you enter Oblio’s from Main Street look to the wall at your right. There you will find a picture of John Kuchubas sitting behind the bar he had installed for the grand opening of his new saloon on November 27, 1936. To your left will be that same bar, which was built by the Robert Brand & Sons Company at their shop on the corner of Ceape and Court and hauled to Kuchubas’ saloon on a horse drawn wagon. But it wasn’t being called Kuchubas’ saloon, just yet. During the Great Depression America suffered an upsurge of xenophobia and perhaps for this reason the Greek-born Kuchubas decided to leave his name off the marquee. Instead, he tagged his saloon with the most typical of American names, calling it John Brown’s Bar. In fact, Kuchubas and his wife Elsie even went so far as to begin identifying themselves as Mr. and Mrs. John Brown. The innocuous name, though, was no reflection of his new business. From the very beginning, Kuchubas worked to establish a tavern that would stand out among the others along Main Street. He had the interior of the barroom completely re-done and made a point in his early announcements of describing the tavern as a “gentleman's headquarters” where “quality is stressed.” The wording could have been lifted directly from advertisements for the Schlitz Beer Hall 50 years earlier and the similarities didn’t end there. The building was still owned by Schlitz Brewing and Schlitz was, once again, the first beer to go on tap in the new saloon. But it wasn’t just a Schlitz bar, anymore. Kuchubas’ was the first Oshkosh bar in the post-Prohibition era to try and hinge its reputation on the quality and variety of the beer being served. While other taverns of the period were luring customers with sheephead tournaments, cheap liquor and frog legs, Kuchubas distinguished his saloon by pouring the premium beers of the era such as Drury’s Ale and Blatz Old Heidelberg Lager (“Beer of the Year!”).

Kuchubas was obviously proud of his new place and within a year of its opening he was running ads in the Daily Northwestern identifying it as “Oshkosh’s Finest Bar and Taproom”. If anybody in Oshkosh objected to the boast they were uniformly quiet in their disagreement. Though Kuchubas was known as a friendly man, running a respectable saloon, he had a volatile side, demonstrated by an incident that occurred in late 1939. On a Tuesday morning at 1 a.m., after a night working at the bar, Kuchubas returned to his home at 131 Church Ave. where he was jumped by a young man and told to “stick ‘em up.” The 55-year-old Kuchubas did no such thing. Instead, he produced an automatic revolver. As his would-be assailant fled, Kuchubas chased after him, firing two wild shots before abandoning pursuit and calling police. Kuchubas had come by his the hard way. He wasn’t going to let it go easily.

Over the course of the next 16 years, Kuchubas would establish a profitable niche within the center of Oshkosh’s thriving downtown business district. His approach remained consistent over the years; always stressing the quality of the beer and liquor he served and the clean, friendly environment of his room looking out on Main Street. And towards the end of his career his success seemed to have confirmed his sense of belonging to his adopted home. In the last years of the 1940s the tavern was being referred to less often as John Brown’s Bar. Kuchubas had begun using his own name to identify the saloon. Though he would never entirely abandon the original moniker, by the time of his retirement in 1955 the comfortable saloon at 434 N. Main had come to be known by all its patrons as John Kuchubas’ Bar.

After Kuchubas’ departure, little changed at the tavern. The bar was now helmed by an affable Canadian immigrant named John Morrison, who, at 64-years-old, had a lifetime of experience in the tavern business and saw little need to upset the formula established by his predecessor. He changed the tavern’s name to the Morrison Bar, but retained Kuchubas theme of running a “friendly” bar geared towards an increasingly older crowd. Morrison, though, wasn’t around long. Two years after purchasing the business, he passed away and the bar fell to his son, Neal. The younger Morrison would continue on in much the same vein until selling the bar four years later. From 1961 until 1973 the tavern was named The Overflow and was managed by a series of owners, each of whom ran the bar with an almost dogged constancy. The tumult of the era seemed to have little impact on what had become a rather staid tavern.

Over the course of the 1960s Oshkosh had gained a reputation for being a conservative town that showed a different face after dark. Popular night spots such as the Hoo-Hoo Club, the Red Carpet and the Jockey Club were making a direct appeal to a more libertine clientele with strippers, Go-Go dancers and rock bands. There remained, however, a large contingent of less notorious places catering to the traditional Oshkosh bar crowd and The Overflow fell squarely into this division. Throughout the latter part of the 1960s the contrast between Oshkosh bars became glaringly evident in the advertisements that were appearing in the Daily Northwestern. While The Hoo-Hoo Club was filling their space with Rock-House Annie and Katina the Greek Belly Dancer, advertisements for the Overflow featured a caricature of a distinctly middle-aged bartender who, in one quintessential spot from 1968, poses the somber question “So who needs entertainment? When you have a fun-loving group, warm hospitality, pleasant surroundings and good drinks, you don't even miss it!” The cultural divide had arrived in Oshkosh.

The Overflow may have seemed like a hold-out from a bygone era, but its obstinacy was no match for the changes that were afoot. In 1972 Schlitz Brewing, owner of the building at 432-434 N. Main for the past 85 years, sold the property to Charles Lukas, who had been running his Lukas Auto Supply in the south half of the space since 1957. Lukas became just the third owner of the property and within a year the Overflow was gone, to be replaced briefly by a bar named Alfi’s Lounge. In a span of just 14 years, the tavern had run through seven different owners and the upheaval wasn’t over yet.

In 1974 the bar was taken over by Mike Hottinger and Jon Voss who christened their tavern with the name that would stick longer than any that had come before it. Oblio was a round-headed boy living in Pointed Village and was first introduced by Harry Nilsson in his 1971 album The Point! Nilsson said the fable was inspired by an acid trip and the counter-culture reference would not be lost on the new breed of patrons who were increasingly finding their way to Oblio’s. Hottinger and Voss remained just long enough to remodel the game room at the rear of the bar before turning the tavern over to Mark D. Madison, who would be the first owner in 20 years to bring a unique approach to what had become a lackluster institution.

Mooka “J” Today

In the summer of 1975 Mark Madison was 24 years old, recently out of college and living near the corner of Evans and Parkway just down the road from the bar where he liked to hang out. It wasn’t just his hangout anymore, though. It may have been hard to tell at times, but Madison was running the place. “I wanted to make my living having fun,” he would later say. For a time, he did. Madison, or “Mooka J” as he was known to his buddies, liked to party and for the next four years Oblio’s would be a funhouse for he and his friends. And Madison had plenty of friends. The bar still had a mix of patrons, but the crowd Madison attracted was younger, many of them college students who came downtown looking for something a little different from the beer bars around campus. Madison gave it to them. The days of Schlitz were over, now there were two Heineken faucets pouring beer into mugs that often didn’t find their way back to the bar. “I had to buy cases and cases of those mugs,” Madison said, “they’d walk right out the door with them.” Oblio’s was now the only spot in town offering beer of a different variety from the indistinguishable light American lagers that had conquered the post-prohibition era. Madison said, “At the time I brought Heineken in there was no good beer at Oblio’s.” Or anywhere else in Oshkosh, for that matter. Madison’s other hot-selling import was Elephant Malt Liquor, a potent Nordic pilsner. “I’ve never seen anybody finish more than a six-pack of it,” Madison said. The wisdom of featuring a beer that quickly renders your customers inert remains to be seen, but it was all in keeping with the spirit of the times and the bar. A bar where Madison sometimes ended the night on the floor. He’d had a good time, but by 1979 Madison knew he needed to move on. “I had to get out of the business,” Madison would say later. “It would have killed me if I hadn’t.”

Mark Schultz and Todd Cummings

Oblio’s Lounge was now as well known as any tavern in Oshkosh, but its best days were ahead of it. When two college students took over the bar in 1979 they weren’t exactly sure what they had gotten themselves into, but it wouldn’t take long for them to figure it out and turn Oblio’s Lounge into Oshkosh’s premier saloon.

Mark Schultz and Todd Cummings were no strangers to Oblio’s. “We used to hang out here,” Cummings says. “This was a college haunt for us.” Looking back on it Schultz says, “We turned a drinking hobby into a profession.” When they began, though, they were both rank amateurs. Schultz was 23, Cummings 22 and neither of them had worked in a bar before. But the college roommates living at 1308 Reed Avenue made up for their lack of experience by hiring bartenders from the B & B and the Calhoun Beach Club and it quickly became evident that they were onto something good. “We saw the potential of what this could be,” Cummings said. “We were college students and we had a lot of connections to the University and that gave us a good base to start with.” The first change they made was to install a sound system followed soon after by a change in the beer line-up. “There were four tap lines when we came in,” Schultz says, “Two were Stroh’s and two were Heineken.” Not for long. Cummings was dating a woman who worked for a Manitowoc beer distributor and after she introduced him to Hacker-Pschorr’s Oktoberfest it became a mission for Cummings and Schultz to bring the beer to Oblio’s. “It became my new favorite beer,” Schultz says. “You had to order it in Spring to get it in fall. The first year we ordered 25 barrels and the next we ordered 50 and the year after that 75. Our distributor would have to go through other distributors to get the beer.”

With that, they were off and running. “We could see a certain niche,” Cummings says. “There was a crowd here that liked these beers and that was the beginning of us expanding our beer line-up.” In the 1980s, no other bar in Oshkosh was doing anything like it and Schultz and Cummings had the benefit of an adventurous group of regulars who were interested trying something new. “We had the luxury of trying different beers to see what would sell,” Cummings says. By the late 1980s Cummings and Schultz were looking into installing a micro-brewery in the bar, but shelved the idea due to a lack of availability of good equipment at the time. “We don’t like doing things half-assed,” Schultz said, so they settled on bringing in a rotating selection of American craft beers. “At the time there were a lot of microbrewers making one or two good beers,” Cummings said, “so we thought, what if we bring in the best of these micros instead.” They had hit upon their model for the future. The original four-handle tap box was converted to accomdate 13 beer lines and would later expand to 24 and then again to the current 27 taps. Cummings and Schultz complemented their growing selection with a remodel of the bar wherein they ripped out the drop ceiling to reveal the engraved tin that had been a striking feature of the original Dichmann Block. The legendary tavern at 434 N. Main had returned to and surpassed its former glory.

Schultz and Cummings were now the owners of the building and in 2005 they’d bring the Dichmann Block full circle. When Rudy's Shoe Rebuilders closed in the summer of 2005, Cummings and Schultz opened the wall between the two rooms that had housed the great taverns of Maulick and Kuchubas. It effectively doubled the size of Oblio’s Lounge and in the process created one of the most historically significant public spaces in Oshkosh. Their timing couldn’t have been better. In 2008, Schlitz, the wayward beer that had started it all, made its highly symbolic return from exile to take its place in the Oblio’s tap line. The beer that inaugurated the Dichmann Block 123 years earlier had returned to its Oshkosh home.

Schultz!

That’s a lot of history, but it weighs lightly on Cummings and Schultz who day in, day out usher their bar into the future. As Todd says “It’s happening, it’s just going to get better and better.“

Oshkosh Beer of the Week: Central Waters Brewhouse Coffee Stout

2010-11-18T09:33:00.000-06:00

Is Central Waters the best Stout brewery in America? If you can think of a better one let me know because I can’t come up with another American brewery that bests them in this category. Over the course of the past year they’ve put out five different Stouts (four of them limited releases) and each has been superior. And now comes this, Central Waters Brewhouse Coffee Stout, which hit the shelves in 4-packs at Festival Foods in Oshkosh last week. Once again, Central Waters delivers with an exceptional Stout. Bring on the black liquidation!

This beer pours jet black with a chewy head of thick froth that’ll leave a nice mustache on your lip if you dive straight into it. That’s exactly what you ought to do, because what’s there in your cup is going to make you very happy. The coffee aroma is fresh and intense and completely dominates the nose of the beer. This batch was brewed and infused with the worlds second best beverage just over a month ago and that, no doubt, accounts for the especially vivid coffee profile. It’s the first flavor you encounter once you start gulping it in and it’s what sticks in your mouth after you’ve set the cup down. In between you get a nice bit of roasted malt and a nudge of vanilla, but this beer is really all about the coffee. And unlike many coffee stouts, this one avoids that astringent oiliness that tends to mar beers of this sort. Instead, you get a smooth, creamy brew that’s rich, but wonderfully drinkable. It would make a great breakfast beer, but at over 8% ABV it might get your day off to an unnaturally slow start. For dessert, though, it would be perfect and a great match for a huge chunk of German chocolate cake.

By the way, the coffee in this beer was roasted by Emy J's, a coffee shop in Steven’s Point that’s worth a visit next time you’re up there. It’s a good place to sober up after a few too many at Guu's On Main where they’re usually hosting several CW beers on tap. A road trip might be just the thing for the cool and cloudy weekend we’ve got coming our way.

The Lineage of Oblio's – Part 1

2010-11-16T09:24:00.003-06:00

Outside the Schlitz Beer Hall 1887

At Oblio’s there are 27 beers on tap from some of the finest breweries in the world, but there’s one tap near the beginning of their line that's more than just a beer faucet. The Schlitz handle at Oblio’s draws a direct link to the distant past. In 1885 Schlitz became the first beer poured in the building that is now home to Oblio’s, a tavern with a lineage that can be traced back 125 years. And like many Oshkosh beginnings it all started with a great fire.

On July 14, 1874 a fire ignited in a stable near the intersection of Main and Washington and tore north through the downtown business district consuming every building in its path. Reconstruction began almost immediately and at the close of 1874 the greater portion of upper Main had been recast with buildings made of brick. But the 38 foot-wide lot where Oblio’s resides remained in flux until 1884. That year William Dichmann, a wealthy grocer and soon to be Oshkosh Mayor, enlisted architect William Waters to design a building for his property at what is now 432-434 N. Main Street. Waters hired James N. Ruby, a carpenter living at the corner of Irving and Central, to build his two-story, red-brick design, which was Waters take on the Queen Anne style. The building priced out at $5,000 and by December of 1884 the new “Dichmann Block” was ready for tenancy.

Meanwhile, a 26-year-old former currier named Charles Maulick was learning the saloon trade in a rough area of town near the blacksmith shops along the western end of Ceape Street. Maulick started out at an old tavern and inn named the Mechanics' Home, but he wasn’t there long. Just a year after he’d taken over the business, Maulick left Ceape Street and moved uptown to establish his new stand at the Dichmann building in the heart of downtown Oshkosh.

If you were to visit Oblio’s tonight you’d immediately be able to define the space where Maulick operated his Schlitz Beer Hall. Entering Oblio’s from Main Street, the north half of the room is occupied by the main bar. Opposite that is a bisecting wall cut by an archway that opens to the room where in the Spring of 1885 Maulick began offering his customers “imported” Milwaukee beer. Maulick’s saloon quickly gained a reputation for being something more than the typical beer dive. He served sandwiches and oysters along with a free daily lunch that sometimes featured the wild goose, turkey and other game Maulick was fond of hunting. A review of the tavern from the period described it as “one of the largest sample rooms... stocked with the finest goods in the market” and ended with the extraordinary promise that “no better place can be found in the city to refresh the inner man.” If that wasn’t enough to distinguish Maulick’s tavern, his association with Schlitz surely was. Of the more than 80 saloons doing business in Oshkosh at the time, Maulick’s room was just one of six selling Milwaukee beer.

Maulick’s relationship with Schlitz Brewing developed rapidly. August Uihlein, the head of Schlitz, realized early on that he had a good thing going with Maulick in Oshkosh and in the summer of 1886, a year into Maulick’s residence at the Dichmann Block, Uihlein bought the building. The backing of Schlitz assured Maulick of a permanent home for his thriving tavern. It was now Maulick’s home as well. He lived above the bar with his family in an arrangement that was mirrored by his neighbor in the building. The portion of Oblio’s that now contains the main bar was then occupied by Gus Eilers who operated a grocery store and saloon in the space. Like Maulick, Eilers and his family lived in an apartment above their business. The bustling Dichmann Block had become a downtown centerpiece.

From 1889

As the venture continued to grow, Maulick took on a partner. Frank Wahle had a pedigree in the beer business few could match. His father had been a brewer and brewery builder and his family had owned the brewery on Doty Street where John Glatz began making his Oshkosh lager. Wahle was 26 years old when he joined with Maulick in 1888 and together they made the Schlitz Beer Hall into one of the most popular and highly regarded saloons in the city. It wasn’t just a beer hall anymore, either. It had grown into a “gentlemen's establishment”. Fine wine and Kentucky whiskey were available as well as cigars from Key West and, of course, fresh lager beer. The sample room was thriving, but like many Americans in the late 1800s, Wahle had the itch to go west. His brother had moved to Montana where he was running a wholesale liquor business and at the end of 1889 Wahle left Oshkosh to join him in Boulder, Montana. Things didn’t work out as planned for Wahle, though. He found Montana a little too rough to suit him and by April of 1890 he was back in town. Wahle quickly established a new saloon in Oshkosh called the Glee Club a few doors to the south of The Schlitz Beer Hall, where Maulick was now running the bar with the help of Frank H. Kitz.

Unlike Wahle, Kitz had no experience in the saloon trade. He was a trunk maker living on Otter Street, but Maulick and Kitz made a good team and they quickly put together an ambitious plan to expand into the bottled beer business. Many of the Oshkosh saloons ran small bottling operations, but Maulick and Kitz wanted more than a mom and pop bottle shop. In 1890 Pabst Brewing had set up its first branch in Oshkosh (at what is now the intersection of Commerce and Pearl) where they shipped in beer by train for bottling and keg sales in the area. Maulick and Kitz sought to do the same with Schlitz. In 1891 they made an agreement with Schlitz Brewing to run the Oshkosh branch for the brewery and that summer Schlitz hired William Waters to design and contract the building of a bottling plant, ice house and barn along a railroad spur just to the north of where Commerce St. now joins Ceape. The bottling operation grew rapidly and before long Maulick and Kitz were bottling as much as four train car loads of beer a week. The success of the operation would have a profound effect on the beer business in Oshkosh. In fact, Oshkosh’s largest brewery, may not have formed had it not been for Maulick and Kitz. In 1894, the Oshkosh Brewing Company was established by the merger of three local breweries in an effort to stave off the competition brought by Maulick, Kitz and Milwaukee beer.

From 1891

Maulick and Kitz were now the sole agents for Schlitz in Oshkosh and their quick rise afforded them a status few saloon keepers in the city enjoyed. By the mid-1890s both men had become fixtures on the Oshkosh scene. In addition to managing the bar, Kitz was a working musician. He was a member of the musician’s union and played with the Crescent Band, a popular Oshkosh parade and dance band of the period. Charles Maulick had become something of a minor celebrity in Oshkosh. He was looked upon as a prominent businessman and his hunting adventures and marksmanship skills were frequently reported upon in the pages of the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. The pair were riding high, but their business was a volatile one with a unique set of risks and a gaggle of readymade enemies whose stated aim was to destroy them. By the mid-1890s the temperance movement was running full throttle and though the Oshkosh contingent was small they were strident and eager to seize any issue that would boost their profile. On a cold November night in the alley behind the Schlitz Beer Hall, the movement found just what they were looking for - a martyr.

On November 2, 1897 John Webster, Jr. came to the Maulick and Kitz saloon for a night of drinking. Webster was a 38-year-old street car driver living in a tenement at the 200 block of Merritt Avenue, just east the saloon. Nicknamed "Cooney", he was described as “simple” and “weak-minded” and easily manipulated. That night at the Beer Hall, Webster met up with Abe Muench, an old friend who lived on Evans Street. Muench was already drunk and thought it would be fun to see how much liquor Webster could hold, so he began buying him glasses of seven-year-old whiskey. After the eighth brimming glass Webster pleaded that he’d had enough and wanted to go home, but Muench urged him on. After the 11th glass, Webster couldn’t stand. He had drank more than a quart of whiskey and when Muench couldn’t get him to drink anymore, Webster was helped out through the back door and dumped on a work bench in the alley behind the bar. Several hours later he was found lying motionless by police. Webster was put on a gurney and carted to the jail where he died without regaining consciousness.

The incident was front-page news and set off a furor. Supporters of the temperance movement used the tragedy as a cudgel, decrying that if this could happen in the best of Oshkosh’s saloons what were the others capable of? They demanded retribution. And they got it. Nine days after Webster died, Frank Kitz was arrested and charged with manslaughter. Also charged were Muench and Nick Marx, the bartender on duty the evening Webster drank himself to death.

For Charles Maulick, the event signaled the end of his saloon years. Two months after Webster’s death, Maulick and Kitz dissolved their partnership. Maulick moved out of the apartment above the saloon to a new flat at 413 Merritt Ave. and the business was divided. Kitz took over the saloon while Maulick assumed control of the lucrative wholesale keg and bottled beer business. The brief notice that Maulick and Kitz published to announce the dissolution of their partnership closed with a note that Kitz would continue to be “pleased to accommodate his friends and patrons with his usual suavity and promptness.” But the bright pledge was snuffed by the dark days which followed.

The manslaughter case against Kitz was one of the first of its kind and prosecuting it proved to be a wrenching affair for all concerned. It took more than a year to bring the defendants to trial and when the proceedings finally did begin the effect on Kitz was devastating. His health began to fail almost immediately and during testimony he broke down and wept. “He pressed his hands to his face but the tears would not be held back, and trickled through his fingers,” reported the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. In the end Kitz was found not guilty. Only Nick Marx, the bartender who had served Webster the whiskey, was convicted. The jury found him guilty of fourth-degree manslaughter and fined him $282.44. The jury couldn’t agree on a verdict for Muench. Temperance supporters announced they were “gratified” with the result. Kitz, though, found little solace in the outcome. His health continued to decline and the following year he died at his home on Otter Street from hemorrhages of the lungs. Frank H. Kitz was forty-three years old. He left a wife and five children.

If the temperance supporters of Oshkosh were happy about taking down the Schlitz Beer Hall their celebration must have been short lived because the man who came to fill the void left by Maulick and Kitz was the embodiment of prohibitionist dread. Jesse Gokey was 36 and well schooled in the art of mayhem when he took over the Schlitz Beer Hall at the turn of the century. He had been a solider in the Spanish-American War and after contracting malaria came back to Oshkosh fifty pounds lighter, looking thin and pale and ready to raise hell. Gokey opened a gut-bucket saloon near the river (in the area where the City Center is now located) in a building covered with sheet metal called the Ozark Flats. It was there that Gokey established his reputation for running the sort of dive where thugs, criminals, whores and minors were always welcome. Gokey had a long and storied career as a tavern man in and around Oshkosh and was hounded by the law for most of it. His one, brief respite of relative peace occurred during the time he spent running the Schlitz Beer Hall. Gokey toned down his act when he moved it to Main Street and it may have been that the polite society of downtown was not to his liking. A few months after occupying the saloon, Gokey moved out and almost immediately returned to hosting the sort of alcoholic bedlam that he and his taverns would be remembered for.

The Main Barroom at Oblio's Circa 1902

With the dawn of the 20th century, the bar at 462 North Main Street underwent a series of fundamental changes that reflected the end of the Victorian era and the beginning of the American century. The new owner was Al Steuck, who in all likelihood had begun working at the Beer Hall while Frank Kitz was running it. But it was Steuck’s bar now and he quickly went about putting his own stamp on the place. The Beer Hall days were over. Now the saloon was called the Annex Sample Room, which would in turn give way to the Annex Bar. Steuck was an avid baseball and boxing fan and his stand took on the atmosphere of an early sports bar where the results from each round of important boxing matches were cabled in and announced to the patrons. The clientele had changed also. The crowd was younger. Like the 27-year-old Steuck, most of them had been born in Oshkosh to parents who had come to Wisconsin in a massive wave of German migration. They were developing customs and identities of their own and it was reflected in the character of the tavern. The place had become rowdier. The door that opened onto Main Street came to be known as a spot to be avoided if you weren’t in the mood for rough fun. The sports that inhabited Steuck’s place made a habit of passing remarks to passers-by and more often than not the comments were less than charitable. They especially like to taunt the police and eventually the practice grew so out of hand that in 1908 the Common Council stepped in and told Steuck that if he allowed it to continue, he’d have his license revoked.

For the most part, though, the early 1900s were good times for the saloon. Gas lamps gave way to electric bulbs and the horses that used to pull beer wagons to the bar were gradually replaced by trucks. Steuck was having fun and making a nice living. He moved his family to an expensive house at 907 Washington Ave. and though the modern era was treating him well the ghosts of the past were lurking. The temperance movement that had been the bane of Maulick and Kitz had fizzled in Oshkosh, but nationally it was stronger than ever. In 1919 what many in Oshkosh considered to be unthinkable became a reality. Liquor, in all its forms, was outlawed. Prohibition was the law of the land.

With his livelihood having suddenly become illegal, Al Steuck adapted as most of the other saloon keepers in Oshkosh had. He became an outlaw. The Annex Bar was now the Annex Soft Drink parlor, but there wasn’t much soft in the drinks Steuck was serving. An amazingly efficient network of distilleries and wildcat breweries developed seemingly overnight in Winnebago County and the beer and whiskey continued to flow. An official from the Bureau of Prohibition would later call Wisconsin “a Gibraltar of the wets - sort of a Utopia where everyone drinks their fill and John Barleycorn still holds forth in splendor." If Wisconsin was the Gibraltar of the wets then Oshkosh was its shining city on the hill. Prohibition enforcers reported that Oshkosh was a thoroughly “wet” city of 33,000 people and as many as 120 speakeasies. A federal assessment of the conditions in Oshkosh noted, “Oshkosh is the center of a large number of wildcat breweries... Local police in Oshkosh are active and efficient with respect to all law violation, except, of course, those connected with the liquor traffic.”

Throughout the roaring 1920s the relaxed atmosphere of Oshkosh, where ordinary people were eager to break the law, made it easy for men like Steuck to go right on doing as they always had. But it also worked to create a false sense of security. The wide-open circumstance here made it especially easy for federal officials to drop in and pick-up a few quick arrests anytime it suited them. Their targets would often be the more prominent and well known taverns in the city. On the South Side of town August Witzke’s Hall was singled out, but the easiest pickings for the feds were found in the cluster of highly visible bars doing business along Main Street. In 1921 Al Steuck fell victim to just such a sweep. On October 31, 1921 Steuck and four other Oshkosh men (including the son of Oshkosh’s Assistant Police Chief) were served warrants of arrest by Federal Marshal William J. McCormack. Steuck was charged with five counts of selling intoxicating liquor and taken to Milwaukee where he was arraigned at the United States District Court. Steuck pleaded not guilty and hired Oshkosh attorney Earl P. Finch to defend him. It didn’t help. Steuck eventually changed his plea to guilty and was convicted on all five counts. His sentence was three months in the house of corrections.

The most damaging aspect of the penalty, though, was the prospect of another arrest. Steuck was well aware that a second conviction for selling liquor would result in prison time and he was left with no choice, but to reign in his activities. Things at the Annex changed. They had to. Steuck had already tried to buoy his operation by turning the bar into a lunch counter selling hot, short order lunches, but business continued to fall off and by the mid 1920s the Annex was a shadow of its former self. Steuck felt the pinch. Gone was the handsome house on Washington Ave. He began selling off the bar's fixtures and would eventually take a job managing the Eagles Club. By 1927 the Annex Bar was no more. The last call had been served at 462 North Main Street.

To continue reading the Lineage of Oblio’s go here.

Oshkosh Beer of the Week: Capital’s Winter Skal

2010-11-11T08:13:00.001-06:00

All week long they’ve been stringing up the Christmas lights in Menominee Park and tonight Oshkosh will have its annual Holiday Parade, but to me these are seemingly random and unrelated events. I know we're on the cusp of winter and the holiday season because last week the shelves of the liquor departments suddenly grew heavy with winter brews wrapped in cozy labels that tell me the season is changing. Winter is here!

I look forward to the rich, strong beers that come flowing into Oshkosh around this time, but the one I like to grab first is Capital Brewing's Winter Skal. This is a tasty, early winter lager helpful for easing you into the short days of the dark season. It has more heft than an Oktoberfest, but less of the chewy malt and alcoholic punch of the brews that make February bearable. It’s a November beer. Skal (a Scandinavian toast to friendship and goodwill) pours a deep copper with a short, tenacious head. The aroma is all sweet malt and bread crust and when the beer is introduced into your being via the largest hole in your face it produces a wonderful sensation. The mouthfeel is just a little bit thick, but not in a burdensome way. The flavor is two parts caramel malt and one part spiced fruit and and it finishes so clean and dry that it makes the next draw inevitable. Good beer!

You can pick up Winter Skal just about everywhere in Oshkosh... grocery stores, gas stations, laundromats (have you visited JT's Wash and Mart on Wisconsin Street?). And while you’re out there doing your week-end beer shopping take a look at all the holiday beers that have arrived. The other day I was doing my usual milling around in the liquor isles and saw Bell's Winter White Ale, Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale, Big Sky’s Powder Horn Winter Ale, Lakefront’s Holiday Spice Lager, Point’s St. Benedict's Winter Ale, Samuel Adams’ Winter Lager, Goose Island’s Mild Winter, New Belgium’s 2º Below Winter Ale and Redhook’s Winterhook Ale. Shit, on Tuesday I even saw a 12-pack of Huber Bock. If that doesn’t make you smile, you just don’t know how to have fun.

It’s Not the Same, Old IPA

2010-11-09T09:10:00.001-06:00

Drinkers of good beer tend to be a fairly agreeable lot, but there’s one area of the beer landscape where they have trouble finding common ground. When it comes to the American IPA, you find little consensus among people who like quality beer. There are those who love and crave the massively hopped and bitter beers that have fueled a good part of the craft beer movement in this country and then there’s the other crowd who find these beers unbalanced, uninviting and ultimately undrinkable. I admit, I’m a hop lover, but I think the anti-IPA people have a point. Almost every brewery makes an IPA these days and too many of them are one dimensional and dull and are more about delivering a bracing shock of bitterness than they are about good brewing.

The IPA may have fallen into a rut, but it ain’t dead yet and for proof of that we’ve got a couple of hop-forward beers currently pouring in Oshkosh that put a unique twist on the old bitterness.

First there’s the Komodo Dragon Fly Black IPA from the great Upland Brewing Company that O’Marro’s has had on tap for a few weeks now. Some people call this a Black IPA, others refer to it as a Cascadian Dark Ale, but whatever name suits you it’s the first beer of its type to go on tap here in Oshkosh. In the glass it looks more like a porter than an IPA, but a quick whiff tells you the beer has plenty of hop to it. This is a hybrid brew - part stout, part IPA, but neither facet is so overt as to blot out the other. That balance makes for an exceedingly drinkable ale that’s probably unlike any hoppy beer you’ve had before. If you’ve never tried a Black IPA/Cascadian Dark Ale now is your chance.

And over at Becket’s they’re pouring Flying Dog’s Raging Bitch, a golden, American IPA brewed with a Belgian Ale yeast that takes the hops in an entirely unexpected direction. It pours out like a Belgian Golden Strong Ale, but instead of the fruity sweetness that typically wafts off that style the aromatics of this beer are dominated by piney, Amarillo hops. The citrus-like bitterness of the hops goes surprisingly well with the peppery yeast character and best of all it has the easy drinking quality that makes those big, Belgian beers such a treat. This is no small beer, either. You’d never guess it, but it clocks in at 8.5%.

If you’re a hop lover, you owe it to yourself to check these beers out. Both of them are the first of their kinds to go on tap in Oshkosh and it might be a while before we see either of them here again. And let your server know that you appreciate having these beers available. We’ve got to support this stuff if we hope to see our options continue to grow.

Oshkosh Beer of the Week: New Glarus Back 40 Bock

2010-11-04T10:00:00.001-05:00

In May of 1885 the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern ran a weird little article complaining that Bock beer isn’t supposed to go on tap until May, but that “Americans force the season in everything, and so each year it gets on the market a little earlier.” I’d like to take the author of the article for a visit to Barley & Hops and see how he’d react to the two Bock’s that are pouring here in the early days of November. One is the trusty Shiner Bock and the other is the new lager from New Glarus named Back 40 Bock, which made its way into Oshkosh last week.

Back 40 replaces Uff-da as New Glarus’ fall seasonal bock and it’s quite a switch. New Glarus is calling Back 40 a “Wisconsin Bock” and though that may not exactly be a recognized style, it tells you what they’re shooting for. They’ve taken their cues from the long history of Bock brewing in Wisconsin, where Bocks were brewed with an eye towards balance and drinkability in comparison to the traditional German Bocks (such as Uff-da), which are heftier and marked by a rich melanoidin character. If you prefer your beer to be big, bold and boozy, Back 40 Bock isn’t going to make much of an impression on you, but if subtlety is more your style, then this mild-mannered beauty is going hit you where you live.

The beer pours to a dark brown with a nice creamy head and if you can let it sit for a minute or two the foam will settle into a beautiful, off-white meringue. The aroma is fairly rich, with caramel and some raisin leading you to believe the beer is going to be bigger than it is. The mouth feel, at first, seems somewhat slight and if there’s an argument to made against this beer it may be its lack of depth, but complexity isn’t what this brew is about. This is a phenomenally balanced and drinkable beer and though you’ll get light notes of bread crust and toffee coming through, that’s just background to the bright, clean flavor of malt. There’s a slight balancing bitterness that comes in near the end before an incredibly clean finish. This is a beer that begs you to drink three or four (or five or six) of them in a sitting. It gets better with each glass.

You ought to be able to pick up Back 40 Bock at all of the usual Oshkosh beer depots, but you’d probably have a lot more fun trying it out at Barley’s this weekend. This Saturday is the Main Street Grand Re-Opening (info Here and Here) and amidst the festivities you might want to slip into Barley’s for a beer... or four.

Cheap Beer No. 4: La Crosse Lager

2010-11-03T09:15:00.000-05:00

It’s been four months since we last visited the land of cheap beer here and that’s exactly how long it has taken me to clear the cellar of the first three batches of crap that started off this series. That’s one of the problems with the cheap-beer thing. They don’t seem to want to sell this stuff in any quantity less than a case, so each time you invest in a dud you wind up with a whole lot of bad beer lingering around, mocking your frugality. Now that the cellar is open, though, the quest for a cheap, decent beer must continue. And this time, we’ve got a beer that isn’t going to taunt me every time I go downstairs to visit my stash.

La Crosse Lager is all right. What more could you want from a beer that comes in 30-packs for under 13 bucks? You don’t buy this kind of beer expecting to discover your next favorite brew, but you also don’t buy it hoping to land two-dozen tins of gut-churning bilge water, either. That’s where La Crosse Lager wins out. There’s nothing too offensive going on here. The beer has a slight, malty sweetness and less than a hint of hops and that’s about it. It doesn’t taste great, but it doesn’t taste bad and that’s the important thing when you’re going the cheap route. The beer has a bit more body and color than your typical macro-swill and happily lacks the tongue-burning carbonation that often accompanies American light lagers. I’d take it over Budweiser any day. Overall, it’s a fairly pleasing beer to guzzle in the quantities its pricing inspires (and it goes great with a huge mound of extra-spicy nachos). The beer gains nothing by pouring it into a glass so take it straight from the can and save yourself some clean-up.

One interesting side note about this beer: There’s a rumor floating around that La Crosse Lager is made from the same recipe used to brew Old Style in the 1960s. It’s probably bullshit, but who knows? Here’s a link to the site where that rumor may have started. Something to keep in mind if you decide to try this one.

Final verdict: Would I buy this again? You bet!

1972: The Year Brewing Died in Oshkosh

2010-11-01T22:11:00.003-05:00

During the first week of November in 1972 the Peoples Brewing Company of Oshkosh stopped making beer. For the first time in more than 120 years Oshkosh was without a brewery.

Theodore Mack

Peoples Brewery 1512 S. Main St.

The turbulent year that preceded the collapse of Peoples Brewing began on November 5, 1971 when Theodore Mack, president of the brewery, announced that Peoples had purchased the surviving brands of the newly defunct Oshkosh Brewing Company. Mack told reporters that his company had paid cash for the Chief Oshkosh, Rahr and Badger labels - though he wouldn't say how much - and deferred to his Brewmaster Howard Ruff who promised to "match as closely as possible the beers that were produced at the other firm." Also left unsaid was that Ruff had already begun making his version of Chief Oshkosh. The beer had gone into production at the Peoples brewery just days after the Oshkosh Brewing Company had ceased operations. By the end of November Peoples was distributing both the Chief Oshkosh and Rahr brands throughout the Fox Valley and into Green Bay.

Being head of the only brewery in town, though, wasn't Mack’s ambition. He had bigger plans. His goal was to make Peoples Beer a national brand. “To stay in one locale, that’s how you get killed quickly,” he said. Before Mack's arrival in April 1970, The sale of Peoples Beer had been predominantly confined to the Oshkosh area, but Mack had managed to extend the brewery's reach. Peoples was now being sold in Indiana and Tennessee and in January 1972 Mack landed a deal to distribute the beer in California. While most of the nations remaining regional brewers were hunkering down, desperately trying to protect their bits of turf, Mack was taking the opposite approach. He had decided to go toe-to-toe with the big brewers that were set on driving out breweries like his. Peoples became the only non-Milwaukee beer available at Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks games and Mack even secured a license to distribute his beer in Missouri, the home state of Budweiser. He wanted to establish a television presence for Peoples Beer, as well. Mack told his shareholders, “I see everybody on TV but Peoples. We have to get the money for more advertising." A tall order considering the brewery was already $100,000 in debt.

But Mack was flying high. Sales of his beer were up and in the year and a half since coming to Oshkosh he had risen from rank outsider to being the savior of Oshkosh's namesake brew. He had also become the city's most visible resident. As president of the only minority run brewery in the country, Mack had gained considerable attention and later said, "After I was contacted by CBS, NBC and ABC I went from 'Hey you, boy' to 'Mr. Mack' in 20 minutes." The notoriety helped to raise the profile of the small brewery, but it was no cure for the company's financial troubles. By February 1972 Peoples Brewing was so strapped for cash that Mack couldn’t pay the federal excise taxes owed on the beer he was making. Then on February 28th Howard Ruff, the longtime brewmaster of Peoples Beer, suddenly died. Mack was in a hole, but he had a plan.

He found a new Brewmaster in Ronald Papenfuss, who had brewed for Lithia in West Bend and Huber in Monroe, and Mack began to zero in on lucrative government contracts for supplying beer to the armed forces. Mack's intention was to take advantage of the affirmative action legislation of 1965 that called for equal representation of minorities in the awarding of government contracts. Since Mack ran the only minority owned brewery in the nation, he suggested his brewery ought to be supplying 10% of the government's purchase of beer. Mack estimated the potential value of such contracts to be in excess of $100 million and had he been able to secure the orders the fate of Peoples Brewery might have been much different.

It was too late, though. By the end of the summer, the brewery was out of ready capital. The fatal blow was delivered on September 26, 1972 when the Internal Revenue Service filed a $35,809 tax lien against Peoples Brewing for failure to pay excise and withholding taxes. Within a month, brewery operations came to a stand still. Initially, Mack claimed the production decline was due to the slack winter months, but this was no ordinary slowdown.

In a last ditch effort to keep the brewery afloat, Mack filed a $100 million lawsuit against the Small Business Administration and the Department of Defense claiming he had been denied the right to sell beer to the government under contract. That didn't pan-out, either. On November 14, 1972 Mack held a press conference at Jabbers, a tavern next door to the brewery and confirmed that his company was no longer brewing beer. The 30 employees of the Peoples Brewing Company were laid off. Oshkosh's long history of beer making had come to an abrupt end.

“It hurt me deeply," Mack would later say. "It looked so beautiful when we came here, although the system tried to mess us up. They told me I couldn’t move to Oshkosh. They told you I was going to replace whites with blacks. We worked like the devil trying to put this together and it made us feel good when we came here to sell stock and white people came through the door all day to buy stock, but every time the newspapers came out it was ‘the black brewery.’ Maybe a few of us got educated on the way things really are in America."
Thanks to John Marx for the photos of Peoples Brewery

A 12-Pack Tour of Oshkosh’s Riverside Cemetery

2010-10-25T10:55:00.000-05:00

With the Halloween season here, there’s no better time to visit Oshkosh’s incredible Riverside Cemetery. The cemetery was established in 1855 and even a short walk along its winding roads will turn up one familiar Oshkosh name after another. Lurking among those well-known names are the markers for the brewers and saloon keepers who made Oshkosh a hot-spot for good beer in the years before Prohibition.

To help us all get in touch with our beery roots, we’ve put together a self-guided tour of the Riverside Cemetery that stops for visits with 12 of Oshkosh’s beer giants of yore. Click on the link below to download a six-page PDF, which is filled with pictures and stories about Oshkosh’s beer-loving past along with directions for finding your way around the cemetery to locate each of the grave sites included in the tour. Happy haunting!

Download Oshkosh Beer Tour of Riverside Cemetery

Thanks to Ginny Gross, whose popular Riverside Cemetery tours for the Oshkosh Public Museum provided the impetus for this tour.

A low-resolution, web-based version of the tour can be found HERE.

Oshkosh Beer of the Week: Central Waters Hop Harvest

2010-10-21T08:58:00.001-05:00

Next to homebrew, this may be the freshest beer you’ll ever taste. Hop Harvest is a limited release brew from Central Waters made with barley and hops grown here in Wisconsin. This is a wet hop ale, where the hops go directly from the vine and into the brew kettle without being dried or processed. When it comes to brewing, that’s about as elemental as it gets.

This year the crew from Central Waters spent some 20 hours picking hops before returning to the brewery to make the beer. That was on September 5th. Just over a month later, we’ve got it here in Oshkosh ready to be made into a memory.

The beer falls somewhere between an American Pale Ale and an IPA so if you’re expecting a huge wallop of hops you’re going to be disappointed. The hop aroma is fairly slight. Instead malt dominates the nose of this beer giving off a honey and crackers sort of vapor with a side-order of grassiness. And malt commands the flavor profile, as well. The beer is sweetish and somewhat thick with a grassy, lemon-like hop presence playing in the background. At first the beer comes across as a little too chewy, but as it finishes the bitterness grows assertive and cleans away the residual sweetness of the malt. It turns out to be a very drinkable beer. Overall, there’s really a unique quality to this brew. It tastes like a living thing, like young homebrew, and I mean that in the best way. I wouldn’t call this a great beer, but it’s certainly an interesting one and something you ought to try if you get the chance.

Your window of opportunity with this beer is going to be brief, though. Central Waters produced just 300 cases of this year's Hop Harvest. The stash of 22 oz bombers that’s on hand at Festival Foods won’t last long and when it’s gone that’ll be the end of it for us here in Oshkosh.

Herman “Sheeny” Steckbauer Sr.

2010-10-20T10:12:00.001-05:00

This photograph of Herman “Sheeny” Steckbauer was recently passed along to me by a friend of the blog and it’s such a great image that I thought it ought to be up here all by itself. There’ll be more to come on Sheeny Steckbauer’s saloon this winter, but for now, here are the basic details: Herman Steckbauer was born in Bohemia in 1861. In 1889 he opened his Oshkosh saloon and grocery store at 760 W. Sixth Ave., which he ran until his death in 1947. For much of that time the saloon was tied to the Oshkosh Brewing Company and served only their beer. Steckbauer’s was the prototypical “Bloody Sixth Ward” saloon and was an essential part of daily life for the people of the neighborhood. All that, of course, is merely trivia in comparison to the epoch contained in the look of his face.

There is one specific thing I’d like to point out about the image. Obviously, this was a staged photograph and I think the message trying to be conveyed is that this man bridges two cultures; the one fading away as the other comes to the fore. In Sheeny’s left hand he holds a ceramic beer stein of the sort that were fashionable throughout Germany and Austria from 1830-1900. In his right hand he holds a 1940s tap handle for Chief Oshkosh Beer. Joining them is Sheeny, the essential human link between the old world and the new.

The End of the Oshkosh Brewing Company

2010-10-18T09:40:00.000-05:00

Photo by John Marx

Today marks the beginning of a bleak week in the annals of Oshkosh brewing history. It was during this week in 1971 that word began to spread that the Oshkosh Brewing Company had stopped making beer. The Company was tight-lipped about exactly what was going on, but reports had begun to circulate that brewing operations had ceased and that delivery trucks were being stored in a locked garage. Harold Kriz, president and general manager of the big brewery on Doty Street, wouldn’t comment other than to say an announcement on future plans would be made in the coming weeks. Theodore Mack, the president of Peoples Brewing and neighbor to the Oshkosh Brewing Company plant, was asked by the Daily Northwestern if he knew what was going on and replied "I think they've got something doing over there, but I don't know what it is.” It’s entirely, likely, though, that Mack and Kriz were being coy. Within three weeks it would be announced that Peoples Brewing had made a cash purchase of the Oshkosh Brewing Company (more on that next month).

Harold Kriz would later report that Oshkosh Brewing had discontinued production on October 18, 1971 bringing to an end Oshkosh’s longest-lived brewing company. At the time of its demise, the company - in one guise or another - had been brewing beer in the city of Oshkosh for 107 years. But the previous two years had seen a brutal decline in the brewery’s output and at a time when Pabst and Schlitz were reporting double-digit growth, production at the Oshkosh brewery had fallen by more than half, to less than 20,000 barrels a year.

More than 75 years earlier, August Horn, the first president of the Oshkosh Brewing Company, had warned that the “foreign usurpation and encroachments” of the Milwaukee brewing concerns were a continuously looming threat to the brewing of beer in Oshkosh. On this day in 1971, Horn’s fears had finally come to pass.

Oshkosh Beer of the Week: Lindemans Framboise Lambic

2010-10-14T09:44:00.000-05:00

After yesterday’s post about the Lambics that Nick and Michelle Wilinksi are brewing, I thought it might be a good time to check out the only authentic Lambic that’s available for purchase in Oshkosh. Lindemans Framboise Lambic can be found at Festival Foods in Oshkosh and if you’ve never experienced a Lambic before, this would be a good one to start with. The Lindemans farm brewery, in the Flanders region of Belgium, brews nothing but Lambics, employing airborne yeast to create rustic ales that are utterly unique. These beers may not be for every palate, but every palate ought to taste one at least once.

Lindemans Framboise Lambic is made from several vintages of oak-aged Lambics that are blended and then dosed with a heavy-handed addition of raspberries. The resultant beer is a sprawl of wild flavors that are surprisingly approachable. The beer pours to a dense, bruised red with the aroma of juicy raspberries immediately bursting to the fore. If you’re not a fan of raspberries, don’t even bother with this one. The hugely tart and sweet flavor of the fruit is inescapable and absolutely dominates the beer. But under that blanket of raspberries you can still detect a swarm of the acidic, edgy flavors of the Lambic base dancing around. That’s where the true interest of this beer resides for me. Those earthy flavors, that some aptly describe as “barnyard”, are easy to miss if you get hung up on the fruit, but if you make the effort to dig a little deeper you’ll taste things in this beer you didn’t even know you liked. Another aspect of this beer that always strikes me is how cleanly it finishes. It’s the last thing you’d expect from something that starts so thick, creamy and sweet. If it finished any other way the beer would be deadening and cloying, instead it ends up being - as the Belgian’s say - quite digestible. All the same, you probably aren’t going to want to drink a lot of this. After 10 ounces or so, the richness of this beer is going to catch up with you. So before you uncork that $9.99 bottle, find someone to share it with. It’s perfect as either an aperitif or as a dessert, but if you wind up really not caring for it, find a hearty stout or any lightly hopped ale and give blending a shot. You might just create the best beer nobody else has ever had.

The Wilinski Gueuze

2010-10-13T08:58:00.006-05:00

Ask any homebrewer and they’ll tell you, the most difficult part of the whole process is the waiting. That month or two gap between brew day and the moment you finally get to drink a glass of your finished beer can seem interminable. So imagine what it must be like to brew a beer such as the one Nick and Michelle Wilinski have set out to make. “This beer is going to take us four years before it’s completely finished,” Nick says. Yes, a four-year beer. There aren’t a lot of brewers around with that kind of patience. “I think it’s one of the things we do well,” Michelle says. “We can let things sit.”

Nick and Michelle are members of the Society of Oshkosh Brewers and they are in the process of making a Gueuze, a beer derived from the blending of straight Lambics of various ages. They’re into the second year of the project and at the beginning of October brewed their middle Lambic, which will age two years before it is blended with two other Lambics - one a year older; the other a year younger. The final blended beer will then age a year before it will be ready to drink. Their schedule for the beer has them brewing or blending around the time of their wedding anniversary each year, making it easy to keep track of where they are in the process. “We like to do that with a lot of things we brew,” Michelle says. “We’ll brew things specifically for a holiday or special day. It really makes you look forward to it.”

Committing yourself to a four-year beer may seem a bit much for most brewers, but Nick says it’s less complex than it first appears. “What’s so extreme about a Lambic?” he says as he goes through the process and ingredients they’re using to make these beers. The grain bill is simple - 60% Pale Malt and 40% Wheat Malt mashed at 150º for 90 minutes. It all seems quite familiar until you get 30 minutes into the 90 minute boil. That’s when the hops come in. These aren't the sort of hops you’re used to, though. The four ounces Nick tosses into the kettle are brown, brittle things that look like they’ve been sitting around in a paper bag for a good, long while. They don’t smell like much, either. Kind of musty, if anything at all. But they’re just what’s needed for this beer. The hops were grown in Oshkosh and purposely aged to remove their flavoring qualities. “The hops are used only to help preserve the beer,” Nick says. “You don’t want any of their flavor or aroma in this style.” From there the brew day proceeds like any other. The wort is cooled and drained into a carboy, the yeast (Wyeast 3278) is pitched and the beer goes to its resting place where it will be left undisturbed to ferment and develop for the next two years. “In a few years we’re going to have a glut of beer on hand!” Michelle says.

“People think of these beers as exotic, but actually they’re simple to brew,” Nick says. “This is a single-vessel beer. We won’t do anything with it for another two years.” That’s when the blending will begin. “That will be the hard part,” Nick says. Blending three, flat beers - each with varying degrees of acidic, sour and earthy flavors - into a final batch that will develop into something quite different from its distinct parts is a skill that can take years to acquire. Three years from now, Nick and Michelle will take their own, self-taught, one-day crash course in blending and hope for the best. "That's going to be interesting,” Nick says. “That’ll be fun." And though Nick and Michelle are obviously having a good time on their way to creating this beer, there’s also a practical aspect to the endeavor. “We like a lot of obscure beers that are hard to find,” Michelle says. “If you can make them yourself, it means you can have them more often.” Nick chimes in, “That’s what it is! A lot of the beers we like, you have to drive an hour to get. If we brew these beers at home we can always have them around and it’s considerably cheaper than buying a $20 bottle of Cantillon.”

So what if the beers they loved were easier to get and not so expensive. Would they stop going to the trouble of brewing them at home? They both laugh at the idea. “No, way!” Nick says. “We’d still make our own.”

Freedom To Brew

2010-10-11T10:10:00.012-05:00

ODN August 31, 1928

During this week of October in 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed H.R. 1337, which finally made it legal for Americans to brew their own beer at home. At least that’s how it worked if you lived in a state that didn’t have its own separate set of misguided homebrew laws. In Wisconsin, where there were no state-based laws against homebrewing, we were good to go.

The reality, of course, is that - legal or not - people in Wisconsin had been brewing their own beer all along. In fact homebrewing’s greatest surge in popularity probably occurred during the dry years of Prohibition (1919-1933) when the surest way to secure your stock of beer was to make it yourself. Oshkosh, in particular, was a hot-bed of homebrewing during the 1920s and though the manufacture of any quantity of beer was strictly illegal the practice of homebrewing was so commonplace here that the act of making beer was taken for granted. Malt extract and hops were sold in most Oshkosh drug and grocery stores during Prohibition and the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern was dotted with advertisements for homebrew instructions and supplies. The paper even ran a number of features during this period that casually addressed the popularity of homebrewing and wasn’t above offering homebrew tips - “CHLORINATION OF WATER NOT GOOD FOR HOME BREW” warned a headline from the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern of March 19, 1932.

To get a sense of the agreeable approach that many in Oshkosh held towards the illegal practice of homebrewing, here’s an article that appeared in the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern almost 80 years ago, on November 25, 1930. The overall tone is somewhat sexist and short-sighted, but if you’ve ever brewed your own beer you’ll probably recognize a bit of yourself in the author’s words. The roots of homebrewing in Oshkosh run a lot deeper than 1978.

Brewing A Home Art

Passing of the household arts is sometimes deplored. Pies, perhaps not of the kind that grandmother used to bake, come from the delicatessen shop around the corner. "Mother's bread" is the product of the bakery. Pickling and preserving has gone to concerns famous for 57 varieties, or numbers approaching that figure. But one of the ancient household arts is being revived. Fred Pabst, president of the Pabst corporation., which once played a part in the production of the beverage that made Milwaukee famous, estimates that the consumption of home brewed beer in the United States increased last year 18 percent. The estimate is based upon sales of malt syrups. More than that, home brewing continues to spread. The increase of 18 percent in a year compares with an increase of 34 percent in October, 1930, as compared with October, 1929. Here is a household art that tends to keep the men at home. The brewing of the family beer is a task that appeals to the man of the family. He is no longer a stranger to the kitchen, or the kitchenette, as the case may be. He may never have learned to cook steak or an omelet, but his technique in apportioning the syrup and the water approaches perfection, and he is versed in the temperatures to be maintained while the brew is "working." There are stern moralists who will deplore this spread of a household art. It may be made the subject of sermons on the tendencies of the times. There will be expressions of sorrow at the transformation of the land of the free into the land of freedom to brew. Others will see in this condition an argument for the legalizing of the sale of beer. If there is to be universal brewing why not let the brewery supplement the bakery? Then this latest of the household arts may again fall into a state of innocuous desuetude, save for the few. As there are housewives who bake bread in an era of bakeries, so there might be householders who brewed beer with breweries once more in operation. We might come to the time when the old-fashioned man would be described as one who brewed his own.

Oshkosh Beer of the Week: Hinterland Luna Coffee Stout

2010-10-07T08:52:00.000-05:00

All right, I admit it, the only reason I bought this stuff was that I liked the fancy, 16-ounce bottles. I figured I’d swallow a four-pack and then recycle those sweet jugs to dress-up a few pints of my homebrew. Turns out, it ain't just the bottle that’s pretty. This beer is a beauty and perfect for fall guzzling. Luna is an easy drinker that starts with a percolating coffee aroma and flavor that glides gently into all manner of dark-malt subtlety as it permeates your innards. Along the way you get a little bit of burnt pizza crust, some peat, a hint of chocolate... it’s a well-rounded, flavorful beer that doesn’t punch you in the throat to get its point across. If you’re the sort that likes to fuss about style guidelines, this one hits all the requisite marks for an American Stout. The mouthfeel has a pleasant heft with just enough roasty bitterness to cut the wash of creamy sweetness that underlies the whole set-up. That dark-malt aspect grows slightly astringent towards the very end, but not at all in a bad way. A top-notch stout from top to bottom and one I’ll be revisiting... not just for the bottles, either.

You can find Luna Coffee Stout at Festival Foods in Oshkosh. It snuck into town a little over a week ago in that pile of Hinterland they've got stacked at the entrance to the liquor department. You'll probably have to dig some to find the Luna, but rest assured, there's plenty more in there. And if you want to learn about what's going on up at the Hinterland Brewery in Green Bay, here's an interesting interview with Hinterland brewmaster Joe Karls. It's the classic homebrewer to pro-brewer story and it'll have you liking the beer even more.

It'll Be Pouring Potosi at Barley & Hops

2010-10-05T08:17:00.000-05:00

You probably already know how this works: About once a month, Nate at Barley & Hops hosts a beer tasting where he invites a brewery to come in and pour their wares. And this month the brewery in the spotlight will be good, old Potosi! Another great choice by the Barley’s crew. If you’ve yet to familiarize yourself with the ales of Potosi, now is your chance to belly-up and take the crash course in Potosi appreciation. They’re making some fine beer out there in the hills of Southwestern Wisconsin and for just $10 you’ll be treated to the grand tour of their recreational liquids.

The Potosi kick-off party begins tomorrow (Wednesday) evening at 7 and will go until 10. In addition to all that fine beer, they’ll also be pouring samples of Barefoot Wines and Captain Morgan Lime Bite Rum along with a varied assortment of other beers and boozes. At $10 this is a steal and sure to make your Wednesday night a memorable one... even if Thursday finds you unable to remember it. Check out the Barley’s Facebook page for more info.

Oshkosh Greets Theodore Mack

2010-10-04T10:50:00.000-05:00

Forty years ago this week Oshkosh began coming to terms with the fact that it was now home to America’s first black-owned brewery. On October 3, 1970 Peoples Brewing Company announced it would hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house to celebrate the arrival of its new President, Theodore F. Mack Sr., who had been tersely introduced six months earlier by the Oshkosh Northwestern as “a Milwaukee negro”. The ensuing months were marred by acrimony and rumors, some of them recirculated by the Northwestern, that Mack would change the company’s name and hire only black workers. The announcement of the open house set the stage for an odd bit of theater designed to show that Mack was a businessman who could be trusted and that Oshkosh wasn’t composed entirely of bigots.

Theodore and Pearlie Mack October 10, 1970

The event took place on Saturday October 10, 1970 and began with a ribbon cutting ceremony that was as symbolic as it was ironic considering that the brewery was now 59 years old and nearly insolvent. Mack cut the ribbon and told the crowd “In these days of confrontation, you make a pretty picture standing there, black, white and brown.” Standing before a crowd of approximately 2,000 people, Mack was praised by guest speakers for his “courage, initiative and guts” and was officially welcomed to Oshkosh by Council President Byron Murken. Mack thanked Murken saying, he “took the heat along with me” during the previous six months. With that, the crowd was welcomed into the brewery for a tour, a lunch of hot dogs and potato chips and a few glasses of “tap-fresh” Peoples beer. Estimates put the total number of people who toured the brewery that day at 5,000. Brewery presidents had been coming and going in Oshkosh for more than 100 years. None of them had gotten the sort of reception that greeted Mack.

Taken at face value, the event looks like an awkward mea culpa staged to gloss over the eruption of bigotry that followed the news that Mack was trying to purchase the brewery. But if you dig a little deeper you find that perhaps the show of support Mack received in October of 1970 was more earnest than it appears. Before Mack was able to complete his purchase of the brewery, he needed to raise an additional $200,000 to supplement the $390,000 loan he had already acquired. Mack’s plan for raising the additional money was to sell stock in the company. Within five weeks of the stock going on sale he had the money he needed and, according to Mack, much of that stock had been purchased by Oshkosh residents. The Sunday following the event the Milwaukee Journal quoted a “white woman doctor” who didn’t wish to be named who said, “Investing in Peoples Brewery is not like watching the stock market. It’s watching a venture in which we are all concerned.” That’s quite a contrast to the attitudes reported upon six months earlier when, amidst the uproar, nobody bothered to notice that there were a significant number of people in Oshkosh capable of identifying with and investing in the dreams of a black man.

Oshkosh Beer of the Week: Wisconsin Beer

2010-09-30T09:43:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went to Dublin’s for lunch. I ordered an O’so Night Train Porter to go with my meal. It was the first time since April that I’d had a Night Train and when I took that initial draw it was like meeting up with an old friend. I drank a lot of this last winter, but I’d forgotten what a fine beer it is. It’s full and creamy with a pleasant roastiness that stops just short of being sharp. It’s a beer that’s great for keeping around the house and dipping into every day. It has more than enough flavor complexity to keep you interested, but it’s not so loud that it wears on you.

Over the past week I’ve had a number of excellent beers in Oshkosh that were all in this same vein. There was the Chief Black Hawk Porter from Tyranena that Becket’s has going, Potosi’s Gandy Dancer Porter at Oblio’s, Central Waters’ Oktoberfest, the Dark Lager at Fratellos and now I see that O’Marro’s has O’so’s Rusty Red on tap. These are beers that aren’t extreme or flashy enough to generate the sort of hype that gets everyone cackling, but they’re each so good in their own way that to take any of them for granted would be a mistake. And they’re all from Wisconsin.

There’s a lot of great beer being made in Wisconsin right now and because it’s so easy for us to get it’s also easy to forget how lucky we are to have it. I was thinking about this a couple weeks ago when I heard stories from the Great American Beer Festival about how the lines in front of the New Glarus booth were 100 people deep before they even began pouring. It’s hard to imagine waiting in a line like that to get a small sample of a beer that we can buy at most any grocery store or gas station in Oshkosh whenever the urge strikes us. And when I was in Asheville, NC last month and told people I was from Wisconsin, all they wanted to talk about was the beer we have here. One guy, who was working at what is probably the best beer store I’ve ever been in, actually made me promise him that if I ever visited again, I’d bring him beer from Wisconsin. Asheville, by the way, was again named the top beer city in America this year. These aren’t people who are deprived of good beer.

The point I’m trying to make is that we ought to take the time to appreciate what’s going on around here. You and I are living in one of the best places in the world to drink beer. Without a doubt, this is a golden age. And if there’s one thing history makes clear, it’s that golden ages do not last. We're fortunate. Let's enjoy this while we can.

The Beer Side of Oshkosh’s Oktoberfest

2010-09-28T09:00:00.000-05:00

If you live in or around Oshkosh, you already know that we’ll be having our first Oktoberfest celebration this weekend at the Leach Amphitheater. What you may not have heard is that unlike the “Octoberfest” that was held last weekend just a few clicks up the road, the Oktoberfest in Oshkosh will offer authentic German beer. Here, at least, it’s going to be done right.

Like the Munich festival, the action at the Oshkosh celebration will be based around beer tents named for the beer they’ll be pouring. The two large tents at the Oshkosh Oktoberfest will be the Paulaner Tent and the Hacker-Pschorr Tent and it looks like they’ll live up to the reputation of their namesakes.

At the Paulaner Tent they’ll be pouring Paulaner’s wonderful Oktoberfest, the inaugural Oshkosh Oktoberfest (brewed by Point Brewery) and, for the less robust, Coors light.

At the Hacker-Pschorr Tent, you’ll be treated to the incredible Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest, HP's Munich Gold (a near perfect Helles-style lager), and their very tasty Hefe-Weisse. If you’re so disposed, the always cold Coors Light will be there, as well.

It won’t be just beer, of course. There will be authentic German food, music and a lot more that you can find out all about by going here. The approach their taking in making this an authentic Oktoberfest celebration is certainly welcome and, to me, much more inviting than the typical beer-party-in-the-street sort of thing.

One final note: On Saturday morning, as part of the event, they’ll be staging an Oktoberfest 2K Bier Run (1.25 miles) in and around the Leach grounds. Best of all, the run will include four beer stops. As a seasoned beer runner, I can’t recommend this sort of thing enough. Beer and running are a natural combination and if you haven’t paired the two before, now is your chance. I can’t wait to lace ‘em up and lap it up.

Classic Oshkosh Beer Labels

2010-09-27T09:12:00.000-05:00

I’m a labelholic. I love examing the beer cans and bottle labels of bygone breweries and trying to tease out the information embedded in their imagery. Today I’d like to give you a taste of the stuff that fuels my addiction. Here are six scans of bottle labels produced by Oshkosh's big three: Rahr, Peoples and Oshkosh Brewing. This beautiful set belongs to John Marx, a former Oshkosh resident now living in Madison who had the labels scanned so he could share them with us. Thanks, John!

The first label, from the Oshkosh Brewing Company, is a pre-prohibition label from 1914. It marks the company’s fiftieth anniversary and it’s the oldest of the bunch.

This Chief Oshkosh label is from the 1940s.

Here’s the label for Rahr's Elk’s Head beer as it looked prior to the 1950s. Notice that all of these labels have the “Internal Revenue Tax Paid” statement upon them. The requirement that brewers include this information on their labels was dropped in March of 1950.

Here are a couple of interesting labels from Peoples Brewing. The original incarnation of these labels made no mention of “American” Wurtzer beer. But with the onset of World War II, Peoples changed their label from “Old Time Wurtzer” to “American Wurtzer” in an attempt to downplay the Germanic origins of their brew.

Finally, here’s a rare label for the only Ale brewed by a commercial brewery in Oshkosh during the post-prohibition era. Production of Old Derby Ale was halted in the early 1950s. There wouldn’t be another commercial Ale brewed in Oshkosh until Fox River Brewing arrived more than 40 years later.

I wish I knew more about these labels. Were they designed by local artists? Were they printed here in Oshkosh? If you have any information to share about these, please get in touch or leave a comment. And if you’d like a full-sized (suitable for framing) digital copy of any of these label scans, just send me an email. I’d be happy to pass them along, courtesy of John Marx.

Oshkosh Beer of the Week: Holy Grail Ale

2010-09-23T09:00:00.001-05:00

Holy Grail Ale at Barley & Hops

When I first noticed there was a beer out there named Monty Python's Holy Grail Ale I immediately dismissed it as some kind of gimmick beer. Then a few months later I learned it was brewed by the Black Sheep Brewery, an exceptional English ale brewery responsible for Riggwelter, one of my favorite beers. So when I heard from Nate at Barley & Hops that he was bringing the Holy Grail to Oshkosh I was primed for finally getting a taste of this brew on draught. And it did not disappoint. I love traditional English ales and this is an excellent example of what the best of them are all about.

The beer pours to a bight copper and offers up a light scent of floral hops over bready, pale malt. It’s a subtle and delicious aroma that made me thankful there wasn’t a cloud of cigarette smoke floating in the bar. The mouth feel of this beer is fantastic. Smooth and creamy at the start and then developing a slight graininess towards the end. Nothing about the beer is out-sized, instead there’s a wonderful range of flavors here that all work in concert. The hop flavor has a ripe, earthy fruit aspect and it melds perfectly with the crystal malt sweetness that forms the foundation of the beer. This is an exceptionally balanced ale that remains continually interesting and complex from one pint to the next. And it’s a perfect session beer. At just under 5% you can easily work your way through a number of these without falling off your stool. Although you may find yourself spontaneously chirping NI!

O’Marro’s Revives the Saloon Lunch Buffet

2010-09-22T09:56:00.005-05:00

There was a time in Oshkosh when you could wander into most any tavern around noon and find a lunch counter loaded-up with everything from roast pig to oysters. Lunch buffets were commonplace in Oshkosh saloons in the late 1800s and early 1900s, but with the arrival of Prohibition the sample-room lunch spread became a thing of the past. Now, almost 100 years later, Shawn O’Marro is trying to revive the tradition. A couple weeks ago O’Marro’s Pub introduced their delicately named Gut Busters Buffet and it’s everything a saloon lunch should be. Each weekday, starting at 11 am and going until 2 pm, they put out a great spread of homemade food that’s a dead-ringer for the traditional sample-room buffets that were once served in Oshkosh. When I was there last Wednesday they had fried chicken, pork roast, baked beans, stuffing, mashed potatoes, roasted chicken, chili, salads and absolutely the best meatloaf I’ve ever tasted. It’s all down-home fare and Shawn O’Marro says “Everything is made from scratch. Brandy and Nate are put together the recipes and they’re going to continue to develop them based on the feedback we get.” If you’re up for a hearty lunch, this one will certainly hit the spot.

From 1884

From 1900

There’s just one problem with all of this. The day I was there, there was a good-sized crowd and I happened to notice that my lunch partner and I were the only people in the place enjoying a beer with our meal. Has it come to this? Have the good people of our fine city grown so timid and tight that they can no longer enjoy a simple beer with their mid-day meal? I hope not. I felt bad for all those people eating that fine chow and chasing it with the spiritless chemistry in their soda cups. I think we can all do better than that. If you get to O’Marro’s anytime soon for lunch try the meatloaf and pair it with the excellent Bell’s Amber Ale they have on tap. You’ll leave with that satisfied glow our forefathers took for granted.

The Beginning of Beer in Oshkosh

2010-09-20T11:09:00.003-05:00

Since this post first appeared there has been a significant number of additions to the Schussler story. Here is the full and complete version.

On September 21, 1849 the Oshkosh True Democrat published an overview of Oshkosh that included the news that our town now had its own brewery. Unfortunately, the paper neglected to mention either the name or location of the new brewery. It’s likely the editors assumed they needn’t bother with such fussy details. The 1,032 residents of Oshkosh probably already knew all about it.

There is no conclusive proof as to who was the first commercial brewer in Oshkosh, but there are a few shreds of information floating about that give us a glimpse into the very earliest days of brewing here. If it’s true that the first brewery opened in 1849, then there’s a good possibility that the brewer was a man named Joseph Schuessler. In the census of 1850 Schuessler is the only person living in the area whose occupation is listed as Brewer. We know that Schuessler was 30 years old in 1850 and had emigrated from Baden, Germany, but where he lived and brewed in Oshkosh at that time remains unknown.

From September 6, 1850

Here’s what we do know: In June of 1850 advertisements for beer brewed in Oshkosh begin to appear in the Oshkosh True Democrat when Johnson’s Ice Cream Saloon places a series of notices announcing their opening on the east side of Ferry Street (now Main Street). Among the products John Johnson lists for sale are Detroit Ale and Oshkosh Beer. Then in September of 1850 Schuessler and his business partner John Freund begin buying space in the paper to say that they have erected a brewery in Oshkosh aptly named the Oshkosh Brewery, but like those before them they neglect to mention where the brewery is located. The first of these advertisements appears on September 6, 1850 and state that Schuessler and Freund “are prepared to supply the Tavern, Grocery, and Saloon keepers of the surrounding country with good Ale and Beer” and promise “a superior article — better than is obtained from abroad under the title of "Detroit Ale" or "Milwaukee Beer." The beer brewing business in Oshkosh was up and running.

It seems the brewery faltered early on, though. By the end of 1850 John Freund was having financial trouble and his partnership with Schuessler was dissolved on January 1, 1851. Schuessler then took on a new partner, Francis Tillmans, but the business didn’t recover, it either petered out or was sold off. Hopefully, there will be more to come on that. In any case, it appears that by 1857 Schuessler was no longer making his living brewing beer. The Oshkosh City Directory for that year lists his occupation as cooper (barrel maker) and has him living on Wisconsin Street near Warren Road and the Fox River. As a cooper, Schuessler would have remained tied to the growing Oshkosh brewing scene, though, and perhaps he dabbled in beer making even after his brewery was no more. In the 1860 census his occupation is again listed as Brewer, but shortly after that his trail grows cold. By 1864, the man who was perhaps the first professional brewer in Oshkosh, had left town.

Oshkosh Beer of the Week: Hacker-Pschorr’s Oktoberfest

2010-09-16T09:37:00.000-05:00

There’s no shortage of choice beer flowing in Oshkosh this week, but there’s a beer on tap at Oblio’s right now that fits the season better than any other brew you’ll find. Oblio’s has been pouring Hacker-Pschorr’s Oktoberfest for a couple weeks now and there’s something about sitting down behind a pint of it at that worn bar during the chill of mid-sepetmber that seems so right it makes all those boisterous, American craft beers seem a little too brassy. It’s time to pull those gardens down and celebrate with a rich mug of amber brew.

The Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest has a shimmering copper hue with an aroma that’s part caramel and part biscuit underscored with a dash of noble hops. The beer has a medium palate with a slight and smooth caramel sweetness making it a hearty, satisfying brew that’s still very easy to drink. The beer closes with a wisp of hop bitterness and a malty, bittersweet finish ideally suited for a fall session of lager drinking.

Todd at Oblio’s says they’re going to keep this beer on for the next couple months, so if you’re looking for a new “buddy beer”, this might be a good choice. I’ve been by Oblio’s for a few of these already and it seems to get better each time I order it.

Bonus Beer: Another beer you might want to check out this fall is the Foxtoberfest that recently went on at Fratellos. This is Fox River Brewing’s take on the Oktoberfest style and it has turned into something of a local tradition. The beer was introduced in 2002 and it’s been coming back each fall ever since. Brewmaster Kevin Bowen has been kind enough to give us his notes on the beer and you can check those out here.

An Oshkosh Shopper's Guide to Oktoberfest Beer

2010-09-15T07:16:00.000-05:00

Some folks look to the first robin of Spring as a reassuring sign that another harsh winter is nearing its end. And then there are those of us who possess a less sunny disposition. We’re the people who thrive in the dark and cold. We prowl liquor stores in anticipation of seeing that first six-pack of Oktoberfest hit the shelves. This is our liquid symbol encouraging us to hang in there, that the miserably hot and too bright days of late summer will soon be over. I saw my first Oktoberfest on August 12th and when I did I issued a groan of relief. The guy stocking the shelves scowled at me as if I were a creep.

Anyway, Capital Brewery takes the ribbon this year for placing the first batch of Oktoberfest in Oshkosh. It arrived during the second week of August and since then the rich, amber fluid of fall’s beer has been flowing into town unabated. At the moment, you’ll find no less than 12 different Oktoberfest beers on sale in Oshkosh stores. Some of them are good, some of them are not so good. A few of them are great. To help the Oshkosh beer buyer find their way through this maze of seasonal beer, we convened a panel of tasters to determine the best Oktoberfest of 2010 available for purchase in Oshkosh.

Just a couple of notes before we get to the list. First, this list only includes bottled beer. There are a number of taverns in Oshkosh with Oktoberfest on tap, but for the sake of continuity none of those were included in these tastings. Second, where our tasters could not come to agreement on rankings we used composite scores from Beer Advocate and Rate Beer to resolve disputes. So without further ado, here are the top Oktoberfests of Oshkosh ranked in order from best to... not so best.

Sprecher Oktoberfest
Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest-Märzen
New Glarus Staghorn
Capital Oktoberfest
Paulaner Oktoberfest-Märzen
Spaten Oktoberfest Ur-Märzen
Lakefront Oktoberfest
Samuel Adams Octoberfest
Point Oktoberfest
Berghoff Oktober Fest Beer
Leinenkugel's Oktoberfest
Beck's Oktoberfest

Sprecher's Oktoberfest was the runaway favorite of the bunch. Malt-rich and creamy, this is a beer lover's beer. There's nothing "extreme" about it, this is simply a delicious and incredibly balanced traditional brew. If you drink one Oktoberfest this season, it ought to be this one. Beers two through four wound up in a virtual dead heat with Hacker-Pschorr getting the slight edge, but each of them was so good that at any given tasting the rankings could be quite different. Actually, there wasn't a bad beer in the top 10. We were surprised just how consistent they turned out to be. Each of the top 10 beers were quite drinkable and in-line with what they should be style-wise.

Finally, if you'd like to stage your own Oktoberfest tasting check out the BJCP Style Guidelines for Oktoberfest before you begin. Understanding what these beers are all about will deepen your appreciation of them and enhance your drinking pleasure. Prosit!

The New Beer at the Old Town

2010-09-13T09:07:00.001-05:00

If you were a beer enthusiast living in Oshkosh in 1965 you were in a tough spot. It’s impossible to overstate just how uniform and banal the beer in Oshkosh was at that time. There were no pale ales, no IPAs, no wheats, no stouts, no porters. There was nothing amber, brown or black. Unless you possessed an unquenchable thirst for adjunct-laden, pale, American lager, you were you out of luck.

That’s a far cry from the state of things today and it begs the question, when did the beer in Oshkosh begin to change for the better? The harbinger of what would be a long, slow evolution occurred in August of 1966 with the opening of the Old Town Pub and Restaurant. The Old Town, at 1013 North Main Street, was the first establishment in Oshkosh that tried appealing to people who craved something more substantial than fizzy, light lager. The pub featured 16 different imported beers and a brew-pub style menu and when it opened for business there was nothing remotely like it in Oshkosh. In fact, there wasn’t another spot in the city - be it a tavern or liquor store - that promoted their beer based on quality. It was all about quantity and price.

The Old Town came in at a time when the Oshkosh beer scene was at one of its lowest points. Rahr Brewing had gone under and both Peoples and Oshkosh Brewing had been demoted to second tier status and selling their beer at prices well under those offered by the heavily promoted national brands such as Budweiser, Pabst and Schlitz. In addition, the aftershock of Prohibition was in full force. The drinkers who were coming of age in 1966 were the first generation whose parents had been born during the dry years. The beer culture that had been the birth-right of generations of Oshkosh residents had been effectively wiped away.

Considering the atmosphere it was trying to do business in, it's not surprising that The Old Town lasted just six years. The pub closed in 1972 and the building that had been constructed for it was converted into a dentist's office. You can still see it today on the west side of North Main Street between Melvin and Prospect. These days it's the dental office of Dr. Vin Vu and the facade offers not a clue that this was once the place to be if you were on the hunt for good beer in Oshkosh.

Off to Asheville

2010-09-04T22:04:00.002-05:00

Nobody deserves a vacation less than I, but that’s just how it works sometimes. I’m heading to Asheville, North Carolina to sample every beer I can get my hands on, so the blog will be on hold for the next week. Oshkosh Beer will resume September 14th. See you then!

Oshkosh Beer of the Week: A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale

2010-09-02T09:27:00.001-05:00

After all that squawking about hops yesterday, this was an easy choice for Beer of the Week. A Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale from Lagunitas has been flowing at Becket’s and catching the attention of Oshkosh beer freaks who crave a snootful of hops with their ale. This is an excellent end-of-summer brew that starts with a shout of American-hop aroma. Take a nice, long whiff off it. You’ll get grapefruit juice, pine, tropical fruit... all the usual suspects are there raising hell. But what differentiates this beer from your typical hop bomb is the smoothness of its flavor. The smell has you anticipating a punishing bitterness and though there’s all manner of “C” hop thunder in the offing, the beer finishes with a lightness that’s unexpected. The brewers at Lagunitas say they run a lot of wheat into this beer and perhaps that’s what accounts for the fluffy ending. For a high I.B.U. beer that clocks in at 7.3% this thing drinks ridiculously easy. Just one caveat: Becket’s has had this beer on for over a week now and the quick way they cycle through their taps probably means it won’t be around too much longer. If you want it, you’d better go get it. And if you miss it, don’t worry, you’ll be all right. A couple faucets over they’ve got Bitter Woman IPA from Tyranena pouring. There’s another beer that’ll fix your hop jones.

A Last Look at the Oshkosh Hops of 2010

2010-09-01T07:44:00.001-05:00

Did you see the big, orange moon last week? It was a sure sign that another summer is coming to its end. And with it goes the hop growing season in Oshkosh. So before those lush cones are pulled down, dried out and boiled into wort, let's see what the season has provided. 2010 was a good year for the hops.

Nick’s Hop Operation
We'll start with the most fruitful hop farm within the city limits of Oshkosh. Not far from the corner of Jackson and Murdock, Nick’s Hop Operation is in its third year and in full bloom. He’s growing Zeus, Brewers Gold, Willamette, Cascade and Hallertau and most of his plants are loaded with fat, sticky cones that are bursting with aroma. When I walked up to take these pictures on Monday, I could smell hop resin from the sidewalk framing his yard. The growth of Nick’s set-up is amazing. To see how it’s progressed over the season go HERE & HERE.

Scott’s Hops
An utterly unique hop growing arrangement has developed on Adams Avenue. These are Scott’s hops and he's set them up in an unusual way. Instead of training his Cascades up a trellis or pole, he’s using an evergreen bush to support his plants. The hops and the evergreen have proven to be surprisingly compatible and at first glance the intertwined growth looks like a demented arborvitae sprouting hop cones. Stranger yet, Scott’s hops have meandered into a nearby prickly pear cactus and are putting out cones there, as well. Maybe we’ve got a new strain of hop here. The Oshkosh Prickly Pear Hop is born!

The Oshkosh Tall Boy
This must be the tallest hop plant in Oshkosh. It’s well over 25 feet tall and grows on a terrace near the western end of New York Ave. The plant’s incredible height is all the more baffling when you consider the small patch of dirt it occupies. This one is a late bloomer, but the cones have recently begun to develop and it should produce plenty of excellent fruit. If you haven’t seen this plant, take a drive down New York and check it out sometime. It’s a startling thing to encounter. THIS is what it looked like a couple months ago.

My Hops.
Finally, here are the hops I’m growing on Evans Street. They had a rough year. Twice they were flooded and the storm of July 14th ripped them down from their trellis. And though they had to learn to grow in a new direction (horizontally), they pulled through and are even thriving. These are a mix of Nugget and Cascade and I’m going to wait another week or so before I harvest them. I’m hoping to end up with about two pounds of hops after they’re dried, which ought to be enough to brew approximately 50 gallons of beer. THIS is what they looked like in mid-June.

Thanks to the Oshkosh hop growers for their help over the course of the summer. May your beer be bitter!