Wisconsin: The "Rotten" Spots

Here we have an ugly artifact with a strong upside. The map below is from 1918. It was prepared by the “hyper-patriots” of the Wisconsin Loyalty League. The shaded areas show the "rotten spotted" sections of Wisconsin "infected" with German immigrants. Oshkosh was rotten indeed. Just so happens those rotten spots were also where the breweries flourished. I'll take the shade any day.

The Drink that Made Wisconsin Famous: Beer and Brewing in the Badger State

The Drink that Made Wisconsin Famous is an epic. It is easily the most comprehensive book ever written about the history of beer brewing in Wisconsin. And it looks the part. Across 744 pages author Doug Hoverson manages to touch upon every Wisconsin brewery. He begins with the inception of commercial brewing here in the 1830s and carries forward through the most recent burst of craft brewery openings. Approximately 800 breweries are covered with more than 600 color images accompanying the text.

The book is divided into two major sections. The first presents a high-level overview of the brewing history of Wisconsin. Hoverson weaves together the stories of massive producers, such as Schlitz and Heileman, with those of local and regional breweries. It's a complex story, but Hoverson's fluid, inviting prose makes it an accessible and enjoyable read. This section could have been a book unto itself.

The second half, though, is where Hoverson outdoes himself. Here he presents concise histories of every Wisconsin brewery. There's been nothing of this scope attempted before and when you see it in print you understand why. It's an almost overwhelming amount of information that took Hoverson a decade to gather. It’s an amazing collection of work.

The Drink That Made Wisconsin Famous becomes the essential resource for anyone with an interest in the state's beer and brewing history. There's simply nothing else like it. And I should add that Oshkosh definitely gets her due.

If you’d like to dig deeper, here are a few additional resources. First, Bobby Tanzilo of On Milwaukee conducts a good interview with Doug Hoverson about the book here. The publisher's book page can be found here. And you can purchase the book online from Amazon here.

Wisconsin at the 2010 World Beer Cup

Fox River Brewing's 2010 Silver

Wisconsin did all right Saturday night at the 2010 World Beer Cup in Chicago. Five Wisconsin breweries won a total of 7 awards. That two of those awards went to Miller Brewing for beers that have more to do with delivering alcohol than flavor isn’t anything to get excited about, but so what. The Grumpy Troll in Mount Horeb had a great year and our own Fox River Brewing surprised a lot of people by bringing home a Silver in the Kӧlsch division. Here’s the Wisconsin rundown at this year’s World Cup.

Category 1: American-Style Cream Ale or Lager, 17 entries
Gold: Red Dog, Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukee, WI

Category 3: American-Style Wheat Beer with Yeast, 24 entries
Gold: Point Horizon Wheat, Stevens Point Brewery, Stevens Point, WI

Category 4: Rye Beer, 22 entries
Silver: Rye Bob, The Grumpy Troll Brewery, Restaurant & Pizzeria, Mount Horeb, WI

Category 35: American-Style Specialty Lager, 19 entries
Silver: Mickey’s Malt Liquor, Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukee, WI

Category 36: American-Style Amber Lager, 24 entries
Bronze: Riverwest Stein, Lakefront Brewery, Milwaukee, WI

Category 69: German-Style Kӧlsch/Kӧln-Style Kӧlsch, 23 entries
Silver: Fox Light, Fox River Brewing Company, Oshkosh, WI

Category 78: Foreign-Style Stout, 21 entries
Bronze: Spetsnaz Stout, The Grumpy Troll Brewery, Restaurant & Pizzeria, Mount Horeb, WI

Point’s Black Ale Arrives in Oshkosh

It’s easy to take Stevens Point Brewery for granted. They’ve been around forever. And most of the dedicated beer drinkers who came of age in this area have passed copious time guzzling the brewery’s flagship lager. Unfortunately, extended familiarity of this type isn’t much help when it comes to inspiring the kind of consumer passion craft brewers rely upon. So what. Point keeps plugging away. And we’re lucky to have them near-by, making a range of good beers that rely more on accessibility and brewing skill than extreme flavors or hype.

Point’s newest brew hit the shelves in Oshkosh this week and it may be the best of their your-round offerings. 2012 is a black ale named for the year the dead-ending Mayan calender purports to dooms us all. Well, let’s not give a shit about that. We’re here for the beer, and this one is good.

The ale pours jet-black with a nice stand of creamy, brown foam. The aroma is toffee-sweet with a hint of coffee. The beer drinks light and smooth with a nice blend of subtle chocolate and roast flavors that are clean and well-defined; not the least bit overbearing. It finishes with a surprising kick of hops that compliment the preceding maltiness. You could easily drink a lot of this. Overall, it reminds me most of a well-made Dark English Mild.

That’s enough talk. Here’s the beer. Enjoy!


If you'd like to catch them bottling this stuff HERE is another little video for you.

Beer Man’s Wisconsin

As an overview of the Wisconsin beer scene, Beer Man’s Wisconsin is about the best thing currently going. Written by Todd Haefer, whose Beer Man column appears in the Post Crescent, the book touches on everything from homebrew to Miller. Haefer calls it, “a snapshot of the current brewing industry in the state.”

The meat of it, though, concerns Wisconsin craft beer. There’s a lot of handy information here on small Wisconsin breweries, brew pubs, homebrew clubs, and a nice overview of some of the better craft beers to be found around the state. Oshkosh and the Fox Valley are particularly well represented. Haefer was a member of the Society Of Oshkosh Brewers in the early 90s and his roots are clearly on display in the pieces he’s included on Stone Cellar, Fratellos and Appleton homebrewer Mike Fairservice.

The book is relatively brief at 74 pages and it looks great with full color pictures throughout. I like that Haefer avoids the beer snobbery that often dogs this kind of writing. His tone is conversational and inviting. The book would be particularly helpful to someone just getting into this stuff.

The cover proclaims this the First Edition. Does that mean there’ll be a second? We’ll see. The shelf life for books of this type is notoriously short as the velocity of change in the beer world dates them quickly. If you want to get a jump on the 2nd edition go to the section where Brian Allen is listed as the brewmaster at Fratellos. Cross that out and write in Kevin Bowen. You’ll be a step ahead.

If you’d like to pick up a copy of Beer Man’s Wisconsin you can get it online HERE. Or you might be able to find a copy at Festival Foods in Oshkosh or in Appleton at Woodman’s and Flanagan’s Liquor.

Dave Oldenburg of Titletown Brewing

Titletown Brewing in Green Bay has quietly become one of the great beer spots in Wisconsin. That you can get there from Oshkosh in under an hour makes it even better.

Over at Barleypopmaker's Beer Blog, they’ve just put up an exhaustive interview with Titletown brewmaster, Dave Oldenburg. Both a transcript and an MP3 of the interview are there for your consumption.

If you’re a homebrewer it’ll inspire you, if you’re a beer drinker it’ll make you crazy thirsty.

Here's a LINK to the interview.

Titletown Brewing Company