This Week in Beer

A smattering of nearly-here beer events to plug into your calendar...

Ruby Owl Tap Room Beer + Doughnuts Pairing – Thursday, October 13 from 3-10 p.m.
Doughnuts from Tamara the Cake Guru meets beer from the Ruby. They haven't mentioned what sorta beer, only that it’ll be, “some very unique and sought-after craft beers.” $25 per person and they’re suggesting you come early. They’ll have a limited number of pairings and expect to sell out.

Flight School with Lance at O’Marro’s Public House, Thursday, October 13, 8 p.m.- 2 a.m.
Each Thursday beer savant Lance Lehman guides you through a flight of five beers, explaining what they offer and what they’re all about. Good deal on this one, it adds up to 28 ounces of beer for only $5. Check it out, here’s a link to the event page.

Barley's Beer Sampling, Saturday, October 15th at 6 p.m. 
The first installment of  this season’s Barley & Hops Beer Sampling Series kicks off this Saturday. This is a full-on beer sampling with tickets going for just $20, if you grab them in advance. $30 if you wait to buy them at the door. Featured brewery this time around will be Madison’s Karben4. These are always a blast. For more, here’s a link to the event page.

This next one is a couple weeks out. You’ll be hearing plenty about it from me beginning now...

Sud's City: A History of Craft Beer in Oshkosh, Oshkosh Public Library, October 27, 6:30 p.m.
Here’s a preview of what Jody Cleveland and I will be hosting at OPL. Drink beer at the Library! Click that image to enlarge it...

A New Brewery, A New Homebrew Shop, and a New Crowler Machine

Things move quickly around here. And after taking the month of July off from blogging, I’m playing catch-up. Here’s a trio of beer-based items of interest that developed while I was away. We’ll start with the big one...

The Proposed Oshkosh Bier & Brewing Facility

Oshkosh Bier & Brewing
In May, Oshkosh Bier & Brewing announced its intention to build a taproom and production facility in Oshkosh. The brewery in planning has now taken the first step toward securing a location.

Jeff Fulbright, founder and managing member of OB&B, is seeking a 12-month, option-to-purchase agreement from the Oshkosh Community Development Board. The property he’s after is at the southwest corner of Pearl and Jackson streets. The vacant parcel sits next to the empty Morton’s Pharmacy building. Let’s zero in on that location. The site is highlighted in red.

The OB&B proposal is ambitious. It puts forth a plan to construct the “Largest Oshkosh brewery since Peoples Brewing was built in 1913.” Here are few highlights from the document OB&B submitted to the city.

• The proposed brewery would be a 15,000 square-foot facility capable of producing 40,000 barrels of beer annually. Included would be a 2,000 square-foot taproom and outdoor beer garden.
• Estimated start-up cost is approximately $1.5 million.
• John Zappa, former master brewer from Stevens Point Brewery, will be involved with the launch of brewing operations. 
• OB&B will employ 6-8 people in full-time positions.
• Distribution of draught and packaged beer will be handled by Lee Beverage.
• Administrative decisions will include partner and company counsel Charles Hertel of Dempsey Law and an advisory board consisting of partners, investors and local businessmen.

The proposal is an interesting document to say the least. You can view it in its entirety here.

Homebrew Shop Coming to Oshkosh
Dave Koepke of The Cellar in Fond du Lac has been talking about moving his homebrew shop to Oshkosh for several months. He’s closing in on making that happen. Koepke has leased a storefront located along the Highway 41 corridor in Oshkosh for his new store. There remain details to work out, but there’s a good chance The Cellar will have relocated to Oshkosh by fall. I’ll have more coming on this in the near future.

Dave Koepke

Oshkosh Gets its First Crowler
The Ruby Owl Taproom installed Oshkosh’s first crowler machine last week. The machine packages draft beer in 32-ounce cans for take-away sales. The beauty of the package is that it preserves beer better than the standard growler with screw-on cap. I’ve stored filled crowlers for more than a month before opening. The beer held up wonderfully.

We’ll end with a short video of Adam Carlson of the Ruby showing what a crowler fill looks like. Prost!

Tuesday Brew News

A few notes about what’s up now...

Hops & Props
Oshkosh’s largest beer fest is set to kick off this Saturday, March 5, at 7 p.m. in the EAA’s AirVenture Museum. Tickets for the three-hour fest are $75 and there are still some left. Grab them online HERE. Even if you’re not going, you might want to peruse the massive beer list they’ve lined up for this year’s fest. Check that out HERE.

A New Brewmaster Coming to Bare Bones
In early February, Bare Bones Brewmaster Lyle Hari accepted a position with Props Brewery & Grill in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Lyle will finish his term in Oshkosh in mid-March. His replacement at Bare Bones will be announced shortly. More coming on this in the near future.

Tap Lists
Over in the column on the left you’ll notice two recent additions to the Oshkosh Area Tap Lists (revert to web view,  phone users!). In the past couple weeks both Barley & Hops and Oblio’s have begun posting their taplists online via Taphunter. Nice job, folks! I've also just added Lion’s Tail Brewing in Neenah to the list of Oshkosh area taps. I figure they’re close enough to be included in our scene.

The First Time in a Long Time
Something struck me the other day while I was cruising the beer isle at Festival Foods in Oshkosh. Right now is the first time in 45 years that there have been six-packs of beer from two Oshkosh breweries being sold from retail shelves here. The last time it happened was 1971 when the Oshkosh Brewing Company and Peoples Brewing were still going concerns. Maybe I’m getting sentimental in my old age, but this shit warms my heart. Prost!

This Week's Local Brew News

Heads-up on a few things heading our way...

Sled Dog Coffee Porter

Bare Bones, Beer & Books
Friday, January 15, Bare Bones Brewery will welcome Kevin Revolinski, author of Wisconsin's Best Beer Guide, for a book signing. Kevin will be on hand from 5- 7 p.m. selling and signing copies of his newly updated book. Buy a copy of his 434-page guide and get a free pint of Bare Bones beer. I've purchased every edition of Wisconsin's Best Beer Guide. This edition is the best yet. It's easily the most complete resource about the current state of beer and brewing in Wisconsin. While you're there, check out beer #7 from Bare Bones: Sled Dog Coffee Porter. It's a 6.5% ABV, malty porter with a nicely integrated coffee flavor. Just the thing for this time of year.

Winter Brew HaHa at O'Marro's
Monday, January 18, O'Marro's Public House will host Winter Brew HaHa beginning at 6 p.m. This is a five-course beer dinner paired with winter brews (and a few other surprises). Your place at the table is $35. I know there aren't many seats left, so you might want to get moving on this one. Stop in at the pub to reserve you seats.

Gardina's Beer Bar #25
Tuesday, January 19, Gardina's brings back its Beer Bar Series. At 6 p.m. they'll tap into a cask of Fox River's Abbey Normal (Belgian Dubbel) that's been aging on brandy-soaked oak chips. In addition to the cask, Fox River will stage a mini-tap takeover. And as they usually do, Gardina's will offer a special beer pairing menu to go with the Fox River beers.

Tap Takeover at Chester V’s
Friday, January 22, there’ll be a four-tap takeover of Wisconsin Brewing Company beers at Chester V’s. The sampling begins at 8 p.m. A rep from Wisconsin Distributors will be on hand to talk about the beers. And here are those beers: Porter Joe infused with Barriques coffee; Josephine, a spiced espresso porter; Chocolate Lab porter, and Inaugural Red Lager.

Updates on Upcomings
Things continue to progress for a couple of breweries trying to get started here in Oshkosh.

Last week, Mike Schlosser and Shawn O'Marro of HighHolder Brewing Company posted a couple of pictures showing the brew system they're putting together. Here's a quick look at that. For more pictures and to keep up on their progress, check out the brewery's Facebook Page.

Fifth Ward Brewing Company is making progress, too. Yesterday, while running around town I spotted this in a window of the building at 1009 S. Main St. where Ian Wenger and Zach Clark are planning to launch their brewery. This is a good sign! Let's hope they breeze through the permit process.

One last thing... last week, I mentioned that the Gardina's taplist (look over there in the column to the left) was way, way out of date. No more! It's now current and will be updated every Friday. Sometimes my complaining actually works!