Number 90 Red - Vienna Lager at Lion's Tail

Lion's Tail in Neenah recently released Number 90 Red, a Vienna lager. It's style of beer rarely brewed around here. Or anywhere else, really. That wasn't always the case. We’ll get into that in a minute. First, let's get to the Lion's Tail beer.

Number 90 Red

Number 90 Red has a clean, light-toffee aroma leading to a toasty malt flavor. The hops are just for balance. They add a slight dryness to the finish. This beer is a shade darker than a classic Vienna lager, but who gives a shit. This is very good beer. Have it back to back with Lion’s Tail Mile of Munich Dunkel and you’ll get a sense of what it was like to drink beer in Vienna in the 1840s.

Now then... Vienna lager was the brainchild of Anton Dreher of Vienna, Austria.  He first brewed this style in 1841. It was lighter in body and paler in color than the dark lagers then predominant in Austria. Dreher's beer grew wildly popular.

A decade after the introduction of Dreher's beer, there were German brewers heading to Oshkosh. They brought their love of Vienna lager with them. In the late 1800s, Vienna lager was a favorite style among Oshkosh brewers. But brewers here preferred the Germanic nomenclature. They called theirs "Wiener" beer.

At the Glatz Brewery, they were so fond of their Wiener beer they included it on their letterhead in the 1890s

Below is an 1888 ad from the Gambrinus Brewery. Somebody botched the spelling of Wiener.

 Even the very first ad for the Oshkosh Brewing Company made mention of Wiener beer. This is from the Wisconsin Telegraph, May 18, 1894.

With the turn of the century, Vienna lager faded away. Even in Vienna. But in Oshkosh, people never quite lost their taste for it. Peoples Beer, at least until the 1960s, was deeply influenced by the earlier Vienna lagers brewed here.

Number 90 Red at Lion's Tail bears a closer resemblance to those older lagers.  It's a treasure of a beer. Get it while you can...

August Schell’s Cypress Blanc

I’ll leave it to other geeks to yap about that wet-behind-the-ears Minnesota brewery (Surly) making a stink about sending its beer into Wisconsin this week. Instead, here’s a beer from a Gopher State brewery that’s been shipping good stuff here for years.

The August Schell Brewing Company of New Ulm, Minn. has been around since 1860. The beer we have here probably has old man Schell spinning in his grave.

The label tells us this is a “Dry hopped Berlin style American lager.” Like most things printed on beer labels, that is gibberish. What we actually have here starts as a standard American lager. It then gets dosed with lactobacillus and brettanomyces followed by seven months of aging in 80-year-old Cypress vats that were once used by the Schell brewery as lagering tanks. The beer is as complex as the process they went through to make it.

Cypress Blanc is straw-colored and hazy with a brittle white foam that exhausts itself in a blink. It’s a highly effervescent beer sending up fumes of pineapple and leathery, brett funk. Both come through in the taste along with notes of tart green apple and white grape. The tartness makes for a quenching beer that kept bringing me back to the glass. The thing was gone before I knew it. Light bodied, this still feels substantial, though you’d never guess that it’s 7.4% ABV. If you gravitate towards Berliner weisses or American wild ales, you’ll love this one.

Cypress Blanc is available in caged and corked 25 oz. bottles on the retail side at Gardina’s where it’s going for $13.99.

Black Husky’s Harvel the Marvel

A new beer from Pembine’s Black Husky Brewing arrived in Oshkosh last week. Let’s check it out...

Harvel the Marvel is a strong pale ale brewed with honey from Northern Wisconsin. It pours hazy and golden sending up an enormous head of creamy, white foam. The aroma sways from toasted marshmallow to peach, orange and honey candy.

The mouthfeel of this beer is incredible. It’s exceptionally soft, luxurious even. The honey flavor is prominent, but it’s not delivered with a rush of sweetness. It’s more like the slow release of sugars that you get from hard candy. The effect is odd and wonderful. The finish comes with just enough bitterness to tame the richness of the honey. For a 7.3% ABV beer, it’s surprisingly quaffable.

All around, this is an excellent ale. I kept thinking of some of my favorite Belgian Tripels as I drank this, but Harvel has a much cleaner fermentation profile with none of the phenolics that tend to accompany strong, Belgian beers. This one is a breed apart.

Harvel is available in the cooler section at Gardina’s on their retail side. I picked up a bottle there Wednesday for $6.99. It makes for a great companion to these cool, spring evenings.

One Barrel Brewing’s Commuter Kölsch

The craft beer Kölsch is a rare thing. Few American breweries make this style of Northern German ale. The few that do, rarely do it well. But there’s a local Kölsch pouring at Becket’s at the moment that’s excellent.

The Commuter, by Madison’s One Barrel Brewing, is just what a fine Kölsch should be. This is a pale-gold beer with a very subtle aroma that reminded me of ripe pear. It’s light-bodied presenting a grainy malt flavor followed by a mild, lemon-like hop flavor. The beer is exceptionally refreshing with a crisp finish.

This was the first beer I had yesterday after an afternoon of work around the house. I was parched. It was the perfect beer for that moment. At 4.8% ABV, Commuter makes for a terrific session beer.

One Barrel Brewing is a nano brewery producing beer on a scale that would have seemed inconceivable not long ago. As the name implies, they do it one barrel at a time. Since launching in 2012, the brewery’s distribution has been as limited as its production. Nearly all of One Barrel’s beer is reserved for sale over the bar at it’s pub. It’s great that we’re getting a taste of this in Oshkosh. Get it while you can, I doubt this one will hang around long.

Black Marlin Porter

Here in Oshkosh, we began receiving beer from San Diego’s Ballast Point Brewing this past January. The brewery is best known for its IPAs. That’s mostly what we’ve been seeing from BP around here. But this unassuming Porter is something special.

Black Marlin Porter is a deep, brown ale with a sticky beige head that laces the glass as you drink it down. The aroma made me think of chocolate milk backed by a light and lingering note of coffee. This is an almost-full bodied beer with a lower than average carbonation that lends it a creamy texture. Flavors of caramel malt and chocolate lead with a mild vanilla accent at mid-palate. I love the hopping of this beer. There’s a driving, earthy hop flavor that accompanies those sweeter malt notes wonderfully. The staunch bitterness those hops leave makes for a finish that’s cleaner than you’d expect from a beer so flavorful. This is an exceptional Porter.

Black Marlin Porter is 6% ABV and measures in with 42 IBUs. I picked up mine last Saturday at the retail side of Gardina’s where it’s being sold in 22 oz. bombers for $4.99. What’s not to like about that?

So It Gose

If you would have told me five years ago that you could take your pick among Gose-style beers in Oshkosh I wouldn’t have believed you. Until very recently Gose (pronounced Go-zuh) was a style of beer virtually impossible to get your hands on around here unless you brewed it yourself. How that has changed. Today, there’s Gose popping up all over town.

Gose is a German style of wheat ale that dates back to at least the early 1700s. Pale and tart and sometimes outright sour, a Gose is usually spiced with coriander and salt. It’s typically low in alcohol and exceedingly refreshing.

The style was popular in Germany into the early 1900s, but by the late 1960s, Gose had all but vanished. The beer’s slow return began in the mid-1980s in Berlin, but it wasn’t until American craft brewers latched onto Gose in recent years that the style was truly revived.

Here’s a great example of an American craft brewers idiosyncratic take on an idiosyncratic beer.

When The Light Gose Out
This Gose is a collaboration brew dreamed up by England’s Siren Brewery and Stillwater Artisanal Brewing of Baltimore. They’ve played roughly with the basic Gose framework for this beer. Instead of it being straw colored, it’s black. And I mean pitch black with a lively brown foam that would look more appropriate on a Stout. And instead of coriander, they went with hibiscus flowers and then used volcanic black salt for the brine. The tart fruit and toasted malt scents that come up in the aroma reminded me strongly of some Flanders Red Ales I’ve tried. The flavor is bright and tart with sour cherries and green apples coming to mind. There’s a decent amount of toasted malt flavor here, as well, lending the beer a pie-like aspect as the malt notes blend with those tart fruit flavors. It’s a light-bodied, effervescent beer that slides down effortlessly. A slight twang of salt in the finish makes it wonderfully quenching. At just 4.3% ABV you could drink this stuff all day. The only place around town where I’ve seen When The Light Gose Out is at Gardina’s where I picked up a 17-ounce bottle for $10.00.

More Gose
Here are a few other Gose beers recently spotted around Oshkosh that are worth tucking into.

California’s Anderson Valley Brewing has put out a series of Gose’s recently that have found their way to Oshkosh. Their Blood Orange Gose and The Kimmie, The Yink, & The Holy Gose hue closer to the style than the Stillwater beer and are worth seeking out.  Both these beers are 4.2% ABV. I’ve seen Anderson Valley brewed Gose at Ski’s where they sell them in six packs of cans. Dublin’s currently has The Kimmie, The Yink, & The Holy Gose on draft. I had one yesterday. It was fantastic!

Schell's Goosetown Gose is another excellent example of Gose. This one leans a bit heavier on the salt and features a zesty lemon flavor that makes it ridiculously drinkable. Beats the hell out of a Shandy. This is often available at Festival in Oshkosh. At 5.2% ABV, it carries a bit more heft than the average Gose.

If you’ve yet to try a Gose, this would be a good weekend to indulge. It’s the sort of beer that goes just right with spring yard work. Prost!

Devil Beer and Other Notes

A few notes to pass along, but before we get into that, let’s have a beer.

Ale Asylum Diablo Belga
A deep brown beer with pretty, red highlights. It starts with a pleasant aroma of dark fruit and chocolate. A rich malt flavor follows with broad notes of chocolate, caramel and candied fruit. There’s a spiciness from the yeast that combines with the slight heat of alcohol to produce an effect that’s like a mildly hot pepper. Medium bodied in the classic, Belgian strong-beer sort of way. It’s almost too easy to drink. It’s 9.2% ABV and has a devil on the label. I guess that’s a warning. An excellent beer. They’re selling it at Ski’s in Oshkosh in 6-packs for $12.99.

Good Taste
My new Oshkosh Beer Beat column just went up at the Oshkosh Independent. This time, I outline a basic approach to beer tasting. Get the most out of your beer, by checking that out.

We Got Events!
And lot’s of ‘em. I’ve been slacking on keeping the calendar up to date. That’s fixed. Look over to the left under the bus. There’s a pack of dates and words there telling of beer happenings slated for Oshkosh that are on the near horizon. If you’re on a phone, switch over to web view to see what’s up.

About Those Breweries...
I’ve been getting a ton of feedback the last couple of weeks about the slew of new breweries being planned for Oshkosh (if you missed it, look HERE and HERE). People are excited about this stuff. That’s good to see. Obviously, there’s a lot of pent-up demand around here. This week, I’ve been talking with Dan Dringoli, who’s launching a brewery just over the Oshkosh City line in the Town of Oshkosh. I’ll have more here on his project next week.

The Unquenchable Thirst For Hops

People are going to look back on this era of beer and say, “Damn, they were hopping the hell out of everything.”

It’s not the first time this has happened. If you dig into the English beers of the early 1800s, you’ll find that, across the board, they were hopped in a manner that makes American craft brewers look conservative.  

Whether you like this trend or not, I think there’s no denying that American brewers are becoming more adept in their promiscuous use of the brewer's spice. For every shit-tasting Belgian IPA I drank five years ago, there are now two great ones available.

Here’s yet another example of a traditional style of beer that gets the American treatment to good effect. This beer is a liquid snapshot of the current scene.

Ale Asylum Hummmane
Back when they called them microbrews, Brown Ales were ubiquitous. Now they’re few and far between. Perhaps this is how the lowly style will be resurrected.

Ale Asylum takes the traditional, English-style Brown Ale and marries it to the American Pale Ale. They’ve managed to do it without destroying what makes a good Brown Ale so appealing.

The beer has the biscuit-like maltiness you expect from a Brown Ale with an aroma full of dark sugar and molasses notes. It’s companioned with a vivid, citrusy hop scent that doesn’t overwhelm the malt’s aromatics. The flavor is much the same. The semi-sweet maltiness is spiced by a hop flavor that’s reminiscent of oranges and grapefruit. As I drank it, I thought again and again of orange-oatmeal cookies. It’s delicious. The bitterness is quite firm, but certainly not overwhelming. It’s a great example of why this current mania for hops is sometimes not such a bad thing.

The only place I’ve seen Hummmane in town is at Festival Foods where they sell it in six packs. Keep you’re eyes open for it. I imagine this’ll start popping up at other locations soon.

Hops Springs Eternal

I was out scouting around for something to pair with this long-lost warmness that’s settled in and found this...

New Glarus Hopster
Can’t go wrong with a beer that has a green rabbit bouncing across its label. Remember Crack'd Wheat from New Glarus? This is that beer rebranded. These days you gotta have something about hops on the label if you want it to sell.

In a nutshell, Hopster is a Bavarian-style Hefeweiss with a hop treatment that’s more like an American Pale Ale. You get the dense aromatics and esters of German Weissbier yeast threading into the pungent bite of American hops. In this case, Amarillo hops. It’s an odd coupling that works better than it probably should.

Hopster pours to a pale gold under a billowing, white head that’s sticky as gum. A burst of clove leads the aroma followed by  spice notes that made me think of pumpkin-pie. Amazing what yeast can do. The hops are definitely in attendance with a lively, lemon-zest citrus scent, but if you’re looking for IPA style aromatics looks somewhere else.

The beer is medium bodied with a creaminess that’s very pleasing. There’s an almost sweet, breadiness to the malt flavor that provides a good cushion for the sharper phenolic flavors of the yeast and the bright, citrusy bitterness of the hops. I love that balance.

The beer ends with a clean bittering that makes for a surprisingly crisp finish when you consider all of the flavor that comes before it. Probably the best marriage of American hops with this kind of yeast profile I’ve tasted. A beer that’s especially fitting for this spring-like weather we’re having.

No mention of ABV on the label, but I’m guessing it’s on the high side of 5%. They’re selling sixers of Hopster at Festival Foods in Oshkosh for  $7.99

Wisco Black

Let’s dig into a couple of black beers from badgerland...

Door County Brewing’s Silurian Stout

Nice to see a new stout come out that’s not prefixed by the words Bourbon Barrel or Imperial. This is a basic milk stout, a sub-style of stout brewed with an addition of lactose, an unfermentable milk sugar. Milk stouts first came into being in England in the early 1900s. A century later, Door County Brewing has churned out a great one.

The beer pours black with a tan cap of sticky foam. The aroma reminded me of fresh coffee that’s had a good dollop of cream and spoonful of sugar stirred into it. That coffee note along with threads of roasted barley and baker’s chocolate were the first flavors that hit me. The sharp edges of the roast and coffee flavors get rounded off by the creamy sweetness of lactose making for a beer that’s flavorful and highly quaffable. There’s an earthy bitterness in the finish that completes the beer wonderfully.

I’m into this one. In fact, I’ve yet to have a beer from this brewery that didn’t impress me. Silurian Stout is 5.7% ABV and available in 6-packs at Ski’s in Oshkosh for $9.99.

By the way, Danny McMahon, head brewer at Door County Brewing, will be in Oshkosh on Saturday afternoon at Dublin’s. He’s bringing with him a cask of IPA that they’ll tap into right around 3 p.m. Look for more on that later today at the Oshkosh Independent.

3 Sheeps Nimble Lips Noble Tongue Volume Six

Damn, that’s a mouthful of a name. The subtitle is even worse: Imperial Black Wheat Coffee Ale Infused with Cocoa Nibs, Coffee, Vanilla and Maple Wood Staves. How’s a geek supposed to remember all that? Mercy. Anyway here’s another small Wisconsin brewery that’s bent to impress. This beer here will certainly turn your head.

This is flat out a dessert beer. As required, it’s black with a pillow of brown foam sitting like frosting on top. You know what you’re in for when you smell it. Chocolate, vanilla, caramel. All of that comes walloping through in the taste along with a slight roastiness and a little something herbal (from the hops, I suppose) lingering in the background. This is a big beer – 10% ABV – and you get some warmth from the alcohol in the same way you get it from a rum cake or a boozy brownie. It reminded me of a fortified milk shake (a shake with a shot of brandy or something in it). For all of its sweetness, though, the beer remains drinkable with a medium body that keeps the experience from getting too sticky. This would be a great capper after a plate load of something spicy.

Nimble Lips Noble Tongue Volume Six is available at Gardina’s in the packaged beer section where it’s sold in bombers for $8.99. Speaking of Gardina’s, look for changes there coming to the retail side. This is going to be good news for beer lovers. More on that next week. Salud!

Bock Beer and Other Earthly Delights

A few odds and ends to clear from the decks. But let’s start with a beer.

The Bock Season
I haven’t squawked about bock much this winter. What’s wrong with me? This season hasn’t been not too bad on the bock front, though it certainly could be better. But until some of these overrated craft brewers acquire the skill to brew a proper lager, I guess we're stuck with trendy beers dribbling from played-out bourbon barrels. Harumph.

Anyway, I’ve had a couple of good traditional bocks this season. It started in January when Point’s Bock went on tap at Dublin’s and Oblio’s. This was a bock harkening back to the sort of bocks small Wisconsin brewers were pounding out like mad until most of them went bust in the 1950s. Schell’s Bock is along the same lines. I’ve sang my praises to this beer before. It’s malty and rich, but still very drinkable. They have 12-packs of it at Festival.

Fox River Brewing Company’s Defibrillator Doppelbock returned earlier this year. I’m quite fond of this one. It’s full-bodied with a lush, caramelized malt character and a gently bitter end. It’s 8.5% ABV and they have it on draft and in bottles for carry out at Fratellos.

Leinenkugel's Big Butt is also a doppelbock. At least that’s what the label says. Swing and a miss. I picked up a 12-pack of this in cans at Pick N’ Save. I tried to like it. Maybe I didn’t try hard enough. Or maybe Leinenkugel's didn’t.

On the lighter side, there’s New Glarus' Cabin Fever Honey Bock. This is a very approachable, 6% beer that’s crisp and slightly sweet. A good beer for a bright, cold winter afternoon. I’ve seen Cabin Fever at a bunch of places around town including all the big-box grocery stores. Its best, though, on draft where the honey flavor really comes through.

But my favorite bock this season has been Capital Maibock. I have this every year, but this year it really grabbed me. Its fragrant caramel and toasted bread aroma leads to a creamy texture and a malt flavor that made me think of toast and toffee. The hops hang in the background, just as they should, providing little more than balance. There’s a twist of warming alcohol that rises to pinch you in the finish. A nice effect. At just over 6% ABV, it’s not too imposing, just imposing enough. Festival Foods has this in 6-packs.

Oblio’s Slow Ride Sampling
This Friday (February 27) they’ll be sampling New Belgium’s Slow Ride, the brewery’s new session IPA. It’s a one-hour sampling running from 6-7 p.m. You know the drill: show up, drink a free sample or two and have some fun. It’s that easy.

SOB Lake Brew
If you’d like to view something painful and freakish Saturday morning (February 27), you could slide by the Southside Ice Yacht Club in Oshkosh where a bunch of SOBs will take to the frozen lake and attempt to brew beer. That’s right, a pack from the Society of Oshkosh Brewers are going onto the ice with their kettles and burners. Some are even threatening to brew with water taken directly from the lake. Why? Because they can, that’s why. The brew starts around 8 a.m. and will end by noon or as soon as the last case of frost bite occurs, whichever comes first.

Hops & Props 2015
The EAA’s big beer fest is approaching. The event is a little more than a week away on Saturday, March 7. Tickets are once again $75 this year. I’ve heard plenty of grumbling about that. Is it worth it? You decide. You can see the full rundown of the event including the breweries that’ll have beer there by clicking HERE.

World of Beer Opening
This is up in Appleton and I’m thinking they can have it. World of Beer is essentially a tavern chain. Each outlet features a large taplist of craft beer. The Appleton World of Beer, at 149 N. Mall Drive, is slated to open Monday, March 2. They say they’ll have 50 beers on draft and 10 times as many in bottles. I’m curious, but also mildly repelled. To me, a corporate, cookie-cutter, chain bar seems antithetical to what I like to think beer is about. Then again, I’m curious to see what it’s like. We’ll see...

Ballast Point Arrives in Oshkosh

Last month, Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits signed a distribution deal with Wirtz Beverage to bring the San Diego brewery’s beer to Wisconsin. And now.... it’s here in Oshkosh.

Where to Get It
Dublin’s will have a special tapping beginning Friday afternoon, pouring from a keg of Ballast Point Sculpin IPA. On the retail side, Gardina’s has brought in a nice selection of Ballast Point’s beer. Right now, Gardina’s is selling 6-packs of Ballast Point’s Sculpin IPA, Big Eye IPA, and the brewery’s Original Pale Ale. They also have bombers of Ballast Point’s Dorado Double IPA, Sea Monster Imperial Stout, and Victory At Sea Coffee Vanilla Porter.

Lot’s to choose from. Notice that lean towards the IPA side? It’s what this brewery is best known for. Their IPAs get gushing reviews on the ratings sites. The style is what has driven Ballast Point’s fast rise.

The Brewery
Ballast Point was launched in 1996 by Yuseff Cherney and Jack White from the back of a San Diego homebrew shop. Ever since, the brewery has grown at a blistering pace. From 2012-2013 Ballast Point was the fastest growing craft brewery in America. At the end of 2013, it was 29th largest American craft brewery producing over 86,000 barrels of beer annually.

A Couple of Their Beers
I’d heard so much about their IPAs, that I went straight for those.

Sculpin IPA. This is the one you hear the most about. I see why. The aroma is prototypical West Coast. Lots of citrus, mango and peach. The beer is medium bodied and – considering that it’s 7% ABV – incredibly easy to drink. There’s some malt going on in the background, but not enough to get in the way of the hop flavors. Voluminous tropical fruit and lemon-like citrus flavors lead to an assertive bitterness that accumulates as you drink. I like that it’s not shy about its bitter quality. Lately, brewers of West-Coast style IPAs seem bent on emphasizing hop flavor and forgetting that an IPA ought to be bitter. This beer brings it. Gardina’s has Sculpin in 6-packs for $15.99. Sculpin will make its first draught appearance in Oshkosh Friday at Dublin’s.

Big Eye IPA. An amber beer with a beige head, you’d swear this was an Oktoberfest as it slides into the glass. Then come those hops. The aroma is a pleasing mix of bready malt, lavender and the big-pine scent of American hops. The malt flavor surprised me. I wasn’t expecting it to be so prominent. It’s biscuity and has a fresh-bread sort of warmth about it. Those piney notes of the aroma carry over into the taste where it meets a distinct pineapple note. It’s certainly a hoppy beer, but not in a syrupy, hop-bomb way. There’s balance here you don’t often find in American IPAs. Its a 7% ABV beer with a slight booziness that compliments the warmth of the malt flavor. There’s a lot going on in this ale. I’m looking forward to drinking it again. Gardina’s is selling 6-packs of Big Eye for $10.99.

Congratulations...
To the folks at McKnight & Carlson / Gardina’s. This week the Oshkosh Common Council approved their liquor license application. This gives McKnight & Carlson the green light to proceed with its plan to put a restaurant / taproom into the space formerly occupied by Soirée at 421 N. Main St. The backstory on that is here. And there’ll be more to come on...

A Double Dose of Bitter Beer

And now it’s time for some IPA... If you’re looking to get your hops on this weekend, may I suggest a couple lovely bombers of bitter.

New Belgium Hop the Pond Double IPA
Yeezus, this one surprised me. With a heavy, resinous aroma of citrus and spruce, I was all set for this thing to screw bitterness into my jowls with a vengeance. Not so. For all it’s aromatic roar, the damned thing was gentle as a kitten. A wonderfully soft mouthfeel with a fruity, lemon/lime sorta hop flavor that immediately reminded me of Sprite® soda. The bitterness comes on stronger in the finish, but never quite reaches the punishing climax I kept expecting. I’m not complaining. Rare is the DIPA that makes me want another. This one did.

Hop the Pond Fact Sheet
The Brewery: New Belgium Brewing was launched in 1991. It is an employee-owned brewery with production facilities in Fort Collins, CO. This year the brewery plans to open a second production brewery in Asheville, N.C. New Belgium Produced 792,292 bbls of beer in 2013. It is the third largest craft brewery in the United States.
The Name: Hop the Pond is a reference to the sourcing of the beer’s ingredients, which were grown in Australlia Canada, Chile, England, Germany and the U.S.
Hops: Admiral, Citra, Galaxy, Styrian Dana.
IBUs: 80
ABV: 8.0%
Package: 22oz bottle
Where: Ski’s Meat Market
Price: $5.99

Toppling Goliath ZeeLander IPA
I’ve had several bottles of this over the past three weeks. The last bottle, I jotted down some notes. When I looked at them just now, I thought, well that doesn’t sound very good. But it is. Here’s most of what I scribbled: Gold. Hazy. Pillow white foam. Smells vegetal. Oniony. Light bodied. Fucking creamy! Smells like marijuana. Lots of lacing. Odd flavor. Celery. Grassy. Dandelion? Bitter. Not too bitter. Articulate, ain’t I? Just be happy I left out the crap about my back hurting. I think it’s a brilliant beer. Adam at Gardina’s says people seem to either love it or hate it. Aren’t those usually the best kind?

ZeeLander Fact Sheet
The Brewery: Toppling Goliath Brewing is located in Decorah, IA. The brewery was launched in 2009. This is a small, highly-rated brewery that currently produces approximately 5,000 bbls of beer annually. Oshkosh is one of just a handful of Wisconsin cities that receives Toppling Goliath’s beer.
The Name: ZeeLander is in reference to New Zeeland, where the hops for this beer were grown.
Hops: Nelson Sauvin, Nelson Sauvin and then some more Nelson Sauvin.
IBUs: 80
ABV: 5.5%
Package: 22oz bottle
Where: Gardina’s
Price: $8.99

A Final Word of Encouragement
Bell’s Hopslam began shipping last Monday. We ought to see it hitting the shelves here in town within the next few days. Here’s to your embittered existence!

A Helles of a Beer

Back to the January reset… Bring on the helles....
A fine helles is a thing of understated beauty. The German word for light or bright, helles is a relatively young style of lager beer that originated in Munich at the end of the 19th Century. They range in color from blonde to gold and should be medium bodied and easy drinking. Often featuring a balanced, bread-like malt character these beers are significantly less hop-driven than the European pilsners that inspired them. Low in alcohol, the best examples come across soft and refreshing. It’s a perfect beer for reconditioning your palate over extended sessions of beering.

Right now, we have a few excellent helles up for grabs in Oshkosh. Here’s a trio that I like. We’ll start with a classic.

Augustiner Brau Edelstoff
Straight from the teat, as they say: Augustiner is the oldest brewery in Munich. The brewery can trace its roots back to the 1300s and it still relies on traditional methods such as floor malting and conditioning in wooden casks. Can you taste those things? Maybe.

Pale gold and crystal clear, Edelstoff settles under a blindingly white foam that rapidly collapses into itself. The cracker and fresh grain aroma of pilsner malt leads to a light biscuit flavor that’s mild and pleasing. Slight notes of pepper and lemon come up at the end as the beer eases to a clean, crisp finish. Wonderful! This is an export strength helles, so it’s stronger than most at 5.6% ABV. Get it in 6-packs at Gardina’s for $14.99

Wisconsin Brewing Company Ol' Reliable
You don’t see many American craft brewers producing a helles. In the current climate, I suppose that makes some sense. It’s a difficult style to pull off and it’s not the sort of beer that gets the RateBeer crowd regurgitating piles of hype. But if you can still appreciate the taste of a beer that hasn’t been torqued into a caricature of itself, grab this one.

Ol' Reliable pours deep gold and brilliantly clear with a clinging, creamy head. It has a unique - almost honey-like - malt aroma that leads you to believe the beer will be sweeter than it is. It’s medium-bodied and anchored by malt flavor that reminds me of lightly toasted bread. That bready note gets rounded out by a delicate, fruity bitterness that gathers strength in the finish. I can’t think of a better American-brewed helles. I’m hoping this will become part of WBC’s regular line-up and start showing up around here in cans. It’s 4.8% ABV and you can get it in sixers of bottles at Festival Foods for $7.49.

Hacker-Pschorr Munich Gold
Back to Bavaria. I think I was 13 when I first tasted this beer. I walked off with a bottle of it from a neighbor’s campsite. I loved it then, I love it now. Like the Edelstoff, this comes to us in export strength of 5.5% ABV. It’s a straw-colored lager with a dense cap of foam that holds together nicely. This has the most prominent hop aroma of the three. It gives off a mellow, earthy scent. There’s that signature bready malt flavor again followed by a pepper-like bitterness that quickly dissolves from the tongue, making for an exceptionally clean finish. Kind of like magic. It’s a beer that’ll make you understand why some consider helles to be the ultimate expression of the brewer’s art. It’s on exhibit now at Festival where they sell it in 6-packs for $8.49

Make it a Six Pack
Three more you can check out in Oshkosh… Two of the Kings of this style are Hofbräu Original and Spaten Münchner Premium Lager. Both are exceptional. Problem is, they’re packaged in green bottles, so you run a good chance of getting a dose of skunk embedded in your suds. Both of these beers are sold at Festival where they aren’t helping things any by putting them near the top shelf where panels of fluorescent light can more easily wreak their havoc. Selecting from the back of the shelf sometimes helps.

Then there’s Leinenkugel's Helles Yeah, which you’ll find all over the place. Is this a helles? Helles No. I like this beer quite a bit, but the muddled corporate marketers who pin names on this shit are too clueless to know what they have. Actually, this is the second time they fritzed the name. First time out, it was called Hoppin’ Helles. They had to drop that because folks were bitching about it not being hoppy enough. That despite the fact that it has a hop profile very much like an American Pale Ale. I don’t care what they name it, but they shouldn’t have referred to it as a helles. Modern American Pilsener is more like it. It has that pilsener malt profile, but then it gets the American hopping treatment with a bunch of simcoe and citra dumped in. Tell me, doesn’t that resemble an Americanized version of a Bohemian pilsener? That’s a rhetorical question, of course it does. See what just happened? I invented a beer style. I’m calling it Modern American Pilsener (or MAP, if you’re part of the in-crowd). A few months from now it’ll be all the rage. Or not. I gotta go. I feel a homebrew coming on...

A Quartet of Thrilling Pils

Reset. After a holiday season spent wallowing in pools of weighty, winter brews, it’s time to take a break. Allow your palate to recover its equilibrium. This month I’m going for beers that are easier going. Basic drinkers where the flavors are produced by the unadorned quartet of malt, hops, yeast and water. Pilsener fits that bill.

A true pilsener is a pale, medium-to-light bodied lager that showcases the earthy, bitter flavor of hops. There are a number of variants on the style, but a distinct hop flavor is central to all of them. At the moment in Oshkosh, we have a good selection of genuine pilseners available. Here are four that I like.

Wernesgrüner Pils Legend
This pilsener comes to us all the way from Saxony, Germany and it’s as good a German-style pilsener as you’ll find anywhere. Straw colored with a snow white cap it gives off a lovely, floral hop aroma. The beer is incredibly smooth and easy drinking with a prominent bitterness that lingers and refreshes. Less dry than most German pils, it still encourages you to return to the glass again and agin. At 4.90% ABV you can sink a few of these without too much trouble. A great beer and here’s the kicker: they sell it at Aldi’s in Oshkosh for $5.99 a six-pack. Better yet, it’s fresh. This is one of the best beer deals in town.

Victory Prima Pils
From Downingtown, PA comes what is probably the most highly regarded American-brewed pilsener. A couple glasses of it will tell you why. Yellow/gold with an off-white head, the aroma is of malt flour and lemony, German hops. This beer is several degrees more substantial than your average pils. The beer is full-bodied and malt-rich with a notable bitterness. I love the hop flavor of this beer. At turns grassy and tart, there’s a wonderful complexity to it that culminates in a long, slow bitter finish. Craft beer IPA addicts looking to extend their range should check this beer out. At 5.3% ABV it’s certainly sessionable. And it’s one of those beers that improves the more familiar you become with it. I picked up a six-pack of Prima Pils at Ski’s last weekend for $9.99.

Lakefront Brewery’s Klisch Pilsner
This is a pretty, Milwaukee lager. Golden and hazy it develops a thick head of foam when you pour it down the center of the glass (as you should with a pilsener). Like American craft beer pilseners tend to be, this is more full bodied than most European examples of the style. There’s a pleasant note of fermentation derived sulfur that comes up beside the grassy aroma of Czech hops. The hop aroma carries over into the flavor where it becomes slightly lemony. The finish is clean, yet satisfying. At 5.6% ABV and about 20 IBUs it’s right on the money for an American-style pils. I was impressed by this. I’ve usually enjoyed Lakefront’s beers, but lately everything I’ve had from them has shined. Festival Foods has Klisch Pilsner in sixers for $7.49

New Belgium Blue Paddle Pilsner
Pale gold, with a sticky white head of froth, this beer has just a light haze. I like seeing that. It means they haven’t filtered the thing to death. The scent of Saaz hops comes up like a breeze. It’s a green, new-growth sort of smell that’ll make you forget about winter for a moment. On the draw you immediately get that New Belgium biscuit note that seems to be present in most of their beers. It goes well with the herbal character of the hops. The bitterness is substantial and lingers long after the dry finish. It’s 4.8% ABV and absolutely lovely. I'll buy this beer again, the next time I see it. Blue Paddle is available at a number places around town. I picked up mine at Festival Foods where I paid $7.99 for a six pack.

A Few More Pils
There’s a pack of very good pilseners available around Oshkosh right now. If you’re hopelessly hooked on big beers, check out the  Breckenridge Regal Pilsner at Gardina’s. This one clocks in at 7% ABV and takes all the classic pilsener notes and cranks them up. Probably the best “imperial” pils I’ve tasted.

For the more classically minded, head to Festy. They’re selling Bitburger Pilsner and König Pilsener in 4-packs of pint cans. Both are excellent examples of the style. Festy also has good prices on 6 and 12 packs of Warsteiner Premium Verum, an excellent German pilsener. Prost!

A Couple of Holiday Seasonal Brews

For the December SCENE, I wrote a l-o-n-g column about the history and tradition of Christmas beers. If you’d like, you can read that HERE. Or you can pick up a physical copy at one of these places.

A pack of holiday beers are covered in that article, but as always there were a few beers that lack of space kept me from including. I thought I’d dig into a couple of those today. But first….

I want to mention that the December article will be my last for the SCENE. I’m leaving the SCENE to write for a new Oshkosh publication that will go online early next year. That’s about all I can say about that at the moment, but there’ll be more coming soon. Enough of that, let’s get to the beer…

Winter Welcome by Samuel Smith’s 
I first tried Winter Welcome in the early-1990s and at that time, it seemed like such a big, hearty thing. But in a beer world where 10% ABV ales have become commonplace, this 6% winter seasonal now seems almost quaint. Yet it still holds it’s own. Winter Welcome a true English ale, with all the fruity esters and caramel-malt notes that come to mind when you think of pub ale. It’s a mahogany colored beer with a thin, lingering head and a distinct cherry note in the aroma. The mouthfeel is creamy, the carbonation low. The beer glides over the tongue giving subtle flavors of molasses, plum and toffee. There’s a smooth bittering in the finish that’s almost wine-like in its expression. This isn’t a kick out the jams sort of beer, it’s a well-made ale that doesn’t need to beat you down to make its point. Ski’s Meat Market is selling 4-packs of Winter Welcome for $11.99.

Vixen’s Vanilla Cream Ale by Fox River Brewing
Here’s another beer I’ve been drinking for years, but this year’s version of Fox River’s traditional holiday brew is the best I can recall. I’m not a big fan of vanilla in beer, but this one works for me. Vixen’s Vanilla is a golden, semi-strong ale that comes in at 5.9% ABV. It’s spiced with Madagascar vanilla that immediately presents itself in the aroma. But on the draw that vanilla note merges with the beer’s orange zest spicing to creating a delicious, creamsicle-like flavor. The hops are virtually non-existent, but the beer finishes dry enough to keep its dessert-like sweetness in-check. This is the only time I’ve ever had a beer with vanilla in it, where I’ve craved a second glass. You can grab a glass or growler of Vixen’s Vanilla Cream Ale at Fratellos in Oshkosh.

A Warming Quartet

The December solstice approaches. Nights are growing colder and longer. You’ll need beer that can take the chill from your bones. Here we have four brews currently available in Oshkosh that’ll thermalize your inner being. We’ll start with the beer brewed closest to home and branch out from there. Let's go...

Brewer's Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout by Central Waters Brewing
Yesterday, I ran into two people at different times of the day who told me just about the same thing: this year’s Bourbon Barrel Stout from Central Waters may be the brewery’s best. Black and full bodied, the beer brings together notes of bourbon and vanilla over a base of roast and mocha-like malt flavors. As I sat with the beer it reminded me more and more of a bourbon-dosed dessert cake with a layer of thick icing. The beer is somewhere north of 9% ABV, but its booziness works well with its more lush aspects. Wickedly complex, the beer’s varying elements coalesce into something phenomenal. Get this. Four packs of Central Waters Bourbon Barrel Stout are available at Gardina’s for $13.99

Big Slick Stout by Ale Asylum
Ale Asylum has been brewing Big Slick for years, but this fall was the first time they’ve bottled it. I’d always heard good things about it, but had never had the chance to try it until it hit the shelves at Festival Foods a couple weeks back. It’s as good as I heard it was. Every bit as black as you’d expect it to be, the beer sends up a gush of coffee and roast-malt aromas. The roast part of it comes off almost as ashy, which may not sound especially pleasant, but it is. The mouth is smooth and creamy with a bitter/sweet suggestion of powdered cocoa and caramel flavors. This one clocks in at 7% ABV. Festival Foods in Oshkosh is selling it in 6-packs for $9.99.

3X Mild Ale by Summit Brewing
Don’t let the name fool you. What has come to be known as “mild ale” is a wispy, dark shadow of the beers that were once part of this category. The 19th century milds – and there were a number of different types of mild – were robust and generously hopped. Summit’s 3X Mild takes its cue from those earlier styles of mild.

The almost exaggerated malt flavor and aroma of 3X immediately won me over. It’s all caramel, molasses and toast. Perfectly lovely. The beer features an experimental American hop currently known as Experimental 06300 that’s supposed to give off a chocolate note, but that was lost on me. This is an unabashedly sweet beer with just a touch of bitterness enveloped by malt. It’s 7.2% ABV, but you’d never guess it. A delicious beer. Gardina’s has it in 6-packs for $9.99. If you don’t see it on the shelf, ask for it. Also, look for Gardina’s to bring this in on draught in the near future.

Alaskan Smoked Porter by Alaskan Brewing Company
This beer is a longtime favorite of mine, so I was happy to spot it the other day at Ski’s. Like the name says, this is a smoked porter and the beer represents the best of both parts of its title. The smoke shows itself at every point; from the aroma through the lingering finish. It’s not overwhelming, but it’s not reserved either. It’s just solidly there with a flavorful, savory meatiness that’s wonderful. But what makes the beer work is that at its base is an excellent porter. It has a creamy mouthfeel that delivers a balance of malt flavors with hints of toffee, raisin and char. I’ve had this beer countless times and it never fails to impress. At 6.5% ABV it’s warming without being overwhelming. Alaskan Smoked Porter is available at Ski’s in Oshkosh in 22oz bombers for $10.99.

Have a great weekend and stay warm. Prost!

A Couple of Beers From Our Old Friends at Lakefront Brewery

Jim Klisch, the co-founder of Milwaukee’s Lakefront Brewery, has been romping around up here in Oshkosh recently. He was in town for the Beckets beer dinner last week and was here again on Tuesday for the firkin at Gardina’s.

It’s kind of like old times. Lakefront was among the first microbreweries to bring their beer regularly to Oshkosh. Soon after the brewery opened in 1987, Lakefront beers were going on tap at Oblio’s. At that time, Lakefront was doing their own distribution. Sometimes one of the Klisch brothers would haul the beer up to Oshkosh; other times Todd Cummings or Mark Schultz from Oblio’s would run down to Milwaukee for the beer. We were lucky to get it. In its first full year of operation Lakefront brewed just 89 barrels of beer.

That, of course, has changed dramatically. Last year, Lakefront produced over 33,000 barrels and now distributes its beer in 35 states as well as Canada and Israel. With all that growth, it’s good to see we’re still getting the personal touch in Oshkosh. Here’s a couple of Lakefront brews that’ll go along nicely with our early winter...

Holiday Spice Lager Beer
First brewed in either 1991 or 1992 (I’ve been given conflicting dates from the brewery) the pet name for this beer at Lakefront used to be Holiday Rocket Fuel. The picture here is of the first label for the beer, which they printed at a local copy shop and then applied by hand to each bottle. The label has since been dressed up considerably (personally, I’d like to see the old one revived), but the beer inside is as potent as ever. At 9.4% ABV this is a winter warmer if ever there was one. Holiday Spice is a ruby colored beer with a rich aroma that reminds me of a Christmas fruitcake made with a shot or two of booze. It smells delicious. The beer is brewed with a substantial amount of honey and spiced with cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg and orange peel. The flavor veers towards that fruitier side, somewhat like a doppelbock with spices. The spices and honey are all prevalent, but mellow enough to merge well with the booziness of the beer that comes up in the finish. The mouthfeel is full and lush. Take a couple of these this weekend as you’re freezing your ass off.

Eastside Dark
This has long been a favorite of mine. It’s a simple, flavorful, dark lager that you can drink several of without getting bored, burned out or bombed. Since 1992, this beer has been raking in awards. In 2011, a beer panel assembled by the New York Times picked it as the second best dark lager among a selection of 20  beers of the style from both Europe and America. And just a couple weeks ago, Eastside Dark won gold in the Bohemian-Style Schwarzbier category at the prestigious European Beer Star competition in Germany.

This is a dark beer a few shades short of black that pours under a tan lid of thick foam. Its malty aroma bounces between biscuits and nuts with a wisp of coffee in there, too. The beer is wonderfully quafable with subdued notes of chocolate, coffee and bread crust, none of which are even close to being overbearing even after several glasses. There’s a slight tang from the hops that finishes the beer and urges you to return the glass to your mouth. This is a tasty, easy drinking beer.

Both of these Lakefront beers are easy to come by in Oshkosh, Ski’s Meat Market, Festival Foods, and the Pick n’ Save stores being solid bets. Holiday Spice is sold in 4-packs, Eastside Dark in sixers.

A Couple Ways to Have Fun With Your Mouth This Weekend in Oshkosh

I planned on putting something else up here today. Then I ran into a couple of beers that blew that crap out of the water. Get a load of these...

Bière de Seigle by Door County Brewing
Here’s an edgy saison out of sleepy Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. Actually, while the beer this brewery sells on draught at its tap house is made at its Baileys Harbor brewery, its bottled product is brewed and packaged (using part of the old Peoples bottling line) in Black River Falls at Sand Creek Brewing. Makes sense? Don’t worry about it, this here is an excellent beer. But it took me a few gulps to realize that.

This is not a smooth beer. Its flavors are aggressive and penetrating. It’s a typically cloudy, straw colored, farmhouse ale with a rocky, white head and a yeasty aroma that’s peppery and sharp. And it goes wild in your mouth. The beer presents a wide range of flavors: ginger, honey, grapefruit rind, bubblegum, vinyl, lemon... Does any of that sound good together? You’d be surprised. There’s also an assertive hop bite to it that comes together in a good way with the spicy character of the yeast and the sharpness of the rye malt used here. There’s nothing mellow about this beer, but it’s insistence is wonderful. It took me half a bottle to get the hang of it. By the end, I liked it so much I had to immediately open another. Imagine my delight when I discovered it was 7% ABV.

Door County Brewing’s Bière de Seigle is being sold in 4-packs at Ski's Meat Market in downtown Oshkosh. Price: $7.99.

Twelve-Dog Imperial Stout by Black Husky Brewing
Black Husky Brewing out of rural Pembine, Wisconsin might be my favorite small, Wisconsin brewery. Everything I try from them seems to shine. And thanks to Adam at Gardina’s, Oshkosh is one of the few spots in the state that gets a consistent flow of Black Husky beer. If you’ve yet to get wise to this brewery, this nearly 9% imperial stout would be a great way to get acquainted.

It pours pitch black under a relentless cap of frosting-like foam that’s deep tan. The aroma and flavor are perfectly in tune, the one matching the other note for note. Dark chocolate, sweet caramel, coffee and roast all come swirling together. The mouthfeel is lush, almost slick, and coating. For all of it’s rich flavor, though, the beer is not over imposing. That’s the art of this thing. Too many American craft brewers like to ratchet up this style of beer to a point where it becomes an obnoxious muck in your mouth. None of that here. This stout lacks nothing when it comes to flavor while maintaining a balance that keeps it from being overbearing. It’s a great beer, especially for this time of year.

Black Husky’s Twelve-Dog Imperial Stout is available in 22oz bombers at Gardina’s in Oshkosh. Price: $10.99

Beer From Here & Faraway

We’re flirting with winter, but the beer scene isn’t cooling down any. There are a lot of interesting choices to explore this weekend in Oshkosh. We’ll start with some local brew and head out from there...

Buffalo Mike’s Pumpernickel Rye @ Fratello’s in Oshkosh
Now this is truly an Oshkosh beer. The Society of Oshkosh Brewers teamed-up with Oshkosh’s Fox River Brewing Company to brew this ale. Oshkosh homebrewer Mike Engel supplied the recipe and Kevin Bowen, brewmaster at FRBC, directed the brew day. If you dig rye bread, get in on this one. This beer is always a hit at local beer fests. I’m looking forward to trying it off the big system.

Fox River Brewing Company Barrel-Aged Beers
I had heard that a few barrel-aged beers were on the way from FRBC, but didn’t realize the scope of what they had in the works. This stopped me in my tracks. We have five, new barrel-aged beers to pick from. They’re packed in bombers and you can grab them at either Gardina’s (nice to see a local shop carrying local beer) or at Fratellos. Here’s the list...

Zinful Triple. A 10% ABV golden strong ale aged in a red zinfandel barrel.
Zinful Abbey. FRBC’s Belgian dubbel aged in a red zinfandel barrel.
'Merican Beauty. A Scottish ale aged in a Four Roses Bourbon barrel.
Bohemian Rap. A Scottish ale aged in a Korbel Brandy barrel.
Barrel Brothers. A blend of Fox River’s bourbon and brandy barrel aged Scottish ales.

Where to start? I’ll eventually dip into all of them, but I think my first couple picks are going to be the 'Merican Beauty and the Barrel Brothers. I may not get much done this weekend.

Central Waters Headless Heron
Head to either Gardina’s or Ski’s for bombers of this beer. It’s an 8.5% ABV bourbon-barrel aged beer dosed with pumpkin pie spicing. Consider taking it in with a few gingerbread cookies as a satisfying finish to a weekend feast.

Dos Deschutes Brews
Deschutes Brewery of Bend, Oregon began flowing a limited selection of their beer into Oshkosh last July. Just now we’re starting to see a wider sampling of their wares. Here’s two more Deschutes Brews now available at Gardina’s.

Chasin' Freshies 2014 is a wet-hopped, 7.4% IPA. This year, the hop of choice is mosaic. Here’s the brewery’s hype: “At harvest, we rush the hops from the vine to our kettles to ensure we capture the purest, juiciest essence of the hop flower in every beer.” That either moved your soul or you’re not a hop head.

Deschutes Obsidian Stout. Consistently chosen as one of the world’s best stouts, this beer is legendary. It’s rare you see a beer that’s just 6.4% ABV gain this sort of reputation. Chocolate and roast notes predominate. The creamy mouthfeel leads to an easy, dry finish. At some point in your life, you ought to try this beer.

AleSmith Decadence 2014 Wheat Wine
Ski’s is selling this in foil-wrapped bombers. An incredibly rich, 10% ABV ale that’s meant for sharing. It’s sweet and full bodied with loads of caramel and dark fruit notes. If you’re the patient type, consider picking one of these up and cellaring it for a year.

Germans at Gardina’s
Adam at Gardina’s has recently brought in a number of excellent German imports. A couple of them have blown me away.

Sünner Kölsch. An appellation of the specialty ales brewed in Cologne, Germany, Kölsch beers are pale, light-bodied ales.
Sünner is one of the classic examples of the style. Light gold with a big, pillow-like head, it’s slightly fruity and dry with a beautiful nobel hop aroma. A subtle and great beer.

Julius Echter Hefe-Weissbier Dunkel. A perfect, dark wheat beer. Hazy and deep, deep red, its caramel and banana notes (produced by the yeast) create an absolutely delicious combination of flavors. I could drink this beer every day and never tire of it.

There’s more I’d like to include, but I’m out of time. I just noticed something that I want to point out, though. I didn’t once mention the big-box, corporate stores that, until recently, have dominated the retail beer market here. It just worked out that way. The game has moved beyond those places. The local option has grown significantly in Oshkosh. I’m liking that.