Oshkosh 2021: The Year in Beer

The 2021 Rebound
It's been a good year for beer in Oshkosh. In 2021, the beer scene here rebounded from the wounds inflicted in 2020 by the pandemic. Despite this latest wave of COVID, the future looks more promising than it did at this time last year.

The most tangible element of that promise is the sharp rise in output at Oshkosh's three breweries. By mid-year, total beer production here was up 80 percent. And the breweries continued to gain momentum as this year wore on. The final numbers aren’t in yet, but Bare Bones, Fifth Ward, and Fox River will all break their previous production records this year.

But we also lost a brewery along the way. In September, HighHolder Brewing officially ceased to exist. HighHolder was Oshkosh’s first and only nano-brewery. But its failure isn’t indicative of what's happening here. The brewery’s end was caused by internal issues. It was intentional. It could have been otherwise.

The Beer Garden
The June 9th beer garden in Menominee Park may have been the highlight of 2021.

Menominee Park, June 9, 2021.

It was the first time in 150 years that a beer garden on Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh served local beer. It was an undoing of the dourness that had loomed over 2020. It was a celebration of what had gone missing.

Each of Oshkosh’s three breweries had their beer on tap. The Society of Oshkosh Brewers provided homebrewed beer. It wasn’t enough. The lines were long, and most of the beer ran out an hour before the scheduled end. People enjoyed themselves anyway. It was an encouraging start to what is likely to become a renewed tradition.

The Beer Here
The number of unique beers released here in 2021 is unprecedented. Combined, Oshkosh’s three breweries released over 125 different beers this year. I tried keeping track. By April I had given up.

Fifth Ward’s release schedule has been blistering. It wasn’t unusual to see the brewery release two new beers a week. Most of those were small batches of either fruited sour or flavored IPA.

Like everywhere else, there's a prominent share of customers here who want something different each time they step into a taproom. And they usually get it. But there are downsides to all the variety.

First, when the customers are so intensely focused on the next new thing, there's little incentive for a brewer to develop a beer and make it truly excellent over time. We'd probably have better beer here if there was less insistence on novelty. Second, the recurring hype around new releases leads to its own kind of tedium. When almost everything is “special,” the uncommon becomes commonplace. It leads to an odd, dulling effect.

That said, there were several beers released this year that were authentically unique and worth calling out.

The first of those was released in February by Bare Bones. The brewery’s Native Grisette was the first beer produced by a commercial brewery that was fermented entirely with wild yeast captured and propagated in Oshkosh.

Native Grisette

Bare Bones followed up in April with a barleywine named Inoculator. At 24.8% ABV, Inoculator may have been the strongest beer ever produced by a Wisconsin brewery.

Erin Bloch of Bare Bones with a five-ounce pour of Inoculator.

June saw a collaboration between 10 breweries and a meadery; all of them from our 920 area code. The beer they made was in commemoration of their businesses having survived the shutdowns and restrictions inflicted upon them in 2020. All three Oshkosh breweries had a hand in the cucumber-dosed Kolsch that came out of that project.

Lager beer underwent a revival this year. At Fox River, head brewer Drew Roth released a series of novel lagers that were well received. Included among them were dry-hopped pilsners, and bock beers brewed with honey and chocolate.

Fox River’s Red Ram Golden Bock was released in May.

At Bare Bones, lager beer became a mainstay this year with the brewery turning out a set of distinctive lagers throughout the year. In 2021, Oshkosh Lager became Bare Bones' best-selling beer.

Between Bare Bones and Fox River, there hasn't been this kind of variety in lager beer brewing here since the early 1890s. That was celebrated in November with the release of The Fox and The Hound, a dry-hopped lager brewed in collaboration by Fox River and Bare Bones.

Brewers Drew Roth (left) of Fox River, and Jody Cleveland of Bare Bones collaborating at Fox River Brewing.

At Fifth Ward, their barrel-aged beer program came into full bloom this year. The brewery had more than 40 spirits barrels in production, far and away the most ever employed here. The results were showcased at Fifth Ward's Anniversary party in November. The barrel-aged releases included imperial stouts, barleywines, and fruited sours.

Ian Wenger (left) and Zach Clark of Fifth Ward tending to barrels in September of 2021.

Homebrewing
Homebrewing continues to be the linchpin for the beer scene in Oshkosh. What’s happening here at the commercial level is a direct outgrowth of the city’s homebrewing culture, which continues to thrive.

The Society of Oshkosh Brewers homebrewing club had an active year, and got back to having in-person meetings. Beginning in spring, the SOBs celebrated its 30th Anniversary by brewing beers made from club-member recipes at Bare Bones, Fifth Ward, and Fox River. It was illustrative of the sense of community that exists between the pro-brewers and homebrewers in Oshkosh. That bond is tighter here than in any other Wisconsin city.

SOBs in the Bare Bones brewhouse in May.

This year also saw the election of Scott Westpfahl as the new president of the SOBs. Westpfahl, who has been part of the club since 2006, replaces longtime SOB president Mike Engel, who moved to North Carolina.

Scott Westpfahl (left) and Mike Engel in the brewhouse at Fifth Ward in June.

The Changing Scene
We’re getting deep into a period of transition. The pandemic has accelerated changes that began more than a decade ago. It's become especially pronounced at local taverns.

The beer scene here used to be framed by neighborhood taverns serving beer made by the city’s breweries. That's over. Today, the neighborhood taverns are disconnected from locally made beer. And those neighborhood taverns are becoming fewer every year. This year, the City of Oshkosh revoked the liquor licenses of four more small taverns that couldn't present viable plans for re-opening post-pandemic.

Historic Witzke’s had its liquor license rescinded in June after having been closed for more than a year.
The tavern was built by the Oshkosh Brewing Company in 1902.

Are we headed for a place where brewery taprooms and craft-centric beer bars and restaurants such as Dublin’s, Oblio’s, and Ruby Owl take the place of those dwindling neighborhood taverns? If that’s the trend line, then Oshkosh – with its enthused drinking culture – will need more than three breweries.

The flux is also on vivid display at stores that carry craft beer. The pandemic greatly increased the amount of craft beer going into cans and retailers have yet to adapt to the torrent. Their shelves are packed with high-priced beer cans wrapped in cartoonish labels. Those cans may look good on Instagram, but it looks like clown vomit when they’re huddled on warm shelves with the beer inside turning to sludge. At a mere $24 a four-pack, what’s not to love? I’m guessing this is just another part of the journey; that we are nowhere near anything resembling a destination. One can only hope.

Beer is Culture
Perspective is a hard thing to come by when you're surrounded by what you’re trying to see. With that in mind, here’s something I’ve been thinking about…

It was 50 years ago this year that the largest brewery Oshkosh has ever known went bankrupt and closed. The Oshkosh Brewing Company failed in 1971. Nobody could have seen that coming when the brewery was in its prime. And in 1971, nobody would have imagined that the beer culture here would rebound the way that it has. But now it's grown familiar again. It gets easier and easier to take it for granted.

Fox River Brewing is heading into its 27th year. Bare Bones is approaching its seventh year. Fifth Ward just celebrated its fourth anniversary. The Society of Oshkosh Brewers has been around for 30 years. Then there are places like Oblio’s and O'Marro's, still with us and vital, that were trying to drum up interest in good beer back when that meant nothing to most people here.

This is what it looks like when a beer culture matures and when local breweries make their way into the fabric of a community. But like the Oshkosh Brewing Company, this too will end. Make the most of it!

Oshkosh's Lager-Beer Revival

Oshkosh began as a lager-beer town. Our first breweries were established in 1849 by German-born brewers who filled their barrels with the cool-fermenting lager beers they had learned to brew in their homeland. Those beers were embraced here. Lager styles of beer would remain predominant in Oshkosh until the end of the 20th century. Then craft beer came along. And that meant ale.

With the launch of Fox River Brewing in 1995, ale brewing supplanted Oshkosh's history as a center for lager-beer production. The difference between the two families of beer comes down to yeast, time, and flavor.

Ale is fermented with yeast that prefers warm temperatures; usually around 66º Fahrenheit. Ale is a quick brew often going from kettle to glass in 14 days or less. The process tends to produce a beer with a fruitier flavor profile. Lager, on the other hand, is made with yeast that thrives in a cooler environment; about 50º Fahrenheit. After fermentation, a lager is typically matured for a month or more at temperatures close to freezing. It leads to a beer with a “cleaner” taste allowing the more subtle aspects of the ingredients to shine through.

Lagers have earned a reputation for being more difficult to brew. That's one of the reasons it tends to be ignored by craft breweries. But that's beginning to change. According to Nielsen, a market research firm, the production of craft lagers grew by more than 9% last year, making it among the fastest-growing segments of the beer market. The primary contributors in Oshkosh to that increase have been Bare Bones Brewery and Fox River Brewing.

This month, the two breweries will underscore the trend with the release of a collaboration beer named The Fox and the Hound, a golden-hued, hop-forward lager that will be available at the taprooms of both breweries. For Drew Roth, head brewer at Fox River, and Jody Cleveland, head brewer at Bare Bones, the beer presents an opportunity to demonstrate how compelling a good lager can be.

"I think there's an expectation that lager is just one thing," says Cleveland. "A lot of customers think of it as something that's always light and not very flavorful. It's nice to show that this type of beer can be more than that."

Roth says that at Fox River, that realization is already taking place. "Our customer base is one that still very much gravitates towards darker beers and they tend to understand that a beer like our Oktoberfest is a lager," he says. "So, there's already some knowledge among our customers that lager doesn't necessarily have to be fizzy, yellow beer."

Drew Roth (on the left in dark shirt) and Jody Cleveland brewing The Fox and the Hound.

Cleveland and Roth took a decidedly craft-beer approach when they developed the recipe for The Fox and the Hound. It's an all-malt beer brewed with American malts and Grungeist hops, a proprietary hop grown in Germany. A post-fermentation "dry-hop" addition was used to highlight the notes of peach and passion fruit that Grungiest brings. It's a technique not usually associated with lager-beer brewing.

"We've learned that we really like to dry hop our lagers," Roth says "A little bit of dry hop goes a long way in this sort of beer and it really does amp it up a notch." The approach may be somewhat novel, but it's indicative of the evolution of lager brewing here. Both Roth and Cleveland began their careers brewing ales. That background informs their approach to making lager beers.

"I did not even like lager beer for a long time," says Roth. "I went into craft beer as an IPA hop head. At the time it was really hard to find good lagers. It wasn't until I was in Eau Claire and had Lazy Monk's beer that I started thinking, alright this is pretty good. After that, I went back to homebrewing for a while and immediately started brewing lagers."

Cleveland followed a similar path. "When I started homebrewing, all I wanted to brew was brown ale," he says. "But gradually I started doing lagers and then ended up brewing it quite a bit, mostly historic styles and beers that had been brewed in Oshkosh before craft came along. Now, it's my favorite type of beer, so I would prefer to brew that."

At Bare Bones, Cleveland makes the only year-round lager produced in Oshkosh. The brewery's Oshkosh Lager is an homage to the sort of lagers that were widely produced in Oshkosh for most of the 20th century. "The fact that these beers are selling well helps me justify brewing more of it," Cleveland says.

Roth shares that view. "I mean you have to brew what sells," he says, "and right now the lager beers are selling, so we're going to continue making them. I personally like them a lot, so I'm not disappointed about brewing more of them."

Those Barrels at Fifth Ward

Fifth Ward Brewing Company will celebrate its fourth anniversary on Saturday, November 13 at the brewery's South Main Street taproom. The annual event has grown into a showcase for Fifth Ward's barrel-aging program. This year will bring that into focus with the brewery releasing five barrel-aged beers over the anniversary weekend. They are among the most complex beers ever produced by an Oshkosh brewery.

"We got into barrel aging three years ago," says Zach Clark, who co-owns Fifth Ward with Ian Wenger, where they share the brewing duties. "We're at a point now where it's coming together in a really good way."

Zach Clark of Fifth Ward during a tour at the brewery.

In the world of craft beer, three years is an eternity. But there's no way to rush this sort of thing. The concept sounds simple. A finished beer is racked into a used spirits barrel where it matures and takes on qualities of the barrel and the liquor that had resided there. The actual execution, though, is much more involved.

It all starts with a recipe, or in this case several recipes. "It's never just brewing one batch of beer, putting it into a barrel, then coming back 12 months later and saying here's a barrel-aged beer," Wenger says. "We'll brew three or four completely different recipes, each with a specific quality in mind. One might be dryer and another sweeter. Another might be stronger with more bitterness."

"It's about trying to get the right balance," Clark chimes in. "We're always keeping in mind what we want the finished product to be. In the end, when we get to the blending, we have to have those different flavors to work with to get what we're looking for."

The recipes may be the least of it, though. These are process-driven beers. And it's a process unique to itself. The deviations begin upstream with the wort - the sugary liquid coaxed out of a mash of malted barley and water. For most beer, the wort is boiled for 60 to 90 minutes.

"With these beers, we'll go with a 13 or 14-hour boil," Clark says. "We're trying to thicken the wort, so we boil it down until it’s reduced to the volume we want."

"And you really need that super-long boil to caramelize some of those sugars," Wenger adds. "You need that for color, too. We want that dark-brown, cappuccino-like foam."

Fermenting a wort so thick with malt sugar is no less of a challenge. "With that kind of viscosity you need to pump in a lot of oxygen so the yeast can survive and stay healthy," Clark says. "Otherwise it will just quit on you. We literally have to pump oxygen into the tank during the fermentation to keep it going."

At the end of fermentation, the beers are dark behemoths that can be as strong as 14-percent alcohol by volume. Into the wooden barrels it goes. Over the past year, Clark and Wenger have been working with approximately 40 oak barrels. Their first use was in the production of spirits such as bourbon, rye whiskey, or tequila. About a third of those filled this year at Fifth Ward have been holding bourbon for the past 10 years. Each barrel is topped up with 53 gallons of beer. Then the waiting begins.

The back half of the brewery is the barrel cellar. Stacked four high, the barrels rest in an environment where the Wisconsin weather will add another layer of complexity. "In the summer the barrels up on top will get to be over 85 degrees," Wenger says. "And in winter it will get much colder back there than it does in the front of the building. They go through quite a range of temperatures."

Time is another influence. A full year of aging isn't unusual. "The youngest we've ever pulled was at five months, but that's not ideal," Clark says. "That's not enough time to create the flavors we're looking for."

At the end of September, the barrels employed for this year's batch of beers were brought out of the cellar for a tasting to determine the blends that will create the final beers. It's a heady art, akin to a painter mixing colors to create a specific hue. "We want to hit that right balance using the different qualities coming out of the individual barrels," Clark says.

Wenger pulling samples from the barrels.

"They're all components at that point," Wenger says. "You're looking for the best flavor and you have to build it out of those separate parts."

The extensive process produces a remarkably rich and nuanced beer. Big Willy Style – a blended, barrel-aged barley wine that will be released at the anniversary celebration – has booming notes of bourbon, vanilla, burnt sugar, oak, and raisin. At 16-percent alcohol by volume, it's stronger than most wines and has a depth of flavor that seems inexhaustible.

Until recently, that’s not the sort of beer you'd expect to find in a can. But this year, for the first time, Fifth Ward will release these beers in 16-ounce cans. "It's really what our customers are expecting now," says Wenger.

Both Clark and Wenger are intent on growing their barrel-aging program. "We could probably get this up to 200 barrels," says Clark. "But right now we just don't have the tank capacity to fill that many. We're working on that. This is still just the beginning."

Dringoli Pils

 Bare Bones just released Dringoli Pils. If you’re into lagers, you should get your hands on this one. 

This is an Italian-style Pils, which is a hop-forward sub-style that emerged in Milan, Italy in the mid-1990s. This is the first time the style has been made by an Oshkosh brewery. It was dry-hopped with German Saphir, giving it a wonderful, floral aroma. It’s out now, on draft and in cans.

Barrel Sampling at Fifth Ward

Saturday, Ian Wenger and Zach Clark of Fifth Ward pulled samples from 38 barrels to get a handle on the different flavors being produced in those casks. It was the first step in coming up with blends that will present the best of those flavors. Some of the beer coming out of these barrels will be ready in time for Fifth Ward’s anniversary celebration in November. I'll have much more on that as the date approaches. In the meantime...

Jill's Pils at Fox River

 Here's a beer to check out if you're a homebrewer or a lover of lager beer.

That’s Jill’s Pils and it went on tap this past Thursday at Fox River in Oshkosh.

This is actual Pilsner; as opposed to those washed-out, bland beers that masquerade as Pilsner It was brewed with an American hop named Contessa. This is my first brush with this hop. To me, this is the only American hop that really hits those notes you expect to get from a German noble hop. Now I need to find some for myself.

Woke Cold Brew Coffee Stout

There’s a coffee stout on at Fox River Brewing that’s a collaboration of a different sort.

Woke Cold Brew Coffee Stout

The beer was made by Fox River. The coffee was roasted by Bare Bones. “The coffee was a Peruvian blend at medium roast,” says Drew Roth, head brewer at Fox River. “Dan (Dringolli, owner of Bare Bones) had given me a sample of some and I liked it. Whenever possible, I like to use local ingredients so it seemed like a good fit.”

At the Fox River taproom, Woke is pouring on nitro, but even with that less boisterous gas, the coffee aroma leaps out at you. I could smell it well before the glass reached my face.

To help preserve that aroma, Roth introduced the coffee – 10 pounds of it – on the cold side; treating it like a dry-hop addition. “The coffee itself was added as a whole bean and allowed to cold steep in the cold-crashed fermenter for around a week,” he says.

That process seems to have helped inhibit any of the acrid, bitter flavors you sometimes find in a coffee stout. The beer is exceptionally smooth with the coffee flavor having a sweet, caramel-like aspect.

“The way we added the coffee, as well as how we treated the dark malts, is what I think led to the super-smooth flavor,” Roth says. “The dark malts were also added as cold steep.”

If you’re into coffee stouts you should make a point of getting to this one. It would be an ideal beer for a weekend brunch. In addition to the nitro release, Fox River also now has the standard carbonation version available in bottles.

Woke Cold Brew Stout is 5.2% ABV and pouring in both the dining room and the taproom at Fox River Oshkosh.

The Native Grisette at Bare Bones

Here's the first beer made by a commercial brewery that's fermented entirely with native Oshkosh yeast.

That's the Grisette that will begin pouring when Bare Bones opens its taproom Friday, February 19.

What's a Grisette? It's an almost lost style of Belgian table beer closely related to Saison. Historically, it was brewed to be lower in alcohol than Saison and with a cleaner, more refreshing character. The Grisette at Bare Bones hits the style perfectly. But that's not the surprising part.

What's surprising is that the bright, refreshing character of this beer was produced from a yeast found floating through the air near the south side of Oshkosh. The journey from airborne microbe to beer in a glass took two years.

It began when Jody Cleveland, head brewer at Bare Bones, started harvesting yeast that was lingering about the flora in his yard; which is downwind of the old Glatz Brewery. After capturing what looked like a suitable candidate, he isolated a single cell and then began the process of culturing it. Technically, this is a wild yeast, but don't get the wrong idea. The beer it produced has none of the sourness often associated with American ales made from wild fungi.

The beer itself has all the traits of a fresh, farmhouse ale. There's a distinct pepper note in the nose backed with a hint of clove. It's light-bodied with a crisp, dry finish that's accentuated by an earthy note of Saaz hops. If I had tasted this blind and been told it was made by a Belgian brewery I wouldn't have doubted it for a moment. This is an exceptional ale.

There's one problem here. Because of its genesis, this was brewed as a small batch. There were only two quarter-barrels produced. It will be available only on draft at the Bare Bones Brewery taproom in Oshkosh. No growlers, no crowlers, no cans. Fresh from the tap is the only way to get it. Which, when you think of it, is exactly how a beer like this should be enjoyed.

Wookie Rye Roggenbier

Here's a rare style of ale that went on tap last week at Fox River in Oshkosh.

Wookie Rye is a Roggenbier, otherwise known as a rye beer. This one was made from a mash composed of 60% rye malt. All that rye comes across in a pronounced way. The malt flavors edge their way toward chocolate. People often talk of getting a spicy character from rye but to me, the flavor is closer to that sweet, molasses bite you find in brown sugar. 

The beer has a silky texture and plenty of mouthfeel. At 17 IBUs there's just enough bitterness for balance without it getting in the way. Wookie is 4% ABV, though you'd never guess that. It's a nice beer for this time of year when you want something a little more satisfying without having to down too much alcohol. Definitely a beer worth checking out.

A Bit of Back Story
There's a reason you don't see brewers producing a lot of rye beer. It's because modern brewing equipment doesn't favor the gummy, protein-rich wort that results from mashing rye malt. It makes for a long brew day.

"Runoff was problematic, as you might expect," says Drew Roth, head brewer at Fox River. "The sheer amount of syrup it produced from the proteins was truly impressive, both in the kettle and in the mash tun. The wort could only be described as slick."

That's the modern dilemma of brewing with rye. The flavors produced are rich and complex, but it's just so much damned work.

Prior to the 15th century – when European country brewers were still using wooden tubs for mashing – beers made from rye were common, especially in Bavaria. roggenbier was among the last of the Bavarian ales to have a place at the table in southern Germany. They were almost washed, however, by the 15th-century tsunami of South-German lager. The death knell for Bavarian roggenbier came with the Reinheitsgebot of 1516, which prohibited the use of rye malt in beer (long story short, they wanted to reserve rye as a food source).

So here you have it once again, a true rye ale in Oshkosh. Get it while you can. Oh, about that name, Wookie Rye. It's a hat tip to the Star Wars exhibit now at the Oshkosh Public Museum. Here are Drew Roth's notes on the beer. Prost!

The Year of the Doppelbock

Totes Ma Goats Doppelbock went on draft late last week at Fox River Brewing in Oshkosh.

This looks and tastes like a classic, German doppelbock, but there's a twist. "It features absolutely no imported malts or hops," says Andrew Roth, head brewer at Fox River.  "It is a part of an ongoing side project of mine to find local and US produced ingredients to make European style beers without sacrificing quality." It certainly worked for this one. At 7.3% it's an ideal warmer as we head into winter.

Totes Ma Goats is the fifth doppelbock released by an Oshkosh brewery this year. That’s a record for doppelbock here. Every Oshkosh brewery put out a doppelbock this year. The first three came in March and were poured at the Winter Beer Fest. Bare Bones Brewing, Fifth Ward Brewing, and HighHolder Brewing all had doppelbocks there.

Bare Bones Salvatore, released in March as part of the breweries Heritage Series.

Fifth Ward Struck again in September with a big doppelbock made from with reiterated mash.

And now there's Totes Ma Goats at Fox River. The bocks are back!

Oshkosh's Holiday Beer Revival

A slightly different version of this article appears in today's Oshkosh Herald.

On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in 1998, Steve Lonsway went into the Oshkosh brewhouse of Fox River Brewing Company and did something no professional brewer had done here in 27 years. He made a special beer for the holiday season. The Vanilla Cream Ale he brewed that morning was pouring in time for Christmas. Lonsway, who had been named the brewmaster at Fox River earlier that year, didn’t realize it but he had just taken the first step in reviving a lost tradition that had long been honored here.

Holiday beer in Oshkosh dates back to at least 1913 when Peoples Brewing released a special beer in anticipation of Christmas. The Oshkosh Brewing Company would later follow suit with its Chief Oshkosh Holiday Brew. The seasonal specialities were somewhat stronger than the year-round beers but were offered at the regular price. It was a brewery's way of saying “thank you” to its customers. The highly anticipated beers usually appeared just before Thanksgiving and were often sold out by the first of the year.

Wilhelm Kohlhoff, who was a brewer at Peoples Brewing for much of the 1950s and 1960s, said that Peoples Holiday Beer was a couple of shades darker and slightly stronger than the brewery's flagship brand. “We used a special malt; it was darker, it was a brown color malt, and then what you used was brown sugar, 600 pounds of sugar in the kettle and that makes the beer a different color, too."

The use of unique ingredients to distinguish these beers is still something Oshkosh brewers rely upon. The current iteration of Fox River's Vixen's Vanilla Cream Ale is a deep-golden, strong ale brewed with additions of Ceylon cinnamon, Madagascar vanilla bean, and California orange peel. At 5.9% ABV, the beer is creamy/sweet yet surprisingly drinkable. It's currently available on draft at the Fox River taproom in Oshkosh and in bottles at the brewery and area stores.

At Bare Bones Brewery in Oshkosh, they've brewed their annual holiday beer with ingredients those early Oshkosh brewers would never have dreamt of using. When the brewery's Cookies and Milk Stout was brewed for the first time in anticipation of the 2016 holiday season, the grist included more than 100 pounds of chocolate chip cookies. The milk in the title is a nod to the milk sugar that gets added to the kettle. This year's edition includes honey malt, flaked oats, chocolate, cinnamon, and vanilla to round out the cookie experience delivered by this chewy, 6.3% ABV ale. Cookies and Milk Stout is available in cans at Festival Foods and in cans and on draft in the Bare Bones taproom.

At Fifth Ward Brewing in Oshkosh, they'll release their first holiday-themed beer this year. It will arrive in time for Thanksgiving. "We thought we'd do something a little different and have a pie sour available for Thanksgiving time," says Zach Clark of Fifth Ward. They're calling it Key Lime Pie Frootenanny. Ian Wenger of Fifth Ward describes it as a pastry inspired kettle-soured beer made with lactose, key lime purée, vanilla bean, and graham cracker. "Pumpkin beers are great but there are a lot of great breweries that already make them," Wenger says. "We want to bring the Key Lime Pie to Thanksgiving dinner, instead of the classic pumpkin pie." The beer will be available exclusively at the Fifth Ward taproom.

Key Lime Pie Frootenanny.

When Peoples Brewing closed in 1972 it appeared as though the days of locally brewed holiday beer had come to an end in Oshkosh. But now, almost 50 years later, the tradition is as vibrant as it has ever been. Happy Holidays!

Temp Czech at Fox River

There's been a steady stream of good lagers coming out of Oshkosh lately. Here’s a new one, Temp Czech from Fox River Brewing. This was released on Friday. It’s a Polotmavé; a Czech-style amber lager with a super toasty malt flavor. If you’re into lager beer, don’t miss this one.

Here's the spec sheet from Fox River...

Doppelbock at Fifth Ward

Fifth Ward released its Doppelbock last weekend and it is definitely worth a go. A big, chewy bock with a deep malt flavor. The three-hour boil they put to this thing creates an incredible richness. My favorite beer to date from Fifth Ward. 

The Dortmunder at Fifth Ward

Fifth Ward released a Dortmunder-style lager last week. It's on now at the brewery's taproom.

Fifth Ward's Dort.

Dortmunder is a style of pale lager that's only been brewed in Oshkosh a couple of times. And until now, only at Fox River. The style occupies a thin slice of territory that sits between Pilsner and Helles. It's not as hoppy as a Pils. And it's not as malty as a Helles. Fifth Ward’s Dortmunder manages to deftly thread that needle. But to appreciate this beer fully, it helps to know a little about the story behind it.

Dortmunder Export Lager originated in the late 1800s in and around the city of Dortmund in the north of Germany. Pale lager was just then coming into vogue. In Dortmund, where they'd been brewing ale for centuries, they abandoned the old ways and began producing a pale lager built around the hard water native to the region. It's that last tidbit that helps make Fifth Ward's Dortmunder so interesting.

Fifth Ward brews with Oshkosh water, which has a bicarbonate level on par with the brewing waters used for those original Dortmunder lagers. That hard water shows all through the drinking of this beer. It lends a firmness to both the malt and hop character that immediately presents itself. This beer is just what it should be. If you've had it before, I'd suggest trying it again with the Dortmund backstory in mind. It'll enhance the experience.

This is just the second lager Fifth Ward has produced on its 10-barrel system. Last spring the brewery released a doppelbock brewed on a pilot system. Fifth Ward's Oktoberfest, which was released early in August was the first lager made in the big kettles. And in October, the brewery will release another lager – a doppelbock – that’s going to come off the large system.

And that looks like that'll be the last of Fifth Ward's lager beers for a while. The longer fermentation/conditioning times of these beers has caused the brewery to run into production disruptions and created gaps on their tap list. However, Fifth Ward is looking to increase capacity next year, so perhaps we'll see more lager brewing there after that happens. More to come...

Slushees, Pastry Stouts, and Fruit Bombs. What's Become of Beer?

Why do some breweries make beer and then pump it full of fruit puree, candy, and sugar to create something that tastes nothing at all like beer? The answer becomes obvious if you scroll through the social media pages of breweries that do this type of thing. There's an enthused cohort of drinkers who are aroused by these beers and will pay dearly for them. 

Lion’s Tail Aloha Punch Slushee made with apple, apricot, guava, orange,
papaya, passion fruit, and pineapple. 4-packs were sold for $22.

Over the past year, beers like this have become increasingly common in Winnebago County. At one end of the spectrum are the fluorescent, juice-like beers that are made from light ales blended with fruit puree and other flavorings, such as milk sugar or vanilla. At the opposite end is the pastry stout: a black ale that gets aged upon or blended with dessert-like extracts or ingredients. Chocolate, cookies, brownies, coconut, peanut butter flavoring... Pretty much anything goes.

In either case, you start with something that begins as beer and then gets manipulated with post-fermentation flavoring additions to taste like something else entirely. This isn't altogether new. There's a long history of brewers adding flavoring agents to finished beer. What makes these beers different is their total reliance upon added flavorings. Perhaps more important is that the main flavors of these beers are not made at the brewery where the beer is made. 

The primary flavor of a heavily fruited beer or a pastry stout comes from a food processing plant. The brewer plays no role in the creation or composition of the flavoring agent. It gets delivered to the brewery in jugs, bags, or buckets and then gets added to a pre-existing beer. The point is not the flavor base the brewer made. The point is the flavor of the processed ingredients the brewer purchased from someone else. 

It's an approach that stands in contrast to what has traditionally been considered the brewer's art or craft; that being the ability to create a desirable range of flavors through the transformation of a common set of raw materials. The irony is that these beers, which have so little to do with the actual craft of brewing, are most often the product of so-called craft breweries.

That's not to say that making a palatable fruit-packed beer or pastry stout doesn't require skill. But it's a different, less exacting skill than that of a brewer. The skill is being able to combine those pre-processed flavors in a way that customers find desirable. It has more to do with blending or mixology than brewing. 

Equally important is the marketing. Since these are usually one-off beers there's no need for a brewer to create a product that will have enduring appeal. In fact, it's just the opposite. Novelty is crucial here. The important thing is to induce a sense of excitement that will bring people into the taproom. And to do that you need a name and an image that will arrest the attention of folks scrolling through their Facebook and Instagram feeds. Here's a laser-sharp example of just that.

All the breweries in Winnebago County engage in this to a greater or lesser degree. But three local breweries, in particular, have made these sorts of beers central to their identity: Barrel 41 in Neenah, which produces a steady stream of pastry stouts; Fifth Ward in Oshkosh, which makes both heavily fruited ales and pastry stouts; and Lion's Tail in Neenah, which has been successful with its densely fruited "Slushee" beers.

The first Lion's Tail Slushee was released just over a year ago. The style came to the attention of Alex Wenzel, owner and head brewer at Lion's Tail in early 2019.  It appeared to be a tailor-made solution to a problem Wenzel was then wrestling with.

"There's a lot of new local breweries, but it doesn't seem like the customer base has grown a ton," Wenzel said when I interviewed him in February of 2019. "When you go to a beer event, you see largely the same population at each of the different places." 

One way to expand that community is to lure people who don't much care for the taste of beer by making beer that doesn't taste like beer. This approach to broadening the audience for beer is also not new. It's been going on for decades and finds its ultimate expression in beer-like beverages such as Bud Select 55 and MGD 64. Fruit-thick beers and pastry stouts take a new approach to that project by standing it on its head. Instead of stripping away beer flavor, these beers bury it under a dense blanket of flavors that recall sweet fruit drinks and sugary junk foods.

At first glance, all of this may appear painfully contrived. But this trend didn't just come out of the blue. All of the head brewers in Winnebago County came to their profession from home brewing where the unbridled use of novel ingredients has long been part of the culture. If you've been to a beer festival where home brew was being poured then you know how idiosyncratic the beers can be. For a brewer who learned to make beer in that scene, it's not much of a leap to heavily fruited beers and pastry stouts.

Fifth Ward Brewing in Oshkosh is illustrative in this regard. Five years ago, when Ian Wenger and Zach Clark of Fifth Ward began talking of their plans to launch a brewery, they had already settled on the idea that they would make "culinary" beers that employed ingredients more commonly found in cooking. When Fifth Ward opened in 2017 they made good on that promise by using ingredients like saffron and cinnamon to accentuate the flavor of a particular beer. About a year later, Clark and Wenger began to move away from that approach. That shift has led to the flavored and fruited ales they make today as part of the brewery's Frootenanny series.

"With those initial beers we were using those ingredients more as an accent than as a primary flavor," Wenger says. "But trying to explain that to people was always difficult. And at the time, even that was considered kind of out there. What we're doing now changed the way we brew. Like with our fruited sours, that base beer is brewed to be fruited. The customer has an easier time understanding these beers. When they see these fruited sours they know what they're getting. Like with Tangerine Dream, people expect that it's going to taste like tangerine and vanilla."

That goes to the heart of this entire trend. It doesn't take much knowledge, experience, or effort to process the flavor your tasting in a beer loaded with fruit or chocolate. The taste is familiar, affirming, comforting even. These are beers that promise not to leave you guessing or struggling to identify what it is your tasting. There's no need to develop your palate to enjoy this stuff. The experience is simple and exciting and asks nothing of you. It's the sort of pleasure that would satisfy a child. With alcohol on top.

That level of simplicity permeates the craft beer scene. "When we go out into the market it's much more difficult to sell just a regular beer," Clark says. "It's not what beer buyers are looking for. The flashy beers, the fruited sours, the hazy IPAs, the flavored stouts; that's what they're asking for. Some accounts that's all they're looking for." 

 

For a brewery owner, the choice is stark. Because unless you have the patience, time, and ability to educate your customers about the complexities of beer flavor, you're going to have to give the market what it demands. Small breweries live day-to-day. And they need to sell as much beer as they can right now. Especially now.

That’s not to say the decision doesn't entail risk. Brewer’s who pursue this path grow dependent on the most fickle type of consumer. People who have no special love for beer, but are triggered by sensation and novelty. Holding their interest requires an endless stream of amusements. That’s a shaky foundation to build a business upon. The high attrition rate within the restaurant industry, where this sort of approach is even more common, illustrates how difficult it is to continually drum up that kind of interest.

I won’t try to guess how this will play out locally. But there's a signal amongst all the noise that's probably worth tracking. A number of small breweries in this area appear to be headed to a place somewhere beyond beer. The beers I've mentioned here really have more in common with flavored malt beverages than anything that people historically have considered beer. When a brewery goes in this direction, it's hard to see a path back to where they can maintain a business based on more traditional types of beer. 

None of this is welcome news if traditional beer styles are what ignited and sustain your interest as a beer drinker. If that's the case, you're likely to find that local brewery taprooms will increasingly not be where you go to find what you're after. You may not be the customer they are trying to reach. If you haven't already, you might want to consider home brewing.

Oshkosh Beers to Drink this Weekend

To hell with this shutdown, beer never sleeps. Here’s a trio of Oshkosh’s finest to get into this weekend.

Fox River Houblon de Citron
Fox River is back in the swing of things with the release of Houblon de Citron, a Belgian-style IPA that makes its debut today. HdC starts off with a bloom of citrusy hop aroma spiced with peppery Belgian yeast. The palate has a pillowy, Saison-like quality; there's some raw wheat in here contributing to that. The rustic character quickly gives way, though, to a blush of modern hop flavors. The Lemondrop hops used here seem to stand out. It presents as slightly sweet, sort of like Lemonheads candy. It pairs well with those yeasty esters. This is a fairly big beer at 8.8% ABV, but the alcohol is well hidden and the beer finishes dry. This isn't like those Belgian IPAs that were in vogue about six years ago. This is more like an American Saison. And it's excellent. Fox River is releasing a limited run of wax-finished bombers of Houblon de Citron that will be available for curbside pick-up when the brewery opens today at 4 p.m. More on that, here. And for the true geeks among us, go here, to dig under the hood and see what brewmaster Roth is up to with this beer.

Bare Bones Busch Salvator

Bare Bones recently set up a slick online platform for ordering beer that you can try out here. I’d suggest adding Bare Bones’ Busch Salvator to your cart. This beer was released just prior to the start of the shut down and hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. Full disclosure: this beer is part of the Bare Bones Heritage Series and I had a little bit to do with the recipe formulation. That aside, I think Salvator may be my favorite Bare Bones beer to date. This is a true, mahogany-brown bock beer. There’s a swirl of rich malt flavor here that begins with toast, works up to caramel, and finishes close to chocolate. This is a 6.4% ABV spring warmer ideal for the sort of chilly/damp weather they’re predicting for this weekend. Get the full backstory on Salvator, right here.

Fifth Ward Vanta Black Ale

Since the start of the shutdown, Fifth Ward has been kicking out a steady stream of small-batch brews spiked with all sorts of novel adjuncts. This for example...

And while beer-adjacent concoctions like that are grabbing all the attention, there awaits a wonderful black ale lurking in the shadows. Fifth Ward released Vanta shortly before before Coronavirus hell broke loose. It seems to have gotten lost in the Fifth Ward shuffle. They’re calling it a Black Ale. I’m calling it what it is: a robust porter. It’s black as night with a lush malt flavor that gets put in check with just the right amount of roast and hop bitterness in the finish. By the numbers Vanta is 5.9% ABV with 30 IBUs. It’s a REAL BEER! My faith in humanity has been reaffirmed (for the time being, at least). One of my top three Fifth Ward beers of all time.

C’mon folks, take a pass on Festival Foods and the shitty curation of their beer isle. Hit up your local breweries or the beer coolers at Gardina’s or Wagner Market instead. They’ll appreciate your business a hell of a lot more than the dullards in De Pere ever will.

Red Bread Redemption

This one just went on tap this afternoon at Fox River Brewing in Oshkosh...

It's called Red Bread Redemption and it may be the lowest-alcohol beer from an Oshkosh brewery since the end of Prohibition. It’s 3.8% ABV but drinks bigger with good malt flavor and fruit-like esters. Just the thing when you’re in the mood for a couple of mid-day beers.

Here's the run down from Fox River brewmaster Andrew Roth....

"An easy drinking Session Ale.
The malt varieties create a sweet malty backbone, while producing a beautiful deep amber color. Sterling hops were added to help make the beer balanced, but we made sure not to steal the show from the Vienna base Malt. Expect a Pleasant flavor that resembles fresh baked bread. The bready malt character and low IBUs make for a crisp beer that easily glides on your palate with every sip."

10.8° P Original Gravity
3.7° P Terminal Gravity
13.3° Lovibond
3.8% ABV
17.1 IBUs

The Year in Oshkosh Beer, 2019 Edition

It was another eventful year for beer and brewing in Oshkosh. Here's a look back at 2019 and how the beer scene here continues to evolve.

A couple of Oshkoshers at February's Winter Beer Fest. 

January
HighHolder Brewing releases a Grisette, an obscure style of Belgian beer, at O'Marro's Public House. It’s the first time this style has been produced by an Oshkosh brewery. Like most of the beers HighHolder released in 2019 – and there weren't many of them – this one sells out in a matter of days. Tracking down beer from Oshkosh's only nano-brewery grows increasingly difficult as the year progresses. HighHolder has not released a new beer since June.

February

Bare Bones Brewery holds its 2nd Annual Winter Beer Fest. It features beer from six of Winnebago Counties eight breweries (HighHolder and Emprize are absent). There had never been a previous occasion when so many of the county's breweries had their beer available in a single location. 

Zach Clark (left)and Ian Wenger (center) of Fifth Ward at the Winter Beer Fest.
The hairless one is your humble blogger.

Bare Bones releases Oshkosh Lager, a beer inspired by classic Oshkosh beers such as Chief Oshkosh and Peoples Beer. It soon becomes the brewery's best-selling beer. It's also the first time since Mid-Coast Brewing ceased operations in 1994 that an Oshkosh-based brewery has included a lager as part of its year-round line-up.

Fox River Brewing releases Red Bobber raspberry ale, the companion to its best selling BLÜ Bobber blueberry ale. Fruit-flavored beers have taken hold in Oshkosh in a big way.

March
Fifth Ward Brewing sells bottles of Blueberry-Peach Frootenanny from its lineup of kettle-sour beers. It's the first time since the early 1900s that an Oshkosh brewery has released a sour beer in bottles.

A Fifth Ward bottled sour alongside an 1870s clay bottle from the Leonard Schiffmann brewery in Oshkosh.
The Schiffmann bottle contained a sour, Berliner-style Weissbier.

Fox River Brewing's BLÜ Bobber goes on tap at Miller Park in Milwaukee. It's the first time since 1972 that an Oshkosh beer has been sold at a Major League Baseball stadium.

April

Winnebago County Beer is released. It's the first book to detail the complete history of beer and brewing in Winnebago County.

Bare Bones Brewery's Pawsome Pils wins the Northeast Wisconsin Brew Battles Craft Beer Bracket Challenge. It was an upset win for a pale lager in a bracket heavy with strong stouts and modern IPAs.

May

Historic Oshkosh tavern Mabel Murphy's burns to the ground. It had been a fixture on the local tavern scene since 1890 and was a major player in the Oshkosh beer wars of the early 1900s. It’s later announced that the tavern will be rebuilt on the same site. As of now, there's nothing but an empty pit there.

June

Craig Zoltowski and Jeff Duhacek purchase The Cellar Brew Shop from longtime owner Dave Koepke. Zoltowski is co-owner of Emprize Brew Mill, a brewpub that opened in Menasha in 2017. 

Craig Zoltowski

July

Hidden Valley Hops Farm in the Town of Winchester is up and running. It’s the first commercial hop farm in Winnebago county since the 1880s. Among the hops being grown by Justin Gloede of Hidden Valley are plants transplanted from the site of the former farm of Silas Allen. In the late 1840s, Allen had established the first hop farm in Winnebago County in what is now the Town of Allenville.

Hidden Valley Hops Farm.

August

Bare Bones releases the first beer in its Oshkosh Heritage Series. The series begins with Peoples Beer brewed from the original, 1950s recipe supplied by Wilhelm Kohlhoff,  a former brewer at Peoples.

Wilhelm Kohlhoff

The Granary Brew Pub closes. The restaurant opened in August of 2017 with plans of having a brewery as part of its operation. It never came to be.

Kevin Bowen leaves Fox River Brewing. Bowen had been the brewmaster there since 2009. The new brewmaster is 29-year-old Andrew Roth. 

Andrew Roth of Fox River Brewing.

The Magnet Bar closes. When it opened in 1940, the Magnet was Wisconsin's first teen-age beer bar. It was recently announced that the bar will reopen in early 2020.

September

Both Bare Bones and Fox River produce wet-hop beers using locally grown hops. The Bare Bones beer is made with hops grown at Hidden Valley Hops Farm in the Town of Winchester. Fox River's beer is made with hops grown by Steve Sobojinski in the Town of Nekimi. It's the third year in a row that each brewery has produced a wet-hop beer. It's the first time they've both used locally sourced hops.

The hop harvest for Fox River’s Big Ed’s Hopyard Ale.

Iconic south side bar Witzke's closes. Built by the Oshkosh Brewing Company in 1902, the closure is symbolic of the plight of Oshkosh's "neighborhood" taverns.

Witzke's in the early 1980s.

October

The Society of Oshkosh Brewers hosts its annual Cask and Caskets Homebrew Event for Charity. The festival, composed entirely of homemade beer, cider, mead, and wine, remains the only event of its kind in Wisconsin. The festival nets $7,000 for the Winnebagoland Hunger Network.

Through the first 10 months of 2019, overall beer production in Oshkosh is up 7% compared to 2018. Nationally, growth among craft brewers is up 4%. The largest producer in Oshkosh remains Fox River, accounting for more than half of the 1,994 barrels of beer made here through the end of October. Fifth Ward is Oshkosh’s fastest-growing brewery with production up 31%. Production numbers for all of 2019 will not be available until February.

November

Fifth Ward Brewing celebrates its second anniversary with the release of the first set of beers from the brewery's barrel-aging program. The endeavor includes beers aged in spirits barrels and sour beers conditioned in wood.

Barrel aging at Fifth Ward.

Oshkosh Bier and Brewing - in planning since 2016 - fails in its bid to secure a city-owned property in the 700 block of South Main Street. The vacant land there is part of the Sawdust District. After the announcement, Oshkosh director of community development Allen Davis says he'd still like to see more breweries in the Sawdust District. “We have Fifth Ward, but it would help to have a second or a third,” Davis said. “It would help to make Oshkosh a destination.”

December

Bare Bones releases White Paw and becomes the first Oshkosh brewery to release a hard seltzer.

At the end of December, Oshkosh’s four breweries have combined to produce well over 100 unique beers. Never in the city’s long history of brewing has the number of different beers made here approached that amount. Fifth Ward, which has clearly had a breakout year, is the leader in this category having released more than 50 unique beers in 2019. BLÜ Bobber is once again the most widely distributed and best selling beer produced by an Oshkosh brewery.

And now it’s on to 2020. Let’s hope it’s a good one filled with plenty of good beer. Happy New Year, and thanks for reading the Oshkosh Beer Blog. Prost!