Madison Beer Review

I'll Bet You Can Guess That Consolidation Is Kind Of A Big Issue These Days

2013-02-28T05:30:00.000-06:00

In what seems like piling on, Marketplace* is now reporting that 2012's 4th Quarter profits are down and Anheuser-Busch is being sued by multiple plaintiffs over misstatements of alcohol content.

While it's great news that profits are down at A-B [ed note: it's not actually great news, we have many jobs here in WI that are dependent on A-B] [author's note: OK, fine, Mr. Editor, it's not great news for those folks, but for those of us that believe in craft beer and the craft beer industry it is further evidence that the good guys are winning], the more interesting news is the three lawsuits over alcohol content.

If true, this means that the worst fears of the craft industry are coming true. It means that the naysayers about the InBev deal were right. For a company like A-B that, whether you like their product or not, has always had product integrity, the merger with InBev has indeed muddied those waters (so to speak).

The suits allege that A-B is watering down its beer and that A-B is not using independent testing facilities to verify alcohol content claims. A-B is stating that the content claims are accurate enough and that they use standard industry practice (basically, complex math) to derive the alcohol content based on known data and process inputs.

We (MBR) actually discussed this a couple of years ago on a piece about High Gravity brewing. High gravity brewing is relatively common, particularly amongst larger brewers. Because of process efficiencies it is cheaper and easier to brew a moderately high-alcohol-content version of a beer and then water it down to suit the appropriate alcohol content and taste profile. I know. It seemed sketchy to me at first, too. But I've been assured by people way smarter than me that if it's done correctly you (the consumer) would never know the difference.

But, if, as the suits claim, A-B is adding a little more water to the process or using the same calculations but with different (read: cheaper/less efficient) ingredients, no craft brewery will ever again stake their brand and reputation on selling out to a macro. This will make purchases of regional or small national breweries, like Goose Island, far more difficult and will make entry into craft that much harder for SAB-Miller/AB-InBev in the future. While you might cheer this result, I would argue that these business sales provide viable exit strategies for breweries and their investors and help to promote a healthy craft brewing industry. Losing these sales could stifle investment in breweries and slow the growth of the industry.

I'm Not Dead Yet

2013-02-20T05:30:00.000-06:00

Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!
I'm not dead yet.
Be quiet! Here you go.
There, he says he's not dead yet.
Yes he is.
I think I'll go for a walk.

As if the programming folks over at NPR are reading MBR, they ran a piece on Tuesday about the number of brands owned by AB-InBev and SABMiller (answer: 210). It includes the graphic shown below.

Wisconsin's Best Beer Guide - Kevin Revolinkski

2013-02-13T05:30:00.000-06:00

Disclaimer: The author sent me a review copy.

Even without the review copy though, really, my opinion wouldn't change. Wisconsin's Best Beer Guide is the most essential beer-and-travel guide for the State of Wisconsin. Period. If you don't own it, you should. It's been updated recently and contains all of the latest breweries in the state as of 1/1/2013.

Show the book at any brewery in the book and get a free beer. It'll pay for itself after about 3 breweries. Heck, you probably don't even have to leave your town/city to get your money's worth.

But, it's best use, for me at least, is as a handy companion for when you find yourself traveling and have some time to kill. Go up to Ashland to meet your family for the weekend? Pull out the guide and find out all of the breweries in the region. Find yourself in La Crosse for business conference and want to grab a beer with some new-found acquaintances? Pull out the guide and be the hero. Trying to go to every brewery in the greater Dane County area? This is the definitive list.

It's about the best $12 you'll spend on beer in Wisconsin.

Hint: If you're looking for a last-minute Valentine's Gift what better way to say "I Love You", than "Here's a whole book of free beer"?

Speaking of Big Beer Oligopoly

2013-02-11T05:30:00.000-06:00

Another article on the attempts by SAB/InBev to consolidate market share. This time it's US News & World Report reporting on the attempted merger of AB and Grupo Modelo (Corona).

Says Jim Koch (Boston Beer), "I don't see them as trying to deliberately set out to destroy us. But we are very potentially the collateral damage." Sam Calagione (Dogfish Head) agreed: ""The success or failure of a beer should depend on how great that beer is… instead of artificial restraints to distribution ..." Koch gives some insight into how this works: "[AB and Miller] are [hiring category space analysts], they [say to a store]: 'We can do that for you,' ... And then they can take my beer from eye level to the top shelf, which drops my sales rate in half. ... We work very hard to get our beer into a sports venue, and then when the big brewer realizes we got in there... they buy out the bowl, and then we're gone."

Everyone's favorite craft-ish beer, Leinenkugel's even makes an appearance: "But brewers like New Belgium may have a reason to be upset with big beer. One of the most bitter complaints of craft brewers is that big beer wins consumers by introducing beers whose names resemble the names of actual independent beers. After New Belgium came out with a popular beer called Sunshine Wheat, MillerCoors, through its Leinenkugel brand, came out with a beer called Sunset Wheat. The beer even had a similar yellow label, which says that the beer is 'carefully brewed by the Leinenkugel family for five generations.'"

For what it's worth, I'm not entirely convinced that Koch isn't just a little Chicken Little. Is "Budweiser Black Crown" condescending and ridiculous? Sure. Is Sunset Wheat an attempt to cut into Sunrise Wheat? Maybe. Is playing shell games with shell companies petty and misleading? Yeah.

But at the end of the day, Black Crown will never be confused for 1554 or Dark Horse Schwarzbier. These "craft-ish" beers are gateways to a greater world. Someone who tries Black Crown and realizes that "dark" beer doesn't have to be heavy and can have great flavor might be less intimidated stepping into the local brewpub or checking out something that isn't at eye-level in the supermarket. Craft beer didn't die when Bud introduced Budweiser American Ale (or whatever the heck it was called). Craft beer won't die with Black Crown either.

Not Entirely Sure If We're Back Or Not

2013-02-08T05:30:00.000-06:00

You may have noticed that this site has been conspicuously silent lately. Thanks to Joe, you've gotten some great homebrewing advice, but apparently my last post was sometime in October. The end of last year and the beginning of this year has been a bit busy and writing for MBR had to be put on the backburner. It's hard to say right now whether and with what regularity I will be able to continue to post, but will just say that I am going to try.

So, a few things that have happened since October?

Well, let's see ...

New Breweries: One Barrel Brewing Co. is taking hold here in Madison. And, the opening of Karben4 in the old Ale Asylum space. Speaking of which, the new Ale Asylum space is now open. Over in Oconomowoc, ex-Grumpy Troll brewer Mark Duchow is getting comfortable at Sweet Mullets Brewing Co. Of course, Capital Brewery has a new brewer, Brian Destree who has spent many years working on MillerCoors' Leinenkugel brands. Of course, their new brewer is courtesy of Kirby Nelson leaving Capital to join Carl Nolen at Wisconsin Brewing Co. And, speaking of ex-Capital brewers, Tanner Brethorst has opened Port Huron Brewing Co in Wisconsin Dells. There's probably a few that I'm missing and I'm sure you'll let me know in the comments.

There's also rumblings of several other new breweries opening in the Madison area. Including a potential new nano-brewery in the Schenk-Atwood area of Madison and crowd-brewing innovators MobCraft, not to mention numerous others trying to get open around the state.

News: Finally, I'll leave you with this piece by Denis Wilson for CNN Money. It is perhaps one of the best pieces in mainstream media about the rise of craft beer and how the macros are trying to co-opt it for themselves. Give it a read.

What's noteworthy about these forays into the craft segment is the way these brands are purposely distanced from their Big Beer parents. You won't find the Coors name on a bottle of Blue Moon. Rather, you see the name Blue Moon Brewing Company. The same goes for a bottle of Anheuser-Busch's Shock Top. To distance their craft products from their billion-dollar household brands, the big brewers have gone so far as to create separate divisions to house their specialty brands: MillerCoors has created Tenth & Blake Beer Company while Anheuser Busch (BUD) has the Green Valley Brewery.

...

Obfuscating the parent company behind a beer denies a drinker the right to exercise that choice [of whether to consume beer from a particular manufacturer or parent company]. However, Tom Cardella, the CEO of Tenth and Blake, doesn't see the issue this way. In addition to the Blue Moon brand, Tenth and Blake houses Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company, Crispin Cider, as well as imports such as Peroni and Pilsner Urquell. "There's a lot of chatter about it within the industry but, at the end of the day, I really don't think it's a big issue. These businesses are marketed differently, they're targeted differently against consumer segments within the marketplace."

...

"Anheuser Busch can snap their fingers and the distribution network will get it on shelves and get it on tap handles and knock off other brewers who have been on those tap handles," says the Brewer's Association's Gatza. "In an ideal world, those decisions would be made by the beer drinker…."

Five Gallons At A Time: Draught System Balance

2013-02-04T05:30:00.000-06:00

The Brewers Association Draught Quality Manual is a great resource, but using its resistance values to size my home tap lines resulted in slightly higher flowrates (and therefore more foam) than the manual's target. It's possible that my CO2 pressure gauge is inaccurate, but that would fall short of the scope of this post. My next idea was that most draught systems are designed to serve beer at 38 degf, and my elevated serving temperatures could lower the resistance of my tap lines by reducing the viscosity of the beer. Having a degree in aerospace engineering, there were periods in my life when I understood fluid dynamics - usually about two weeks before and after each exam - so I decided to derive the resistance values myself.

My quest for information led me to this weblog post. Essentially, the author used the same approach as me to improve his draught balance calculations. Unfortunately, he assumed that vinyl tubing was perfectly smooth and that beer at serving temperature had the same viscosity as water at room temperature. No wonder his calculated resistance for 3/16" ID vinyl tubing was only a third of the Draught Quality Manual value. The author of this post equated the viscosity of beer with the viscosity of water at 38-39 degf and assigned a non-zero roughness value to vinyl tubing, which are both steps in the right direction, but he didn't explain the rationale behind his chosen roughness value. In addition, he marginalized the impact of a keg spear (for a corny keg, it's like adding two feet of 1/4" OD stainless tubing to your tap line) and faucet shank (not a big deal for most home draught systems, but it's often a major source of restriction for commercial setups). Although I question their assumptions, both authors explain the math well and I'll spare you the drudgery of repeating it.

In my calculations, I assume the dynamic viscosity of beer at a given temperature equals the dynamic viscosity of water at the same temperature x 1.7 / 1.002 lb-s/ft2 (the value for beer is between the lager and stout values in Malting and Brewing Science, Volume 2 by Hough, Briggs, Stevens and Young, and the value for water is from the same paragraph). To correlate viscosity and temperature, I used the values from this website. At typical serving temperatures, the dependence of viscosity on temperature had a smaller impact than I expected. It wasn't zero, though, so it was worth investigating. On the other hand, researching the surface roughnesses of vinyl tubing, barrier tubing and stainless tubing was a total dead end. Defeated, I fudged the values by (1) driving the calculations for serving beer on my home setup at 14 psig and 44 degf to require 6" more 3/16" ID vinyl tubing than the Draught Quality Manual and (2) making my calculations match the performance of Ale Asylum's downstairs draught system, which uses all three tubing materials. If you're wondering why I don't just use the same resistance values as draught technicians, the taps at Ale Asylum were designed to pour beer at 2 fluid oz/sec but actually operate around 2.4 fluid oz/sec. Like my home tap lines, the resistance assumptions were too high and I suspect the same is true of many commercial draught systems.

My assumptions will probably change as I acquire more data points, but here's how my current resistance values (in psi/foot) compare with the Draught Quality Manual for a flowrate of 2 fluid oz/sec and a temperature of 38 degf:

By design, my value for 3/16" ID vinyl tubing is slightly lower than the manual's. From there, the two sets of values diverge as diameter increases. For barrier tubing, my values are higher than the Draught Quality Manual. In fact, if my viscosity assumptions are reasonable, the manual's numbers for barrier tubing aren't physically possible. Stainless was hard to compare because OD is a terrible way to describe draught tubing. A given OD can have a wide range of IDs that depend on wall thickness, and the differences can profoundly influence fluid flow. For what it's worth, I assumed a wall thickness of 0.020". If you'd like to examine the math behind these numbers, you can download it in spreadsheet form at the usual place. The file name is Draught_Balance.xlsx.

Five Gallons At A Time: Stir Plate Yeast Growth

2012-11-19T05:30:00.000-06:00

If you're not familiar with the work of Kai Troester at Braukaiser.com, I suggest you catch up and keep up. His pursuit of brewing knowledge is academically rigorous, and he doesn't give free passes to conventional wisdom. I don't think his experiments are perfect, but he's currently doing more than anyone I can think of to explore new territory in brewing science in ways that are relevant to home and craft brewers.

A month and a half ago, he wrote an article about yeast growth (here) that destroyed the credibility of my calculations for stir plate starters (based on predictions of the Wyeast Pitch Rate Calculator, I had simply taken the growth rates of non-stir plate starters and multiplied them by 2). His experimental results were all over the map, though, so I didn't feel comfortable adopting his conclusions (which are presented here) or drawing my own conclusions from his data (which I did with his mash pH experiments).

While digging into the typical growth rates of large-scale commercial yeast propagators, I came across the following two articles in the MBAA Technical Quarterly that either discuss a pair of overlapping experiments or refer to the same experiment:

-"Yeast Management Under High-Gravity Brewing Conditions" by Mike Cholerton (2003).
-"Control of the Yeast Propagation Process - How To Optimize Oxygen Supply and Minimize Stress" by Olau Nielsen (2005).

The articles deal with batch-fed propagations where oxygen is continuously added via mixing, which are essentially large-scale versions of yeast starters on stir plates. Both articles mention that big commercial operations typically limit their propagations to final cell concentrations of 100 million cells per mL to maximize yeast vitality, which most homebrewers lack the means to do, and imply that letting their experimental propagations continue beyond that point resulted in final cell concentrations around 170 million cells per mL. The Cholerton article also stated that his experiments were carried out with 12 Plato wort, which means that the final cell counts of the non-arrested propagations were around 1.35 billion cells per gram of original extract.

It could be the case that Kai is mistakenly focusing on new cells created per gram of extract instead of final cell count per gram of extract, but I suspect that both considerations - and countless others - contribute to how life actually behaves. I also feel that if the experimental data represents reality, i.e. sample sizes are significant and measurement errors are minimal, mathematical analysis will take both approaches to the same endpoint. With that in mind, I like the simplicity of "if I want X billion cells, I need X/1.35 grams of extract in my starter" and I'm currently using that calculation in my brewing spreadsheets.

However, the assumption is invalid for high pitch rates (i.e. lots of yeast in a small volume of starter wort). According to Yeast by Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff, which I very much trust (it's Jamil's leap from the book's data to his stir plate calculations that Kai doesn't trust, and I agree), pitching 100 billion viable cells into a 500-mL starter with an OG of 1.036 - which contains 47 g of extract - will result in a final cell count of 112 billion cells. To achieve the same cell count with a stir plate, I'd predict an extract requirement of 112 / 1.35 = 83 g. Knowing that adding a stir plate should never increase the required size of a starter, and acknowledging that Chris White's left foot knows more about yeast than I do, the band-aid I applied to my stir plate calculations was to simply defer to the book's predictions in those instances. I'm fine with that because oxygen is probably not a growth limiter when there's so little extract.

In the long-term, I hope to perform a series of experiments in the Ale Asylum lab that will complement Kai's work and hopefully make us all smarter. It's not going to happen until our bottling line is operational and production settles into a comfortable routine, though, so I may have to wait a while.

Wisconsin Conquers Denver

2012-10-17T05:30:00.000-05:00

The Great American Beer Festival was held this past weekend in Denver, Colorado. Lots of people attended, mass quantities of beer were consumed. Awards were handed out. The following awards were handed out to Wisconsin-based brewers.

Gold Medals:
Point Oktoberfest - Steven Point Brewery (American-Style Amber Lager)
Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale - Stevens Point Brewery (Field Beer or Pumpkin Beer)
Hometown Blonde - New Glarus Brewery (Bohemian-Style Pilsner)
Uber Bock - Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co (German-Style Dopplebock or Eisbock)
Fourteen Fourteen - Central Waters Brewing Co (Wood and Barrel Aged Strong Stout)

Silver Medals
Staghorn - New Glarus Brewing Co (American-Style Amber Lager)
Fixed Gear - Lakefront Brewery (American-Style Amber/Red)

But the big winners were Great Dane Pub and Brewing Co and its head brewer Rob Lobreglio who won Brewpub Goup and Brewpub Group Brewer of the Year. Congratulations to everyone involved at the Great Dane!

ps.
And Miller won some awards for Miller Lite, Mickey's Malt Liquor, and Leinie's Summer Shandy

Capital Brewery Looking For New Brewer

2012-10-10T05:30:00.000-05:00

To cap off an event year (or years) for Capital Brewery, add "Head Brewer" to the list of problems. Kirby Nelson, formerly of Capital Brewery, will (re)join Carl Nolen at the new Wisconsin Brewing Co down the street in Verona.

Whether this is a good move, a good brewery, a good idea, only time will tell. I like Carl. I like Kirby. 300,000 barrels is a LOT of beer (indeed 3 times the size of New Glarus - or a little smaller than the size of Leinenkugel's). Wisconsin Brewing Co will instantly become the second largest brewer in the state and one of the 10 largest craft breweries in the country. How they will accomplish that is anyone's guess. But, if I were to guess, it will be heavy marketing of light lagers, combined with aggressive pricing. Presumably, by hiring Kirby, they are signaling that the intent is that Wisconsin Brewing Co be a craft brewery. But the sheer scale of the enterprise makes that a difficult business proposition to say the least.

Doing this without becoming (or being) Minhas, will be a challenge. Regardless of the technical competency of the folks in Monroe - all great people, I am sure - the reputation and flavor profiles of the output from Minhas leave a lot to be desired.

Meanwhile, Capital is left holding the proverbial bag. A difficult, highly custom brewing environment. A fractured and indifferent customer base. New management.

Sixpoint Brownstone

2012-09-24T05:30:00.000-05:00

I have to admit that I'm not a fan of brown ales. Never have been. I love English Porters. I love Ambers/Reds. But the brown, nut or otherwise, have never been a great love. In fact, they have been the opposite of love. The brown ale is one of those styles that I've just never been able to get with. But, like many styles that I don't like - I keep trying them anyway, because you never know.

So, when I was out the other night and met the Sixpoint rep, I was excited to try the Sixpoint Crisp (a pilsner much in the style of the inimitable Victory Prima Pils). Jake (that's the name of the Sixpoint rep, by the way) then recommended that I try to the Brownstone. While I reluctantly obliged, I warned him that I'm not a fan of the brown ale.

At the time I had a sampler glass, so I had a sample. I can happily report that I was pleased with the results. Surprising not only Jake (who, really, wasn't all that surprised) but me.

Sixpoint Brownstone
BA(89). RB(91).

Appearance: A healthy, dense, tan foamy head sits regally on a body of tanned leather; the lacing is very pretty.
Aroma: I could smell the hops and brown sugar as it poured out of the can. The typical American aroma hops are front and center while the malt slips through cracks and smells of ginger snap cookies and multi-grain bread
Flavor: The hops are, again, front and center but the malt sweetness, caramel flavors, and slight nuttiness come through strongly in the finish
Body: A nice strong medium-ish body, the finish is a mixture of the hoppy resin and the caramel malts which leaves a nice, sweet, residual flavor but is never cloying
Drinkability: A typical fall-time beer; you probably aren't going to drink 8 of them, but 3 of them while gathered around a bonfire is certainly within the realm of possibility
Summary: Finally! A brown ale I can get with! This will definitely be in a regular rotation, and would fit right in with some of my other favorite fall and winter brews such as Surly's Furious, Bear Republic's Black Bear Stout, and Augustiner Doppelbock.

Five Gallons At A Time: Turbid Mashing

2012-09-21T05:30:00.000-05:00

I don't have the vengefulness or organizational skills to maintain a list of pending threats, but I do remember them occasionally. Like this one about turbid mashing (side note: a follow-up on my daughter is here). Mwahahahaha!

When I brewed my first lambic in the summer of 2011, I used Wild Brews as my guide. The book is great, but feeding its turbid mashing instructions to my calculations resulted in wildly different mash temperatures:

Book Me

113 degf 113 degf

126 degf 149 degf

149 degf 172 degf

162 degf 182 degf

172 degf 181 degf

I ended up following the book's strike volumes but ignoring its strike temperatures, and I'm glad I did. By trusting my math and adjusting my strike temperatures accordingly, my mash temperatures turned out very close to the book's recommendations. The only issue, which I've had with both of my batches to-date, has been removing enough wort from my mash tun for the first stage of enzyme destruction. In both cases, I tried a bunch of methods before settling on pressing down on the mash with the lid of a wide pot and pouring the pooled wort into the auxiliary kettle. The first time, it was simply messy and frustrating. The second time, it was messy and frustrating and my final lauter got stuck. Next time, I'm going to ignore the book's strike volumes and dough in with enough water to perform all of the lauters without special equipment. My turbid mash calculations (Turbid_Mash.xlsx at the usual place) are already configured as such, but you can adjust the rests if you want to be a hard traditionalist.

Aside from reading Wild Brews and using my mash calculations, my only other recommendation is to heat the wort in your auxiliary kettle as quickly as possible. The goal of turbid mashing is to ensure that your final wort is starchy, and having the wort in your auxiliary kettle spend too much time at starch conversion temperatures will defeat that purpose. I may have made that mistake with my second batch, but time will tell. For what it's worth, my first batch tasted like flat Cantillon Gueuze after a year in a carboy. Much better than I expected! If the second batch doesn't turn out as well, I'll keep it out of my gueuze blend and either find another use for it or dump'er in the name of hack science.

No, Seriously, It's Not A Joke

2012-09-19T05:30:00.000-05:00

What do Portland (OK, technically Eugene) hipster brewers do to be more hip than Portland hipster drinkers? Make Midwestern beer.

End of Summer Summer Beer - O'So 3rd Wheel

2012-09-03T05:30:00.000-05:00

O'So has a new bottle on the shelves called "Third Wheel". The label has a picture of some "dude" (you can tell because his O'so hat is backwards) doing an endo with a three-wheel bike. The yellow, orange, and red label calls it a Belgian-Style Blonde.

I like blondes (the beer, not the girls; I mean, I like blonde girls, too, but Mrs. MBR is not such a girl); or, I like the theory of blondes. In practice, I find I'm not as big of a fan as I think I should be. So, why? Well. I like flavorful light beers. The English Mild, the Kolsch, and the Pilsner are among some of my favorite styles. But I also like my beers dry. And American-ized versions of Belgian beer tend to be very sweet.

This is strange, but I think there's a few reasons for it. First, and I'm sure some technocrat will correct my horrible science, I think we over-do the "Belgian-y-ness" (is that a word??). In other words, Belgian beers, from Belgian, rarely taste like Americans think they do or make them as. Maybe it's our weird adherence to "style" maybe it's the fact that we only have access to a small (very small) handful of "Belgian" yeasts. But, most American-Belgian beer tastes the same to me; American Tripels often taste like little more than "Imperial Blondes". Whereas, Belgian beer rarely has the sameness that Americanized versions exhibit.

So, all of that is a weird introduction to a beer I haven't tasted. But, I do keep trying American Belgian Blondes because, well, I want to like them.

O'So 3rd Wheel
BA (NA). RB (NA).

Appearance: Poured into a classic tulip glass, the head disappeared before I could get the bottle turned upright, but for a brief moment it was white and foamy; otherwise, a dull straw color in the glass with decent clarity; barely noticeable carbonation
Aroma: Strawberries and peaches are first, followed by a slight bread crust aroma
Flavor: Bright and flavorful with hints of strawberries and raspberries, a mild aged grassy hoppiness is definitely present
Body: light, but does retain some sweetness in the finish
Drinkability: it would be way too easy to drink a six-pack
Summary: I'd like a little more carbonation to break up the sweetness, but it is definitely not overly sweet and cloying like what I mentioned above; while I like the six-pack I have, I probably won't rush out to buy another (it didn't grab my attention that much), but I'd definitely not shy away from telling someone they should grab some and would more than happily drink more!

Hops and the Weather

2012-08-30T05:30:00.000-05:00

James Altweis posted a great read over at the Gorst Valley Hops blog. You should read it.

Okay...so the sea ice is melting and the glaciers are thinning out. The sea is becoming less salty and ocean currents are fluctuating. We knew this would happen based on the hotly debated data sets over the last 10-15 years.

What we didn't anticipate is the RATE at which this would happen. In the last 2 years the globe has experienced the beginning of nearly every predicted change outlined in these data...except that it was to happen over the next 50-100 years.

The gist of James' article is a very salient one. Hops are not exactly the most resilient and tolerant plant out there. Indeed, while hops do grow wild as a weed in some places, growing them on a commercial scale is not easy.

If you'll recall, a few years ago (2007-ish) there was a hop shortage and prices for hops were all over the place. Most of the blame, at the time, was put on craft brewers and the sudden surge of hoppy beers. This impacted in bottom line and made the price of beer go up [ed note: I noticed that when hop prices decreased, the cost savings weren't exactly passed on to the consumer].

As I understand James, you can expect the prices for hops to be all over the place in the next few years. Indeed, if I think I understand James correctly you can expect the prices for hops to be all over the place for the next ... well, forever.

Translating that for you, Mr. and/or Ms. Beer Drinker, you should expect to see beer prices continue to increase.

Yes. That's right. I'm a genius. I predicted that prices for beer will increase.

But, more particularly, the availability of some hops that simply aren't as drought resistant will be extremely limited. So, which hops are more drought resistant? Well, we can start with the proprietary, ~~genetically modified~~ selectively bred, hops (Amarillo, Citra, etc.). But not anyone can grow these patented hops; you need a licensed rhizome. Moreover, the patent holder often also insists on being the sole source of processing and distribution for the hops once they are picked.

So, if we keep going down this rabbit hole: the hops most likely to withstand drought are those that are most expensive and most difficult to distribute. Those IIPAs are about to get much more expensive.

Only A Little Silly

2012-08-27T08:05:00.005-05:00

OK, I admit, I don't get Twitter. Nonetheless, here at Madison Beer Review we dutifully have a Twitter feed that you can follow if you like: http://twitter.com/madisonbeer

Well, if you'll recall from this post there's a new tween sensation named Madison Beer (that's her real name, I guess) - she's even got the Justin Beiber stamp of approval. Well, guess who's Twitter profile is @MadisonBeer ?

I get some weird Direct Messages...some samples:

@JaiLukeBrooks69: @MadisonBeer What you do when you bored?
[ed note: I drink beer.]

@Amandaaaxox: Hanging out with @MadisonBeer at @thewantedmusic love this girl so much!
[ed note: I don't remember going to that show...probably drank too much beer]

@VogueSimpson: #IdLike2WakeUpAs either @selenagomez, @MadisonBeer or @CodySimpson's girlfriend.
[ed note: I'd like to wake up as Selena Gomez, too!]

@MorgynCallaway: @MadisonBeer please followw mee please please please!!:)
[ed note: two things, 1) "Morgyn"? Really? Are you in Lord of the Rings? Come on; 2) well...if you insist, but I don't think you're going to like it]

Audience Participation: Home Brewing

2012-08-23T05:30:00.000-05:00

Just out of curiosity - how many of you out there homebrew? Most of the MBR staff has, whether regularly or not. And, of course, Joe Walts writes our Five Gallons at a Time homebrewing column. Plus, believe it or not, homebrewing is hitting the big time as the White House has (re)started brewing!

When I first started getting into craft beer is when I first started homebrewing. I had these grand delusions of making amazing beer that would stand beside Dogfish Head and Stone and New Glarus. What I quickly realized is that I'm not nearly as good of a brewer as Dan Carey or Sam Calagione.

But, it is a fun way to kill a Saturday morning. The amount of beer I brew, unfortunately, is directly related to the number of Saturday mornings I have to kill. Not only is it a good hobby, but, it's also the best way to learn how to taste beer, what each component brings to the flavor profile, what each step of the brewing process brings to the flavor profile; and, it gives you a full appreciation for the hard work that goes into keeping all of the equipment clean.

So, as I was ramping up to get back into home brewing and planning my first recipe in a few years (likely an Oktoberfest), I was wondering how many of you out there homebrew? How long have you been doing it? What's your favorite recipe that you've made?

Five Gallons At A Time: Lautering Wort Losses

2012-08-15T05:30:00.000-05:00

Based on figures from the Siebel Institute of Technology, I've assumed for years that each pound of dry malt in a mash retains about 0.185 gallons of water. After taking a handful of measurements at home and at work, I concluded that the actual value is closer to 0.155 gal/lb (to Siebel's credit, my old assumption was based on their value for spent grain water retention plus a fudge factor-y variable of theirs that I accounted for in the same place). The obvious use for this variable is to help plan how much water you'll need for brewdays, but it affects other parts of the brewing process as well. For example, the gravity and volume of each runoff in a batch sparge is a direct function of how much wort is reatained by the grain. Because I use batch sparge simulations to generate my brewhouse efficiency table, its accuracy depends on spent grain wort retention. The values in the table have been updated accordingly.

For water planning purposes, it's important to differentiate between lauter tun deadspaces that contain mash and deadspaces that contain wort. In a lauter tun with a pipe-like manifold, the volume below the manifold contains mash. Because a mash will compact if you keep lautering after adding all of the sparge water, you can assume that all of your wort (aside from what the grain retains) will be squeezed out of the deadspace. In other words, these types of losses are included in the 0.155 gal/lb number. The space underneath a false bottom, on the other hand, contains mostly wort. Even if your lauter tun drains from the bottom, the grainbed will try to hold the wort beneath the false bottom like a finger covering a straw. If any wort manages to escape, it'll be grainy and shouldn't be lautered anyway. As such, the volume beneath a false bottom should be treated as a deadspace regardless of your vessel's outlet location(s). These deadspaces represent equipment losses, and I assume that wort lost to equipment geometry is equal to the total volume of deadspaces that contain primarily wort. To calculate total wort loss for a given mash, I add the equipment loss to the volume of wort retained by the spent grain.

Narragansett’s Move to Wisconsin

2012-08-13T04:00:00.000-05:00

As was reported last week, Narragansett Brewery is now shipping its beers, both cans and draft, to Wisconsin in its first move away from the East Coast. I was lucky enough to have a few questions answered by CEO Mark Hellendrung regarding the move into Wisconsin. In case you are looking for a little background on the company, here is some info from the Facebook page: “Narragansett Beer is New England's oldest beer, founded in 1890. It was the #1 beer New England from 1919 through the 1970's and the official beer of the Red Sox for over 30 years. It's now the 50th largest brewing company in America and was winner of the Bronze Medal at the 2008 World Beer Cup and First Place at the Great International Beer Festival in 2010.” It also has a rather famous moment in Jaws.

One of the interesting things noted in the press release was that Mark has family history in Wisconsin, so adding that to the overall craft beer climate and it’s no surprise that Narragansett is choosing to expand into the state. “I think beer drinkers today are looking to experience different beers more than ever. The choice to start in Wisconsin was based on my personal affection for the state and the tremendous distributor partner we have in Beechwood,” Mark said, adding, “I know firsthand the great beer tradition in Wisconsin, probably greater than any state in the country, and I trust Wisconsinites will appreciate the great quality and tradition from our company.”

I had to ask him to briefly reflect on his experience in Wisconsin and it was clear that he had a lot of fond memories in southern Wisconsin and Madison. “My Mom's family is from Watertown and my Dad’s family is from Oconomowoc. Both of them went to UW-Madison, as did my brother. Every summer we would drive there for two weeks of vacation. My Grandpa Schmidt’s favorite beer was Blatz, and, when I was young, lunch was summer sausage, limburger cheese, and I’d split a Blatz with my Grandma Schmidt. To be honest, growing up I was as much of a Brewers fan with Harvey's Wallbangers as I was a Red Sox fan. There aren't many big college football programs here in the east, so the Badgers are still the team I follow.”

So what can we expect from Narragansett? Mark tells me that the beer geeks will “respect the quality of our craft styles and then choose our lager because they're somewhat tired of the mega mainstream lagers.” In case you are wondering, Narragansett currently brews a Fest, Porter, Bock and Summer in addition to their lager, light and cream styles.

Narragansett has been undergoing rapid development in the last few years. Back in January, Brewbound reported that the brewery would be hopefully open by December, and, in an update on that progress, Mark tells me that they “hope to have a big announcement in the next month or so” regarding the brewery. “We've accomplished a lot of great things since we got the beer back seven years ago, and re-building the once-proud brewery will be the ultimate achievement on our comeback trail.”

Thank you, Mark, for taking the time to answer a few questions! Everyone out here is going to be looking for their chance to grab a 'Gansett.

Great Taste Pre-Parties - The Final List

2012-08-03T05:30:00.000-05:00

So, if you didn't know, The Great Taste of the Midwest is next week. Maybe you've heard. Anyway, some people are getting kind of excited about, so below is a list of all of those places where you can find said people.

[ed note: this list has been updated, and will continue to be updated from this point out, so bookmark it, keep coming back, whatever it is that you do]

Do you want proof that Madison Beer Review has the best readers in the world? BAM! Thank you John Parker!

View Pre-Great Taste of the Midwest: Friday in a larger map
Wednesday Night

Tallgrass Brewing Co. (KS) at The Malt House (starts at 6pm, 2 casks tapped at 8pm - 8-bit w/ Peach & Mt. Hood; 8-bit w/ Apricot, Liberty, & Mt. Hood)

Oskar Blues (CO) at Dexter's (Bourbon Barrel Ten Fidy and food prepared with Oskar Blues Hot Sauces)

Thursday Night

Furthermore Beer (WI) at Star Liquor (Free Tasting; 4pm - 7pm)

Summit Brewing Co (MN) and B Nektar Mead (MI) at Dexter's (3-5 taps of Summit and 4 of B Nektar)

Founders (MI) at Coopers Tavern (5pm)

Oskar Blues (CO) at Up North Pub (7pm)

Lagunitas (CA) at Jordan's Big 10 Pub (7pm)

August Schell Bus Tour (7pm - 12am): 7-8pm: Dotty Dumpling’s Dowry; 9-10pm: Schellter Bar n Grill; 11-12am: JB’s Italian Grille

Friday Night

The Beer Spot at Brickhouse BBQ with Central Waters (WI), Shorts (MI), and Nebraska (NE). (Central Waters and Shorts are each planning on filling 15 lines (Imperial Spruce Pilsner, Snozzleberry Griffen, and Soft Parade, among others), with Nebraska filling 10 again this year (Barrel Aged Hop God, Romancing the Cone, among others))

Pearl Street Brewery (WI) at The Majestic (w/ Sexy Esther, T.U.G.G., and DJ Nick Nice; raffling off a pair of tix to the Great Taste!)

Bell's (MI) at Maduro (of course)

Capital Brewery (WI) at Capital Tap Haus (6pm; Autumnal Fire release)

Revolution Brewery (IL) at Essen Haus (Polkaholics and $2 half-liters of Revolution beers)

Great Lakes (OH) and Lakefront (WI) at The Rigby

Furthermore (WI) at Natt Spil (5pm; Natt Stock, Oak-Aged Fatty)

Three Floyd's (IN) at Argus

Founders (MI) at Glass Nickel Pizza (Atwood; for sure on tap: Frangelican Brown, Devil Dancer, and 2011 KBS)

O'So Brewery (WI) at The Malt House (6pm - 9pm; oud bruin) and Forequarter (9:30pm – close; Oud Bruin, Grand Cru, Rusty Brett, Bourbon Barrel Night Train; Lemongrass Wit)

Red Eye (WI) and Bull Falls (WI) will also be at The Malt House (6pm - 9pm; lots of special barrels and special batches including a Lemongrass Rye from Red Eye)

Potosi Brewing Co (WI) at The Harmony Bar (5pm)

Tallgrass Brewing Co (KS) at The Up North Pub (5pm; Area 51 IPA, 8-bit w/ Raspberries cask, Nintendo and Bluegrass; Tallgrass owner and headbrewer also on-hand)

DeStihl Brewing (IL) at Brasserie V (6pm; St Dekkera Reserve, Black Torrent, Hopweizen, others)

Dave's BrewFarm (WI) and Lake Louie (WI) at The Old Fashioned (6-9pm; brewers outside; music and $3 taps inside)

Central Waters (WI) at Star Liquor (Free Tasting; 4pm - 7pm)

Goose Island (IL) at Madison's (6pm)

Toppling Goliath (IA) at Dexter's Pub (11am; 8-10 taps, a firkin of Rover Truck Oatmeal Stout [3pm], and a special 1/6 bbl of Morning Delight [9pm])

Vintage (WI) "Rarities and Archives" at Vintage Brewing Co (3pm - 7pm; Whitney Way; featuring a new Blackberry Tart; Sun D’Appled; Oude DeVille #1 – a soured Belgian barleywine aged in rye whiskey barrels, Oude DeVille #2 – aged in apple brandy barrels, Alpentraum – a smoked weizenbock, and scores others)

Lagunitas (CA) at Coopers Tavern

Oskar Blues (CO), Hinterland (WI), and New Holland (MI) at Tipsy Cow

Sand Creek (WI) at Genna's (4-6pm) and Drackenberg's Cigar Bar (7pm)

Left Hand (CO) at Come Back Inn

Sixpoint (NY) at Merchant (Spice of Life Single Hops)

Dark Horse (MI) at Alchemy

Summit Brewing Co (MN) at The Echo Tap (7pm)

House of Brews (WI) at House of Brews (Tours starting at 3pm) and also Lucky's on Regent (7pm)

Blind Pig Brewery (IL) at The Mason Lounge (7-10pm; Raspberry Wheat, Belgo-American IPA, The Mysterious 200th Brew - an Imperial stout with vanilla, bourbon oak, and coffee)

August Schell (MN) at Dotty Dumpling's Dowry (7-10pm; cheese and sausage pairing at 9pm; Meet and Greet 5th and 6th generations of owners)

Summit Brewing Co (MN) at Echo Tap (7pm)

Saturday

Vintage Shuttle to Great Taste (11:30 and 12:30; Whitney Way)

Vintage After Party (Rarities and Archives; 5pm - 8pm)

Sunday

Vintage "The Day After" Brunch and Growler Specials (10am; Whitney Way)

Great Taste Pre-Parties #3

2012-08-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

The pace of returns is slowing to a trickle ... I will post a comprehensive list when I think all that are coming in will be in.

Friday

Dave's BrewFarm (WI) and Lake Louie (WI) at The Old Fashioned (6-9pm; brewers outside; music and $3 taps inside)

Great Taste Pre-Parties #2

2012-08-01T05:30:00.000-05:00

Wednesday Night

Oskar Blues (CO) at Dexter's (Bourbon Barrel Ten Fidy and food prepared with Oskar Blues Hot Sauces)

Thursday Night

Furthermore Beer (WI) at Star Liquor (Free Tasting; 4pm - 7pm)

Summit Brewing Co (MN) and B Nektar Mead (MI) at Dexter's (3-5 taps of Summit and 4 of B Nektar)

Founders (MI) at Coopers Tavern (5pm)

Oskar Blues (CO) at Up North Pub (7pm)

Lagunitas (CA) at Jordan's Big 10 Pub (7pm)

Friday Night

Central Waters (WI) at Star Liquor (Free Tasting; 4pm - 7pm)

Goose Island (IL) at Madison's (6pm)

Toppling Goliath (IA) at Dexter's Pub (11am; 8-10 taps, a firkin [at 3pm], and a special 1/6 bbl of Assassin [late night])

Vintage (WI) "Rarities and Archives" at Vintage Brewing Co (3pm - 7pm; Whitney Way)

Lagunitas (CA) at Coopers Tavern

Oskar Blues (CO), Hinterland (WI), and New Holland (MI) at Tipsy Cow

Sand Creek (WI) at Genna's (4-6pm) and Drackenberg's Cigar Bar (7pm)

Left Hand (CO) at Come Back Inn

Sixpoint (NY) at Merchant (Spice of Life Single Hops)

Dark Horse (MI) at Alchemy

Red Eye (WI) and Bull Falls (WI) will also be at The Malt House (6pm - 9pm; with O'So; lots of special barrels and special batches including a sour wee heavy from O'So and a Lemongrass Rye from Red Eye)

Saturday

Vintage Shuttle to Great Taste (11:30 and 12:30; Whitney Way)

Vintage After Party (Rarities and Archives; 5pm - 8pm)

Sunday

Vintage "The Day After" Brunch and Growler Specials (10am; Whitney Way)

It's That Time Again - Great Taste Pre-Parties #1

2012-07-31T05:30:00.000-05:00

Wednesday Night [ed note: what!? sweet!]

Tallgrass Brewing Co. (KS) at The Malt House (starts at 6pm, 2 casks tapped at 8pm)

Friday Night

Yet again, The Beer Spot are the first to report [ed note: thanks guys for kicking me in the butt and reminding me it was about time to start posting this stuff]. And, yet again, The Beer Spot is at Brickhouse BBQ with Central Waters (WI), Shorts (MI), and Nebraska (NE). "[W]e're planning on filling all of the available 40 tap lines. Central Waters and Shorts are each planning on filling 15 lines, with Nebraska filling 10 again this year. Rumors are that we'll have some cask beer this year as well, and we've been talking with a fourth brewery about taking a couple of lines."

Pearl Street Brewery (WI) at The Majestic (w/ Sexy Esther, T.U.G.G., and DJ Nick Nice; raffling off a pair of tix to the Great Taste!)

Bell's (MI) at Maduro (of course)

Capital Brewery (WI) at Capital Tap Haus

Revolution Brewery (IL) at Essen Haus

Great Lakes (OH) and Lakefront (WI) at The Rigby [ed note: great pairing]

Furthermore (WI) at Natt Spil (5pm; Natt Stock, Oak-Aged Fatty)

Three Floyd's (IN) at Argus

Founders (MI) at Glass Nickel Pizza (Atwood; for sure on tap: Frangelican Brown, Devil Dancer, and 2011 KBS)

O'So Brewery (WI) at The Malt House (6pm - 9pm) and Forequarter (9:30pm - close)

Potosi Brewing Co (WI) at The Harmony Bar (starting at 5pm)

Tallgrass Brewing Co (KS) at The Up North Pub (starting at 5pm)

DeStihl Brewing (IL) at Brasserie V (starting at 6pm)

Investing in Breweries - A Sample Treatment

2012-07-30T05:30:00.000-05:00

So, posting around here has been a little slow lately. A lot of that is related to a busy personal life and a busy professional life. Luckily, we have a new writer, Kevin Ramakrishna, to pick up some of the slack. He's written two great articles about two great bars in the Madison area. He's got some more stuff in the works that I hope you'll like.

One of the things that I am working on is a handbook. Since it's about beer, I thought you might be interested in reading what I have to say about beer. This particular sample section is about investing in breweries; namely the complex IRS rules around what happens when you invest in multiple breweries. There are a lot of other things to note about investing in breweries, as well; for example, return on investment isn't nearly as awesome as other industries because of the high capital costs and low margins.

Keep in mind, this is still a draft and will likely change considerably to its final form.

Also, please note: this is not legal advice and me writing this and you reading this does not constitute an attorney-client relationship. If you have any questions and need legal advice about investing in breweries - please talk to an attorney.

Investing in Breweries

Brewing Groups

It is entirely feasible that someone will have a financial stake in multiple breweries. If that someone owns a large enough stake in the breweries, the State of Wisconsin calls them a “Brewers Group” or “Brewpub Group”, the federal government calls them a “Controlled Group”; for the sake of simplicity we’ll call them “Brewers Groups” because it makes more sense and the Wisconsin definition merely references the IRC definition of “Controlled Group”[1]. Brewers Groups are treated as breweries and must abide by the same rules as if all of the breweries under management were the same brewery.

For this section, a hypothetical might be illustrative: Sam, Miller, and Bud love beer and have money that they want to invest in Wisconsin breweries. They have identified 2 breweries across the state, Brewery A and Brewery B.

A Controlled Group is a term of art defined by the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) for the purpose of determining who owes taxes where a group owns multiple companies[2]. The theory is that if there is a sufficient nexus of ownership, the Controlled Group owes taxes for the sum of the companies under management of the Controlled Group; in other words, for tax purposes, all of the companies under management are considered the same company. The IRC defines 3 types of Controlled Groups: Parent-Subsidiary Groups, Brother-Sister Groups, and Combined Groups.

Parent-Subsidiary Group

A Parent-Subsidiary Group exists where the parent company owns more than 50% of the voting stock or more than 50% of the total value of shares in each subsidiary[3].

Turning to our hypothetical: our group of intrepid investors forms a company, InvestCo Inc in which all three investors own an equal share. InvestCo invests in Brewery A (5,000 bbls) and Brewery B (10,000 bbls). In exchange for their investment, InvestCo receives 50% of the common stock of Brewery A and 60% of the common stock of Brewery B. In this first example, InvestCo is not considered the Parent of Brewery A (not more than50%), but would be considered the parent of Brewery B; InvestCo is thus responsible for ensuring Brewery B’s taxes are paid for 10,000 bbls of output. If we change this example, so that InvestCo receives 51% of the common stock of Brewery A, then InvestCo is a Parent of both Brewery A and Brewery B, and would pay taxes on 15,000 bbls of beer.

Controlled Groups particularly become an issue where the excise taxes are stepped or tiered. For example, in Wisconsin, a brewery under 300,000 bbls only pays $1 per barrel on the first 50,000 bbls, and the $2 per bbl over 50,000 bbls[4]. If the brewery is over 300,000 bbls, it owes $2 per barrel on every barrel produced.

Returning to our hypothetical: if Brewery A produces 25,000 bbls and Brewery B produces 25,000 bbls, the InvestCo owes taxes on 50,000 bbls ($1 per bbl). However, if Brewery A produces 30,000 bbls, and Brewery B produces 40,000 bbls, then InvestCo owes taxes as if it produced 70,000 bbls. In other words, while independently each brewery would only owe $1 per barrel (total $70,000), together InvestCo (as the Parent) owes $1 per barrel on the first 50,000 bbls ($50,000) and $2 per barrel on the remaining 20,000 bbls ($40,000), for a total of $90,000. You can see how this only multiplies if the Brewers Group is pushed over 300,000 bbls.

Brother-Sister Group

A Brother-Sister Group exists where 1-5 individuals[5]cumulatively own more than 50% of the voting stock or more than 50% of the total value of shares in the companies. This rule comes with a caveat: the ownership interest is considered only to the extent that the stock ownership is the same for each investment[6].

Hypothetical: Sam, Miller, and Bud decide not to form InvestCo because they don’t want to risk being a “Parent” to their investments. Instead, they each decide that they will buy stock in Breweries A and B individually. Sam buys 10% of the common stock of Brewery A and 20% of the common stock of Brewery B. Miller purchases 30% of the common stock of Brewery A and 20% of the common stock of Brewery B. Bud purchases 20% of the common stock of Brewery A and 20% of the common stock of Brewery B.

Name	Brewery A	Brewery B	Identical
Sam	10%	20%	10%
Miller	30%	20%	20%
Bud	20%	20%	20%

Under the IRS definition, Sam, Miller, and Bud do not constitute a Brewers Group because, to the extent the stock ownership is identical, the common ownership does not exceed 50%, even though all three have the majority of common shares of both breweries. If Sam had purchased 11% of Brewery A instead of 10% (or Miller had purchased 21% of Brewery B), the group would be considered a Brewers Group because the Group would cumulatively own more than 50%.

Combined Group

A Combined Group happens when a company that is part of a Brother-Sister Group is the Parent in Parent-Subsidiary Group. Then, the Subsidiary is also considered part of the Brewers Group.

Our hypothetical hits the big stage here: Sam, Miller, and Bud went in and purchased Breweries A and B as shown in Table 1, except that Sam actually purchased 11% of Brewery A, thus making a Brewers Group. Breweries A and B are swinging along nicely; Brewery A produced 110,000 bbls, and Brewery B produced 150,000 bbls. Brewery B is looking to expand to the East Coast, but rather than open a new brewery there, Brewery B chooses to just purchase 55% of Brewery C, a 30,000 bbl brewery that is currently operating under-capacity. Brewery B has an additional 20,000 bbls brewed at Brewery C to kick-off its East Coast distribution. Under the Combined Group Rule, Brewery C is considered part of the same Brewers Group and Breweries A and B, and the combined barrel production is 310,000 bbls.

The excise tax math follows:

Brewery A (if independent): 110,000 bbls: (50K * $1) + (60K * $2) = $180,000
Brewery B (if independent): 150,000 bbls: (50K * $1) + (100K *2) = $250,000
Brewery C (if independent): 30,000 bbls + 20,000 bbls (contracted by Brewery B): (50K * $1) = $50,000

Total as independents: $480,000

Combined Brewers Group: 110K + 150K + 50K = 310K bbls: (310K * $2) = $620,000

One final note: this treatment has only dealt with Wisconsin taxes. Federal excises taxes, which also have to be paid, are stepped as well.

[1]Wis. Stat. 125.02(2d)(2p)

[2] 26 USC 1563

[3] In the usual case, the rule is 80%, however, 26 USC 5051(a)(2)(B) amends this to 50% for Brewer Groups.

[4]Wis. Stat. 139.02

[5] Or estates or trusts.

[6] 26 USC 1563(a)(2): “…taking into account the stock ownership of each such person only to the extent such stock ownership is identical with respect to each such corporation.” For comment and explanation see: COMMENT: Proposed Revision of I.R.C. § 1563(a)(2): A New Definition for Brother-Sister Controlled Groups., 34 Hastings L.J. 665

Review: Brasserie V

2012-07-27T04:30:00.000-05:00

Brasserie V doesn’t necessarily represent something entirely novel or innovative but it is something cohesive, interesting, and polished. From the chalk boards noting the specials to the distressed wood floors, it doesn’t feel like I’m leaving the Midwest but, instead, like a place I could linger at for hours.

Of course, if I had my way, I would be doing my drinking at home and perhaps cooking. Invariably, Katie does not much care for my attitude, and, quite frequently, I find myself actually having to interact with society. In this case, however, Brasserie V was a place I had read about for some time before moving here and passing it up would have been a huge mistake.

Brasserie V is a Belgian restaurant on Monroe Street on Madison’s near west side. Built into a strip of commercial enterprises, it sits in the heart of the community a few blocks from Camp Randall. The food is local and the beer is plentiful, with the menu listing options well into the hundreds. Getting there early on a Saturday is a must if you want to eat. And eat you should.

We are seated at the first table in from the door. The wood floors and deep mahogany bar drip with invitation to stay, talk and slowly digest every morsel of sight and smell. The tap selection is robust with Belgians and my wife orders a SaisonDupont. Drinking Belgian on a summer day is an easy decision, but I can’t ignore a special release and go with a Sixpoint Nugget IPA from their Spice of Life series, which is something I might not get a chance to try otherwise. The Nugget is served in a proper snifter, with the cloudy gold and orange popping from the dark corner of our table. The hops (nugget, from whence the beer’s name comes) here are primarily for bittering. Grapefruit on the nose with a touch of harshness on the tongue from significant spice notes. A solid beer even if not my favorite, but where it shined was on the first course.

Beer and food are often talked about as being a great combination, but, much like with wine, only rarely do great pairings come together. We go with a cheese course: blue, 10 year old cheddar, and a creamy cheese that was something like a harder brie. The Nuggets shined with the cheddar. Allowing the cheddar to slowly melt and coat the palate with rich fat is the best way to sample the beer. The hop bitterness subdues, shifting the flavor profile to the citrus grapefruit and wiping clean the remains of the nutty cheese.

And in case you were wondering, the Saison Dupont was exceptional. Served in a proper Dupont glass the banana, apple and pear shine through. Saison Dupont never disappoints but this was the first time I had a draft version. As a rule, Dupont is recommended for any novice beer drinker looking to impress a snob but still actually enjoy the contents in the bottle.

My next beer was a Bockor Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge. An unblended lambic fitting the profile of a Flemish red. I won’t attempt to pretend that more than two flavors exist here: cherries and sour. Deep rich cherry sitting in something akin to balsamic vinegar. Outside of a Cantillon, this is as sour a beer as I’ve ever had. Absolutely superb and perhaps the only beer to truly make me pucker like I was biting into a lemon. While this may sound odd for a beer, the sourness is a result of wild fermentation that’s as traditional as beer itself and difficult to emulate. Months of aging are required to truly develop the flavor of a yeast strain called brettanomyces (brett).

The beer perfectly matched the rich meat of duck confit sitting on a bed of swiss chard with bits of rhubarb. The duck confit was perfectly crisp and moist. The sourness of the beer cutting through the oily fat and recharging the palate.

Brasserie V is doing everything right. The food is fresh and simple but executed exceptionally well. The beer is served properly and tasted phenomenal.

Madison Beer Review

2012-07-20T09:30:00.000-05:00

Eh. She's OK. The Bieb likes her more than I do, but whatev.