Isthmus: Drinks 2015

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2015

DRINKS JOE ROCCO

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Janet Chen’s Mad Maiden Shrub is Madison’s premier local drinking vinegar. But you can also make your own.

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Splash from the past 4

Versatile shrubs, or drinking vinegars, go alcoholic or nonalcoholic easily BY AMELIA COOK FONTELLA

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PHOTO BY SHARON VANORNY

You may have seen something surprising popping up on drink menus across town, at the farmers’ market, or on the shelves of your local grocery store or co-op. Drinking vinegars, commonly called “shrubs,” are making a comeback. Famously popular in colonial America, a shrub is a sweetened vinegar infused with fruit or other natural flavors. Mixed with water (sparkling or still), it becomes a tart drink with infinite possibilities. Shrubs make excellent additions to alcoholic beverages — they can replace

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any citrus or acid ingredient — but also offer a delicious alternative to calorieladen, booze-free beverages like soda. Ricky Pajewski, bar manager at Oliver’s Public House, 2540 University Ave., is a big fan of using shrubs in mixed drinks. Oliver’s bar features shrubs in many of its specialty drinks, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic. The “Lee Trevino,” from Oliver’s “No ID Required” menu, incorporates two different shrubs: strawberry and Thai rose-rhubarb. Pajewski is enthusiastic about what shrubs have to offer. “Shrubs are superversatile and deliver a concentrated flavor profile,” he says. “The flavors are usually super-bright and potent. A shrub will deliver a flavor that pops, but doesn’t overwhelm and is a great delivery of the essence of that fruit or vegetable.” He and his staff make the shrubs they use in-house, infusing a variety of vinegars to find the right flavor profile. “If we want a delicate strawberry shrub we might try white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar to not consume the brightness of the strawberries,” he says. “If we want some depth, we can use balsamic or sherry vinegar.” He says he is “constantly testing the boundaries” of what will make the best shrub possible. While it doesn’t call any of its products “shrubs,” Vom Fass offers a wide variety of fruit vinegars at both its Madison shops that “shine in sparkling water,” says Justin Gibson, who is based at the University Avenue location. Gibson’s customers are sometimes wary about trying drinking vinegar, but are surprised at how delicious it can be. After a sip, he says, “Our customers feel like kids in a candy store.” Flavors range from classic — berry and citrus — to the tropical. Mango, fig and calamansi (a fruit found in the Philippines) are some of the more exotic vinegar options that make for great mixers. Madison resident Janet Chen got into shrub-making about five years ago after reading an article about drinking vinegars in The New York Times. After a few batches of her homemade hard cider turned to vinegar, she was looking for something to do with gallons of apple cider vinegar. She started flavoring it with unusual fruits — cherry plums, cornelian cherries, goumi (a small tart fruit native to Asia) and mulberries — from a friend’s hobby orchard. In June 2013, her passion moved from a hobby to business with Mad Maiden Shrub. Today, Mad Maiden shrubs are widely available in the Madison area, sold at retailers like Jenifer Street Market, Willy Street Co-op and Hy-Vee. Chen says her shrubs are most popular with people looking for nonalcoholic, natural drink options. She recommends mixing one part shrub to four to six parts sparkling or still water, and serving over ice. They aren’t very sweet, so sweeteners

CAROLYN FATH

Calamansi Balsam vinegar from Vom Fass works especially well as a tart and sweet shrub.

like honey or cane sugar can also be added to taste. “I love shrubs and making shrubs,” says Chen. “I get enormous pleasure out of processing, experimenting, playing with, reading about and consuming things from my yard, garden and the orchard.” Chen uses a “hot infusion” process to craft her shrubs, beginning with a base of organic cider vinegar from Turkey Ridge Organic Orchard in Gays Mills. She compares the process to making a hot tea. Heated vinegar is infused with local fruits like mulberry, strawberry, raspberry and cranberry. Cane sugar or honey is also added. The result is a slightly sweet flavored vinegar that, when mixed with sparkling water, makes a tart, refreshing drink. In flavor, it’s quite similar to kombucha. Chen says that a lot of people who love shrubs are also interested in making their own. Her words inspired me to give shrub making a whirl. Turns out, it’s not too hard! A quick look around my kitchen and I easily found what I needed — cane sugar,

apple cider vinegar and some ripe peaches. Here’s what I did: I heated the apple cider vinegar until it was just under a boil. Next, I poured it over two cups of chopped peaches in a mason jar. After letting the mix cool to room temperature, I popped a cover on the jar and put it in the fridge. About 24 hours later, I removed the fruit (which I’ve heard makes a great chutney) using a cheesecloth-lined strainer and added sugar — about 1/2 cup — to the liquid. The finished product (after a sample, of course) went back in the refrigerator. The result? The peaches infused the vinegar with a wonderful fruitiness, and the sugar kept the acidic edge of the vinegar at bay. With their versatility and bright flavors, shrubs are an exciting addition to Madison’s beverage culture. Whether you buy them off the shelf, sample them at your favorite watering hole or make them yourself, shrubs are a delightful blast from the past. I hope they’re here to stay. n

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Josh Ruffin’s advice on trying assertive styles: “Just take a moment and go back to it. Rinse and repeat, if necessary.”

Listen to the cicerone ISTHMUS DRINKS 2015

Josh Ruffin of Brasserie V helps patrons get more out of fine beers

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BY RYAN J. BROWNE

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PHOTO BY SHARON VANORNY

Rule of thumb: When Josh Ruffin, a certified cicerone and the beverage supervisor at Brasserie V, is excited about a beer, you should be too. “We tapped this beer four hours ago, and I was like, yes. Now I’m excited about tonight’s tasting,” he says. Ruffin and I are sitting under the vintage Belgian beer signs that decorate Brasserie V’s walls, chatting over tulip-shaped glasses of Pic Tor from London-based Buxton Brewery, what’s to be the final beer in the evening’s tasting flight at the restaurant. As Brasserie V’s certified cicerone, throughout the tasting, he’ll be busy pouring and describing the seven beers and encouraging generous sampling from a cheese board he’s selected for the event.

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In order to become a certified cicerone, Ruffin had to successfully demonstrate his knowledge of beer styles and their historical roots, brewing techniques, beer flavors and flaws, and bar draft system mechanics and maintenance. What this means is that he’s the one certified to ensure that the beers flowing from Brasserie V’s 26 taps and 200-plus bottles are served in the proper glasses, with the proper amount of foam. He’s the one trained to tap multiple types of kegs and swap multiple types of keg couplers. He helps find a balance of price, style, familiarity and geographic representation for a constantly changing — and phenomenal — beer menu. Cicerone, craft beer’s equivalent of sommelier, is an Italian word meaning “guide,” and that’s how Ruffin carries and conducts himself behind the bar or while hosting beer tastings and dinners. “He’s great at helping find the right beers for both customers and staff, explaining anything from how different beers are brewed to different flavors experienced and their nuances,” says Brasserie V owner Matt Van Nest. Ruffin began his journey to beer guide as do many craft beer drinkers...by ordering a Sam Adams Light instead of a Bud Light, then sampling more “hoppy” beers like a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Before long, it’s imperial this and bourbon-barrel-aged that. Ruffin’s ah-ha beer moment came when (using Guinness Stout as his yardstick for dark, bold beers) he ordered a North Coast Brewing Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout, a textbook definition of the intensely flavored, jet-black, high-alcohol style. From there Ruffin sought out bottle shops and bars with different, sometimes rare selections. He read books and began writing reviews about beer. He learned all he could, and he liked sharing with others what he was learning. The desire to teach others about beer ultimately attracted Ruffin to the cicerone program at the Craft Beer Institute in Chicago. The sheer number of breweries and styles, and variations on styles, can be overwhelming, confusing and even frustrating for some consumers. Ruffin and Van Nest work hard to train Brasserie V‘s staff on the details. And every beer on the menu can be ordered in a 4.5-ounce pour, to promote sampling and encourage new discoveries. Still, despite his background and knowledge, he is always capable of being surprised. “I’m still tasting beers that I have no idea what to think about,” says Ruffin. “I do like when something turns what I think I know upside-down.” Take, for example, that final beer for the tasting, the Pic Tor. It’s a passion fruit pale ale. At first blush, Pic Tor might be considered a bit pedestrian alongside the behemoths in the Brasserie

V lineup. It’s not a farmhouse ale dry-hopped aggressively with American hops and aged in chardonnay barrels. It wasn’t one of the pair of imperial stouts, one roasty and savory, and the other boozy and saccharine. “It’d be my lawnmower beer if I won the lottery,” Ruffin says of Pic Tor. Indeed. It has a sunshine hue and refreshing bite, accentuated by higher carbonation, and it is not a typical fruit-infused pale ale that’s cloying or finishes too tart. Adding it to the evening’s tasting is another example of Ruffin’s sense of balance when curating Brasserie V’s offerings. The landscape of craft beer is as diverse and robust as that of wine, and experts like Ruffin know how to equip customers with what they need to navigate it. “The first time you have a beer that’s assertive, you go, ‘Okay, hold on,’ and you let your palate catch up,” says Ruffin. “Then you think, ‘Do I like this or do I hate this?’ Just take a moment and go back to it. Rinse and repeat, if necessary.” When encountering an incredibly complex beer, Ruffin has been known to spend up to two hours finishing a 12-ounce bottle, giving the beer every chance to open up and allowing himself to reflect on each sip. The key to trying a beer for the first time? “Don’t make any knee-jerk judgments,” he says. Much of Ruffin’s education as a cicerone has been about how flavors marry. The sensory experiences that come from pairing beer with food is another horizon Ruffin helps patrons explore. “If you’ve never had a great Belgian saison with a great camembert cheese or a barleywine with a salty blue cheese, you’ve never lived,” Ruffin says. “Remember, pairing should be done with harmony, not unison, in mind. It should be complementary,” he adds. For instance, “A dark chocolate might taste perfectly fine with a dark, roasty stout, but you’re not going to get anything new out of it. If, on the other hand, you eat a chocolate-covered ginger slice with a dark weizenbock, or orange-infused dark chocolate with a black IPA — fireworks.” Ruffin has a few other suggestions for matching what’s in your glass with what’s on your plate. To tame the heat in spicy foods, he recommends malty, sweeter beers, and when accentuating the spice, try a hoppy, bitter beer. Or you can consider regionality when pairing. “Mussels and lambic are each prevalent in Belgium, and they’re delicious together. Ireland has some of the freshest shellfish off its coasts and great dry stouts to match.” And, of course, there’s good reason to pair German beers with brats. Certainly craft beer’s constant crosspollination between styles keeps Ruffin busy. Just a few years ago, few had ever heard of a Black IPA or would have imagined brewing a sour stout like the Bruery’s Tart of Darkness, out of Southern California. Says Ruffin: “There’s no stopping point, especially if brewers keep growing, experimenting and sharing knowledge.” n

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Use quality ingredients Your drinks will only be as good as their parts. If you buy the cheapest gin, you’ll taste it. Speaking of taste, it’s important to know your ingredients. Have you tasted your liquors on their own and noted their flavors? Is the whiskey you like sweeter than other brands? This will help you adjust drinks to get them right.

The drink of your dreams Mixes are out. Muddling is in. But there’s nothing mysterious about making a great cocktail

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BY ANDRÉ DARLINGTON

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ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOE ROCCO

Craft cocktails are no passing fad. Defined as mixed drinks made with fresh, high-quality ingredients and proper technique, they represent the liquid half of the food revolution of the past couple of decades. Just as we’re not making meals out of cans anymore, pre-made sour mixes are out. But whereas the food revolution aims to have us all in the kitchen cooking — even using eggs from our own chicken coops — craft cocktails have been slow to catch on at home.

There’s a perception that craft cocktails are hard and take a lot of setup and equipment, or that there’s some mysterious alchemy required that only mustachioed bartenders comprehend. The truth is that with a little preparation, you’re never more than a few minutes away from a truly great cocktail at home. To that end, here are 10 practical, essential tips to crafting the drinks of your dreams from your own bar.

Mise en place, aka, prepare in advance Just like chefs, when you set out to make drinks you’ll want to do a little prep beforehand. This is doubly true when entertaining. Make sure you have ice, chill your glasses in the freezer, cut your citrus, pluck your garnish. You’ve seen cooking shows where every ingredient is in little bowls ready to go? Set out your ingredients along with your tools — shaker, paring knife, cutting board, juicer, peeler — or whatever you may need for the drinks you are making.

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Make reasonably sized drinks Your old glasses are too big. Remember those huge martini glasses you got at a big-box store? We all have a few. Well, most craft cocktails come in at 3 to 4 ounces, which means you need smaller glasses or it’ll look like you’re stingy. Big isn’t better; it just means your drink gets lukewarm. That said, you don’t need to purchase anything new and fancy. If you have smaller rocks glasses, use those.

While you’re ditching your huge glasses, ditch your cobbler shaker That three-piece contraption you got for a Christmas present 10 years ago? The one that won’t open once you’ve shaken a drink in it, with the cap that gets lost down the garbage disposal? Set it aside in favor of a two-piece Boston shaker. These are available in stores and online, and are a simple metal tin with a glass pint glass. It makes shaking (and stirring) a snap.

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Ice is also important You don’t need a home ice program to make great cocktails. In fact, home ice freezes slowly and is great for craft cocktails — but not if the ice is four months old and has taken on freezer odors. Always use fresh ice.

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Shaking versus stirring As a general rule, shake cocktails that contain citrus, eggs or cream. Stir drinks that are spirits-only. The point of both is to chill the drink to 40 degrees without overdiluting it. You want about 1/4 of the drink to be water, but no more. If you want, you can nerd out and use a thermometer to check your drink’s progress. In general, a good rule of thumb is to shake for 10 seconds or stir with a chopstick for about 30 seconds. You don’t need a fancy bar spoon.

Muddle, don’t annihilate There’s nothing worse than an overmuddled mojito, full of tiny green specks that get in your teeth. The point of muddling is to release the essential oils in the leaf, not to shred it into the drink. You don’t need a muddler, just use the end of a wooden spoon.

Remember the garnish The finishing touch is often what separates an okay drink from a truly remarkable one. Have your garnish prepped and in front of you as you make the drink so you remember to slap that mint leaf, twist that lemon peel or spike that cherry.

Always taste!

ISTHMUS DRINKS 2015

You taste while you’re cooking, right? You wouldn’t serve a soup without tasting it first. Same with cocktails. Get a pack of straws and sample what you’re making to ensure it’s balanced. This is a crucial step to understanding flavors, your own palate and becoming a better cocktailer.

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Remember this no-fail ratio Finally, an insider trick of the trade to impress your friends (and yourself). When making up your own drinks, a very simple, easy-toremember cocktail ratio is 2:1:1. That’s two ounces of liquor, one ounce of “sour” (think citrus) and one ounce of sweet (think liqueur). Want a Margarita? 2:1:1. Want a Daiquiri? 2:1:1. You get the idea. You can play with this ratio — perhaps you like 2 ounces to 3/4 and 3/4 better — but the idea is the same. You want a balanced drink made well with quality ingredients, and with a few recipes and a bit of technique it’s a snap to make them at home. n

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André Darlington is the co-author of the forthcoming (Running Press). He blogs about healthy cocktails at Sprig & Spirit.

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The Modern Cocktailer

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Know your hops How to distinguish one from another BY ROBIN SHEPARD

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ILLUSTRATION BY TOMMY WASHBUSH

Amarillo hops

For many craft beer drinkers, the hoppier the better. That love of all things hops has made the India Pale Ale (IPA) and its U.S. cousin, the American IPA, the most popular beer styles among craft beer enthusiasts today. One in every five craft beers sold in 2014 was an IPA. But what does it mean to say you like hops? Hops are a perennial vine with the scientific name Humulus lupulus, which means “small wolf,” a reference to its aggressive climbing nature and tendency to take over other nearby plants.

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There are more than 120 different hop varieties used today. To be a true fan, the appeal of hops has to be more than just bitterness. Hops offer a range of flavors and aromas that resemble herbs, pine, tropical fruits like grapefruit and tangerine and more. How can you distinguish one hop from another? Hop aroma and flavor can be subtle. And year to year, growing conditions can also affect hop aroma and flavor within a variety.

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Begin by trying to discern hop flavors when

you drink your next hoppy beer. Here’s a guide to help you pick out a few common hop varieties.

It has a fruity-citrus aroma, with assertive flavors of resiny orangecitrus to stone fruits. You’ll notice it in Ale Asylum’s Ballistic.

Centennial hops This one’s named after the Washington state festival and is sometimes referred to as “super Cascades.” Centennial hops offer candy-like tangerine, lemon, citrus and light pine aroma and flavor. Discover this one in Festiv Ale from the Hop Garden, or in Founders Brewing Company’s Centennial IPA.

Cascade hops Its name comes from the Cascade mountain range in the northwest U.S., where the majority of these hops are grown. They have flowery, spicy and citrus aromas. But it’s the strong grapefruit flavor that stands out. It’s found in Ale Asylum’s Hopalicious, which is made with 11 separate additions of Cascades, as well as in Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

Columbus hops

Citra hops The name says it all. This hop’s strong aroma and flavor of tropical fruits like mango, passion fruit, and pineapple come out in Karben4’s Fantasy Factory.

This hop is sometimes referred to as CTZ, a reference to the multiple names it’s known by — Columbus, Tomahawk and Zeus. More commonly used as a bittering hop, it’s often used in conjunction with other varieties. It lends pungent, dank, floral notes and a mild citrus aroma to a beer. You may detect a slight earthiness and woodiness, and onion and garlic flavors. O’so Brewing’s August 2015 version of Hop Whoopin features Columbus.

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Note, this is just a primer of commonly used hops in American beers. European hops offer more unique aromas and flavors. Noble hops (European hops usually low in bitterness but high in aroma) include Hallertau, Tettnanger, Spalt and Saaz, named for the specific region or city in which they were first found and cultivated. Hallertau Mittelfrßh is perhaps the most famous of these, and you’ll find it in Two Women Lager from New Glarus, for instance. Czech Saaz are equally distinctive for the spicy tones, pepperdryness and light pine-cedar accents. They are often found in traditional pilsners and are also used as a primary hop, with others, in New Glarus’ Spotted Cow. English hops like Fuggles and Goldings provide herbal, woody and grassy aroma and flavor. Some brewers describe English hops as having an underlying metallic flavor. They’re commonly used to make English bitters and ESBs, which are less assertive cousins of the IPA and American IPA. Grainne’s ESB from the Parched Eagle in Westport is made with Goldings, within an overall blend of European hops. Keep in mind that most beers contain a blend of hops. New Glarus’ Scream IIPA is made with 10 different varieties in six separate additions. Your education is just beginning. n

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After Cascade hops, this is the second-most-widelygrown hop. Look for herbal to piney aromas and flavors in the Hop Garden’s Nuggetopia and Toppling Goliath’s Golden Nugget.

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A new hop found in robust IPAs and imperial IPAs. It offers strong citrus qualities of tangerine and pineapple. Some brewers say it lends a light blueberry aroma, too. Taste it in House of Brews’ Mausoleum Black IPA.

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These are the most pine-like hops and can overwhelm other, less assertive, hops. They’re more common as bittering hops in big beers like barleywines. They have a spicy, piney aroma with aggressive spicy pine, spruce and citrus flavors. New Glarus uses these in its Black Top black IPA, blended with Amarillo and Citra.

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Vino – right here in Dane County! Cold-climate grapes spur the growth of southern Wisconsin wineries BY KATE NEWTON

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PHOTOS BY SHARON VANORNY

David Korb in his vineyards on River Road in the town of Westport. property off River Road with an outdoor patio that looks out over some 1,100 vines he’s planted over the years. While the plan initially is to sell wines that Korb and his son have developed out of a collaborative winery facility in California’s San Luis Obispo County, Korb says he wants to release their blends made with Wisconsin grapes and produced inhouse as soon as possible after the winery is fully licensed.

“I think having the California wines may be a good thing to bring in the wine connoisseurs, and then we can present them some of the local wines that I think will be very comparable,” Korb says. Despite the increasing name recognition of cold-climate grapes, he adds, many Midwestern wine drinkers, no matter how seasoned, have never heard of them.

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ISTHMUS DRINKS 2015

There’s a term in French — “bon élévage” — that likens creating a wine to raising a child. In keeping with the metaphor, the formative years of each bottle rely on selecting the right blend of grapes. But trying to grow that right blend of grapes has not been an easy task for Midwest winemakers. Known for being especially punishing to the most well-known grape varieties, Wisconsin’s cold climate has historically limited the growth of West Coaststyle wineries here, leaving wine snobs turning up their noses at the state’s penchant for fruit wines and, of course, its preference for another alcoholic staple. Fortunately, the rise of cold-climate grape varieties all but guarantees that Wisconsin winemakers, both commercial and homegrown, are no longer frozen out of the industry. In recent years, wineries and vineyards of all sizes have been cropping up across the state, and 20 accredited wineries are producing wines with 75% or more Wisconsin-grown grapes, according to the Wisconsin Grape Growers Association. Nearby wineries include the wellestablished Wollersheim Winery of Prairie du Sac and Botham Vineyards outside Barneveld, with others further afield (for instance, Weggy Winery in Richland County, Spurgeon Vineyards near Highland and relative newcomer Baraboo Bluff Winery in Sauk County). There’s also the Fisher King Winery in Mount Horeb, within Dane County’s borders. That count will rise next summer with the anticipated opening of Drumlin Ridge Winery in the town of Westport. Longtime winemaker David Korb, with the help of son Keenan and friend and fellow vintner Rich Trotta, plans to break ground on the winery in October with a soft opening tentatively set for next June. In the making for more than a decade, the winery will sit on Korb’s 13-acre residential

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Developed since the mid-1980s by a breeding program at the University of Minnesota, cold-climate grapes, among them Frontenac, La Crescent and Marquette, can withstand temperatures sometimes down to 30 or 35 degrees below zero. Before these grapes were on the market, winemakers like Korb and Trotta, who has been making wine out of his home since 1974, either suffered major losses to their vines in the winter months or made do with grapes or other fruits that could at least survive, but not thrive, in the harsh conditions. “It’s been wonderful for the home winemakers and the wineries to be able to grow these grapes and start experimenting with the blends you can make from them,� Trotta says. “There’s so many different nuances to making a wine, but it all starts with the grape. And it’s been said that the Marquette grape will eventually become the cabernet sauvignon of the Midwest. It’s just a matter of people trying it and understanding it.� Korb says he thinks it is “odd� that there aren’t more wineries in Dane County, especially considering the high density of wine drinkers in Madison, but attributes much of the struggle to the high cost of land. Drumlin Ridge will differ primarily by using techniques Korb has learned in California, he says: experimenting with approaches to fermenting and blending, and planting the same variety of grape in different locations in the vineyard for subtle variations in taste and vigor. The Marquette grape, a well-known Midwestern grape, is one of the varieties Korb grows in his vineyard. It “has a great

acid and tannin structure,â€? Korb says, and typically is smooth with notes of cherry. Wine drinkers can try the limited-release Marquette from Fisher King Winery at $18/bottle, or the 2013 Marquette, a dry red wine from Ripon’s Vines & Rushes Winery ($20). The Petite Pearl, which Korb compares to “a petite sirah [with] a lot of structure and a lot of body,â€? is another popular red wine variety for this area. Parallel 44 Vineyard and Winery in Kewaunee County has an award-winning blend that was released beginning in 2011 — only the second commercial offering of Petite Pearl worldwide ($29). Fans of white wines should enjoy wines made with La Crescent grapes, which Korb says have a “fantastic biteâ€? and are known for their refreshing sweetness, including Parallel 44’s $18 rendition. Fruit wine lovers should gravitate towards the Brianna, typically blended with tropical flavors including pineapple and mango (like Vines & Rushes’ semi-dry, $15 a bottle). Frontenac grapes are perhaps the most versatile, with red, white and blush varieties. For a taste of all three, try the 2014 Solitude from Rock N Wool Winery of Poynette ($25), Vines & Rushes’ 2014 Frontenac Gris ($15), or River Bend Vineyard and Winery’s Magenta sweet rosĂŠ ($13), from Chippewa Falls. Korb and Trotta agree that all things considered, Wisconsin winemakers will likely continue to face challenges virtually unknown in the arid vineyards of the West. Originality and innovation, though, is on their side. Says Korb: “They haven’t even heard of these grapes in California!â€? n

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Beyond chocolate banana BY KYLE NABILCY

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ISTHMUS DRINKS 2015

Andrew Gierczak, Henry Schwartz and Giotto Troia hold these truths to be selfevident, that all beer recipes are created equal, that they are endowed by their creators with certain unalienable charms, that among these are juniper, durian and carrot cake. That to produce these recipes, a crowdsourced brewery should be created, deriving its power to bottle whackadoo brews from the consent of the voters. A little over two years ago, Madison learned what a crowdsourced American craft brewery would look like: three 24-yearolds making chocolate banana stout and blood orange green tea hefeweizen on the equipment of a veteran brewer twice their age. Friends Gierczak, a former brewer with Leinenkugel, and Schwartz and Troia, both savvy marketers and entrepreneurs, are the founders of MobCraft Beer, widely considered to be the first crowdsourced brewery. Other, bigger, breweries have thrown a bone to homebrewers, fans and outside brewers before with such competitions as Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp and Anheuser Busch’s Project 12. But MobCraft used an unprecedented open submission process to determine nearly every beer in the brewery’s lineup, and it’s been chugging along ever since. Now, with 56 beers listed on RateBeer (where MobCraft ranked as the best new brewer in Wisconsin in 2014), MobCraft is almost ready to take the next step it promised way back in 2013. It will move its operations from House of Brews in Madison to open a brewery and taproom in the Walker’s Point neighborhood of Milwaukee.

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MobCraft was shooting to open its doors in Milwaukee by 2015, but it doesn’t appear that will happen. The new timeline? “2016!” Schwartz says with a laugh. “That’s about as close to a timeline as we can realistically give right now.” “Some things are moving faster than others,” he adds. “We’ve got construction [documents] assembled and submitted to the city to get building permits, but we are still in the process of wrapping up financing.” Team MobCraft wants to offer food, but state regulations are tricky. The Milwaukee beer scene is still coming to grips with Wisconsin’s statutes that prohibit residents from simultaneously holding a restaurant and

brewing license; they also prevent a brewer like MobCraft from having a secondary restaurateur with his or her own Class B liquor license operate within their taproom. “We will have food,” Schwartz says. “It’s just a question of how it all comes together legally.” As MobCraft’s aesthetic has matured, so has its beer offerings. Barrel-aging has crept into the lineup with mezcal barrels (Cervezarita), brandy (Old Fashioned Berliner Weiss) and bourbon barrels (Noctis and Petrichor). The new brewery will have approximately 2,000 square feet of walledoff aging space, though indications are that this will be the home of MobCraft’s growing stable of sour beers. “We will have an entire dedicated sour facility within our brewery that will be completely separate from the rest of the brewery, enclosed and with separate air handling and venting,” says Gierczak. For those beer fans who share many brewers’ fears of bacterial infection in non-sour beers, rest assured Gierczak is aware of the dangers. “I am currently working on a plant cleaning/sanitation regimen for the new brewery that aims to mitigate the effect of sour bacteria in the brewery,” he says. Schwartz anticipates acquiring some foeders, the large wooden tanks used for inoculating and aging sour and funky beers, once the new space settles into its groove. Perhaps the biggest change with MobCraft’s move is losing the day-to-day presence of House of Brews owner Page Buchanan. “Being an entrepreneur is very fun and stressful,” says Schwartz. “There’s no guideline for how to do it right.” “Page has been a great mentor to us over the years, and it will be sad to part ways,” he adds. “But with all the new beers he is producing...we are really starting to step on toes.” Gierczak echoes those thoughts. “We are sharing a brewery with another brewery,” he says. “And both breweries are trying to grow and expand and make more beer. We get in each other’s way a lot.” Earlier this summer, Schwartz and Buchanan shared some classic stories about MobCraft’s hacker-meets-mad-scientist work ethic. Like the time MobCraft worked on its first ghost pepper beer.

“We had our food processor, from home, and we put a quarter pound of ghost chilies in this beer — and like we do all of our adjuncts, it’s steeping a tea and adding it in there,” Schwartz recalled. “So we just threw the food-processed ghost chilies into this justa-little-cooler-than-boiling water, and just, boooom. An instant plume, and everybody’s, like, coughing and crying, and Page is like, ‘You stupid MobCraft guys! Do your stupid shit at home!’” “It dissipated quickly, though,” Schwartz added. “There was some cussing on my part,” Buchanan acknowledged. “Some coughing.” “That was only, like, six months in, though,” said Schwartz. “And just about a year later, we did it with the durian fruit, and then it was just a stink bomb.” With these kinds of mishaps, you’d think Buchanan would be eager to show MobCraft the door. But MobCraft will continue to produce some of its beers at House of Brews while its new facility is getting up to speed. “Page is going to allow us to continue brewing our monthly crowd batch at his facility,” Schwartz says, referring to the beers that go out to pre-ordering customers whenever new recipes are selected. “We’ll brew around [at other facilities] here and there to keep our flagships on the shelves.” Schwartz says other brewers have been extremely “kind” to them. Wisconsin Brewing Company’s Kirby Nelson and Mike McGuire looked over their plans for the Milwaukee brewery, pointing out potential issues. Others even offered to help stock the new place. “Karben4, when they upsized equipment, they’re like, ‘You want us to hold onto this [old equipment] for you for a couple years? When you need it?’ Suuure!” Because of its reliance on the public to generate recipes, MobCraft’s beers are usually lightning rods for criticism; there are almost always vocal devotees and detractors for each release on Untappd. But the guys are so earnest and devoid of bullshittery that they can’t help but make friends in the broader Wisconsin brewing scene. This upcoming move to Walker’s Point doesn’t mean MobCraft will be gone from Madison, says Schwartz: “We’re still just a five-person team, and we get around.” n

stout

Mobcraft’s beer offerings mature, with brewery heading to Milwaukee

ISTHMUS DRINKS 2015

Overseeing the mob: Brewers Andrew Gierczak, Henry Schwartz and Giotto Troia.

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