Robin Shepard
Bill Morgan of Full Mile empties spent grain from the lauter tun while Clint Lohman and Miranda Ladwig of Working Draft look on.
Collaboration beers are everywhere; nearly every brewery taproom features one on a regular basis. Among the most interesting current collabs is by Madison’s Working Draft Beer Company and Sun Prairie’s Full Mile Beer Company and Kitchen. The project? To brew a smoked weizen, also called a rauchweizen (rauch is the German word for smoke; weizens are wheat beers). Beechwood smoked malt gives the beer a light touch of campfire aroma and flavor. It’s the first rauchbier for Bill Morgan at Full Mile, while Working Draft’s Clint Lohman has made a handful of lagers using smoked malts before, although never a weizen.
Rauchbiers are an acquired taste for many drinkers, and can be downright polarizing when the brewer goes overboard on the smoke. “I like weizens with flavors of banana and cloves, and I like lightly smoked beers,” says Morgan. “Those two things sounded good in my head, so why not put them together?” The smoked weizen finishes at 5.5% ABV and is available at both Working Draft and Full Mile ($7/glass).
A close cousin of the rauchweizen is the dunkelweizen. Now that spring has arrived the dunkelweizen, or dark wheat beer, has become my beer of choice. Milwaukee’s Lakefront Brewery has an excellent offering right now. It’s the 50th beer in its My Turn series of beers that feature recipes created by brewery staff members. AJ Dunkelweizen is a dark brown/bronze ale with smooth caramel and chocolate maltiness and grainy sweetness from the wheat. It hits all the marks of a good German weizen with yeasty esters of banana and cloves. The beer’s creator, A.J. Belling, handles sales for thebrewery in northeast Wisconsin. He chose the style because he is an unabashed fan of German wheat beers. I, too, really like the style and this one nails it in terms of flavor. At just 4.9% ABV it is a great beer to celebrate the arrival of spring ($10/six-packs).
Giant Jones Brewing is making its first ever lagers, releasing two in April. Brewmaster and co-owner Jessica Jones enjoys researching historic and rare beer styles, and has come up with a recipe for a Polish bock, or Koźlak. The beer is similar in appearance to a German version of the style with a reddish-brown color and light bready aroma. Jones found a variety of hops called Marynka from Poland known for hints of licorice, chamomile and light earthy notes of hay and tobacco. The beer finishes at 8% ABV.
Different folkloric giants are the main art on the labels of Giant Jones beers. This one features Dziewanna, the Polish goddess of wild nature, revered for her unrestrained femininity.
The second lager from Giant Jones will be a traditional German maibock made with Vienna and pilsner malts, balanced with herbal, spicy Hallertau hops. Balanced in flavor with medium body, Giant Jones Maibock comes in at 8% ABV. It depicts the giant Ostara, a German goddess of spring, on its label. Watch for both beers by mid-April in the Giant Jones taproom ($7/500 mL bottle or $8/10 oz glass at the brewery).
