Robin Shepard
Man at a bar looking at beer his brewery made.
Full Mile Brewmaster Bill Morgan looks over Full Sun, a Belgian pale ale that the Sun Prairie Brewpub made in collaboration with Sunshine Brewing in Lake Mills.
IPAs continue to pop up frequently in Madison-area brewhouses. The range of the style just keeps growing.
Full Mile Beer Company and Kitchen in Sun Prairie teamed up with Sunshine Brewing Company of Lake Mills to make a Belgian IPA called Full Sun on tap at both breweries this month. Full Mile’s Bill Morgan and Sunshine’s Lane Smith and Caleb Meinke did a joint brew in mid-February in the Sun Prairie brewpub. The beer features Chinook, Citra and Strata hops with Belgian pilsner and German Vienna malts. It is fermented with the same yeast strain used by Belgium’s Achouffe Brewery. Morgan says the collaboration between Full Mile and Sunshine involved a bit of happenstance. “I dropped by Sunshine unannounced for a beer because I wanted to taste its Belgian beers. I left my business card and Lane called me back, which led to a discussion about collaborating,” says Morgan. The beer finishes at 7.5% ABV ($7/glass).
Bill Morgan also has another hoppy offering well worth stopping in for at Full Mile. He’s made a Belgian pilsner using a rare variety of hops from the Poperinge region of Belgium — they’re called Groene Bel (or Green Belle). The hops were at first thought to be a long-lost varietal, but farmers near Poperinge started re-introducing them about five years ago. Morgan surmises that he’s the first U.S. brewer to get his hands on them.
He heard about them while he was attending a hop festival in Poperinge and after doing some research he exchanged emails with a farmer who was growing them near Poperinge. Morgan was able to convince the farmer to sell him a few pounds to try in a beer. But when the hops arrived in the mail the U.S. Postal Service sent them back because postal officials couldn’t determine what was in the package. By the time Morgan received the hops weeks later they had crossed the Atlantic three times, thus leading to the beer’s name of “Triple Cross Pils.” The beer is crisp and clean with light spicy and woody notes. It finishes at 5.5% ABV ($6.50/20-ounce glass).
Hop Haus in Fitchburg and Verona has yet another new release in its Recreational Chemistry Series; it’s been turning out a new one about every two months. The beers that appear in the series are all hazy IPAs featuring different combinations of new and experimental hops, but each one has the same malt bill. They end up around 8% ABV. The April installment is named 23-2 (four-packs of 16-oz. cans/$14). It features German Hallertau Blanc and Hüll Melon hops. Both are known for their fruity character, with slightly sweet notes of grape, strawberries and melon.
Delta Beer Lab’s newest IPA is a tribute to women beer makers and enthusiasts. The beer was brewed on March 10 by a group of 18 women (employees and regular customers of Delta). The beer is made with the Pink Boots blend of hops provided by the Yakima Chief Hops of Yakima, Washington. This is Delta’s second time to brew a beer that honors local women in the craft beer industry. Pink Boots collaborations are made by several breweries across the country; many brew them around International Women’s Day of March 8. “I really enjoyed the camaraderie on brew day. There was a sense of togetherness, being part of a big group and realizing that we helped make Delta,” says Michelle Riehn, a co-owner of Delta. The beer is a crisp and clean example of the West Coast IPA style, finishing at 6.5% ABV ($16/four-pack). Roughly $1/pint from sales will be donated to the Wisconsin chapter of the Pink Boots Society, which provides scholarships, training and education to women and non-binary individuals in brewing.
And a shout-out to Peter Schroder and co-owners of Starkweather Brewing. The brewery’s Belgian dark strong ale called Wandering Composer brought home a silver medal, and its Scoti, a wee heavy, captured a bronze in the New York’s International Beer Competition. By the end of March the Wee Heavy was gone but Wandering Composer should make a return by May ($7.50/12-ounce and $18/crowler).
