Robin Shepard
Working Draft has a winner with Stackenblochen.
Oktoberfest beer season is here. The stalwarts, including New Glarus’ Staghorn Oktoberfest and Tyranena’s Gemuetlichkeit Oktoberfest, are always solid choices. However, our smaller breweries make some awesome renditions of this traditional fall lager. My picks this year include Delta Beer Lab’s Oktoberfest ($16/four-pack) and Working Draft Beer Company’s Stackenblochen ($17/four-pack).
I like them both, and a lot, for different reasons. Both have a similar bready malty backbone, but it’s their hops that give them their own personalities. Delta uses German Hersbrucker with light floral and spicy notes in the finish. Working Draft is a very traditional version using German Hallertau and the same strain of yeast used by Munich’s renowned Augustiner Bräu. That gives Stackenblochen a clean balanced body with a touch of spicy bitterness in the end. It’s right up there with the best German imports.
Brewmaster Dave Hansen of Madison’s Flix Brewhouse released a new, fresh hopped hazy IPA in late September. His Wisconsin Fresh Hop Harvest 2025 features Vista hops grown in the small hop yard of Sunridge Acres in Stoughton. On brew day, Hanson first got his brew kettle full of hot water, then jumped in his car to head to the farm. There he was met by owners James and Crystal Hanson, who helped fill his back seat with 25 pounds of freshly harvested hops. He quickly headed back to the East Towne Mall brewhouse, where the hops were immediately put into the kettle. Vista hops are known for honeydew melon, papaya, peach and pear flavor. Fresh Hop Harvest 2025 finishes at 6.9% ABV.
Hanson is getting some well-earned national attention for his brewing. He recently captured two medals at the U.S. Open Beer Championship. His Tangerine Saison, a specialty beer for Flix Madison and a beer I picked as among my best beers of June, was given a gold medal for Belgian-style fruit beers. It’s not currently on tap, but will return to the Madison Flix Brewhouse next spring.
Hanson’s brewing of 10 Day Scottish ale captured a silver. The Scottish ale is a standard beer made at all Flix Brewhouse locations across the country. Flix brewers follow a common recipe; the version that Hanson made in Madison was chosen to represent the company nationally. Hanson says the hard water here is ideal for making a Scottish ale and makes it a little different from other Flix locations’ Scottish ales. Here, the water brings out more smooth malt character.
Lake Louie brewmaster Kirby Nelson recently created an American porter recipe that will be worth watching for in the months ahead. Nelson’s pre-prohibition porter was made at the historic farmstead brewery of Old World Wisconsin near Eagle. There, the Wisconsin Historical Society replicates how early Wisconsin farmers would have brewed in the mid-1800s. Nelson spent the day with local brewery historians and used local grains and hops and older equipment and brewing techniques to make a small trial batch of porter that he says is inspiration for something yet to come, possibly using the Lake Louie Dockhaus Brewery in Oconomowoc.
