Robin Shepard
Thick fruit seltzer in two flavors are shown in both a drinking glass and in their cans.
Is that a smoothie or a seltzer?
It’s not beer, but beer adjacent — and Madison-centric. A new installment of Humble Forager’s luxury seltzer line is dedicated to one of Madison’s well-known neighborhoods, Monroe Street. The seltzer Marionberries On Monroe Street is packed with soft sweetness and fruity tartness, similar to blackberry. This is a thick, fruit-rich seltzer that pours more like a smoothie than something clear and fizzy. It finishes at 5.5% ABV ($20/four-pack).
Humble Forager Brewery, located in Rochester, Minnesota, was started by Austin Jevne in 2015. Jevne says his luxury seltzer brands are an homage to growing up in the Monroe Street neighborhood. The “luxury” tag is reinforced by Jevne’s use of exotic-sounding ingredients like vanilla caviar from Ecuador and meadowfoam honey, harvested in Oregon. Those two ingredients contribute to the rich sweetness and thick body of the seltzer. Marrionberries On Monroe is the third release of these bigger and bolder seltzers, following one made with mandarin oranges and another with mangos.
Jevne initially teamed up with Garth’s Brew Bar, an epicenter for craft beer along Monroe Street. Together they have been promoting the brands as exclusive to the neighborhood. Demand grew and they’re now sold elsewhere in Wisconsin and Minnesota as Humble Bumble Buzzed Seltzer. Jevne is planning to package them all in mixed 12-packs starting in the spring.
January is birthday month for Karben4. The brewery is celebrating its 13th year in business on Jan. 31 with a special batch of its flagship beer, the IPA Fantasy Factory. Brewer Joe Walts used the brewery’s one-barrel pilot brewing system to create a special double dry-hopped version. It’s a limited tap-only batch, so if you want some, arrive early for the party. The event is marked with several other special releases, including a barleywine called Priest Profit and King ($20/four-packs). This is a unique barrel-aged beer made with a solera brewing technique — about 20% of the brew comes from a previous year’s batch. It’s then blended into the subsequent newest release. The technique results in a link with all previous vintages, back to when the brewery first offered the barleywine in 2020. It is an approach more often used in beverages like wine and sherry. In addition, Karben4 tweaks the flavor each year by using different barrels including bourbon, whiskey, wine and even maple syrup. It all makes this an annual brew worth watching. This is a big beer at around 10% ABV.
Delta Beer Lab is leading up to its anniversary in February by offering the first of several celebratory releases before a birthday bash on Feb. 28. The 7th Deltaversary is a cold IPA with the hoppy personality of a sharp West Coast IPA. It features a new variety of hops called Dolcita that provides hints of peaches and stone fruit. The cold IPA style is made with lager yeast and fermented at cold temperatures, which gives it a clean, sharp flavor. The beer finishes at 6.5% ABV ($15/four-packs).
Stroopwafel, a sweet take on a Belgian blonde ale, is “now showing” on the taps at the Flix Brewhouse on Madison’s east side. The movie theater and brewery added Dutch (stroopwafel) waffles into the brewkettle. The Belgian blonde gets a little lost in the rich sweetness of maple syrup and brown sugar, especially as it warms while watching a movie. It is an acquired taste, yet will appeal to those who enjoy pastry stouts, coffee porters, or other brews in the genre of breakfast beers. This finishes at 7.2% ABV ($7/glass).
In Lake Mills, Tyranena’s Dirty Old Man has returned, having not been packaged since 2019. The beer, a barrel-aged imperial porter, is a gem, among the brewery’s most exceptional beers. My complaint is that it doesn’t appear often enough (though perhaps absence makes the heart grow fonder). It’s smooth with deep chocolate and caramel maltiness, accented by the sweetness of the whiskey and oak of the barrel, followed by the lingering spicy breadiness of rye. This is a beer that will continue to improve with some cellaring, if you can refrain from drinking it immediately.
