When the majority of American beer connoisseurs speak of a “craft” beer paradise, a Shangri-La of locally brewed malted barley & hops concoctions, they usually mean Portland, Oregon (USA). Also known as Portlandia & the people’s republic of portland, the Rose City - a West Coast community of 600,000 - has embraced the portmanteau moniker Beervana. And the hype is actually justified: Portland deserves the craft-beer title of the continental United States, given its approximately 59 quirky brew-pubs & craft breweries.
The term “Beervana” is simultaneously (1) a nod to the mellow Pacific Northwest / West Coast seeker vibe - available in even the rainiest parts of climatically diverse Oregon, Washington & California; and (2) high praise for the heavenly array of high-quality local beers on tap at Portland’s licensed premises. The craft-beer revolution, of course, is not limited to the coasts. It has spread far & wide throughout contemporary America.
The craze for hops-enhanced pale ales & other trendy beers - whether on tap or in recyclable bottles & growlers (re-usable 64-oz. glass jugs) - shows no sign of abating soon. Hip cities, such as Seattle & San Francisco, may enjoy a moderate climate & a sophisticated culture. But their craft beers are no better than those brewed in, say, Kenosha (Wisconsin). In that city of 100,000 souls, Public Craft Brewing Co. & Rustic Road Brewing Co., both established in 2012 in the city’s revived downtown, lend hipster cred & cutting-edge chic to that former AMC/Chrysler factory town.
Indeed, Wisconsin’s many craft brewers - from metro Milwaukee & Madison to Green Bay, Black River Falls & beyond - are giving Portland a run for their money. When it comes to offering tasty options for locally brewed, small-batch craft beers, the proud brewing tradition of the Badger State has been rescued from the slow death of corporate mediocrity. Moreover, these niche gourmet beers fit the emerging foodie economy, unlike the insipid mass-market beers sold by global giants such as SABMiller or Anheuser-Busch InBev.
In fact, Wisconsin craft brewers have made important contributions to the small-is-better industry legacy. In his list of the “Ten Great American Beers” (see the June/July 2002 issue of American Heritage), for example, renowned beer expert Michael Jackson includes Wisconsin Belgian Red by New Glarus Brewing Co. (est. 1993). He says that this take on a Belgian cherry beer has “an almost purple color, a textured body, a malty background, and a beautiful balance of almondy fruitiness and tartness.” In a nod to the international success of American craft brewers, Jackson adds that this tasty beer from tiny New Glarus, Wisconsin, “has won several awards in Europe.”
In Milwaukee (population: 599,000), home of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball club as well as the iconic Harley-Davidson motorcycle & gear brand, the renaissance of craft brewing was launched by the Sprecher Brewing Co., which sold its first beer in 1985. What could go better together than baseball, Harley bikes & beer? Meanwhile in the state capital, Madison (population: 250,000), successful breweries such as Ale Asylum (eastside) & Capital Brewery (in suburban Middleton) have become established leaders in craft brewing. You might say that Milwaukee & Madison are vying to become the Mecca of Midwest craft brewing.
Today the leading innovator among Brew City’s numerous craft brewers is Lakefront Brewery, founded in Milwaukee in 1987, when it brewed a mere 60 barrels. In addition to an annual production of thousands of barrels of its own varieties, Lakefront also custom brews proprietary recipes on contract for area brewpubs - such as the refreshing Grampa Jack’s Pilsner, exclusively available at Reefpoint Brewhouse (est. 2012) in nearby Racine, Wisconsin.
Located in a restored warehouse on North Commerce Street, adjacent to downtown & beside the Milwaukee River, Lakefront Brewing was cited by the editors of Draft magazine (in 2008) as offering the best “family friendly” brewery tour in the world. They put it ahead of the staid yet generous tour at the gargantuan Guinness brewery at St. James Gate, Dublin (Ireland). And deservedly so: having taken both tours, I assure you that indie-sized Lakefront Brewery’s hour-long tour beats the Guinness version hands down for entertainment value.
Having a sharp sense of humor is a vital tool for survival, a way of remaining sane in a sometimes crazy world. And here’s the genius of the Lakefront tour: it’s pretty funny (if you understand American English well). Our middle-aged guide, Katie, presented herself as a refugee from the corporate sector: she used to be an accountant, but switched to teaching. Lakefront Brewery manager Chris Ranson explains that their tour “revolves around the brewing process” so that “participants get a real good sense of brewing.”
Yet it’s not at all a dry learning experience for thirsty adults. One happy customer called Lakefront’s tour “the Animal House of brewery tours,” reportedly because the $7 admission charge includes four 6-ounce tap beers, served in a spacious Old World-style beer hall, a coupon for another pint at a local bar & a souvenir Lakefront pint glass. The brewery’s owner, Russ Klisch, kicked the fun up a notch by purchasing two iconic items of local memorabilia: (1) the chalet that mascot Bernie Brewer used as an outfield perch to watch every Brewers’ home game at Milwaukee County Stadium; and (2) the bottling line used in the title sequence of Laverne & Shirley, a lame ’70s sitcom where two goofy girlfriends work at the fictional Shotz Brewery in Milwaukee.
Lakefront also offers a “technical tour” (conducted especially for home-brewers) for $30, as well as private tours upon request. In addition to their many year-round beers (such as Extended Play IPA) & seasonal offerings (e.g. Cherry Lager), Lakefront makes a gluten-free beer (New Grist) for celiac-disease sufferers as well as an Organic ESB for health freaks. Lakefront Brewing has been certified “green” for its environmental practices by Travel Green Wisconsin.
Craft brewing is an industry ripe for parody, with its eccentric brewers, offbeat beer-names & garish labels. Flying Dog Brewery in Colorado, for example, uses the punky splatter illustrations of Ralph Steadman on its labels as well as a tagline by “Gonzo” journalist and longtime Woody Creek (CO) resident Hunter S. Thompson: “Good people drink good beer.” Some craft brewers resort to desperate measures in order to cut through the clutter of this suddenly crowded market. Only three percent of US beer sales (some six million barrels) last year were domestic crafts. However, that’s up 17% from 2012, according to Brewers Association figures. No wonder craft-beer brands keep proliferating.
Is it a delusional business model, spreading like a beer-borne contagion? Or a viable consumer trend? Only time will tell. As evidence of craft-beer marketing run amok, I offer Exhibit A (as in apropos or absurdity): an otherwise appealing bottle of dark brown Scotch ale, by Sacramento Brewing Co. of California, is cursed with the yeti-inspired name Sac-Squatch. Doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue, does it?
So it’s high time that Christopher Guest make a mockumentary on the subject. He could call it Bottles of Glory, a bizarre journey into the creative heart of the American craft brewer. (“More fun than a lost weekend,” drones Roger Ebert’s immortal Internet avatar.) Guest & a pair of longtime improv collaborators, Harry Shearer & Michael McKean, famously spoofed aging British rock stars & heavy-metal headbangers in This is Spinal Tap (1984). They deftly skewered the Sixties folk-music generation in A Mighty Wind (2003). They even lambasted purebred-dog competitions (Best in Show, 2000) & community theatre (Waiting for Guffman, 1997). Satirizing small-batch craft brewers who aspire to make a legendary beer, while conspiring to undermine their beer-addled competitors, might make for a good film scenario.
Lakefront guide Katie deployed bad puns & bald-faced lies in telling her condensed Story of Beer. But she kept her balance, deftly sidestepping comic bombs. More important, her passion for the subject was palpable. Lakefront’s Chris Ranson hires all the tour guides, requiring each applicant to have home-brewing experience. He made a solid hire in Katie’s case.
Conventional wisdom would have you believe that the post-’80s “craft beer revolution” only happened because, in October 1978, U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed the homebrewers & winemakers bill. That federal law led to thousands of beer enthusiasts experimenting with recipes, making up to the legal limit of 200 gallons of beer per household. Some of them were encouraged to go commercial, opening brewpubs & micro-breweries across the vast parched landscape of North America.
What’s usually left out of the Hollywood myth outlined above is the countervailing ’70s trend toward taste-free “light beers” (Miller Lite, Coors Light, etc.). The aspirational American beer-lover’s palette demanded something better. It devised an American response to such substantial European imports as Grolsch (with its porcelain cap), Guinness & St. Pauli Girl. In the end, demanding consumers will create & sustain diverse markets - in so-called “free societies,” anyway. Beer is no exception.
In William Hogarth’s 1751 print Beer Street, the British artist depicts drinking ales & porters as a life-affirming habit. In sharp contrast to the dying wretches of Gin Lane (a companion illustration), people on allegorical Beer Street look healthy & happy. Hogarth festoons the scene with a sign celebrating beer’s main ingredient: Health to the barley mow! Or as the old Czech folk song puts it: Kde se pivo pije / tam se dobře žije! [Wherever beer is brewed / life is lived well!]
In a cover story for American Heritage (June/July 2002), “Beer and America,” Library of America publisher Max Rudin calls beer the “drink of democracy.” He embraces both the modest working-class origins & the literary legacy of a sometimes denigrated aspect of American culture. Rudin quotes beer-praising passages from Jack London & John Steinbeck & he cites a nose-thumbing beer gag in the Marx Brothers film A Night at the Opera as proof of beer’s deeply ingrained popularity in the USA.
Fortunately, contemporary craft brewers, including several from Wisconsin, have not only improved the taste & variety of American beer. They’ve also educated discriminating beer drinkers’ palettes along the way. Cheers!
NOTE - Related recommended reading: (1) for details about the history of beer in the Badger State, get Breweries of Wisconsin by Jerry Apps (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2nd ed. 2005); and (2) for a generously illustrated overview of the industry, see Brewed Awakening: Behind the Beers & Brewers Leading the World’s Craft Brewing Revolution by Joshua M. Bernstein (NY: Sterling Epicure, 2011).
[© 2014 by J.C. Mrázek]
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