Central Waters goes gold
and green

Anticipation is running high for Central Waters’ 2009 Bourbon Barrel Barley Wine since its predecessor, the 2008 release, recently picked up a coveted gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

“It’s an extra reassurance that we’re doing something right. We’re very proud of it,” brewery co-owner Anello Mollica said of the medal. “The really nice thing is it’s in the same category that we won a gold in two years ago for our Bourbon Barrel Cherry Stout. We’ve only entered the least three years, so coming out with two golds is great. Typically this category – wood- and barrel-aged beer – is one of the most-entered categories in the entire competition. This year it was the fourth most entered category (with 79 entries). The bourbon barrel-aged beers have become extremely popular, so it shows us we’re on top of the game and we’re providing a real quality barrel-aged product.”

The award-winning, 12% alcohol barley wine is a close relative of the brewery’s Kosmyk Charlie’s Y2K Catastrophe Ale.

“We brew our barley wine, Kozmyk Charlie’s, once a year, and it is a minimum of 12 months old,” Mollica said. “We put some of that batch in bourbon barrels and that gives it a different aging character. It ages in the barrel for a minimum of six months. This is a beer we really anticipate will age nicely seven to 10 years, so you can do what’s called a vertical tasting, where you have seven or 10 years of barley wine side by side and see how the aging process in the bottle changes. This is really a connoisseur’s beer.”

Due to an expansion under way at the Amherst brewery, Central Waters did not have a representative to accept the medal at the GABF in Denver.

“We just couldn’t make it. It was a little too hectic,” Mollica said. “Of course, it’s Murphy’s Law. When you don’t go, you win. But that’s OK. It was broadcast live over the Internet. We were watching at the bar. A big cheer went up. We were celebrating for sure.”

The expansion will allow Central Waters to keep up with the every-growing demand for its beers.

“When we built this brewery a year and half ago, we anticipated it would meet a lot of our current demands,” Mollica said. “But the last two years we’ve doubled production. We always find ourselves in the position of not having enough beer to fill our orders and our distributors saying we could use more product because we have a lot of people waiting for the product. We’re going to double production again next year. We’ll do 3,000 barrels (93,000 gallons) this year and we’re shooting for 6,000 barrels next year.”

The expansion includes a new brewhouse, packaging line and a remodeled tap room where the public can taste fresh Central Waters beers on weekends.

“We’re going to be redoing the entire taproom,” Mollica said. “We’re going to add a second bathroom and we’re going to add seating. We’re hoping to get seating for 50 people. We’re going to rebuild the bar and just provide a more comfortable environment for customers. We’re hoping it will be completed by the end of the year.”

While the tap room may be the most visible aspect of the brewery expansion, the owners relish the idea of going solar.

“One of the things with the expansion that we’re going to be really, really proud of, we’ll be installing 1,000 square feet of solar hot water panels, which will make us the first brewery in the state of Wisconsin that will be actually heating their beer with solar energy,” Mollica said. “We’ll also be using that to heat our building, but we’ll be working it up so it partially heats our kettle water, so our beer will be partially heated with solar energy.”

With a higher upfront cost and a seven-year payback for the solar heating option, Mollica says choosing to go green demonstrates to the world that Central Waters is here for the duration.

“It is a higher upfront cost, but there are rebates and tax credits available to us for using it in industry purposes. And with the seven-year payback, we’re going to be around longer than seven years, so it just makes sense,” he said. “With the higher upfront cost, I think that really shows the company that we really are. We’ll sacrifice if it’s a good thing to do, not just for the environment, but for the business, for the community. We’re a small company and it’s difficult for us to afford this, but there are larger companies out there that could afford this and don’t do it. I think that’s kind of how we swim against the current in the business world.”

Look for Central Waters 2009 Bourbon Barrel Barley Wine in single 12-ounce bottles.

Capital Brewing of Madison also picked up a GABF gold medal, for its delicious Autumnal Fire.

Other state award winners at the GABF include Dell’s Brewing Co, a silver for Dells Chief Amber Ale; Great Dane of Madison, a bronze for Old Scratch Barley Wine; Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing, a silver for Creamy Dark; Lakefront Brewery of Milwaukee, a silver for its gluten free beer New Grist; Titletown Brewing of Green Bay, a silver for Railyard Ale.

MillerCoors took eight medals, including two golds (for Coors Light and Henry Weinhard’s Hefeweizen, but since corporate headquarters will be moving from Milwaukee to Illinois, do we really care?

*****

Leinenkugel’s has released its newest winter offering, Fireside Nut Brown (oh, how I want to ad Ale to the end of that name, if only because it is conspicuous in its absence).

Nut brown ale is a traditional English ale. But the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. of Chippewa Falls – whose parent company is the run-on sentence known as MillerCoors – is known as a lager brewery, and this seems to be a lager that wants to be an English-style ale.

I wonder about this beer for several reasons, not least of which is the promotional writing on the packaging, which claims “the well-balanced flavor and brilliant amber tones give Leinenkugel’s Fireside Nut Brown a comforting approachability that you don’t experience in traditional English-style nut browns.”

Is the writer dissing English nut brown ale? That sounds suspiciously like someone who knows nothing of beer. I’ve always found English nut brown ales to have extremely “comforting approachability.”

Usually when a brewer attempts to produce a beer in a traditional style, it is considered an homage to the original because it is a style worthy of imitation. So I don’t quite get the point the writer is trying to make. And how do you get the job of promo writing on beer packaging? I suspect you have to be a marketing nerd first, while knowledge of the actual product – the beer – is a secondary concern. But I’m just guessing.

And the other thing that concerns me – traditional English nut brown ales do not taste like nuts. The name “Nut Brown Ale” refers to a shade of brown, not a nutty taste. It’s about color, not taste.

Fireside Nut Brown does look nutty (“chestnut,” the promo copy writer contends), but they have taken the concept literally as well, for it tastes nutty – a big filbert (a/k/a hazelnut) flavor dominates, along with dark chocolate tones.

I’d like to know how they got the filbert flavor. The bottle says only “Beer with natural flavor.” I find that evasive. The promo writer claims English two-row malts “give this lager a maple aroma and pronounced chocolate, caramel and hazelnut (filbert) top notes that dance around the palate before finishing gracefully.” While some malts can give a hint of nuttiness to a beer, this is so overwhelmingly filbertized that I have to believe filberts were used in the making of this beer.

Call me crazy, but I like to know what’s in my beer. There was a time in the not-too-distant past when I could e-mail Dick Leinenkugel, vice president of sales and marketing at the family brewery, with Leinie questions, but he’s got bigger fish to fry since he was named Wisconsin’s commerce secretary in September.

OK, full disclosure: I think filberts should be a controlled substance. I like the nuts, but as a flavoring, I find filberts cloying, and they seem to be everywhere – in coffee, in tea, in coffee creamers, in popcorn, and now in Leinenkugel’s.

But, hey, beer tasting is subjective. If you enjoy the flavor of filberts and subtle dark chocolate in your lager, you will love Fireside Nut Brown. It’s a seasonal, so get it while you can.

*****

You gotta wonder what was said at Anheuser-Bush when the idea was first pitched to brew Budweiser American Ale.

“But, we brew lagers!” someone must have exclaimed.

And you can almost hear the savvy August Busch IV saying, “Ah, where there’s a niche, there’s a way.”

I had a couple mugs of A-B’s new release on tap. It has some character from both malt and citrusy/piney Cascade hops. Nice ale fruitiness. It’s not going to knock your socks off, nor will it disappoint you. It’s a decent session beer. Seems to be priced right – a little more than Budweiser, a little less than competing craft beers.

I’ve had several people suggest to me that A-B created American Ale at the insistence of new Belgian owner InBev, but since that $52 billion takeover was only recently approved by InBev shareholders, that is not possible. Even A-B needs more than a few days to brew beer.

Someone else suggested that Bud American Ale is a gateway beer for the unwashed masses who have yet to experience the delights of the 21st century brewing industry.

“Gateway? You mean like marijuana is the gateway to hard drugs?” I asked, effectively ending the conversation.

But Bud American Ale could be considered an entry-level beer – not too intimidating for the neophyte craft beer drinker and not too wimpy for the seasoned veteran. After all, to find life in a Budweiser is to find hope in the world!