“Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!” So sang Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney as they skipped along a Milwaukee sidewalk together. In 1976, Laverne & Shirley debuted in the top slot of the Nielsen ratings, pulling in some of the biggest numbers television had seen in a decade. For eight seasons, the roommates and Shotz Brewery coworkers got into uproarious, I Love Lucy–like hijinks in Wisconsin. Much of the show’s success was due to Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, who brought personal touches to their title characters. As zany as the show could get, these felt like real people … working at a fake brewery. That’s right; Shotz was fictitious. But, it’s indisputable that people from the Midwest are the best at drinking beer, as we have seen during televised football games. There’s also an argument to be made that the region is without peer when it comes to making the stuff. Just look at the beer-based excellence of the five craft beer in today’s Peaks and Pints beer flight, Craft Beer Crosscut 2.19.18: A Flight of Midwest. Certainly all of these beers are tastier than the Pepsi milk Laverne drank on the show.
Goose Island Halia
7.5% ABV
Literally meaning “remembrance of a loved one” in Hawaiian, Halia was brewed in memory of the dear friend of one of Goose Island’s brewers who loved peaches. Peaches, indeed. Halia is a tart, farmhouse ale aged with fifty pounds of peaches per barrel in spent cabernet barrels used to mature the Chicago brewery’s Juliet beer, plus with Brettanomyces Claussenii. Flavor is lightly tart, brightly sweet, dry finish, but still quenching. The carefully orchestrated interplay of winey, peachy, sour and astringent makes it a worthy sipper.
New Holland Cabin Fever
6.5% ABV, 25 IBU
Established in 1996, New Holland Brewing sits in Holland, Michigan but its seasonal sits in a remote cabin: “Robust in character yet smooth in delivery, Cabin Fever is a roasty brown ale and a hearty, comforting companion for long, mind-bending winters. Its rye, roast and raisin notes play off a subtle caramel sweetness and culminate in a dry finish. Excellent with roasts, stews, caramelized onions and snowfall.” Indeed. The taste has a malty-sweetness with a roasted chocolate malt flavoring. There are flavors of coffee and mocha present as well. There is a little bitterness, which helps enhance the dark chocolate and coffee notes.
Off Color Dino S’mores
10.5% ABV, 40 IBU
John Laffler of Goose Island and Dave Bleitner of Two Brothers opened Off Color Brewing in March 2013. At the Chicago brewery’s launch party, a local pastry chef cooked up a batch of dinosaur-shaped s’mores for munching; these treats provided the inspiration for an imperial stout Off Color would later brew in collaboration with Danish brewer Amager Bryghus and Chicago bottle shop West Lakeview Liquors. The beer — flavored with marshmallow fluff, molasses, vanilla beans, graham flour and cocoa nibs — was named Dino S’mores and has been available since 2014. It’s sweet and sugary, with a bouquet of blackstrap molasses, graham cracker and marshmallow fluff atop a layer of alcohol, vanilla, marshmallow and milk chocolate.
Boulevard Flora Obscura Dry-Hopped Porter
5.8% ABV, 50 IBU
Founded in 1989, Kansas City’s Boulevard Brewing Co. has weathered a variety of challenges to emerge, survive and prosper, including the 2013 acquisition by Duvel Mortgat, the 147-year-old family-owned brewery in Belgium that also owns Brewery Ommegang. Boulevard is consistently in the top 10 ranking for craft beer in the U.S., thanks to its popular Tropical Pale Ale and Unfiltered Wheat Beer, but we’re digging its new January seasonal Boulevard, Flora Obscura Dry-Hopped Porter. It marries rich malts — including caramel and chocolate — with five bright, citrusy hop varieties: Cascade, Simcoe, Amarillo, Mosaic and Galaxy. And the as name promises, it’s dry-hopped, too. All that adds up to an opaque, nearly black beer with elegant red highlights, and a tan head. Roasted malt, chocolate and citrus and pine aromas repeat in the flavor profile, along with tropical, espresso and caramel notes, before a bittersweet finish.
Founders Backwoods Bastard
11.2% ABV, 50 IBU
You know the drill. Make some beer, quit your job, start a beer business. It’s what Mike Stevens and Dave Engbers did when starting the Founder Brewing Company out of Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1997. The road to greatness wasn’t easy. The duo came face-to-face with bankruptcy before they ditched the unremarkable craft beers switching to flavor-packed, complex brews that are Founders’ signature today. That the Backwoods is boozier than its little Bastard brother is only a side note; the big distinguishing factor of this Scotch ale is that it is aged in bourbon barrels, with great undertones of vanilla, bourbon, oak and dark fruits. It’s smooth and creamy, with the mouthfeel of a milk stout and the body of a Scotch ale. Let this sweet Bastard sit for a few minutes for a richer taste as it gets warmer, reducing the sugar-sweet fresh-out-of-the-fridge impression and replacing it with a complex depth. The alcohol cuts away any aftertaste while dominating the aromatics. It’s almost like drinking a fine neat.
