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| Real Beer Man: Beer’s good for what ales you |
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Beer is a balm in so many ways. A good beer refreshes the palate and soothes the soul. Everyone recognizes the sentence “Let’s go have a beer!” as words of friendship. Beer drunk in moderation by temperate people brings pleasure and camaraderie. Sometimes beer can even change the world. Beer has helped many OK, cue the chorus: Isn’t beer consumed by intemperate partners to blame for some of that abuse? Sure, we can blame beer or brown liquor or crystal meth or talk radio or reality TV or economic hard times for stimulating the abuser into action against the abused, but those things are certainly not the root cause of the abuse. Millions of people drink beer without smacking their partners around. So don’t blame beer. Get those ugly, negative thoughts out of your head. The Oshkosh Jaycees, their friends and families, and “We can actually use more volunteers. Since we have a lot of distributors coming, we need people to actually pour the beer,” said Melissa Pezzuto, an Oshkosh Jaycee who co-chairs the festival. If you’d like to pour beer at Brews & Blues, send an e-mail b& This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or check out the Jaycees’ Facebook page. But know this before volunteering: There’s nothing worse than attending a beer fest where the pourers don’t have a clue about the beer they’re pouring, or, worse yet, they tell you, “I don’t even drink beer.” It happens, but not at Brews & Blues. “We like the volunteers to come a little early and find out about the beer you’re pouring because people usually do have questions about the beer, so we like them to know about the beer they’re serving,” Pezzuto said. For the Blues portion of B&B, the Jaycees have tapped local guitar slinger Donnie Pick and his band The Unit, and the popular Greg Waters and the Broad Street Boogie Band. “It’s our 15th anniversary, so we really wanted to make this 15th year a great year and spotlight some local acts,” Pezzuto said. Like the great “The Leach is really great for us,” Pezzuto said. “It’s a really good venue for our bands, plus there’s a lot of rooms for the brewers. People can watch the band or hang out on the ill.” Speaking of that hill, my old homebrew crew will be there to flex their malty and hoppy muscles. “The Society of Glass Nickel Pizza is making its first appearance at the fest. There are benches at the Leach, but if you want to sit comfortably, bring your own chair. Tickets are $30 in advance and $40 at the door. Find them in Oshkosh at O’Marro’s Public House, Barley & Hops, Festival Foods; in Menasha at the Redliner Bar; and Festival Foods in Appleton and Fond du Lac. Brews & Blues is a rain or shine event. “Nothings going to stop us,” Pezzuto said. “We have tents in case it rains, but we’ve had really good weather the past seven years or so.” See you there. * * * And just to emphasize that beer can do good in this world, keep your eye out for 22-ounce bottles of Reunion 2010, A Brew for Hope. This is the fourth year for Reunion Beer is a collaboration between Alan Shapiro, president "Every dollar we raise goes directly to IMBCR to fund research," Slosberg said. "We hope beer lovers everywhere will consider making a small donation via the Fourteen lucky states will have Reunion 2010 on tap ( Free beer tomorrow! For the past couple years we’ve been doing this monthly thing called Scene Society for Beer Enjoyment. It’s held at a different bar every month, where anyone who shows up can sample a beer for two hours, courtesy of our partner in this monthly endeavor, Wisconsin Distributors of Appleton.
Like many American varieties, Summit is high on the alpha scale (alpha acids in hops give beer its bitterness). European hops average 5% to 9% alpha. Summit hops range from a whopping 17.5% to 19.5%. *** May 2010: Adventures in Beer I have an overdue review of an end-of-the-world beer, but, first, a story of a young man’s planned adventure of a lifetime, an adventure in beer. The final three months of Ilan’s trip will be spent bicycling through Central Europe, visiting small brewing regions. “There just isn’t enough time to intern at every brewery in every country that I would like to, so instead, I decided to combine biking and brewing, two things relatable and meaningful to many Europeans.” The distance of the trek is approximately 2,100 miles and will span across 90 days and seven countries. “Even though I will cycle to various regions in every country throughout the year, the last three months will be completely devoted to cycling through each country and to many of the small regions containing breweries, hop farms, malt houses, etc..., where I will be able to more fully discover the historical traditions that makes each culture amazingly unique. “The purpose of my journey is to learn as much as possible while abroad and then to share my knowledge with others upon my return through both writing and public speaking.” Ilan began brewing during his junior year of college and has since judged numerous brewing competitions, represented various breweries at beer festivals and had been nominated President of the Appleton Libation Enthusiasts home brewing club. Apart from converting his grandfather’s basement into a fully functioning brewery, where he can bottle, keg or cask-condition any of his beers, Ilan has also been invited to guest brew alongside the brew masters at both Stone Cellar in Appleton and Capital Brewery in Middleton. “From a philosophical standpoint, drinking good beer is analogous to reading a piece of quality literature or listening to a masterpiece symphony, the distinction between these events being only the physical sense that is stimulated. Just as Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Gustav Mahler’s moving 5th Symphony cause us to delve into our inner being, so too does the “story” encoded by the brew master excite our intellect.” Ilan departs for London on July 27 and will return August 2011. During his trip he hopes to keep people updated about his travels by blogging and writing articles. Ilan was to receive funding from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation for his travels, but despite being a national finalist, he was unable to secure a fellowship. “I’ll travel on my own dime, but unfortunately, I don’t have enough dimes. Right now, I have a few potential sponsors, but relish the idea of anyone who may be able to help fund me that thinks, like me, that this trip is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” Ilan is holding a charity Beer and Wine Tasting on May 8 to help raise funds for his travels and can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for details, or you can go to the ALE brew club’s site at aleclub.org for further details on his trip. * * * To quote REM, It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. That’s because I’m drinking the deliciously roasty, toasty 2012 Black Ale from Stevens Point Brewery. Let the end come!Black lager, or schwarzbier, is one of the great beer styles of Germany. In this land where light beer reigns, it’s heartening to see Point create such a tasty ale version, with prominent roasted malts. And to do it with such humor by relating the new beer’s blackness to the Mayan end-of-time calendar coming on the winter solstice of 2012 is sheer genius. April 2010: Freestyle Brewin' at O'so Last time we checked in with Marc Buttera in late winter of 2008, he had recently opened the doors to Wisconsin’s newest craft brewery, O’so Brewing Co. of Plover. His idea from the start was to wow people with freestyle brewing. We don’t need no stinkin’ BJCP! In just two years Oso’s out-of-the-box beers – which include the popular Night Train oatmeal porter, the hop-cone-in-every bottle Lupulin Maximus, and current seasonal The Dominator Doppelbock – have made an impression on craft beer drinkers. “This thing has progressed a lot faster than I thought it would,” Buttera said. “We’ve learned a ton. It’s getting tough to keep up.” He says it wasn’t many months ago that the brewery passed the hump from surviving to thriving.
“Once you get over the hump, you breathe a lot easier,” he said. And then you start looking for a larger space to brew. “There’s nothing definite yet, but we are actively seeking a larger brewing space,” Buttera said. “Our first year we did about 350 barrels (10,850 gallons). If we stay at the pace we’re at right now, we’ll be at 1,500 barrels (46,500 gallons). That’s in our current location. If we go into a new location, I’m hoping to be over the 2,000 mark this year. We won’t be into a new location probably until end of summer, I would guess, but we’re trying to fast track it.” The current location is next to Point Homebrew Supply, also owned and operated by Buttera and his wife Katina. They went into the brewery with a partner, but philosophical differences about the brewery caused a buyout of the partner, which added to the size of the hump the brewery had to overcome. “It was an amicable parting. We’re still friends,” Buttera said. “I made the decision to go to distribution (through an established beer distributor) and he didn’t see that same philosophy.” You can find O’so in 40 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, thanks to the decision to go through a distributor. “We’ve had tremendous growth because of the distribution,” Buttera said. But it hasn’t happened by itself. Buttera goes out and works it, helping to put a face to his beer. “I personally ride with all the salesman,” he said. “We keep a pretty close eye on what’s going on with tap accounts. They’ll call me when they score a tap and it thrills me to death. As time permits, I get out there and work with every one of these guys. It’s been a good philosophy that’s paid off for me.” Buttera, his wife and their two full-time brewery employees also like to get the word out through beer festivals. They’ll be at the Fox Cities Beer Fest at the Bar on Lynndale in Appleton on April 24, and will make their first appearance at the Wisconsin Microbrewers Beer Fest in Chilton on May 23. “Festivals are very important. We hit every festival,” Buttera said. “Katina and I like to get out and shake hands and let people know we appreciate everybody’s support. The festivals are huge for us. And we’ve won a lot of awards at festivals.” Buttera attributes part of the growth of the O’so Brewery to having a good set of ears, especially when it comes to comments about the beer. “We’ve done a pretty good job of listening and learning. It’s served us well, so far,” he said, giving for example the brewery’s Hopdinger. “The Hopdinger, it’s like an IPA. Everybody calls it an IPA, but it’s only 5%,” he said. “It’s dry-hopped like an IPA. Very pungent, very West Coast. It’s just way different than when we started. When we started that thing was an English-style pale ale. We started looking at reviews. They see the word hop in there and they want something with hops. So now we give them hops, and lots of them.” Being a freestyle brewer means taking chances, knowing you’re not going to please everyone. Besides the four flagship beers brewed year-round – The Big O, Hopdinger, Rusty Red and Night Train – Buttera and company have four seasonals “We made a beer called Jack’s Lantern that was just so off the hook. It was done with Briess smoked malt and pumpkin slurry and Belgian yeast and rye malt. It was just obscure as hell. We had people either love or hate it,” Buttera said. Lupulin Maximus was another hit for the brewery. Each bottle contained a hop cone handpicked from Buttera’s own hop vines. “We’re going to have to make four times more next year. It was a huge hit for us,” he said. “We have a ton of fun with our specialties, and all of them have been a huge hit for us.” Look for the brewery’s latest specialty on tap, an annual spring offering in tribute to Buttera’s grandfather Spike. “We just brewed our Spike’s,” he said. “It’s a beer made with maple sap instead of water, first-running sap, so good stuff. It’s a 9% golden pancake ale. It’s got about 15% wheat and we’re going to age it on maple wood, which is something I haven’t done. We’ve done it with oak, but I don’t know how it’s going to work with maple. It’s burbling away right now. If we had any complaints last year, there just wasn’t enough maple for people. So we gave them maple this year with a gallon maple syrup and infused with maple chips.” Buttera has visions of growth for the brewery that includes room for as many as 15 employees within three years. He’s also hoping a collaboration with a professor of microbiology at UW-Stevens Point helps build O’so’s reputation. “We’re building a program that will test our yeasts,” he said. “This is all in hopes that we get into our new location and actually have an honest to goodness lab where we can bring stuff in and look at it under a microscope and take it to the next level. I know there are some breweries doing that. We want to play with those big dogs. And I’ll just sleep better at night knowing that we are microbiologically sound.” Big ideas for a little brewery just entering its third year of business, but that’s what you do when you’re freestyling it. “It’s been a ride. We’ve met a ton of awesome people,” Buttera said. “We’re ready to break this thing out and bring it to the next level.”
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To quote REM, It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. That’s because I’m drinking the deliciously roasty, toasty 2012 Black Ale from Stevens Point Brewery. Let the end come!
He says it wasn’t many months ago that the brewery passed the hump from surviving to thriving.
