Pizza in a bottle sounds weirder than it is

by Jim Lundstrom

MAMMA MIA PIZZA BEER, 4.5%
mammamiapizzabeer.com

This, I thought, must be a joke. Pizza Beer? Really? Ale brewed with Oregano, Basil, Tomato and Garlic? Weird!

But, then, is it any weirder than the cerveza preparada being dished out by the major labels? I’m thinking in particular of Bud Light Chelada – lager with lime juice, salt and clamato juice, which in itself is a weird combination of tomato and clam juice (speaking of clamato juice…I feel sorry for the guy whose job it is to squeeze the juice out of all those tiny clams).

In that context, how weird is Pizza Beer? Not very.

So I bought a bottle. It’s contract brewed by Sprecher of Glendale, Wis., and comes in their embossed 16-ounce bottles.

The beers pours a murky gold ale with just a hint of red. The first sip was a shocking herbal green taste that rolled like a wave across the palate and left a sharp flavor behind. As the beer warmed in the glass, the green herb flavor softened. I swore I felt a tomato flavor roll up the middle of my tongue. Though I searched for it, I never identified garlic in the beer.

The beer grows on you as your mind adjusts to the strangeness, and suddenly you’re hungry and craving more Pizza Beer.

“Beer so good it deserves to be in a wine glass is our slogan,” says Tom Seefurth, creator of Mamma Mia Pizza Beer. The Chicago-area homebrewing real estate broker calls Pizza Beer “The world’s first culinary beer.”

Seefurth laughed when I told him I didn’t know what to expect from his beer.

“That’s what most people say,” he said.

Seefurth has been homebrewing since 1998. Pizza Beer was born on Labor Day 2006 when Seefurth and his wife, Athena, had an abundance of tomatoes and herbs from their garden. Seefurth thought, why not throw some in a beer?

“Let’s just toss this thing together and see what happens,” he said. “It’s one of the only recipes I’ve ever written down.”

He originally called his brew “Herb the Beer,” but everyone who tasted it said, “Tastes like pizza,” so Pizza Beer became the name.

After winning a couple of homebrew competitions with Pizza Beer, Seefurth was approached by a restaurant owner who wondered if he could brew enough for her Monday night Italian night.

“Athena and I approached Walter Payton’s Roundhouse, a brewpub in Aurora. The brewmaster there was willing to give it a try. He made the first pilot batch,” Seefurth said. “After that, the ball started rolling.”

In the spring of 2007, the Seefurths decided to go commercial with Pizza Beer.

They consulted with several brewers about the recipe, including their friend Kris Kalav, brewmaster at Minhas Craft Brewery in Monroe, and then searched for a brewery to make the beer. They talked with breweries in New York and Wisconsin before settling on Sprecher.

“Those guys have been really great to work with,” Seefurth said.

Knowing that people might be too freaked out by Pizza Beer to pop for a four-pack, the Seefurths decided to sell single bottles.

“The majority wouldn’t pay for a four-pack,” Seefurth said. “We agreed that we could sell bottles at $2 each, and then encourage the stores to offer price breaks for four or six or 24. For two bucks, I’ll try it. And we get e-mails everyday from people who have tried it the first time and say, ‘Unbelievable’.”

But Seefurth is a realist. He knows many people will never get beyond the label.

“It’s the first beer that’s been designed to go with food,” he said. “We were barbecuing yesterday. We grilled vegetables and mushrooms. We fill the mushroom caps with Pizza Beer. But the hit of the day was Pizza Beer-marinated scallops.”

Seefurth said a pizzeria near his house is making a pizza with Pizza Beer in the crust, and one market is carrying a Pizza Beer Italian sausage. He also suggests using Pizza Beer as a food spray.

“Spray your food with pizza beer while it’s being cooked. Even a frozen pizza in the oven, 2 or 3 minutes before it’s done, spray it down with Pizza Beer and put it back in the oven. You get a really, really good pizza,” Seefurth said. “The culinary aspect of this beer is really hitting home.”

Here’s where you can find Pizza Beer in the area: Cellars Wine & Spirits, Neenah; Festival Foods, Oshkosh; Flanagan’s, Appleton; Village Wine & Liquor, Chilton.

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SAMUEL SMITH’S ORGANIC CIDER, 5%
Merchantduvin.com

Samuel Smith’s Organic Cider is quite unlike the typical dry English cider such as Strongbow and Bulmer’s. The first taste was like biting into a crisp, juicy Granny Smith apple, right down to the squinch-faced tartness.

It looks like apple juice, but with a beautiful creamy white head on top.

This is a very tasty drink and I will be keeping my eye out for more. Unfortunately you can only find it in three places in the state right now – Whole Foods in Madison and Milwaukee and Discount Liquors in Milwaukee – but Craig Hartinger of Merchant du Vin, Samuel Smith’s exclusive importer, said it will be working Organic Cider into other locations.