Many breweries have a flagship—a beer that they’re known for; a beer they can hang their hat on; a beer that pays the bills. For New Glarus, Spotted Cow is both its flagship and its cash cow. Many other breweries hoist the pale ale colors: Ale Asylum has Hopalicious. Sierra Nevada has its signature Pale Ale. Oscar Blues gives us Dale's. Three Floyds has Alpha King and The Alchemist has Heady Topper. You get the idea.
Often, a city’s identity rubs off on the businesses that are located within it. It also works the other way around. Pittsburg steel. Akron rubber. Tech startups in Silicon Valley. Credit cards in Delaware. It's likewise for breweries. Just look at how much breweries in San Diego and Grand Rapids, Mich., have impacted their cities’ identities. They're now considered tourist destinations for beer alone. Granted, the weather in San Diego doesn’t hurt. But Grand Rapids? I know—preaching to the choir.
You could even go so far as to say that there are beers that define a city. And for Milwaukee, it’s found its flagship.
Brenner Brewing officially went from brewery-in-planning to Milwaukee’s next big thing near the end of 2014, offering a lineup of modern interpretations on a number of classic beer styles, including a malt-forward Mosaic-hopped pale ale, a hoppy hefeweizen, a coffee stout and beer that reminds you of bacon. Bacon? Bacon. But not actual bacon—the savory piggy aroma and flavor come from smoked malts. In a town that prides itself in meat, cheese and the pursuit of the “the good life,” Brenner Bacon Bomb Rauchbier is both a beer that speaks for itself and tells you a great deal about the city in which it was made. Here’s what it’s saying.
Tasting Notes:
Scents of campfires smothered with burlap sacks waft toward the nose, sweeping through fields of dry, cracked wheat, threatened if the fire spreads. A cocoa-vanilla toffee nougat takes a swipe inches from the nostrils, with smoked and peppered banana creme squeaking out. The savoriness continues into the flavor. Smoked organic chocolate oats cast a far reaching blanket without too much heft. Peppered semisweet chocolate slabs flake off and travel to the roof of the mouth where most of the smokey chimney fumes reside. Toasted pumpernickel bread gets maple toffee thinly rubbed on top of it in the recession, finishing with meaty, sugar free buckwheat pancakes.
Recommended Cheese Pairing:
Saxon Big Ed's Gouda—makes the delicately balanced smoked malts get a creamier companion.
You can find the beer on tap at the brewery and at bars and restaurants throughout Southeastern Wisconsin.
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