Dovetail Kölsch is remarkably close to what you might find in the beer gardens of Köln, Germany.
There are many paths to being a great brewery in 2020, but the playbook that’s resonating with me more than ever these days is a portfolio of traditional styles done really well.
Give me the pilsners, the brown ales, the saisons, the helles. I love IPA of most stripes and even can find time for a pastry stout here and there, but I don’t want or need every brewery to be making one.
Going against the flow of these trendy styles is one way to stand out from the crowd — as long, of course, as you can make really good beer.
One such standout dropped its first shipment in Madison last month: Dovetail Brewery.
After meeting at a brewing academy in Munich, Hagen Dost and Bill Wesselink opened Dovetail in 2016 in Chicago with a singular focus on traditional Continental European styles. Think the lagers of Germany, Czechia and Austria (pilsner, dunkel, bock, Vienna), German ales (hefeweizen, alt) and the wild ales of Belgium (lambic).
To make those Old World beers, Dovetail utilizes many traditional techniques: decoction; spontaneous and open fermentation, and lagering in horizontal tanks. The brewery’s copper brew kettle is over 100 years old and came from Weihenstephan in Germany, a brewery founded in 1040. Yes, 980 years ago. Dovetail’s slogan is “We brew like monks, minus the vows.”
The beer that’s the sum of these efforts has made Dovetail a darling of critics — Beer Advocate named it one of America’s best breweries in 2016 (a year that saw a lot of openings) — and a favorite in both its Ravenswood neighborhood and the Chicago metro area.
Dovetail began canning in late 2018, and by the end of 2019 that packaged beer was about 35% of its total production of just over 2,500 barrels of beer. This year, despite the loss of its busy taproom in spring and severely dented draft sales the rest of the year, production grew to about 3,700 barrels.
At least a little part of that growth is courtesy of Wisconsin. Expanding into Wisconsin was always part of the plan for 2020 — around the Lager & Friends beer festival in Milwaukee in March, Dost said. The pandemic wiped out the festival and delayed the Milwaukee launch to July, and Dovetail made its first drop to Madison bottle shops in early November.
And I’ll tell you, Dovetail has changed my beer buying habits since it arrived in Milwaukee. Dovetail’s flagship Helles Lager has become a mainstay of my fridge, and Vienna Lager was a delicious change of pace when it arrived this fall. (I have not yet made my way to Hefeweizen yet.)
They’re delicate and balanced — and therefore super drinkable. They’re equally enjoyable when you slow down and study them or crush them in a backyard poolside session. They’re clean and low in ABV, a nice antidote to the bigger, bolder beers I’ve also been gravitating to during my pandemic nights.
But a beer that’s new to Wisconsin — dropped two weeks ago — just might be my favorite from Dovetail yet.
Dovetail Kölsch
Style: Dovetail calls this a kölsch-style ale on the label because if you’re being technically proper, kölsch can only be produced in Köln, Germany. And Dovetail is absolutely technically proper.
What it’s like: One Barrel Brewing’s year-round Commuter is one interpretation of kölsch, and New Glarus Brewing’s outstanding Kid Kölsch, released each of the past summers, is another. Neither is particularly traditional, and Dovetail’s is much closer to what you might find in the beer gardens of Köln. Don’t make me decide whether I like Dovetail’s or New Glarus’ take better.
Where, how much: Dovetail is self-distributing its beer in Wisconsin, so your best bet is the smaller or specialty bottle shops like Steve’s, Brennan’s, Star. My four-pack of tallboys was $10.
Booze factor: A bright, refreshing 4.6% ABV beer is probably what we all need for a change of pace in these dark days of stouts and winter warmers.
Up close: You should do two things before the first sip of every beer, but it’s especially important with Dovetail Kölsch. First, pour it into a glass, and give it a nice, vigorous pour. Dovetail Kölsch — this batch, at least — is only modestly carbonated for the style, and it took a pretty hard pour to get the thick cap of creamy white foam that’s common with the style. Next, take a deep, full whiff. This beer’s aroma is gorgeous, a symphony of fruity, spicy and herbal/grassy notes.
It begs a sip, and the sip begs a deeper pull. There’s so much going on: a little bit of doughy malt up front, a kind of lemon-pepper zip, more grassy character, some lingering herbal notes on the finish. It’s all fleeting, barely-there and gone in a flash. And the mouthfeel is just what a kölsch should be — light and a little fluffy, with a hint of alkalinity mid-sip that serves as a bridge to the dry finish.
It’s a beautiful, delicate beer that I really hope is more than an occasional drop in Wisconsin, especially when the weather warms up again. It’s every bit the equal of Kid Kölsch, which was a slam-dunk beer of the year in 2019 and a frequent flyer in my fridge in 2020.
Bottom line: 5 stars (out of 5)
Kid Kölsch
New Glarus Kid Kölsch
Honestly, this could have been a list of one beer this year. I do not remember the last time I was so taken with a beer as I was with Kid Kölsch, New Glarus’ latest masterstroke. I wrote a breathless review shortly after this German-inflected ale dropped in July, and although I rarely stopped drinking it through fall, every time I came back to it, I wondered why I strayed. It’s … I mean, I don’t know if a beer can ever be perfect, but it’s delicate but flavorful (gently sweet, floral and fruity), superbly balanced, has an amazing mouthfeel and won’t get you bombed if you have three of them. That just might be perfect. If it doesn’t come back in 2020, I’ll meet you at the brewery and we can riot.
Honorable mention: I feel like I write something like this every year, but New Glarus proved again this year why it’s Wisconsin’s best brewery. In addition to its underrated (yes, underrated) year-round and seasonal lineup, it debuted two new Thumbprint beers that could have made this list on their own: Kühler, a lambic-type sour ale infused with tea and lime for an Arnold Palmer-type profile; and Berliner Apfel, a tart wheat ale fruited with Kickapoo Valley apples.
Lakefront Black Friday V
Lakefront Black Friday V
Terminal velocity is the highest speed you can achieve when falling through the Earth’s atmosphere. Gravity is always accelerating that skydiver, but at some point wind resistance takes over and she won’t go any faster. For the last few years, as the spirit barrel arms race has advanced, I’ve wondered if there’s a terminal velocity to barrel-aging beer. Most barrel-aged stouts sit in wood for six to 12 months. A few age for 18 months, and some remarkable ones -- Central Waters’ 2016 release Ardea Insignis being the most notable around here -- age for three years or a bit longer. Before I tried Black Friday V -- Lakefront’s annual imperial stout aged an astonishing 70 months in brandy barrels -- I figured this would be the beer that found it, that proved that three years and twice that long have basically the same effect. I was wrong. It was an astonishing, intensely rich beer, with an enormous amount of woody, kind of plumlike barrel character that would have overwhelmed many beers, but the 13.4% ABV Black Friday was up to the task. This $100 bottle, sadly, was only available at the brewery on the day after Thanksgiving, and given how these barrels essentially got lost for a while, I wouldn’t count on it coming back anytime soon.
Honorable mention: One of the most underrated beers in Central Waters’ Brewers Reserve series of barrel-aged beers is its Bourbon Barrel Barleywine, and this fall the brewery’s annual release, aged for about a year in bourbon barrels, was joined by a limited amount of BBB aged two years and three years in the barrels. Sold on draft and in cans only at the brewery, the flight was a fascinating study in what time and wood does to a beer, the three-year variant being my favorite. And the best anniversary beer I had this year -- albeit just a short pour -- was Tyranena Twenty, an imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels, with a portion aged further in Madeira barrels. That exotic fortified wine barrel came through in just the right amount, adding a vinous finish to a typically exceptional stout from Tyranena.
City Lights Brewing's Hazy IPA
City Lights Hazy IPA
As a beer writer in Wisconsin, the Great American Beer Festival judging contest should be confirming what I already know about Wisconsin beer -- like the 2019 silver medal awarded to Third Space Brewing’s Unite the Clans Scottish ale. Yeah, I know, that’s an excellent beer. But this year GABF medals opened my eyes to one beer in particular I was overlooking: this hazy IPA from Milwaukee’s City Lights Brewing. My read on City Lights’ beers had been solid but not essential, sound but not all that interesting. Hazy IPA wrecked that assessment. It’s a spot on iteration of the style, as I’ve come to expect from City Lights, but where its other beers seemed to capture the outline of their styles but not their potential, Hazy IPA is a dynamo. It’s a tropical-citrus bomb placed second out of 348 entries, in GABF’s most popular style. And to think, it won that accolade with zero consideration to its value proposition, a nice feather in its cap at $8-$10 per six-pack.
Low pHunk
MobCraft Low pHunk
This May, I rode one of those pedal tavern things for a work outing. I wasn’t particularly proud of it until I was a couple beers in and having fun. Like, a lot of fun. I don’t regret it. And the fun fuel for myself and a few of my fellow pedalers that evening was this easy-drinking but nuanced sour ale. MobCraft makes it using the solera method in which each batch is blended with a blend of all previous batches, imparting some of the microorganisms that give the beer its unique flavor profile. There’s a touch of funk underneath a bright, lemony-citrus, gently tart character. If that sounds like a winner for a summer beer, you’re right. Low pHunk was a go-to patio and golf course this summer even before it won gold at GABF in the American-style sour ale category.
Lake Louie Warped Speed
Lake Louie Warped Speed
What can a landmark scotch ale in the local beer scene do to be a Beer of the Year nearly 20 years after its first release? It can survive. This summer, Lake Louie was acquired by Wisconsin Brewing, bringing two of Wisconsin beer’s greatest characters -- Tom Porter and Kirby Nelson -- under one roof. The deal came at a time when Lake Louie had been sloughing sales and staff as Porter battled through health problems and Wisconsin Brewing was retooling and diversifying its business. In late October, Porter and Nelson presided over delivery of the first batch of Warped Speed made and -- in a change -- canned at Wisconsin Brewing’s brewery in Verona. The beer inside is better than ever: A smooth, caramelly but perfectly balanced scotch ale that begs for another, bigger swallow. And to think, all this came after it won the Beer Bracket last spring. What a year!
Glazer Bean
I liked but didn’t love my four-pack of Glazer Bean, but it’s still a slam-dunk Beer of the Year because it could be the dawn of a game-changing opportunity for Karben4. The coffee chocolate stout, brewed in collaboration with and exclusively for Kwik Trip, puts Karben4 in an elevated position in the beer coolers of hundreds of convenience stores across the state. If sales are strong enough -- and after a blitz at its November launch, the beer had a tough time staying in stock -- there’s also a chance for an ongoing series featuring Kwik Trip products. Who knows, there are hundreds more Kwik Trips in neighboring states, too. See you next time, indeed.
Honorable mention: When I visited Karben4 to talk Glazer Bean with brewmaster Ryan Koga, I wasn’t expecting to come home with three stories. The second: K4’s series of Barely Beer, fruited lagers that clock in around 3.1% ABV -- feather-light but big in fruit flavor. I took home a strawberry lemonade version that reminded me of the best parts of the Naturdays trend of 2019 and a cranberry-apple Barely Beer that was perfect at the Thanksgiving night card table. The third: This winter K4 became the second Madison brewery to join the hard seltzer wars, launching four flavors of a 4% ABV sparkling water. Between this and Ale Asylum’s Stray Forth label, launched in August, I don’t think this is a story I’m going to be able to avoid much longer. Stay tuned.
Untitled Art Double Apricot Double Milkshake
Untitled Art Double Apricot Double Milkshake
I have not been crazy about the milkshake IPA craze, in which a beer that was maybe identifiable as an IPA is dosed with lactose and vanilla, rendering it definitely not identifiable as an IPA, and usually souped up further with some fruit. But, dang it if sometime around midsummer, this doozy from the Octopi Brewing-based Untitled Art label squarely hit the mark. Sweet, creamy and fruity, I’m guessing as much from the hops as from the apricot. And it wasn’t even called an IPA! Hats off to that. If the powers that be at Untitled Art decide to make this one again -- they often don’t repeat beers -- I’ll be buying it again.
Honorable mention: Beer should be fun, and UA’s Rocket Popsicle Sour did that with flying colors this summer. Just in time for the Fourth of July, this neon blue raspberry sour was pretty tasty but looked very awesome in the glass.
Lakefront Lager
Lakefront Lager
The craft light lager trend continued robustly this year, and Lakefront Lager set Wisconsin’s bar for the style -- apologies to Ale Asylum’s Keep ‘er Movin’, a 2018 Beer of the Year. Light pale lager needs no explanation; it’s the most popular style in the world, and for a reason. And Lakefront Lager nails that formula -- a little sweet, a little bitter, and easy to drink -- most notably with a fantastic noble hop aroma. Besides Kid Kölsch, it was probably the beer I drank the most of this year. And I don’t even have a boat.
Got a beer you’d like the Beer Baron to pop the cap on? Contact Chris Drosner at chrisdrosner@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @WIbeerbaron.
December 19, 2020 at 10:00PM
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