From Miller-Coors to Pabst Blue Ribbon to the impressive list of craft brewers that call it home, and hell even our baseball team, Wisconsin is in many ways the beer state. We also consume more beer per capita than 44 of the 50 states, and UW-Madison will forever hold the honor of being the first public university with a student union that serves beer.
However, with so many solid options to choose from, it can be difficult to decide which brewer is most worthy of your precious beer money. The point of this brewery battle is to answer that very question and determine which Wisconsin brewer I think deserves to be labeled the best in the state.
Before I jump right into the results, I’ll first outline the details of how the battle was conducted. seven craft Wisconsin breweries were selected to compete: New Glarus, Ale Asylum, Central Waters, Tyranena, Leinenkugel’s, O’So and Capital. There are five rounds to the battle, the first two are described below, and the last three will be revealed in next week’s column. Each round is separated based on beer style, with Amber Lagers, Pale Ales/Single IPAs, Double IPAs, Strong Ales/Barleywines and Stouts each represented by the brewers.
In order to ensure biases could not play a role, the beer tastings were performed while blindfolded, with three judges, including myself, scoring each beer on a scale of zero to five. Finally, it’s worth noting that each brewer will sit out one of the five rounds, so the total score out of four will be tallied to determine the ultimate winner.
Round 1: Amber/Oktoberfest Lagers
The amber lager is a malty, creamy and drinkable session beer that can vary considerably from brewer to brewer. Low alcohol and a highly carbonated mouthfeel make the style perfect for summer and early fall drinking. With a nice hop presence to provide a fuller flavor, Ale Asylum Ambergeddon took first place, followed by the mellower and toasty flavors of New Glarus Two Women. Capital brewery also scored nicely with their sweet and caramel-heavy Octoberfest lager.
Round 2: Pale Ales/Single IPAs
Perhaps the perfect gateway beer style, the American Pale Ale provides a bright citrus profile with a noticeable, but not overwhelming amount of hop bitterness. Sweet honey and light biscuit flavors tend to show up in the more balanced offerings as well. Much like the first round, New Glarus and Ale Asylum came out on top, this time tied for first place. A true pale ale, Moon Man has as much light fluffy wheat bread backbone from the considerable barley as it does citrus hop bitterness. Hopalicious, on the other hand, is closer to a single IPA, with lots of floral and grapefruit to cut against an earthy pine undertone.
Somewhat surprisingly, the relatively new Madison-based Ale Asylum stands on top of the pile after two rounds, followed by the better known New Glarus brewery. Thanks to their solid Oktoberfest beer, Capital comes in third with 14 points despite the pretty uninteresting hop cream ale.
The rest of the breweries have some catching up to do with large double-digit deficits, but with 3threerounds to go, the title of Wisconsin’s best brewery is still very much up for grabs. Check back next Thursday for the conclusion of the battle as we sample some of the boldest and best beer styles that craft beer has to offer: strong ales/barleywines, double IPAs and porters/stouts.
Have suggestions or questions for Niko? Email him at ivanovic@wisc.edu.
