Capital Brewery has been a Wisconsin institution for craft beer ever since the movement began gathering momentum a couple decades ago. Founded on the idea of bringing quality German-style lagers and ales to an audience who had become far too accustomed to drinking boring macrobrews, Capital found success by bridging the gap between bad beer and introductory craft brews. However, in the midst of an all-out craft-beer revolution, the brewery has to ask itself if this mentality is beginning to hold it back.
Founded in 1984 in Middleton, Wis., Capital Brewery was one of the first microbreweries from the latter half of the 20th century to establish any real success. It was a time of Miller and Budweiser dominance, where Heineken was considered a fancy European ale, and the bolder beer styles were entirely unheard of. It was a risky time to open up a craft brewery.
However, Capital Brewery realized its vision for Wisconsin’s beer potential by gradually easing the macrobrew drinker into a world of better brews. The brewery accomplished this by producing drinkable and familiar styles but in a way that was profoundly better than anything the big boys were churning out.
Over two decades later, Capital has expanded its line-up of brews greatly, frequently releasing new seasonals to accompany staples like the Amber Ale, Capital Dark, Island Wheat and Supper Club. But to be honest, they are pretty much all doppelbocks.
For those of you who don’t know, a doppelbock is a strong German-style beer with lots of dark fruit, wheat and caramel flavors. It’s a bold style that will challenge its drinker’s tongue. However, in an industry that seems to spawn a new, innovative beer style every week, with newcomer brewers revealing their espresso stouts, imperial IPAs and puckering sour ales, I can’t help but feel like Capital Brewery is beginning to get lost in the dust.
Now, this has been the state of affairs for Capital for some time, and the brewery just lost its head brewmaster—along with his 24 years of experience.
Well, as far as I see it, this could be a giant hurdle, or just maybe, it could be a blessing in disguise. Now maybe this is just my inner beer geek, and not the businessman’s complaint, but it’s about time Capital Brewery starts experimenting and flexing its brewing muscle. If there is one thing that the last few years have taught the beer industry, it’s that people’s tastes are getting much hoppier. Considering I have never had a hop-heavy beer from Capital, that is a problem.
I walked into Capital’s Tap Haus on State Street recently and looked up at the tap board to see that one-—maybe two—beers had changed since I had last been there three months ago. And of course, what was the most notable change? Swapping one doppelbock for another (this time Eternal Flame). It was an interesting beer and certainly worth a try but may have been the only one.
What I really want to see from Capital is a real effort to evolve as beer makers. The best brewers in the world maintain an ambition to always push the boundaries for what beer can be and are never content with settling for what people seem to like or what seems to sell. It’s a philosophy that has been embraced with incredible enthusiasm in the beer community over the past few years. It’s a philosophy that breweries like Ale Asylum have taken full advantage of and then seen exponential growth, threatening to sink breweries like Capital into a sea of irrelevance.
So my advice to Capital, which is the same as my advice to so many craft breweries out there, is to embrace beer and elevate it to its full potential. Keep the classics that everyone loves, scrap the rest and start innovating again, like you did with such incredible success two decades ago.
Niko’s beer column runs on Page Two every Thursday. Send your questions and comments to page2@dailycardinal.com.
