When Broken Bat Brewing’s Tim Pauly tells me, “we’ve got kind of a fun out-of-the-box collab just in time for the Brewers/Cubs series here in Milwaukee this weekend I thought you might find interest in,” I pay attention.
And, as always, he was not wrong.
If the Chicago Cubs are the team that Brewers fans love to hate, then it makes perfect sense that a Milwaukee baseball-themed brewery would age some beer in barrels that once held the Chicago spirit that everyone loves to hate.
Broken Bat will release two limited-edition brews – 163 and Chicago Handshake – aged in ex-Malort barrels in 12-ounce cans this weekend.
“Our Head Brewer Nick (Guthery) is buddies with some of the higher-ups on the production team with Jepson's Distillery in Chicago (makers of Malort) and we were able to get our hands on two freshly emptied Malort barrels earlier this year,” Pauly says.
“We ended up putting our light lager into them for aging, and then added some flavors to one of the barrels to mirror a popular Malort cocktail blend with grapefruit, pineapple, lime and honey.”
In Windy City bars the Chicago Handshake is a shot of Malort and an Old Style, and 163 – the name refers to the Game 163 tie-breaker that the Brewers won at Wrigley Field in 2018 to become the top seed in the NL playoffs – is a riff on the Malort Spritz cocktail.
Pauly says the 4.2 percent ABV beer went into the barrels and rested for about three and a half months. The finished beers were canned at 5.3 percent.
There is one barrel of each beer and they’ll sell for $8 a pint. Cans are $16 for four-packs to go.
The beers will be released at noon on Friday at the brewery, 135 E. Pittsburgh Ave.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
