Central Standard Craft Distillery has announced the third installment in the Brewmaster Series that it launched last fall.
The new North Brandy finished in Hinterland Brewing Grand Cru barrels was unveiled Friday and is limited to 240 cases.
The series kicked off in November with brandy aged in barrels that previously contained Iowa brewery Toppling Goliath’s collaboration with Wisconsin’s Central Waters, Toppling Waters Stout.
A second batch soon followed for the second in the series.
“For this brewmasters-series release, we wanted to make it an all-Wisconsin collaboration,” co-founder Evan Hughes says. “And no better brewery to partner with than Hinterland, which is literally a stone’s throw from Lambeau and renown throughout the Midwest.
“Additionally, both of our brands celebrate the outdoors lifestyle of the Midwest and showcase the best of local Wisconsin ingredients.”
Grand Cru is a bourbon barrel-aged kettle sour made with Door County cherries.
The brandy was finished in the barrels for a month, imparting, I’m told, a slight fruit-forward flavor with some crisp tartness on the nose and a touch of sweetness in the finish.
“It delivers the taste of being ‘up north’ on a warm summer night,” Hughes adds. “It’s perfect for making a refreshing brandy old fashioned or a sidecar and gathering around a fire with friends and family.”
Bottles of the 80 proof brandy run between about $25 and $30 and are available at select retailers.
The first two batches in the series, also limited to 240 cases, were a big success for Central Standard, says Hughes.
“From a business perspective, it was only natural for us to embrace our local brewing heritage and launch a series of collaborations with brewmasters from across the Midwest,” he says.
“We couldn’t be happier with how the initial partnership with Toppling Goliath was received by fans and we’ve got additional collaborations with other brewers in the works.”
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.
