Hold on, beer lovers, Milwaukee’s craft brewers aren’t done with 2022 yet.
Here are a few local releases still to come before we ring in 2023.
Bay View’s Supermoon Beer Co. releases Yarn, a grisette, of which brewer Rob Brennan says, “our interpretation of the style is abbreviated to mean a ‘lower gravity, hoppy saison with a sturdy pilsner malt backbone’.
“It's structure as sort of a pale ale meets saison makes for a wildly approachable beer with a pleasant and exciting complexity. The hop profile is driven by hot side and dryhop additions of Cascade and Hallertau Blanc giving a really satisfying combination of pine, dried grapefruit peel, white grape and a sort of dank cannabis style earthiness.”
Buy some 500ml bottles – conditioned with Champagne yeast – to enjoy now and a couple for the cellar to see how it matures.
Order at supermoonbeer.square.site.
Supermoon’s awesome new taproom is open 4-8 on Thursday, 3-9 on Friday, noon until 9 on New Year’s Eve and noon-7 on New Year’s Day.
Over at Component Brewing in the Lincoln Warehouse – which also has a pretty new taproom – there’s Pull Tabs & Chandeliers, a 7.5 percent ABV West Coast IPA
Component notes that, “we cashed in on some advanced hop innovation adding some pure lupulin oil during the boil for some intense hop flavor! Except some resiny bitterness with a well rounded citrus finish.”
Visit the taproom on Saturday for a Polish New Year’s Celebration. Stop by at 5 p.m. – when the bells will be tolling in the old country – for a free half pour of any beer on tap for a toast. There will also be specials on to-go beer.
Then, on Sunday, the brewery will have beermosas and Flour Girl and Flame on-site serving up breakfast pizzas.
Up on the East Side, Hacienda Beer Co. will release From Sand + Stone hazy IPA with Riwaka, Mosaic and Strata hops on New Year’s Eve.
The 6.8 percent ABV IPA is brewed with a thiolized yeast strain from our friends Berkeley Yeast.
“On the hotside, we feature Idaho 7 hops and Mosaic Incognito flowable hop extract — both of these hop varieties are loaded with ‘survivable flavor compounds’ that can survive heat and fermentation activity, ensuring we maintain more hop flavor and aroma throughout the boil and fermentation process,” the Hacienda folks note.
“We dry hop the beer over two additions with massive amounts of Riwaka, Strata and Mosaic. The sum is a beer saturated with notes of strawberry, papaya, mango and lemon.”
If you’re lucky, they’ll still have some of last week’s release – A Means To An End Mexican hot chocolate-inspired imperial stout – available, too.
Down in the Valley, Third Space Brewing is releasing two new beers and a new rewards program at a 4 p.m. New Year’s Eve pre-party.
The new brews – in 12-ounce cans and on draft – are Smile citrus wheat ale (4.8 percent), brewed with grapefruit and orange, and Good Cheer dark lager, inspired by German dunkel but “with a few Third Space tweaks,” which kicks off a new rotating lager series.
The series will also include a maibock and a German-style pilsner.
“Our goal with these two new beers is to meet the craft consumer’s renewed interest in well crafted lager beers and to fill a gap in the craft marketplace with Smile, an easy-drinking fruited ale,” says Third Space Co-founder and President Andy Gehl.
The new rewards program kicks off on Jan. 1 and is open to all guests, who will earn Happy Points for every dollar spent at the brewery. The points can be redeemed for beer, merch and more.
“The goal of the rewards program is to thank our returning customers and to encourage everyone to make our taproom a regular ‘Third Space’ in their lives by offering great extra perks for enjoying a craft beer with us on a regular basis,” says Gehl.
“The beauty of the Rewards Program is its simplicity. Guests simply
add their phone number at check out to track rewards and they can easily check their balance on their phone and redeem Happy Points for free stuff automatically when checking out.”
The Saturday party will feature live bluegrass music from 4 until 6 p.m. and then on New Year’s Day, the taproom will be open noon-7.
The two new beers should arrive at retail during the first week of January.
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.
