Oh, Hoppy Day!

On a recent visit to the mainland I had the opportunity to sample a couple of hop-centric ales on tap – Hop Cream Ale from Capital Brewing of Middleton, Wis., and Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale from Sierra Nevada Brewing of Chico, Calif.

The Hop Cream Ale is a relatively new entry for Capital, although it was introduced while longtime brewmaster Kirby Nelson was still a member of the Capital team (he left Capital last October to join former Capital President Carl Nolen in a new venture, Wisconsin Brewing Co. in Verona, Wis. I believe their first beers are out in the Madison market).

Brewed with Wisconsin-grown Nugget hops (and Cascade hops from elsewhere), Hop Cream Ale is a delicious, creamy session ale from a brewery that under Nelson established its reputation making German-style lagers.

Cream ales are the closest thing you can get to a lager without making a lager. Brewed with top fermenting ale yeast, a cream ale goes into a cold lagering process after primary fermentation, which accounts for its lagery smoothness.

Drinking Hop Cream Ale side-by-side with the fresh hop Harvest Ale from Sierra Nevada made for some interesting mouthfuls of beer.

Sierra Nevada makes two of these fresh hop ales, one with hops from the northern hemisphere and this one with three New Zealand-grown varieties that I’ve never heard of – Southern Cross, Pacifica and Motueka.

This, too, is a delicious beer but with a much bigger hop bite. The freshness of the hops permeates the liquid so that each sip is a bit like biting into a fresh hop cone, with an explosion of humulus lupulus lingering long on the palate.

Casper White Stout, James Page (Stevens Point Brewery)

What the…? White stout? Why?

Well, to stand out from the crowd like a white buffalo in a regular buffalo-colored herd, of course.

And then calling it Casper. I racked my brains trying to recall the name of the white buffalo born on a Janesville farm back in the early ’90s. Was it Casper? Had to look it up on the internet. That buffalo’s name was Miracle (Aug. 20, 1994 – Sept. 19, 2004).

So Casper refers to the friendly cartoon ghost?

Doesn’t matter. I had to try this beer from the James Page Brewery. James Page was one of the first Midwest craft breweries, first appearing in St. Paul in 1986. The label is now owned by the Stevens Point Brewery, which recently relaunched the James Page line in cans only. In addition to Casper White Stout, they are producing Ould Sod, an Irish red IPA (?); Yabba Dhaba, a chai tea porter; and A Cappella, a gluten-free pale ale.

Stout is brewed with, as you’d imagine, dark roasted malts. Casper White Stout is a golden ale brewed with Pilsen malt, two varieties of English hops (East Kent Goldings and Fuggles) and, then, to achieve the biting darkness that denotes a stout, the pale brew is aged for two weeks with coffee beans and cocoa nibs.

I actually get more of a vanilla flavor than the lovely roasted coffee bite of a good stout, but if you let your imagination loose a little, and maybe even close your eyes, you just might mistake it for a stout. But probably not. For one thing, it has a carbonation level I’ve not seen with any stout. I’ve got nothing against carbonation – I like the way the carbonation of this one explodes on the front of your tongue like a beery hand grenade – but stouts are probably one of the stiller beer types out there.

Even though it’s a bit of a gimmick to call this beer a white stout, I still think it’s a very tasty brew and worth checking out.