Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank the following underwriters for their support. Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, and the daily farm families of Wisconsin. Illing Company. Outpost Natural Foods Co-op. Potawatomi Hotel and Casino. Society Insurance. Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, representing the dairy farm families of Wisconsin, who fostered a proud history, with generations of family owned dairy farms, working to sustain the state's economy through job growth, and providing acclaimed cheeses and other dairy products. Every product tells a story, and every story starts with a seed. Your story, your product, your company, all started with an idea. Illing company ensures you have the right packaging to help you proudly take your harvest to market. Illing company is dedicated to packaging your vision.
This week on Wisconsin Foodie
Today we're making a pretty basic pale ale. Since we're using the fresh hops from the community, the idea is that the hops are sort of the star of this beer. We don't want to make a beer that's going to be too strong or a style that's gonna get in the way of the flavor of the hops. (bright music) For many Wisconsinites, with their strong German traditions and beer-loving ways, the early days of fall become synonymous with Oktoberfest. This year, I've been invited to share a night of lederhosen and beer with two of the coolest brewery owners in America. Deb and Dan Carey have invited me up here to New Glarus and are going to show me around. Based on their reputation, I'm in for a good time. This is hard work. (crowd talking) There they go. (jazz music) (car driving by) (chickens clucking) (filling glass with fizzy liquid) (chopping) (cork popping) (pan sizzling) (lively bass and guitar music) (upbeat rhythmic acoustic guitar) (loping acoustic guitar) People watching this are going to be like, "Where is his protective gear? "Where's his protective gloves?" Ready to mash in? Yeah. - Okay, let's do it. Today we're making a pretty basic pale ale. Since we're using the fresh hops from the community, the idea is that the hops are sort of the star of this beer. So we don't want to make a beer that's going to be too strong or be a style that's going to get in the way of the flavor of the hops. So all the aroma and flavor hops for this batch are coming from backyard hop gardens in the Riverwest community. (soft music) So we're headed over to our neighbor's house. His name is Mike. It sounds like he's got a couple different varieties in his backyard, and he's ready to harvest them today. That nice canary yellow. So, we live in the upper. And I guess the hops have been grown back here for a while because my landlord used to brew beer. Oh, yeah. - So I think we got a couple strains going on here. Cool. Yeah, so a lot of the really healthy stuff I think is going to be on these vines. Obviously they're exploding, and they look pretty ready to pick. Mm-hmm. - And we've got some more on the back gate over here. Awesome. This trellis is really fun to put up. Got a nice 20-foot ladder and climbed up there all by myself. Nice. - Daring high winds. Since you live in the upper, is the goal for the hops to just climb all the way into your apartment? Yeah, that's the idea. Just go up on that porch and snatch them right there. Yeah. - Cool. Well, should we start picking these off? (acoustic music) Pretty much from the time we started this business, lots of customers come in and they want to talk about beer, and you hear a lot about how people have hops in their backyard. "What should I do with my hops? "I was never able to use them." I love making wet hop beer, so when I got to about the 10th person asking me what to do with their backyard hops, I was like, you know what, we should really put a-- kind of a call out there to see who actually might want to donate their hops to a brew like this. And the response from the neighborhood was unbelievable. It was like immediately, of course, we put this on Facebook, and immediately so many people chimed in. They were like, "This is a great idea. "I have hops. I know somebody who has hops." And it just kind of took off from there. A wet hop beer is when you put the hops in fresh on the day they were picked. So the vast majority of beers that are brewed use hops that have been dried and sometimes pelletized. When hops are picked off the vine, they're extremely perishable. So the only way you can really make wet hop beer is if you schedule the harvest and the brew on the same day. And they have such a unique aroma to them that you can't get with dried hops. So it's kind of a cool thing, you know? You get, like, basically one chance a year to make a wet hop beer. I feel more like a parent with hops. They're sort of independent and grow up on their own, but, I mean, when these things were young and still climbing, you had to tease them onto that trellis gently but, you know, firmly. It's a process. And then you break one. - Uh-huh. You'd be out here every day making sure it wrapped around the trellis one more time that day, and then... Snap. After about two weeks you'd snap off the end of it. That is the worst feeling. It's pretty wiped out now. It's going to be sad seeing these vines without them, but it'll be nice drinking the product. Exactly. (acoustic music) Well, it's not difficult to grow hops. They pretty much just keep growing and growing and growing. It's difficult to grow them well. It's like hops need a fair amount of care in order to develop correctly. So it's not necessarily easy to make nice hops, but if they get the right amount of sunlight and they have decent inputs into the soil, they should come out pretty good, at least for this brew. (acoustic music) Trick or treat. - Hi. I brought my hops for you. Oh, thanks. I'm George, by the way. George, I'm Susie. Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you. Greg. - Thanks for bringing these in. I'm really excited about them. - They look really nice. Are they okay? I went online, I YouTubed it to make sure they were all right. Nice. Do you know what kind they are? No. - Okay. They were from a friend. - Backyard. They smell like... - Do you think you know? I have no idea. - Okay. They smell like morning glories. They smell like, yeah, exactly. They smell like hops. - Good. Which is what we were hoping for. Hi, guys. Yeah, yeah, come on in. Hi. (inaudible) I'm Liz. - Nice to meet you. Hey nice to meet you. Here are our neighborhood hops. Woo-hoo! - Yay! That's quite a harvest. - Yeah. That's really nice. These are from your backyard? Cool. You guys are close by here? - Yeah. What's that? Just down the street. - Oh excellent. They're Cascades. - Okay, cool. Yeah, we've got a bunch of Cascade today. We've got some Chinook. We've got Lambic. We've got Kent Golding. Just the branches. (laughing) - No. We were out in the rain doing this. I know. - Come on.
laughing
This week on Wisconsin Foodie
Chop. - Hacksaw. - Yeah. Well,
we woke up this morning at about 9
00, and for about four hours we cut down, trimmed, and harvested our hops that had been growing in our yard for about four years. The great part about it is everybody is sitting in a circle and picking some hops together from the neighborhood hops. It was an awesome experience. And I know that's kind of what Company's whole mission statement is, is that beer is better with company, so if we can all get together, it's like having company over and we're all making this beer happen together. Cheers. (laughing) Do you want to drink a beer? Yes. - Yes. - Okay. Hey, more work. (background chatter) How's it going? Welcome back. Cheers. - Cheers, what do you think? I think it's excellent. I know, shocking. I'm so proud of our neighborhood. I know me, too; me, too. It turned out really nice. Yeah. So now you've tasted it. And?... First of all it's really good. Yes. And I was gonna say it actually tastes like a backyard, in a good way. It tastes like a backyard? Yes. It's like lawnmower beer, but like to the next level. Yeah, it's like all the, you know, comforting aromas and flavors one might associate with, you know, sitting in one's backyard. So, I think it's successful. Yeah, that's great. Oh, I love it. (laughing) I don't have as detailed a response. That was great, I don't even know how to follow that up. -Sorry, sorry. - It's all right. That was like you rehearsed that. Cheers. - Cheers. (beer glasses clanging) We made the batch small because we weren't sure how many we were going to get, and we wanted the hop character to come through. But in the end, the neighbors delivered somewhere between 35 and 40 pounds of hops. So there was plenty to give a really nice hop character to the beer. The brewhouse tastes like hops right now. (lips smack) Just dump it in there? Well, you know make it......with style, with style. Yeah, right? It's like seven plastic bags in the beer. (acoustic music) After this whole experience with putting this project together getting the neighborhood hops beer going, the one thing I know for sure is that we're going to do it again. It was a great experience, great way to meet the neighbors, great way to involve everybody in something that we love to do, which is brewing beer, and all I hope for is that maybe next year we can brew some more so that we can keep it on tap for more than a few days and get to share it with more people. (acoustic music) For many Wisconsinites, with their strong German traditions and beer-loving ways, the early days of fall become synonymous with Oktoberfest. This year, I've been invited to share a night of lederhosen and beer with two of the coolest brewery owners in America. Deb and Dan Carey have invited me up here to New Glarus and are going to show me around. Based on their reputation, I'm in for a good time. (upbeat music) So what size do you think? I have a pretty big head, so I think I'm a bit of a large. I would start with a medium. A medium? Okay. What you think? - Oh, I like it. I'm bringing back the hat look. We just jumped in the car with Dan Carey, and he's taking us back to his house where, I believe, we may have some beer in the future. So, do you live close to the brewery? We used to live in town for about the first 15 years we owned the brewery, but now we bought property below the brewery and we live like walking distance to work. So we have the world's greatest commute. Wow. - Like five minutes by foot. It's really nice in the wintertime. This isn't a secret. You don't want all your fans knowing where you live, do you? I think everybody knows. I don't think we have any secrets. Except for your brewery secrets, right? Yeah that's right. I heard you guys have some secrets in the brewery. (laughing) - Yeah. Here we are. - This is nice. This is a perfect pre-game place. So, do I get a lederhosen... or what's that? You have to wear a dirndl. A dirndl, that's what it is. (laughing) So come on in. So this is my wife, Deb. Hi, Deb. - Hi. I'm Jessica Bell. Oh, nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you. What a pleasure. Thanks for inviting us into your home. Happy to have you. We're excited to try some beers maybe. - Yes. And have some pretzels. - Yes. Where's my dress? We can set you up. Wow, what a spread. Well, Deb's got pretzels made for us. We've got Spotted Cow, Staghorn, and Moon Man. Deb, you want a beer? Yes. I'm gonna have Staghorn. I'll have what she's having. All right. We'll all have Staghorn. Because Staghorn is our Oktoberfest. So when you have an Oktoberfest beer, what does that constitute? Well, you know, the Oktoberfest was originally a wedding party near Munich and happens every Fall. It used to be in October, but because the weather is kind of sketchy, it was moved to late September. So we make a beer every year in honor of that wedding. And it's an amber. Amber lager beer. It's a little bit stronger than your typical beer. So maybe about five and a half percent alcohol. It should be rich and toffee and malty. And I hope you enjoy it. Well, thank you. So does this follow the German purity law? Yes, it's made with only four ingredients. Nowadays people are very keen to know what's in their beer. So it's totally vegan safe. It's 100% natural. No GMO. Just simple. I think it even says on the label, "Simple, honest, pure beer." I like how Germans dropped the whole wedding tradition and just it's all beer and lederhosen now, right? Well, you know, it's an excuse to have a beer. Right, right. - And a pretzel. In Germany they still have a parade, though, and they talk about it being King Ludwig's wedding. Actually yesterday was our wedding anniversary, too. Well, cheers to you guys. Thank you. How many years? - 32. Oh, wow. Were you a beer drinker before you met Dan? I was a beer drinker. And, apparently, he was impressed that I was not a Miller Lite-type beer drinker. Yeah. Well, I think we eat, breathe and sleep beer. And so we're always thinking of things, and so, once we were in Italy or France? Italy. - Italy. Having just some local white wine, and so Dan's drinking and going, "This is really good." And I'm like, "Yeah," and looking at the view and things. And he goes, "You know, I could make a beer like this." (laughing) Food and taste is important to us. And in the modern world, taste is undervalued. People don't think about what they're consuming, and that's a whole, that's a discussion in itself. But the idea of what do things taste like is something that we constantly talk about. So did you guys get your lederhosen and dirndl in Germany? Yeah, although you can buy them on the Internet now. I was going to say, what constitutes a real, like what makes them special, different? Like there's all different... There's different kinds of leather and different kinds of embroidery. And what kind of hide they're from. It's always leather? - Yeah. And they have girl lederhosen now for the "hot girls." You could have a pair. - You're so nice. (soft music) All right. I'm ready. I'm ready for Oktoberfest. You're really darn cute. Good job. (palms smack) (laughter) (instrumental music in background) I can hear my music's on in the studio. Oh, wow, so you're a painter? - Yes. Wait a second. Oh, neat. - Yeah. I can see, like your style is very European, right? I don't know. I'm finding my artistic voice, but this is what I do. So I have artist friends and we go paint people. And it's the same with Dan and his beer. It's hard to separate yourself from it. So for a long time I didn't tell people. Well, it's a lot to put yourself out there. Yeah, and we're already kind of exposed. Yeah. If you don't ever put yourself out there, you're not living, you know? You gotta take that risk. Don't you think it's also the story of hiding your gifts? You're not supposed to do that. Hide them under a basket. - Right. So I've heard you met the president. Yes. - I need to hear the story. The White House was reaching out to business people on issues trying to create jobs, and they just had a broad invitation. "Hey, do you want to come? Discuss anything." And I'm like, you know, somebody from the White House wants to hear what people think about business? I am full of opinions, I will go. But what happened during the meeting, which was even funnier, he walks around the table and we all introduce ourselves, which is where this photograph comes from. And as soon as I say what I do, he's like, "Oh, you run a brewery? You know, I brew beer. "Can you give me a professional opinion about my beer?" And I'm like, "Yeah. I mean, of course." All the sudden somebody pops up with a little White House bag with bottles of beer. And so he's like, "Okay, I want to hear what you think about the beer." And I'm like, "Okay." And he goes, "Really, I want to hear this." Well, it's not like the guy gave me his cell phone or his personal email so I'm thinking, "How am I going to do this?" because Dan and I can't just drink this with dinner. Then I thought we have so many vets working at the brewery. There's like 10 or 12 veterans that work for us, and they don't really care about party lines. And when I came back, there was one in particular, and he's like, "Can I shake your hand? "Have you shook anybody else's hand "since you shook Obama's hand?" And he's like almost crying. And he's going, "You don't understand. "He's our Commander in Chief. We work for our country. "This is a very big deal for you to go meet him." And so I'm like, "Okay, what I will do is we'll each have a little taste." And so we all tasted it together in the lab. And then I posted it on the Internet. So we're all standing together, and we introduce all the guys and they say what area of the service they were in. And then we taste the beer and they all give their comments on it. And I taste it and go, "Oh, thank God it's good." (laughing) I don't have to lie. Oh, gosh. I don't have to lie to the president. Okay, so we got our beer steins and we're ready to go. We're gonna go down and face the crowd. Let's do it. - All right. (din of crowd) (crowd cheers) This is hard work. (crowd cheers) (soft music) Hey, Dan. -How's everybody doing tonight? - Very good. (laughter) -Okay. Once you master this hairdo, you say, "Oh, this is why everybody wore their hair like this "because it is indestructible." Now... I'll get down. I'm a little tall. You are a little tall. What are we gonna do about that? I've already taken off my heels, so the next step would be just to be like cut off my legs. We can't have that. -Mm hmm. - Yeah. Beer is better with company. - Yup. (laughter) (upbeat music) Wisconsin Foodie would like to thank
the following underwriters for their support
Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, and the dairy farm families of Wisconsin. Illing Company. Outpost Natural Foods Co-op. Potawatomi Hotel and Casino. Society Insurance. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. WMSE 91.7 FM Frontier Radio Wisconsin Milk Marketing B oard representing the dairy farm families of Wisconsin, who fostered a proud history with generations of family owned dairy farms, working to sustain the state's economy through job growth and providing acclaimed cheeses and other dairy products. Every product tells a story, and every story starts with a seed. You story, your product, your company all started with an idea. Illing Company ensures you have the right packaging to help you proudly take your harvest to market. Illing Company is dedicated to packaging your vision. (lively jazz music)
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