Upcoming events:
Coinciding with the beginning of the craft beer boom in this country was the start of the Cicerone program, which is a beer training course for professionals in the industry to better know how to serve, store, and discuss that most sudsy of all beverages. It was modeled after the various sommelier programs that have trained wine professionals for decades, allowing bartenders, servers, and basically anyone who isn’t a brewer to know more about the different styles of beer out there and what to expect from them. Because, let’s face it, the age of only having to know whether or not your Budweiser tastes skunky was over by the mid-2000s, when the floodgates of ales and lagers poured forth over the unsuspecting populace who excitedly consumed it all, but had no idea what was happening.
I say all this as a bit of a segue into telling you about our upcoming Bottle Night on Friday, April 4, where head brewer and co-owner Andy Klockow will give a small group of you a bit more insight into how some of our beers are made and why they taste the way they do - specifically the two beers that we sell by the 750 ml bottle. I mean, if we’re going to have a special night of bottle service, might as well go for the biggest, most unique beers we have. And those happen to be Magic Roundabout Barrel-Aged Imperial Vanilla Stout and the 2018 White Tail Bock Imperial Sour Maibock. Andy will be talking about not just about the brewing process, but the purpose of adjuncts for different flavor profiles, the use of bacteria for souring purposes, what barrel-aging can do, and even bottle conditioning, which is extremely rare in the world of beer. And being a guided tasting, we’ll be going over specific tasting notes as we go through the different bottles. Guests will also be privy to some samples of beer still aging in the barrels, as well as a couple other surprises the head brewer has up his sleeve.
It’s sure to be a night of education, but more importantly, it’ll be one of delicious treats where we take the time to sit back and savor all the nuance that beer is capable of. Only 16 seats available, reservations required, from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, April 4.
But before that, we still have one weekend left of March and that means Open Mic with Ditty Wish and the Klockow Bar Sing this Sunday! All day long we got music from the masses here at the brewery, whether you’re bringing a guitar or hanging out later for the group sing of classic pub ditties lead by Ditty Wish (hey, that must be where she got her name from)! But it should be noted that it’s an OPEN Mic, so it doesn’t necessitate that you have an acoustic guitar to get on stage. Perhaps you’re a hell of a juggler, or an amateur magician looking to try a trick or two (I’m sorry… illusion or two), or just composed an epic poem that will bring the people to tears. Yeah, any of that would be great! Then as for the bar sing, all you gotta bring is yourself, your voice, and your beer hoisting arm. Do all that, and it’ll be wonderful!
(Oh, and by the way, Münchkin Oktoberfest is in the tanks as of Wednesday. See ya this fall!)
OK, What Is That?
I feel like we’re getting a little casual with the whole “ok, what is that?” lately, mostly because we’re talking about beer that is pretty self explanatory. Smoked Chocolate Stout? Yeah, it’s basically what it sounds like. And this week it’s the Magic Roundabout Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Vanilla Stout. Provided you know what all those words mean, you could almost stop reading right now. But we strive for edutainment, so by all means, keep reading. You might enjoy it!
Before a beer can grow up to be a big boy like the Magic Roundabout, it typically has to start off as a more standard brew. And so it was for the Roundabout Vanilla Stout, first brewed in 2019, which ran a bit over 6%, used real vanilla beans, and was otherwise a hodgepodge of ingredients from different brewing traditions. What’s more, it was actually the first brew ever created by our former brewer Max Chamberlain, meaning his legacy here at Klockow will last for many years to come.
But we’re not talking about some standard brew. We’re talking imperial barrel-aged!
“For a 6% vanilla stout, it was super robust. It just had the body and all the right things that would make it good as a higher ABV beer capable of taking on the barrel character,” said Andy Klockow. “Plus more vanilla beans. Because why not use more when it’s bigger!”
Hence the decision to add this style to the Klockow BA pantheon along with Double Downwind, Guardians of the Beam, Decima, etc. Anyone who has ever had this beer has noticed one thing about it in particular, which puts it very much in line with every other imperial version of a beer: it’s sweet. Even before getting to any barrel character and the extra vanilla beans steeping in the barrels, simply by beefing up the malt ingredients means that there are a greater number of sugars capable of turning into alcohol, which also means that there will inevitably be a greater amount of residual sugars that find their way into the final product. This is important if what you’re looking for is a drier, cleaner beer: you won’t find that in an imperial stout. I’ve often recommended imperial IPAs to people looking to dip their toe into hoppier beers, and those that’ve taken my advice have largely come back and said they liked what they tried. A little sweetness can go a long way, but only if that’s what you want.
Once you accept that the beer is sweet and vanilla-y, you’ll then be ready to enjoy the layered nuance of this beer. Besides the vanilla, there’s light chocolate notes, a faint bit of minty-herbalness, a bit of oak, and no shortage of caramel, all flowing on a thick, malty body that coats your mouth. If you haven’t put it together yet, I’ll say it plain: this beer is dessert in a glass.
“I think, objectively, it’s one of the most full, complete barrel-aged beers we’ve done,” said Andy. “It’s got a lot of depths of flavor. A tiny bit of smoke malt in there, a lot of caramel malt, and different things to make that stout a little rounder.”
This is probably why, when asked what the best beer Klockow has ever done while sitting for an interview for this blog last year, Tasha Klockow said that Magic Roundabout is just objectively the best beer to ever be made at this brewery.
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Thanks for checking out our humble little brewery! As long as you keep coming by, we’ll do our part by making the best damn beer possible and serving it in our always inviting atmosphere.
The Klockow Staff
Beer drops this past week:
Local, etc -
Hotel Rapids - Grand Rapids
Raven Stone - Coleraine
Dutch Room & Mad Dog’s Pizza - Grand Rapids
SuperOne Liquor - Grand Rapids
Pokegama Plaza Liquor - Grand Rapids
S&S Bottle Shop - Deer River
Pokegama Lake Store - Grand Rapids
Pickled Loon - Grand Rapids
SuperOne Foods South - Grand Rapids
Smoke on the Water - Coleraine
Kocians - Bigfork
NoPo Coffee - Grand Rapids
Ron’s Korner Market - Bovey
Iron Range, etc -
Super Smoke Shop - Virginia
SuperOne Liquor - Hibbing
SuperOne Liquor - Virginia
Marge’s Liquor - Eveleth
Ely -
Boathouse Brewery - Ely
Mike’s Drive-In Liquor - Ely
Ely Liquor - Ely
Hallock -
Hallock Curling Club - Hallock