Robin Shepard
Hop heads should rejoice for Red Eye Imperium, a double or Imperial IPA that can be found at The Malt House on East Washington Avenue
A small Wausau brewpub named Wausau has responded well to Red Eye, helping the brewpub meet its first year growth projections. However, seeing their beer in Madison brings an added sense of accomplishment to the co-owners who know firsthand of the city's mania for microbrews. "I'm excited to be on tap at places like the Malt House and the Old Fashioned because there are a lot of educated beer drinkers in Madison," notes Eichelberger. Just to be clear, Red Eye isn't trying to compete with the likes of the Great Dane, Ale Asylum or Capital Brewery. Both Wolle and Eichelberger are quick to point out that they like the exposure of selling beer in town, but their small brewpub makes five barrel batches, so it really can't supply much more than a few kegs a week to Madison. "From our standpoint as a brewpub, we sell 97 percent of our beer in house and can't afford to let our local market down," explains Eichelberger. "If we were running a microbrewery and bottling it would be a very important part of succeeding." Red Eye marks its one-year anniversary on May 8, and it will have made just over 400 barrels in those first twelve months. By comparison, the Madison's Ale Asylum makes nearly 10-times that amount of beer annually and Capital over 40-times more. Current Red Eye beers include Bloom, a Belgian-style wit beer made with coriander, chamomile and orange peel. It is currently found on tap at The Old Fashioned on Capitol Square. Scarlet 7 is a Belgian dubbel and features caramelized Black Mission Figs from California that Eichelberger roasts himself in the brewpub's pizza oven. The roasted figs give the beer a complex flavor with brown sugar and raisin-like tones. This was on tap until recently at the Old Fashioned. Hoppy beer fans should be excited about Thrust, the brewery's version of an IPA that is made with five different varieties of American-grown hops. Unfortunately, this one hasn't made its way to Madison just yet. However, hop heads should rejoice for Imperium, a double or Imperial IPA that can be found at The Malt House on East Washington Avenue. This is made with rye malt and a Mexican brown sugar called Piloncillo. The beer is cloudy orange-yellow, with an assertive resiny nose and solid bitter body, including a warm finish from the 8.1% ABV. It's a great beer for those who enjoy hops, and this beer is made with over twice the amount that Eichelberger puts into Thrust. Yet to appear, but currently in the fermentation tanks in Wausau, is an imperial stout that will be called "Thorn in My Side." This is made with an organic fair trade coffee from New Roots, a Wausau rouster. Eichelberger says he also adds oak chips to the beer to soften the burnt flavors from the coffee. Both the Imperium and Thorn in My Side are what Eichelberger and Wolle call the brewpub's "Black Eye" series of limited release, super-premium big beers. For those wanting to try Red Eye beer in its home environment, the Wausau brewpub specializes not only in beer, but is making a name for itself with wood-fired pizzas. In Madison, meanwhile, Harvest restaurant on the Square will be hosting a Wisconsin Craft Beer Dinner on Sunday, March 8. This meal, crafted by Chef Derek Rowe and special guest Chef Robert Miller of The Old Fashioned, will pair four courses with Bloom, Thrust, Scarlet 7, and a milk stout named Veruca Stout. Neither Eichelberger nor Wolle are strangers to the Wisconsin beer scene. They have won a string of awards through their previous brewing experiences, including a number of medals from the Great American Beer Festival. Wolle entered the business with the former Wisconsin Brewing Company of Wauwatosa. "I started there as a volunteer in 1996 but after about a month I had used up my vacation so they put me on part-time," Wolle reminisces with chuckle. From there his connections landed him a job with the Delafield Brewhaus where he helped to establish the brewery, did the brewing and also set up a small quality control lab for working with its yeast strains. Come 2001, he went to work for Gray Brewing of Janesville, and was offered the head brewer position at Moose Jaw Pizza and Dells Brewing in Wisconsin Dells a year later. By 2005, he decided to return to school, and after a year of full-time graduate courses, he landed a position with the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research, where he currently works on problems associated with the aging process in cheese. Eichelberger also has ties to Gray Brewing, where he started his career in 1998. From there he took a job at the Great Dane Pub and Brewing Company, where he worked for a little over a year before leaving in 1999 for the then-new Hereford and Hops brewpub in Wausau. After five years he decided it was time to start his own brewpub, so last May he opened Red Eye with four other partners. Coincidentally, Hereford and Hops was recently purchased by the owners of the Great Dane, who plan to re-open the brewpub next month and bring their Madison beers up north. "I find it interesting that my beer is now going down to Madison, and the Great Dane is now coming up to Wausau," Eichelberger says with a laugh, adding that they all support each other and really like each other's beer.
