Door County Brewing is offering a taste of things to come with the release of L’automne, its new fall seasonal, which hits Madison shelves this week. It’s the first in the regular seasonal line of beers that will expand the brewery’s portfolio of Belgian-French influenced beers. In addition, the brewery has plans to build a new production brew house.
What is it? L’automne from Door County Brewing Company of Baileys Harbor.
Style: L’automne falls between the Bière de Garde and the Saison. Both styles originated in the northern regions of France, near the border with Belgium, and have distinctive yeasty-earthiness. The Saison is lighter in color, with crisp dry bitterness and hints of pepper spiciness. The Bière de Garde is golden to deep copper or even light brown, with light to medium body and more light toasted maltiness in aroma and flavor. These farmhouse beers generally modest in strength, ranging from 4.5% to 8.5%.
Robin Shepard
Danny McMahon, Brewmaster at Door County Brewing in Bailey's Harbor.
Background: Brewmaster Danny McMahon has been carving out a niche designing and making quality farmhouse-style ales since his brewery opened in 2013. While he does offer a few dark beers and a hop-forward one or two, he’s become known for his saisons. There’s probably no other Wisconsin brewery that makes so many different saisons as part of their core brands. Now, Door County Brewing stands to expand McMahon’s reputation for making quality farmhouse brews by acquiring seven acres of land in Bailey’s Harbor, where it will build a 13,000-square-foot, 30-barrel production brewery. That new facility will complement a smaller, seven-barrel brew house and taproom it opened there last summer. McMahon hopes to break ground on the larger site by the end of the year, and be brewing there by fall of 2016.
Door County currently uses that smaller brew house in Bailey’s Harbor for draught-only releases and recipe development. Much of its overall production and bottling run are currently handled under contract by Sand Creek Brewing Company in Black River Falls.
L’automne, French for autumn, is the first of four new seasonal beers McMahon will unveil over the next 12 months. These seasonals allow him to stretch his brewing creativity and ultimately to expand his Belgian and French offerings.
L’automne is made with the same yeast as the brewery’s other saisons. You might think of it as a dark and more robust version of Door County’s Bière de Seigle. McMahon says it loosely fits within the Bière de Garde style, a close cousin of the saison — it has more body and strength than what one finds in a light bubbly saison.
“I wanted it to be seasonal specific, so I added some more color for fall,” says McMahon. Much of the beer’s dark body is from caramel malts. McMahon also uses rye malt which adds depth and complexity to the dry pepper spiciness that also comes from the strain of saison yeast that’s used to ferment this beer.
McMahon says he may change L’automne’s recipe from year to year, and maybe even the underlying style. That annual tweaking will give McMahon creative license in how he interprets the seasonal tastes and preference not only between seasons, but from one year to another.
L’automne 2015 finishes at an estimated 30 IBUs and 7% ABV. It’s sold in six-packs for around $9/each. Next up will be L’hiver (winter), based on a strong Belgian Dubel. It’ll be released Dec 1.
Tasting notes:
Aroma: Malty, yeasty and earthy.
Appearance: Very dark bronze, almost black. A soft, tan head.
Texture: Medium bodied, soft and bubbly.
Taste: The malt comes in up-front in caramel tones and hints of dark fruit, followed by earthy-spiciness and pepper.
Finish/Aftertaste: There a little light fruitiness, and the earthy-musty tones of the yeast. But what’s distinctive and memorable is the dry, pepper-spiciness that comes at the end.
Glassware: The stemmed tulip glass with its curved body and outward flare to the lip is the glass for farmhouse ales, especially saisons and Bière de Gardes. The glass is a great way to show off the body of the beer while allowing the aromas to expand under the nose.
Pairs well with: The spicy-pepper notes go well with soft ripened cheeses. Best to let it warm somewhat and slowly sip this beer to bring out the earthy, spicy, dry-pepper finish.
The Verdict: This is a great early entry among this year’s crop of fall harvest brews. It’s a flavorful take on the farmhouse style that’s known for an earthy-musty and yeasty character. L’automne is a “sweater” beer — the kind of beer well suited for fall, with dark color, modest body and sweet caramel maltiness that seems to welcome the shorter and cooler days ahead.
