Comments on Madison Beer Review: Thermo Refur

Thanks, Chris! Looking forward to trying it.

2009-01-09T16:02:00.000-06:00

Thanks, Chris! Looking forward to trying it.

Thanks for the feedback, all! This has been a real...

2009-01-08T13:25:00.000-06:00

Thanks for the feedback, all! This has been a really fun beer to conceive, test, produce, try to describe and drink. Definitely not for everyone, even at room temperature.

A few notes from our end:

Yeah, Steve - I agree about the presence of some "Makeweighty" qualities. The yeasts are quite different (two bret strains, a German wheat strain and an American Ale workhorse in the Thermo vs. the dominant Flanders strain in the Makeweight,) as are the hops (stock bittering hops and Cascade for dry hop in Thermo vs. Kent Golding & Fuggle for the kettle and Mt. Hood for the dry in Makeweight). That said, they do seem to have a similar impact. Aran can correct me if I'm mistaken. Sometimes he corrects me even if I'm not... ;)

Jeff saw me while I was enjoying my first "legit" Thermo Refur. I had already had three other beers and was drinking my TR out of plastic (they were out of glass, even for me -HA! I suppose that's a good thing...) and it was at 35 degrees. Oh, and a band was playing so loud that I could only feign conversation. So when Jeff asked me what I thought. I moved my head in a large, noncommittal circle because I JUST DIDN"T KNOW. We discussed the temperature issue, and what was funny to me was that with two of four test batches, I had a hard time as the beer warmed up - precisely because I could taste everything! Having had an opportunity to review the final full-scale production product with less competition for my attention, and while I think Thermo Refur is kind of magical and certainly fun, I agree that no human needs 16 oz of this beer at one time and that a room temp snifter or wine glass is appropriate.

50 cases will be released to select Madison retail accounts in February. Frank Beer distributes FmB, but Cork & Bottle, Star, Steve's MP & University, Barriques Fitchburg, Whole Foods, Jenifer Street Market and Riley's are the likely locations. 5 cases will stay in Spring Green, and 7 will go to MKE (my guess is Whole Foods, Otto's on Oakland, Discount Liquors and Three Cellars.) Bottles are loose-packed in cs-24 to promote selling as singles. You won't have to buy six to try one.

As for kegs, there are 8 50L kegs and a handful of 1/6 bbls allocated to Madison. Given the nature of this product, I would guess that the only places you MIGHT find it are Brasserie V, The Malt House, Dexter's, Monroe St. Bistro, Barriques, Magnus and as a one-off, The Old Fashioned. But by all means, correct me if I'm wrong or have omitted a likely location. In MKE, try Comet on Farwell and Sugar Maple in Bayview. Kegged product is just now being released to Madison and will be released to MKE in February (corresponding with our appearance at "Beer School", hosted by Comet Cafe.

In any case, thanks for indulging our experimental temperaments. I think the tagline for this series of beers will be "Just because you can doesn't mean you should." Either that or "Darkness isn't the opposite of light. It's the absence of light." But maybe that's already taken...

Will do. Hopefully one of the Furthermore guys wil...

2009-01-07T10:41:00.000-06:00

Will do. Hopefully one of the Furthermore guys will address it in the comments (presuming they aren't mad at me for calling their beer "medicinal" "stale prunes" ;). But, if I get any information, I'll definitely pass it on.

Had the Refur at High Noon on Saturday, worked on ...

2009-01-07T10:40:00.000-06:00

Had the Refur at High Noon on Saturday, worked on it for an hour hoping to make it long enough to hear the Buffalo Killers, but didn't make it or finish my glass. The thickness was surprising, but the finish was nice (burps, not so nice). It was hard to sort everything out on my tastebuds, so I won't try, but a smaller serving would be enough for most drinkers.

Sidenote, I had Furthermore's Makeweight on tap at Monroe St. Bistro on Monday. I got a lot of the same tastes in my first few sips, hops/yeast perhaps similar.

ps. Brettanomyces is a yeast, not a bacteria.

Jeff - Could you post some follow up on when and w...

2009-01-07T09:43:00.000-06:00

Jeff - Could you post some follow up on when and where we might expect to see bottles available in Madison and/or what restaurants plan to serve it? Thanks!

Agreed! I had the same reaction to the pint strai...

2009-01-07T08:10:00.000-06:00

Agreed! I had the same reaction to the pint straight out of the tap on Saturday night. Then it sat on our table for a while and, sip by sip, it blossomed into something special. That said, the 9% ABV did nothing for my head the next morning...