Farewell to 1840 Brewing

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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Booze Rating: A-

Crusin’ Rating: B 

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This week - to deviate from our standard review - we are taking a moment to say goodbye to one of our favorite breweries in Wisconsin.  

For 8 years, 1840 has been putting out just some fantastic beer.  Funky sours, funkier Saisons, robust IPA’s, unctuous Goses and a handful of deeply flavored Stouts and more classic styles is what we knew them for.  I think it was 1840 that actually was the first sour that Hannah enjoyed and what kind of got her to like beer - a real sour, where the sourness is coming from the fermentation and not acids or sour flavoring added in after the fact.  To this day, we both really prefer this style of naturally sour beer over a kettle sour - generally.  

1840 actually did some kettle souring with some of its fruited sours, one of those fruited sours - We go together Like: Peanut Butter and Concord Grape is one of my favorite sours I’ve ever had.  A near-perfect blend of bread, peanut butter and cheap jelly - a sour like that walks a fine line between being pleasant and an undrinkable, sloppily sweet mess as so many of them end up being - but 1840 pulled it off.

1840 also probably holds a spot of the best Gose I’ve ever had, I Carried a Watermelon! - a naturally soured Gose (rare to find, most are kettle), brewed with watermelon, basil, and salt. I have liked salt and watermelon since a member of Cabin 8 introduced it to me as a gradeschooler and I have never looked back.  Basil and watermelon together? Great.  Adding Salt? Fantastic.  On the platform of a naturally soured wheat beer? Inspired.  Hands-down my favorite Gose and I will likely not get to have it ever again.   So it’s with heavy heart that I will now need to start the search anew.  

Hannah and I visited the Bayview location for the very last day of service - packed with some rare bottle openings, prize drawing, and speeches - it was both nostalgic and sombre at the same time.  We snagged pints of each beer in the usual tulip glasses that 1840 makes use of so often and found a seat surrounded and beset on all sides by friends, family members, and long-time regulars of the brewery.  

There were only 4 beers left on tap and we snagged pints of each one.  I’m writing down my tasting notes here - not as a recommendation - but rather for my own memory’s sake - as a reminder to some solid beers that will end up being a distant memory before you know it. I only noted two now, looking back, as we listened to speeches and goodbyes from the owner and staff and just sort of basked in a spot that we aren’t going to see the likes of for a while.

TBD - Brett Saision (4.85% ABV) - This re-release of a beer first made in 2017 had a thick foamy head of soapy bubbles with good retention.  Pouring a cloudy gold and featuring an aroma of bread crust, low citrus, particularly grapefruit, and low hay.  

The flavor featured citrus rind, and low funk and some decent hop presence made me lean more toward a pale ale in profile since I didn’t pick up on a lot of those brettomancy characteristics albeit a low to mild sourness.  Nevertheless, it was a refreshing beer to sip on a hot day.  

Lil Bro Blue Brett Saision  (4.1% ABV) - This Saision conditioned on second-use blueberries and using champagne yeast and sabro hops poured a ruddy rose color with low clarity.  With sourness, blueberry skins, sourdough, yeast, and some barn funk and brettomancy sourness.  Sharp blueberry skins, dark fruit sweetness, and sourness round out this beer and made Hannah a big fan - that level of sourness she loves - although she isn’t the biggest fan of blueberries.  In all, a great beer to be your final one brewed at your brewery.   

We don’t always do a last visit and breweries close all the time.  This one, however, is near to our hearts and is a brewery that is closing not because the beer is bad, or any fault of business decisions or poor leadership - this one is closing because sometimes life simply is not fair.  Kyle and Stephanie Vetter - the owners, announced closure as Stephanie’s Stage 4 cancer advances.  Closing down any brewery, much less one that is successful and thriving, to spend more time with your wife in that situation is something worth taking note of.  We’ve all known someone who has suffered, is suffering, or won or lost their fight with cancer - cancer sucks.

A fond farewell to 1840 from us here at Crusin’ for booze, the beer scene is a little darker without your beers on the shelves. 

Keep on crusin’, don’t stop boozin’ and, as the owner said - hold the ones you love close and enjoy a good beer with them.