July 30, 2019

Drinking beer and asking questions about IPAs and lactose at Hacienda Beer Co.

Hacienda Beer Co., 2018 E. North Ave., is marked by the letters HBC in large scale at the arch of the front door. Inside the decor is light and airy with sleek booths and windows that open to the bustling sidewalk outside. In other words, it doesn’t scream brewery. But then, technically it’s not a brewery.

Hacienda Beer Co., 2018 E. North Ave., is marked by the letters HBC in large scale at the arch of the front door.

Read the full article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel here

Hacienda Beer Co., 2018 E. North Ave., is marked by the letters HBC in large scale at the arch of the front door. Inside the decor is light and airy with sleek booths and windows that open to the bustling sidewalk outside.

In other words, it doesn’t scream brewery. But then, technically it’s not a brewery. It’s a taproom selling beer made in Bailey’s Harbor. Technically, part two, Hacienda is a side project of Door County Brewing.

Hacienda Beer serves food from bar snacks to shareable plates and desserts. Patrons also can buy Hacienda’s mixed fermentation brews in bottles and tap favorites in cans at the taproom, which opens at 11 a.m. daily.

Belly up to the bar. We have more questions and we posed them to bartender Alyssa Nihart.

Beer Near: A guide to Wisconsin breweries

But first we ordered a beer — Hot Tracks, a New England Style Pale Ale. It originally came in a pint glass, but we asked the bartender to switch it up for the photo. The beer in the glass is as hazy as they come for a pale ale. It almost looks like orange juice but drinks like a puzzle. The sips are dry to the taste, but the flavor is juicy.

Question: Not all India Pale Ales are the same. Some are bitter. Some are juicy. What determines that?

Nihart: It depends on the different blend of hops. A lot of ours here have funky things about them (and taste) like peaches or star anise. There are lots of different kinds of hops, but ours are so different than others. They’re juicy and flavorful.

Q:There are a couple beers on the menu, from stouts to IPAs, that include lactose. What’s lactose?

Nihart: That’s the No. 1 question we get. Lactose is sugar (a milk sugar.) It doesn’t break down as much as traditional cane sugar, and it brings a sweetness without raising the ABV (alcohol by volume).

Q: Hacienda makes some dark beers like Luxe and Reduxe, a milk stout with coffee and maple syrup. It’s summer. Aren’t those beers kind of heavy for the season?

Nihart: People think of dark beer as really heavy. They tell me ’I don’t want to get full.’ It’s mostly in your head. The mouthfeel (how it tastes against your tongue) is heavy. The beer isn’t.

Q:I spy two kinds of glasses up there. One is that simple round pint glass and the other looks like a wine glass with Hacienda written across the front. Is that just about presentation?

Nihart: The glassware is more about presentation and the vibe of what we’re trying to portray here. We want it to be a little edgier. People like to take pictures of the one.

For the record, the fancier glasses hold 12 ounces of beer and are typically used for the beers that have a higher ABV. The pint glass holds 16 ounces.

Q: What other questions do you get from customers?

Nihart: You don’t have wine? You don’t have liquor? No. We don’t make wine. We make beer.