Hacienda Beer Company: A Brewing Technique for the Ages

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Door County Brewing Company has only been around for six years, but “it seems a lot longer than that,” says Danny McMahon, head brewer and a member of the family-owned brewery located in Baileys Harbor.

Part of the reason it may seem longer is that the McMahons have packed a lot into those six years. Credit good marketing, or simply a good product, but their brands have already become staples on the local scene. It doesn’t take long after sitting down with McMahon in the brewery’s Taproom and Music Hall, situated on the town’s main drag, to realize that he isn’t simply satisfied with producing an array of “super-traditional, nothing crazy, very Wisconsinesque” beers under the Door County Brewing Company label. A new label was created 18 months ago and, with it, a departure from more traditional brews to an expansive palette of flavors to satisfy the creative talents at Door County Brewing Company.

Hacienda Beer Company was born.

“It’s more experimental,” said McMahon. “We have smaller batches and don’t have the cohesive labeling that runs through Door County Brewing.”

Hacienda has already brewed up 40 different recipes and “there are seven or eight we have gone back to. We don’t have a flagship beer but we have a lot of IPAs that people seem to be wanting. We still have to be profitable,” he adds with a wry smile.

“There are roughly 7,500 brewers in the country ... Less than 100 are doing this.” — Danny McMahon

The first koelschip batch rests while Danny McMahon looks on.

THE LITTLE BREW HOUSE
 

Perhaps the most interesting of this experimentation has been McMahon’s venture into the koelschip brewing method. It’s a long brewing process that would test the patience of any craft brewer. As much as two years or more, according to McMahon.

Unique to the process is a small wooden building that sits just outside the door of the taproom. It’s a relatively nondescript structure except for its age.

“It came from Kangaroo Lake,” said McMahon. “And we know it’s pretty old because it had horse hair for insulation.”

Today, the relatively square building sits pretty much empty except for a rather shallow stainless steel vat. For nearly all of the year it sits empty. In fact, it has been used only three times since the fall of 2018 and in each case only overnight.

You might ask, overnight for what?

The vat is known as the koelschip, which translates from Dutch to “cooling ship.” Vessel might be a more appropriate term. We’ve already noted that the beer crafters at Hacienda were open to trying something different, and the koelschip method certainly accomplishes that.

“We’ve always been interested in yeast-forward beers,” said McMahon, who found the koelschip method intriguing but hardly practical in earlier days of Door County Brewing because of a shortage of space to store the barrels. That changed when the new facility was built and the company was able to retain space in its old building.

Suddenly, that little building could be put to use, although McMahon said using it for koelschip brewing didn’t immediately come to mind.

We all know that today’s American brewing techniques are rooted in Europe and koelschip is no different, except that it’s only been recently that brewers have been adopting this purest of brewing processes.

“There are roughly 7,500 brewers in the country,” said McMahon. “Less than 100 are doing this.”

To explain “this” we must step inside the small building with the long vertical windows, which when open are a significant addition to the process in harvesting the “wild” yeast so vital to the process.

“Yeast is everywhere,” said McMahon with a sweep of his arm. The challenge, he explains, is to introduce the good yeast rather than the bad in order to produce the best-tasting beer.

While McMahon and his brewers are confident they will produce a good product, you get the idea it’s still a bit of a crapshoot.

They look for the perfect fall evening when the temperature dips between 45 degrees and freezing.

“Any warmer and we will get some yeast we don’t want,” said McMahon.

The brewers pour 200-degree wort, the liquid extracted from the malt, into the vat. It will lay there overnight in its natural surrounding absorbing the yeast, bacteria and other microorganisms.

If anything in the building falls in, so be it. “We leave the cobwebs hanging on the ceiling to prevent fruit flies from getting in,” said McMahon, noting that the little buggers can negatively alter the taste.

McMahon said the first couple of batches will be pretty basic. He described it as “Lambic inspired” or “method traditional.” He said initial taste tests are positive and he remains hopeful that a large majority of the beer will taste good.

Lambic is a Belgian beer, brewed in a region southwest of Brussels, which is unlike more traditional American beers in that it carries a sour taste.

McMahon said that Lambic is a beer distinctive to the area, much like Champagne in France, and the locals frown on the name being used elsewhere. That brings a smile to McMahon’s face, as he hopes his Belgian- inspired beer doesn’t upset them too much.

“We’re pretty small,” he says with a smile.

But just like Lambic which has its flavor enhanced by the wild yeast and other micro-organisms of the area that populate their brew, Hacienda’s koelschip brand will also be uniquely affected by those who live here.

As of the printing of this story, McMahon didn’t yet have a name for this unique new beer, but bottling is expected to take place in spring.

The koelschip brewing house at Door County Brewing Company in Baileys Harbor.

A PRESENCE IN MILWAUKEE
 

It’s just some of the fun McMahon and his crew are having with the Hacienda brand, which is expanding across the state with the opening of a taproom on North Avenue in Milwaukee.

Still, Hacienda remains a small-batch brand that McMahon said works well in a taproom format that will be enhanced in Milwaukee with a full kitchen. Also, McMahon said coffee is on the way.

But don’t expect the mad beer brewers of Door County Brewing and Hacienda to leave Baileys Harbor.

“I think that we’re the tallest building in Baileys Harbor says a lot,” he says with a smile. “Hacienda means estate. It’s our home.”

Even that little wood building with the vat.