Hinterland Brewery - IPA

Hinterland’s IPA pours a bright golden color with good clarity and a robust head of off-white foam. On the nose, we get a nice balance among hoppy notes of soft stone fruits, bright citrus, earth, pine, and lightly floral flourishes, all overlaid upon a bed of lightly toasted biscuit. That hop balance continues into the flavor as sweetly fruity tones of orange flesh and pith meld with touches of apricot, pine resin, and earth. Look for a tasty malt core that’s simple but quite creamy and luscious on the palate, offering a lightly caramelized backbone to support and balance the hops, whose bitterness comes through firm, but not excessive. For food pairings, Hinterland recommends hot wings, curry, and spicy foods in general, and we concur. Bready or breaded dishes should also play nicely with the malty core of this brew, and dishes with fruity sauces or other elements should match nicely with the vibrant hops. Cheers!

Hinterland Brewery was founded by husband and wife duo Bill and Michelle Tressler in 1995. The story begins a couple years earlier when the young couple were living in California’s Bay Area with Bill working as a journalist at the SF Chronicle. When work dried up in the midst of a strike at the paper, it was a natural fit for him as a homebrewer to take a new job as editor for American Brewer and Beer the Magazine. Fully bitten by the beer bug at that point, he enrolled in brewing school at both UC Davis and the American Brewers Guild to learn more about commercial brewing. He and Michelle then returned back to Wisconsin and started a tiny brewery in a defunct cheese factory just outside Bill’s hometown of Green Bay. At first, Bill and Michelle were the only employees, handling everything from brewing, to bottling, to marketing, while relying upon generous friends and family to lend as many hands as possible.

Despite their modest beginnings, soon enough they were able to expand their operation by moving into a larger facility – a turn-of-the-century era former meat packing warehouse in Green Bay which gave them more space for production as well as a farm-to-table restaurant. Fast forward 30 years and Hinterland is a fixture of Green Bay’s Titletown district, directly across the street from Lambeau Field. Their vision is to brew beer they can be proud of, and not “corporate, diluted crap.” Cheers to that! The brewery produces an array of year-round, seasonal, and limited production beers, and their attached Beer Hall restaurant evokes a “German bräuhaus with an urban twist and a better sense of humor.” For more info, check them out at hinterlandbeer.com.