Positive Friday - Promising Thursday

This German-style pilsner pours a bright, clear, and lightly coppery golden color topped by a plentiful head of white foam. Look for a light bready note to underpin the aroma, overlaid by some noble hop tones breaking toward spicy-floral with a hint of earthiness. On the palate, we get classic pilsner character boasting a crackery central core that offers a dash of residual malt sweetness, balanced nicely by the hop contribution which delivers a moderately bitter bite along with a subtly complex array of spicy, herbal, floral, and earthy notes with a wisp of citrus. As we expect in a good pils, Promising Thursday finishes with a refreshing, satisfying crispness that beckons us to go for another sip. For pairing options, we’d steer toward bready and/or fried dishes like fried chicken, shrimp and vegetable tempura, fish & chips, or pork schnitzel. Pizza is always a good call too, as is a juicy burger topped with fried onion straws. Cheers!

The story of Positive Friday is intrinsically linked to the venerable Millstream Brewing Company in Amana, Iowa, which opened in 1985. In March of 2021, Millstream was acquired by Steve & Susan Charlier and their business partner Justin Cohanim while the previous owners, Tom & Teresa Albert, continued as owners of the adjacent Millstream Brau Haus. The new owners sought to maintain the brewery’s core, often traditional German-style beers while expanding the lineup to include more contemporary styles. They also added a canning line to adapt to the modern demand for this packaging format.

Tom, Teresa, and Justin launched the Positive Friday brand in 2021 to provide an avenue to their brewers for experimentation into new styles and a more nimble vehicle for them to get these new creations into the hands of beer lovers much faster, and to a larger audience than the more local-centric Millstream brand. As Justin explained to us, at Millstream the process to introduce a new beer can take months, with multiple pilot batches sold largely out of the taproom. With Positive Friday, they’ve created a separate entity, one in which they hand the reins entirely to their very experienced brewing staff and tell them to come up with something new and exciting – which immediately gets created and distributed within just a few weeks, and to a broader market at that.

As of this writing, they’ve released several new beers including both West Coast and New England Hazy IPAs, Wheat Ale, Vienna Lager, German Pils, and a rather bold Irish Red boasting a stronger than normal ABV. We’re looking forward to seeing what they come up with next.