Beer of the Week: The Downside

From the Beer Writer: This is the perfect time of year for lovers of German lagers. Märzens and various fest biers—somewhat rare, one-time-a-year offerings in IPA-, pilsner- and Mexican lager-crazed San Diego County—are suddenly everywhere thanks to the arrival of Deutschland’s famed Oktoberfest celebration. These lagers are as traditional as bratwrust and sauerkraut, but one can only down so many glass boot-fulls of them before those olden styles start to get, well…a tad old. Should you find yourself in that U-boat, there’s a beer in Scripps Ranch that turns one of Germany’s most staid styles on its head. That beer, a schwarzkölsch dubbed The Downside, is a collaborative effort between Savagewood Brewing and Doug Pominville, an industry vet who most recently headed brewing operations at Thorn Brewing. Das schwarzkölsch is a hybrid of a dark, roasty schwarzbier and a straw-hued, light-drinking kölsch. The latter is an ale conditioned at lower temperatures similar to those used to ferment lagers. The collaborative brew crew added roasted malts and aggressive dry-hopping to the equation to create a dark, 6% alcohol-by-volume beer that comes across almost as an American stout. Its bouquet is dark chocolate with navel orange and of a hint anise, all of which come through on the palate. As far as German-inspired beers go, this is the biggest departure you’re bound to find from here to Munich.

From the Brewers: “Savagewood owner Darrell Brown and I had been chatting about brewing a collab together for quite some time, and I had the idea to brew a schwarzkölsch. Drinking schwarzbier in the fall is one of my favorite things to do during the changing of the season. Both of us are Mel Brooks fans and it seemed perfect to give a nod to the movie Spaceballs when coming up with the name and design concept for label, which was done by the lovely Teresa Pominville (@ginger.chalk on Instagram). When crafting the recipe, we decided to use a new malt company in San Diego, Skagit Valley Malting. They specialize in unique and rare European style malts that are grown locally, and have great flavor and higher efficiency. For the hops, we added Czech Saaz and Mandarina Bavaria, which bring on flavors of dark chocolate, lightly roasted coffee, caramel and hints of orange marmalade against a crisp clean finish.”—Doug Pominville

“We met Doug a couple of years back when we were just getting started. We built a great rapport and exchanged resources. He has always been supportive of us, offered advice and just been an all-around awesome beer dude. Earlier in the year, he sent a call out asking any breweries if they wanted to collab, so, of course, we wanted to take him up on it. We asked Doug what he wanted to brew, and said to make it something unique. He said he wanted to brew a schwarzkölsch. We asked him if that was even a thing and he replied, ‘it is now!’ So we brewed a kölsch with some roasted and black malts, and then we dry-hopped it with Mandraina Bavaria. His intent was something along the lines of a chocolate orange, so that’s what we did. And we made it crispy; a great tasting beer for a hot day. For the name, we started riffing on Spaceballs quotes. ‘I see your Schwartz is as big as mine,’ ‘we are combing the desert,’ ludicrous speed!’ A schwarzkölsch is obviously dark, and the dark side of ‘The Schwartz’ is called the ‘Downside,’ so…we present The Downside!”—Darrel Brown, Head Ninja, Savagewood Brewing