Brewmasters of the universe

Photo: Peter DiAntoni

The pursuit of hoppiness

This brewer isn’t a control freak—he just wants a homegrown organic beer.

Russ Klisch stands just over 6'4", so you wouldn’t peg the brewmaster and owner of Milwaukee’s Lakefront Brewery as a modern-day David, slinging hops at Goliaths like Anheuser-Busch. Back in the spring of this year, A-B got Klisch’s goat when it successfully lobbied to ensure that nonorganic hops made it onto a Department of Agriculture list of ingredients that could be used in finished products that are still labeled organic. Klisch’s plan is to show up the megabrewer by making an organic beer with hops grown in his own backyard.

“Right now you can brew an ‘organic beer’ without organic hops,” Klisch says. “It just doesn’t seem right to have organic beer [with] hops put into it that have been grown on sewer sludge and sprayed with pesticides and genetically modified. That’s kind of crazy.”

Klisch is used to taking the road less traveled when it comes to his beer: In 1995, his brewery was the first to roll out a certified-organic beer (an extra special bitter, or ESB, that uses organic hops imported from New Zealand). And wheat-allergic beer lovers, who previously had little choice when it came to brew, can’t get enough of his gluten-free New Grist. And now, he’s the first brewer in the U.S. to plant organic hops.

Klisch has 120 hops plants out at Michael Fields, a sustainable-growth institute in East Troy, Wisconsin, and 300 more planted in a partnership with Milwaukee’s Roots Restaurant, which operates its own farm in Cedarburg. Although he won’t know if he’s got a viable crop for another year or two (hops grow similarly to grapes in that you can’t really harvest much until year two or three), if all goes well, he hopes to plant even more.

“I’m not into it to control the hop market,” Klisch says. “I just want to brew.”—Tim McCormick