A New Direction at Bohemian Brewing

Bohemian Brewing has been quietly making old world style beers at their beautiful log cabin inspired brewery in for the past 12 years. For the most part all of the beers coming out of the Midvale brewhouse have been 4% abv lagers that locals have embraced and visitors seek out.

Bohemian's mantra hasn't changed munch since it's founding back in 2001; Make a few beers, but make them well. For much of the of the early 21st century that was usually the case, there were four beers with limited special batch offerings. Over the past year that part of the story has changed, Bohemian's seasonal program has exploded with new monthly offerings and now comes word that the Czech founded brewery is finally releasing new true to style beers that aren't restricted to 4%.

Beginning sometime in early 2014 you'll have a couple of new offerings from Bohemian. A Dortmunder style Export Lager and and Bohemian's first ale in a can Altus Altbier.

Altbiers are usually dark copper color. They're brewed at a moderate temperature using ale yeast which gives the beer some fruitiness. It's matured at cooler temperatures which gives it a cleaner and crisper taste more akin to lagers.

Dortmunders are a German interpretation on the original Czech lagers. Similar to other pale lagers the beers are pale gold in color with moderate bitterness from noble hops and a well attenuated malt body. Higher carbonation tends to add a sharpness to the flavor of the hops - so brewers use less hops giving the beers a more subtle emphasis on the malt flavors.

It good to see Bohemian can still expand their offerings while keeping true to founder, Joe Petráš' original "old school brew" philosophy.

The cans shown above are still being tweaked but that's the basic look. I think they're pretty sharp looking and will really catch your eye while shopping. What do you think about Bohemian's new direction and look?

Prost!

Photo: Pete Petráš