Cellar West built its reputation on saison and barrel aged farmhouse ale, tiny batches out of a North Boulder garage. Those beers earned a Great American Beer Festival medal in the company's first year. The beer going on at both of its Colorado taprooms this Friday is a Munich malt lager designed to be drunk in quantity on a patio.

Johnny's Garten is new, 5.9 percent ABV, and introduced in the brewery's newsletter in the first person: a new lager recipe, worked up in search of something a little stronger and fuller without being malty or boozy. The build is a good portion of Munich malt with what the brewery calls a sprinkle of honey malt, credited for a cakey barley undertone while the beer stays golden and crisp. Saaz supplies what the notes describe as a hint of spice.

Honey malt is the interesting entry on that list. It is a specialty malt used in small doses precisely because it does not need many. It brings a distinct honeyed sweetness that will overrun a pale beer if given the chance. A sprinkle is more or less the whole recommended dose, and on a Munich base it lands somewhere between the toasty depth of a festival lager and something a little rounder.

Cellar West is calling this a Biergarten style lager, which is not a recognized category. The brewery then offers a translation for anyone who wants one: it drinks somewhere between a traditional Festbier and a Helles Bock. Those two bracket a fairly narrow band. Festbier generally runs from about 5.8 to 6.3 percent, Helles Bock from roughly 6.3 up. At 5.9, Johnny's Garten sits at the Festbier end of that span.

The batch is draught only, and the brewery's stated reason is that it wants people drinking the beer in multitudes on the pub patios as the weather cools. The exception is a small run of cans co-branded in support of the Sandlot Baseball League, available Friday until they run out.

Johnny's Garten pours Friday, August 28, at Cellar West's Lafayette and Erie locations.

Editor’s Take

Somewhere between a traditional Festbier and a Helles Bock is a real answer to a real question and I appreciate it, but the actual news here is that Cellar West has invented a beer style defined by where you happen to be standing. Biergarten style. Not a malt bill, not a country of origin, not a yeast strain - a venue. The guidelines write themselves. Must be served outdoors. Must arrive in a vessel large enough to be slightly embarrassing. Must be finished before the second band goes on.

Which is, if we are honest, how most of us choose beer anyway. Nobody has ever settled onto a patio in September and thought carefully about the Munich to honey malt ratio. They think: it is warm, I am outside, this glass should not be difficult. Cellar West has skipped the taxonomy entirely and gone straight to the use case - and then, because this is a brewery that spent years on barrel aged farmhouse ale, went and put a sprinkle of honey malt in it regardless. You can take the brewer out of the cellar.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.

Johnny's Garten Lands Between a Festbier and a Helles Bock

Cellar West made its name on saison and barrel aged farmhouse ale. Johnny's Garten is a 5.9 percent Munich malt lager, draught only on purpose, and the brewery is calling the style Biergarten.

Source & Editorial