Middleton Brewing

“When we first started [at the new location] we jumped into such a big system—we had to grow into it a little bit, and we had all this beer we had to sell,” Kouba said. “Now it’s good to have demand we can’t keep up supply with.”

General Manager Clayton Rahmberg said the brewery is planning to begin canning Bobcat Red—a red ale that he describes as a middle ground between malty beers and hoppy beers—for retail distribution later this year.

“When [owners Dennis and Kim Middleton] started this place they intended for it to be a Belgian brewpub, with the focus being Belgians,” Rahmberg said. “It is—Dennis and Calvin brew fantastic Belgian beers—but it’s funny when you go off-site the consumers decide what’s going to be your top-selling beer. You don’t really get to go back and choose that.”

Bobcat Red has taken up a significant portion of Middleton’s production capacity, but the desire to experiment with new, different flavors is still alive and well at the brewery, Kouba said. Middleton plans to launch a new series of beers that have been aged in wine and whiskey barrels later this summer. 

The team at Middleton is also planning to invest in a smaller brewing setup to compliment the existing 55-barrel system—which can brew 1,600 gallons in one use. The smaller system will allow Dennis and Kouba to continue their sudsy experiments with ingredients such as wild yeast, fruit and home-grown chocolate mint harvested from Kim’s garden.

The new space has also allowed the brewery to host social events, such as the upcoming Belgian Beer Festival on July 25. Middleton has also introduced a Sunday brunch catered by Slingin’ Sliders, a food truck on the brewery’s property. The menu—which includes eggs Benedict, chicken and waffles, and biscuits and gravy all made from scratch—has received rave reviews from customers, Rahmberg said.

The brewery is planning a limited release of a white India pale ale later this summer, of which half the sales will go to those affected by the Memorial Day weekend floods.