Today’s craft beer market is saturated with a plethora of palate tantalizing craft beer. IPA’s, Stouts and certain forms of Sour style beers seem to be leading the way in what consumers are drinking, but what about those styles that do not seem to garner any attention? Heck, even crispy Lagers don’t get the proper recognition they deserve, even though they are somewhat making a comeback. Still though, there are more styles out there to be devoured by our urge to try the latest and greatest beer. What if it’s a beer style you’ve never even heard of before? Something dug up from that past that could possibly be the best thing you’ve tried in quite some time. We’re going to be talking about one of those styles here today, and chances are you’ve probably not had it, but we think you should seek it out!

Old World Resurrection

We were lucky enough to explore a beer called Farmer’s Tan, a Breslau-Style Dark Schoeps from Necromancer Brewing out of Pittsburgh, PA. If you search this beer on Untappd, it’s category is Historical Beer-Other, but what makes this a historical beer? That’s the exact question we asked Lauren Hughes, head brewer for Necromancer. Lauren explained that the recipe actually came from them researching some resurrections to do. “It was a recent style added to the Brewers Association guidelines and I thought it would be fun to try out,” explained Lauren. “I prefer styles with cleaner yeast and trying a dark wheat fermented cleanly sounded awesome,” said Lauren. For most of their process, it is just through researching what styles used to be in existence, what they think they can do justice to, and that beer drinkers would be interested to try. “Making something that is as close to authentic as we can, but with modern techniques and practices,” noted Lauren.

Schoeps or (Schöps) is, in fact, one of the very earliest recorded style designations. It was first mentioned in writing around 1550. Schoeps range in hue from straw pale to near-black, united by malt sweetness and a strong wheat presence. Farmer’s Tan is deep brown and full-bodied with nutty, toasty malts and midnight wheat, while just enough Saphir hops, and pale malts provide that clean, balanced finish. 

Necromancer Brewing Farmer's Tan Breslau-Style Dark Schoeps
Image provided by Necromancer Brewing

 

It’s about what’s inside that counts

Necromancer sources their grain from a few different suppliers. For this they used White and Dark malts, Midnight wheat malts, with some added specialty malts for color and flavor. “I wanted the beer to really showcase the different types of wheat that can be used, and wanted something that was very malt forward, slightly sweet, with pronounced flavors of wheat, nutty, malty and toasted flavors,” explained Lauren. There are actually two versions of this style of beer. One being the Breslau-Style Schoeps, and the Dark Schoeps. The difference between the two is the use of dark wheat malt and some roasted malts to accentuate color as well as light roast and nutty malt attributes in the darker version. In the lighter version, the use of white wheat and Pilsner malt are commonly used.

Necromancer Brewing taproom
Image provided by Necromancer Brewing

How does it taste?

Farmer’s Tan is truly a delight to drink. It’s not made to crush, or knock a few back, but rather to sit back and enjoy what it brings to the table. It’s rich texture, combined with its deep, malty flavors, creates a truly exquisite taste experience. Up front you get the notes of roast and nuttiness, while on the back it ends with a smooth, velvety sweetness. It pours and drinks clean and crisp and allows you to enjoy what you have in front of you without being too complex. We could drink this beer any time of the year, but as the cooler weather is in sight, this would be an absolute perfect beer to sit by the fire and enjoy, or if you want to keep it indoors, you could cozy up on the couch and listen to some of your favorite music, or enjoy it with a good book. However you go about enjoying this beer, you are sure to love it, no matter what you are doing. You could even share it with friends if you choose to, or maybe you just keep it to yourself. We recommend sharing it with friends as a style like this needs to be shared and talked about.

The thing is, it’s easy to get hung up on a certain style of beer that you really love. That’s perfectly fine, we all have those specific styles that we would pick 9 times out of 10 when it came down to it, we’re all guilty. It’s also easy to miss out on something great. Something that a brewer has put their heart and soul into, and spent countless hours researching and perfecting.  All that effort so that we too can enjoy something like this, something you could almost call a work of art. There’s nothing in this style of beer to hide brewing flaws, what’s in there is what you get. With that being said, to pull something like this off and to do it so very well, it’s truly a masterpiece.

https://beerguysradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Necromancer-Brewing-Farmers-Tan-Dark-Schoeps-600x600.jpghttps://beerguysradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Necromancer-Brewing-Farmers-Tan-Dark-Schoeps-150x150.jpgJason MurphyBeer ReviewFeatures#brownale,#necromancerbrewing,#pittsburghcraftbeerToday's craft beer market is saturated with a plethora of palate tantalizing craft beer. IPA's, Stouts and certain forms of Sour style beers seem to be leading the way in what consumers are drinking, but what about those styles that do not seem to garner any attention? Heck, even...Cold beer, hot conversations, stupid jokes.