Today in my Willi Becher is the Brew Shop and DC Beer’s Beer of the Month!
For this, our inaugural version of our “Beer of the Month” we have chosen a beer that is just right. Not too strong. Not too weak. Not too hoppy, but not entirely void of hops. It’s the 5% ABV Midnight, Modern Dark Lager, from Sojourn Fermentory out of Suffolk, Virginia.
Somewhat hilariously in American beer history, there was a time when dark beer was not brewed but rather dyed. Consider Anchor Dark, when Fritz Maytag bought the Anchor brewery in 1965, Anchor made what they called a dark beer, which was just pale beer to which they just added caramel syrup, a production method many American breweries were using.
Maytag told John Bryce of the Master Brewers Association of America podcast, “they made what they called a dark beer, they just added caramel syrup, the way all the American breweries were doing to make their dark beer.”
Jumping 60 years ahead, from 1965 to 2025, let’s get into what brewer Michael Pawley says he’s spent a lot of time on: Czech style beers.
In a dimly lit room, Midnight pours quite dark. When held alight, it’s more brown with dark amber highlights. The aroma of the beer is toasty but not roasted, more bread than espresso. Not smokey but there is just a tad of roasted malt tannin when the beer gets closer to room temperature. It doesn’t smell as figgy or stone-fruit-like as your favorite imperial stout, nor should it. It walks the fine line of an aroma of something dark without being too intense; think a pale loaf that is amber out of the toaster, not a slice of bread that is burnt.
There’s a faint cinnamon character that comes out when sniffing this beer as it warms. There are also mild aromatic compounds that remind me of significantly crunchy things like Danish rye crisps. If it’s served too cold (as so many American beers are) and straight from the fridge, it is more medium bodied on the palate. But when left to warm, in a tübinger glass, it becomes more bready and significant, like a hearty dry cracker, absent the star anise or licorice notes often found in American porter and stout. The beer reminds me of many premium pale lagers or a Czech 12 degree, and while it’s certainly not pale in color, it has the drinkability of some of these beers. It strikes me as more Czech in its character than German or American.
The secret to unlocking the flavor in this beer is one of water chemistry. I confessed to Pawley that this beer smacks of attention to detail in the water. Pawley confided he is working hard to hone in Sojourn’s Czech-influenced beers and says much of the brew team’s focus is on water chemistry.
This beer, as well as Norbert, Sojourn’s amber lager, reveals brewers who have paid close attention to expressing the minerality of their water. There’s a mild tartness to the beer that makes me think of Czech streams that have been uninterrupted by the flow of human “progress.” That is to say, while I know unequivocally the water is from Suffolk, Virginia, it reminds me of a water source I’ve come across in my travels north and south of Prague in my visits to Czechia. The only way to mimic the water of another country is to pay too much attention to it altogether. Are you going to use reverse osmosis? Or are you going to build off of the municipal or well water you’re pulling into your brewhouse?
Whatever you choose, you should feel confident knowing that at the end of the chain, down stream, your beer and your customer is going to be better for it. With Midnight Modern Dark Lager, this is that beer that Sojourn should feel most pleased with.
For another few days, you can get a 10% discount on it if you are a DC Beer Patreon supporter. Of course, if you support DC Beer, you will always receive a 10% discount on our Beer of the Month at the Brew Shop. February’s Beer of the Month is Precarious’ Kung Fu Kittens hazy IPA. Maybe we’ll have more on that one soon, too.
