Terrapin Beer Company's Hoppin' Bubbly brut IPA – a collaboration with Miller High Life – is landing in bars and stores in Georgia and Wisconsin this week, and we took the opportunity to talk to the co-founder and brewmaster of the Athens, Georgia-based brewery about it.
The new brew uses the High Life malt bill and spices it up with four hop varieties – amarillo, citra, mosaic and cascade – for an approach you'd expect from Terrapin, which has been part of the MillerCoors family for about eight years.
The result is an ale with 6.5% ABV and a relatively subtle 26 IBUs.
You can find it locally at venues this year like Miller Park and Summerfest, but also at bars and cafes like Caffrey's Pub, The Loaded Slate, Hawthorne Coffee Roasters and Who's on Third, other venues like the Riverside Theater and the South Shore Beer Garden, as well as retailers like Discount Liquor, Total Wine and Otto's locations and groceries like Piggly Wiggly in Muskego and Woodman's locations.
The brewery's brewmaster and co-founder Brian "Spike" Buckowski stopped into our office today to talk about the new brew, which I first sampled earlier this week:
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
