CaramelCrisp | Revolution/Garrett’s Popcorn
As craft beer has become more popular and visible, other companies and entities have taken notice and allowed their brands to collaborate with breweries. Locally, Hop Butcher appears to lead the charge, featuring collabs with Frango Mints (Minted stout), The Smashing Pumpkins (Soul Head) and, unofficially, Portillo’s (The Dog House, featuring like 6 of their cakes in the beer). Revolution – never to be outdone – has been able to keep the pace. The Chicago Fire MLS team (Hazy Pitch pale ale), C2E2 (Galaxy Hero), and, ugh, Malört (Anti-Hero Malört). They even have a collaboration with Jewel featuring Anti-Hero beer Brats! Well you can add one more Chicago-centric collaboration to Revolution’s belt – Garrett’s Popcorn Shops and their CaramelCrisp popcorn.
Background
Garrett’s Popcorn Shops opened their first location at 10 West Madison in Chicago in 1949. They sold four different types of popcorn – CaramelCrisp, CheeseCorn, Buttery, and Plain. (It’s since moved to 5 East Madison.) In 1977, Garrett’s combined the CaramelCrisp and CheeseCorn popcorn to form the “Chicago Mix,” now known as the Garrett Mix. They’ve since changed ownership families, bought Frango Mints, and opened shops across the globe.
For the CaramelCrisp beer, Revolution used 450 pounds of CaramelCrisp popcorn and 1200 pounds of brown sugar. (Josh Noel’s Chicago Tribune article has a more in-depth look at the making of the beer.) Basically, Revolution wanted to make a beer that was not sweet and could pair well with Garrett’s Popcorn. They also wanted you to be able to drink more than one of this brown ale.
The Beer
Naturally, CaramelCrisp pours an amber or caramel color. A finger and a half of head forms and persists for a good long while, eventually settling to near nothing. But it’s a head you can sleep on. It glows crimson and mahogany when held up into direct light. Lights does get through but I can’t see my finger clearly, so murky’s the word I’ll choose here.
Upon opening it, the smell of popcorn, caramel, and cheddar filled the room. Sorry, that’s from when I opened my Garrett Mix bag, not the beer. (More on the Garrett Mix later!) For those wondering – zero popcorn nose flavors. A fair amount of nuttiness and some caramel sweetness did pop for me. For those wanting this to smell like a bag of popcorn, look elsewhere. Revolution appears to have gone with a nut brown ale on this and it does add something to the usually boring brown ale. The caramel gives it an interesting aromatic twist on a brown ale supplying something sweet to the mix.
Once again I’ll get this out of the way – zero popcorn flavor notes. I wouldn’t have guessed this was a popcorn beer if handed it blind. Would I have guessed brown ale? Probably, due to the nuttiness. It shows up throughout the sip in quantity and really makes things flavorful. The two big surprises however deal with the caramel sweetness.
First off, CaramelCrisp’s caramel sweetness shows up on the very end of the sip but not overly so. It’s sweet but I can finish a can or two without being fatigued. (Maybe even three or four.) But the real oddity comes with the kosher salt addition. It doesn’t add salinity to CaramelCrisp like a gose. This one makes it finish dry. It’s impressive because that sweetness really lingers for a few minutes after the sip, never really going away. But then you want more because it’s such a dry finish. And then sweetness keeps lingering. And then you want more. A vicious, vicious cycle for a 7% beer.
I never thought I would say this, but the sweetness/caramel stars here. While some brown ales drink closer to water than anything else, CaramelCrisp features a fuller mouthfeel than typical brown ales, assuredly assisted by the caramel addition. The medium carbonation moves things along nicely, but that caramel sweetness, as previously mentioned, lingers in all the right ways.
Verdict
Highest praise for CaramelCrisp – I kept trying to pour more out of the can even though I had finished it. I could easily have had another one, although the 7% might’ve caught up to me at that point. Those looking for a beer that tastes like straight up popcorn need to look somewhere else. Those wanting a well-executed nut brown ale with some deftly added Revolution sweetness, pull on up to the bar. But what should you be pulling up with?
Garrett’s Popcorn Pairing
Of course I had to try CaramelCrisp with some Garrett’s Popcorn. In addition to the beer, Revolution knows my brain and also provided a bag of Garrett Mix popcorn. Score! I tried the beer with all three – CheddarCorn, CaramelCrisp and the full mix.
CheddarCorn’s cheese cut right through any of the nuttiness of the beer but let the caramel sweetness still shine at the end. I really like the combination and would definitely recommend it. The CaramelCrisp, of course, just enhanced everything about the beer while providing a bit more sweetness and some crunchiness. The mix was weird in that neither the CaramelCrisp nor the CheddarCorn took over and resulted in a muddled tasting experience.
While none were particularly bad (looking at you, Chicago Fist Bump of Anti-Hero and Malört Anti-Hero), the CaramelCrisp solo came out on top for me, followed by the CheedarCorn as a really nice change of pace and then the mix. But you should definitely try it with some Garrett’s Popcorn, because how many chances will you get to do something like this? Get on this now.
Rating: 9.8/10
Reolution and Garrett’s Popcorn’s CaramelCrisp popcorn brown ale is currently available in Chicago, with the rest of Illinois and select markets beginning October 1st. Seriously, come to Chicago and get it before then. A big thanks to Revolution for the beer and the popcorn!
