Stroll into any craft brewery in the present day, and also you’ll see a great dozen or extra totally different beers on faucet. Whereas the beer trade was as soon as dominated by a monoculture producing the same-tasting “lite” lager, the craft beer revolution provided, as an alternative, an unlimited array of flavorful choices: roasty stouts, funky farmhouse beers and bitter IPAs, a slew of recent choices each single month. Stroll into the just lately opened Sacred Profane, nevertheless, and also you’ll be met with solely two selections: gentle or darkish lager.
“I believe what has occurred over the past 10 years [in the brewery industry] will not be inside my purview,” says Michael Fava, the previous head brewer at Oxbow Brewing Co. and now the director of operations at Sacred Profane, referring to the growth in seemingly indistinguishable hazy IPAs and pastry stouts pursued by a hypebeast-like tradition. He relishes rising up in Philadelphia, what he calls the “most mature beer scene within the U.S.,” the place, for generations, craft breweries have coexisted alongside beer bars, respecting Previous World types and never merely cashing out for the newest pattern. “I believe it was round 2017 I obtained it into my head—my idealistic mindset—I want there was a brewery that solely made one beer.”
Fava’s brewery and “tankpub,” as he’s termed it, opened September 1 in Biddeford, Maine, a city of 20,000 inside the Portland metro space. Upon coming into the taproom, one’s eye is straight away drawn to the 4 500-liter copper tanks seemingly hovering over the bar. These pump the 2 lagers on to the beer tower on the stainless-steel bar high, which sprouts two de rigueur side-pour taps. “The tanks are such a visible spectacle,” says Fava. “You come within the door, see the tanks suspended from the ceiling, and get very thirsty.”
The “tankpub” label and inspiration come instantly from the tankovna pubs of the Czech Republic. At locations like Prague’s U Zlatého Tygra or Lokál, tanks of recent beer are a pub’s centerpiece, displayed beneath the glass bar or entrance and heart within the barroom. At Lékárna (“Pharmacy”) in Plzeň, the important thing inspiration for Sacred Profane, two comparable tanks reside above the bar—although they serve strictly Pilsner Urquell.
Sacred Profane is the primary tankpub in all of North America, conceived and custom-designed to greatest make these two beers; the system value $80,000 and took staff from the Czech-based LUKR a number of days to put in. “We’re attempting to create an area that does it justice, pays it homage,” says Fava. “This isn’t some Disneyland model of Czech tankovna.”
Fava’s companion on this endeavor, and in life, is head brewer Brienne Allan, previously with Notch Brewing, although she’s maybe greatest identified within the beer world for final 12 months’s Instagram takedown of sexist males within the trade. Fava and Allan spent a number of weeks within the Czech Republic earlier this 12 months studying how you can pour this distinctive beer, changing into tapster-certified beneath the tutelage of Pilsner Urqell’s specialists. So far as they know, they’re the one English audio system ever to do this system—they even needed to rent a translator for the category.
“The way in which it’s being poured modifications the ingesting expertise, modifications the mouthfeel, even the perceived bitterness,” says Fava. He claims it takes him two four-hour classes to coach a brand new bartender on the system. Certainly, Sacred Profane lives by the frequent Czech chorus that “the brewer brews the beer, however the tapster makes the beer.” Although Pilsner Urquell’s tapster program touts at the least three totally different pour types, Sacred Profane presently solely serves the usual hladinka (“clean”) fashion, which the brewery calls “basic.” Beers arrive with a moist foam, and simply sufficient carbonation. The 4.2 % ABV pale lager is bready with a barely bitter, crisp end; the 4 % ABV darkish lager is roasty and a bit spicy.
Having spent almost 20 years making a wide range of beers and types, Fava appreciates the meditative facet of spending all his time getting incrementally higher at brewing the identical two beers. “These are simple beers in an easy place,” he says.
Each beers are exceedingly nicely reviewed, each presently scoring over 4 out of 5 on Untappd—a excessive score for an app dominated by hazy- and pastry-loving customers. In fact, there are haters and doubters, too. Can you actually not brew a juicy IPA lately and nonetheless keep in enterprise?
“I can’t see the way you’d survive that approach,” wrote one consumer on a Beer Advocate discussion board. “Half the group up there … may give two shits about fashion or the method behind it.” One other commenter acknowledged, “I actually consider they may have a fucking slamming portfolio. Even together with a hazy [IPA] right here and there.”
In fact, the minimalist brewpub will not be unusual within the Czech Republic, the place many spots supply actually one beer. Prague’s oldest brewery, U Fleků, based in 1499, strictly serves tmavé pivo, a sessionable darkish lager, and the venue is perpetually filled with locals and vacationers alike ingesting one after the opposite, every buy designated by a slash mark on an index card. Within the States, nevertheless, bars want choices for any buyer that may stroll in: gentle in shade, darkish in hue, fruity, bitter, low ABV, excessive ABV.
However Fava will not be apprehensive. He notes that 80 % of beer consumed on this planet continues to be lager, so he’s optimistic about the way forward for Sacred Profane. “Since we solely have two beers, we’re taking the guesswork away from prospects,” he says.
But, the trendy craft beer client is an individual of alternative, one which wants numerous selections each time they exit. For these drinkers, Sacred Profane has a 3rd beer possibility: řezané, the brewery’s gentle and darkish lagers layered atop one another.
