UNIQUE FLAVOR
ReSource Brewing Co. introduces pale lager with a Swiss twist
Alook at ReSource Brewing Co.’s beer list might have you wondering what a Swiss lager is. You are not alone.
The question comes up so frequently that the brewery decided to name it accordingly.
“That’s our quest to make a delicious yellow beer,” co-owner Shawn Wright said. “We use a yeast strain from Switzerland. Classically, it’s an international pale lager, but we just put our own little twist on it. Everyone asks us what a Swiss lager is, and so we ended up naming it Que, Swiss? Lager.”
The brewery offers six of its craft beers on tap. They are Moral Compass IPA, Bert Lips Schwartzbier, Clown Car Kolsch, Equality Stout, a Vienna lager and Que, Swiss? Lager, made with German malts, Czech hops and a 150-year-old yeast strain from Switzerland.
Bert Lips Schwartzbier is a German black lager that features layers of caramel and chocolate with a “restrained roast” and bitterness. Moral Compass IPA is a blend of American and English malts combined with classic American hops. The IPA has a “solid bitterness” with notes of grapefruit and a moderate sweetness. The Equality Stout is ReSource’s permanent charity beer benefiting rotating nonprofits. The stout is well balanced and features American Cascade hops as well as a California yeast strain, according to the brewery’s website.
ReSource’s craft beers are vegan.
“We decided there were certain things that we didn’t want to add to beer,”
Shawn Wright explained. “Part of those were milk solids or animal product that is specifically used for clarification or fining beer, so it’s not difficult to make vegan beer. It’s not like we’re making something that is discernibly different in taste. It’s just that we’re not adding ingredients or components to the beer that are animal-based, and sometimes people do that to achieve a specific flavor. … We focus on everything that we put into the beer and make sure that everything in there is what we want to be in there.”
Shawn Wright and his wife and co-owner, Stephanie Wright, had been homebrewing for about six years when they began thinking of opening their own place. ReSource opened in October. The aim was to create a space where the Wrights could use beer as the way to do good through philanthropic activities as well as provide a comfortable and welcoming place for the community.
“Our love of brewing beer, our love of drinking beer, our love of community and having a space that we could really bring it all together, that’s really what drove the brand and the business plan,” Stephanie Wright said. “… In October of 2019, we found the space that we’re in right now, and it just kind of checked a lot of the boxes for us, and we spent a year doing the buildout and the design. COVID kind of came up in the middle of that, which kind of threw off the business plan a little bit, but we feel confident in our abilities to kind of keep
it going and still ultimately someday have what our vision was, even if we have to pivot a little bit right now.”
Limiting its carbon footprint is priority for ReSource Brewing Co. Rather than canning its products it fills 32-ounce and 64-ounce glass growlers to take home. Plans to offer 12- and 22-ounce glass bottles are in the works. The brewery provides glass growlers at no charge. All it asks is that customers return the growlers at their convenience to be cleaned and reused.
“Glass is pretty much infinitely reusable, so we’ve actually developed a program at the brewery where we do a three-step cleaning process, and then we actually sterilize the glass on-site and put it back in rotation,” Shawn Wright said. “That way, we can reuse something and it’s not requiring extra energy to create aluminum cans and extra waste.… We’ve been really surprised at how many people are responding very positively to that and bringing their glass back and getting more beer to go. It’s been working out very well. We’re excited about that.”