In the days between summer and fall, past scorching July with Oktoberfest looming, almost nothing hits the same as a grilled sausage with mustard and a crisp beer. Chicago’s love affair with cased meats and beer is well-established; with the arrival of German immigrants in the 1850s, sausage making and its supporting condiment entered Chicago’s culinary scene indelibly. The city’s craft beer history goes back even further, to 1833.
Chicago-based distributor Louis Glunz long carried Wostyntje Mustard Ale, which was regularly imported along with another Belgian mustard beer, Melchior. “They were picked by expert purveyors or publicans who would have it on premise for a mix of quality and novelty value,” says Samu Rahn, the key accounts manager and brand manager at Louis Glunz. “When somebody comes in always looking for something different, that’s a back-pocket play. It wasn’t just a gimmick, in that both of them were really quite lovely beers.”
“I think they absolutely nailed it,” says Aaron Baker, Oskar Blues’s senior marketing manager. “The tropical fruit purees they used—key lime, tangerine, lemon, and passion fruit—balance out the earthy notes of the mustard.” The batch included a whopping 150 pounds of French’s yellow mustard and 175 pounds of fruit puree.
Or perhaps Marz. “I think if anyone in Chicago could successfully pull off something like that, it would be Marz,” Hehl said. “I would absolutely try their take on it.”
