Zambaldi's Community Supported Brewery Box - Oct 2021

Zambaldi Beer has been doing these Community Supported Brewery Boxes for more than a year now. We've bought at least four of them over the course of this program, and we are now into two consecutive boxes for the first time in 2021 because of one simple fact: the offerings in the last two boxes are undeniable.  Last week, we got to taste their special beer for Lorelei Inn’s Oktoberfest a week early, along with a great Good Dog Porter brownie. I single handedly annihilated that pan of brownies in a weekend.

This week, we got a sample of their pumpkin spice beer-- along with brats made with their Meatball Man ale and a Good Dog Porter Mustard just in time for a Packers Home game. Their merchandise for the box is also timely for a home game-- a Zambaldi Beer emblazoned football that looks absolutely adorable in our kitchen right now. We may never take it out for a toss, but there are plenty of other patrons that will in the future. This is perhaps my favorite box that we’ve ever purchased given the full blown meal that can be made with the brats this time around.​

My husband and I play Dungeons and Dragons with some friends online every Sunday night after noon football games, so once the Browns were done and the Packers were at halftime, I set about cooking the Meatball Man Ale Brats on our grill pan after a little bit of steam to get the interior cooked all the way through. They were served with some caramelized onions, the mustard, and sour cream flatbreads that I made earlier that day.

Zambaldi partnered with local producers Pingel’s Meat Market in Shawano to produce these brats, and you can taste the care that went into them. The flavor of the brats’ namesake beer is light when you eat the brat by itself, but with the caramelized onions and the mustard together, everything sings in a zesty harmony. It was a perfect meal for football and dungeons and dragons.

We also reused our leftovers in a pasta dish with homemade ricotta gnocchi and red bell peppers with a butter sauce that we emulsified with some of the mustard. It was the perfect level of spicy, very savory, and my husband couldn’t get enough of it. I should have made more gnocchi to soak up the goodness.​

We got through the Pumpkin Spice beer in this month’s box before the end of the Packers game, and it was one of the best I’ve had in the time that I’ve been drinking beer more widely. The actual spices float at the front of the tasting experience of the beer, not getting lost in the amber lager base that they used. Their spice syrup is so powerful. We’ll definitely be stopping in as the weather turns to get another taste of this one from the folks at Zambaldi as soon as it’s official release hits.

Want a taste of your own Community Supported Brewery Box? November’s details were released to folks that ordered the October Box! Maple’s the flavor of the month: so you can expect a six pack of their Maple Brown Ale, caramels made with that wonderful ale, the recipe card to recreate them for the holidays, and a ceramic Zambaldi coffee mug to enjoy your warm beverages in the winter.

These boxes can be ordered from their website each month, and they’re always forty dollars flat. Most months include a prerelease of a special or upcoming beer in a growler, and Zambaldi is more than willing to accept their growlers back in exchange for a pint of beer or a five dollar gift card. Environmentally friendly recycling made for beer connoisseurs!

We’re so happy to see Zambaldi still going strong, and we’ll be there for their 2nd anniversary coming up in early 2022. Resiliency in the face of the pandemic, especially from a business that opened their doors just weeks before the lockdown, is to be celebrated. If you can’t wait for the November box, go see them face to face and enjoy a beer in their gorgeous space!