Kathy Flanigan

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

On the last weekend in January, the population of Amherst — 1,495 residents — will more than double.

If last year is any indication, people will arrive by the busload and spread to hotels from Waupaca to Stevens Point. They'll eat a hearty meal in the afternoon and crowd breakfast joints the next day. In a month considered the second worst for hotel stays, Portage County's occupancy for the 2016 weekend of the party was more than 83%.

They come for one reason: beer.

Paul Graham and Anello Mollica, owners of Central Waters Brewing, host an anniversary celebration at the brewery in the small town in north central Wisconsin. This year's bash, which will be held on Jan. 28, had 2,250 tickets available. It sold out in less than 30 seconds.

The party is just a bonus. Buying a $15 ticket allows fans to purchase 22-ounce bottles of the brewery's special bourbon barrel-aged beer called 19, for the brewery's 19th anniversary. A bottle costs $15 and ticket holders can buy up to six bottles.

Central Waters, which started putting stouts in bourbon barrels in 2001, is considered among the first in the state to experiment with barrel aging. Flash forward to 2017, and high-alcohol barrel-age beers are 30% of the brewery portfolio.

But barrel-age brews are 100% of the fascination for beer geeks who come to the brewery from as far away as Texas. Last year's anniversary beer, 18, sells for $50 on beerblackbook.com, more than three times the original price. It has an ABV (alcohol by volume) of 11%.

All about 'that hunt'

For the event, barrels are stacked to the ceiling on a back wall so bands such as Art Stevenson and Highwater have room to perform. At the other end of the warehouse, a phalanx of mobile beer dispensers are set up to serve the rest of the Central Waters inventory. Familiar faces from Milwaukee bars like Burnhearts are sometimes manning the taps.

The party is an all-hands-on deck occasion for the staff, and Mollica can be found walking through the crowds. Graham sometimes escapes to the employee lounge, a hidden-in-plain-sight room where he can keep an eye on the crowds.

Shuttle buses drop off full loads of thirsty fans hours before the party begins at 3 p.m. The beer lovers stand shivering in line, sharing bottles of rare or hard-to-get beers — known in the beer world as a whale — from other breweries to pass the time and start a conversation among the like-minded. Some come early to make sure they can grab the rare table top inside the brewery.

The first order of business in the afternoon will be to pick up bottles of 19 in an area roped off like a Disneyland ride. Throughout the brewery, there will be tall tables but no chairs and, as the place fills up, standing room only becomes a tight squeeze thanks to winter coats, flimsy plastic cups of beer and an abundance of humans. The ticket price include two glasses of beer, but odds are good that the guy next to you still has a whale or two left to consume.

The shuttle buses return the sometimes tipsy party-goers back to Milwaukee, Madison or to hotels in Stevens Point. Last call is 9 p.m.

Central Waters isn't the only brewery that holds a daylong event around a specific beer. Three Floyds near Chicago hosts Dark Lord Day, and Surly Brewing in Minneapolis has Darkness Day.

Beer lovers live for this.

"I find all this chasing after things that are rare to really has nothing to with beer and everything to do with that hunt, that status, that tracking down something that nobody else has got. It's basically a dopamine rush," said Randy Mosher, who works with two Chicago-area breweries and is an author of three books on beer and brewing.

Last year, Central Waters introduced a limited-release of Ardea Insignis, which Mollica and Graham named for "the rarest heron in the world," a white-bellied version of the Central Waters symbol. The Imperial stout is aged for more than three years in 25-year-old bourbon barrels for a smooth taste. It was available only by lottery; a 22-ounce bottle sold for $40.

A sketchy start

Funny story: The first bourbon barrels that Central Waters' Graham and Mollica got they acquired after handing an envelope of cash to a stranger driving a truck to Kentucky. The barrels, all from the Buffalo Trace Distillery, cost $25 each at the time.

"It was sketchy," said Mollica, grinning the smile of someone for whom risk has brought reward. And a national reputation.

The inspiration for Central Waters' barrel-aging brews is a booze-soaked tale. Mollica and Graham were drinking at a friend's brewery. Mollica can't remember if the friend dropped bourbon-soaked oak chips in the glass of brew or added Jack Daniel's. Either way, it caught their attention.

Mollica speaks loudly to be heard over the sound of hard wood barrels clanging on the cement floor as workers shift them around the 16,000-square foot warehouse Central Waters added a couple of years ago. Graham stops his barrel arranging for a few minutes to chat. Neither Graham or Mollica brew much anymore — that's left to head brewer Simon Nielsen and staff, although Graham will pick up a shift if a brewer is out.

Mollica and Graham went to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point together — Mollica for psychology and Graham for geography. Neither was old enough to drink, but they could legally buy the equipment to brew beer. One successful brew led to another, and led to a brewery.

"It's a hobby gone out of control," Graham said.

'Flyover' appeal

In 1998, Graham joined Central Waters, eventually buying out owners Mike McElwain and Jerome Ebel in 2001. Graham smiles as he recalls the story of being laughed out of a banker's office when he requested a loan.

Mollica joined him and, in 2006, they moved the brewery from Junction City to a business park on the edge of Amherst where they created a solar-powered, ever-expanding brewery with an emphasis on sustainability.

A month ago, the brewery was fitted with a new 50-barrel brewhouse (the old one had a 30-barrel capacity), an acknowledgement that Central Waters is over or on the cusp of moving from microbrewery to regional brewery. A regional brewery is defined by the Brewers Association as a brewery with an annual beer production of between 15,000 and 6 million barrels.

"Honestly, one of the biggest pieces of feedback we get is that we're one of the most underrated breweries. I love that," Mollica said. "Part of it is that we're from here. We're flyover."

In addition to Wisconsin, Central Waters distributes in Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Michigan, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, New York City and Philadelphia. South Carolina distribution is coming soon.

Central Waters' portfolio includes seven year-round beers, from Honey Blonde Ale to Mudpuppy Porter; four seasonal beers; six in the Brewers Reserve Series; and seven in the cellar sessions, including 1414, which started it all. Five years ago, the stout blended in 14-year-old bourbon barrels for 14 months, won gold at the Great American Beer Festival, cementing the brewery's reputation for barrel-aged beers.

"I would put them up there with a Goose Island or someone like that," said Kate Bernot, beer editor for Draft Magazine. Chicago-based Goose Island produces Bourbon County Stout, which is considered the first popular barrel-aged beer.

Continuing to grow

Heady praise, but Mollica and Graham remember how not so long ago they hand-labeled every bottle because they couldn't afford that type of equipment. They still use the depalletizer (it unloads the empty bottles) they bought from Founders Brewing years ago.

The brewery now has 13 full-time employees, including a quality control guy whose business card says "mad scientist."

Barrel character plays a big part in the taste of the beer from bottle to bottle and year to year.

"There's always a variance. That's the fun of it," Mollica said. "Some people think (anniversary beer) 16 was the best."

Victims of their own success, those long-ago $25 bourbon barrels now cost up to $195 each.

Barrel-aging made Central Waters' name, but they're just a part of the brewery's lineup — which is always being updated. One example: HHG, an American pale ale inspired by the music of Wisconsin band Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, is on pace to become the most popular year-round beer in the inventory, Mollica said.

This year, the brewery will retire two brews: Headless Heron Barrel-Aged Pumpkin Spice Ale and Glacial Trail, an English American IPA.

"Palates change. Our palates change. People are looking for a more hop-forward IPA," Mollica said.

The barrel-aged beers, however, will be hard to beat for the foot traffic they draw to the small brewery in the middle of the state in the middle of the country.

Scott Schrank of Wauwatosa was excited when a friend got him a ticket for his fourth anniversary party. Schrank holds standing reservations at an Amherst bed-and-breakfast.

"I don't want this to sound bad, but I don't know why I would ever go there without the brewery there," Schrank said.