Empyrean Brewing Company - Sticky Sidewalk

Empyrean’s Sticky Sidewalk hails from their Carpe Brewem line of barrel-aged beers, and it’s simply a hugely flavorful experience. The beer is brewed as an imperialized version of a cream ale, which is a sort of easy-drinking ale-lager hybrid style featuring fermentation at warmer ale temperatures followed by cold-conditioning (lagering) after fermentation. In the case of Sticky Sidewalk, Empyrean went massive on the malts, building a cream ale weighing in at 23° Plato original gravity – putting it right in Imperial Stout territory and yielding 10% ABV. This is not your ordinary cream ale.

Not content to stop there, Empyrean fermented Sticky Sidewalk with purées of both pineapple and sweet cherry, added a dose of vanilla, and aged it for over a year in bourbon barrels. We have to admit to a little skepticism whether this could actually all work together – and then we tried it. What a kickass beer they’ve managed to create.

On the pour, we get a very attractive reddish amber color that’s considerably darker than a typical garden-variety cream ale, topped by a head of fluffy beige foam. On the nose, look for this to come across richly malty in the undercurrent with impressions of toast and caramelization, merging seamlessly into the fruity elements riding over it all, which are noticeable without feeling overblown or gimmicky. Pineapple melds with vanilla to offer luscious tropical fruit and flora notes that are complemented nicely by juicy cherry and fruity bourbon sweetness. A light hint of herbal-spicy hops pokes through, as well.

In the flavor department, everything is turned up several notches. This massive beer comes through boldly fruity, robustly malty, and full-bodied. The cherry, pineapple, and bourbon combine beautifully, with the vanilla note augmenting some oaky barrel character and adding a rich, creamy impression. Perle hops offer some light herbal – even minty – tones, perhaps a dash of stone fruits, and some mild (18 IBUs) bitterness. A bit of booziness emerges too, merging with the bitterness and a light touch of tartness to offer an edgy, drying counterbalance to the more dominant sweeter fruity and malty contributions.

Sticky Sidewalk is a flavor bomb – luscious, massive, fruity, and mouth-filling. The bourbon barrel treatment is just right, adding another layer of flavor and depth without getting lost beneath the fruit additions nor crushing the whole show under the weight of its personality. We’re looking forward to seeing more from Empyrean’s barrel-aged line in the years ahead.

At 10% ABV, Sticky Sidewalk has the alcohol to preserve it for an extended period. But, with something like this, it’s hard to predict just what will happen, although we’d anticipate the mild hop contribution to fade somewhat, and it’s likely the fruity elements may start to lose vibrancy eventually – although we’ve had fruited lambics which have remained vibrant for many years. We can’t recall aging many beers with pineapple, though, so that’s a wildcard. We’d check in on this beer every so often to see how it’s doing. For pairing options, the brewery recommends looking to desserts, especially cheesecakes and chocolate-laden dishes. A rich cherry cheesecake seems a truly decadent pairing, and a simple chocolate cake or a selection of dark chocolate truffles and dark chocolate-covered sea salt caramels would be next-level, too. Cheers!

The story of Empyrean Brewing Company begins with the founding of Lazlo’s Brewery & Grill in Lincoln, NE in 1990. Accomplished homebrewer Rich Chapin was brought in as Head Brewer to helm the brewing side of the new business. When Lazlo’s opened its doors and served its first beers to the public in March of 1991, it became the state’s first brewpub, going on to produce about 500 barrels in its first year. The brewpub concept proved popular with the locals, and in 1997 the brewery was spun off as its very own enterprise under the name Empyrean – a word tracing its origins to Aristotle’s notion of cosmology and representing the highest part of the heavens. By 1998, production capacity was expanded to 2500 barrels per year, though at this point it was all draft. When they installed a bottling line the next year, Empyrean became the first craft brewery in Nebraska to do so, and it allowed them to begin establishing a retail footprint for the first time.

In 2000, Lazlo’s expanded by opening a second brewpub location, and the increased demand from the restaurant plus their growing retail business pushed Empyrean to open a newer, larger brewhouse in 2001. By decade’s end, distribution had reached throughout all of Nebraska and into neighboring Iowa and South Dakota.

Today, Empyrean can be found in several states, including in the Chicagoland area as of 2022. They produce a slate of around eleven core year-round beers along with five rotating seasonals and an array of additional limited-run brews, including their Carpe Brewem line of seasonal barrel-aged beers (which we are highlighting this month). In addition to a focus on excellent beer, Empyrean is focused on being good stewards of the planet: they donate 150 tons of spent grain to local farmers each year, use geothermal heating and cooling technology, and their warehouse boasts the largest privately owned solar array in Nebraska. For more info, visit them at empyreanbrewingco.com.