Chicagoist's "Beer of the Week": Two Brothers Heliocentric Bragot

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Aug 22, 2007 4:00PM

Like the circle of life, this week we revisit Warrenville's Two Brothers Brewing Company nearly a year to the day that we featured their Prairie Path Ale in this column. This time around, they've got something special for us.

A bragot (or "braggot"), by definition, is a mixture of beer and mead. In olden days, the mixing was done by the bartender. Today, craft breweries tend to do the honors by putting the honey directly into the brewing process. Two Brothers is celebrating their tenth anniversary with a series of limited-run beers. Heliocentric, their version of a bragot, is actually part of another limited run of artisan selections where the Ebel brothers try their hands at different brewing styles. But, by God, if it isn't tasty either way.

Heliocentric is a rich, malty ale brewed with sunflower honey. Now, sunflowers are like the powerball lottery for bees. Sunflowers produce more nectar than other flowers. Sunflower honey granulates very quickly, is lighter tasting and slightly bitter, and is used by some home remedy advocates as a treatment for heart disease. That faint herbaceous flavor is something we picked up on the palate upon first sip. It actually made a nice substitute for the hops. Heliocentric poured a bright golden in color. We decanted this aggressively to build up a head and open up the nose on this beer. The foam faded quickly and left no lacing on the glass. Malt and spice were what we picked up on the nose. Heliocentric finished dry, with a sticky mouthfeel. We were trying to keep things simple, so for a food pairing we made a club sandwich featuring homemade dill aioli and tomato slices from our garden.

Two Brothers doesn't receive the recognition of Goose Island or Three Floyds, but their entire beer line is one worth checking out. It's a wonderful thing for local beer geeks to see them reach their tenth anniversary, and to see that they're doing these limited availability brews. To use a weak punny play on words, it isn't "bragot" if they can back it up; obviously Two Brothers can. If the rest of their limited-run selections are like Heliocentric, we'll be budgeting more for beer money. Two Brothers Heliocentric Bragot is Chicagoist's "Beer of the Week."