Olde Mecklenburg releases LoSo Ryeder

Earlier in the year during a weekly Monday meeting, ideas were being offered as to which beers Olde Mecklenburg Brewery should brew for their monthly “Brauhaus Reserve” series.

One suggestion was to do a rye beer, and that was the beginning of OMB’s LoSo Ryeder, which the brewery is releasing today (Friday) at noon. The German version of a traditional rye ale is called a Roggenbier, fermented with Weizen yeast and left unfiltered.

Olde Mecklenburg decided to use its house yeast instead of the Weizen yeast; this is the same yeast OMB uses to brew one of its most popular beers, Copper.

“It is unfiltered and not super hoppy,” says Cam Heiliger, who works in marketing and distribution at Olde Mecklenburg. “A lot of people who drink the (American) traditional rye ale may be used to a hoppy beer. But with this, you get more of a spice. It’s pretty drinkable, and has a really unique flavor.”

Like the other beers in the Brauhaus Reserve series, LoSo Ryeder will only be available in the taproom (and on draft). The beer gets its name in honor of the cyclists who visit OMB every Sunday (Team Reeb, which has participated in numerous charity rides to raise money for cystic fibrosis and other causes, usually leads the bikeup), while LoSo stands for Lower SouthEnd, a nickname that is gaining steam in identifying the district where Olde Mecklenburg Brewery is located.

In other news, OMB is continuing progress on its new location, which is not too far from where the current brewery resides. Just this week, Olde Mecklenburg’s new brewhouse arrived, something Heiliger said the staff was really excited about.

Olde Mecklenburg remains on schedule to open its new location at some point this spring. OMB provides continuous updates on its Facebook page as the construction continues, so I encourage you to like their page to check out the progress. And if you missed it, here’s the article on what to expect from the brewery’s new site when it opens.