Tap Handle #708: J.T. Whitney's

December 12, 2018

Tap Handle #708: J.T. Whitney's - Badger Red Ale

Tap size: 10"
Rarity: less than 10 seen, brewery closed
Mounting: 3/8" ferrule on 5/16" anchor bolt

This is another tap in the Bill Gibson wing (thanks Bill!), and was also mentioned in Part 4 of the "Museum Turns 7 Years Old" anniversary posts, as I was very much looking forward to telling this brewery's story. It is a tragic tale, which you can read about after the jump, in which the owner tried something illegal to save the brewery, at a great personal cost. Sometimes when we drink beer we don't think about the lives behind the scenes that are impacted by the ups and downs of the business, and this story offers a sobering perspective. As for the tap, I really love the red-eyed badger hanging over the wooden sign. Badger mascots are big in Wisconsin, where the brewery was located. The letters on the sign are sculpted for a slightly 3-D look, and they indicate the name of the beer, with the name of the brewery in smaller letters. The base is pretty plain, so I reduced the number of photos taken for some angles of the base. Since the brewery has been gone for 9 years, the tap, as you can imagine, is quite scarce - I don't think I've ever seen another.

Click through to read more about J.T. Whitney's Brewing, their award-winning Badger Red Ale, and to see more photos of this fierce tap...

J.T. Whitney was founded in Madison, Wisconsin in 1995 by David Bookstaff, Paul Zach, and his father, Skip Zach. Bookstaff was a beer history buff and industry insider who had grown up around beer enthusiasts in Milwaukee. Skip Zach was the owner of The Avenue Bar and Madison, and saw an opportunity to invest in the growing microbrew industry. They leased a location for the brewpub within the Whitney Square shopping center that had been previously occupied by various restaurants and bars and was over 10,000 square feet. Like the shopping center, the brewpub was named after the major street in front of the location. Inside, the brewpub was open but had tall booths to provide privacy. It contained a private party room, a stage for live music, and large bar, and their mug club consisted of more than five hundred members. The brewing room was located behind big windows where customers could watch brewing operations.

In 1996 Richard Becker was brought in as brewmaster to help establish brewing operations. Becker's family had a rich history in brewing; in 1590, his ancestors opened the Mahrs Brau brewery in Bamberg, Germany, and his family still runs it today. Becker specialized in traditional German wheat beers; his Heartland Weisse won a silver medal at the 1997 World Beer Championships. J. T. Whitney's developed a large variety of beers and the medals continued to roll in as their Badger Red Ale won a total of three more medals over the next three years at the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Championships. The medals were prominently displayed on one wall of the brewpub. Bookstaff was a fixture at the pub, pitching in behind the bar, busing tables and sitting down to chat with customers.

Trouble began to appear in 2004 when Bookstaff bought Paul and Skip Zach out of their interest in the brewery. Bookstaff invested in a high end restaurant in Oregon called Hawthorne's, but it was undercapitalized. Short on cash, J.T. Whitney’s owed money to Whitney Square, and when its lease was up for renewal, the mall wanted personal guarantees. In an attempt to hide the troubled state of the brewery, Bookstaff forged the signature of his brother Brian Bookstaff, as well as those of Becker and Thomas Volke, on the guarantee. By 2009, creditors forced the closure of the brewery in order to seize its assets, and employees were out of work with no idea of what was happening. Locals were not surprised, as they had been complaining about the quality of the beers for some time. The brewery's former site was taken over by Vintage Brewing. Later in 2009, Becker, Volke, and Brian Bookstaff received letters from Whitney Square demanding that they pay back the personal guarantees, which they had never seen or signed. In 2011 David Bookstaff was charged with forgery, and after admitting guilt in a plea deal, he was sentenced to three months in jail, with an additional three years of probation. However, the judge ordered a suspended prison sentence, and David Bookstaff did not actually serve jail time.

J.T.Whitney’s Red Ale was a medium bodied, easy drinking, malty beer with notes of caramel and honey. Like the Goldenshine, it has a light floral hop flavor. Badger Red Ale was J. T. Whitney's signature beer. A light hoppy aroma with a reddish bronze color, it was medium bodied and very smooth. It won a bronze medal two years in a row (1999 and 2000) at the Great American Beer Festival and a silver medal at the 1997 World Beer Championships.