Wowee Zowee

Origin Story

Wowee Zowee comes to us from the inspired mind of Tony Hansen, our head of brewing productions. While off visiting a tropical location during his honeymoon a few years ago, Tony decided to indulge in one of the refreshing warm climate beverages that often frequent these vacation destinations. As the story goes, it was an incredibly hot day on the beach and even though Tony typically avoids fruity mixed drinks, he saw someone enjoying a tantalizing mango mojito. The key to a good mojito is prior to mixing all of the ingredients together the lime, simple syrup, and fresh mint are first muddled or gently mashed, in order to release all of the oils from the mint leaves. Often in tropical climates, regional fruit is added to compliment and enhance the light sweetness of the mojito, giving it a fun new spin while still embodying the basic structure of the drink. As was the case with the mango mojito that caught Tony's eye, looking way too good to pass on. Needless to say, the drink was incredible and whether it was due to the timing or the location, Tony instantly began to think about applications for similar flavor infusion into a beer. Typically, when the brewers begin to brainstorm about adding ingredients like mint and mango to a beer, they first think about a good base beer style that would serve as an appropriate stage for displaying the cool and unusual flavors. More often than not, we find that a basic golden ale tends to be the perfect platform for doing just this. Golden ales have many things in common with their lighter pale lager counterparts. Both have delicate grain flavors, tend to be more carbonated than other styles, and focus on refreshment. However, being an ale, these golden varieties offer a slightly bigger body to help prevent an overwhelming display of flavor from the non traditional brewing ingredients, and also add some fruitier Ale yeast aromas that can help accentuate the desired experience the brewer is trying to create. Therefore, like the popular Key Lime Pie, Strawberry Short's Cake, and Bloody Beer before it, the Wowee Zowee is sure to be another experimental golden ale from Short's that will undoubtedly amaze and impress craft beer fans all summer long.