illustration: Danielle Grinberg Screaming Eagle famously makes some of the most well-regarded, limited, and absolutely jaw-droppingly expensive wine in all of America. Owned today by billionaire Stan Kroenke, Screaming Eagle’s Sauvignon Blanc sells for over $5,000 a bottle on average, and currently has a waiting list that reportedly takes over a decade to ascend to the top of, simply to be allowed to purchase bottles from the mere 400 to 750 cases released per year. This remains such an achievement to would-be buyers that it’s the third most prominent link on the winery’s website. That’s why, when I heard that Screaming Eagle’s winemaker, Nick Gislason, had started a side project exclusively brewing lager — the most widely sold, inexpensively priced, and so often blandly flavored style of beer — I was intrigued. I quickly learned this was no highbrow/lowbrow situation, however.