May 24, 2012

• Beer

  A few weeks ago I was asked about what beers I enjoy and I replied that most of what I enjoy is brewed right here in Wisconsin so I thought I'd take you on a tour of some of my favorite brews.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The New Glarus Brewing Company is probably my favorite brewery in the state.  I think Spotted Cow may be my favorite beer of all beers.  There are so many good beers that this company produces and I had to narrow it down to these.  The Belgian Red and Raspberry Tart are fruit beers and come in champagne glasses.  They are quite good.  The sad thing is they no longer make my favorite beer called Coffee Stout.  It was the perfect breakfast beer and went so well with cinnamon rolls.  I would load up the back of my blazer with many a case of Coffee Stout to bring back to college.
  
  
  Next up are two beers from Pearl Street Brewery.  They are the That's What I'm Talkin' 'bout Organic Stout and Pearl Street Pale Ale.  I was introduced to these beers at a bar in beautiful La Crosse, WI called the Bodega Brew Pub.  This bar boasts a menu of 400 beers.  I originally went in there because I was driving through town after being at a hospital visiting my dad and passing the world's largest 6 pack of beer, I saw a neon sign advertising a brewery that was in the town where I attended college.  I stopped in so I could have a Schell's and the bartender suggested I try the Pearl Street beer after I finished my Schell's.  Those were the only two I tried that day because La Crosse has a serial killer that likes to get young athletic men drunk and then he takes them and drowns them in the Mississippi River just a few blocks from all the bars but that's for another post.
  
  
  Next up is the Sand Creek Brewery out of Black River Falls.  I only included two of their beers, the Cranberry Special Ale and the Groovy Brew.  Cranberries are a huge crop in this part of the state and now they have found their way into beer.  It's actually quite tasty.  I don't like cranberry juice but I love cranberry ale.  Groovy Brew is a special brew made with special yeast.  I have never had a beer quite like it.
  
  
  Next up is the Tyranena Brewing Company located in Lake Mills.  These are the only beers I drink from them, the Stone Tepee Pale Ale and the Bitter Woman IPA.  Tyranena is located between Madison and Milwaukee and they sometimes put out a special beer called Brewers Gone Wild.  It's a limited edition beer that the brewmaster makes.  One year they put out a Bitter Woman from Hell Extra IPA.  That was one of the best beers I've ever had. 
  
  
  Next up is the Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee.  I tried to replace the New Glarus Coffee Stout with Lakefront's Fuel Cafe Stout but it's nowhere near as good as Coffee Stout.  They recently announced a beer called Wisconsinite that will be brewed with only ingredients found in this state.  I like that idea but when I saw the promo photos and what the glass was garnished with...well I was intrigued.
    
  Up near the border with Michigan is where Black Husky Brewing is located and this jewel, Sproose Joose, is a double IPA brewed with spruce.  Like the label says, it is quite aromatic and aggressive.
  
  
  
  The next brewery is the Potosi Brewing Company.  Potosi is in the southwest corner of the state.  When I was at my first high school, we played against Potosi and at that time there was no brewery.  The Potosi brewery ran from 1852 to 1972 and then closed.  A restoration project started around the time I played against Potosi in football.  The guy who spearheaded the project must've known I'd be a beer drinker all those years ago.  After years of work he had the brewery operational and in 2008 the National Brewery Museum opened.  The only thing is, I dislike the flagship beer of this company, Good Old Potosi Beer.  The kinds I have enjoyed are Snake Hollow IPA, Cave Ale, and Steamboat Shandy, a beer brewed with cane sugar and lemon juice.  I have another Potosi beer in my fridge called Fiddler.  I think by the time I'm done with this post I will have to go crack it open.
  
  Next up is the Sprecher Brewing Company.  One of my favorite experiences surrounded Sprecher.  I went there for the bachelor party for the Croatian Sensation and we drank Sprecher and we drank Sprecher and we drank Sprecher and we ended up at a bar shouting insults at a guy who played keyboards for The Violent Femmes.  Sprecher has many fine beers but I think the product they produce that I enjoy most is their root beer or their cherry and cranberry pop called Ravin' Red.
  
  
  Next up is Point Brewery located in Stevens Point.  You can sort of tell I am sexually frustrated by the beer I drink.  I remember going to a wedding near Point Brewery and I had never had either of these beers so I bought about 3 cases of each to take back to my place in Minnesota.  I felt like I was the Bandit from Smokey and the Bandit.
  
  The people at Minhas Brewery in Monroe give us Lazy Mutt Ale.  When this beer came out there were so many commercials on the Madison TV stations and some of the commercials were pretty funny and others were bizarre and some attacked Spotted Cow.  I remember the dog attacking a cow and that was supposed to tell us that Lazy Mutt was better than Spotted Cow.  Well I haven't seen Lazy Mutt on tap in any bar in this area and Spotted Cow is on tap everywhere.  Another interesting thing about this beer is that the bottles had fewer ounces than a regular beer bottle so instead of a six pack you got an 8 pack.  It all equaled out the same amount of beer but it was just in two extra bottles.  Monroe is quite a town.  There is another brewery there called the Joseph Huber Brewery and they produce a pretty good beer but after Hurricane Katrina they also brew for the Dixie Brewing Company.  Monroe is also popular for their cheese.  So popular that the high school team name is the Cheese Makers.  There is one cheese factory in Monroe that is the only place in America that makes Limburger cheese.  So the next time you visit Monroe, eat the cheese and drink some beer.
  
  This beer is the Houdini Honey Wheat from the Stone Cellar Brew Pub in Appleton.  I first went to Stone Cellar for a wedding rehearsal dinner for my friend Skinny Wolf.  It was such a wild time.  We were drinking beer from so many different breweries that weekend but I remember this one.  It was quite tasty or maybe I'm thinking of Dick Brau brewed in a little brewery in Hortonville that was located next to the only bait shop/beauty parlor/welding supplies store in the state of Wisconsin.
  
  
  These fine beers are from the Ale Asylum Brew Pub in Madison.  Spotted Cow better watch out because Hopalicious is my second favorite beer and could overtake Spotted Cow in the top spot at any moment.  I first came into contact with this brewery through the Mad Town Nut Brown which was part of a beer club at a bar in my second hometown, Wisconsin Dells.  This bar had a list of 75 beers that you had to drink from Memorial Day through Labor Day.  At 25 beers you got a free meal at the bar, 50 beers got you a t-shirt and 75 got you a hoodie.  Mad Town was on that list.  That was such a great summer spent drinking beer with Skinny Wolf and his bride.  I first had Hopalicous at a rap concert at the High Noon Saloon.  The show was for albino rapper Brother Ali and it was a 4/20 show.  Skinny Wolf and I bellied up to the bar and drank beer and listened to rap and then when Forest Whitaker played we jumped around.
  

  
  
  Next is the Capital Brewery in Madison...well technically Middleton but it's all Madison to me but don't tell anyone from Middleton that I said that.  Island Wheat is brewed with a special wheat from an island named Washington Island which is off Door County.  The wheat has distinct characteristics because of the climate on the island and those characteristics create a unique beer.  Supper Club is what they call a typical American lager and is supposed to take us back to the days when the supper club was in vogue.  Whenever I sip it, I remember the Gobbler restaurant, a restaurant outside of Madison near Watertown, WI.  It was shaped like a turkey and had a rotating bar on the inside.
  
  
  
  Next up is the O'so Brewery in Plover, WI.  Once again, you can tell I'm sexually frustrated by the beer I drink.
  
  This is Furthermore Brewery in Spring Green.  You know what else is in Spring Green?  Taliesin by Frank Lloyd Wright so you know this is some good beer.  I have no clue what that's supposed to mean but they do produce a good beer even though they don't have a brewery.  They started brewing in small batches but couldn't keep up with demand so Sand Creek Brewery brews for them.  They have a property in Spring Green that will one day become the brewery.  This beer, Fatty Boombalatty, is a bitter Belgian wheat that tastes somewhat like an IPA.  Another beer they make that I enjoy is called Fallen Apple.  It's an apple cider brewed with a cream ale.  The beer initially tastes sweet and then you get a tart flavor from the apples.  It's so good.  This gives me ideas for what I want to do with my apples one day.
  
  
  
  I do enjoy the Leinenkugel's and these are my three favorites.  I won't spend much time talking about them because they aren't a microbrew any more.  The Leinie's site has taken it down now but they used to have a page of mixes of their beers like half a glass of Sunset wheat mixed with half a glass of their Berry Weiss.  Those always made for some interesting pairings.
  
  
  
  And finally, here's the Horny Goat Brewing Company.  They give us Horny Blonde, Horny Goat Wheat, and Baby Got Bock.  I hope you appreciate the photo of the Horny Blonde.  You don't want to know all difficult times I had searching Google for a Horny Blonde.  Once again..sexually frustrated.

  

  Just imagine the fun we could have at a Xanga meet-up in the happiest place in the Midwest.  Time to crack open that Fiddler.

  • 5:03 PM
  • 52 Comments