Frigid Northlands: Mount Horeb, Wisconsin

Grab your coat, we're going to have a rapid change of climate this week.  From the relatively warm Southern United States to Wisconsin, a place largely described as uninhabitable about three to four months of the year.

It is because of that weather, however that the beer selection is suddenly improving.  That's not to say the beer from the last three weeks or so hasn't been good, it has.   It's just been... well, kinda standard.  Like a brewer took out a style guide and designed a beer that perfectly fit within the acceptable style for, say an IPA.   It is pale, it has a lot of hops and an alcohol level over 5%, yes this is an IPA, no doubt about it. 

It's not their fault, it's nice outside.  You can leave your house without bits of you turning blue and falling off.  Here, that's less the case.  Instead people gather in the heated taverns and pubs practice and evolve the art and the craft of drinking.  Not just drinking to get drunk, but drinking as an end in and of itself.

This week I'm in the small town of Mount Horeb Wisconsin.  It's about an hour and a half west of Milwaukee and home to The Grumpy Troll Brewery.  They have twelve beers on tap at any given time running from a simple American pale ale to an Imperial Stout to a wild rice ale or a 'crisp American lager'.  I was passing through and my time was limited so I picked a selection of the beers I thought would be most interesting which turned out to be just shy of half the total selection.

Spetsnaz Stout: Starts off with a chocolate, coffee aroma.  The flavor is intensely bitter for the style.  It's texture is creamy it has a lot of roasted dark malt off the top, but it ultimately ends in a herbal bitterness that is surprising, but not out of place like hops can often be in a stout.

Eclipsed Imperial Stout: This one has a much stronger fruit aroma then it's little brother, it also packs a hop punch.  The flavor starts malty with hints of black cherry but finishes dry with an almost astringent bitter flavor.  You know how I was talking about bitterness seeming out of place earlier?  Yeah, this was what I was talking about.

St. Bernard Abby Ale: It had a very nice tropical fruit and clove aroma with a very similar flavor profile.  Like the stouts, this beer ended with a surprising amount of bitterness, but I came to believe this might have been some flavors left over from the two hoppy dark beers I had just enjoyed.

Maggie IPA: An imperial IPA.  If their stouts are hoppy, what are they going to do when turned loose on this style.  Answer, they are going to hop the shit out of this.  It presents with a citrusy, fruity aroma.  The flavor is sweet at first with some orange citrus.  The bitterness slowly builds in the background however, and soon it was dominated by intense floral hops.

Wee Curley: Scotch ale with a very, very light woody aroma.  Oaky, toasted malts hit really hard and really fast in the flavor leaving an unsettling amount of hop bitterness in the back.  At this point I'm not sure whether I've just spent too much time in a place where they have only heard of hops by rough description or if the brewer got his education from one of the Portland hopheads.

Like I said, a quick visit, but a nice one.  Next week I venture farther east to the city known for it's brewing tradition.

Cheers!