The reemergence: Milwaukee Wisconsin

"This is a still found in one local gentelmans basement here in Milwaukee," said the tour guide, holding up a rusted metal pot with a funnel and pipe welded to the top, "this lovely bucket is a condenser," he said holding up a dirty bucket with a rusted metal coil, "This is all you need to make your own vodka. And that is a felony."
Proving my status as a sub-par journalizer, I don't remember the name of the tour guide at Great Lakes Distillary. If and when you go, ask his name. I've been there twice and it's the same guy.   Anyway this was how our introduction to the world of micro-distilling started.
Most days of the week, they have at least two tours though the distillery. They have a bar and a shop open at regular hours, but it's worth the tour if only for the tasting session afterward.

We started with the Rayherst Vodka. Obviously a neutral spirit. It was just slightly sweet with just a hint of almond flavor.

Lemon Honey Rayherst: Pretty much self explanatory. Lots of lemon, slightly sweet honey flavor. They use real lemon peels and honey and it really shows here. If you enjoy the flavored vodkas that have have come out over the past few years, seek this out.

Rayherst Gin: A very complex gin including juniper, sweet basil and ginseng. The aroma is pine and citrus. The flavor starts with orange and sweet herbal flavors. Juniper and other medicinal herbs follow. This has a different enough flavor that even those who don't like the 'pine tree' taste of gin might like this.

Roaring Dans Maple Rum: Named after a famous local pirate. Type the name 'Roaring Dan' into Google for a complete profile, but I will summarize here by saying that he made life interesting for anyone who used the Great Lakes to make a living. His namesake rum is made with real Wisconsen maple syrup. The aroma is sweet and woody, obviously from the maple. The flavor is mostly the same, although at 90 proof, there is a lot of alcohol flavor. This is best cut with an ice cube, but is very good either way.

Pumpkin Seasonal: It's rare to come across a liquor that is truly unique, but this is it. This is a batch of pumpkin ale brewed by the nearby Lakefront Brewing Company that was put through the still. The result is weird and wonderful. The aroma is fruity and sweet with cinnamon and clove. The flavor is heavy on pumpkin spices; cinnamon clove and coriander. It's slightly sweet and has a woody character about it as well.

Amerique 1912: There is probably no liquor in the world with more lore and mystery attached to it than Absinthe. In college parties all throughout this great nation of ours there are tales of wild trips to Eastern Europe and bouts with the Green Fairie that lead to vivid hallucinations and uninhibited debauchery that can only be experienced by drinking 'real absinthe'. It was those kind of stories that kept absinthe illegal in this country until 2006 when a group of people finally convinced the legislature of something that we all kind of knew. Those guys in college were full of shit and the great authors of the roaring 20's drank it because it was delicious, not because it is liquified peyote. Great Lakes Amerique is an American reproduction of an old European recipe that blends fennel, anise and wormwood. The aroma and flavor is all black licorice. It's slightly sweet with a creamy mouthfeel. Strait out of the bottle it's abou 120 proof as is meant to be cut with about a 2:1 ratio of ice water that creates a beautiful cloudy green appearance that makes you realize why this drink is the stuff of legend.

Always in the Last Place You Look: Tacoma, Washington

The first thing you need to know when you visit Trade Routes Brewery is, you are not lost.  You have the right address.  This is where the brewpub is located.
I drove past it several times, pulled over, checked the address, drove past a few more times and repeated this process more times than I care to admit publicly before I realized the truth.  The Trade Routes tap room is located right in the warehouse where they brew their beer.  I have to admit, I thought it was really cool.  It felt like I had stumbled upon a secret party that only certain local people know about.  

The name, Trade Routes, kind of defines their style.  They take ingredients that classically make up the idea of 'trade goods' and mix them with common beer styles.  The results are simplistic, I think that was a comment I made after every beer, but all of them were very drinkable and delicious.

Hoppy Bitch

Hoppy Bitch IPA:  I think I have stated before that adding hops to an IPA is almost a competitive sport in the Pacific Northwest.  Brewers here push the IBU's up to the point that you wonder if it wouldn't be better and more cost efficient to graze on a handful of hops.   I guess that's why this one surprised me.  Don't get me wrong, the hops are there.  There is a decent dose of citrus and pine hops, but they are not overpowering and make for a very drinkable beer. 

Mango Weizen: Fans of sweet, fruity beers will immediately  order a pitcher of this one for themselves alone.  It has a light peach or pear aroma.  It has a nice creamy mouthfeel with a medium body and lots of peach pear and tropical fruit flavors.  I thought it was too sweet and simplistic, but I doubt I was the target audience for this creation. This is the perfect beer for someone who always says that they don't like the taste of beer.

Ginger Pale

Ginger Pale: The aroma of this beer is absolutely stunning.  I was immediately hit with ginger, clove, coriander and citrus notes.  The flavor was much lighter.  It kept the same spicy profile as in the aroma, but it was muted somehow.  This is a sweeter ale with hops that add more to the spice profile then to the bitterness.

Sumatra Coffee Stout: As a rule, I find coffee stouts to be pretty easy to describe.  Take a cup of espresso, chill and pour into a pint glass.  This stout is right in line with that style, it smells like a coffee shop at 6:00am and tastes like a carbonated cup of joe.  It has a medium body and finishes slightly dry, but is pretty much all coffee flavors and aroma.

That's it for this week.  I'm back in the Midwest next week and exploring the budding world of micro-distilling.  It is a part of the craft spirits culture that I have yet to include in this blog, mostly because they are so hard to find.  They are slowly but surely emerging, but we'll get into that proper then.
Cheers.

Institutional Weirdness: Chicago, Illinois

One of the great joys I have in my travels is seeking out obscure breweries in the hinterlands of this country. This isn't one of them. This is about as big as they get.
Goose Island is a Chicago institution. President Obama had a bottle during the 'beer summit' during the Henry Louis Gates debacle and of the 312 with Prime Minister Gordon Brown in exchange for a bottle of Wytchcraft during the USA v. UK game in the 2010 World Cup. Having tried both beers, I believe the President was gypped.  The location I wandered into sits in the shadow of Wrigley Stadium, and a signed picture of Connan O'Brian sits above the bar.
For friends that live in the Pacific Northwest, Goose Island is the Midwest equivalent of a Widmere Bros or a Pyramid.  That's kind of the level we are talking about.  Their 312 and the Green Line ale is available at almost every bar in Chicago and at a few places beyond.

Inspiration Stout: Seemed to be a good choice for a first beer considering the driving snow and frigid temperature of a Midwest winter.  This was a pretty standard stout, it had a coffee, chocolate aroma with just a hint of liquorice.  The flavor profile was pretty much the same with some slightly spicy hop flavors.  Full bodied and enjoyable beer, especially this time of year. The description provided by the brewery also claimed pineapple and grapefruit in the aroma, but I didn't pick that up at all.

Mild Winter: A lighter winter seasonal beer.  This one is pretty readily available throughout the Midwest during this time of year.  It has a sweet caramel aroma and color.  The flavor has some pear or raisin and some cinnamon spiciness.  Not hugely complex, but a nice medium bodied beer for the winter months.

Double B: Goose Island does a couple of things well.  First they have a good selection of nice, drinkable session beers that are more geared toward mass consumption.  Most of these can be found at the local supermarket.  Second, they have a selection of more complex and unique beers that are a little bit harder to find.  This is one of those.
Goose Island likes to play with different flavor combinations.  Their food menu is a good example of this, they have an array of strange pairings including a pear, brie burger that is absolutely fantastic.
The aroma has a lot of tropical fruit, passion fruit and some floral characters.  The Belgian yeast really comes out in the flavor adding lots of banana, pineapple and some berry off the top.  The floral flavors from the hops almost make me think of rose water.  I think this was my favorite beer from sheer complexity alone.

Fleur: This is a Belgian style ale that is blended with hibiscus and tea. As the name suggests, this one has a lot of floral qualities in the aroma, I was thinking lavender.  There was also some light berry aroma in there as well.  This was a sweeter beer that finishes just a little tart.  I picked up some sour cherry and some cider flavors along with the berry and lavender.

That's all for this post.  I'm off to Tacoma, Washington next.  Cheers!

Bending Tradition part 2: Baltimore Maryland.

I broke this piece up into two parts for a couple reasons. First, I really did spend an unusual amount of time at Pratt St. and it just seemed that one post would be too long. Second, my next stop was Palm Springs California. This is where old millionaires go to die. There is nothing in the way of craft booze. There's nothing in the way of craft anything. The whole place is filled with just enough entertainment to distract their elderly patrons from the grim reality of their own mortality. So... back to Baltimore.

3 Spires Ale: I very rarely find a beer that just doesn't click with me. This is one if them. The aroma was nice, it was sweet smelling with a fruity cider aroma. I went to take a drink, made a face and wondered aloud if they meant to do that. It was like a hoppy apple cider. In my mind the English herbal hops they used just didn't go with the slightly sour taste that comes from the malt. I am assuming here that they didn't have an infection in the keg.

Ironman Pale Ale
Time to go back to basics, and thus is about as strait forward as they come. Except for a slight citrus flavor at the top this is about as classic an English pale as exists. Clean with herbal, grassy hops. Fairly dry. Nothing special but good for a pale session beer.

Coventry Cream Ale: I think the best part of this beer was watching them pour it. It came out an opaque straw color with a rich foamy head that resembled a nitrous stout. It had a very light fruity aroma, but was way hoppier than I could have imagined. There was some slight sweetness that was quickly taken down by a whole lot of herbal hops.

Cask Aged Vanilla Oatmeal Stout: Pratt street offers selection of rotating cask aged ales. This was one of thier selections. It has a very strong chocolate and coffee aroma. The vanilla really comes out in the flavor to the point that it overpowers the rest of the beer. True to the nature of Oliver Brewing, it ended with a generous amount of English hops. It wasn't overpowering, but it did seem out of place.

Back to the Midwest next week. Cheers!

Bending Tradition part 1: Baltimore MA

There is something inherently authentic about Pratt St Ale house in downtown Baltimore. Partially it the location; the bar is in an old brick building just far enough away from the harbor to avoid a lot of tourist traffic, but close enough for convenience.
Its partly because of its unassuming nature. Their beer clearly follows a traditional English theme, but it doesn't beat you over the head with that fact.
Most of all it is a traditional bar for the same reason a dirty dive bar named McLeary's is more Irish than the big Irish-themed bars with Guinness cocktails and waitresses wearing plaid skirts. It's traditional, not because it tried to be. It just is.
I had the rare opportunity to make this bar my home for the better part of three days. Normally time constraints only allow me enough time to stop by for a single evening, have cross section of interesting beers and wrote up some pithy comments that make it sound like I know what I am talking about.
This time I a actually got to spend quite a but of time and, it should be noted, I still didn't have time to wade through all of their creations. Pratt Street Ale house is not a brewery per se, rather they serve beer from Oliver Brewing Ltd. The also pour a great deal of beers from other local breweries. What I am saying is that there is quite an extensive menu to get through. So grab a beer and let's get started.

Merry SOB

I started with a seasonal beer known lovingly as the Merry SOB. It's actually a cooperative brew with two other local breweries, the Brewers Art and Stillwater. This is a dark Belgian style holiday beer. It starts rich and malty with a lot of tropical fruit, citrus and raisin flavors. It tries to blend that with slightly spicy bitter hops. It finishes a little dry and the combination leaves a strange aftertaste. Not bad but I don't see myself drinking a lot of it.

Pagan Porter:
Not a lot to say about this one. Light roasted malt aroma. Malty and roasted off the top and finishes dry with bitter English hops. Very simple beer, but it's everything a porter needs to be.

3 Lions

3 Lions: In the porter they went for simplicity, in their English Brown Ale they... er... didn't. It had a very sweet,, nutty aroma. Flavor starts with caramel and light fruit, like apple or pear. The hops add a touch of balance with some pine, herbal and some liquorice flavors. Medium bodied drinkable beer. I liked this one.


Daft Punk: This ale is "American as it gets.". The idea is that they took an American IPA and, as Americans are want to do, made it bigger stronger and faster... or at least hoppier.  It has hops during the boil, hops added after and hops during fermentation.  Let it be known that while I enjoy IPA's, when brewers start adding hops as if it were an Olympic event, I usually have to bow out.  From the description provided by the bartender, I was pretty sure this was going to be one of those.  The aroma suggested something different.  There were, of course, Northwest hops in the aroma, but they were very slight.  The flavor was pretty well balanced.  Though I am not sure if this is the quintessential American IPA that they advertised that it was, it was pretty good.  It started off with Northwest citrus hops and slowly blended to spicier English hops towards the end.

I am going to leave this as it is for now.  More to come later.  Cheers.

Blessed Art the Drunkards: St. Paul MN

Back in Minnesota. Since my last post was in Minneapolis, it might be argued that I never left. Well I did, I had to go to Sandusky Ohio, but there was nothing worth talking about. Seriously, there was an Applebees and a Chilies, that's about it.
So I am back in the twin cities and I realized that I have kinda ignored one of the twins, and anyone that's had to deal with twins, it's best not to ignore one. So it was off to St Paul and Great Waters Brewing.

Located in the heart of St. Paul, Great Waters has a bit of legend attached. It occupies an old building that was supposedly built on the old St Paul's Cathedral, and the secret ingredient to all of the beers is holy water from the well. I have to challenge this claim as most of my friends would say that it would be impossible for me to ingest holy water without bursting into flames. It could also be that the amount of rotgut I have ingested acts as a buffer.

It's still the season for holiday beer so I started with the Yuletide. This had a wonderful spicy aroma. I counted cinnamon clove coriander and orange peel. The spices came through in the flavor first, followed by some medium roasted malt and finished just slightly bitter. Nice complex and well balanced beer.
I was glad I got a pint when I did because the keg sputtered out a few minutes later. Sorry, kids, you'll have to wait until next year.

Next was Fire King Cole, billed as a smoked scotch ale. It had a very light malty aroma. The flavor was not quite as subtle. It started off with lots of sweet malt and smoke. It kind of reminded me of hickory BBQ sauce in a strange way. The smoke flavor lingered with a bit of pepper in the back.

It was time to move on to one of the cask aged beers the had available. I went for the Blackwatch Oatmeal Stout. There's nothing like a heavy black stout to complement a cold winter night. I guess it would make sense that a city famous for God-awful winters would create a stout big enough to deal with it. Nice full bodied beer with chocolate and coffee flavors and aromas. Finishes with just a hint of English hops.

Now time for my nomination for most randomly awesome beer name ever, the Timma! And, much like its South Park namesake, a little bit goes a long way. This is a bit of a hop bomb. There is some very light barely detectable caramel sweetness before its torn to shreds be citrus and herbal hops.

Finally I ended with another cask ale, the new Centurian. This is billed as a vintage session beer, though I'm not entirely sure what part is vintage, although it reminds me of a cream ale I brew out of Belgian malt. It a has a warm malt aroma with hints of raisin or date. This beer is brewed with oats and it gives it a lot of body. Flavor is very light consisting of light fruit sweetness and finishes just slightly bitter.

Well that's all from the frigid northlands for now. The next stop is Baltimore MA. In fact I am so behind that I am finishing this post at a bar in that city. Find out which bar next.... Uh... whenever I get around to it. Now don't bother me, I am drinking.
Cheers.

Town Hall Meeting: Minneapolis MN

Happy New Year.  This is, of course, the first post of 2012 and I am starting this year by revisiting Minneapolis.
Last time I was here, stumbled into one of the smaller local breweries that specialized in German style beers.  On this visit I found Town Hall Brewing in Minneapolis.  Definitely less specialized, but seems to be a favorite hang-out among the locals.

Town Hall's original location is in downtown Minneapolis near the University of Minnesota.  On their website the mention that they are doing some expanding at the moment to keep up with demand.  Part of that expansion was the addition of a taproom farther to the South.  That is the location that I stumbled into on a Friday evening.  It was completely filled.  Completely.  I ended up ordering a beer while awkwardly standing at the very edge of the bar waiting for a seat to open up somewhere.
It took a little time and some rather impressive reflexes to finally snag a seat and enjoy the beer I had ordered, the Marsala Mama IPA.  It's Pretty average IPA in my book.  It had a very strong aroma of lemon and grapefruit. The taste was slightly different, it seemed to be much stronger on the pine and herbal flavored hops than the citrus.  There was still a hint of lemongrass, but this one was much more like an English IPA being drier and being loaded down with the bitter herbal hops that stick in the back of the throat.
The food there was pretty typical pub fare, although I ended up with a beer-basted brat that was pretty excellent.  It was the special for the day, so I think it is a 'get it while you can' kind of deal.
I moved on to the Java Porter Those who don't like the taste of coffee in their beer should probably pass this one up all together.  I liked this one for the simple fact that the brewer obviously had a goal in mind and he accomplished it.  The aroma is just like a mocha.  The flavor: pretty much the same.  It was a little sweet for my tastes, but overall it was very smooth and very drinkable.

Finally, I had one of the seasonal beers they had on tap.  Town Hall has four or five regular beers on tap at any given time, and about as many seasonal offerings that they rotate in and out.  Right out of New Years, they still had their holiday seasonals on tap.  I had a bit of their Elves Elixir, a Belgian-style IPA.  This may seem like an inherent contradiction in terms, and it very much is.  Belgian beers an known for their rich, malty character as opposed to the highly bitter, floral flavors of an American IPA.  But I have seen the two styles make sweet love before and produce a love child that, strangely, lives right next door to me.  The Hop God, produced by Nebraska Brewing Company is also a fusion of Belgian and IPA styles and is still one of my favorite beers.  Elves Elixir had a banana-nut and citrus nose.  I picked up a surprising amount of coriander and clove spice in the flavor, along with tropical fruit.  It slowly moved to a bitter, dry finish.  When I first started sipping this beer, I wasn't sure if I liked it or not.  By the end the Elves Elixir proved surprisingly drinkable.  I came to like it quite a bit.

With that, I want to wish everyone a happy 2012.  I'm looking forward to my travel schedule coming up.  If plans hold true, I will find myself in Tennessee next.
Cheers!