The outskirts if not the fringe: Milwuakee, WI

I find myself back in Milwaukee.  Overall not a bad place to end up all things considered.  The last time I was here, I visited one of the downtown breweries.  This time I'm a bit farther out.  Okay a lot farther out.  In retrospect it might not be accurate to label this post as being in Milwaukee.  This is actually in a outlying communities that lie between Milwaukee and Madison.  But what the hell Milwaukee is close enough.

Delafield Brewhaus is kind of a strange place in the world of microbrewing.  The brewpub is located a long ways away from the major urban centers in a huge building.  The bar section off to the right as you enter is larger than most brewpubs I have visited.   Add to that a large section for restaurant seating and an additional space on the second floor for parties and overflow and you've got a pretty massive place.

Overall my experience was very good.  Our waitress was fantastic and fairly knowledgeable about the beer that they brew.  That being said, the beer was kind of average.  I had a tasters flight of three regular beers and two seasonals and none of them really stood out in any way.  With it's being 30 minutes away from either Milwaukee or Madison, it might be worth a trip out here once, but that's about it.

Leisure Beer: This is their version of the light lager.  There's not much to say about it other than it's very clean with a slight bitter bite at the end.

Sommerzeit Hefe Weisen: This one had a very spicy aroma with a lot of tropical fruit and banana.  The flavor profile didn't have many of these esters.  Really the only thing I could pick out was the heavy spice character of clove and coriander.  It was just too much.  I was glad I only had to finish a small glass of this particular beer and not an entire pint.  

Delafield Amber: This is the flagship beer and best-seller in the brewery. It's aroma is extremely light and the flavor has a watered-down taste to it.  It's slightly malty but not much more complex than that.

Pewaukee Porter: This beer starts off with a sweet caramel aroma.  The flavor adds coffee and sharp roasted barley.  It does have a slightly bitter back but it tastes like it comes from the black patent malt as opposed to any hops.

Naga Wicked: At this point we get into the seasonals.  It was at this point I discovered where the brewery had been hiding all their hops.  The aroma was absolutely bursting with citrusy hop character.  There was some additional pine notes in the flavor.  Those that like their beer hoppy should probably just stick to this selection.

Fruhlighzeit Malbock: There was some debate on the subject at the bar, but I am going to come right out and say it.  This beer smelled like feet.  It was one of those beers that I had to really wonder if that was the brewer's intention or if something had gone wrong somewhere.  The flavor however was very good.  It had lots of light berry and fruit flavor along with vinious character.  It finishes dry with no detectable hops.  

 

That was the end of the tasters flight.  As I looked over the beer menu I found a beer they had left off the flight... and for good reason.  It was their 13th Anniversary Rye Whiskey Barrel Aged Barleywine:  The aroma was wonderful.  I picked up port wine, caramel, raisin and chocolate notes.  The flavor adds more of a dark chocolate quality with a lot of nutty, woody flavor from the whiskey barrel along with a slight alcohol note.  This is defiantly a malt bomb, but the flavor complexities make it quite enjoyable.

Hidden Treasures: Ottumwa, Iowa

One might look at the above title and wonder where the hell Ottumwa, Iowa is. It is a valid inquiry, it doesn't readily appear on google maps and a reality show has not been filmed there yet.  For the record it is a small town about two hours south of Des Moines far away from the I 80 corridor.  Right of the main drag through the old downtown area stuck in an old beer distribution warehouse is Appanoose Rapids Brewing Company.   

Before I get too far into this post, I do want to give a little space to the State of Iowa and the Iowa Wine and Beer Promotion board.  They seem to have committed themselves to making information about the state's  breweries and wineries easy to find, and have beer by and large successful.   Brochures and maps are readily available throughout hotels, rest areas and other travel information booths and their website, www.iowawineandbeer.com, is more or less a one stop for all relevant information. 

It took me a few passes to finally fine the building.  The entrance isn't terribly well marked and is kind of stuck in a small corner at the end of the block.  Once I found it, I was impressed.  The interior is really cool, it has an old saloon feel to it.  Near the front door there are two old Aheuser Busch mosaic signs that have apparently been around since the 1800s when the building was a distribution center for the company.
"Nobody knew they were there," the bartender told me, "They were hidden behind a stack of wood when the owners first bought the place.  It was a neat little surprise."

The beer selection here is pretty basic.  At any given time they have three beers on tap, but on the day of my visit they only had two due to some equipment problems.

Appanoose Brown Ale

Appanoose Brown Ale: No detectable aroma.  Flavor is primarily malt with a raisin or dark fruit flavor.  It's very sweet with only the slightest hint of hops in the back of the palate. It's fairly light in body with a fizzy mouthfeel.

Appanoose Stout: The color of this beer looks more like a really dark brown than a pure black.  It has a strange, but very nice aroma that made me think of olives.  The flavor is very sweet and defiantly unique, I picked up notes of raisin, caramel and vanilla.  Nice creamy mouthfeel.

Georgia Sampler: Atlanta, Georgia

Last week, (or whenever this actually gets published.  It's been a bit of a struggle as of late) I went on my little tirade about the difference in brewing culture here in the South.  For more details go to the last post but, suffice to say the idea of the brewpub hasn't really caught on here.  There are tons of local breweries, however, and the best place to find them is a put like the Midway Pub in East Atlanta.

The Midway pub has a lot to offer anyone that happens to find themselves thirsty in this part of Atlanta.  There is a large outdoor seating area, lots of good food and just a cool all-around atmosphere.  They do however cater heavily to beer lovers saying, "True beer lovers are not elitists. They know that all beers matter and they're all wonderful. There are Old Milwaukee Tall Boy days, Belgian-High-Gravity-in-a-Snifter days and all manners in between."
I've got old friends in Eugene that would disagree heavily with this statement, but I like the sentiment none-the-less.  
Their beer list is pretty extensive.  The vast majority are only available in bottles, and there are around 20 beers on tap at any given time, including a fairly large selection of local brews.  Listed below were the local beers they had on tap during my visit, over the course of two visits I managed to hit all of them, I think. 

Let there Be Light!

Wild Heaven Breweries
Let There Be Light.
Wild Heaven is a beer that specializes in full-bodied, high octane beer.  This particular beer is the exception and is listed as the only session beer from this particular brewery.  There is a light citrus flavor to accompany a medium body and malt profile.  The hops are fairly light and make for an extremely drinkable beer.

Sweetwater Brewery
420
An extra pale ale from this brewery, this beer comes out light gold with a citrusy aroma.  The malt is very light with a touch of lemongrass flavor.  The hops are mostly pine and floral hops.  The hops are well balanced by the malt and the beer finishes slightly sweet.


Red Brick Brewery
Hoplanta
This one comes out cloudy and kind of a dark yellow with a very light hoppy aroma.  There is not much in the way of malt here and the flavor is dominated by floral hops.

Terrapin Brewery
Hopsicutioner
A fairly well-balanced beer that still packs a lot of hop flavor.  It is light gold in color with a lemon aroma.  Lots of citrus and malt off the top.  The flavor profile gradually moves to more floral hops and ends dry with a kind of bitterness you can feel in the back of your throat.  On a side note it might be worth it to seek out a bottle if only for the label.  I'm not above buying a beer at least once for the label and I dare someone to argue that this one isn't cool. 



Dogfishhead
Aprihop
Okay not a local beer, but I honestly couldn't resist.  Those that follow beer culture have almost all heard of this Delaware brewery famous for the strange and unusual.  I stopped by one of their locations back in September.   This beer, following their standard operating procedure, is just slightly bizarre, but wonderful.  It's apricot aroma is very light, but it exists in there.  It starts sweet and fruity.  The apricot is obviously there, but not overpowering and it slowly gives way to floral hops.

Monks Mead.
Monks is currently Georgia's first and only producer of mead a style of alcohol that very slowly gaining in number around the country.  This particular example is slightly carbonated and closer to the dry side of the spectrum, but only just slightly.  It has a yeasty aftertaste that I didn't personally like as well as others, but it also wasn't overly sweet.

That's it from the American South.  As of now I'm back in the Midwest for a while, getting reacquainted with home.  In the next few I get to travel the back roads of Iowa.  There is no cellphone coverage, but there is beer and wine strangely enough.