The Bounty Part 2: The Others

Okay, so I wasn't quite done with Layffette Brewing Company.  As I said last week, their beer is pretty much awesome and it is plentiful.  However, if for some reason some person were to glance up at their beer board and dismiss it with both a 'phooey' and maybe even a 'pesha' you do have options.

Oh so many options.

Since I already drank my way through what they had to offer, I went back to wade farther into Indiana beer. 

Sun King - Sunlight Cream Ale: This was the last of Sun King's regular brews I hadn't gotten my hands on.  I talked about the Osiris IPA and the Wee Mac in a previous post.  I picked up a sweet lemon grass aroma.  True to the nature of a cream ale, it had some extra body and a good dose of sweet cream flavor.  There was maybe a hint of citrus in the back, but mostly pretty much what you would expect from the style.  Not bad in any sense, but lacks a bit of complexity.

Triton Brewing Company - Rail Splitter: A flagship IPA from another Indianapolis brewery that appeared on my radar.  I picked up citrus hops on the aroma and really, really picked it up in the flavor.  The floral and citrus was pretty intense but is was tempered to a certain degree by some caramel malt.  Hoppy IPA, but not so much that it can only be enjoyed by someone who can check the IBU's in their bloodstream.

Flat 12 Bierwerks - Pogues Run Porter: A regular brew from another Indianapolis Brewery that appeared on my radar (The damn things must be breeding somehow). The name of this porter tips its hat to the British working-class origins of the style.  The name and label also appear to be a shout-out to Shane McGowen of the Pogues.   I'm not a hundred percent sure but I'll let you be the judge:

If nothing else, a reminder to floss regularly.

Anyway, I liked the licorice, coffee aroma on this beer.  Lots of that same bitter coffee as well as some chocolate make this a pretty typical porter.  A decent amount of wood and pine hops add just a hint of complexity that give it a something extra. A typical porter with a kick, you might say.

And with the above image forever burned into your brain, that's it for Indiana for now... I swear.  At least for a week.  Maybe more.  We will see.

Cheers.

The Bounty: Lafayette Brewing Company

Maybe it's the disturbing amount of time I've spent here over the years, but I find that Indiana is a little-known gem in the world of awesome grain-based beverages.  Every time I find myself wandering this weird little state in the middle of the country looking for beer, I find it.  And every time I figure that, this time, I'm probably getting to the bottom of the barrel.  When I come back, I realize that there is more beer underneath.

For today's post I had to venture far from the welcoming lights of Indianapolis, but not too far.

Lafayette Brewing boasts award winning beers brewed locally.  Not exactly a unique stance for a local brewery, but well deserved in any case.  The first thing I noticed was the sheer amount of different styles they had available during my visit.  There's something about staring down at three sampler trays that makes you slowly push your car keys to the other side of the table and steel yourself for a long battle.

They were plentiful and, for the most part, they were excellent.  As I go through the line there were, I think two that really didn't resonate.  Really, I don't think they were bad as much as I don't think they weren't as good as their siblings.

Overall I was impressed.   There's a bunch to talk about, so let's not stand on ceremony.  Time to pull up a pint... or two...

...or twelve.

HMS Porter: Pretty standard charcoal and coffee aroma that hides something a bit unusual for a porter. The flavor is heavy on some bitter herbal hops with some bitter coffee flavors that blend surprisingly well. The flavors are propped up with some creamy sweetness that leads to a very nice and rather complex porter.

East Side Bitter:  I couldn't pick up much of an aroma here. This turned out to be a pretty simple, nice session beer. Toasty caramel sweetness with a bitter herbal back.  Nothing earth shattering but very nice.

Black Angus Oatmeal Stout: I picked up a little liquorice on the aroma here.  The flavor had lots of bitter for a stout beer. I picked up lots of smoky, woody flavors along with a pretty heavy herbal flavor.

Take Flight APA: American Pale with a heavy citrus floral aroma.  This is one of the few I didn't really dig since it was pretty heavy on the hops dancing dangerously close to triggering a hop bomb. It would be okay for an IPA but it was too much for a pale.

Electric Oatmeal Stout:  They do love their oatmeal here.  This also presented with a woody aroma, but the flavor and mouthfeel were much smoother.  This stayed on the sweeter side of the equation and mixed the woody leather flavors with some coffee and sweet chocolate.  Nice contrast to the Black Angus.

Cask Aged Hazelnut HMS Porter: I picked up a very light herbal aroma here, a different variation from it's draught brother. The flavor was also richer with a heavy dose of vanilla to mix with the coffee and chocolate with very little to none of the bitterness shown from the last.

Tippecanoe Common Ale: Light hoppy aroma here.  This the hop bill on this one was similar to the pale although not half as intense.  The citrusy, floral hops and the light malt made this one feel more like a pale.

Marley VSOP:  There was some debate on the meaning of the acronym, VSOP.  I don't think two members of the bar staff gave me the same answer.  It's a very special... something or other at any rate.  The light chocolate aroma of this dark beer was very nice, but the flavor was quite complex.  I picked up hints of coffee, chocolate, red wine flavor and the slight bit of herbs and vanilla.

Star City Lager: Now for something completely different, a light beer with a hint of hops in the aroma.  There was nothing much light in the flavor, however.   There were some sweet, bread flavors right off the top with some grassy pine hops that follow fast and hard and made for a surprisingly flavorful light beer. 

Bumpy face Agave Wheat Wine: This is where things got interesting.  The aroma had just a bit of sweet, light fruit that I could just sit and smell all day.  I picked up apple, pear in the heavy-bodied light malt and it finished with a touch of citrusy floral hops.  

Otis Brown:  Actually I lied.  I don't know if it was the heavy flavors from the bumpy face or if the last two beers in the sample were just kinda.... meh, but it tapered off here at the end.   This brown ale had no aroma I could find.  Light sweet caramel flavor with a medium body and that's all one can really say about it.  It avoided being watery which is so often the hazard with this style, I'll give it that.

Phantom Sun:  No aroma again.  This beer combined some sweet toasty flavors with a decent amount of   citrus floral hops.

I made it through.  Was sober enough for a pint of the Bumpy Face before it was time to venture into that good night.

I woke up three days later with this blog post scrawled on a hobo's chest.  He didn't seem to mind.

Under the Empyrian Skyes: Lincoln NE

Empyrean Brewery, for me, is like that next door neighbor I never really got to know.  He waves when he's nearby we exchange a few words about the weather, but I never really got to know him and I never asked about the strange lights and sounds in his garage at 3am.  It's high time I packed a six pack, knocked on his door and introduced myself.

Empyrean is a bit of a staple of the Nebraska brew scene, such as it is.  The Midwest have been slow adopters, but Empyrean has one of those leading the way.  I've run into them once or twice but I've really not had the chance to see what they've been getting up to in Lincoln.  Here's a closer look.

Besides bottles at the local beer store, the place to get some Empyrean goodness is at Lazlo's Brewery and Grille, which confused the hell out of me.  To speak true, I never intended to visit Empyrean.  I would have liked to, but I couldn't find them anywhere in Lincoln.  Found a brewery called Lazlo's that looked good, and then it turns out they are one in the same entity.  Why not call their taproom Empyrean Brewery and Grille?  Only the gods and the head brewer know for sure. 

Chaco Canyon Gold:  Light beer with a slightly honey sweet aroma and flavor. It finishes just slightly dry and has a nice flavor for a light beer.

Burning Skye Scottish: I've had this before but, just for kicks, I'm reviewing it again to see how much my perception has changed over the years.  I couldn't pick up any aroma on this beer.  The flavor was bready with a light caramel sweetness too it.  I picked up hints of mocha and dark cherry as well.  Although it's hard to tell, it tastes light and slightly watery for the style with a fizzy mouthfeel.

Luna Sea ESB:  There was just the slightest hint of pine on the aroma.  The flavor was dominated by light roasted grain and caramel sweetness but there were some pine hops that stuck their head out a little at the end for a slightly dry finish.

Third Stone Brown: I was just able to pick up some sweet caramel aroma on this beer.  The flavor was sweet with roasted grain, bread and maybe just a touch of coffee to bitter things up a tad.

Watch Man IPA:  It came with a pretty standard citrus and floral hop aroma.  The flavor was an example of an IPA done right.  There is a decent amount of back-of-the-throat bitterness but it comes with a tone of citrus, pine and floral flavors that are powerful but not overpowering. 

Dark Side Vanilla Porter:  No aroma I could detect.  The flavor is pretty much as advertised. Strong vanilla flavor that dominates the palate with some coffee and chocolate thrown in for good measure.

Collapsar Oatmeal Stout: Nitruos stout with a nice woody aroma. The beer was definitely on the sweet side, but it was hard to pin down.   I picked up some wood, coffee and chocolate flavors but it was so smooth it disappeared almost as fast as it appeared.  Before I knew it, my sample was gone.  This is one of those beers that's almost dangerously drinkable.  Nitrous often has that effect as does oatmeal, which probably explains why this goes down so easy.

Fallen Angel Sweet Stout:  I couldn't pick up any aroma on this. It was very drinkable, not as much as the Collapsar, but in the ballpark.  Flavor was pretty straight forward, though.  Mocha, coffee, roasted grains... not much else to say.

Three Floyds, Two Brothers and an Old Dominion in a Pear Tree.

This is one of those posts that... isn't so much written as gathered.  Normally I find a brewery, have as many samples as I can stomach and really get into their guttyworks.  Sometimes that is not possible to do.  Sometimes I'm in a hurry to get to the next city.  Sometimes I happen upon a random beer in a random bar that I don't know what to do with.
So what follows is sort of a collection.  By themselves, I don't feel they have enough meat to equal a full post.  So they've been mashed together.  We have a couple of beers from 3floyds, a couple from Old Dominion and something from Two Brothers thrown in for good measure.

3Floyds:
I managed to get my hands on some Gumballhead from this brewery a little while back and I've been stalking this weird Indiana Brewery ever since.

Zombie Dust: In the bars and taverns of Indiana this is a beer spoken with a certain reverence usually reserved for a Deity of some kind or another.  It's one of those beer that is a challenge to even taste since it has a tendency to fly off the shelf the minute it arrives.  Luckily, I know some people.  Well one person, but he is a fellow traveler and a good human.  If you are reading Patrick, thanks again. 
Anyway I picked up a lot of fruity malt on the top of this beer in the form of pear, berry and light citrus.  This serves a a base for an impressive hop bill that brings a lot of citrus along with some spicy, floral hops.  Worthy of the hype?  Not sure.  But for a heavily hopped beer, I really enjoyed it.

Alpha King:  Flagship beer of 3Floyds.  I loved the citrusy floral aroma on this beer. These qualities are well-balanced with the malt and the result is a nice, drinkable beer with a lot of flavor and a little kick.

Two Brothers

Domaine DuPage: This beer is described by the brewery as a 'French Country Ale'.  I picked up a touch of hops on the aroma.  It's got a medium body with a light toasty sweetness right before a slightly bitter, herbal finish.  Nice beer, but nothing much to set it apart from every other amber ale.

Old Dominion: Another brewery from the surprisingly beer-fueled state of Delaware that I managed to find just outside of D.C.

Pale Ale: I picked up some spicy hops on the aroma from this beer.  Definitely a hoppy beer, but it has enough flavor to hold against the pure back-of-the-throat bitterness.  I picked up a lot of spice and pine on the flavor.  It finishes quite dry but without that lingering hop character.

Oak Barrel Stout: There was a very light sweet fruit aroma on this beer.  I picked up a lot of wood on the flavor along with some leather and a touch of caramel sweetness.  This beer was harder to pin down because the flavor is truly complex and the flavor hits hard and almost disappears. 

Bottle Beer Tour #6: It's Fuggin Cold, Drink Beer.

 It is Mid-February here in Nebraska and, right now, the weather is doing it's best to make the joint uninhabitable.  It's the time of the year when a dip above thirty-two degrees is cause for running outside naked in sheer celebration of the fact that your bits won't turn blue and fall off.   It is the time of the year to sit inside and drink beer until it becomes warm enough to... well... I guess go outside and drink beer.

 It's also been a slow travel season for me.  On the upside, no white-knuckling it over some God-forsaken mountain pass.  On the downside, no weird brews to talk about.   So it's time, once again, to break open the beer fridge and root around inside for some goodies.

 
Victory Brewery, Hop Wallop: This has an absolutely wonderful
 orange blossom honey aroma to it.  Those flavors translate slightly into the flavor profile.   It kind of sits in the background while a massive herbal hop bill takes center stage.  Nice blend of flavors.  Given the nice sweet orange honey flavor I could be persuaded that fewer hops could be better, but a nice beer all around.

 Choc Beer, Last Laugh:  American White ale from Oklahoma
light banana lemon aroma.  The fruity esters are more pronounced in the flavor with that lemony flavor lingering in the background.  Clean and refreshing beer.




 New Holland, The Poet:  Deep charcoal, woody aroma on this oatmeal stout.  The aroma suggest that it might be on the bitter side, but it really isn't.  Not quite sweet either, just a nice full-bodied mellow beer with woody coffee notes.  An excellent beer for the winter months.

Three Floyds, Gumball Head: There is a light fruity citrus aroma on this eccentric wheat beer.  The flavor is hoppy.... but it's not.  The first thing you get in the flavor is a flash of citrus, floral hops and, just as you are waiting for the dry, herbal bitterness that should probably follow... it just blends away into this nice, slightly sour, bread and rye malt flavor.  I imagine it as a really good beer to use as a practical joke for a die-hard IPA fan as their beloved bitter hops remain just barely out of reach.

Canned Beer Tour: That's right. I said it.

It has been said that good beer doesn't come in cans.  It didn't come in cans, at least.  Things have changed a bit.
I've said before, I'm a fan of this and my conviction is only growing.  For the first time I've managed to assemble a few of the old 'oil can' in my Sanctuary (or where I get drunk in front of my computer) and sampled a few canned beers gathered from both hither and yon.

Ska Brewing, Mole Stout: Pretty much as advertised.  The aroma has a nice dark chocolate note to it with just a hint of pepper.  The flavor is just wonderful.  Sweet dark chocolate and coffee notes dominate with some woody, herbal flavors and just the slightest hint of black pepper.  This is one of those beers that just stands out.  Once you have this beer, I'm convinced that if I were handed this in some blind taste test some day, I'd be able to pick it out.

Sun King Brewing, Osirus:  The aroma on this pale ale is subtle, spicy, citrusy and kinda sweet.  The flavor has a lot of those same qualities flowing through it.  It's sweet, citrusy with a spice that kind of lingers with the bitterness into the aftertaste.

Sun King Brewing, Wee-Mac: Scottish style ale with a slight woody cherry aroma.  The beer has quite a bit of body with just flashes of flavor.  I pick up a hint of cherry a hint of wood and a hint of bitterness before they kind of fade into a light roasted flavor.  

 Santa Fe Brewing: Saison 88: I like the sweet, floral slightly citrus fruity aroma on this a lot.  The flavor is lighter, but not without a lot of nuances.  There's just a hint of sour along with the floral qualities.  That sort of melds into a nice malty, citrusy finish.  Light on the palate with a fizzy mouthfeel.  Nice session beer with a little extra kick.

The Drunkard'ss Walk Across The Country: Everywhere and Nowhere

The time has come for another one of these posts.  This is the time of the year where I am whipped around the country like I'm involved in the worlds biggest version of the ice-skating game where children hold hands and experiment with centripetal force.  Inevitably I feel a like the poor bastard at the end of the line; dizzy, a little ill and questioning the sanity of my actions.

The following beers were sampled at three different places.  The first place was the Heorot Pub in Muncie, Indiana.  The second at Golden Valley Brewing Company in Portland and the third was at some sports bar in Oklahoma city that's really not worth discussing in detail; they didn't have much of a beer selection nor was the place particularly interesting.  So here's the two:

The Heorot Pub: Fun fact: When I asked Siri about the Heorot Pub, her response was, "Sorry Jeremy, I cannot find places in Afghanistan.  Seemed a bit harsh.   Muncie isn't the nicest or most interesting city in the country but I don't think it's quite as bad as Afghanistan.  For example, there is one place in the city where a lost soul can stumble into for a decent beer.  It's a small, dark, wood paneled paradise where every square inch of wall space seems dedicated to some oddity and the weird and wild beers flow.  I can't imagine a more quality place to sit and sink pints for hours on end.  Among their many offerings, I had:

People's Brewing; Mound Builder: Since we are in Indiana, I was able to get my hands on a cask aged version of this beauty.  It has a sweet, raisin, brown sugar aroma that are complimented by dark fruit and malty flavors.  All of the above work together to stand up to an impressive spicy and floral hop bill and the result is a well-balanced but complex brew.


New Albion; Community Dark: Among those that have a bit of an obsession with microbrewing in the United Sates, the name 'New Albion' is said with a certain reverence.  It is generally agreed to be the first microbrewery in the United States, that is to say the first small-scale brewer since Prohibition and the industrialization of brewing.  Problem is that, like most new ideas, it needed some tweaking and New Albion closed it's door nearly twenty years ago.  Which made seeing it on the beer menu a little shocking.

Information is a little spotty, but it seems that someone in the wilds of Ohio has resurrected the brewery, if in name only, and has recently begun brewing under the name.

The dark beer they are brewing has a nice roasted coffee and chocolate aroma with some nutty sweet caramel flavors to go with it.

New Albion; Hoptimis: Since the resurrected brewery (dare I say zombie brewery?) required a little more investigation, I went with one more.  Their IPA had a light hoppy aroma that left me completely unprepared for the assault that was to follow directly.  This is all spicy, herbal hops with the subtlety of a baseball bat to the head.  Didn't have any of the balance a good IPA should have.

And then I was in Portland, Oregon.

It's a shame that, while nestled deep in the the beer-filled bosoms of Portland, I didn't have time for a proper motorboat.  But that is the way of things lately.  I did stop by a Golden Valley located in a massive freaking building in Beaverton.  Nice place but crowded as all hell which, given the size, is quite a feat.  Food was good, beer was good, but nothing special to say about it.... well apparently there is a company in Portland that makes it's own ketchup and mustard, but that was the only thing that really stuck with me.  Caring about whether or not one's condiments are locally produced seems to be a very Portlandian thing.

Golden Valley; Red Thistle: Light caramel aroma with a hint of citrus.  It's kind of a typical amber with a little extra.  It's got that slight roasted flavor with a spicy hop background that demonstrates the city's love for the little green flower.

Golden Valley; Dundee Porter: Slight coffee aroma with a fairly heavy bitter character in the flavor along with some coffee and woody roasted flavors.  P-town loves them some hops.

One last beer thrown in.. kinda just because.  It was in my notes waiting for one of these random posts to appear.  I was in an typical sports pub in Oklahoma when this little nugget floated to the top.

Left Hand Brewing; Stranger American Pale: This has a citrusy sweet orange aroma.  The flavor is lighter with a dose of malty sweetness that barely helps reign in the dry, citrus, pine hop character.

Back to business as usual next week where I actually find an interesting place for a beer in Oklahoma.  Yes, they exist.

One Hit Wonder: Dayton Ohio

Lock 27 is brand new on the Dayton Ohio scene.  As of this post it will have been open only a matter of months.

As such, this microbrewery has a lot of growing ahead of it.  I will say this for the place.  The owner was out tending bar and chatting up the customers and he is a man who truly loves beer in only the way only a long-time home brewer can.

It will be interesting to see how this joint evolves in the coming years.  It is a place that celebrates both good food and good beer.  That seems like a good start to me.

On my visit they only had one origional beer on tap.  They had a decent selection of good beers from out and around, but only one of their own at the moment.  So this is going to be a little different post as I will include a couple random beers they happened to have on tap... just to round things out a bit.

Kay?

Kay.

Beer?

Lock 27, Winston ESB: No aroma to speak of.  Nice, creamy mouthfeel.  A good deal of caramel malt sweetness balance a load of lemony, grassy hops.  Very nice, drinkable beer.

Southern Tier, Pumpking: Tis the season for those wonderful, spicy pumpkin ales.  This beer from upstate New York, was quite nice, with a sweet creamy quality to the normal bill of pumpkin spice.

Great Divide, Hoss: Rye lager from Denver Colorado.  This beer had a very light fruity aroma.  There was a sweeter, light berry flavor with a hint of pepper from the rye that gentelly turned to a floral hop back.

One last thing about Lock 27.  The curry is awesome.  That is all for this week.

College Town Quicky: Colombia, Missouri

Last week I stopped by one of the breweries in the college town of Columbia Missouri.  Things...er... could have been better.  One beer, in particular, could have been better.

I was able to quickly stop by another brewpub in the town... possibly to get the taste out of my mouth.  I didn't have a lot of time to spend, so I only had a very small cross section of their beers but, from what I could find, I should have stopped at Flat Branch Brewing instead.

It was a bigger joint.  The food wasn't quite up to the same level as Broadway, but I had a shrimp po' boy and was quite happy.  I was all the happier since I didn't have a beer that made be think of licking a... you know what.  Let's just get on to the beer.

Oil Change Stout: Charcoal chocolate aroma.  Nice full bodied stout with a smooth, unsweetened chocolate and roasted grain flavor.

Honey Wheat: Very, very light grassy aroma.  The sweet honey flavor is prominent here along with some slight grassy hop notes.  Extremely flavorful for the style and, I think, what most people might expect when the phrase 'Honey Wheat Beer' is thrown around.

Green Chile: I always love a nice pepper ale.  It doesn't have to be complex, and this one clearly isn't, but a good chili beer awesome in its own rite.  Light malt backs up and restrains the chilies here making for a nice refreshing lighter beer with a hint of spice.

ESB: Started with a fruity caramel aroma.  The fruit really hit up front and slid slowly into the 'B' in ESB.  The hops in back had some pine and herbal flavors that really stood up well to the sweet fruity malts at the top.  All in all a nice, flavorful beer.

Anyway, that's all from Missouri for now.  It's Ohio for the next couple weeks.

Cheers!

Into the Underground: Columbia Missouri.

There's going to be a moment in this post that is not going to be pleasant for anyone.  I've run into a few brewpubs that just don't click with me.  It happens.

None of those brewpubs had anything as bad as the Wee Heavy.  But we will get to that.  First, a positive note:

Broadway Brewery is a basement bar located right on the main drag of Columbia.  There's kind of a relaxed, coffeehouse, art house vibe about this place.

I doubt there is a better place in town for a burger... especially if one chooses to get a little esoteric with the meat.  They do have a basic beef hamburger for the purists, but on top of that they have a buffalo burger, a pork, spinach and goat cheese burger.  Personally I rocked the lamb burger and I was extremely happy that I did.  It along with their signature potatoes was awesome.

So that's good.  The beer, on the other hand, had a bit to be desired.  The food was great... the beer, not so much.

The majority of their beers had one of two major problems with them.  They were either watery or they just had strange off-flavors.  One off-flavor I hope to never encounter again... but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Honey Wheat: Light floral aroma.  This one gets a pass because light flavor is kinda in the style.  It was just lightly sweet with a nice... well... honey and wheat flavor.  Pretty much as advertised.

Boone Dog Brown: There is something very sad about a watery brown ale and this is a good example of one of those.  Or a bad example as the case may be.  It had a slight coffee aroma but the flavor had a very light roasted flavor with a hint of coffee but, otherwise, was just fizzy and watery.

2011 Barley Wine: Okay this was one of the hits but, honestly, it's hard to miss with a nice barley wine.  This had a nice chocolate cherry aroma.  It had some big cherry and port wine flavors with some herbal bitterness in the back.

Blonde on Blonde: No aroma to speak of.  It had some light grassy flavors along with pretty intense herbal bitterness, but that's it.  It was watery, then very bitter.   Too bitter for the style.

American Pale Ale: This turned out to be the one I liked best (apart from the barley wine), although there was nothing all that special about it.  It featured a nice load of citrus hops that were flavorful without being overbearing, but it was pretty much exactly like most pale ales.

Cherry Saison: This one had a sour cherry aroma.  The sour flavors hit and clashed with the fruity clove and banana esters from the Belgian yeast.  It was really weird at first, but I have to admit that the combination kinda grew on me after a while.

Cream Ale: This seemed like a combination of styles more then anything else.  It started with a nice sweet caramel aroma but along with those sweet, creamy flavors there was some very intense woody, grassy hops.  It tasted like a cream IPA... and not in a terribly pleasant way.

Black IPA: The aroma and the flavor tell the same tale.  Bitter chocolate and coffee meet and make sweet love with bitter citrus hops.  Simple, but nice.  Neither flavor is overpowering and it makes for a nice dark beer.

Wee Heavy: I've run into precious few beers that I actively dislike.  There are many I thought could be better, but very few that I have a deep-seated loathing for.  I think that, in the history of this blog, this is the worst that I've tasted. The aroma was wonderful.  It had some light fruit and wood aroma that had all the promise of a good scotch ale.  The flavor... well... it had this leathery flavor.  It had a big leathery flavor.  It was like... and I apologize, this comparison is not going to be pleasant for anyone, including me... it was like licking a cowboy.

That is not a typo, I didn't mean to write liking, it wasn't like 'friending' a country singer on Facebook.  It was like giving a tongue bath to a professional bull rider. 

There are those who might enjoy licking a cowboy, but I do not.  The very fact that this beer made me think of that rather horrific idea is as good a reason as any to avoid it.

Lightning Hopkins: This in an ale brewed with sassafras.  I liked the idea, but the resulting sweet root beer flavor clashed heavily with the hops to the point that it just seemed out of place.

Bottom line.  Broadway Brewing, get the lamb burger.  Eat the living hell out of the lamb burger.  Enjoy a pale ale or maybe a cherry saison if it tickles your fancy.

Might keep a distance from the rest.

Great Nebraska Beer Fest: Part 3

Well folks, it that's time of the day.  It's the time in which where, after a day full of heavy drinking, people start getting touchy feely.  It's the time of day where it is not unusual to see two men walking arm in arm from tent to tent.  In the distance you can hear slurs of, "I love you man..."  So let's get through this before things get awkward.

 Plowshare Brewing, Rumbleseat Rhubarb Beer:  The gentleman running the tap poured me a glass and said, "You'll like this.  It's got the same sweet tart qualities as rhubarb."  That was a really accurate description.  The rhubarb is the most prominent flavor, but it's given a little sweetness from the malt.

Beach Wood, Pale Ale: One more out of towner from California and, to be honest, kind of a so-so representative.  Citrus hops on the nose, light caramel flavor with citrus hops... pretty much the quintessential pale ale.  Not bad but nothing special.

Confluence Brewing Company, Farmer Jon Multi Grain Ale: A Des Moines brewer proving that multi-grain isn't just for bread that helps you poop.  This is an ale brewed with wheat, barley, rye and oats.  That being said, this is a lighter ale there's not a lot of added quality to it.  It's a refreshing light beer with a bit of extra body.

Funkwerks, Tropic King: Belgian ale from Fort Collins.  Tones of fruity esters, banana, tropical fruit and a hint of pepper spice.  Comes out with a banana nut aroma.

Nectar Ales, IPA: A kind of Belgian, IPA cross from California.  I picked up some citrus aroma combined with some of those fruity esters on the nose.  The fruity flavors are very pronounced but there is a very distinct hop bit that comes on slowly but really lingers.

Schlafly, Pumpkin Ale: I finished the festival with, appropriately enough given the current season, a pumpkin ale.  This St. Louis ale comes out with a nose-full of pumpkin spice.  This is one of those pumpkin pies in a glass that some people absolutely cannot stand.  I quite liked it, though... although by this time, I doubt there was much I wouldn't like.

And that's the Great Nebraska Beer Fest.  I hope you enjoyed this whirlwind tour of what the Midwest has to offer.  We're back to the cross-country bar hopping next week.

Cheers!

Great Nebraska Beer Fest: Part 2

Continuing dispatches from my hometown beer festival. Let's get to it, shall we?

The thing I always find slightly amusing about these beer festivals is the lack of interest in the big breweries.   Budweiser, Miller and the like didn't show their faces at this gathering, but a couple of the biggest microbrewers (if they can be called that) like Sam Adams and Goose Island did have a little booth with taps and a couple of forlorn looking people manning them.

Meanwhile breweries like CIB can't pour them fast enough.

Brand recognition means nothing in this place, if anything it's detrimental.  This is a place where the people flock towards something different.  It's a beautiful thing, really.  This is the playing field for the little guys.  The big boys are welcome to play, but they are about to know what it's like to be picked last for a change.


Empyrean Brewing, Domino Effect: Another home-state beer I am sorta familiar with.   I've had their Burning Skyes at any rate.  This is a lighter beer that "celebrates the changing of the seasons". It has a vaguely unpleasant skunky aroma though.  The flavor isn't bad; it's refreshing with light malt and a kind of earthiness.

Little Apple, Brewing: Blueberry Ale: From Manhattan Kansas, a town I assume to be the exact opposite of Manhattan, New York though I confess I've not been either place.  The fruit flavor is in the aroma and the flavor and in just the right amount.  Its just slightly sweet and imparts more of the fruit tartness that mixes with the crisp lager flavor.  It was quite refreshing, a quality I started valuing highly in the heat.

Little Apple Brewing, Malbok: Started off with light roasted grain with a hint of peach in the aroma.  I picked up sweet, light fruit flavors off the top along with some subtle hop bitterness in the back that really helps balance the sweetness.

Lone Tree, Hop Wrangler: This another selection from a brewery I featured just a couple months back.  The aroma had some banana, clove notes to it which left me completely unprepared for what was about to happen to my poor palate.  All I tasted was bitter.  Pure, astringent, back-of-the-throat bitterness.  Clearly that's where this beer got it's name.  For a brewery I really enjoyed, I was kinda disappointed here.

Thunder Head, Dark Wheat: A strange beer from Kearney Nebraska.  Overall the effect of a dark wheat beer was similar to a dark lager.  There was no aroma to speak of and the flavor was a simple, roasted grain experience.  I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did, but it was very refreshing dark beer on a hot August day.

Blind Tiger Brewery, Java Porter: Back down in the wilds of Kansas where microbrewing has apparently taken off far more then I had ever expected.  Their coffee porter had the sweet mocha aroma but the flavor was more bitter with charcoal and roasted barley added to the sweet coffee.  Not bad but nothing special for a porter.

Infusions Brewing, Butcher Brown: The GMBF has a fair share of sneak previews.  I noted a couple I managed to stumble across already, but this is a bit different.  By the time I actually post this, Infusions will be open and, hopefully, slinging a lot of beer.  However, during the festival Infusions was still over a month away from opening.   Beer from a brewery that's not even open yet?  That's kinda cool.  This beer has the Belgian yeast aroma of clove, banana and esters.  A lot of browns want for flavor and this beer does not have that problem at all.  Not even in the slightest.  I picked up lots of black roasted grain with spicy, peppery hops bringing up the rear.  As I continued to enjoy this beer I began to suspect that the pepper was actually a product of actual pepper, but there was no one to confirm this.

Cathedral Square, Repent Rye: Interesting rye ale from St. Louis.  It started off with a dark port wine aroma.  It was more bitter then I would have predicted from the aroma; citrusy, spicy hops stand up very well against the light fruit flavors in the beer.

Iowa Brewers Union, Rye IPA: Okay, so not really a brewery in and of itself.  More like a really, really big homebrewers club from central Iowa.  But they came with beer, so they are awesome.  Their offering was a kind of mix of styles.  It started off with a wonderful spicy, dark fruit aroma.  I picked up lots of rich raisin, date and caramel flavors with just a hint of pepper from the rye.  Didn't get much in the way of hops though.  Good beer, but probably not a great representation of the two styles.

Chaser Bros, Raspberry Stout: If nothing else, I learned I need to get out of the house more.   Okay, let's refine that slightly... I need to get out of the house and then travel maybe... five miles as opposed to a thousand.  This is another brewery from a nearby Nebraska town that, sadly has escaped by notice until now.  Their stout had a wonderful dark chocolate berry aroma.  The flavor conveys pretty much the exact same idea, but with a little bit of coffee bitterness as well.

Goldenrod Brewing, Saison IPA: Another brewery coming soon to the Omaha area, but came to the festival with a preview of coming attractions.  This is a much better example of two styles making sweet love with each other.  The saison is well represented in the banana clove and fruity esters and which stand up to, and oddly compliment the citrus and pine in the hops.

One more marathon session before it's back to business as usual around here.

The Great Nebraska Beer Fest: Part 1

It is my opinion that, cities like Milwaukee and Chicago notwithstanding, the Midwest was late to the microbrew revolution.

It's the fifth year of the Great Nebraska Beer Fest, my first year attending and proof that they are learning fast, boy.

The great thing about the Great Nebraska Beer Fest (hereafter known as the GNBF because I am freaking lazy, deal with it) is that they bring the Midwest beer out in force.  Besides the major cities in the area, the hinterlands of Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin and Nebraska are well represented.  Some of big breweries from elsewhere have a presence as well, but they are a minority.

It is a celebration of Midwest Brewing.

The other cool thing was the size.  I've been to beer fests in  Idaho and Oregon and they very much bring the crowds.  This means, however that one gets a beer and immediately jumps into the line again for the next one.  By the time they get to the front of the line, it will be time for another beer.

Here, this is not the case.  It's a smaller event then I've been to in the past, but there are more then enough breweries bringing strange and unusual beers to make it interesting and there are rarely any lines whatsoever.

The location has something to be desired.  I have no knowledge of what went into the process of finding a venue for the GNBF, but a strip mall parking lot?  For one it was one of the hottest weekends of the year in Nebraska that weekend and there was probably three square feet of shade, each crowded with pale drunks trying to keep from catching on fire in the direct sunlight.  The blacktop doesn't help.

Anyway, on to the avalanche of beers.

Nebraska Brewing Company, Fathead: A new selection from a brewery I've covered in a previous post.  Very new, actually.  Truth be told, it's not even available for another month, but this is a special occasion.  It has a nutty, dark fruit and red wine aroma.  I picked up licorice, vanilla, roasted nut and a surprising dash of bitter hops.  It reminds me of a bitter scotch ale.  The flavor combination was interesting, but they clashed a bit.

Big Wood Brewing, Morning Wood: Coffee stout, a beer style for those mornings when a drunken haze is the best way to approach a day.  It has a heavy sweet mocha, espresso aroma, but those qualities diminish slightly in the flavor.  It was lighter and watery.  Good but lacking some of the body I was hoping for, I think.

Big Wood Brewing, Bark Bite IPA: This, appropriately, had a woody, pine aroma with a hint of honey.  It was quite sweet and malty at first, and it helped temper the herbal pine hops that followed soon after.

Blue Blood Brewing, Blue Blood IPA: This is a brewery that I just recently became aware of, I found a couple of their brews at the supermarket and included them in the last bottle beer tour.  The aroma carried the promise of citrusy hops.  A promise that was kept, although not to the intensity I expected.  Like the Morning Wood, the flavor just wasn't there, especially for an IPA.  In that heat, it was a welcome and refreshing beer, but lacked something for the style.

Free State Brewing, Ad Astra: Though I had never had a chance to sample their beer until now, I've always had a soft spot for Free State Brewing.  Kansas is a state that gave up prohibition very, very grudgingly... which is strange because you'd thing people would be in favor of anything that makes the state more livable.  Anyway, until 1989, brewing was still illegal in Kansas.  Just to emphasise what we are dealing with, there was a time that Kansas even outlawed any liquor on aircraft crossing Kansas' airspace.  (So next time your flying over Kansas, feel free to raise your drink and a middle finger) When the law was finally repealed, Free State became the first legal brewery in Kansas in over 100 years.

Anyway, history lesson over.  Beer!  The Ad Astra has a very light aroma.  The flavor is nutty, fruity and contains hints of red wine.  Very nice, sweet, malty amber ale.

Free State Brewing, Storm Chaser: Seasonal offering from Free State.  Citrus hop aroma that pretty much follows in it's entirety to the flavor.  The hops are enough to produce a back-of-the-throat bitterness, but there's enough flavor that I didn't find it overpowering.

CIB: Yola: Here's the best description I can offer for CIB Brewing.  Somebody has gone out and started doing legally what Grandpa had been doing in the barn for years.  CIB specializes in 'high alcohol farmhouse ales', specifically beers fermented with wild yeast and bacteria.  That makes CIB the place to go for sour beers, a style so obscure that only Portland or a pack of lunatics in the wilds of Iowa could possible pull it of.   The Yola Artisnal Ale starts off with a fruity honey aroma.  The first thing I noticed on the flavor was a very sour citrus that was followed by some nutty dark fruit notes.  It was one of those beers that took me quite a while to decide whether I liked it or not.

CIB: Cherry: There was some considerable plum and cherry sweetness on the aroma here.  The flavor had much more sour cherry along with some very complex earthy flavors.  It was quite nice, but I don't know if I would drink a lot of it although the complexity of the flavor would have me reaching for another glass.

Left Coast Brewing: Voodoo: One of the few breweries from outside the neighboring states.   This had a roasted coffee aroma.  The flavor has a lot of that coffee along with some dark roasted grain.  There was a heavy dose of herbal hops that showed up and kinda clashed with the rest of the flavor.  I kinda enjoyed this beer right up to that point.

That's the end of part one.  More goodness from the Midwest to follow in the coming weeks.  Cheers until then.

Bottle Beer Tour #5: The malted and the hoppy

 It's bottled beer tour time again... er because it's summer and I don't actually go that many places in the summer.  It's random sampling time so I present five beers that I drank.
...

...

That sounded more exiting in my head.  Anyway, here we are.

Shiner Brewery: Ruby Redbird: Summer beer featuring grapefruit.  Nice, citrusy aroma with a hint of herbs.  Light, refreshing taste like a light, sweet, carbonated orange juice.  I can see how this would be nice on a hot summer day, but not something I would make a habit of drinking a lot.  Pretty good though.

World Brews: Dieselpunk Porter: Okay, I confess, this is a beer I bought primarily for the label.  It's source is wierd.  The only indication of the brewery is a small note on the label indicating World Brews.  Trying to find any information on World Brews is a bit interesting.  I can't tell for sure, but they seem to be a brewery out of Rochester who's entire buisness centers around brewing microbrews for sale in grocery stores and similar markets.  However Beeradvocate.com has two different listings for this beer, one from California and one from Montana.  There are whispered words among the beer geeks of the Internets that this is actually one of the Evil Empires trying to stick a foot in the door of microbrewing.
There's probably a story in and of itself right there.
Anyway the aroma is very chocolatey.  The taste is has more bitterness with some sharp roasted flavors and coffee along with the chocolate.  The feel is smooth with a semi-sweet finish.  Not bad for a sweeter porter.  Overall, if this is Budwieser or Miller's attempt to try and run with the little guys... meh, okay.

Flying Dog Brewery: Gonzo Imperial Porter: Beer brewed in honor of the late, great Hunter S. Thompson who once said, "Good people drink good beer."  I don't often comment on the label, but this is my all time favorite because... well, Ralph Steadman is damn near the textbook definition of awesome.
Wonderful sweet nose with hints of cherry and rasberry against a kind of herbal backdrop.  The fruit flavors hit first, but softly meld into something more like caramel and chocolate which blends into one final layer of flavor that leaves a hint of liquorice, vanialla and earth notes.  It finishes dry for something that packs this kind of malt bill.

Now let's get the hell out of here.  This is bat country.

Blue Blood Bewery: 1327 Pod's ESB:  Running back to good 'ol Nebraska for the last two.   Blue blood is a beer I've seen pop up in the grocery store just recently.  It's one of the few (but increasing) microbrews that come in a can.  At first, I was skeptical of the can as a conveyer of microbrew, but I've got to say, I'm a heavy convert.  No skunky beer problems, it stays colder and there is a pretty high convenience factor.  I'm just saying...
Anyway the ESB has a piny grassy aroma.  The flavor is has some light malt with just the right amount of hops to add to a refeshing, flavor-filled beer.

834 Happy As Ale: Lighter beer with a grassy, lemony aroma.  It starts with a pretty massive hop bill with lots of grassy, pine and lemon flavors there.  On  the bitterness scale, it gets closer to an IPA then a pale.

The Bros: Iowa

As I said last week, we're going to talk more about Iowan wine this week.  In that post I went on a little diatribe where I described the merits of Iowa wine.  If you truly loved me, you should have already known about it, read it, committed it to memory and possibly formed a small cult using that paragraph alone as the central tenant of it's teachings!

Sorry, about that.

My point is, that Iowa wineries are a type.  This week's guest very much fits in to that classification.  Smith Brother's makes wine mostly from local varietals including the popular Norton grape, a variety more or less unheard of outside the Great Plains.  They offer fourteen different varieties and blends.  I tried a fair amount staying clear of the sweeter wines for this trip.

Norton-Cynthiana: This variety has a very distinct cherry, raspberry jam aroma.  The flavor is very fruity, lots of plum and cherry with a little pepper mixed in there as well.

Frontenac: The aroma on this was leathery with a little pepper.  There were lots of earthy, woody flavors here mixed in with a little fruit and a touch of pepper.

Big Bang: A red blend of several local grapes.  I almost enjoyed the aroma on this wine more then the flavor and the flavor was excellent.  The aroma was this light floral strawberry blend.  Lots of light fruit on the flavor; strawberry and pear mostly.

Concord: Honey apple aroma here with lots of berry apple fruit flavors and just slightly sweet.

Encore: We're changing it up here.  Up to now it's been almost exclusively red wines, but I did give some whites a try.  This was another local blend with a citrusy-apple nose here.  The flavor profile is something a friend of mine likes to describe as a breakfast wine.  It has a light, slightly sweet fruity flavor featuring strawberry, apple and grapefruit.

Sweet Edelweiss: Sweeter wine with an apple pear aroma and flavor.  It's sweet, but lacks that heavy- syrupy texture.  Makes for a nice summer evening sipping wine.

South of the 80: Iowa

It's back to the green hills and tulip beds of Southern Iowa again, kids.  I don't get to sample as many of the wine areas in the country as I would like and Southern Iowa is definitely one of the stranger places I tend to find myself wandering aimlessly.  But I do and I entertain myself somehow.

Last year I marked two wineries off the ol bucket list.   So, once again, consider this an addition to the greater saga that is Southern Iowa wine country.  This week, it's Tassel Ridge.

The thing that is attractive about wine in this area is that it is rather unique.  There are a couple of varietals that are only found in the Midwest and there are places that have built a business around selling the kind of stuff grandpa used to make in the barn.  Rural probably isn't the right right adjective, but that's as close as I can get.  There are very few cheese platters around and some guy named Guston isn't pouring the samples, but Napa Valley doesn't have anything like Piestegal.  Seriously, I think you could run your car on that stuff.

Tassel Ridge really doesn't fit in with this group.  They make fine wine, don't get me wrong, but they miss some of the local feel that other wineries in the area positively ooze.  The vast majority of their wine is made from juice they have shipped in from other states and their entire product line consists of nearly forty different styles and blends of wine.   Selection is nice, but... holy crap on a cracker.

They were, I will grant them, very nice about sharing though.  I didn't try all forty since I didn't feel like wandering punch-drunk through a corn field this week.  But I did run down their line of dry reds.

Pizzeria and Pasta Too!: A wine designed to pair well with... well, I assume you can guess.  Lots of dark fruit aroma.  It has a unusual peppery, fruity almost hoppy flavor among the dark cherry and plum.

Zinfull Red: Peppery, fruity aroma.  Lots of both in the flavor as well, slightly tart and very, very dry.

American Syrah: Floral blackberry nose.  I picked up pepper, leathery and woody flavors along with something almost... minty?  Maybe not the right adjective, but there was something herbal in the back there.  Fairly complex and enjoyable wine there.

2008 Iowa St. Croix: This is one of the few wines made with grapes grown at the vineyard. Not sure about this one.  The aroma was kind of unpleasantly skunky smelling.  The peppery, woody flavors underneath were fine, but there was something off about the smell.

In the Dark: A blend of Merlot, Syrah and local St. Croix grapes.  The aroma had a light, sweet strawberry and honey feel to it.  I pick up some green apple, strawberry and cherry in the palate.

American Merlot: This one had a strong floral aroma to it.  The flavor was intensely fruity; lots of plum and black cherry there with a hint of black pepper.

2009 Marquette:  The second of the two wines made with actual Iowa varietals.  I've run into this type before along with it's fairly unique caramel, fruit and molasses aroma.  The flavor runs much the same way, cherry and plum among the caramel with just a hint of pepper in the back.

Iowa Cuvee' 512: A blend of local grapes and a touch of Muscat.  It was still fairly young when I had it so the flavor still had quite a lot of tartness to it.  The floral, fruity aroma was very promising.  Among the tartness, I picked up some pair and a little citrus.

I've got one more to add to the list next week, so strap in for that.  Until then, cheers!

The Return to Small-Town Beer: Ottumwa, IA.

Ottumwa, is one of those weird places I end up every year at this time.  It's not the only small mid-western town I stumble into regularly, but it's one of the only one's that has a small brewery.  I talked a little about it last year.  I stopped by again, they had a couple different beers on tap and a guest tap from a nearby brewery; it was enough to warrant a revisit on this forum, so it's back to Appanoose Rapids Brewing Company.

 Rasberry Wheat: It has the predictable sweet berry aroma, although it's not quite as sweet as some of the others of this style.  There's just a touch of tart there along with some complexities in the hop profile that make this beer... we'll it's still a raspberry wheat, but it's not bad.  Maybe slightly more approachable for those who hate fruit beer.

Centennial Blonde: Very, very light lemongrass aroma.  The flavor has some of that lemony citrus with some light malt flavors and a hint of herbal hops.  Very, very good for a lighter beer.  The flavors are all very light, but they are there and they blend together remarkably well.

Millstream Brewing; Iowa Pale Ale: Millstream hails from the Amana Colonies of Eastern Iowa.  Their version of the IPA is blended with some qualities of a porter or brown ale.  There is a sweet caramel and citrus aroma and the flavor has a very distinct coffee flavor mixed with the citrus hops of an American IPA.  The result is a flavor clash, but I kind of liked it.  The malty porter style helped balance the bitterness from the hops although the coffee and citrus was an odd combination together.

Honeymoon at Home: Omaha, Nebraska

I live in the town of Bellevue, Nebraska.  It's a bedroom community for the city of Omaha and home to Offutt Airforce Base.  Other then that it's just like any of the thousands of tiny hamlets that dot the landscape in and around this country. 

Except that it has a meadery.  I'm not talking about a winery that happens to do a mead or two, but a full-on-we-put-honey-in-water-and-ferment-the-hell-out-of-it-goddamnit- meadery.  Just a couple miles from my house, no less. 

Moonstruck Meadery is a father-son project that opened just a little over a year ago in this little town.  Distribution is still really small, you can only find it in the state of Nebraska and even then it's a bit of a challenge.   But with plans to buy a new building just to build enough fermenters to keep up with demand, it's growing.

This is the first time I've covered mead to any real degree in this blog, so a quick introduction in case there are people who have no idea what I'm talking about.

Mead is basically fermented honey.  It's about as simple as it gets.  You take honey, you put it in water and wait until it becomes awesome.  Of course, simple is boring and most mead makers start adding all sorts of weirdness.

Fruit mead (melomel) is pretty standard.

Mead brewed with herbs (metheglin) are less common but open a lot of doors to weird and wild flavors. 

Really, mead has been made with all sorts of combinations which makes it a unique medium for experimentation.  Pure mead has very little flavor outside a light sweetness or dry champagne flavor. It's an extremely versatile beverage which is probably why it exists in this weird grey area between wine making and beer brewing.  The process for making mead shares more with beer brewing, but it can and does age like wine. 

So what does Moonstruck have to offer?  The tasting room is open every day except for Monday.  For five dollars they allow you to sample five different meads.  So I went with two melomel, a metheglin, a pure mead and something called a capsumel which will be explained in a moment.

Show Mead: The pure mead, made from local honey.  It's on the dry side of the spectrum.  I picked up some very light herbal and grassy flavors off of it.

Cherry Melomel: Made with tart cherries that makes it taste just like cherry pie.  Really, it's pretty fantastic.  It's sweet with that nice tartness in the background.

Plum Melomel: By far the sweetest mead I tasted while I was there.  It had a thicker, syrupy quality to it.  Not really my thing, but for someone like my wife who likes drinks as sweet as they will come, it's just about perfect.

Hoppy: Where beer and mead really come together is the tendency to spice mead with hops.  This one has a combination of cascade and hallertau hops.  Think mild IPA with everything beer-like removed.  Take away the malt flavors and you have this.  It really features the hops which are citrusy floral and slightly spicy without a huge bitter flavor.

Capsumel:  Pepper mead.  This one is flavored with Anaheim, Serrano and Jalapeno chilies.  It has the aroma of fresh chopped peppers.   Flavor has spice, it's spicy but not to any unpleasant degree.  I wasn't looking longingly at the water faucet at any rate.  It's also packed with nice vegetable flavors.

That's all for now, but they have enough variety for at least one more visit some time.  So I'll return with that report another time.

Cheers!

The Figid Northlands: Minneapolis

Another quick entry this week.  I would have had more time, but weather in this country seemed to forget that it is MID FREAKING APRIL.

It wasn't just Minneapolis-St. Paul where I found myself this week.   Here, cold, snowy weather is more common then sunny, warm weather.  It was all through the Great Plains.. so yeah fun times.  Bad situation if you have places to go.  Good situation if you can hide in a bar drinking beer until the damn thing blows over.  So let's do that.

Barley Johns Brewpub in Minneapolis this week for a couple of pints.  The brewpub itself is kind of cool.  It's a small, quiet place on the outskirts of the city that dedicates itself to good food an a brewing style that, while not exactly redefining what crazy shit you can put in a pot and ferment, is different enough to cock an eyebrow or two at.

Wild brunette: The flagship beer of Barley Johns brewed with wild Minnesota rice.  It has a sweet caramel aroma with some fruity wine notes.  Sweet fruity flavor right off the top.  Charcoal flavor and herbal bitterness hits really fast after that and finishes dry.

Oyster Stout: At this point in time half the people reading this blog are absolutely disgusted and the other half are intregued.  The wierd part is that when I asked my server about it, he gave me the impression that they didn't use actual oysters, just the shells.  Their website, however, says that yes, there are real whole oysters in the brew, so take from that what you will.

It really doesn't matter either way because there was nothing, for lack of a better word, oystery about it.  There's no aroma to speak of.  I picked up lots of charcoal and roasted barley with a hint of fruity sweetness although it finished fairly bitter and herbal.  Apparently the perfect beer to pair with oysters, but that is an experiment for another day.

Barley Johns actually has a fairly exstensive menu of beer brewed on site, but like I said, I could only pop in for a pint or two.  Until next week where I'll hopefully have more time to sit down to a proper tasting.

Cheers!

Bottle Beer Tour 3: The Fermented Menace.

Okay, taking a short break from the road to empty out the beer fridge a little, (And yes, I have a refrigerator just for beer.  That's not weird, is it?)  Today is the day daylight savings time hits and to commemorate that fact we got about six inches of snow.  In typical midwest fashion, winter is going keep an icy hold as long as possible.

Tis the season of indecision, so we've got some winter beers, some summer beers and some nasty weather to drink away.

Abita Brewery, Marti Gras Bock:  Seasonal selection available only January through about mid February or something.   Pours clear and copper colored, with a very light herbal aroma.  Has a bit of a spicy, herbal bite to it.  Lots of caramel malts there as well, with a nice full body. 

Choc Brewery, Winter Stout: A winter stout with a wonderful chocolate, raisin coffee aroma.  The flavor has a lot of bitter coffee with some unsweetened chocolate. I also get just a hint of fruit somewhere in there, but I can't quite place it. 

 



Breckenridge Brewery, Agave Wheat:
Something a little different from a brewery halfway up a mountain.  This beer pours a cloudy golden color.  Slightly lemony and herbal. It has a kind of sour-sweet flavor.  Not like the sour of an infected beer, but more like green apple.  It has some slight herbal qualities on the back.  Lighter body, smooth mouthfeel.  Nothing all that astounding, but a nice summer beer anyway.

Huisbrouwerij Klein Duimpje, Erik De Noorman Dutch Barley Wine:  Okay stepping a little out of the United States a bit for the first time.  Pours cloudy and copper colored.  It has a raisin and plum aroma.  Full bodied with a slightly fizzy mouthfeel.  Sweet and malty with dark fruit flavors off the top with a slight bitter back and a dry finish.




This last one... I don't know if it even still qualifies as a microbrew.  I guess it is in the sense that Sam Adams is considered a micro brew by some.  Still, because I happen to have a bottle here, here's a midwest staple: Leinenkugles, Berry Wiess:  And it's pretty much as advertised.  Strong, fruity nose.  Very sweet raspberry flavor to the point of being a sparkling cider.