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.

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!

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!

German in the Twin Cities: Minneapolis, MN

 When I left off last week, I was on the road from Chicago to Twin Cities by way of Wisconsin.  As the adjacent photos suggest, Wisconsin lives up to it's title as 'America's Dairyland.'  Wisconsin is basically like Nevada in that every building off the Interstate serves a duel purpose.  In Nevada every establishment is a Casino/ [insert building type here].  A casino/ hotel, a casino/ truck stop, a casino/ restaurant.  I think you get the idea.  Replace casino with cheese and you have the trans-Wisconsin experience.  I actually found a coffeeshop that sold cheese.  I have provided photographic evidence because, like Bigfoot, nobody is going to believe this story without a photo to back it up.  But I digress, time to keep heading West.

It's a little known fact outside this region of the United States, but the people of Minnesota and, indeed, Wisconsin love their beer.  They will have a beer.  In a big glass.  A quick search of Minneapolis/ St. Paul yielded an impressive assortment of local flavors to choose from.  Sadly, I'm short on time so I'll highlight one.

Once again, I am traveling with Jeff, the crazy old bastard from Kokomo, Indiana pictured here living out his Marilyn Monroe fantasies over a Minneapolis air vent.  I used his opinion at my stop in Chicago and I will add his reviews here because he has a very simple, yet profound style.  I imagine this is the way I sounded before I became pretentious and started describing beers as having "a citrus nose with lots of tropical fruit, nut, berry flavors... etc.

Today we visit:
Herkimer Brewing Company
 This brewery located in uptown Minneapolis specializes in German-style beers.   They brew several varieties of lagers including a couple of styles I had not run into yet.  For example:


Sky Pilot Kellerbier: Translated from German, this 'cellar beer' is an unfiltered light or amber ale.  It is a style that dates back to the middle ages.  It is so named because the beer kegs were stored with the bung unscrewed from the barrel so that the beer was exposed to air.  Consequently, the result was a beer with little to no carbonation.
So as far as the style goes, the beer was a pale, cloudy, straw-colored lager, so that's one-for-one so far.  Unfortunately, or (maybe fortunately?) the beer was carbonated.  No doubt if this beer had arrived flat, most people would send it back and get into a loud and sustained argument with the brewmaster.  The flavor was very light with just a little citrus and coriander spice with lingering hop flavor.

Jeff says:  It smells like banana!  It doesn't?  *Takes another whiff*  That's banana!!
(I don't know why he smelled banana, but he seemed so sure I didn't want to argue the point.)
Toolers Weiss:  While I was down in the cellar with the Sky Captain,  Jeff had himself a pint of the Toolers.  It was a pretty standard German wheat beer.  It was a deep yellow color with a good amount of head with the banana and tropical fruit flavors from the yeast.  I also picked up a little peach in the flavor.  It was a good beer, but nothing remarkable.

Jeff says: I don't know.  Maybe I should have another.  (Yes, yes you should.)

Dunkle Wiess: In the dark bar, this beer appeared pitch black.  The aroma was wonderful, the German wheat yeast combined with the roasted malts for a smell that can only be described as a chocolate covered banana.  The flavor was a little disappointing, it didn't hold any of the dark malts that were in the aroma.  It had a lot of fruit, but the malt was lacking.
Jeff says: Tastes like dirt.  (I think dark beers may be a lots cause on my friend from Indiana.)

Alt Bier: While Jeff continued with the Toolers, I moved on to the last beer they had on tap at the time.  This had a light aroma of date or raisin.  There was a touch of clove or coriander spice off the top of the flavor profile, but this beer was sadly lacking in flavor as well.  It seems to be a bit of a problem with this particular brewery.  It ends with a goodly amount of pine hops.

Jeff says: It... It... *spends a moment letting the beer sit on his palate* It sucks.  Yeah, that's it!

Sadly that's the last I will see of Jeff for a while.  I look forward to featuring him at a later date when we meet up.  As for me, I am still in the lazy days of summer.  I get a few more weeks to contemplate the meaning of Life, The Universe and Everything before I get back on the road.  I might do a feature here in Nebraska, but we will see.