The Pastime: Green Bay, WI

Title town brewery sits in downtown Green Bay in what was once the old train station for the Chicago and Northwestern railroad.  It stands as a relic to days gone by while playing a part in the new craft beer revolution.
I didn't have a lot of time to spend in the area, so my visit was quite brief.  So this will be a rather quick post.  I managed to sample three off their fairly expansive menu.

Johnny Blood Red: Carmel, malty aroma.  The flavor is sweeter and light but carries with it a decent sized body.  It's tastes like pilsner's bigger, fatter brother.

Hopasaurus Rex: Lemony citrus and piny aroma.  The citrus flavor is very light as compared heavy pine and floral notes.

Dark Helmet: This one has a aroma of coffee and roasted barley.  The flavor has a lot of the same characteristics, but with some smoke and some herbal and liquorice flavors.  The flavor ends dry with roasted barley and coffee.                     

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.

Just a wee bit different: North Carolina

Just as the title suggests, I'm doing something kind of new in this post.  It seemed almost necissary given my regional subject matter as of late.  Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I am used to a different system of microbrew distribution; a brewpub model if you will.  By that I mean that most every brewery operates a bar that's primary function is to sell beer directly to the customers.  Many breweries also bottle beer and and a few even manage to get their beer on tap at other local bars and restraunts, but the epicenter of the operation is at the brewery itself. 

Well, as is so often the case, they do things differently down South.


As I mentioned a couple of posts back, New Liberty in Myrtle Beach offers tours through their facility, but don't sell a whole lot of beer on sight.  The vast majority of their sales come from bottled (or canned) beer sold to the customers through specialty shops and grocery stores and from a select group of restaurants and bars.

So once again I ventured to the Liberty Tap Room in Myrtle Beach, SC.  The Liberty Tap Room is part of a chain with several locations in South Carolina.  The specialize in regional and local fare and act as lightning rod for the resurgence of microbrewing in the area.  The result is large selection of beer from all over the South.  Their Myrtle Beach location became a favorite hangout of mine during my time there.  The food there was always excellent, the atmosphere was relaxing and the staff was extremely friendly. 

The downside to this system is the fact that the amount of beer they have from one particular brewery is rather limited.  For example, today I am throwing a spotlight on a little brewery in Asheville, North Carolina.  The Highlands Brewing Company's website boasts five different beers and five additional seasonal beers available.  Liberty had only two on tap.... so it will be a rather short post.

Gaelic Ale: Little to no aroma on this one, but the flavor really sneaks up on ya.  It's an amber ale with a body of a much bigger beer.  Lots of caramel and chocolate with a creamy mouthfeel to go with it.  It ends with just moderate bitterness. 

Oatmeal Porter: The very first thing I notice about this beer is the smoky aroma and flavor along with a slightly woody flavor.  As I continued a lot more of the malty sweetness, coffee and chocolate flavors started to become more apparent.  It ends with just a little floral hop flavor.

That's all from me for now.  I've got one more dispatch from the South before I return to Yankee territory this time from Atlanta, Georgia. 
Until then, Cheers!

Wine of the Carolina Coast: South Carolina, North Carolina

This post is a little odd.  The Southeastern United States actually has an impressive number of wineries.  Driving back home from this area of the country is always a bit of an exercise in willpower as a seemly endless stream of billboards advertising nearby wineries pass by on the Interstate.  But all of that is mostly inland around the Appalachians.  In the coastal area choices are a little harder to find, but not impossible provided you are armed, as I was, with Google maps, a GPS device and a determination that boarders on a mental disorder.  With that in mind:
 
Boardwalk Winery:


Boardwalk Winery

The first stop is in a tourist-aimed area known as the Boardwalk.  It has all the trappings one would expect; restaurants, bars, a small amusement park and various other trappings for out-of-towners.  The winery itself is located in a docked boat... or at least a building that is built to resemble one.  Apparently it is against state law in South Carolina to offer free samples of alcohol, so wine tasting costs $5 here and they let you pick six different wines to sample.  Their wine list is quite expansive at first glance.  A closer look reveals that they offer the same wines in various levels of sweetness.  For example, you can buy a bottle of the Blueberry wine in three different sweetness levels:  Semi-dry, Semi-sweet and Sweet.  The latter probably should be followed by an insulin shot, just to give you an idea of the relative scale we are talking about.  Unless you like your wine so sweet that it boarders on alcoholic Kool-Aid, Semi-Sweet is probably as far down on that scale you will want to go.  Here were my selections:

High tide: Carmel and dark fruit aroma.  Lots of spicy pepper and smokey flavors and tobacco.  It lacks a lot of the body of a really good red wine, but it's not bad.  I was informed that the grapes are grown on old tobacco fields and that was how the grapes developed their smoky tobacco flavor.  I'm sceptical, but it's a good story so I will keep it.

Merlot: A young, un-oaked Merlot.  Very strange.  Has almost none of the usual flavors associated with a Merlot.  It has a very fruity aroma.  Lots of raspberry, blueberry and dark cherry flavors.  Almost none of the dryness that is usually associated.  Keep in mind that this is this wineries version of a dry wine.



Gewurztaminer (Semi-dry): Citrus herbal peach aroma.  This is sweeter again, but I kind of enjoyed this wine.  There was it there was some peach and citrus and I picked up some herbal notes that made me think green tea or something.



Resling (Semi-dry): Citrus pear and grapefruit aroma.  Like the others, this was mostly sweeter with lots and lots of fruit.



Blueberry (Semi-sweet): Made with South Caroline blueberries with a little sugar added for sweetness.  A bit of caramel and sour fruit accompany the blueberry flavors in this wine.



Endless Summer (Semi-sweet): This one is a blend of mango and peach wine.  This one borders on a dessert wine. The flavor is pretty self-explanatory.  I wish I could talk about the levels and levels of flavor that I noted, but they just aren't there.  Peach and mango... simple.

Mango: There is a medium and a sweet version of this and I tried the sweet version.  And it is sweet. It pours like syrup and it tastes like someone took a slice of mango and dipped it in sugar.    It would probably be wonderful drizzled over ice cream, but by itself... just not for me.



Carolina Winery:

This Winery is so similar to the Boardwalk Winery, that I thought this was the Boardwalk winery location in North Myrtle Beach. They both share the same specialty in sweet and fruit wines, they have a similar system of adding sugar in different grades,they are both located in tourist shopping and dining centers in each city and they even give the sheet of information about their wines look strikingly similar.  They do offer slightly different wines, but that's about the only difference.

Merlot: I can't be sure without doing a side by side taste test, but this tasted exactly like the wine at Boardwalk.



Amythist: This did not appear at the other winery, this is a blend of Merlot and elderberry wine.  Lots of fruit flavors with just a hint of pepper and some herbal notes that made me think of mint or peppermint.



Syrah: Smokey fruity and peppery.  It had a lot of same tobacco notes that I noted in the High Tide.



Elderberry: I've never actually had an elderberry, and I kind of assumed some of the flavors I couldn't identify in the Amethyst was a product of this fruit, but I'm not so sure now.  This had a sour cherry, raspberry flavor with some caramel sweetness.



Crescent Moon: A chardonnay, peach wine blend.  It had a very crisp refreshing mouthfeel.  Peach more or less dominated the flavor profile, I didn't taste any acidic or buttery notes I usually associate with chardonnay.



Southern Belle: Peach and plum wine mix.  This had a very creamy, rich mouthfeel that had me thinking about peaches and ice-cream.  The plum wine added some body and some caramel and dark fruit notes to the peach wine.


La Belle Armie:

La Belle Armie Vineyard
It was time to head farther North and get out of the cities and into wine country proper... such as it was.  This particular winery had it's own eccentricity, though. It's not unusual in my experience for a winery to specialize in a particular style, but this winery specializes in a single grape varietal.

Anyone that didn't grow up in the South has probably never heard of the Muscadine grape.  They are a type of grape native to the Southern United States and is really the only grape they can grow in the climate around the coast of South Carolina.  They are good eaten strait of the vine (or so I am told, I would need to be here around September to find out first hand) or made into a variety of different wines.

In total they make eight different wines using the Muscadine varietal.  I sampled four of them.  The all share a similar flavor profile: sweet pear or peach flavors combined with earth and nutty notes, and vary mostly in color and sweet vs dry.  For example: The Southern Gentleman is a drier rose' as opposed to the Goddess which has quite a bit more sweetness and a lighter color.  All four were fantastic, and defiantly unique.  It's hard to describe the unique flavor in words alone; it probably should be experienced to be truly appreciated.


Outside of their speciality, they do produce other wines as well.  I found myself so engrossed in the Muscadine, that I really didn't spend a lot of time with the others, but I did try a couple:

Heavenly Body: A dry red Cabernet. I picked up a lot of pepper, lots of dark cherry and acidic qualities.

Poor Bastard: La Belle's Merlot.  Lots of spice, acid, dark fruit and an incredibly dry finish.  Still doesn't have the body of most merlot and it has considerably more sour fruit flavor than I am accustomed to. 



One additional interesting fact about this vineyard, you're going to hear the word, "bitch" thrown around a lot, mostly by the two women behind the counter talking about wine and the incredible health benefits of muscadine grapes.  Although to be fair, the word is probably more accurately written as, "B.I.T.C.H"; as in Babes In Total Control of Herself (or Babes in Total Control of Him, depending on the situation.).  That's just a single example of the 'education' I received at this winery.

Silver Coast Winery:
I decided to visit one more location while I was in the area.   I continued even farther North and  crossed the border into North Carolina.  It's been an interesting trip.  They do a lot of things differently in the South and I suppose that it's only fitting that wine be one of those.  However there was something familiar about Silver Coast.  Maybe it was the fact that my desire for a full-bodied dry red wine was finally satisfied.  Maybe it was the fact that they kept the residual sugars below a level shared by most cola products.  Although that is not to say that it wasn't without it's little surprises:



Seyval Blanc: A crisp, semi-sparkling white wine. I picked up citrus, melon and grapefruit notes.  It is a very smooth wine with a sweet, refreshing finish.



Rose: A blend of several different varietals, I picked up sour fruit, citrus, strawberry.  Pretty good balance between acidic and sweet flavors.



White Merlot: A bit of a misnomer, the wine is actually closer to a rose' or a blush in terms of color.  This wine picks up these qualities because they only allow the wine to sit on the rinds and seeds for a little over a day before they are removed.  The result is a lighter, crisper version of a Merlot.  It still has many characteristics, I picked up some pepper, leather and dark fruit notes, but it lacks a lot of the dryness and body associated with a merlot.



Georgia Merlot: A lot like the white merlot but more so.  This one comes out with a lot of body and finishes a lot drier.  It packs in a little more peppery flavors as well as some chocolate and cherry flavors.



Touriga (Cape Fear Blood Wine): Remember the surprises I was talking about?  Here it is. I am finishing with this one, and it might be my favorite of the entire tour.  The blood grape is a varietal that originates in Portugal.  It is so named because unlike other grapes that have a clear juice when the grape is first squeezed, the juice of the blood grape is dark red.   The wine has a lot of earthy qualities along with smoke, black pepper plum and cherry and finishes very dry.

Still have a couple of dispatches to go from Dixieland before I head back up to Yankee territory.  Until then, cheers!

Beer on the Beach: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

From the Northwest to the Midwest and into the South. This week I'm in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

When it comes to craft brewing the south is still fairly spare especially away from the main cities. At the beach there is really only one game in town, New South Brewing Company.

This posts covers the beers sampled over a couple of days.  First at the Liberty Tap Room and then samples during a tour of the actual brewery.  I'll get more into the Liberty Tap room in a future post; for now I will just say this.  If you like beer and your in the Myrtle Beach area, this is your destination.  On the New South Brewing Company.

New South Brewing Company, Myrtle Beach SC.

New South doesn't have a pub on sight, rather they sell kegs to local restaurant and can the rest for sale directly to local customers.  They do run fairly regular tours.  They take an hour or so and they give out a few samples of the beer they have on tap.  Currently on the menu during my visit were:

New South IPA and White Ale

New South White Ale: A beer inspired by Blue Moon, or at least remarkably similar to it. There is a marked difference in the aroma, it contains a lot more of the tropical fruit Belgian yeast characteristics. Flavor is sweeter with wheat bread flavor and a slight amount of citrus with a fizzy mouthfeel.

Bourbon barrel aged Porter. Sweet fruity aroma mixed with whiskey. The flavor is not too heavy on the flavors from the barrel and mixes well with the chocolate, cherry and coffee. Finishes slightly dry and bitter.

New South Brown Ale: Pretty simple flavor profile. There are lots of coffee and chocolate in the aroma and in the flavor. This one also finishes with a load of English bitter hops.  It's that kind of bitter that you really don't taste in the profile as much as you feel it in the aftertaste.

I sampled the following beers at the Liberty Tap Room:

New South IPA: The aroma of this IPA has lemon grass, grass and pine hops filling it. The flavor has a lot if malt to back it up... one could even argue that it is too much. Herbal and pine hops come through at the end with a dry bitter finish that reminds me of an English IPA.

New South Stout

New South Stout:  This was the current seasonal selection from the brewery.  Sweet roasted grain and chocolate aroma.  Full-bodied and creamy mouthfeel with the typical chocolate, coffee flavors.  Like most of New South's brews it also ended with a strange bitter flavor at the end of the palate.  It works fine with most of their beers, but I don't really like that quality in a stout.

New South Red Ale: Floral hop aroma.  Starts off with sweet caramel on the palate before a load of pine and floral hops really hits.  Maybe a little hoppy for the style, but pretty good overall.

I'm actually stranded in the South for a good amount of time for the next few weeks.  It is proving to be quite a learning experience all around.
Cheers!