FuzzyBrew

Carrie and I took in Milwaukee’s Lakefront Brewery when we were up visiting family and friends earlier this year. The beer is certainly delicious — I churned through my included free beers before the tour even started, though the bartenders didn’t seem to mind.

It’s a little touristy, and the tour was oversold so it was hard to hear at times, but it’s well worth the time and $7 admittance (which includes a pint glass and four 60z samples). It’s also set right on the river (not a lake), which makes for a nice walk afterwards.

Plus, it’s home to one my favorite new-to-me beers of the year, the Riverwest Stein, an amber lager.

Apparently, this is the actual bottling line from the "Laverne & Shirley" show.

While we were in Wisconsin a few weeks ago, Carrie’s folks bought us tickets to the Audacious Beer & Cheese Celebration for our second anniversary. The event was held in Hartland’s Nixon Park right on the river. We had an absolute blast. Only 200 tickets were sold, so it was pretty small group of folks for the number of brews served. The tables were mostly staggered beer – cheese – beer, and so on. I’m not much of a wine guy, so I’ve not really been to many wine and cheese tastings (big cheese fan, though). If you’re going to a cheese tasting, Wisconsin’s the place to do it. Hot damn we had some mouthwatering cheeses. I was especially fond of an aged gouda from Holland’s Family Cheeses. So who’s got the awesome Memphis cheese hookup?

We had some outstanding brews

What we drank:

• Capital Brewery – Blonde Doppelbock
• Capital Brewery – Capital Dark (a dunkel)
• Capital Brewery – Supper Club (a pale lager)
• Orval – Belgian Ale
• Goose Island – Summertime (kolsh)
• Goose Island – Big John (imperial stout)
• 3Floyds – Robert the Bruce (Scottish ale)
• 3Floyds – Alpha King (American pale ale)
• 3Floyds – Dark Lord (Russian imperial stout)
• Lakefront Brewery – Premium Bitter (organic ESB)
• Lakefront Brewery – White Beer (Belgian white)
• Lakefront Brewery – New Grist (gluten-free)
• New Glarus – Totally Naked (premium lager)
• New Glarus – Uff-da (dunkler bock)
• New Holland – Mad Hatter (IPA)
• Sierra Nevada – Harvest
• Sierra Nevada – Estate
• Sierra Nevada – California Common
• Sierra Nevada – Weizenbock
• Boulder – Mojo
• Great Lakes – Eliot Ness (Vienna)
• Great Lakes – Holy Moses White Ale (Belgian white)
• Great Lakes – Lake Erie Monster (imperial IPA)
• Founders Brewery – Centennial IPA
• Founders Brewery – Porter
• Founders Brewery – Red’s Rye (specialty grain)
• Paulander – Salvator (doppelbock)
• Lexington – Kentucky Bourbon (bourbon barrel ale)
• Leinenkugels – Honey Weiss (wheat ale)
• Brasserie Dupot – Saison Dupont

I’m working from Wisconsin for a bit, enjoying a bit cooler weather and the BEER. I’m always a little surprised at the quantity of quality craft brews available here.

We are are going to meet up with a couple friends in Madison tomorrow and head to the New Glarus Brewery and take a self-guided tour, followed by considerable sampling.

Is there anything I should be on the lookout for here, or any specific questions I should try to get answered while I’m there?

After that, on Saturday, we’re headed to the Audacious Beer & Cheese Celebration World’s Greatest Beer and Cheese Tasting, because what’s more Wisconsin than beer and cheese? There are purportedly 99 different brews and a bunch of cheese.

Here’s the line-up; which ones should we make sure we sample?

Gotta give a shout out to my Wisconsin people. They’ve got some crazy stuff going on in Madison right now, but they do have beer.

My wife’s from Wisconsin so we head up there a coupla times a year. The following is a transcribed audio recording I took right before xmas, at the Great Dane Pub in Madison, Wis.

Captains log.

Captains log — Great Dane, 12/23/10:

The APA seemed like a little bit more citrusy than Sierra Nevada, the red was flavorful but weirdly carbed, the brown was maltier than our nut brown [editor’s note: we have never made a nut brown] but pretty flavorful and good, the scotch ale was fantastic —  I don’t even really know how to describe it, it was really good, very crisp but flavorful and you could drink a lot of it, I did, I did that one. The IPA is weird, it’s like really really grassy. And I love IPAs and that’s really kind of weird, but I’m going to finish it anyway. And then the barleywine is next.

Listen to the audio:
[audio:http://fuzzybrew.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/voice0001.mp3|titles=Great Dane Pub]