I've been meaning to get to this. Today is the day... downloaded. You mooks will be in my earbuds on the way home.

Recents / Wisco Sampler Night!


Founders - Red's Rye PA

I was working on bikes in the back yard on the weekend, and it can't be done without a beer. Tha's MY time. So I read several of you saying how good this was, and I don't think I'd ever had it, and you were RIGHT. There's something about rye that I love in beer and bourbon, and hate in bread. -shrug- This is a really good thick IPA with a nice spicey twist that hops alone cannot give you. Rich, red, almost silky, and complex. Highly recommended. A-


Oskar Blues - G'Knight Imperial Red

Someone left these in my fridge in Madison when I was home for christmas week. It was a very nice surprise, I'd never seen these. Oskar Blues never hits any home runs with me, it's always close-but-not-killer. This was very very good, not incredible but much better than most of theirs, for me any way. Lots of booze, sharp bite, mellow red malty flavor. And cans! Always a plus. B+


Capital - Island Wheat

Made in Madison with wheat grown on Washington Island at the tip of Door County. Also left in my Madison fridge. And as always, this one is ok but a little boring. The brewery can make some high B / low A beers, but this ain't one. B-


Central Waters - Glacial Trail IPA

I love their beers. Some of it is homerism, but they are pretty great quality. This isn't the most amazing IPA, but it's better than average. Tiny distribution means almost none of you will ever see one anyway. B+


Wormtown - Sweet Tats Stout

A gift of Shiv, as thanks I assume for the Wisconsin beers I sent him home with. I drank it while babysitting for a neighbor couple's kid that we trade babysitting with (sweet fucking deal btw). Sittin at their place, watching Wipe Out, drinking big stout from Worcester. So at first sip it tastes like homebrew - that intangible lightness / sweeteness / lack of aroma whatever it is that tips you off that someone made a beer in their kitchen and that it isn't a big real beer. Then the booze began to kick in, and the beer warmed up, and I tasted the vanilla and cocoa and coffee or whatever is in there, and it got much better. I think the best thing going for it is that it didn't taste just like anything else I've had, and I forgive it for coming from that shithole of a "town." Good on 'em, and a good beer. B
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Wisconsin Beers You Can't Get Out Here Tasting Night
---Starring Squirg, Neuro, and Shiv---

I brought some good shit back with me and shared. I'd love to get Shiv's thoughts on these.

New Glarus - Spotted Cow

My love for spotted cow is well known, but this batch I brought back (and the ones I had there as well) aren't quiiiite as good as I remember. Either my tastes are changing, or this batch was off a little. It tastes a little more metallic and thin than I remembered. Still great though.


Capital - Supper Club

Damn fine shitty beer, this. Canned, thin, pleasant, sweet, not metallic at all, well made but watery and refreshing. Wanted folks to be able to try it.


Lake Louie - Warped Speed Scotch Ale

These guys continue to impress. I still think this is my favorite sixpackable scotch ale. Slightly better than Fat Bastard to me, though that one's great too.


Central Waters - Satin Solstice Stout

Favorite sixpackable stout, bar none. For something you could reasonably drink 3 or 4 of in one night (ok 4 is pushing it), this is silky and sweet and dry and rich and chocolately and holy fuck, this is a fireplace beer without peer. So damned good, and I'm a sucker for the label art.


Bell's - Two Hearted

Obner Consensus Beer (All Sixpack Categories). The fucking winner and still champion. Man oh man I will be sad when these are gone. I bought 12 instead of just 6.


Ale Asylum - Satisfaction Jacksin DIPA

I really thought this would be a bigger, louder, stronger beer than the Bell's - I didn't think the 2 Hearted was a double IPA? Either way, we all agreed the Bell's was the superior beer here. This is great, and deserves the local hype it gets in madison, but it's more raisin-y and less complex than the Bell's. An excellent beer and a world-beater, until it gets compared with those 2 or 3 big IPA's that are just satanically, deviously good.

2 more.

Lagunitas - Pils

Usually when american breweries (ESPECIALLY west coast breweries) do any european-style beer, they over-do it. Bigger, louder, faster, sharper, sweeter, more alcohol, etc. I have to say, this beer has almost none of that syndrome. I even ran it by the kid from Prague staying in our guest bedroom right now, and he agreed, it's pretty convincing. It is a little tiny bit stronger and dryer, but not by a lot. Color me impressed Lagunitas. B+


Cambridge Brewing Company - Tripel Threat

Local brewpub who bottles 22's. They claim this to be the first US-made Belgian style tripel, going back to the late 80's or early 90's I think? I just found this pic from a month ago, so my memory is foggy on the details. It was good, it was not authentic but still in the ballpark, and was maybe the best thing of theirs I've had. B+

Not sure if this will make a difference in whether you recognize this beer or not, but until about a year ago it was called Gordon. Gordon Biersch issued a cease and desist. Pretty lame, i think. The beer was named after Gordon Knight who died fighting a wildfire here back in 2002.

No, still don't recall it. Love to know the backstory, though. Thanks Jason!

Damn. Remind me never to go into a Gordon Biersch. Totally lame.

Perused the beer store with Senor Bloor yesterday and came away with:

Orkney Brewing - Skull Splitter
French Broad Brewing - Wee Heavy-er
Caracole - Troublette
Weihenstephaner - hefe dunkel
Lagunitas - IPA
Sierra Nevada - Kellerweis (for FemDerris)

I've also been sitting on a Brooklyn Brewing Sorachi Ace for about a week. Gonna dip into it after work.

Oh and BTW, well done per usual Cap.

The Lake Louie and Spotted Cow are certainly high on my list of beers to aquire someday.

Headed to Delaware to visit the DFH brewery for my birthday this weekend. Should be awesome/terrible depending on whether you ask me or my wife once all is said and done.

You going to the brewpub as well?

Yep. I live ten minutes from their Ale House up the road in Fairfax, so not sure what they will have at Brewery site that I can't get there, but hopefully there will be something. Regardless, the Steakbomb is on the menu so I will be happy.

had two of these at lunch today. They goog


Stoudt's Fat Dog Imperial Stout

Good to randomly see you, dude.

I picked up a Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale, but I'm gonna wait until tmrw. to drink it.

http://www.dogfish.com/restaurant/menus ... on-tap.htm

they have (or had) 120. i wish they had that last time i went.

I tried the current version of the Espresso Oak Aged Imperial Stout from Great Divide tonight. I have not been overly impressed by the various Yeti beers I have consumed this year. They are overly dry and lack the complexity of flavor of previous editions. I don't know if it is the type of barrel they used this year or that it is a young beer that needed to age a bit longer, but it isn't as good.

I had the Yeti while attending a parti-gyle tapping party for Upstream Brewing Company, a local microbrewery in Omaha. They made a mild pale ale and a barley wine from the same batch. Here is description of parti-gyle.

Parti-gyle is an old technique that was often used by small breweries to make a variety of beer strengths. It also represents a good way to efficiently use all the extract value from your grains.

In its simplest terms, parti-gyle gives you two beers from one batch of grain. The first batch is typically a no-sparge high gravity beer, though you can do a small amount of sparge if you want. The second is a weaker beer using the rest of the sparge runnings, often called a small beer.

I like that French Broad, but think Duck Rabbit makes a better Wee Heavy (Scotch Ale). I've had a couple of hefe dunkels recently and they're a little tough to wrap the pallette around. Not displeasing, but not something I crave.

I'm still pining for the Craggie Dubbelicious that a local restaurant had on tap until they ran out last week. Damn good beer. It gets so-so to "good" reviews at Beer Advocate and Rate Beer, but I'm not judging this against the golden standard of Belgian Dubbels or anything. No, it doesn't taste like Rochefort 8, and I'm ok with that.



trying to describe it: it was sort of like a cold-weather saison

Shit that sounds delicious.

I was not a fan of the Duck Rabbit Wee Heavy but then again, I think I've decided that I don't really like Scotch Ales (explains my bad review for Bell's Christmas Ale--did not realize that was a Scotch until later). Luckily I only bought a single of it.

Duck Rabbit Milk Stout, on the other hand, might be the perfect sessionable stout--cheap in a six pack, awesome flavor, good sweetness, relatively low ABV, etc.

Yeah, me wanty. Now.







This is a killer fucking beer. So smooth, yet crushable.

Had a snifter of the 120 with the Jambalaya--outstanding beer, outstanding food. Also tried the Raison d'Extra, and Worldwide Stout which were both killer and came home with a 22 of the Robert Johnson Hellhound on My Ale, and Faithfull ale. Yeehaw.

As fun as it is to try new, different beers sometimes it is good to just revisit some old favorites. Grabbed a couple 750 ml bottles of classic Belgians I've enjoyed many times over the years. Saison Dupont, the classic saison, and McChouffe, the brown ale from the makers of the more famous La Chouf. Will be opening one of these soon, followed by the other I am sure. Should make for a lovely Sunday.

This was lovely, BTW. Nice fruity taste, not overly sweet, random "Christmas-y" spices and just a hint of that vinegar taste that Haq was talking about.

I was checking out some reviews of HopSlam on BA and came across this one. Pretty funny.

That guy's retinas would be solid green by that point.

Been holding off the beer lately while I've been hitting the gym. Did buy a 6er of this though, and have been enjoying it immensely.

As always, the packaging is cool. Some of theirs beers are wonky though.

Green Flash beers are finally available here in Nebraska, and I am going to a tapping party next Thursday to try some of their products. Here's a list of what will be available there:


Barley Wine-ABV: 10.9%:: A four hour boil intensifies the caramel malts and enormous Pacific Northwest hop charge. The result is a rich, estery brew with toffee notes and citrus hop flavors layered throughout. Enjoy fresh today or lay it down and see how the flavors of each vintage evolve.

West Coast IPA- ABV: 7.3%:: A menagerie of hops is layered throughout the brewing process. Simcoe for unique fruitiness and grapefruit zest, Columbus for strong hop pungency, Centennial for pine and citrus notes and Cascade for floral aroma. A multi-dimensional hop experience.

Le Freak- ABV: 9.2%:: An "out of the box" modern ale crafted by converging two beer styles, Belgian Trippel and American Imperial IPA. Dry-hopped and bottle-conditioned-it's a zesty brew with enticing American hop and fruity Belgian yeast aromatics.

Hop Head Red- ABV:7.0%::Resinous hop characteristics emerge from an enormous hopping with Columbus, Nugget and Amarillo overtaking the rich caramel malt base. To add luscioushop flavors and enticingly floral hop aromas, we dry-hop the brew with bucket loads of Amarillo hops. Welcome to the world of Red IPA.

Trippel- ABV: 9.7%:: Rich, pale malt flavors provide a solid base for zesty Styrian Golding and Czech Saaz hopping. Trappist ale yeast contributes the fruity, spicy profile of classic, monk-brewed, Belgian ales. Our Trippel is a luscious, fiery, golden brew and a contemporary rendition of traditional Belgian Trippel.

Imperial India Pale Ale- ABV:9.4%:: San Diego IPA, as it has come to be known by many, is pale in color, super-hoppy, high-gravity, yet a highly quaffable ale. Our Imperial IPA is created in this new tradition with intense hop flavors and aromas from a unique blend of Summit and Nugget hops.

Double Stout- ABV: 8.8%::Golden naked oats mashed with dark crystal and robust roasted malts create a luscious black brew with satin smooth finish. An old-world style, done the Green Flash way. Big, bold, flavorful and complex.