The Holy Grail!

Seriously...I found it. Quest over!

So, what I am talking about? Well, let me tell you a story.

I went into my friendly local beer, wine and liquor store to check for the newest Voodoo Donut iteration from Rogue. I have tried both of the others and hated them. I do, however, decorate the tops of my kitchen cabinets with cool bottles. I just can't resist those crazy, pink, Baron Samedi havin' bottles. Who knows, maybe pretzel, raspberry, chocolate ale is good. yeaahhhhhh.....

Anyway, as I am walking down the beer aisle, I spot this big box on the end of the shelf. I go to take a look and, behold, Black Sheep Brewery has put out a gift box which includes 2 bottles of Black Knight's Reserve and....get ready for it....this is the awesomeness....

So, I walked in looking to spend maybe 10 buckaroos and I walked out 37 buckaroos poorer, but with 5...I mean 3 (see what I did, there?)... bottles of beer and the cup of Christ, or, at least, Gilliam's version of it. The third bottle of beer was a tasty looking oyster stout, by the way.

So, all of you silly kanigits, stop grovelling and make your way down to your local beer store to fetch this magnificent boon. Be ready to face many challenges on your journey. Have your three answers ready, bring a shrubbery (or two), bring a trusty friend equipped with two coconut halves and gallop to glory. You could also just send a swallow...or perhaps two swallows...but should they be European or African?

Ok...I'm done! RUN AWAAAAAYYYYY!!!!

Ok...now, I'm done!

Beers Across America: Wisconsin

Wisconsin. America's Dairyland. Home of the "cheesehead." Second in the nation in butter production, and second up in the BAA series.

The Review - Leinenkugel's Hoppin Helles: Founded by Jacob Leinenkugel back in 1867, the company's affectionately shortened "Leinies" are truly beloved by its Wisconsin locals. In 2007, they introduced their Summer Shandy, a combination of lager and lemonade. Due to its wild popularity, they have since rolled out an Orange Shandy as well as a Lemon Berry Shandy. Today, I'll be reviewing another brand new addition to their line, Hoppin' Helles.

Appearance - The pour came with a surprisingly resilient head that stuck around for a few minutes. Lacing was weak and scattered. The hue was a substantial dandelion yellow, which was nice to see from a fairly mass-produced brew.
Smell - There was not much of interest to the nose. I mostly got the standard American light lager smell, with just a hint of hops.
Taste - I was greeted with a sweet hit on the tip of the tongue right out of the gate, followed by a bit of malt. But again, there was more 'light lager' influence than I was hoping for.
Mouthfeel - The bitterness of the advertised 'five American hops' is present, but not as much so as I would like. The mouthfeel, while not thin, was light, and generally unremarkable. With several sips under my belt, my instinct was to temper expectations by comparing this beer favorably to the likes of a Coors Light, but that obviously isn't fair to the review, nor the beer. It stands on its own, but pales in comparison to some other heavyweights in the Helles style.
Overall - A forgettable beer that goes down easily in the stands at a Packers game, but should probably be passed by in favor of better options. 5.5 out of 10.

Titletown Brewing

My Experience: Having visited Green Bay a few months ago, I had the opportunity to enjoy a few local specialties. Titletown Brewery, located in Green Bay, WI, has an impressive 11 offerings on tap. I was lucky enough to catch at least a sip of each one of them. My top 3 favorites were Green 19 IPA (affectionately named after Packers quarterback, Aaron Rodgers' pre-snap bellow), Railyard Alt (an Altbier-style that combines elements of ale and lager) and '400' Honey Ale (an easy drinker, and a rare lighter beer that I enjoy). Also worth noting, many others around me enjoyed the quirky Berliner Weisse. With such a marked sour profile that the bartenders make sure you know what you're in for, it can be served with your choice of homemade woodruff or raspberry syrup, but their brewmaster recommends drinking it as is. On our visit to Kroll's West, I had a Kroll's Special Ale (brewed by the aforementioned Leinenkugel Brewing) which I found palatable, but not particularly exciting. Carly had a bottle of New Glarus Brewing Spotted Cow, which was very good. Spotted Cow would have been the review subject if only they shipped anywhere outside of Wisconsin.

Hot Spot: Tucked away in the small town of Superior, you'll find Thirsty Pagan Brewing. Housed in a converted creamery building (what else would you expect in America's Dairyland?), the brewery affords the owners, Susan and Steve Knauss, an opportunity to combine their two passions. Says Steve, "We recognize our potential in focusing on just two things, pizza and beer. Do those two things correctly, and the world will come to us." The pub features a wall-sized mural of Miller Brewing's "Girl in the Moon," salvaged from an old local dive bar. Combined with vintage neon signs and hardwood booths, the space offers an easy-going, authentic Midwest experience.

Goodness. Sign me up.

Thirsty Pagan features nine beers at any given time including their five all-season offerings, three seasonals, and one hand pump. As you'd expect, they're gearing up for the Fall season with both an Octoberfest ale and an Octoberfest pizza. I would be keen to try the Burntwood Black, utilizing seven different varieties of barley. I would be keener still to try the hand pump variation - Coffee Vanilla Burntwood Black. Combine that with 'The Jordan,' a bacon cheeseburger-style pan pizza with authentic Wisconsin cheese, and you would have a very satisfied Brian.

Curio: Alcohol has long been part of Wisconsin's culture, and the raw data certainly backs that up. Wisconsin ranks number one in America in percentage of drinkers in the population and most taverns per capita. The state is also home of the only alcohol-related professional sports team name, the Milwaukee Brewers. From the 1940's, when the team was still in the minor leagues, and for the first seven years of the team's major league play, the Brewers' logo was Beer Barrel Man. Appropriately, he had a beer barrel for a torso, and a tap for his nose. In 1973, Bernie Brewer became the team's mascot, celebrating a home run by descending down a slide into a giant foamy mug of beer up until 2001. When the team moved to Miller Field (naming rights paid by Milwaukee's long-standing beer behemoth, Miller Brewing), many fans started a petition to bring back the tradition. In 2007, the club made headlines, by choosing not to follow other MLB teams' lead in banning beer from the team clubhouse. This year, Leinenkugel Brewing developed "Bernie's Barrelman Ale," a nod to the two Brewers mascots, and sold exclusively at Miller Field. If only it didn't cost $7.50 for a 20 ounce pour...

Next Up: Once again, my summer travels lead the way for BAA. A recent trip to Cape Cod means Massachusetts will be our next visit.

Flying Dog Tour - Good Beer, No Shit!

        One of my 2013 Christmas presents from my lovely girlfriend was a reservation to go tour the Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick, MD. I have been to the brewery before, for an outdoor event, but had never actually been inside or taken the tour. It is something I had wanted to do for quite some time, but you have to make reservations pretty far in advance because it fills up pretty fast. I was already a big fan of their beers and, after the tour, I am now also a big fan of their story, philosophy, facility and people.

This is me, before the tour. Obviously excited!

        The first hint that this was going to be a really great tour was the glass. I walked in and glanced around the gift shop, which was full of awesome merchandise, and noticed some small tasting glasses on a shelf with lots of other glassware. I knew that the tour included a glass and I assumed it would be one of these. As we signed in, however, the woman who took our information and admission handed us all a full sized goblet. The tour costs $5.00 and includes the glass and 5 tasting tokens. The glass is $5.00, if you buy it by itself. Basically, you pay for a sweet goblet and they give you a free tour and 5 tastings. The people could have been rude, and the tour horrible, and I still would have been happy. They had me at the door. The rest of the experience continued the trend started by the glass, though. 

        The gift shop occupies the same large space as the tasting room, so, as we waited for the tour to begin, I wandered over and checked out the spot where we would inevitably end the tour; the tasting room. I read over the chalk board and was immediately excited by one thing in particular. The tasting room had a nitro version of their newly released cinnamon porter. I could not wait! The tasting room itself was pretty simple. There was a long bar with quite a few tap handles, a bar which ran around the outside edge of the room with stools and some tables off to one side. There was a lot of standing room as well.

Some art from the hallway. This piece is on the label of "Dogtoberfest".

        After waiting for a while, we watched the tour group before ours emerge from the hall off to the side of the tasting room. Then, our group was called and the next stage of our journey began. We entered a hallway which was covered in paintings reminiscent of the artwork on Flying Dog's labels and packages; many were actually reproductions of the labels and packages. The paintings told the story of the idea, founding and life of the brewery. I won't go into all of the details. I highly recommend that you check out the website and/or go experience the tour for yourself! Our tour guide walked us through the interesting history and, after telling us the story of how the ACLU defended them in a case to maintain their right to sell products with the word "shit" and pictures of "a doggy vagina and tits" on the labels, he explained that the brewery had fought hard to be vulgar and that this was the point in the tour where they ask if "anyone has any fucking questions!" He also told us that any time he said "good beer" (the first part of the brewery's motto), we were to respond with "NO SHIT!" (the second part) as loud as we could. Awesome!

You have to look them in the eye. It proves you are the alpha.

        Our first stop, after the history lesson in the hall, was the "hot side." It was actually cold in there that day but that is because they were not running production due to construction to increase capacity in the fermentation rooms. All of the usual things were discussed: ingredients, yeast, etc. There were, however, a couple of points which made this tour unique. First, we got to taste the wort. I thought this was pretty neat and I had never had this happen before on any of the tours I have been on. Usually, we get to taste "green" beer (this is not literally green, but is simply beer that is not yet finished aging) but, on this tour, we started with the wort and actually got to taste a little bit at each stage:

-Wort (the product of the initial brew and boil, before yeast is introduced and fermentation takes place)
-"Green" beer - pretty much any time between the end of the primary fermentation and when you would usually consider the beer ready to drink.
-Beer! - we got to taste the beer straight out of the bright tanks. The beer is filtered into the bright tanks and force carbonated to achieve the final fizzy goodness. We got to taste the beer straight from the bright tanks. This is, literally, the freshest beer possible.

The other unique aspect was that we got to taste a little bit of acid malt. This is malted barley that has been sprayed with lactic acid. The acid gives it a sour kick on the end which was very reminiscent of a sour patch kid or one of those sour gummy worms!

        Our next stop was the fermentation room. From this point forward there really isn't anything else about the facility that is particularly noteworthy. It was your normal, industrial looking place. There were large tanks, lot's of equipment and plenty of boxes and bottles. The tour was still great, though. Our tour guide was witty, funny and friendly.

     
        After the rest of the facility tour, we moved on to the stage of the tour that we all come for. It doesn't matter if you are in the Wonka Chocolate Factory of brewing (this would be The F.X. Matt Brewery, in my opinion - not particularly because of Saranac - because the building is like an awesome looking, quirky maze of beer making), we all know we came for the tasting!

TOO. MANY. CHOICES.

        I actually was slightly disappointed when we first walked back into the tasting room. When we entered, I had read the chalk board and gotten quite excited about the nitro cinnamon porter but it was erased by the time we came back out. *le sigh* There were plenty of other great beers to try, though, and they still had the normal, carbonated version of the cinnamon porter. So, once I got over that, it was still amazing. I have not had a brew from these folks that I didn't like (excluding a bad batch of "In Heat Wheat" which tasted like straight banana and the time I got "Snake Dog IPA" before my pallet was ready for lots of hops). I would, however, like to highlight two brews that I had on the tour:

-El Dorado Imperial IPA - (from the label) - "El Dorado. The Golden One. The ultimate prize legions spend their lives seeking. With overwhelming citrus aroma, sharp hop bitterness, and a crisp, dry finish, this is the end of your journey." It lives up to the label. Try it! Seriously! It is delicious. This is a single hop IPA that is bright and citrusy. It is entirely unique, and I will be coming back to it regularly. Be careful, though, it is 10%, but certainly does not taste like it is.
-Brewhouse Rarities Cinnamon Porter (ale brewed with cinnamon) - (from the lable) - "Disconnected from the world below, the entire brewery team congregates atop a historic overlook each year to develop beers that shatter the confines of traditional styles. The only criteria lies in a few simple words from the Good Doctor: 'Too weird to live, too rare to die,' - Hunter S. Thompson" Hunter S. Thompson took part in the idea behind, and founding of, this brewery and his portrait was among those in the entry hallway where we had our history lesson. This beer is delicious. It tastes slightly of cinnamon but you probably wouldn't know it was a cinnamon porter unless I told you or you read the label. It tastes like camp fire to me...in a good way. This beer is smoky and delicious, with just the right amount of body. I want this to be a regular fall/winter staple of their production line.

Hunter S. in the hallway.

     
        Overall, this was a great tour. It was probably my favorite tour that I have been on and I highly recommend it. Be aware, though, that you do need to plan in advance...far in advance. You will probably need to book your spot 3 months prior to the day. So, if you are not from around the Frederick, MD area, you really need to line this one up. It is well worth it, though, and I plan to book this tour again in the future. I would pay much more just for the tasting but they give you an entertaining tour with a guide who really cares about the company and the product, a SWEEEEET glass and 5 tastings of GREAT beers; many of which will only be available on the tour...EVER. Flying Dog Brewery...drink it, go there, it's awesome. As the brewery family says, "Good beer, no shit!"