On the Road to Madison

Friday my wife and I and a couple of our friends made our way up to Madison for the first round judging for NHC.  It was a very enjoyable day.  We made several stops along the way.

Our first stop was a Galena Brewing Company http://www.galenabrewery.com/ which it turned out was quite an enjoyable stop.  They open at 11 AM and we were the first people in at about 11:20, so we had a choice of where we wanted to sit.  We went up and sat at the bar and ordered the sampler of their beers one set for my wife and me and one for our friends.  The bartender was more than courteous but the person that bowled us over was the brewer he was very enthusiastic to talk with us, especially once he found out we were homebrewers.  He filled us in about their events that they have at the brewery and he asked what we thought of his beer.  We all agreed that the beers were clean and well made.  Then he asked for our favorite and least favorite beers, my favorite was the stout and least favorite was the chasion, a cherry saison.  Which turns out was the brewers favorite currently.

They have 7 beers on tap:  Farmer's Cream Ale, Fever River Ale (a hefeweizen) which was one of my favorites, Miner's Treasure (a amber ale), Annabelle's IPA, Uly's Dark (oatmeal stout) both my wife and I liked, surprising since my wife usually does not like stouts, Rye-Rish Red Ale (rye red ale) a seasonal, another one I liked, and Chaison ( cherry sasion) another seasonal.

An interesting fact about the brewery is it is in a former mortuary, so 2T this is a must stop for you.  If you find yourself in Galena this is a very worthy stop.  What I suggest for those men that have the opportunity to go "shopping" in Galena with thier significant others is to go to lunch at Galena Brewing and then let your significant other go shopping while you rest at the brewery.  Oh no, I just let out my secret plan to my wife for Galena.

Next stop Brewery Creek Brewpub in Mineral Point, WI.  It is in the first floor of a guest house that goes by the same name Brewery Creek Inn http://www.brewerycreek.com/ .  We arrived around 2pm to a mostly empty brewpub, I think one other person sitting at the bar.  Again we sat at the bar and began to look at their beer offerings.  They had 4 beers total if you count the shandy as a beer.  Also they served Golden Ale, Farmhouse Ale and a Scottish Porter.  They do not have a sampler platter but will gladly let you try samples to find a beer.  My wife chose the Farmhouse and I went with the Porter.  Both are drinkable beers, nothing special but nothing horrible either.  Before we left my wife and our female friend went upstairs and looked at a room.  My wife has decided we will have to stay at the Inn sometime, which I do not object to since the area around Mineral Point has some interesting places to visit.

Overall this is not somewhere I would go to just for the beer, but I can see staying here and then going downstairs to the brewpub for a beer or two and dinner.  The bar has a great homey feel to it.  It fits probably 30 -40 people total and would be a great place to relax after a long days adventure.

So we left Mineral Point for Madison our destination city.  Before going to the hotel we made a couple of stops.  First up Ale Asylum http://aleasylum.com/!  The brewery is in a light industrial area which I am sure is because of lower overhead costs for the building.  Inside they have made the most of what they have with a bar for 12 or so people and tables for probably another 50-60 people.  They do have a pool table in the back and have several windows so a person can look at the brewery equipment.  They serve a limited menu of pizza and sandwiches, because the main event is the beer!  From what I recall the brewer that used to brew at Angelic Brewing, which is now closed, was one of the people that started Ale Asylum.

All totaled they had 10 beers on tap and they do offer a sampler of their beer so my wife and I had a sampler as well as our friends had a sampler.  Their samplers were plenty large for two people to split, since they were at least 5 oz. per sample.  The beers they had on tap are as follows: Hopalicious Pale Ale, a favorite, Ambergeddon Amber Ale, Happy Ending Belgian Ale, Diablo Belgian Dubbel, Contorter Porter, another favorite, Gold Digger Blonde Ale, liked that one as well, Big Slick Oatmeal Stout, yep another good one, Madtown Nut Brown, Ballistic IPA, yes liked this as well, and Sticky Mc Doogle Scotch Ale.  They only beers I suggest to skip are the two Belgian beers neither seem to be to style we all agreed.

If you find yourself in Madison (Madtown) this is a must visit!  They make some great beer and know how to properly serve it.  We left after the sampler and went to our next stop Brassire V http://www.brasseriev.com/ , a cool Belgian influenced pub.  They serve upwards to a couple hundred beers, mainly of some European origin, and have an interesting menu.  We arrived and found out that Brassire V is some what limited on space, having table seating for maybe 40 people and seating at the bar for 10+.  We wound up just ordering a beer and decided to head off to somewhere else to eat.  So wife chose Atomium Grand Cru, which the description said it is made from six different grains, and I chose Troubadour Magma, a Tripel IPA and our friends went with a Nogne Two Captains Double IPA and a Harviestoun Old Engine Oil .  This is a cool little place to have beer and a meal.  I just suggest avoiding Friday or Saturday night from 6-8 pm if you plan on eating.

We ended up eating at Sprecher's Restaurant and Pub http://www.sprecherspub.com/ they serve beers from the award winning Sprecher's Brewery in Milwaukee.  For those that remember this used to be a Houlihan's Restaurant out on the west side of Madtown.  They have an extensive menu from burgers and sandwiches to steaks and pizza.  They have 14 beers on tap and I must admit that I did not bother to take in my note taking equipment so my memory is not so good on all of the beers.  They do samplers in a couple of ways by theme or you can get them in a quantity of 3 or 6, so we ordered 2 sets of 6 between the four of us.  The beers I recall are Black Bavarian, a favorite, Amber Ale, IPA squared, Piper's Scotch Ale, Generation Porter and a Belgian Wit which we all agreed upon that it was not so good.

This is a nice place to get some quality beer and some good food to eat.  It helped that it was just across the street from our hotel.  So thus ends our first day of three in our adventure to judge the 1st Round of NHC.  I will cover days 2 and 3 later.

QC Beerguy