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
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Happy National Beer Day
Last night my wife and I celebrated the release of Stone Brewing's Beer into Illinois, a wonderful pre-event to National Beer Day. We went first to Bent River Brewing, because we saw on facebook that they had both Arrogant Bastard and Stone Pale Ale on tap. It was their special guest taps for the night. Your choice was a pint of either one for $3 or you could have a pint of either beer and keep the commemorative pint for $6.50. My first beer was of course Arrogant Bastard, I know some may say that is fitting, and my wife surprised me by ordering the Pale Ale, she hates hoppy beers. As we were enjoying our beers we eventually were waited on to order some food. That is one definite thing that Bent needs to work on is the table service, plan to have more people on staff for special nights like last night.
I was very pleased that my wife drank her whole pint of Pale Ale and enjoyed the beer. Once our food arrived I order the Pale Ale. The food and beer we both quite enjoyable. So when we finished our food and beers we paid and headed for stop #2, onto RIBCO for their Stone Release Party.
We arrived just a few minutes before 8pm when the Stone draft beer was scheduled to go on sale. We made our way into the bar and saw some friendly faces that we spent the rest of our time talking with. They had 3 Stone Brewing beers on tap: Cali- Belgique, Arrogant Bastard and Smoked Porter with vanilla beans. First up for me was the Porter, the vanilla came through but no real noticeable smoke. I greatly enjoyed the beer though!
My wife went with a bottle of Levitation Ale, this one she said was way to hoppy, hoppier than the Pale Ale, but she did manage to drink it. Way to go Sweetie! Beside Levitation Ale in bottles they had Pale Ale, IPA, Ruination, Sublimely Self Righteous (in 22 oz. bottles) and Oaked Arrogant Bastard. All the bottles were available for purchase before 8PM.
We both decide to have a second beer and I ordered, anybody? anybody? Yes! Arrogant Bastard! and my sweetie order the Vanilla Porter. Again a bit of a surprise since she does not like very many dark beers as well. All in all we had an enjoyable evening on our adventure of welcoming Stone Brewing's Beer to Illinois. It is so awesome that we can now have Stone Beer just by driving a few miles across the Mississippi River to a bar in Illinois and more importantly purchase for home use at liquor stores.
Now onto today's event National Beer Day. First of all we need to work on the name and make it more exciting. Any suggestions? The main point to today is it is the anniversary of the repeal of the scourge of mankind know as Prohibition. It was on April 7, 1933 that the Cullen- Harrison Act went into effect, which was signed by FDR in March of the same year. So go out and have a beer to celebrate this great anniversary.
QC Beerguy
I was very pleased that my wife drank her whole pint of Pale Ale and enjoyed the beer. Once our food arrived I order the Pale Ale. The food and beer we both quite enjoyable. So when we finished our food and beers we paid and headed for stop #2, onto RIBCO for their Stone Release Party.
We arrived just a few minutes before 8pm when the Stone draft beer was scheduled to go on sale. We made our way into the bar and saw some friendly faces that we spent the rest of our time talking with. They had 3 Stone Brewing beers on tap: Cali- Belgique, Arrogant Bastard and Smoked Porter with vanilla beans. First up for me was the Porter, the vanilla came through but no real noticeable smoke. I greatly enjoyed the beer though!
My wife went with a bottle of Levitation Ale, this one she said was way to hoppy, hoppier than the Pale Ale, but she did manage to drink it. Way to go Sweetie! Beside Levitation Ale in bottles they had Pale Ale, IPA, Ruination, Sublimely Self Righteous (in 22 oz. bottles) and Oaked Arrogant Bastard. All the bottles were available for purchase before 8PM.
We both decide to have a second beer and I ordered, anybody? anybody? Yes! Arrogant Bastard! and my sweetie order the Vanilla Porter. Again a bit of a surprise since she does not like very many dark beers as well. All in all we had an enjoyable evening on our adventure of welcoming Stone Brewing's Beer to Illinois. It is so awesome that we can now have Stone Beer just by driving a few miles across the Mississippi River to a bar in Illinois and more importantly purchase for home use at liquor stores.
Now onto today's event National Beer Day. First of all we need to work on the name and make it more exciting. Any suggestions? The main point to today is it is the anniversary of the repeal of the scourge of mankind know as Prohibition. It was on April 7, 1933 that the Cullen- Harrison Act went into effect, which was signed by FDR in March of the same year. So go out and have a beer to celebrate this great anniversary.
QC Beerguy
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Stone Release in Illinois
Had a great night of Stone beer on Release night in Illinois. More later.
QC Beerguy
QC Beerguy
Monday, April 4, 2011
The Lure of "Free Money"
Tonight I am in Des Moines again and I went to Rock Bottom Brewery. I went mainly due to the fact I had $5 on my Mug Club card. That equals an extra beer with dinner tonight. As well they honor the AHA card discount. So this evening I wound up with just over $6 in "free money". Not that I am a cheap ass, but the opportunity to get more for less was too much to pass up.
As far as beer quality Rock Bottom in Des Moines serves beer that is of high quality. Tonight I enjoyed their Dopplebock, Fire Chief Ale and 4x Quad. Each beer had somewhat of a significance with me tonight. First the Dopplebock due to the season and also the blogger in Iowa that is only drinking Dopplebocks for Lent, like the monks did in times past. The Fire Chief was chosen because I am a sucker for a fundraiser! On every Fire Chief they sell they donate a quarter to fireman related charities. Lastly the 4x Quad was just because, it is a big beer that the Brewer Eric has been producing since the state of Iowa join the civilized world and allowed beer above 5% ABV.
Sometimes it is just a good evening when a person can eat and have a few beers with some "free money" that someone is giving them. Also now I am only 10 more visits from receiving my own Rock Bottom grilling set. So needless to say these freebies are anything but free, thankfully I am on business in Des Moines and can expense my dinner.
I am just saying be careful with the chance to use your free money when you go into a place to eat. It may not be every thing you bargained for.
QC Beerguy
As far as beer quality Rock Bottom in Des Moines serves beer that is of high quality. Tonight I enjoyed their Dopplebock, Fire Chief Ale and 4x Quad. Each beer had somewhat of a significance with me tonight. First the Dopplebock due to the season and also the blogger in Iowa that is only drinking Dopplebocks for Lent, like the monks did in times past. The Fire Chief was chosen because I am a sucker for a fundraiser! On every Fire Chief they sell they donate a quarter to fireman related charities. Lastly the 4x Quad was just because, it is a big beer that the Brewer Eric has been producing since the state of Iowa join the civilized world and allowed beer above 5% ABV.
Sometimes it is just a good evening when a person can eat and have a few beers with some "free money" that someone is giving them. Also now I am only 10 more visits from receiving my own Rock Bottom grilling set. So needless to say these freebies are anything but free, thankfully I am on business in Des Moines and can expense my dinner.
I am just saying be careful with the chance to use your free money when you go into a place to eat. It may not be every thing you bargained for.
QC Beerguy
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Big Brew Day Planning Day
At the last MUGZ meeting it was announced that our friends at Great River Brewing were offering up a special opportunity to brew on their brewhouse the day of Big Brew Day http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/events/national-homebrew-day. For those that may not know what Big Brew Day is I will explain. It is the first Saturday of May and is when homebrewers get together to brew beer at a common site. The past couple years we have been allowed to brew at Great River. So needless to say when the announcement was made there was quite a bit of excited interest. There were six lucky member names that were drawn to brew. We are being lead by Rich Nunez, a former brewer at Bent River, so he completes the seven headed Hydra of brewers.
Today we meet together to lay the ground work of the beer. We have chosen a style of beer that we are looking at and now are in the process of figuring out a recipe to accomplish of end choice. At this time I am not going to spill the beans on the style, you will need to be there on the day we brew to find out our choice. We all agreed on the beer and I think have some wonderful plans for our beer.
I look forward to the chance to brew on a real commercial system and learn some of the techniques it takes to brew on a 10 barrel system. This will be a fun long day with some hard work needed to be done to accomplish our end result.
Needless to say if you are interested in seeing what homebrewing is like and the multiple type of systems are used to make beer come on down. We will at Great River on May 7th starting around 10AM to brew. It is a great day to learn about homebrewing! Also if you do homebrew and want to join us please let Jim Smith know at jimsmith@seminarystreet.com to reserve a space.
Hope to see you there.
QC Beerguy
Today we meet together to lay the ground work of the beer. We have chosen a style of beer that we are looking at and now are in the process of figuring out a recipe to accomplish of end choice. At this time I am not going to spill the beans on the style, you will need to be there on the day we brew to find out our choice. We all agreed on the beer and I think have some wonderful plans for our beer.
I look forward to the chance to brew on a real commercial system and learn some of the techniques it takes to brew on a 10 barrel system. This will be a fun long day with some hard work needed to be done to accomplish our end result.
Needless to say if you are interested in seeing what homebrewing is like and the multiple type of systems are used to make beer come on down. We will at Great River on May 7th starting around 10AM to brew. It is a great day to learn about homebrewing! Also if you do homebrew and want to join us please let Jim Smith know at jimsmith@seminarystreet.com to reserve a space.
Hope to see you there.
QC Beerguy
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Big Beer Killed "Brew Masters" on Discovery
http://www.boston.com/ae/specials/culturedesk/2011/03/anthony_bourdain_discovery_kil.html this link attributes tweets to Anthony Bourbain forcing Discovery Channel to kill " Brew Masters". If this is how it happened this is very sad, but not surprising. Remember big beer just bought Goose Island, so just say "No" to AB and Goose Island!
Friday, April 1, 2011
The Landing
Last night I accompanied my wife to The Landing for a guest bartender night to raise money for the Quad City Chapter of the American Red Cross. Before last night I did not know the place existed. It is tied to the Bass Street Chop house and is a couple of doors down from the restaurant, so you have to walk outside in between the two. Yes I agree not good planning. We walked into the bar and I liked what I saw. It is an upscale bar that is serving a clientele that is out for a special evening. It is clean, with lots of wood and mirrors. They had many top shelf liquors proudly on display.
My wife and I went in and tried to find out what beers they had. Since these were guest bartenders they were unsure what they had. My wife quickly spotted Stella on tap, so that was her choice. I had to go down and see what they had for tap beers. I saw a couple interesting tap handles Founder's Centennial IPA and Two Brothers Domaine Dupage. I asked for the Founder's, after a couple of minutes I was informed by the bartender that the bar manager said that was not being poured tonight. OK why would you leave a tap handle out on display if that beer was not being poured that night? Big major strike, I was less than pleased. So they pointed me to the bottles they had on display in the fridge and saw a few interesting beers in there as well. They had Mad Hatter, Shipwrecked IPA, and Two Brother's Cane and Abel to name a few. So I first went with the Mad Hatter and then both my wife and I followed our first beers with Domine Dupage. Also I had a Cane and Abel. So they do have good beer.
If you are looking for an upscale bar to start your night out, I would suggest giving The Landing a try. Hopefully they do a better job staying current on what they actually have on tap or what they are willing to serve their customers. One other aside they do not have any local beer, so that would be the second improvement they need to make. So if anyone from the local breweries is reading this go get them! Every bar in town needs at least one good local beer!
Again another mention of what the Red Cross does for the community. With in the last week they have helped the victims of at least 3 fires to the tune of over $20,000 for the 3 fires. Unfortunately 2 of the fires were in apartments, so many people were displace in each fire. Just a reminder if you can spare a few $ or the price of a beer this weekend. please consider on donating to the Quad City chapter of the American Red Cross. Hopefully they won't be helping you out when the next fire in the community hits.
QC Beerguy
My wife and I went in and tried to find out what beers they had. Since these were guest bartenders they were unsure what they had. My wife quickly spotted Stella on tap, so that was her choice. I had to go down and see what they had for tap beers. I saw a couple interesting tap handles Founder's Centennial IPA and Two Brothers Domaine Dupage. I asked for the Founder's, after a couple of minutes I was informed by the bartender that the bar manager said that was not being poured tonight. OK why would you leave a tap handle out on display if that beer was not being poured that night? Big major strike, I was less than pleased. So they pointed me to the bottles they had on display in the fridge and saw a few interesting beers in there as well. They had Mad Hatter, Shipwrecked IPA, and Two Brother's Cane and Abel to name a few. So I first went with the Mad Hatter and then both my wife and I followed our first beers with Domine Dupage. Also I had a Cane and Abel. So they do have good beer.
If you are looking for an upscale bar to start your night out, I would suggest giving The Landing a try. Hopefully they do a better job staying current on what they actually have on tap or what they are willing to serve their customers. One other aside they do not have any local beer, so that would be the second improvement they need to make. So if anyone from the local breweries is reading this go get them! Every bar in town needs at least one good local beer!
Again another mention of what the Red Cross does for the community. With in the last week they have helped the victims of at least 3 fires to the tune of over $20,000 for the 3 fires. Unfortunately 2 of the fires were in apartments, so many people were displace in each fire. Just a reminder if you can spare a few $ or the price of a beer this weekend. please consider on donating to the Quad City chapter of the American Red Cross. Hopefully they won't be helping you out when the next fire in the community hits.
QC Beerguy
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