Tyranena Brewing-Scurvy

Every time I head up to Wisconsin I like to over to the local cheese shop to make a mix and match 6pk. Plus the curds are great. Scurvy was one of the randoms I picked up last time. From the look and smell this would seem to be a great IPA. The nose is full of citrus with a good amount of hoppyness. This is one bitter brew though. I really like hoppy beers, but this one didn’t do it for me. It came off as really unbalanced and piney bitter. So far Tyranena is 0 for 2. I wasn’t a fan of their Bitter Woman IPA either. Next time I’ll give another style a try from them. Maybe IPA’s aren’t their thing.

FFF-Apocalypse Cow

I picked this up at work a few weeks ago. Couldn't pass up a new Three Floyds with such great art on the bottle. This is a nice well rounded double IPA. Nothing really super exciting about it tough. The Floyds usually make such great stuff I think i may be jaded. It has citrus and maybe mango notes with a great mouthfeel. It's alot like Alpha King. The name comes from the use of lactose sugar. Bottle art was done by a chicago artist Dan Grzeca. I like it so much that I bought a print of it. For $20 you can't go wrong with a handmade print. Once I get it framed I share some picks.

New Glarus Brewery Tour

Alex and I went up to to the land of cheese and beer for the weekend last month. While there we drove to the newly opened hilltop brewery. The drive out to the brewery is great. You go straight though the winding roads of the Driftless area. The Driftless area is a part of southwest Wisconsin that has deeply carved valleys from glacial drift. There's also some great fly fishing for trout in streams no bigger than one lane of highway in the area. No fishing this time though. We passed the old brewery on the way to the new one. Once you see the new facility you wonder how they ever did it all in the old one. This place is the nicest micobrewery i have seen. The front is setup to looks like an european village. There's limestone steps that lead you to the brewery with a waterfall besides it. Once inside you can grab yourself a pint or a sampler. They had 6 beers on tap. For $3.50 you get a taster glass and 3 4oz samples. They only have guided tours on the weekend, so we took the self guided one. Wich means you cna walk anywhere thats not ropped off. The first thing you see once leaving the gift shop is the new copper kettles. Then you follow the hallway which leads you past a yeast storage room, a chemistry lab like room, the bottleing/kegging and past the fermetion tanks. NG put in 20mil to make this new brewery happen. They have expaned from 65,000 to 130,000 barrels. Looks like it was worth every penny. I almost forgot one of the coolest reason for stopping in, beer. They have a beer depot by the parking lot. Everything that they bew is there and sold by the case. Even brews that are out of season, like the iced barleywine. I spent way too much money there. But then again you have to stock up since it's only sold in Wisconsin.

Hakim Stout

I went out with Alex and her parents to an Ethiopian restaurant last week. The waiter recommended a number of Ethiopian and African brews. A African stout he mentioned intrigued me. When I heard him say it i was kind of confused. It's not one of the things I could picture being made in such a hot arid place. The bottle and glass came and waiter poured me some. It has a great label. The beer pours and looks like a Newcastle. The taste isn't that far from one either. Has a stronger malty sweetness to it though. I would call this a brown rather than a stout. It went great with the food. It's definitely worth a try if you come across some.

New Glarus-Imerial Saison

Wow. I was not expecting this when I poured a glass. Its quite sweet and very citrusy. The fruit flavors are big and bold. Apricot and green apple among others. The flavor is quite complex, so I couldn't get all of it in since I only had one. Quite hazy pour with a big sold white head. I can't wait to go up to Wisconsin this weekend, so I can get some more.

Modelo Especial

Nothing goes better with Mexican food than beer. Most Mexican brews are light, crisp, and slightly more sophisticated than the light beer brewed to the north. That's still not saying much. But this Modelo went quite well with my couscous tacos for dinner. Thanks to TK for leaving in my cooler after the USA game.

PS-The foil drives me nuts. I always have a piece that finds it's way into my glass.

The Kolsch

I brewed the beer that started it all. A Kolsch. It's all we drank while in Germany, and it's delicious stuff. This was the first time I used Wyeast activator yeast. The yeast is in a sealed in a pouch with a little bag of activators for the yeast. You smack the activator bag so it mixes with the yeast and in a few hours the bag bulges as the yeast eats the sugars and produces CO2. After I pitched the yeast I put the batch in the closet to ferment. Two days later the lid was blown off the bucket. Fermentation was so vigoruous that the airlock was clogged with foam and I guess the pressure kept on building until it popped. The lid was resanitized and i put it back on. The fermentaion continued, so I hope that a good sign that it didnt get contaminated. I do now have a closet with beer crud all over the walls though.