Craft Table and Tap - Saturday 3/17/12
On Saturday, I visited my sister and brother-in-law in Middleton, WI for the day as something of a joint celebration of my and my wife’s birthdays. For Dinner, we went to a place that was within walking distance of their apartment that had only been open a few months, but which they had said had gotten good reviews. They hadn’t been there before, but they said they’d heard the food was good, and that the beer selection was big.
The decor included high booth backs, a combination of low square tables, raised bar-like tables and booths that were somewhere in between. It all flowed very well. They had a number of antique tools on the walls that I felt were very out of place, but Amanda pointed out that they went well with the tin bucket that our fry-appetizer came out in, and the stoppered bottle that they gave us as a water carafe. My wife really liked the appetizers. We’d ordered fries which were thin-cut, crispy and lightly seasoned. They were okay. She also liked the buffalo wings which only had a hint of heat, but had a very good flavor – very garlicy. Andrew, my brother-in-law was disappointed by the wings because they were “buffalo,” but didn’t bring any heat to bear. He’s a big fan of HOT hot wings, but he’s also got good taste – he also likes them to have good flavor as well as heat. I liked the wings.
My sandwich was very good. I had a mushroom burger. They brag about locally sourced ingredients, and you can tell by the quality of their food. Although I’ll admit that I’ve had better burgers (Sobleman’s for instance) this was still a very good burger. I would definitely recommend it.
When we walked in, Wisconsin was playing (March Madness, of course), so one of the specials (aside from their St. Paddy’s day specials) was that that that there was a discount on Wisconsin draft beers. Well, lucky for me, they had good beer on tap. I started out with an Ale Asylum Hopalicious – a personal favorite beer of mine. It’s an American Pale Ale with 5.8% ABV by Ale Asylum in Madison, WI that brings a lot of hop flavor to bear without overpowering bitterness.
After dinner, but before desert, I tried a Lake Louie Warped Speed. I hadn’t heard of Lake Louie Louie Brewing Co. (from Arena, WI), but according to Andrew, it has a following in the Madison Area. Warped Speed is a Scotch Ale. Scotch ales that I’ve had in the past have been smoky, and although smoky can be done well, I don’t think it should be over-done. If their scotch ale was intended to be smoky, they missed the mark; but the beer didn’t suffer from it. It had a mild floral scent, and the flavor was bready and mildly sweet with a bit of hop bitterness. There was not much of a head and no lace on the glass. It was a beautiful cranberry red with a crisp mouth-feel and a flavor that covered your mouth during the sip and then sat on the center of your mouth afterward. Quite frankly, I thought it was an excellent beer.
Miller Brewing Company Brewery Tour - Monday, 3/19/12
When possible, I believe in taking my birthday off from work and celebrating all things me. This year, I was able to accomplish that. While trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my day, I decided to do the Miller Brewery Tour. It was one of two local breweries I wanted to tour, and it was the one with the most flexible tour schedule for my day. I started in the area that doubles as guest relations and their gift shop. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised, but the gift shop was very big and the prices were pretty good on most items. Unfortunately, I’m not a big Miller drinker. Granted, I could have bought a number of items that represent beers under the MillerCoors family of brands: Leinenkugel’s, Blue Moon, Mickey’s, Old English. But quite frankly I wasn’t interested. I was at Miller, so I wanted Miller swag. (For the record, this was the first time that I realized that Blue Moon was a MillerCoors brand). So I bought myself a nice metal pin of the girl in the moon that is pictured on the Miller High Life bottles. It now holds a place of prominence on my bag.
The tour is free (my favorite price) and includes three samples and a small bag of pretzels at the end. There are no take-aways like commemorative glasses or anything, unless you want to purchase them, but I was more than happy with the price. There were twelve of us on the tour and it was a fairly quiet group. We toured the packaging plant, the brewery (we didn’t get to see the mash tun), the old caves and then ended at the “Miller Inn” for the sampling. Quite honestly, I would have liked to have seen more of the plant, but I enjoyed the tour nonetheless. On the old brewery, was a brewer’s star, which looks similar to the Star of David and represents purity. The six elements being water, hops, grain, malt, yeast and the brewmaster.
At the Miller Inn, we were given three beers:
Miller Lite – What’s to describe? It’s drinkable but it’s a lite beer.
Peroni – A common Italian beer distributed by Millercoors. It looks similar to a Miller Lite, but has a thicker mouth feel and, although not sweet, is “sweeter” than a Miller Lite.
Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy – Two of the people I was seated with described it as “limey,” and I let them know that it is intended to come across as lemonade-infused.
They told us where to sit. Being there by myself, I was seated with a mother-daughter pair and another gentleman who was there by himself. At first the table was all too quiet for my liking, so I hoped the social lubricant would do its job, and I started talking to my fellow tour-mates. Fortunately, they willing joined in and I had a good time. As it turns out, I was the only Milwaukee-area native at the table, so it made for some good conversation.
All-in-all, it was a very good time. But for other visitors, there are a couple of things to keep in mind – It is not wheelchair accessible, and to get the most from the tour, you should be willing to climb a few stairs. As long as that’s fine, then I’d definitely recommend it. The preceding video and the tour take about an hour or so. I milked my samples and talked a lot, so I was there for closer to an hour and forty-five minutes, but I think the social aspect is important (if you can get others on the tour to talk with you.)
The Wicked Hop - Monday 3/19/12
For lunch I headed to the Third ward and ate at The Wicked Hop. There is a decent amount of Cream City brick, and the décor is something you’d expect from an establishment in the Third Ward. Don’t know what I mean? Artsy, eclectic, somewhat modern, but blended with the old. I don’t think that does it justice. Come to Milwaukee and go to 2 places in the Third Ward; then you’ll know what I mean.
I asked the woman who was serving me what beer they had -It wasn’t on the menu and they didn’t give me a beer menu. From their website, I knew they had a good selection. She said, “We have everything,” and started naming styles. I asked what IPA they had and she told me they had Lakefront Poison Arrow on tap. Since I’d never had it, I ordered it. It was a dark amber with a hint of red. There wasn’t much malt flavor, so the focus was clearly on the hops. Nonetheless, it didn’t come across as poorly balanced. It had a floral sweetness with a bitter finish that rested somewhere between the center and the tip of the tongue. It had a medium bodied mouth-feel, and not much head to speak of. The scent was mild with similar floral notes to what were in the flavor.
After my meal, I had a Lakefront Big Easy (imperial maibock.) It was a medium-dark golden amber color with a nice head that faded fairly quickly but which left a little bit of lace on the glass. I sipped it and my first thought was that it tasted like honey. Not in the way that Leinie’s Honey Weiss tastes like honey. But in the way that Berenjager honey liqueur tastes like honey. Its scent was mild, sweet and malty – reminiscent of banana-nut muffins. Although there was a little hop-bitterness in the front of the mouth, it had a predominantly malty flavor. It had a syrupy mouth feel that only hit the back of the throat on the second swallow. The mild bitterness lingered on the tip of the tongue while the maltiness rested toward the center-rear of the tongue long after the sip. For an imperial, the alcohol wasn’t really noticeable in the flavor, making it easy to drink.
I had a turkey-swiss sandwich on rye with fries. Not a good pair for the maibock (which I think would have paired with a salty, garlicy feta dish better), but it was a nice subtle complement to the IPA. My food came out very fast and it was very tasty. Service was prompt, attentive and friendly. If I’d been in a hurry, I could have been in and out in a very short period of time (granted, I was after the lunch rush), but they also didn’t try to rush me. They were more than happy to let me sit here and type up notes while I sipped my beer.
So far, it has been a very pleasant birthday-weekend!
