The Beer Thread: 2009 – 2012

[Beerambassador]

You can get it all over the state. It's a pretty solid brewery. I'm not wild about their IPA, but I've enjoyed pretty much everything else by them. The Satin Solstice Stout is really great.

[logan82]

So I finally found D-Man at Woodman's in Madison. 3 whole bottles. The guy working there thought Black Wheat was the same thing with a darker label. Sigh.

 

Edit: We looked for D-man at a few places on Friday which prompted my wife to ask "are you going to go around Madison and buy out Dancing Man Wheat a bottle at at time?" To which I replied, "if I have to." I also picked up some Horny Goat Wheat. I will let you know how it is. Have some Mothership Wit. It is ok, but not great. Tastes like a Belgium Ale(?) to me, similar to Blue Moon. A little sweet and not quite to my liking. Still a quality beer.

[Invader3K]

Probably been discussed to death already, but I tried Fat Tire for the first time the other day (local bar was making a big deal about the fact they're now carrying it). Big 22 oz bottle, served in a special glass. I didn't get what the big deal was, to be honest. Seemed like a fairly bland amber ale. Guess I just didn't care for it too much personally.

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Ooohh!! Diamond Knot Industrial IPA now in bottles!!

 

That means I can bring TLB one or two when I travel down to PDX on the weekend of June 27-28th!

 

Of course, I'm told that the Jonas Bros. are playing the Rose that Saturday so he may be busy.

 

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[TooLiveBrew]

Diamond Knot sounds like my kinda brew

 

 

 

http://i3.iofferphoto.com/img/item/407/497/36/JONAS_BROTHERS_WANTED.jpg

[logan82]

Not sure if it was mentioned, but I saw a 6 hop IPA and Imperial Pilsner special edition beers from Point Brewery. They called them Wholehog Limited release beers. I didn't pick either up since neither is a style I like very much. Link

 

I had they guy at the liquor store in the back room for 15 minutes looking for D-man. He went back there twice and then called his distributor before going back a third time and finding some.

[Big Ern2440]

I have both of the Point "whole hogs". The imperial pilsner is very good, I will try the IPA this weekend.

[TooLiveBrew]

I had they guy at the liquor store in the back room for 15 minutes looking for D-man. He went back there twice and then called his distributor before going back a third time and finding some.

 

Anti-DFA liquor store guy! I can't believe how hard that beer is to find. You'd think New Glarus would fall over themselves to find a way to produce & distribute more.

[logan82]

I know. I think the problem is that the Black Wheat is still all over the place. There isn't room for the D-man on the shelves. Everywhere I go they have Black Wheat. Hopefully it will be the same for D-man once the Black Wheat is gone.

 

Tried the Horny Goat Wheat. Very cloudy. Not a bad beer. Of course I am not a big fan of most Belgium wheat beers so this wasn't really my style.

[fstorm1]

Yikes. Almost went a month with nothing new in here. Everyone must be as poor as me. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif

 

On our way back from spending last weekend in Duluth, we stopped (for the 2nd time) at The Dane in Wausau. Guess I didn't mention the last time, but man, is that place spit and polish. Again felt I was under dressed arriving at the 2nd bar (they have what seems to be a "snottier" bar and a layman's). No matter, I was on a mission. Wisely remembered to bring two empty growler's with, and filled one with their stunning scottish ale. The second I got their seasonal Maibock, which is really very, very good. Since it's an 1 1/2 hours home, it was a tad warm after we got home, but beer waits for no one, and neither does my thirst. I will say it was even better after a day in the fridge. Excellent stuff. Whilest waiting for the nice bar fellow to fill the Maibock, I asked if I could try another of their seasonals...not sure if you're all ready for this:

 

Watermelon Wheat. Seriously. Tried alot of wheat's, don't recall anyone having the oomph to try pairing it with watermelon, which can very easily overpower anything. But I gotta say, honestly, it wasn't that bad at all. I'm not gonna get a growler of it, nor would I want to drink it all night, but as a closing beer, after an evening of other stuff, would work great. Reminded me of how the Pyramid Apricot Ale tasted (not in taste, but in fruit/sweetness). Same thing, good closer.

 

While in Duluth, my nice rich mostly wine-drinking future uncle-in-law (great guy despite the wine lovin) had filled one of his beer fridges (yes, he has 3, no joke) with Harp lager. Now all I could really recall after all these years is that at some point in my Milwaukee 21-ish year old days I O.D.ed on Harp and hadn't been able to drink any since, especially out of the bottle. But boy, dunno if it was the weather (hot), the scenery (spectacular), or the company, it was amazingly tasty. May have to give it another try, when I'm not in such a good mood. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[logan82]

Interesting. It has been a while since I have gone to The Great Dane despite only being 30 minutes away(downtown not really convenient with kids in tow, yeah and the money thing, and not much reason to stray from D-Man and Oberon in their limited run). I will have to make a stop on Friday with the family. Hopefully the Madison location will have the Watermelon Wheat. Sounds interesting.

[TooLiveBrew]

The watermelon wheat tends to go quickly. It's relatively popular, and I'd have to guess they don't brew much of it. As fruit wheats go, it's pretty good.

[Beerambassador]

They're out. My wife had it two weekends ago, so we had to go back last weekend...and it was sold out. The waitress said they'll have more at some point this summer. I don't really care for it, but my wife loves it.

[logan82]

Picked up Central Waters Brewery Whitewater Weizen. It's ok not great. Not likely to pick it up again.

 

Went to the Great Dane in Fitchburg today. I like the location a little better than the downtown. Unfortunately their beer selection is a bit smaller than their other locations. I didn't find the Watermelon beer, not surprising. The service was great, again not surpeising for a Friday afternoon. We tried just about everything they had. What stood out for us was the Texas Roadbump IPA. The reason it stood out is because we are not really fans of IPA.We also tried the Oatmeal Stout ans Maibock. The Maibock was ok and we thought the Oatmeal Stout was a little weak/thin. Nothing bad, just not great. I of course brought home the Crop Circle Wheat and my wife the Black Earth Porter.

[fstorm1]

Okeedokee, spent the evening polishing off a 6 pack of the best wheats in the world that I foolishly forgot to give to my future father in-law last weekend (gosh, darn it, what a bummer http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif), a pack which included DaMan, Hacker, Sprecher, Paulaner, Franziskaner, and Ebel's (two DaMan's in there), and I gotta say, although DaMan is the best tasting wheat in the world (thus far), Hacker is still the best in terms of drinkability. May be blasphemy, but I gotta admit it.

 

Be heading away to the great white north (Duluth) for the holiday, but here's hoping everyone's holiday is full of good beer, good food, and good pyrotechnics.

[SeriesFinale]

Picked up the Kona Brewery Wailua Wheat (passionfruit wheat beer). It's still really good.

 

And I still don't really like wheat beers. And I still really hate fruit-wheats. Honestly.

Interesting, I saw a display in the grocery store the other day and while I love wheats, I've never had a really good experience with fruit-wheats either (in some cases *cough-Leinie's-Berry-Weiss-cough* terrible experiences), so I balked.

 

I'll check it out.

[NeedMoreFans]

According to New Glarus's website, Yokel is supposed to be released at any time, being out from July through September. It wasn't here in 2008, so I'm looking forward to its return. That was one of my favorite beers.

[SeriesFinale]

Yeah, I love Yokel too; I'm normally not a big lager guy, so the name on the bottle put me off at first, but this kellerbier is obviously a different beast.

 

Man, I'm getting excited to get out to New Glarus this summer.

[logan82]

Not sure how much of a wheat the Leinies beers really are. They say Weiss, but the only one I might really think of as a wheat beer is Sunset Wheat.

[logan82]

Planning on making a trip down to New Glarus on Friday. Does anybody have any helpful information on the brewery or the surrounding area?

 

I would like to give Michelob a little credit for trying to make new "craft" type beers. I know they really are mostly interested in making money off of it, but still they are making an effort. They also did one really good thing on the label of their Hop Hound Amber Wheat. Pouring instructions.(pour out all but 1/2 inch, put bottle on table on it's side, roll gently, pour rest in glass is the short version) I have only come across this a couple of other times. Guinness Draught(leave in bottle, also had a serving temperature) and I think one of the Goose Island beers. Ideally it would be nice to see 2 things on a beer label, bottled date and pouring instructions including information on the proper type of glass and proper serving temperature.

 

BTW, Hop Hound, not very hoppy or wheaty. I am not buying it again. Still better than the typical Bud or Miller stuff.

[Beerambassador]

As far as I know, even with the new brewery, New Glarus tours are all self-guided. Which is really, really lame. I went on the self guided tour at the old brewery and felt like it was a waste of time. The samples at the end were overpriced and also lame. I hope they get their crap together because the tours there were awful.

 

That said, New Glarus is a neat little town in a beautiful part of the state.

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Portland Beer Festival list is out.

 

Roots, Diamond Knot, Maritime Pacific, Georgetown and Big E are all out. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/indifferent.gif This is really becoming a major-micro kinda thing.

 

midwest entries: Sprecher (bringing the Mai Bock . . .any good?) and Summit (eww . . .)

 

Still, this is my big event of the year!

 

 

 

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[TooLiveBrew]

I can't wait. I hope to see as many (3) or more Brewers hats there this year as last year.

[logan82]

Went to New Glarus and walked around their Hilltop Brewery on Friday. Not really much of a tour, more of a roped and walled off area where you can wander around while you drink a beer. I guess they are getting an audio tour in the next month or so. They have a big tasting room and a patio area where you can drink your samples. Very nicely landscaped brewery. They also have a small beer shop at the front of the place. Not a great tour, but what made it worth while and one reason I will 100% be going back. Golden Ale. A special brew only available at the Brewery. I am not sure if this is the only special beer they bottle or if they periodically brew a different special beer and sell it only at the brewery. I intend to find out. Oh, by the way 7.0% ABV.

[datrain711]

I believe the Golden Ale is the 1st part in their R & D beer series that are available only at the brewery.

 

I haven't been out there since the new place opened so i will be going soon!