The Land of Cheese and Beer

Welcome to the land of cheese and beer aka Wisconsin. Took a trip up to Milwaukee in June and visited the Miller Brewery and the Lakefront Brewery.

First stop was Miller Brewery. First off I am not a fan of the big mass produced breweries but I went here anyways cause a couple friends of mine had not been on their tour before. The tour is pretty lame, you start off at their gift store then walk down the street to where they bottle and can the beer. Ho hum, moving on up the street you get to one of the few highlights of the tour and that's the old cave in which way back when is where they would store the beer before refrigeration came to fruition. Now to the good part, sampling the beer and it is a major letdown cause the first beer sample they give you is triple hopped water ie Miller Lite yuck. Across the street in the beer garden you get to choose what your next samples are of beer that they either make or distribute. I started off with Blue Moon Summer Honey Wheat, well that was a bad choice on my part cause it sucked. Last beer sample I had was much better, Leinenkugels Sunset Wheat, now this is what a wheat beer should be like, nice aroma to it, light and refreshing, very smooth finish. Optional part of the tour was seeing the brewhouse and that was pretty lame since all we did was just go up there and see it and the tour guide didn't really say anything. I don't recommend this tour.

On to Lakefront Brewery and we were planning on going to Stubby's for a bite to eat but lo and behold they are closed on Mondays. Will have to go there another time and check it out since they offer 53 beers on tap. So, we went and did the earlier tour at Lakefront. Now this is what a brewery tour should be like. You get your beer samples right away before the tour starts unlike Miller down the street and the tour guide was way more entertaining as well. They give you 4 beer samples plus you get a coupon for another sample from one of the local bars as well, not bad for $7. Or you could opt to get a discount on their merchandise. I wished they had their Wheat Monkey there for us to sample cause that is a really good wheat beer. Never the less, I had their Wisconsite, their Fixed Gear, and their White as well as their IPA and you could not go wrong with any of them, Lakefront has been in operation for quite some time now and they definitely know what they are doing cause all their beers are pretty darn good. If you are ever in the land of cheese and beer, do yourself a favor and go take a tour of Lakefront Brewery.

Cheers!

Scottish Festival & Highland Games

I've been wanting to go to this festival for quite some time now and used to always have to work all day the weekend that it takes place cause it's our annual open house at the golf course when this festival is going on. Well, this year I didn't have to work until later int he day so I had some time to check it out for a few hours.

They had a British car show there that was mostly a few Mini Coopers and a couple of Lotuses and thats it so it really wasn't much as far as cars go. You would of thought they could of gotten some Aston Martins, Austin Healey's, and Bentley's there as well. But anyways the festival really isn't about cars, it's about celebrating the Scottish highland games.

As for the games themselves, I was only able to see the contestants throwing the 25 pound hammer during the hammer throw. Amazing how far some of these guys can throw it. Over on the other athletic field they had a whole bunch of local rugby teams playing and I watched that for a bit.

It's a Scottish festival so the beer of choice was from Belhaven Brewery. The first beer that I had was their Twisted Thistle IPA. Well, it wasn't very twisted at all in my opinion. I'm used to IPA's being bitter and this one was not that bitter at all so if you have never had an IPA before then this one might be a good choice to start off with since it wasn't overly bitter like most American IPA's are. Next up was their Scottish Ale and that was pretty good, it had a sweet, smooth finish to it. Thanks to the beer lady for giving me two drink tickets instead of just the one that I had paid for, I was able to have a couple more beers before leaving to go to work lol. Had another IPA and then I had a lager that had good mouthfeel to it and was very refreshing to drink on a hot summer day.

There also was a whole bunch of drum and pipe bands from the Chicagoland area and that is always a fun time hearing them playing the bagpipes. It may all pretty much sound the same to me but I enjoyed it. If I didn't have to go to work, I would of just spent all day there listening to the pipes and drinking down somw good Scottish beer.

Cheers!

Brew at the Zoo!!!!!

Brew at the Zoo in Baltimore was fun time. What a great way to take a couple hours away from the death metal at the Maryland Deathfest by going over to the zoo and seeing the animals and sampling some good beer.

Speaking of the beer, they could of had a better selection than what was there. I mean come on, why were people standing in long lines just to sample Blue Moon and Leinenkugels? The craft brews that were there that I enjoyed was from DuClaw Brewing Company and from Shipyard Brewery.

The food was phenomenal!!!!! Man the crabby melt from Grilled On was so yummy and delicious. I asked the guy what I should get and man oh man I'm glad I took the guy's advice and had the crabby melt. Best grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had and no they didn't use Old Spice in it cause that's a cologne lol.

I just wished that they had the beer vendors throughout the zoo so that when you are walking around and looking at the animals you can sample the beer. That's how it was at the brew zoo in Pittsburgh that I went to a few years ago. This one they have all the beer vendors in one location and then if you want to see the animals you can walk around and then come back for more beer. They probably wouldn't have such long lines if they did it that way with the beer all scattered out in the zoo.

Overall though even with the lack of craft brews it still was a fun break from the death fest.

Cheers!!!!!!

Got the blues? Grab some brews!!!!

Got the blues? Well, then grab some brews to wash them away.

Was at the Craft Brews and Blues Festival this past spring in May over in the western suburb of St. Charles, IL. There sure wasn't much of a selection of craft brews at this beer festival. And then later on we noticed that one of the craft breweries there, Rogue, well they spelled their name wrong on the table and spelled it Rouge lol. If you were there and had a few beers in ya then you would of found that funny too!

Well, a couple of beers from the few that were there that I really liked was Firestone's IPA and Rogue's Yellow Snow. Other than that it was slim pickings since it was such a small little beer festival crammed into a little room. If they have this again then I suggest they book a bigger room for it.

As far as the blues music goes, it was pretty darn good. And later on I found out that one of the regular golfers at where I work, was the drummer for the band. Some day I will have to go and hear them play again.

Oh and the Wheat Monkey from Lakefront Brewery was pretty darn good as well.

Cheers!!!!!!!!

Peoria International Beerfest April 2012

Back in April of this year I decided to go down to Peoria and see my brother and check out the Peoria International Beerfest. My brother has been living there for like 15 years now and has never been to the beer festival and it was so close to where he lives too lol.

Anyways so the first night of the festival in the middle they had some food vendors and some of it was pretty good too especially the shepards pie. We hit up the food first so that we weren't sampling beer on an empty belly.

One of the best beers there was from Erdinger and their Ur Weisse beer. If ya don't know me by now well you should know that I do enjoy German hefeweizens, one of my favorite styles of beer. This weisse beer was a bit different and had a strong spicy aroma to it. At first when the guy was pouring my sample I thought he said that it was Euro Weisse lol. As for the American craft beers that were there on the first day none really stood out for me. I did get a lot of questions asked to me about the shirt I was wearing that night, Saluki Dunkeldog from Big Muddy Brewery. People wanted to know if they were there and they weren't there but to come back the next day and see them.

Day 2 of the festival there was a lot more beers on hand to sample and some of the ones that I liked was the Mad Hatter IPA from New Holland Brewing Company, the Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye, and the Vanilla Honey Weizen from Rhodell Brewery. I think I must of gone back and had about 6 samples of it cause it was that good. There was one Belgian Red that we tried that was so damn sour and tasted awful that we dumped it out. Left Hand Brewery had a pretty nice display there, they had a car and on the back of the car there was a couple of tap handles. Now that's the kind of car I need as long as the police don't pull me over lol.

Overall, there was plenty of beers to choose from at this festival since they had over 300 beers they were pouring on the second day. There was some good food and music as well and I would definitely go back again some time. Oh and one more thing that I forgot to mention was the chili beer that I had sampled. It was like drinking some jalepeno juice lol.

Chicago Beer Festival March 2012

After getting through a pretty mild Chicago winter it was time to leave hibernation and get out and have some beers. The first ever Chicago Beer Festival took place at the end of March in the Great Hall at Union Station. They had two sampling sessions and I attended both of them.

After standing in line to get in they finally let us in only to be all crammed in one little spot inside before they let us downstairs to the Great Hall. In which we had to wait some more before finally letting us in. Was it worth the wait to get in? No, not really since most of the beers that were being poured was from the big mass produced domestics, ie Miller Coors and Budweiser. Who wants to drink that swill when there are so many craft breweries. Was disappointed that some Chicago breweries were not even represented there. Oh and the sampling glass should be glass next time and not plastic.

One of the highlights for me was seeing Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale there from Kentucky Ales. There was a long line to get a sample and with good reason since the beer is that good. A perfect combo of craft beer that has been aged in bourbon barrels gives you a whole kaleidoscope of flavors. Another outstanding beer that I had sampled was the Mad Hatter IPA from New Holland Brewery. It was so good I had to have another one lol.

Had to have something to eat and I must say the Korean Beef grilled cheese was delicious. By far the best thing they had there as far as the food goes.

Both sessions the Great Hall was packed with thousands of people there in attendance. If they have it again next year, I'd like to see them have less mass produced beers and more craft beers to get new people tuned on that there is a whole plethora of good beer out there that ya don't have to settle for something that is less filling.

Bean Town last fall

Went and visited Bean Town last October. It was my first ever trip out east to Boston and no I did not visit the Boston Beer Company while I was there. Though I did see Samuel Adams grave during the trek through the Freedom Trail. Sure did need a beer after having climbed all them steps to the top of Bunker Hill monument.

First course of action upon arrival and checking into the hotel was to go and visit Harpoon Brewery. It was well worth the visit. Was one of the best brewery tours that I have been on. They give you a sample of their hefeweizen before the tour starts. Next they went on to explain the brewing process and then it was off to the fermentation process where they poured their IPA straight from the fermentation tank. Moving on to the bottling and kegging process and then it was back up to belly up to the bar and sample as many of their beers that you wanted within about 20 minutes before the next tour. I must say their fruity hefeweizen that they had was quite good and refreshing.

Visited Salem and will never ever go back there. It was crowded since it was October. Couldn't get into the Witch Museum due to so many people there and getting into the bars to have a drink was a big hassle. What's up with asking for two forms of ID's and if we have credit cards? We got cold hard cash to spend on beer and ya don't want us to come in well screw you we will take our tourist dollars elsewhere.

Champions Sports bar in the back bay at the Hilton was an awesome bar for a hotel bar. Plasma TV's all above the bar and an extensive beer list was the ideal place to watch Da Bears game while we were there. Then it was off to Spooky World at Fenway Park that night and it sure was a howling good time.

After hitting up numerous bars while walking along the Freedom Trail we then went and visited Harvard University in Cambridge, MA and they had some good beer bars there like Cambridge Brewing Company, and John Harvard's Brew House.

I would definitely go back there but next time I will avoid going to Salem.

the beer slacker

Been so busy between working and going to beer festivals that I've totally slacked off on here. Will catch up soon on here and  post what I have been up to the past few months.