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Colin86

Colin86

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I'm a Wisconsin boy, and I do believe our state is gallon for gallon the best beer state in the country (Even counting the commercialized bland brews). So I was wondering, what is every Wisconsinite's favorite in-state brew? Even for those out-of-state, what do you like from America's Dairyland?

Here are some of my favorites:

New Glarus Spotted Cow (obligatory)
Capital Oktoberfest
Sprecher Black Bavarian
Fox River Brewery 1853 (seasonal brew)
 
Old Milwaukee, Hamms, PBR Light, Old Style Light and Olympia Light. :drunk:


Actually:

New Glarus Spotted Cow
New Glarus Totally Naked
Leinenkugels Honey Weiss
Leinenkugels Summer Shandy (summer only of course)
Capital Brewing Island Wheat
Capital Amber
 
New Glarus Moon Man
Ale Asylum Hopalicious
Tyranena Bitter Woman
Lake Louie Milk Stout (anything by Lake Louie is great)
Berghoff Dark
Capital Oktoberfest
 
I'm a big fan of Lakefront, especially their Cream City and the IPA. I'm not a fan of Sprecher much, or New Glarus. I like Tyranena, but don't buy much of it. I'm not a fan of the WI macros like Leine's or Point.
 
New Glarus - Stag horn (seasonal) + Fat squirrel *oddly the ONLY 2 beers from NG I like.

Sprecher - Amber *Seldom get anymore but has been a "go to" beer in some cases.

Sand Creek Brewing Co. - Lilja's Hop Ness Monster *Really not bad for an IPA

Oscar's - Chocolate stout *Just tried and it is a decent stout with a VERY subtle chocolate finish. Some bottles had poor head retention but were still good.

Hinterland - Stout *I like this one but have been on a "try something different" kick...

Os'o Brewing Co. - Night Train stout *Wow just wow. I actually was fortunate to have this served on nitro! EXCELLENT Stout!

Yoop said:
I'm not a fan of the WI macros like Leine's or Point.
Click to expand...
Same here. Some of the WORST beers come from these 2 breweries I have ever had!
 
Ale Asylum - Ambergeddon, Happy Ending, Contorter Porter
Tyranena - Bitter Woman, Hop Whore
Oso's - Picnic Ants, Lupulin Maximus
Grumpy Troll - Slow Eddy
Stone Cellar - Pumkin Ale
 
Sprecher's Black Bavarian and New Glarus' Spotted Cow.

Can't get either where I am now and I miss them.
 
Tyranena Bitter woman

Ale Asylum ambergeddon and last time I had the their Madtown nut brown it was phenomenal. Oh, also the porter

Don't knock leinies just because its pretty much macro. Their 10th St. brewery in the ghetto can produce some really good small scale batches. This years Big Eddy RIS is very good.

Tons of the New Glarus unplugged's
 
New Glarus - Moon Man, Fat Squirrel, Staghorn Oktoberfest

Took a self guided tour of the brewery a few months ago and I was extremely impressed. It's like a beer castle.
 
Furthermore: Knot Stock, Fatty Boomballatty, Thermo Refur, pretty much anything these guys make is fantastic

Daves Brew Farm: Aubex, Matacabras, Select

Tyranena- All in all a pretty solid lineup

Central Waters: Mud Puppy Porter, Bourbon Barrel Barleywine

Os'O: Night train, Hopdinger

Rush River: Bubblejack, Lost Arrow Porter

Since I am from Wisco as well, pretty much anything I make is my favorite as well :D
 
NG- Fat Squirrel, Moon Man, Spotted Cow, Organic Revolution (I don't believe that they sell organic revolution anymore)

Leinies- 1888 Bock, Creamy Dark and the occasional Fireside Nut Brown
 
Not a winsconsonite but I visited a few breweries when I was there. Wasn't really impressed by new glarus; nice brewery in a pretty area but the beers didn't live up to the hype. I liked Sprechers- picked up a few bottles of their bourbon barrel aged imperial stout; great beer.
 
New Glarus - Stone Soup, Moon Man
Lake Louie - Prairie Moon (best lawnmower beer ever!), Warped Speed
Ale Asylum - AMBERGEDDON
Tyranena - Headless Man Amber Alt
 
New Glarus- Fat Squirrel, Road Slush, Moon Man, Uff Da Bock, Totally Naked

Leinie's- Red Lager, Creamy Dark

Point- Amber, Einbock, St. Benedict's Winter Ale

Capital- Maibock

South Shore Brewery (Ashland, WI) - Brown Ale (The. Best. Ever.)

Lots more I can't think of at the moment
 
I just had O'so Rusty Red and I was impressed. I took a trip to festival and made a few mix-n-match six packs, and my friend just got a job doing some package design for them, so I bit. I hear a lot of good things, I gotta get up to plover and pick up a bunch from the brewery!

Also, I wanted to add New Glarus Back 40 Bock, but I was sadly disappointed in Capital's Supper Club, it was just too bland and (dare i be beer-snobbish?) commercial.
 
Sprecher makes great bottled batches but their standard beers are consistently underwhelming. I was recently at a beer fest where they brought a large number of their bottle only big beers and they stole the show with them. They had 06, 07 & 08 barleywines, RIS, doppelbocks, double IPA's and more. Prior to that I hadn't known they even made much of that! The saddest part is they just opened a brewpub on the west side of Madison and the place is a nightmare! Underwhelming food, infected beer and bad service.
 
Can someone explain the obsession with Hopalicious to me?

I (and many of my friends) thought the stuff was great when it first came out but I think that they then changed the recipe. I remember it initially being hoppier particularly in the nose and the finish and I now find it bland and lifeless and won't drink it unless there are no other options.

By comparison, I and almost everyone I know that knows both the Hopo and the Amber have found that the Amberggedon is a much better hoppy beer. It has a nice hoppy nose, pronounced hop flavor that is extremely well balanced with malt flavor, and a great hop finish.

I live 5 minutes from the brewery, know the brewers and have asked them about this several times but they basically don't seem to care because it is their flagship and flies out the door as is. I just find this odd.
 
Rottnme said:
Can someone explain the obsession with Hopalicious to me?

I (and many of my friends) thought the stuff was great when it first came out but I think that they then changed the recipe. I remember it initially being hoppier particularly in the nose and the finish and I now find it bland and lifeless and won't drink it unless there are no other options.

By comparison, I and almost everyone I know that knows both the Hopo and the Amber have found that the Amberggedon is a much better hoppy beer. It has a nice hoppy nose, pronounced hop flavor that is extremely well balanced with malt flavor, and a great hop finish.

I live 5 minutes from the brewery, know the brewers and have asked them about this several times but they basically don't seem to care because it is their flagship and flies out the door as is. I just find this odd.
Click to expand...

Really, hopalicious used to be better? Hard to believe...

I know people who come from all over the country on business and tried ale asylum... all them got the same opinion… there is nothing quite like their beers anywhere in the US... and as a disclaimer I do not work there nor do I have any affiliations with them.

What really surprises me in Madison is the lack of good choices for brewing supplies… Yes, there is wine and hop shop, which is OK, but for a region with such a huge tradition of craft beers, one would expect a lot more options.
 
Wine & hop shop and Brew & Grow are it in Madison. There is also Cannery Wine & Spirits in Sun Prairie which is far smaller but I will plug becasue that is where our homebrew club meets. Other than that Northern Brewer in Milwaukee is awesome and there are a couple other shops down there as well that I don't remember off the top of my head.

As a side note, I'm not sure what else you are really looking for. Other than NB every shop I have ever been in is about the same with Wine & Hop being slightly about average. The LHBS is a VERY specialty type shop catering to a very select group, knowing that one can't go into it expecting to find too much can they? My point...even a candy shop loses its luster to a kid if they go every day.
 
I agree that they did change Hopalicious at some point. I had some a few months ago and it wasn't what I remembered it to be. I just thought it was me.
 
Rottnme said:
Wine & hop shop and Brew & Grow are it in Madison. There is also Cannery Wine & Spirits in Sun Prairie which is far smaller but I will plug becasue that is where our homebrew club meets. Other than that Northern Brewer in Milwaukee is awesome and there are a couple other shops down there as well that I don't remember off the top of my head.

As a side note, I'm not sure what else you are really looking for. Other than NB every shop I have ever been in is about the same with Wine & Hop being slightly about average. The LHBS is a VERY specialty type shop catering to a very select group, knowing that one can't go into it expecting to find too much can they? My point...even a candy shop loses its luster to a kid if they go every day.
Click to expand...

Well, I did not know about Brew & Grow... where is it?

What I'm looking for you actually answered in your post! I'm looking for something like the Northern Brewer in Milwaukee, which in your own words is awesome. So, they are not all quite the same, are they?
 
Rottnme said:
Can someone explain the obsession with Hopalicious to me?

I (and many of my friends) thought the stuff was great when it first came out but I think that they then changed the recipe. I remember it initially being hoppier particularly in the nose and the finish and I now find it bland and lifeless and won't drink it unless there are no other options.
Click to expand...

I would have to second this. I had Hopalicious this summer in Madison and thought it was very bland and watery. It was on tap so this may have been a tap line issue. The only other times I have tried it have been in the bottle and I thought it was pretty decent. Just goes to show you how important clean tap lines are for first impressions.
 
I was in Milwaukee a couple weeks ago and one of the locals suggested the Spotted Cow. My thought was that it was a little...I don't know...insipid. Not Coors Light insipid mind you. It seemed like it would make a nice summer beer.
To be fair I tried it after drinking a nice hoppy pale ale (forget which one).
I might have to go back in the summer and give it another shot.
 
Brew & Grow is in a strip office building at the intersection of Femrite and Agricultural drive on the back side of the building. This is on east side of Madison near the intersections of the beltline (Hwy 12/18) and Stoughton Rd. (Hwy 51), between Stoughton Rd. and the interstate. You can see it from the beltline as you drive by.

It's not as good as Wine & Hop but it's more convenient for me so I stop from time to time.
 

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