Summertime 2011 Part 3: Yuengling Brewery

When we were planning our summer vacation to Philadelphia I insisted on going to Pottsville to take the Yuengling tour. I'm glad I did, it was a classic old brewery. This is a very small hilly community in coal country, and while the beer is sold in many eastern states, this brewery is rather quaint and hometown-ey. I was first introduced to their beer by Pittsburgh friends, who wanted me to know that there was beer in Pennsylvania that wasn't Rolling Rock or Iron City.
Yuengling is America's oldest brewery, but I can't buy it here in Illinois since it has a rather limited distributorship. I usually only get it when someone is traveling to the states that do sell it, or if I am on vacation there. The good news is that it is spreading west, and will be available in Ohio soon, so at least it is a little bit closer. Everything is very old and looks like it can't support a ton of brewing, which is why there is another brewery nearby and another one in Tampa to support all its customers.
The tour was informative, they took us through the old kegging area where we were given our own bung to keep, and to the caves, like in the Miller Valley, that beer was kept cool year long in the old days. The brewery is spread out over a few buildings, to include all the warehousing and bottling and canning. The end of the tour leads us to the little tavern where we were given 2 samples. Specifically two samples only. They were very precise about that.
Since I have had many of their beers already I tried two that I hadn't yet had, the Porter and their Premium Lager. They sell a classic lager that is an amber and delicious and is really their flagship brew. But they also sell one that they call their Premium but it sells for less and is not considered a top of the line beer by many, plus it isn't available everywhere like the Classic Lager. They brew a Black and Tan, which is a mix of the lager and the porter, which I have had (have some in my home fridge as we speak), that is really good too, so I wanted to try the porter to see for myself. Here are the reviews:
Yuengling Premium Lager: crisp, no bitterness, smooth and served very cold: 3.
Porter: Thicker and maltier, slightly bitter and rich: 4.
Can't wait to go back.

Summertime 2011 Part 2: Rahr Brewery

When on vacation in the Dallas/Fort Worth area I went to the Rahr Brewery, which brews a limited number of beers it sells all over the DFW area. It is good beer, and they offer tours twice a week, which is a good way to sample what they offer. The interesting thing is that its tours are offered, but there is not much of a tour since the warehouse, bottling area, and brewery are all near each other. There is a short explanation about the brewery, and a brief description on how beer is brewed, and the rest if the time is spent enjoying three beers in the glass they give you for walking in the door. They have a food stand available selling bar food, and a band entertaining us, and that is about it. They offered three of their beers, which I tasted, and found them to have their own interesting taste differences from other brands making the same styles of beer.

These guys started up this brewery in the tradition of their ancestor who opened their brewery, the Eagle Brewery, in Wisconsin, over 150 years ago. The original guys changed their direction to malting, and all this time later the latest Rahr, Fritz, opened up the Fort Worth brewery 7 years ago. It is only available locally but has a pretty good output for a microbrewery. It is so hot there I bought coozie that is made to hold a pint glass. Kind of a cool idea.

Now for the beers: The first, Stormcloud IPA, upon the recommendation of the pourer, was a good tasting ale, slightly bitter and piney. Strong too, which surprised me that I would like it so much, since it is so hot down there. Compares well with the better IPAs.
Rating: 4.
Next I tasted only about 4 oz of the Blond. Unfortunately I have not been much of a Blond Ale fan, and I found it to be much like what I expected in a blond. Kind of a funky taste at the end.
My Rating: 2.
Finally I tasted the Ugly Pug, which is a Black Lager similar to Shiner Black, but with a little more chocolate edge and a lot more malt than other lagers. I found it really good and worthy of another, which I had. It is their biggest seller, and nice for a brewery to sell so much of a beer that is not just an ordinary ale or lager.
Rating: 5.

This was a fun afternoon, sitting at a picnic table in kind of a hot warehouse, but everyone was having a good time and the beer and food were good. They must have good distributors because they sell it in the local Kruegers plus all the liquor stores all over that part of Texas.

Summertime 2011 Pt 1: Great Crescent Brewery

It had been a while since I have been traveling to taste beer, other than local bars and restaurants or breweries already commented on.

Ohio Beer Drinker Tim took me to a small corner of a building in Aurora IN, where they brew fresh beer in really small quantities and sell it on the premises. We were not allowed to drink it there, except for the small quantities that are distributed after their tour. But I thought it was an interesting visit, because you can see how a really small beer maker works, and the beer is truly their own. I had rarely tasted anything like it before.

The brewery is in downtown Aurora, in view of the Ohio River, and was named out of respect for a brewery that has gone away a long time ago. They have a little shop in the front of the plant, where they sell their packaged beer in 1/2 quart cans, kegs or growler pours. The facility is really tiny, and is managed by their brewmaster, who does everything but run the shop.

They gave us a tour, and it was interesting to see their make-shift equipment, from a boiling kettle fashioned out of two older kegs welded together, to a refrigeration unit that had a thermometer cable running out of it so the temperature can be monitored on the outside.

The beers we tasted were strong, rich in malt and with a slight hop presence, and they were brewed with some imagination with the ingredients. They do not use bottles, so they only needed a canning line or pour into kegs. It was an interesting visit, and one we enjoyed later when we consumed the pint cans the next day at Indy. Plus, Tim purchased a growler of the Bourbon Barrel Stout which he agreed was some of the best of that style he had.

Unfortunately the reviews I can give are only about the one pint I drank, with just a mention for the tasters that were keg drawn.

Great Crescent Mild Ale: Darker Amber Color, rich and nutty tasting, without being too sweet. Mostly a malty flavor and not too much hops. Drinkable in the can and with character. Rating: 4.

GC Witbier: Belgian Style White: sharp tasting and fruity, retaining much of the malt with very little hop. Rating: NETJ (not enough to judge).

GC IPA: Slightly bitter but very dark, reminds me of those Black IPAs that are coming around now. A fair IPA, missing some of the piny and spicy effects I expect from an IPA. Rating: NETJ.

Great Beer at my Favorite Restaurant

We went to L Woods, in Lincolnwood,our favorite restaurant and, as usual, the beer selection couldn't be beat. It is not often I struggle to decide on one, but it took a minute or two.

L Woods reminds me of a Wisconsin Supper Club, with pine walls and stuffed fish and pictures of Wisconsin scenery throughout. But the food is excellent, offering ribs and steaks and fish. We really like to sit in the Paw Paw Lake Room, coincidentally named after the lake where my good friends summer.

I usually reserve postings for travels to breweries or beer halls, but since the selection was so great I had to include it here. They serve their tap beers in 23 oz glasses, and the price is between $6-7. Each night they have a special bottle, in this case, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
What a place.

Even though it is kind of boring I went with two glasses of Domaine DuPage.

On Tap:

• Two Brothers Domaine DuPage
• Two Brothers Prairie Path
• Guinness
• Bell's Best Brown Ale
• Bell's Amber
• Stiegl
• Sprecher Amber
• Goose Island Honkers Ale
• Goose Island 312
• Leinenkugel's Red
• Half Acre Daisy Cutter
• Amstel Light

Bottle:

• Pabst
• Schlitz
• Old Style
• 3 Floyds Robert the Bruce
• Harp
• Stella
• Point
• (expected BMC products)
  

For the Love of Hops

Attended the 2nd annual "For the Love of Hops" festival in Warrenville at the Two Brothers Brewery lot in June and it was as successful as the first last year. This year was an option to pay a little extra and become a VIP, with a few perks including indoor seating and bathrooming, buffet and dinner. Looked good but seemed to take away from the idea of a festival-enjoying the festival itself. For this I did not partake.
But it was enjoyable for me to sample the Hop Juice plus a few extras I had not tasted yet. I started with Hop Juice, then I tried the Long Haul, an English style session bitter, followed by a Resistance IPA, another oak foudre beer, followed by Domaine Dupage with a Cane and Abel mixed in the middle. I was not so turned on by the Long Haul but I was pleased with the others, especially with the Hop Juice. It was high in alcohol and long on hops, but with a pleasantly sweet taste I did not expect.
We camped our lawn chairs at the end of the lot just past the wash-up sinks because they were the only shaded areas there, and this came in especially handy later when it started to rain. Plus, we didn't want to blow the smoke from our big stogies in everyone's faces.
Note to myself for next year: walk around the other side of the fest for food and don't settle for the soggy black bean nachos that were kind of gross. The brats they were cooking around the other side looked rather good.
Glad I went but wished it could have lasted longer. What a great thing they have going down in the SW suburbs.

An American Craft Brew Paradise

I was looking for a nice place in the Wrigleyville area of Chicago with a decent selection of beer, for before and after a Cubs game, and I found the perfect place. I heard about this place last year and have been on the e-mailing list before stepping in, but I am glad to have found it.

Located at Sheffield and School Street just a block north of Belmont, Sheffields looks like a smallish corner bar, and the interior reflects that of other bars in many ways. But catching my eye almost immediately is the multiple beer taps, none of which were labelled with BMC products at all. A walk to the back of the bar displays a neon sign saying "Beer School Bar", and a walk down that passageway opens into another bar area with tables, and stools at the bar, and more taps of many different domestic craft varieties. Lining the walls and ceiling in the Beer School Bar are old beer cans and bottles and beer taps.

A short walk to the left brings you into a third bar, much the same as the first two, but less populated (at least on a Sunday afternoon). And I can't forget to mention the beer garden outside, with the layered decking and access into the first bar, the back bar and the sidewalk out front.

The food was barbecue style and was excellent. Served to us by the lovely Nicki, we started with barbecue bites which were pulled barbecue pork spread into egg roll halves, which can be dipped into the spicy southwestern sauce that accompanied it. We followed with the pulled pork platter, which was equally delicious. Along side was the house sweet barbecue and a little dish of a Carolina sauce which had more of a vinegar consistency. Suggested to us were a variety of beer choices, and they were so vast they met every possible taste or preference.

My first was a pint of Half Acre Daisy Cutter, which is an American Pale Ale with a smoothness and piny aroma that leads you right up to the bitter punch. Half Acre is a Chicago brewery, located just up Lincoln Avenue, which has tours and a minipub inside. I have not been there yet, but it is on my list. I followed with another Midwest favorite, Bell's Two Hearted Ale, which is an American India Pale Ale with a more pronounced bitterness yet with less piny and spice than the IPA I tasted previously. Bell's is located out of Kalamazoo Michigan, and brews one of my all time favorites, the summer offering Oberon.

This would provide me with a good base to take me into the cold for the afternoon of baseball.

After the game, we walked right back to Sheffield's, and although we were not served by Nicki, we were instead served by a very knowledgeable and pleasant beer tender. Tasting a few different varieties allowed me to choose something interesting off the menu, something lighter and bubblier, Summerfest from Sierra Nevada. Most famous for its Pale Ale and heavier butt kickers SN came up with a lighter although slightly bitter, Czech Pilsner presentation for its summer beer. It was actually quite refreshing. But I knew along I needed to follow it up with a brewery that I have wanted to revisit for a long time, Great Lakes out of Cleveland. Having tried some other ones, which I really enjoyed, I tried the Conway's Irish Ale. It was the Irish red treat I hoped it would be, but since it was a seasonal I knew I wouldn't see it again, which is unfortunate. I would like to have some again.

Overall I really like this place, and will come again. I think I will try to avoid the Saturday night party time, and stick to Sundays or weeknights, because like a lot of other local establishments, this place has to be very popular. The beauty is that the selctions, especially on tap, will keep changing, and I look forward to seeing what will be up next time.

The Milwaukee Brewery Tour Trifecta Part 3 - Lakefront

The third leg of the brewery tour day was my favorite. I was interested in Lakefront beer when I tasted it in Milwaukee last summer when at Miller Park, where they served Riverwest Stein Beer on tap. The brewery is located just south of the appropriately named Riverwest section of Milwaukee, and occupies a factory building on the river with the brewery downstairs and the Palm Garden bar upstairs.

We entered the building from the street side and it led us directly into the bar with the gift shop and restaurant, which was bustling with the Fish Fry crowd and tour goers. Having waited so long for this brew I bought a pint of the Stein Beer while we waited in line for the tour tickets. They had tours starting downstairs periodically but having never toured there I did not realize they were taking groups of people right away without having people wait in line too much.

With the ticket we were given a plastic cup and 4 wooden chips and sent down right away. At the bottom of the stairs was a beer station with pourers offering 4 choices from their bar. Here I tasted a Big Easy Maibock (a seasonal lager) after finishing the RWSB, then I decided on the Monkey Wheat to take with me on the tour. This, I found, was a mistake, because I was not too thrilled with the fruity yet bitter taste (an odd combination).

The tour was informative but mostly entertaining, since the tour guide was a much tattooed local school teacher who emphasized the fun of it more than the education. But halfway through when we went around a corner near the mash tuns was Bernie's Brewhouse from County Stadium, and your choice of more beer to taste!

Here I sampled the Eastside Dark, a strong malty brew that was very satisfying for the rest of the tour. Back at the bar after the tour was over I sampled their IPA with my last remaining chip. It was a classic IPA and also a good choice. When the tour finished we were offered a choice: we could keep the plastic cup we sampled with or trade it in for a glass Lakefront pint. We took the glass pint.

The beer there is great and I had to bring some home, including the growler of Riverwest, the 2 sixpacks I bought at the Midget Store, and I couldn't resist buying the 8-bottle variety pack at the bar for $11. The beertender was even good enough to exchange the Monkey Wheat for an adiditional Eastside Dark for my variety pack.

I would strongly recommend going here, especially on a Friday. I did not sample the fish fry but enjoyed the polka band. For next visits I would like to try the Ale House and Water Street Brewery, two establishments I have not been to in many years. Milwaukee, what a great beer town.

The Milwaukee Brewery Tour Trifecta Part 2-Sprecher

The second leg of the tour of Milwaukee breweries really didn't happen at all. We were in the Miller valley where we enjoyed the first leg of the tour, then after consulting our GPS we saw that Sprecher, a beer that I have enjoyed in those familiar 16 oz bottles, housed their brewery a little to the north in Glendale. We were planning to meet our good friend around 4:30 at his house in Riverwest so we didn't have a lot of time. We arrived there at approximately ten minutes to three, and when walking into the brewery shop we were greeting by 2 gents drinking some fine Sprecher beer, so we knew we were in the right place.
We asked if we were in time for the tour, but they informed us that the first tour on a weekday was at 4 PM. We asked if we could enjoy a couple there, but we were told it was not allowed. Which is curious because they were certainly enjoying theirs.
We asked if they could give us a special tour, since we were probably the only ones expected, but they said they could not take care of us. We realized that we would not be able to take the 4 PM tour ( the first one scheduled) and meet our friend on time, so we had to take a pass. But, when we asked were we could enjoy one nearby the fine Sprecher brewery guy pulled out some coupons to the local watering hole where we could get a free one with the coupon.
It was off to the Silver Spring House where we enjoyed a couple Sprecher Ambers, on tap, which were cold and delicious. As it turns out, we probably should have done the tour and been a little late back to Riverwest, but we really wanted to hook up with our Milwaukee mate. Near his house is the ultimate goal of the trip, Lakefront Brewery.

The Milwaukee Brewery Tour Trifecta Part 1-Miller

Travelled up north on a Friday in February to visit with friends and sample that which made Milwaukee famous. Chose to visit the Miller Brewery first, since they offered the earliest tour, of our three choices. The 12:30 PM tour took us through the bottling and canning, the brew house and a walk through that portion of the Miller valley.

Kind of uneventful, and although our tour guide did a good job, I wish she didn't mention the fact that we were getting free beer at the end so many times. I think everyone understood that anyway. Not that many people were on the tour and all the Miller buildings seemed fairly empty of employees.

For a change since the last time I was there I thought the addition of Coors to the Miller mix would change things a little, but she mentioned that the only Coors product brewed in Milwaukee was Coors Light.

Now for some trivia: Q: What are the three most popular beers brewed in Milwaukee?

A: Lite, MGD, Milwaukee's Best.




At the end we went to the Miller Inn where we were able to sample three beers: Lite, MGD and the third of our choice. It was good having a fresh draft beer there and we sent free postcards out too. For my third choice I asked for the Pilsner Urquell, which was on tap there (MillerCoors now owns them , along with Fosters, Peroni and Molson to round out their international flavors). Unfortunately they were unable to pour me one from their tapper so I instead chose the Leinenkugels 1888 Bock instead. I was glad I did. I wished I could try a few more, but it was time to go on to the next leg of the tour, Sprecher.

Bring them over here! We're thirsty!