Brewblogging the Great Taste of the Midwest 2007

Submitted by Jesse Russell on Mon, 2007-08-13 10:00. Beer Desk | Food

Dane101, sadly, didn't have tickets for the Great Taste of the Midwest on Saturday. However, plenty of people were at the Great Taste of the Midwest and many of them have blogs. We have scoured the internet for these beer bloggers to collect their tales of libation at one of the most popular yearly events in all of the midwest. The Great Taste of the Midwest is run by the Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild and is the second longest running craft beer festival in North America. There are 500 beers to choose from at the event and attendees pay a meager $30 for tickets (which typically sell out in just a couple of hours on the day they go public). Words from attendees below:

Sparrowhawk reflects on some of her favorites:

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Some of the beers I tried out were cherry wheat beer, cocoa mint beer, chocolate beer and coffee mocha beer. I know they sound terrible but they really were good! The best was a raspberry red rock malt liquor from Janesville that was just delicious. I've got to go out and find that stuff someplace. So today I have a massive headache, quite a bit of memory loss, and 2 t-shirts that I don't remember buying but it was all definitely worth it.

Beer Musings from Minneapolis-St. Paul also made the trek to Madison (the Beer Capital of the Midwest and likely all of the territory east of the Mississippi):

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I had some really interesting beers this year (I have interesting beers every year, but these were really different...for me). America's Brewing Company had a Mama Mia Pizza Beer that really did smell and taste like a good pizza. It wasn't a great beer as far as beers go, but it was interesting. Short's Brewing Co. had a Bloody Beer that contained tomatoes, dill horseradish, etc. to give it a bloody mary/beer flavor. Interesting to say the least. And Two Brothers Brewing was tasting their Heliocentric Braggot (half ale and half mead). It wasn't quite as distinctive as I thought it would be, but it was pleasant to drink.

The founder of Rich O's Public House in New Albany, Indiana attended and took some photos. He writes on his blog "The Potable Curmudgeon" of some of the other brewers in attendance:

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New Holland probably won the annual outrageousness competition with fellow Michigan brewers Bell's, Dark Horse and Founders. Top hats and Marlene Dietrich torch songs are hard to top. Fortunately, all four breweries deliver the goods in the beer context.

Daveo provides a number of photos from the event.

Jackalope has attended the fest three years in a row, but an incident on one of the shuttle busses makes him question a return next year:

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The bus ride makes me seriously consider skipping the festival in the future as I truly enjoy sipping/tasting many types of beers among friends.

Sometimes $30 for all you can taste just isn't worth it.

Dubhouse experiences an issue of recollection:

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The most notable was a wheat beer that I have not been able to remember the name of. There was also a well balanced golden citrus beer that I really enjoyed. Again, the name escapes me. Met a lot of entertaining people. It was very hot.

Lego Aetrix reflects on her first GTOTM:

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My first GTOTM I metup with this group of guys that were rifling through my cooler. This is a common practice at GTOTM where everybody's chairs and coolers are all nearly identical and everyone is quite drunk. There was a guy that drove a Corvette, a guy with a wife and kids who was obviously looking to get a piece, and a tall lanky orthodontist. I flashed them. The orthodontist had a camera
phone.

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