Memo from the Beer Desk: Looking Back on the Great Taste

It has been a week since the Great Taste of the Midwest, and I have had time to reflect upon it. This was the seventh consecutive Great Taste for me, and it was probably the finest. The new, more spacious layout was comfortable, the weather was superb, and at the end of the day I was still somewhat mentally fit. Truly, a roaring success.

While the usual array of super-hopped pales, barrel-aged porters, and such were available, for me this was the year of sour brews. We’re in the Belgian era, and tart styles like lambics and saisons look to be coming into their own. I also enjoyed some tasty sour ales and interesting fruit beers. I’m a Lemonhead kind of guy, so these sour styles all made my day.

Some of my favorites, in no particular order:

Goose Island’s Juliet is a Belgian-style ale made with fresh blackberries, and was pleasantly tart. This specialty beer was tapped at 2:00 pm, and we just happened to be in line at the time.

The Berliner Weiss from New Glarus was really something. It includes Pinot Grigio, Riesling grapes, white wheat, and five proprietary yeast strains. Dark in color, but with a surprisingly light, fruity zing.

Surly was, as last year, a good stop. The Two Oak is an aged stout brewed with cranberries, and was pleasantly sour, creamy, and smooth. This was followed by Surly Hell -- an unfiltered Munich Helles that was very clean and crisp.

Red Eye, a new brewpub in Wausau, had some solid beers. The Scarlet 7, a Belgian-style dubbel, was mild and a bit sweet. Bloom, a wit, smelled like Froot Loops (that’s a compliment) and tasted delightful.

Fitger's Brewhouse out of Duluth offered their Apricot Wheat. Unlike some other apricot beers, it was refreshing and not cloying.

A particular eye-opener for me was Brewery Creek of Mineral Point. Leinenkugel’s may have appropriated the word “shandy” for their bizarre lemon-esque beverage, but the shandies (or shandys, I’ve seen it both ways) offered by Brewery Creek were far superior concoctions. The Imperial Shandy was composed of yellow craft beer with limeade and lemonade. The Weizen Shandy was a Hefe-weizen with fruit juices blended in. And the Frankenshandy... well, lord knows, but it was awesome. After a day of sipping many tart beers, these sour creations were the icing on the cake.

So there it was -- good beer consumed at a mellow pace, no amusing injuries, and no pissing in the shrubbery. All in all, a grand time, and I managed to not be a dumbass.