Tracy Harris
Rockhound Brewery owner Nate Warnke is prepping for a March opening.
Rockhound Brewing prepping for March opening
Construction is moving along at Madison’s newest brewpub. Rockhound Brewing is planning to open in early March at 444 S. Park Street. Owner Nate Warnke says his brewing equipment will be installed over the next couple of weeks, and finishing touches on the bar and restaurant’s 1,800 square feet are nearly completed.
Warnke has over a dozen recipes already figured out and is just waiting for the brewhouse to become operational. He’ll start with a stout, a porter, a pale ale, an IPA and possibly a farmhouse ale.
An Indiegogo campaign has over $5,700 in pledges, nearly twice what Warnke expected. That should help with the final push to open the pub. Warnke is also selling lifetime mug club memberships, which offer perks like discounts on beer, food and advance tastings of new beers.
Viking begins in-house brewing
The brew kettle is running hot at Viking Brewpub in Stoughton. Viking opened in summer 2014, and had relied on the House of Brews in Madison to make its core beers. With the installation of its equipment finally completed in late 2015, it started making its own beers in-house.
Local homebrewer David Worth of Stoughton is doing the brewing. Worth has won many local homebrew competitions, including the 2014 Grumpy Troll Challenge for his German schwarzbier. Worth brews part-time for Viking and holds down a second job in medical equipment sales.
Robin Shepard
Viking's beers are now made in-house.
Among the beers currently on tap at Viking are Nordic Blonde lager, a holiday spiced amber called Jule Ale, Land Ahoy American pale ale, Soot in My Eye Black IPA, and Winter Wonderland Warmer (a doppelbock).
Also on tap is one of Worth’s signature beers, a variation on an imperial-strength saison called Norsk, to which he adds fruits like yuze (which is similar to grapefruit), lime and passion fruit to different batches.
Later this year Worth, who says he likes bold flavors, plans to offer a spruce ale, a chocolate porter, a chocolate peanut butter porter and a mango wheat beer. “If it’s a chocolate porter it’s going to taste like chocolate,” he says.
Beer to watch for
If you like Russian imperial stouts, you’re in luck. Both Next Door Brewing and One Barrel Brewing have their own takes on the style. Next Door is offering a rye version called Vampire Cosmonaut, while One Barrel’s Ya Gotova, aged in Old Sugar Distillery whiskey barrels, falls on the sweeter side. Both finish strong at over 9.5% ABV.
