The Whippy Dip

It’s not the first reason to head to Decorah, but it’s definitely a lure.

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There are 47 cities in Iowa that are more populous than Decorah, but Decorah has some major draws that separate it from the rest. It has Toppling Goliath Brewery, you may have heard of it. There’s Pulpit Rock Brewing Co., less broadly known but well-loved in the beer community for both its hoppy and stouty releases. Most importantly, perhaps, Decorah has the Whippy Dip.

I mean, sure, Toppling Goliath brews world class pale ales and some of the most sought-after imperial stouts in the game. And Pulpit Rock has wacky adjunct stouts and fruity, lactose-doped “pastry sours” — a term few other breweries have the guts to use. But the Whippy Dip, it’s just — it’s the Whippy Dip! Come on!

The last time I was in Decorah, it was early spring 2015 and Pulpit Rock was still a few months from even existing. We were mostly just checking out the Toppling Goliath taproom, picking up some Pompeii (this was when it was new and not all over Madison’s shelves), and enjoying the scenic drive to and from Iowa. It was a lovely trip.

But the Whippy Dip hadn’t opened for the season yet. The Whippy Dip is one of those places you’d expect to see Jack and Diane out front, suckin’ on chili dogs. It’s what small town Dairy Queens used to look like before they were all corporatized and homogenized.

It’s the kind of place where the building is basically a shed, and it would be miserably cold for anyone to work there in the winter. It’s also a walk-up, and ain’t nobody walking up for even a chili dog, much less a vanilla cone with sprinkles, in a single-digit wind chill.

It’s the kind of place that fascinates a guy like me, junk food Americana aficionado that I am. That last visit, I had missed it by a day or two. This time, though, I checked before we left home. To my relief, the Whippy Dip had opened for the 2018 season on March 26, just in time for the weekend my wife and I would make our return to Decorah, for Toppling Goliath’s Assassin Day.

You might wonder, Why is he going on so much about the Whippy Dip when he was in Decorah for the release of Assassin, one of the Midwest’s, if not the country’s, most hyped barrel-aged stouts? What’s the deal with the Whippy Dip; stop trying to make Whippy Dip happen. The answer, dear readers, is that your humble columnist did not win entry to Assassin Day in the Assassin Day lottery. My wife, however, did.

So while she was enjoying her (small and expensive) tap pour of Assassin and lining up to purchase her allocation of two bottles of Assassin and getting cool Assassin glassware and yes, buying me an Assassin t-shirt, I was suckin’ on a chili dog outside the Whippy Dip. And then suckin’ on a latte and a lemon poppyseed muffin at Java John’s, just down the street from the Whippy Dip.

After an interminable half hour or so, I got the text that she was out and ready for her Husband-Uber, and we were reunited to go and experience Decorah’s Other Brewery, Pulpit Rock.

Everyone who was in town for Assassin Day who wasn’t immediately engaged by Assassin Day activities was, it seemed, trying to get into Pulpit Rock. There were pre-filled crowlers of Cake Walk (a pastry stout), Mixed BEAR-ee (that pastry sour, fruit and sour and a riff on Teddy Graham cookies), and a double IPA collaboration with Alluvial Brewing alluringly named the Whippy DIP-ah. Everything else was on-site tap pours only, no custom growler or crowler fills. Every time we drove by, the line was massive.

But when we actually drove up with purpose, a little after noon, it was like the seas parted. A parking spot was being vacated right in the Pulpit Rock lot — an end spot, even! — and the line was maybe five to eight people long. With minimal delay, we had pours of Cake Walk and Raspberry Parade in our hands, plus two each of the Mixed BEAR-ee and Whippy DIP-ah crowlers. Cake Walk crowlers had already sold out by about 9:30 that morning.

Raspberry Parade is massive, over 13 percent, and so jammed full of raspberry that the thick stout’s edges shone a deep pink. I was slightly more enamored of the German chocolate cake-inspired Cake Walk milk stout, with pecans, coconut, and cacao nibs, if for no other reason than a litany of adjuncts usually drowns out one or two of them, and all three were present and accounted for here. Plus, it clocked in at a startlingly low 7 percent ABV. I will absolutely seek this out again.

Pulpit Rock’s ability to adeptly handle a crowd that was close to the same size as the one slamming Toppling Goliath — and my wife assures me the infrastructure for the Assassin release at TG was itself very smoothly run — shows that there’s more than one good beer reason to visit Decorah. Plus, y’know, the Whippy Dip.