Scott Maurer
It’s summer. It’s hot. It’s humid. And this Saturday, it’s the Great Taste of the Midwest at Olin Park. You know I’m going to be drinking plenty of beer, and of those beers, plenty will be pilsners and kolsches and other crisp and refreshing lagers. But that’s not appointment drinking; that’s just behind “water” on the beer necessities list.
No, as always, my tap targets are far higher in alcohol percentage than beer has any right being on a sunny August Saturday. But that’s how we do at GTMW. Here’s a list of some of my taps that tempt.
Classic barrels
Last year, I made sure to drink some of 3 Sheeps’ The Wolf, and this year’s double-barrel version calls to me even more strongly. Other reliable entries in the barrel-aged category include Perennial’s Barrel-Aged 17 chocolate mint stout and Bell’s Barrel-Aged Expedition Stout. Revolution’s Deth by Currants will be a fun preview of the Deep Wood series releases later this year, and everybody loves Kunnhenn’s Barrel-Aged 4th Dementia. The biggest stunner in a category of reliable stunners: Barrel-Aged Smoke from Surly, circa 2008. I can’t wait to see what a decade has done to this bad boy.
Odd barrels
AKA “The Brandy Section.” Our de facto state spirit, brandy represents well on the beer list for Great Taste 2018. I’m looking at Hacienda’s Brandy Barrel-Aged Vertigogo and Cruz Blanca’s Rey Gordo, both heavily adjuncted stouts. Rey Gordo is a blend of bourbon, brandy, and rum barrel-aging, in fact. Bell’s has a Brandy Barrel Chocolate Orange Stout, which sounds like Christmas in August to me. Of a small number of port barrel beers, Dangerous Man’s Tawny Port Barrel-Aged Peanut Butter Porter seems to be reaching for peanut butter and jelly territory, and by Right Brain’s own description, Gin Joy Ale (a gin version of previous GTMW favorite Cake Walk) tastes like ginger ale.
Mouthfuls
If those beers don’t have enough syllables to try to spit out in the fourth hour of the Great Taste, maybe you’re up for the challenge of Burnt City’s Pterodactyl Deathscream, which sounds kind of like a Transformer. Dark Horse’s #VinylVinylSunday Coffee and Donuts Beer seems to be advertising something, and the apparent music reference might pair well with Mikerphone’s Imperial Smells Like Bean Spirit Hazelnut. Greenbush’s Atomic Tauntaun Overdrive will definitely appear on a weirdest beer name list, but the hardest to remember/speak out loud? That’s Old Peninsula Blueberry Maple Walnut Java Peanut Butter Ghost of Stout Chocula Jr. — with a piece of bacon as garnish. Forget ten times, say that one one time fast.
Milk sugar is a good choice
With the rise of haze in American beer (oh you haven’t heard?), the use of lactose has increased apace. Look to breweries both new and familiar to quench your thirst for a milkshake in beer form. Oliphant’s family tree of nonsense names continues to bloom with Berry Meowten Amish, while 3 Sheeps sets lactose loose in its popular Fresh Coast pale ale line with a Peaches and Cream version. Less well known in Wisconsin, Public Craft has Bomb Pop Sour with raspberry, cherry, lemon and lime. Pulpit Rock looks to increase its Wisconsin popularity with Church Salad, a reference to the marshmallowy dessert some know as ambrosia. If you prefer mead, Misbeehavin’ Meads offers a similar Pistachio Delight.
Yes, hazy beers look to be everywhere even if they aren’t New England IPAs. But I do intend to seek out a couple of those cloudy buggers at a pair of tents you’d never expect to find ‘em: Central Waters (with Unsettled IPA) and the brewers who usually can’t be Reinheitsge-bothered to color too far outside the lines, Ale Asylum (pouring the hazy Spawn Series No. 35). It’s Great Taste weekend. We can all cut loose a little.
