In Illinois:
In 1995, the Goose Island Brewery (a brewpub in Lincoln Park since 1988) evolved into the Goose Island Brewing Company. Goose Island has a fine range of beers that include their popular Honkers Ale. After several years of operating a brewpub in the trendy Lincoln Park neighborhood, the owners of Goose Island decided to start selling their beer in bottles, and marketing it in several states. (They also opened another brewpub in Wrigleville, in the space that was occupied by former brewpub Weeghman Park.) The first Goose Island beer that showed up at bars was Honkers Ale, a hoppy amber ale that is good all-around social beer. Honkers is the flagship beer for Goose Island, just like Boston Lager is to Sam Adams. Both products are fairly hearty and hoppy session beers -- except one is an ale and the other a lager.
The other beers made by Goose Island are an Oatmeal Stout (roasty, malty and hoppy yet smooth stout -- actually made with flaked oatmeal), Nut Brown(a chocalatey creamy brown ale with a touch of roastiness, not too much hops), Summertime (an authentic German Kolsch bier -- a light thirst-quenching ale that originates in the town of Cologne -- this one has a toasted grainy character), India Pale Ale (Marcofrau's favorite, with a good dose of hops, and finally Christmas (this year's offering is very caramel malty with a surprising amount of Kent Golding hops.)
In the last couple years, the brewery has bottled some higher gravity specialities that first surfaced at the Lincoln Park brewpub, such as Pere Jacques, Demolition Ale, Matilda, Bourbon County Stout, and Imperial IPA.
The Goose Island Brewery is located at:
1880 W. Fulton St., Chicago, IL
Ph.(312)915-0071
The Two Brothers Brewing Co. was founded by Jim and Jason Ebel in late 1996. The business grew out of a homebrew shop called the Brewer’s Coop in Naperville, Illinois. Two Brothers Brewing Company is 100 percent family-owned.
One of my favorite beers from the Two Brothers Brewing Company is probably the French Country Ale. It is vaguely in the style of a French Biere de Garde. This style is characteristically a golden- to amber-colored beer that is malt accented with a twinge of hops and a yeast funkiness. By funkiness, I would mean a certain slight sour character combined with other fruity esters. One of the other favorites is the Bare Tree Weiss Wine, and interesting combination of wheat beer brewed to the strength of a barleywine and aged in wood.
The brewery also makes a nice light beer called Prairie Path Ale and four other mainstays: the Ebelweiss Weiss, the Northwind Stout, Bitter End and Brown Fox Session Ale. The Prairie Path Ale is rumored to be considered a Belgian-style ale because of the yeast that is used. The lightest beer in Two Brothers portfolio is probably the Belgian-inspired Monarch Wit. Ebelweiss, a play on the founders' names, is a very respectable German-style Hefe-Weizen with the traditional banana and clove flavors. The Northwind Stout is the brewery's version of a Russian Imperial Stout -- a strong, thick style of stout supposedly brewed for the czars in the Russia -- overall a nice example of the style, but I like my Imperial Stouts a bit heftier. The Brown Fox is a good entry-level dark beer that has a malty sweetness with a tiny bit of a nutty taste.
In recent years, the brewery has explored other styles of beer, from Dortmunder to Double IPA.
The Two Brothers Brewing Co. is located at:
30W114 Butterfield Rd., Warrenville, IL 60555
Ph. (630)393-4800
In Wisconsin:
The Capital Brewing Company claims it's rated America's number one brewery. That might be stretching the truth a bit these days, but the brewery is certainly one of the best in Wisconsin. It is located in Middleton, Wisc., which is on northeastern side of Madison. The brewery is easily accessible from the freeway. What is fun about visiting Capital is that it is much more than just a factory. The facility includes a biergarten, bierstube (tasting room) and fanciful gift shop. Many of the beers, as well as associated merchandise and swag of all kinds can be; purchased in the shop. The brewery offers tours on weekends that are short and mostly focus on tasting the beers.
The beers that Capital brews are mostly lagers. I've tasted nearly the entire range of products in the Tasting Room. Their most acessible beer is probably the Capital 1900. The Amber and Special offer more flavor and those who like to have their tastbuds challenged will enjoy the Capital Blonde or Dark Dopplebock. The ale offerings are limitd to a couple of wheat beers and a Brown Ale. All of the beers are very well built and very tasty when fresh.
Tours are held at 3:30pm on Fridays and 1:30pm and 3:30pm on Saturdays.
The Capital Brewing Company is located at:
7734 Terrace Ave., Middleton, WI 53562
Ph. (608)836-7100
The Lake Front Brewery brewery is a cool little brewery and the second microbrewery that I visited in Wisconsin some 10 years ago. These guys make a "certified organic" beer called Lake Front ESB and a bunch of other tasty products. My first organic beer came from this little brewery on Milwaukee's riverfront. The Lakefront ESB comes across as a good example of this British style for what Americans might
call a red ale, with good hops and nice smooth maltiness. The brewery makes a lot of other interesting beers which are all hard find (at least fresh) unless you live in Wisconsin or Northern Illinois. These include the Riverwest Stein Beer (a darker lager with a nice, yet strange malt aroma of sea salt), a Pumpkin Ale (a slice of pumpkin pie in a glass) and Cream City Pale Ale (a lighter version of a standard American Pale Ale -- hoppy, but golden in color and somewhat light on the malt -- almost like a higher gravity Two Brothers Prairie Path with different yeast and more hops.) The brewery has other seasonal offerings that come and go. All that I've tasted have been very fresh and very tasty. The tour is a good place to sample their beers, see how a microbrewery looks and get a cool souvenir pint glass.
The Lake Front Brewery is located at:
818A East Chambers Street, Milwaukee, WI 53212
Ph. (414)372-8800
The New Glarus Brewing Co. is a microbrewery with plans to triple its production and recently was recognized as Best Midsize Brewery by the Association of Brewers. New Glaurs brews several year-round and a few seasonal beers. It is best known for its New Glarus Belgium Red, considered to be a World Classic by British beer writer Michael Jackson. My favorite New Glarus beer is actually the Raspberry Tart. It is the companion to the Wisconsin Belgian Red, which boasts the title of World Classic Belgian-style cherry beer. Both beers come in large 25-ounce corked bottles. You have to really like very fruity beverages to enjoy these two, but they are fantastic if you do. The Raspberry tart has so much fruit that the head is a light pink! The Belgium Red has such a pronounced cherry flavor that I've mixed it with other beers such as stout to create a sort of beer cocktail. Both of these fruity ales are made in large oak tuns that stand nearly 12 feet tall. Not many breweries in this country ferment and age their beers in this manner and the tuns are quite impressive!
When visiting New Glarus, the first stop is the gift shop and it is there that you can buy all sorts of New Glarus goods including the beer. You can also purchase tickets for the tour or a sampling of four beers. The tour is self-guided -- a system of numbered locations correspond to a narrative played on an MP3 player, which may sound cheesy (pardon the pun) -- but the information on the recording is pretty interesting and expressed with a great deal of enthusiasm and wit. What I like about tasting beer at the brewery is it gives a benchmark as to how the beer should taste. Of course, a beer will rarely taste as good as it does at the brewery, but it's good to know it's potential.
There are other beers in the the New Glarus portfolio that include such styles as lager, bock, wheat, brown ale, stout, pale ale and farmhouse ale. Tours can be scheduled by contacting the brewery through its web site. New Glarus beer was distributed in Wisconsin and Illinois and now is available only in Wisconsin.
The New Glarus Brewing Co. is located along Highway 69 in New Glarus, Wisc., on the north side of town.
The Minhas Craft Brewery (formerly Huber) is a large regional brewery that makes the Berghoff line of beers among a myriad of other budget-oriented lagers and ales of varying strength (some quite strong). The Berghoff line of beers are now brewed under contract. Some traditional Wisconsin brands such as Rhinelander and Wisconsin Club are now owned by Minhas. The takeover took place in 2006, when Ravinder Minhas of Calgary, Canada, decided to buy a brewery to produce his line of beers that had prevously been contract brewed by Huber. Minhas' success has been built on the Mountain Creek (or Mountain Crest in Canada) brand of lager. This brand is available in the U.S. at most Trader Joe's grocery stores.
The Berghoff Original Lager (essentially a Dortmunder in style) is probably the most famous brew made in Monroe and an early favorite of mine when my palate first moved away from the mass-marketed beers made in Milwaukee and St. Louis. Berghoff was originally brewed in Fort Wayne, Ind,. but has been brewed in Monroe for quite some time now. Huber started brewing beer for the old Berghoff Restaurant (site of my wedding reception) in Chicago back in 1960. The restaurant has a new owner, but still serves the Berghoff beer in the bar next to the restaurant. According to the Brewers of Indiana Guid, the Berghoff brand itself dates back to 1887. The rest of Berghoff portfolio of brews includes a dark, a bock, a red ale, a pale ale, a German-style wheat, a Belgian-style wit and a winter brew. My favorite these days is probably the pale ale, which has some fairly aggressive hop flavor.
I didn't run across Huber, the brewery's original product, until I had the Bock (a.k.a., "The Brown Bullet") at the Empty Bottle music club in Chicago. These beers are real cheap, but still better than the mass-marketed beers from Milwaukee and St. Louis that come from mega-sized factories. Although I make my own beer and enjoy robust microbrewed beers, the Huber products are very economical and quite tasty when compared to other beer brands at the same price and still enjoy from time to time.
I've taken the brewery tour, which included a 10-minutes video presentation, a walk through the brew house, bottling plant and cellars. A tasting of the beers follows the tour and is held in a magnificent new tap room. See the brewery's web site for details on making a reservation. Oh, and if you do decide to travel the Monroe, don't forget to stop at Baumgartner's located a few blocks from the brewery at 1023 16th St. on the Square (not 156th Street, Monroe simply is not that big of a town.) It is open at 8 a.m. seven days a week and is the oldest cheese store and tavern in Wisconsin. No one should visit the Huber Brewery without having a cheese or meat sandwich or some excellent soup and a fresh Huber or Berghoff beer at Baumgarner's. The atmosphere is undeniably and unmistakably drenched with Wisconsin as well as Swiss heritage and should be considered a national treasure. We first discovered it on a trip to Monroe that we first took in 2002.
The Minhas Brewing Co. (old Huber Brewery) is located just off the square in downtown Monroe, Wisc.
Ph. (608)325-3191
The Sprecher Brewing Co. is the first Wisconsin brewery I visited. It was founded in 1985 by Randal Sprecher, a former brewing supervisor at Pabst Brewing Company. Sprecher makes an outstanding collection of lager beers including the toasty Special Amber. I had originally heard of the root beer and later took a liking to Sprecher's Special Amber and its Black Bavarian. The Amber is a lager of its namesake color with unique toastiness. The Black Bavarian is an excellent example of a Schwarzbier (no, Mel Brooks didn't invent this one) that is almost opaque and very roasty for a lager beer. It's complex flavors of chocolate, licorice and roasted malt almost can't be beat. The brewery offers a wide-range of ale and lagers, but tends to excel at making lager beers. All of the brewery's regular offerings are packaged in 16-ounce bottles and sold in four packs and cases of 24. Also, the brewery has recently starting brewing some limited releases and is bottling them in attractive liter-sized swing tops. It's root beer is very tasty. The Ginger Ale is Marcofrau's favorite. Brewing the sodas helps to make the brewery tour a fun family affair. The gift shop and tour is highly recommended. You can mix match cases of (beer and soda) at the gift shop and purchase all types of swag, including steins, mugs, apparel and just about whatever else you can dream up. The tour includes five samples of beer and/or sodas and a great description of the brewing process and history of the brewery.
The Sprecher Brewery is located along the Milwaukee River at:
701 West Glendale
Glendale, WI 53209
Ph. (414) 964-2739
Other Wisconsin breweries whose products I enjoy include Central Waters of Junction City, Tyranena Brewing Co., of Lake Mills and the Viking Brewing Co. of Dallas, Wisc. I first found Central Waters and Tyranena beers at a Brennan's Market in Monroe and stumbled upon Viking beers at the Blue Max in Apple Valley, Minn. My favorite Central Waters beer is probably the Lac du Bay IPA, a pumped up version of an English-style IPA. The Satin Solstice Imperial Stout is quite tasty, too, if you're into full-bodied strong stouts. The first beer I had from the Tyranena Brewign Co. was the Stone Teepee Pale Ale. Next, I tried the Headless Man Amber Alt, but really liked Bitter Woman IPA. There's many other interesting offerings from Tyranena that I have yet to try. The Viking brewery makes some very traditional lagers and ales along with some interesting hybrid styles, such as the "Whole Stein", a coffee, oatmeal, milk porter. Reviews for the Viking beer that I've tried can be found at Beer Advocate.
In Indiana:
I have to mention the best microbrewery I know of in neighboring Indiana and that is Three Floyd's Brewing Co., which makes an the well-hopped Alpha King and many other very creative and flavorful beers. There are too many incredible beers made by this brewery to go into detail here, but suffice to say they are available at a brewpub on the premises, (open in 2006) which has got to be one of the most interesting around. (It's actually inside the brewery, in an industrial park.) The Three Floyds beers can be found on handpump at the Maproom in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago. The brewery may give their beers strange names, but even the brewers concede that their products aren't normal. I'm told the beers are distributed mostly around the Midwest and some parts of the East Coast.My favorite Three Floyds beer is (still) the Alpha King Pale Ale. When fresh it's an absolutely sublime combination of malts, sugars and hops. Gumballhead is probably my second favorite. I used to enjoy the Rabbid Rabbit Saison before it started costing me 10 bucks a bottle, but it's worth seeking out. The Pride and Joy, a hopped up and stronger version of an English Mild, is a good beer to have in the fridge as an everyday session beer to share with friends. I STILL haven't tasted the extremely hyped Darklord Imperial Stout.
I've also visited the Back Roads Brewery in LaPorte. It makes some excellent products. We visited them a few years ago and had a great time!
In Michigan:
Some of the best microbrews in the world can be found in my home state, Michigan, which boasts more than 60 breweries and brewpubs! Many of the microbrews in Michigan are quite good and worth seeking out! Definitely worth checking out is Bell's (Kalamazoo Brewing) and New Holland Brewing, in Holland. The travesty this year is that negotations between a distributor and the brewery prompted Larry Bell (the brewery's founder) to pull out of the Chicago market. Fortunately, the brewery is offering a 15 percent discount in its gift shop for Illinois residents. In the meantime, you know I'll be busy in my home brewery trying to perfect a clone of Two Hearted Ale.For more information about Michigan beers, I suggest consulting the Michigan Microbrewery and Brewpub Guide, a most excellent site with very complete and updated information about beer in my old home state.
And, finally, in Minnesota:
I started visiting Minnesota in 2006 and found the fantastic Surly Brewing Co. Although I haven't visited the brewery yet, I've had the pleasure of trying a few of the beers including the Furious, Bender and Darkness. The Furious is an unbelievably hopped pale ale with a good backbone of Scottish Golden Promise malt, while the Bender is a great session brown ale with some intriguing cocoa and nut notes and just right amount of hops. The Darkness is the most incredible interpretation of a Russian Imperial Stout that I've ever tasted. Mammoth amounts of chocolate malt flavor and equally mammoth amounts of hops combined in a pitch black quite strong stout that manages to feel as thick as milk shake up front but almost as dry as pilsner in the finish. Dangerously good stuff...beware of the Darkness!NEWS FLASH!! Surly recently started putting their beer in cans. Here's hoping some of those cans make it on a beer delivery truck to Illinois. This is the best beer you'll ever find in a can. Kudos to Surly for challenging some stereotypes about beer in cans!
Bars and Pubs | Brewpubs | Breweries | Belgian Beer Send comments and suggestions
to: marc@marcobrau.com
Homebrew 101 | Suds Stories | What's New