Beerambassador

Hennepin is my favorite beer lately. It's outstanding and a real value.

Personally, I think there are a ton of prospect "experts" out there who really have no or very limited first-hand experience. They're just regurgitating what they've heard or read elsewhere. There are very few people out there who are actually doing any real scouting and/or original reporting on prospects. Heck, even John Sickels isn't out in the field scouting all that much. Read his blog, he takes a handful of "scouting trips" each year...if even that many. And he's considered one of the best? I'm sure he's got his sources, but how many of them are repeating stuff they themselves have heard second hand?

A home brew exchange sounds fun somewhere down the line once I'm confident enough that what I'm brewing doesn't suck. I'm hoping on starting my first batch Saturday.

Don't know if this is worthy of its own separate thread, but I finally made the leap and went out and bought some home brewing equipment at the Northern Brewer store in West Allis. I helped a friend a few months back, had a good time and thought the final product was pretty delicious, so I decided to take a shot at it. I was just spending too much money on import/micros, so I figured I can brew it myself for quite a bit cheaper. Not expecting great results early on, but I picked up a very simple recipe kit to start out with, so I hope this first batch goes well. Anyone else here brew their own?

I felt it in Lake Mills. I thought it was just a really big wind gust and I fell right back asleep. Didn't realize it was an earthquake until I watched the morning news.

I just can't get into New Belgium. I don't know if they use some sort of common malt or yeast strain in all their beers, but man, all their beers taste the same to me. Trippel, 1554, Fat Tire, 2 Below...they all taste the same. I almost bought some of their Lips of Faith series beers the other day, but I worried they'd have that underlying taste to them that all their other beers have, so I passed. I also want to say how underwhelmed I was by New Glarus Cabin Fever Honey Bock. They made a blonde bock several years ago which I really enjoyed, but Cabin Fever was a disappointment. It reminded me of a mass produced lager. Just really, really bland. Boo on New Glarus for this beer. I did really enjoy the other beer I picked up last weekend, North Coast Pranqster. A four pack only ran me $7.50 and it was quite delicious. I've seen others compare it to Duvel, and while I didn't think it was in the same league, it had a similar taste profile. Great value.

People mostly gave us clothing, which like an above poster said, he hardly got to wear. Somebody brought a real football (i.e. not kiddie rubber toy football), which I thought was really nice and more thoughtful than clothing. Kid won't get to use it anytime soon, but it's a nice gift reminding a new dad of what him and his son have to look forward to. Booze is always a nice gift...but I was so sleep deprived that I think a single beer would have knocked me out.

Gift certificate to a favorite restaurant is always an easy and good gift.

Monona Drive is a wreck right now, and Monona likes to pride itself as being not like Madison. They're failing in that regard.

Bump for a few questions for diomedeh2. Do you live in Wisconsin? If so, where are you getting beer from Russian River, Allagash and Jolly Pumpkin? I've never seen any of their beer anywhere. I'd love to try some of their beer but I figured it wasn't available in Wisconsin.

Yeah, Ireland was/is expensive. They had a super high cost of living there, but it may have gone down some since they're economy tanked big time. A pint of beer was around 5 euro...just for an example. I think that meant around $6-6.50 dollars at the time I was there.

I went on my honeymoon three years ago and fell in love with the whole damn island! I'll keep it short, but there's so much to see and do. The Galway area is amazingly beautiful and while I didn't find Galway to be that great of a city, it serves as an awesome base for sightseeing on the west coast. The Cliffs of Moher are a short drive south and are a must see and lots of other beautiful coastal areas to see. We stayed in Salthill, just outside of the city. They have a famous promenade along Galway Bay - very cool. Lots of great music in the pubs in the Galway area. You could probably spend a whole week in Dublin and the area if you had the time, there is so much to see and do. The Guinness "Brewery" is a must-see. I put brewery in quotes, because you don't really see the working brewery, but more like a Guinness museum. Really neat and you get a complimentary pint on the top floor at the end. It's a beautiful room, all glass and you get a really stunning view of Dublin. It'll be tempting to drink nothing but Guinness the whole time you're there. The Jameson Distillery, again, is not a working distillery. Not nearly as neat as the Guinness tour, but if you love Jameson, probably worth your time. Otherwise, skip it. The tour of Kilmainham Gaol was also amazing. It was a British prison where they held Irish political prisoners. Very emotional stuff...it's a real patriotic symbol for the Irish. We went on a musical walking tour in Dublin, which was a ton of fun. You follow a couple of musicians around to a few pubs and they play for you and tell you all about irish music, instruments, history, etc. A great way to spend an evening. Almost every book I read suggested seeing the Book of Kells. We both thought it was a waste of time. Neat seeing something that old, but I thought it was way overrated (and I love historical stuff). The book is like an add-on to the end of the tour of Trinity College. The tour of trinity itself was a lot of fun. College students are the tour guides, and it's fun and witty. Near Dublin is Newgrange which is amazing. You can go in the oldest building in the world. Crazy neat historical stuff. Trim Castle, in the same general area, is also worth a visit. Really neat stuff. To the south of Dublin is the Wicklow Mountains, which is another amazingly beautiful drive. The neatest thing in that area was visit Glendalough, a beautiful mountain valley with the ruins of a monastery. Spend some time in pubs (duh!). When you're on the coast you can get a lot of amazing seafood. I had the best seafood chowder I've ever had in a small pub on the coast in the middle of nowhere. For what it's worth, Rick Steves Ireland tour book was a great resource and starting point, but certainly not the bible. If you have any other questions, just ask.

I've always been curious as to how people get these jobs in the capitol. I've never seen them publicly listed (might just be missing where they are). I work in the newspaper business and when I asked someone who works as an aide how they got the job they answered "I was friends with the person who had it before me." Are these people all partisan "true believers" who got these jobs from connections they have from volunteering on campaigns or recruited from the ranks of College Republicans/Democrats? I've never been able to figure it out.

Top five is tough to put in order, but I can try. 1). Tyranena - Local, and they do stouts/porters and IPA really well (my two favorite styles). I'm in love with their Brewers Gone Wild Series. 2). New Glarus - I've disliked as many of their beers as I've loved, but man have I loved some of their beers. 3). Bells - Two Hearted Ale is probably my favorite beer of all time. A lot of their other stuff is outstanding as well. 4). Unibroue - I'm really getting into Belgian-style ales and Unibroue does them well - and a lot cheaper than Belgian breweries do. 5). Boston Beer Company - They get hated on a lot for being big, but they make a lot of solid beers and some really great stuff here and there. Boston Lager is my fallback brew if beer selection sucks at a bar. Their holiday beers, Fezziwig and Holiday Porter are outstanding. They also make some pretty atrocious stuff (see Cranberry Lambic). Honorable mention to Ommegang, Sierra Nevada, Dogfish Head, Sprecher and Leinenkugels (solely on a nostalgic note for introducing me to craft beer). Edited for spelling issues

I've learned to never worry about who Ryan brings into the program. It always works out. Did it sting to lose Blue to Marquette? Sure. I still don't get it, but Wisconsin will do just fine without him. And am I misremembering things, or wasn't Anderson a much higher regarded prospect before he had an injury shortened season last year? I'm not being sarcastic, but it seems to me he was a four-star prospect and had some pretty big programs offering him scholarships. Edit: Nice article on Anderson

Lambic has fruit in it, but it's not a girly wine cooler-ish beer at all. They're sour and funky from the wild yeast. Cran-bic was sour and funky, but no overly funky.

Cran-bic is out and about now. Went to Woodman's East, no dice, but found it at a small liquor store in Cottage Grove. Looking forward to trying it. Woodman's only other lambic was Lindeman's, which was about $9 for a 750 ml, $5 for a 12 oz. They also had Three Philosophers in four-packs and 750 ml bottles.

Technically....and I hate to sound like a beer snob, but what the heck...lambics by definition have to come from a certain area of Belgium (read the wikipedia entry Lambic. It's like champagne has to come from a certain region of France, otherwise it's a sparkling white wine. That said, your best bet is to find a "true" lambic at Woodman's or an upscale liquor store. Tyranena, according to their website, still has their blueberry lambic on tap in the tasting room. Or you can always go to Brasserie V on Monroe Street. I would assume they would have some lambic there. Woodman's has Lindemans in several flavors. I've never had it, but I've heard it's kind of the McDonald's of lambics. Edit: The American equivalent is the American Wild Ale, you could look who makes them on BeerAdvocate, but I think most of those wouldn't be easy to find...and I just realized Ommegang's Three Philosophers is a lambic blend made with real lambic. Probably a couple bucks cheaper than an import.

It's not an R&D beer, it's an Unplugged.

Haven't tried it yet. There are reviews of it on Beer Advocate, so it must be out. Might have to go looking for it. I've really been into lambic lately, and this will be a bit more affordable then a true lambic from Belgium. As an aside, am I the only one who didn't know Magic Hat distributes in Wisconsin? I picked up a sampler pack last week. Most of it is "eh." But the Odd Notion Fall '09 is a Belgian stout and it's fantastic.

Specifically on the square, the Old Fashioned is nice. Reasonably priced, good Wisconsin comfort food. Amazing beer selection if that's your thing.

I had one. You put the charcoal in the bottom level and throw some wood chunks (I'd use chunks, not chips) on the coals. Water, or whatever other liquid goes in the next tray. I didn't like mine. It was a major pain in the ass to clean and I had a hard time maintaining a good smoking temperature. Mine was a pretty cheap one, but it had bad air flow and the coals tended to want to extinguish themselves. I've had better smoking results with a plain old Weber charcoal grill.

I've been off of work for the last couple of days so I've made a point of trying out some new beers. Had the New Glarus Imperial Saison and the Potosi Snake Hollow IPA yesterday. The saison was outstanding...very fruity and warm. Couldn't drink it all day, but I really enjoyed it. The IPA was an oustanding IPA. I was hoping to make it out to Potosi to check out the brewery, but I settled for having their beer on tap. Nice bitterness and floral qualities. I wish they distributed their beer more. I also had the Blueberry Kinda Lambic and Cocoa Imperial Porter at the Tyranena Brewery. I'm not sure if either of them will be bottled, but the lambic was really nice. Base brown ale with blueberries added and aged in bourbon barrels. I'm assuming it was fermented with wild yeast if they called it a lambic. Sour and kind of funky. Not an ordinary blueberry beer. The porter was very good, but the cocoa doesn't assert itself as much as I'd like it to.

I know we're talking mostly chain burgers here, but the house burger at The Old Fashioned in Madison is really something else. Bacon, a soft cooked egg, cheddar, fried onions and garlic sauce. The beef itself suffers from over-seasoning (too much worcestershire sauce?), but all those toppings on it were awesome. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to wake up the next morning after all that cholesterol but, dang. That was good. Not to mention the 150+ Wisconsin beers they have there. Cool place.

I think Kopps is one of the most overrated in the city. They're big, but they're dry.