LIBATIONS

I’m going to link to probonobaker.com because this was something I made, but Gemma already wrote about it and the pictures are very nice on her site, so we’ll leave it at that.  Go here.

I promise I will focus on single beverages and keep the tired blathering to a minimum in the future.

That said, Gemma, her brother Evan, her father, and myself recently went on a road trip to Madison for the annual beer festival, The Great Taste of the Midwest.

It is a day long festival starting at 1 and ending at 6. The festival is put on by the Madison Home Brewers and Tasters Guild. This was the 21st year that they have hosted the festival. It takes place in a beautiful park overlooking lake Monona and the Capitol.

The event brings together over 100 breweries from the Midwest who bring over 500 different varieties of beer, including a great selection of cask beers.

In short, I tried more beers than I can remember. Some great, some good, some not so good.

Here’s a short list:

1. Bent River Brewing Company: Coriander and Orange
2. Flatlanders: 80 Schilling Scotch Ale*
3. Flossmoor Station: Hoppy Little Gnome, X-IPA, Rot Geist* and Ellas Reserve which was an exceptionally good Belgian aged in Woodford Reserve Bourbon barrels
4. Two Brothers: Victor’s Memoriale Alt, Heliocentric Braggot
5. Shoreline Brewery: Big Bella Heavy Scotch Ale
6. Three Floyds: Dark Lord Russian Imperial Stout*, Hellis*
7. Dragonmead Microbrewery: Dragon Daze
8. Kuhnhenn Brewing Company: Creme Brulee Java Stout*
9. New Holland: Mad Hatter* (Cask)
10. Old Hat Brewery and Grill: Alt
11. Short’s Brewing Company: Bloody Beer
12. Flat Earth Brewing Company: Bermuda Triangle Belgian Tripel*
13. Brew Kettle Taproom: Old 21 Double IPA
14. Great Lakes Brewing Company: Commodore Perry IPA
15. Ale Asylum: Hath-Weizen Hefe Weizen*
16. Angry Minnow Brewpub: Honey Wheat
17. Central Waters Brewing Company: Bourbon Barrel Stout
18. Green Bay/Hinterland Brewing Company: Oak aged IPA*
19. Barley Island: Sinister Minister Belgian Black*

Exceptional beer denoted by asterisk.

Unfortunately this list isn’t exhaustive and I can only recall some of the beers my cohorts and myself drank. I’m not going to comment on any at the moment. I will post on many individually in the future.

This is a photo of Dark Lord, by Three Floyds. I include the picture only to show how beautiful a glass of beer can look. And, if you can find it, or if you have a friend who has a bottle and you think really loves you, ask to share it and find out if that friend does in fact love you.

*Photos courtesy of probonobaker

August 11, 2007

I had the idea of doing a food blog (of course it was stolen from my girlfriend who, as it turns out, is much better at it than I am) because I love food so very much. Over the course of this last summer however, I became lazy and didn’t update and it was very boring, etc.

Then late this sumer I started brewing my own soda. This proved to be extremely enjoyable and gratifying (and as it turns out fairly simple). I gave that some thought and decided, after some online research, that there really wasn’t much of a forum for beverages in general. There are wine people, who are intimidating. Beer geeks, who are a breed all their own. I suppose there are soda people, but I don’t know any. But what about for people who want a mead? Or for people that want to make sarsaparilla? Or someone who has had a certain coffee stout but has no idea the maker and if it is even distributed. Hopefully this will be an emporium for beverages of all types.

I love beer, soda, coffee, liquor, mead, vitamin water, egg nog, etc. This blog aims to inform about beverages of all kinds. I will say if I like the beverage in question or not, but in the end, what’s it matter? Go try it.

So I wasn’t going to really post anything about a particular drink until tomorrow or the next day, but since I’m sitting in a cafe drinking Intelligentsia coffee, I may as well say how good it is.

I’m drinking it at Cafe Paradiso in Urbana. Intelligentsia is a Chicago based company that has a wonderful business ethic and concerned about the environment and all that.

I am not a huge tea drinker so I’m unable to comment on the tea, but the coffee is definitely my favorite coffee. It is available at many cafes and diners in the Chicagoland area. It is also available to order through their website.

I am drinking an iced americano (shots of espresso and water over ice). Give it a try if you like coffee and are sick of all the chains.

Available at:

Intelligentsia.com

In Chicago:

3123 North Broadway Street
Chicago, IL 60657

53 West Jackson Boulevard
Chicago, IL 60604

55 East Randolph Street
Chicago, IL 60601

Also in LA at:

3922 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90029