LIBATIONS

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