The Beersocks Beer Blog

This Blog is dedicated to my many thoughts and feelings about beer. I will describe different beers and my experiences with them

Thursday, September 22, 2005

The Situation in Madison


I had a the amazing opportunity to go stay with two of the greatest people this weekend, in their wonderful home of Madison. I must report that the situation in Madison has grown to something between a donkey swimming across the English Channel to a large chunk of swiss cheese falling from a 747 and destroying the largest ball of twine. Our mission for the weekend was to drink beer, eat waffles, and have the best vegetarian grits ever made. I must say we were not only successful, we completed our mission in record time. Now I must move onto the beer portion of this story, as this is a beer blog.

We started out adventure at the New Glarus Brewery. God I think these guys are my favorite now. Run by a husband and wife team, this brewery is considered to be one of the top in the world, and it shows. When you pull up, you are immediately struck with the sent of mash being created. Mmmmm smells like really warm grains just churning over heat. We took a self guided tour of the brewery, which at the least demonstrates the pride that they have in their tradition, brew, and facilities. At the end of the tour we did a small tasting, which was so so, but hey they did let us have some beer. I also took home a bit of beer, as we can't get this stuff in Chicago. I was most impressed with the Belgian Red, which is a spontaneously fermented lambic style beer. Mmmm this stuff apparently has over a pound of cherries per bottle. The staff was great, and I really enjoyed the brewery. Just one question, What is the world's most expensive hop? No one knew, but apparently they use it on their Octoberfest.

We then visited the Capitol Brewery, which I have talked about in previous posts. I was a little disappointed with them, as it was more like a bar then a brewery. They only do one tour a day and we missed it. Although we were there, they neglected to inform us we would miss the tour, and instead sent us out for lunch. Lunch was good, but we drank spotted cow. Did get a chance to try the Autumnal Fire, which was a strong bock that went down smooth. Still love their beer, just a little disappointed with their facility.

To finish our drinking tour we decided to hit the Essenhaus in Madison. This is a gigantic and fairly traditional German bar. Serving beer in everything from 1/2 liters to 2 liter boots (now banned in Chicago). Knowing where I was, I decided to spend sometime getting to know the Octoberfests. I tried a liter of Spaten and a liter of Hauf Brau Haus. Yum on both accounts the HB was a little lighter, and I actually preferred it over the Spaten, but it was pretty much a toss up either way. God after all this beer I thinkn we were all drunk, but we decided to have a 6 pack and a fire, which put everyone over the edge.

All in all an amazing taste of Wisconsin and a great weekend.
As for ratings New Glarus 10/10
Capital 8/10
Octoberfests 9/10
Yum

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