it.  Three Floyds Brewing, of Munster, Indiana, may

well be the best, complete-line brewery in the United States of America.  I’ve had a lot of stuff from a lot of different places.  But from no brewery have I said “wow” at every sampling I’ve had. (Disclaimer: Dogfish Head isn’t exactly super-available here in Wisconsin, but I’ve heard the same

them)

After betting with my wife’s uncle on last year’s Hoosiers/Boilermakers basketball games (a couple darned good bets) where I put up a 12-pack of New Glarus if the Hoosiers won against a 12-pack of Three Floyds if the dreaded Boilermakers won, I came out with a lot of Three Floyds.  GO HOOSIERS!  Granted, it took almost a year for the beer to arrive, but c’est la vie.  (To be fair, I also put up a 12 on the Old Oaken Bucket game in November…bad bet).

So after taking delivery of a 12 of Pride & Joy, and a 6 each of Robert the Bruce and Alpha King, I decided these need to be…professionally dissected.  And since I just made and tasted my very own first mild, I decided to start with the Pride & Joy Mild Ale.

Appearance: (4.5/5) This is a nice-looking beer.  That deep, copper-red sitting beneath a thick, foamy, pure-white head is something to look at.  That head hangs around a while, and laces a bubbly, foamy lace down the glass as the copper stuff disappears.  Eventually it disappears.

Aroma: (4/5) Probably the weakest point of this amazing beer.  It’s…not mild.  It’s actually noticeably fruity and hoppy.  You don’t get much malt in the nose at all like you should.  But you get plenty of citrus, and a little pine.  It’s a very pleasant aroma.  It completely misses the mark on style, but I think Three Floyds kinda does that on purpose.

Taste: (5/5) Style be damned, this is good.  This simply isn’t a mild ale.  It just isn’t.  It’s a slightly-more-malty pale ale.  There’s that hoppy, citrusy, fruitiness combined with just a little sweetness from the malt.  This beer floats up your nose as it works its way down.  Though the 42 IBUs (hop bitterness) is almost double the style standard, I just can’t help but…hold on, I need another sip…

Drinkability/Mouthfeel: (5/5) Hold on, I’m still drinking…  Seriously, though, the balance in this beer is unexpected.  An over-hopped mild…still balanced?  They do it.  Like I say, though, it drinks more like a pale ale than a mild.  There’s body to it, but enough effervescence to keep it light on the palate, and in the gut.  It would be easy to accidentally drink four or five of these.

Design: (3.5/5) I’ll be frank.  There’s too much design.  And that’s Three Floyds’ calling card.  As a matter of fact, “too much” is what Three Floyds does on everything.  But they always manage to make it work.  But this is a very busy design that makes it difficult to see what it is you’re getting.  The dark greens (despite the glitter/foil finish) are difficult to read against the black background, and I have no idea what is mild about a clown.  But I guess that’s just me.

Overall: (22/25) By the numbers, this is far and away the highest ranked beer I’ve done on this site.  And there’s only one beer in my fridge that I think goes even more beyond the greatness that is Pride & Joy and, guess what…it’s another Three Floyds.  I’ll get to that one before long.

Honestly, I’m going to go ahead and question the concept behind putting a bunch of hops in a style of beer that is intentionally supposed to not have a lot of hops at all.  That’s like dropping a Chevy 350 V8 in your Toyota Prius.  But then again…how fun would it be to drop a Chevy 350 V8 in a Toyota Prius?  Did I just solve my own conundrum?

The post Pro Brew: Three Floyds Pride & Joy (Mild Ale) appeared first on The Midwest Guy.

Well, it’s officially Christmas, which means it’s time for Christmas beer.  I could try to taste them all (and I’m not saying I won’t try), or I can have one that is a LOT of beer.  For the moment, I chose the latter option.

That’s Lakefront Brewery’s Holiday Spice Lager.  And it’s good, but it’s not perfect.  Although, part of that may have to do with my (rather recent) discovery that the iteration I found at the store was their previous recipe (from 2011).  They have apparently changed it since.

The biggest different, at least going by the information on my bottle, and the information on their new label, is the omission of nutmeg.  Hopefully they ramped down the clove as well.

But here’s how this one turned out:

Appearance: (5/5) This beer looks like Christmas.  A finger and a half of white, relatively thin head rises atop, but then slowly recedes to nothing.  No lacing down the glass to speak of, but then, with the alcohol content this beer has (Holy 11% ABV, Batman!), you wouldn’t expect otherwise.  The beer pours a beautiful, coppery-red.

Aroma: (4.5/5) Okay…this beer smells like Christmas.  With the 11% ABV, you’d think the first thing to sting your nose would be the alcohol.  Surprisingly (or not), the first thing that hits your nose is the clove.  That gets followed closely by the orange and cinnamon.  Getting a little nutmeg, but it gets easily lost behind the clove.  I may just pour one of these in a potpourri crock on Christmas morning.  No…I don’t have a potpourri crock.

Taste: (4/5) Okay, unsurprisingly, this beer tastes like Christmas.  Maybe a little too much like Christmas.  You get the sweetness from the honey, and you get the clove and cinnamon spice.  But the cinnamon…isn’t quite right.  It’s cassia.  It’s very intense.  Almost like Atomic Fireball candy.  Part of that may be the alcohol, though.  It’s a lager-style Winter Warmer, as Lakefront mentions.  But you don’t get the burn of alcohol, but you certainly do get an alcohol-ish warmth.  Overall, very tasty, but very intense.

Drinkability/Mouthfeel: (3/5) This is this beer’s Achilles’ Heel.  It’s so tasty, so intense, so spicy, and so warm (via the alcohol), that you can only have one at a sitting.  The mouthfeel is appropriately substantial.  About like a bock.  So it’s very smooth in that regard.  But it’s such a big beer, and a spicy beer, that it’s best as a nightcap or one to share a bottle among friends on a cold night.  I tried two in one night.  Had to really work the last half down, it was just so much.

Design: (3.5/5) As I’d mentioned in previous Pro Brew posts, I like to know what I’m drinking.  More accurately, I like to know who’s stuff I’m drinking (so I know how to find their other stuff when I like what I’m drinking).  Lakefront makes brilliant beer, but their design is terrible in this regard.  Their brewery logo blends right into the rest of the label, almost making you think you’re drinking some generic, or rookie’s “Holiday Spice Lager Beer.”  I like how they tell me what they used to make it a holiday beer in the center of the wreath, but the typography is a little thoughtless, especially how the wording bumps up against the wreath itself in the corners.  Yes, it looks Christmasy, and I’ve seen worse, but I’ve seen much, much better.

Overall: (20/25) When I had my first one of these, I didn’t think it would do as well as it did.  But Lakefront’s Holiday Spice Lager grew on me.  But it has some growing of its own to do.  As much as one would think it’s impossible, this beer is a little too much Christmas.  It looks beautiful, it smells great, it tastes great…until you get to the end of one.  Then you’re ready for something else.  Or, depending on your alcohol tolerance, you may just be ready for bed!  But then…isn’t that the point of a big beer like this?

The post Pro Brew: Lakefront Brewery Holiday Spice Lager appeared first on The Midwest Guy.

I’ve been saving this one for a full-on tasting.  I’ve had a couple of these already, so I know it’s going to fare very well, but now that I have the time to sit and analyze it, it’s even better.

Yes, the time for Oktoberfest and Märzen brews has, technically, come and gone.  But really, they’re meant to celebrate the harvest which also celebrates cooling temperatures.  And with climate change and all, those cooling temperatures are coming later and later, even here in Wisconsin.  So it still works, folks!

This 2009 US Beer Open champion for its style still has its magic three years after its gold-winning run.  Boasting Caramel, Munich, and Pale malts, lightly balanced by Mt. Hood and Hallertau hops, this should be good.

Appearance: (4.5/5) This is a pretty beer, folks.  A good, tall, resilient, cream-colored head sits atop a beautifully amber brew.  It’s a dense head.  And it hangs around very well.    It’s perfectly clear to look through, but darker than your usual Märzen.  Lacing is strong as the beer goes down, leaving dense blobs of bubbles ringing around the glass.

Aroma: (4.5/5) Holy malt bomb, Batman!  You can really pick up on the Caramel and Munich malts.  Very malt forward, especially for a Märzen.  Also a very forward fruitiness, but not citrusy fruitiness like you would normally get from hops.  Sprecher advertises a hop bitterness of only 15 IBUs, so hops are very mild.  This fruitiness is from the yeast.  Think, maybe, bananas with a bit of orange juice splashed over them.

Taste: (4.5/5) The only thing keeping this beer from a perfect 5 in taste is the style it’s brewed in.  A Märzen is meant to be sloshed back after a day in the field.  This one is a little too malt-forward for that.  But, unless you’re spending your days hard at work in the fields, that doesn’t matter.  It’s delicious.  You get a little bit of the banana from the nose into the mouth, but it’s very heavy on the caramel flavor.  Think a light version of Bananas Foster, with a little extra Foster.  But the hops come in at just the right time, in just the right amount, to balance this Oktoberfest out.  Beautifully crafted.  This really is.

Drinkability/Mouthfeel: (4/5) The heavier, very malt-forward character of this brew, combined with the caramel-heavy flavor give this beer a very dense mouthfeel.  And it’s very pleasant.  But it sits heavy, and should, technically  be a little lighter.  If you want something you can drink three or four of (or, given the fact that Sprecher’s Oktoberfest is packaged in 16oz bottles instead of the traditional 12oz, two or three), you may want to venture somewhere else.  You’re going to spoil your dinner.  However, if you chose this as your dinner, you could do much, much worse!

Design: (3/5) This is the Achilles’s Heel of this brew.  It’s not that I don’t like Sprecher’s old-German, blackletter typeface, or its heraldic shield on the label.  It’s that it’s just, overall, uninteresting.  Maybe there’s a method to the madness here, but I’m not getting it.  And since this is a Seasonal brew, it’s packaged in Sprecher’s generic, blue, 4-pack bottle caddy.  The only way to tell what beer this was without pulling it out of the package was by looking at the neck label.  Beyond that, though, I do appreciate the listing of the malts and hops used in the making of this beer.  That, to me, is better than the meaningless platitudes often placed on even craft beer bottles in the place of otherwise useful information.

But there’s a party-foul here, folks.  Yes…that’s a screw-top.  Maybe it’s because Sprecher also makes a lot of sodas (seems to me they make more soda than beer, but that’s no problem because that’s always been tasty, too), and uses the same bottles from one line to the next, but c’mon guys.  A screw top?  You know those don’t seal as well, and leads to oxidation.  And while I may be getting Sprecher extra fresh since I’m sitting only twenty miles south of their brew kettles in Glendale, Wisconsin, there has to be quality compromises by the time this beer lands in your distributor in, say, Danvers, Massachusetts.

Overall: (20.5/25) Here’s what this fire-brewed beer boils down to.  It’s delicious, it’s pretty, and it smells wonderful.  You can only drink a couple, but after that it’s time to go home anyway.  But Sprecher’s stuck-in-the-80s design approach combined with their inexplicable use of a screw-top bottle keep this Oktoberfest from the near-perfect score it truly deserves.  So if you want to judge a beer solely by how it tastes/smells/looks, get this one.  Get several of this one.  It’s only available through December.

If you’re like me, and like to gripe about things that shouldn’t matter to a beer (but do), then still get several Sprecher Oktoberfests, and then complain a little every time you see that screw top.

The post Pro Brew: Sprecher Oktoberfest appeared first on The Midwest Guy.

I know, Halloween has come and gone.  Shouldn’t we be past pumpkin beers by now?

No.  Absolutely not!  Why?  Well, when is the one time of the year when we consume more pumpkin pie (and other pumpkin sundries) than any other?  Thanksgiving!  And if you’re going to have a pumpkin beer, you may as well have a good one.  Haven’t found one, yet?  Then keep reading…

So what is Milwaukee’s Sasquash?  It’s more than just the “Pumpkin Porter” that the neck label says.  More importantly, it’s not just a regular ale that some schmo tossed a gourd and a bucket full of ginger, nutmeg, and clove in.  As a matter of fact, there’s very little spice presence in this beer.  What is there is also right on the label…sweet potato…

Appearance: (3.5/5) It’s a good, dark, opaque porter.  You can’t see through it, and I’m just fine with that.  A nice, dense, darker-tan head rises atop, about a finger’s worth, and then dissipates.  Not much of any lacing to speak of.  But a little bit of foam just hangs out on the top, even as the top level slowly dips down the glass as you drink it.

Aroma: (4/5) Not as much malty aroma as I would expect from a porter this dark and robust, but lots of caramel to the nose.  That’s not to say there’s NO malt to the nose, but it’s not number one.  No spice aroma.  No hop aroma either.  None.  And I’m fine with that.  Some pumpkin beers are extremely spice-forward.  This one, not the case.  But you do get a smell of…root.  I can’t explain it another way.  I can’t tell if that’s the pumpkin I’m smelling, or the sweet potato.  But I like it.

Taste: (5/5) Wow is this good.  The malt is relatively forward, the pumpkin hangs out in the background, but what you really get is the sweet potato.  And it’s fantastic.  As in, check to see if your grandmother lent Milwaukee Brewing Company her secret recipe for candied sweet potatoes.  There’s a lot of caramel here, almost brown-sugary.  It’s a bit heavy, but it still balances well enough.  It honest-to-goodness tastes like Thanksgiving sweet potatoes.  And not in a gimmicky way.  There may be some nutmeg in here, and if there is, it’s subtle.

Drinkability/Mouthfeel: (3.5/5) This beer is good, pleasant-smelling, and extra-tasty, but as mentioned, it’s a bit heavy.  Yes, porters are heavy beers, but this one kinda sits on your stomach a bit.  I could drink these all day, but I’m a fatty like that.  For most people, one or two of these and they’ll be full.  Mouthfeel, however, is very pleasant.  Very smooth.  Almost velvety.  Good stuff.

Design: (4.5/5) Maybe it’s because I know the folks who are behind the design (not just of Sasquash, but of all Milwaukee Brewing Co. products), but the design works really well.  I especially like the cute little pumpkin character they use on the box.  The label is simple and clear.  The neck label let’s you know, beyond the cutesy Sasquash name (which is cool) just what this beer is.  That’s important.  Very few microbreweries give you a name/package that clearly let you know just what it is that you’re drinking.  Some are downright non-informative about it.  But not Milwaukee.  They put everything up front, including the company’s name.  I like to know whose stuff I’m drinking.  The downside is, unless you’re looking at this on the shelf and can see the bottle, you’re back in the spot of not knowing what the beer is.  Sasquash can get away with this more than their other brews with oddball names, but it’s still not a net positive.

Final Score: (20.5/25) On the whole, Milwaukee Sasquash Pumpkin Porter is a top-notch seasonal brew.  The taste is both unique, and very pleasant, while reminding you what time of year it is.  And you can drink more than one bottle of it at a sitting.  Heck, I wouldn’t mind about half a pitcher or so on one shot.  But more than that would be a bit much.  And that’s fine.

The post Pro Brew: Milwaukee Brewing Company Sasquash (Pumpkin Porter) appeared first on The Midwest Guy.