Chocolate Ice Cream Stouts to Fruit Smoothies – this pick six pack took me on a wild ride of flavor.
While I wish I could be trying these all on draft at a bar or brewery (or at the Great Taste of the Midwest RIP), I’m trying to be thankful for what I got. So here’s to another six pack, my comfy beer stained couch, zoom happy hours, sandhill cranes, and shitty drunk poetry.
New Glarus Brewing – Thumbprint Edition: Nectar Ale – ABV unlisted – Belgian Fruit Lambic
“Sweet nuances of Bavarian heritage Geisenheim grapes, harvested in New York, dance effortlessly with malted barley and raw wheat in this unexpected celebration of traditional Lambic brewing methods. Dan’s masterful blending of wild fruit cave batches from 2017, 18 and 19 result in this luminous nectar of the Gods. Sparkling notes of honeyed apricot and candied lemon create illusions of summertime honeysuckle and humming birds. Finally, a long six week rest in oak completed the spontaneous fermentation sealing forever this marriage of wine and beer.”
If I were a corpse, you could revive me with this refreshing, delicious ale. It’s like a sparkling white grape juice, with more complexity. There are notes of white grape juice, tart green apples, honey, lemon, and subtle biscuity malts. It’s like drinking liquid heaven, a syrup sent from the gods. It’s absolute perfection.
Crooked Stave – Double Dry Hopped Sour – 4.5& – Sour IPA
“Double Dry-Hopped with Citra, Mosaic, and Motueka Hops. We combined IPA dry hopping techniques with a mixed culture, foeder fermented golden sour.”
Man, hoppy sours are so interesting. With most sours, you expect that strong fruit element, but with hops, you get the tropical fruit and citrus flavors but also a dank, earthy grassiness, almost herbal flavor that it reminds you of a fancy mixed cocktail you’d pay like 15 bucks for. And that’s exactly what the Double Dry Hopped Sour tastes like.
Fermentorium Brewery – Covered Bridge – 4.8% – Golden Ale
“Golden in color like the summer sunsets over the fields where it’s grown, Covered Bridge is our 100% Wisconsin Ale. Crafted from Scarlett barley and three hop varieties grown here in the Badger State, this is an easy drinking beer that’s not trying to be anything but Wisconsin proud.”
Imagine A Spotted Cow, with the slightly corn/cereal grain flavor and creamines, but now with more hops. Covered bridge stands out as that perfectly balanced beer of crisp, bready malt flavor and citrus lemon hops that make it a refreshing summer choice. It’s reminds me of both Revolution’s Cross of Gold and Founder’s Solid Gold – to other excellent golden ales.
Untitled Art – Zanzibar Chocolate Ice Cream Stout – 8.0% – Milk Stout
“Chocolate Ice cream stout brewed with Chocolate Shoppe Zanzibar Ice Cream.”
Now this is a dessert I can get behind. It’s a rich, decadent, creamy milk stout with notes of delicious milk chocolate. It has the equivalent taste of drinking a big bowl of cereal milk after finishing off your cocoa puffs.
Untitled Art – Blackberry Fruit Smoothie – 4.5% – Milkshake IPA
“Smoothie-style beer brewed with blackberry.”
Untitled Art is killing it in the dessert beer category. Taking a step back from chocolate, the Blackberry Fruit Smoothie tastes like it was made with soft serve vanilla ice cream and plump blackberries. It has a ice cream creaminess, with a perfect blackberry tanginess to balance the beer out.
Oliphant Brewing –Seis Seis Seis: the Marg of the Beast – 5.0% – Fruited Sour
“Margarita sour with sea salt and lime . New limes, big sour!”
I’m not going to lie, I got this because it came in a crowler. And at this point, the notes I took on it don’t make much sense. But I’ll see if you can decipher what it is I’m trying to say here:
Tequila, super lime, all lime, saltinos, summery sunshine like the sun itself. Shaken in a cocktail shaker with tequila and love and salt and things.
Well put, drunk Jacob, well put.
Restless Hearts
Out there in the stars
a vision born, a place to rest
for our restless hearts.
Like gas in the engine of a car
burning, we roamed out there
out there among the stars.
Morning to night they’d tear apart
our prairie dreams, leaving naught
but our restless heart.
Chasing down, like fireflies to place in jars
can you capture happiness, a place for us
out there among the stars.
Into the wild we embarked
armed with only
our restless hearts.
Now we have our place to rest
To lay our heads and begin again
at home, underneath the stars
restless no more, our hearts.