Sauce Watch: On Wisconsin!

Everyone's favorite arch-conservative pillar of judicial restraint has made a valuable and delightful discovery. A quaint little store around the corner from my chambers called Moco Market has a build-your-own six-pack deal at a heck of a price, and with a fine selection of excellent local brews. I availed myself of the options and have uncovered some shining examples of what makes Wisconsin truly great.

Blonde Doppelbock, Capital Brewery, Middleton, WI

This was a lovely and refreshing summertime libation. Light, sweet, and just a wee bit fruity. Exactly what kind of fruit, you ask? I really couldn't put my finger on it, maybe peach? Hint of mystery fruit aside, I hereby hold this beer to be a nice alternative when you want a nice airy beer to sip on a summer afternoon, but don't want the overwhelming kick of your traditional Hefeweizen. The Blonde Doppelbock offers all of the positive elements I associate with wheat beers, and none of the negative. Couldn't drink it every day, but the one bottle I included in my custom sixer went down reeeeeeal nice.

Staghorn Octoberfest, New Glarus, WI

One of my favorite parts about fall is when all the breweries start rolling out their Octoberfests and Oktoberfests and their Fests of all kinds. I don't recall having encountered this fine submission from New Glarus last year, and I am thrilled that they have decided to jump on the Octoberfest bandwagon. So confident was I that NG would deliver the goods, I allocated 2 of the six spots in the pack for this contender, and I can now say that ruling was not clearly erroneous. It isn't the best Octoberfest I've ever had (last year I was ALL about the Sprecher) but it is a solid and substantial beer. It is dark and full-bodied, with a slightly bitter aftertaste - reminiscent of their Fat Squirrel (this Justice's personal favorite), but with a bit more bite. I vote "Yea".

Holy Moses White Ale, Great Lakes Brewing Co., Cleveland, OH

I mistakenly included one bottle of this in the six pack without realizing it wasn't a Wisconsin beer. I will briefly review it anyway, in the hope that the rest of you won't make the same mistake I did and actually purchase this swill. This beer was...eh. It had a lot of weird flavors going on, and I wasn't diggin it. The fine print on the label says it is made with coriander, orange peel, and chamomile. No wonder it tasted so funky. As my wise co-justice JPS once told me, "Stay away from beers with weird spices". Or something like that. Anyhoo, I give it one and half thumbs down. The remaining half thumb up is because, at 5.4% abv, one bottle (on an empty stomach) gave me a decent buzz.

Rocky's Revenge!, Tyranena Brewing Co., Lake Mills, WI

This beer! Oh, this beer! It was a dark horse contender, but I was so taken in by the charming story on the label of an ancient dragon that lives in the bottom of the lake and terrorizes the villagers, I decided to take the plunge and offer 2 coveted spots to this unknown spoiler. That was a gamble that most decidedly paid off. Rocky's Revenge is a sumptuous brown ale, with a portion aged in bourbon barrels. You can taste juuuuuust a hint of the sweet, smoky bourbon taste under the chocolatey, velvety smoothness of this quality product. The T has long been a fan of Newcastle, the quintessential brown ale, but this is far superior. It tastes like Newcastle would taste if it grew a pair. Every sip was a delight, and a great sense of melancholy descended o'er me when the last drop was drained. Good thing I got two.

Happy drinking!