In 2014, we conducted a different, and yet still great, taste of the Midwest.

Usually at this precise moment I'd be at the Great Dane, Vintage Brewing or the Capital Brewing beer garden, getting primed for the Great taste of the Midwest.

However, this being a period of relative transition for NABC since the shuttering of Bank Street Brewhouse's kitchen in May, we'd decided long ago to scale back the crew at GTMW in 2014, all the better to restore full (and expensive) debauchery in 2015.

Tonight like always, the boys and girls are on site in Madison, and I'm not, but oddly, my wife and I just returned from a road trip that included the Wisconsin state capital.

It's all quite simple, really. She had an unexpected opportunity to change jobs, and grabbed the advancement, leaving us with a window to load up the car and embark on a Great American Road Trip, just not at the same time as the Great Taste of the Midwest.

We had our own great taste, of Madison, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Duluth and Dubuque. I've backdated daily trip renderings and photos at my other blog, where you can find all the links collected in one place.

All the Northern Road Trip posting links collected in one place.

Over the next few days I'll be backdating postings here, and getting caught up. Kindly bear with me, anc cheers to all who'll be at the nation's best-run and most authentic beer fest this Saturday.

A few GTMW 2012 summaries to close the books on another great trip.

My own account is here: Where is Winona, anyway?

From Madison's local media:

The best of the best from the 2012 Great Taste of the Midwest beer festival, by Robin Shepard (Isthmus/Daily Page)

... The festival continues to grow and bring in new participating breweries. Among those this year was 3 Sheeps Brewing of Sheboygan. Co-owner James Owen brought three beers to the festival: Rebel Kent the First amber ale, Really Cool Waterslides IPA, and BAAAD Boy black wheat. "This is unbelievable; this is the biggest festival we've been to so far, and we feel a little unprepared," Owen said as he looked at the crowd streaming in from the entry gate. The 3 Sheeps Brewery opened only a few months ago in Sheboygan, and its beers have only been available on a very limited basis, something that he hopes to soon change.

And, from a visiting New Englander:

wordpress.com/2012/08/16/bostonbeergoesmidwest/">A Boston Beer Drinker Goes (Mid)West, by Lee (beermebartender blog)

... When he informed me that there was a festival in Madison so popular that tickets could only be acquired in-person at some podunk liquor stores in WI or through an old-school mail-in lottery, I wrote my check immediately (but didn’t mail it until the specified date since all entries must be postmarked on the date indicated by the festival organizers. The devil’s in the details!). I won the lottery, and then 8 weeks later when Great Taste rolled around, I won the lottery again.

At LouisvilleBeer.com: A Great Taste wrap with a brewpub focus.

This year at the Great Taste of the Midwest, I patronized the less well publicized. The epiphanies continue.

Where is Winona, anyway?

Posted by Roger Baylor in Baylor on Beer | 0 comments

Over a quarter-century of the Great Taste of the Midwest’s evolution, during which I’ve had the sheer pleasure of attending six, this legendary beer festival in Madison, Wisconsin, has evolved into one of those signature “tale of the tape” events.

Give or take five hours, a couple dozen portable johns, 140 breweries, 500 sticks of bacon, 1,000 kegs, 6,000 attendees, and you begin to get a vague impression of the scrum that awaits. Furthermore, what you’ve always heard is true: Participating brewers plunder their top-most cellar shelves, bringing rare, innovative, barrel-aged, secret-ingredient-infused beers to suit the eager completist’s zeal.

Given civilization’s steady technological advancement, it’s only a matter of time until willing beer enthusiasts can implant a microchip into their noggins, enabling an optical scanner linking directly to RateBeer’s database, permitting the collector to make the absolute best use of limited time at the Great Taste, and drink only the most highly rated, elusive, badge-of-honor styles.

I believe this would be a mistake, and here is why.

Bryce poses with Woody.

You can, too, because we're taking this life-size image of Woody Guthrie and his original fascist-killing machine to the Great Taste of the Midwest. Look for it and us if you're attending.

NABC on the road: Great Taste of the Midwest (Madison WI; 08/11/12).

The Great Taste of the Midwest takes place in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday, August 11, and once again, NABC will be there. Here's the beer list for 2012.

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NABC Beer Descriptions, for the Great Taste of the Midwest 2012 official program.

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At the NABC main station, C02 pour:

Black & Blue Grass

Naughty Girl

Oaktimus

Solidarity (Cabernet Barrel Aged)

Yakima (Willett Rye Barrel Aged)

10^th Anniversary Bygoner Series at the NABC main station, C02 pour

Bourbondaddy

Stumble Bus

Turbo Hog

Cask-conditioned NABC (pins at the NABC station; tapping time TBA):

There may be last-minute surprises

Cask-conditioned NABC (firkins at the real ale tent):

Beaks Best

Get Off My Lawn

Naughty Girl (Double Dry Hopped)

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NABC BEER DESCRIPTIONS

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At the NABC main station, C02 pour:

Black & Blue Grass

ABV: 6.5%

OG: 15 degrees Plato

IBU: 18

Spiced Belgian Saison

Malts: Rahr Pale and white wheat, Castle Aromatic
Sugar: Blue Agave Nectar

Hops: German Perle
Spices: Toasted Black Pepper, Lemon Grass

Yeast: House Belgian Ale

You can’t drink Black & Blue Grass in striped pants

The great Bill Monroe described his bluegrass music as "Scottish bagpipes and ole-time fiddlin'. It’s Methodist and Holiness and Baptist. It's blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound." Our Black & Blue Grass begs to concur. Belgian yeast and stateside Saison spicing; black pepper and blue agave and lemongrass, and a great bet alongside any food you have around.

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Naughty Girl

ABV: 6%

OG: 14.4 degrees Plato

IBU: 69

Belgian India Blonde Ale

Malts: Rahr 2-row, Rahr Premium Pils, Castle (Belgian) Aromatic, CaraPils

Hops: Cascade, Galena, Golding, Cascade for warm dry-hopping

Yeast: House Belgian Ale

Naturally Naughty -- by Nurture

It all began as a Belgo-American ménage a trois, but then the brewers arrived and transformed the trans-oceanic affair into a beer love pentangle. The collaborative minds at Louisville Beer Store, De Struise Brouwers and New Albanian Brewing Company offer this, a willfully disobedient India Blonde Ale with a hop on her shoulder.

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Oaktimus

ABV: 10.7%

OG: 22.6 degrees Plato

IBU: 100

Imperial IPA (Oak Aged Hoptimus)

Malts: Special Pale

Hops: Four additions of high alpha Nugget, one late addition of Cascade, dry-hopped with whole cone Cascades

Yeast: House American Ale

Aged in Sterner Stuff

When aged on oak, Hoptimus becomes Oaktimus. Living vicariously through others is a sad compromise meant only for rank amateurs and subpar international lagers. Rather, we all might profit from the principled example of Hoptimus, which lives vivaciously, audaciously and capriciously through itself. With a snarky hop character that is blatantly unrepentant, Hoptimus ensures that meek palates surely will not inherit the earth.

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Solidarity (Cabernet Barrel Aged)

ABV: 8%

OG: 21.1 degrees Plato

IBU: 18

Baltic Porter

Malts: Special Pale; Simpsons Aromatic, Dark Crystal, Chocolate and Black; CaraPils

Hops: Magnum in the kettle; Willamette in the whirlpool

Yeast: House Lager

Solidarity or Death

In the 1980’s, the Solidarity trade union movement in Poland helped end the

Communist Party’s hegemony. We tip our hats to Solidarity, both as concept and movement, with this robust liquid reminder of Baltic foresight in activism … and strong beer.

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Yakima (Willett Rye Barrel Aged)

ABV: 7.5%

OG: 17 degrees Plato

IBU: 130

Rye India Pale Ale

Malts: Rahr 2-row, Flaked Rye, Weyermann CaraFoam
Hops: Columbus, Centennial, Cascade

Yeast: House American Ale

How the Midwest Was Won

“Yakima is simple in design: This beer is for me, the hophead Brewmaster here in the land of no coast. After many years of liquid research, the time came to satisfy my inner desire to craft a Rye IPA so immaculate that it would ‘up’ our revolution even further. Mission accomplished.” -- Jared Williamson, formerly of NABC, now brewing at Schlafly

10^th Anniversary Bygoner Series at the NABC main station, C02 pour

Bourbondaddy

ABV: 9.5%

OG: 20 degrees Plato

IBU: 18

Imperial Chocolate Milk Stout (Bourbon Barrel Aged)

Malts: Rahr Pale, Simpson Chocolate and Roast Barley, Patagonia Especial, flaked oats

Sugar: Milk (lactose)                                   

Hops: Challenger

Special: Raisins and cocoa added to mash, cacao nibs in the kettle, and "Dry Nibbed" in the bright for two months prior to filling barrels

Yeast: House Ale

“Go forth and proceed”
The first batches of Bourbondaddy appeared in 2003 and 2004. The 10^th anniversary revival version began life as an Imperial Chocolate Mik Stout, and then was racked into Angel's Envy barrels for four months’ aging.

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Stumble Bus
ABV: 11.2%

OG: 25 degrees Plato

IBU: 126

American Strong Ale

Malts: Rahr Pale, Weyermann Vienna, Simpson Medium Crystal, light malt extract
Hops: A delicate mix of Galena, Cascade and Golding
Yeast: House American Ale

Fall Off the Bus

Along with Bourbondaddy, Stumble Bus is the most fondly remembered seasonal ale brewed by NABC’s founding brewer, Michael Borchers. Was it Imperial IPA, or was it Barleywine? What is it now? It’s not the destination; it’s the journey.

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Turbo Hog

ABV: 9.5%

OG: 20 degrees Plato

IBU: 86

Malt Liquor

Malts: Rahr Pale, flaked maize

Sugar: White table sugar

Hops: Hallertau Magnum and Tettnanger, Czech Saaz (4 late kettle additions and dry hops)

Yeast: House Ale

The finest malt liquor yet devised by man
First came Bush Hog, and then its logical culmination, Turbo Hog (sans paper bags). Augmented with corn, boosted in strength, and refashioned as a malt liquor, it was a briefly invigorating experiment. Boss Hog was planned, but never brewed.

Cask-conditioned NABC (firkins at the real ale tent):

Beak’s Best

ABV: 5.3%

OG: 14.75 degrees Plato

IBU: 35

American Ale

Malts:  Rahr Pale, Simpsons Medium Crystal, Castle (Belgian) Aromatic and Special B

Hops: Triple hopped with Cascade pellets

Yeast: House Ale

American Bitter & Soul Liniment

Named in honor of globetrotting historian and educator Don "Beak" Barry. You really need to meet the Beak, and sample his ale.

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Get Off My Lawn

ABV: 4.2%

OG: 10 degrees Plato

IBU: 35

Session India Pale Ale

Malts: Rahr 2-Row and Simpson Aromatic

Hops: AU Galaxy (100%) … mash hops, late whirlpool, and dry hopping; no hops in the boil

Yeast: House Ale

This means you, hipster

David Pierce, NABC’s Director of Brewing Operations, has been telling young punks to get off his lawn since long before he even had a lawn. Back then, we didn’t have craft beer. Now we use it to mow our lawns once the hipsters are gone.

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Naughty Girl

(Same as above, double dry-hopped version)

LouisvilleBeer.com video footage of Great Taste of the Midwest 2011.

I shot the footage of the Great Taste of the Midwest on John Campbell's filming gizmo, and John Wurth edited. It was fun to film and drink, and in spite of my ineptitude in the medium, the video turned out nicely.

Great Taste Roadtrip 2011: Saturday, August 13 (GTMW).

No comments ... just a crazy, fun and enriching day by Lake Monona with the Craft Nation faithful.

Tony's Wisconsin-Indiana poster for the Great Taste of the Midwest, 2011.

I may have mistakenly advised Tony to change "New Albaniana" to "New Albania." Either way, it's fine. I now understand that while New Albania is the home of New Albanians, New Albaniana is the state-wide, Indiana-inflected version. The poster will be on sale at our booth during the GTMW.

NABC's advertisement in the 2011 Great Taste of the Midwest program.

NABC Beer Descriptions, for the Great Taste of the Midwest 2011 official program.

NABC beer descriptions for the Great Taste of the Midwest 2011 official program, as submitted earlier this summer. We're only a few days away!

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At the NABC main station, C02 pour:

*B’Urban Trotter
Elector
Hoptimus
Jaxon
*Naughty Girl
Solidarity (special timing TBA)
Thunderfoot
Tunnel Vision
Yakima

Cask-conditioned NABC (pins at the NABC station; tapping time TBA):

Scotch-pin-aged Quadrageddon
Scotch-pin-aged Solidarity

Cask-conditioned NABC (firkins at the real ale tent):

Beak’s Best
Community Dark

* Collaboration with De Struise Brouwers and Louisville Beer Store

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NABC beer descriptions

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At the NABC main station, C02 pour:

B’Urban Trotter
Double India Pale Ale
ABV: 9.2%
IBU: 208
OG: 21 degrees Plato
Finish Line at the Starting Gate
If the Kentucky Derby is the greatest two minutes in sports, then B’Urban Trotter is the finest few moments of sipping, because what better place for a brewer/ostrich rancher from Flanders to seek inspiration than Louisville’s annual Run for the Roses? With collaborative assistance from NABC and Louisville Beer Store, De Struise’s Urbain Coutteau created this “Derbied” Double India Pale Ale to be dry-hopped and bourbon/oak aged, with a suggestion of mint for the home stretch.

Malts: Rahr 2-Row, Weyermann Bohemian Pilsner, Castle Biscuit, Simpsons Medium Crystal

Hops: Cascade (mash, dry), Summit (first wort), Summit (bittering), Chinook (bittering, flavor, dry), Northern Brewer (flavor), Simcoe (dry)

Yeast: American (Chico) Ale

Special additions: Vanilla beans and honey were added during the whirlpool.

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Elector
Imperial Red
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: 62
OG: 18.5 degrees Plato
Makes Democracy Pointless
Richly malty and excessively hopped, Elector was first brewed on Election Day, taking its name from the Electoral College. In like fashion, Elector’s unique character makes democracy utterly pointless. It severs party affiliations, crosses the aisle, and commands you to drink early and vote often. That’s because whenever Elector is on the ballot, there’s only one real choice.

Malts: Rahr Pale and Simpsons Medium Crystal

Hops: Nugget and Cascade

Yeast: House American

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Hoptimus
Imperial IPA
ABV: 10.7%
IBU: 100
OG: 22.6 degrees Plato
Sterner Stuff
Living vicariously through others is a sad compromise meant only for rank amateurs and subpar international lagers. Rather, we all might profit from the principled example of Hoptimus, which lives vivaciously, audaciously and capriciously through itself. With a snarky hop character that is blatantly unrepentant, Hoptimus ensures that meek palates surely will not inherit the earth.

Malt: Special Pale

Hops: Four additions of high alpha Nugget, one late addition of Cascade, dry-hopped with whole cone Cascades

Yeast: House English

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Jaxon
Barley Wine
ABV: 11%
IBU: 100
OG: 28 degrees Plato
Drop the Leash and Let Him Run
The newest member of the Brewers’ Best Friend Series teasingly asks the question, “With a bark like that, who needs Pat?,” because Jaxon, NABC’s properly pedigreed Barleywine, is brewed and aged by David Pierce (creator of the legendary Bearded Pat’s Barley Wine) at Bank Street Brewhouse. Only the first runnings are collected from the mash tun, with no sparge. Three separate mashes make up one batch.

Malts: Special Pale, Dingeman's Biscuit, Cara 45, Special B

Hops: Centennial, Simcoe, Chinook in two additions;
Cascade in the whirlpool; dry hopped twice with whole cone Cascade

Yeast: House English

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Naughty Girl
Belgian India Blonde Ale
ABV: 6%
IBU: 69
OG: 14.4 degrees Plato
Naturally Naughty -- by Nurture
It all began as a Belgo-American ménage a trois, but then the brewers arrived and transformed the trans-oceanic affair into a beer love pentangle. The collaborative minds at Louisville Beer Store, De Struise Brouwers and New Albanian Brewing Company offer this, a willfully disobedient India Blonde Ale with a hop on her shoulder.

Malts: Rahr 2-row, Rahr Premium Pils, Castle (Belgian) Aromatic, CaraPils

Hops: Cascade, Galena, Golding, Cascade for warm dry-hopping

Yeast: De Struise House Ale

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Solidarity
Baltic Porter
ABV: 8%
IBU: 18
OG: 21.1 degrees Plato
Solidarity or Death
In the 1980’s, the Solidarity trade union movement in Poland helped end the
Communist Party’s hegemony. In 2011, we watched as Wisconsin fought its own battles against repression. We tip our hats to Solidarity, both as a concept and a movement, with this robust liquid reminder of Baltic foresight in activism … and strong beer.

Malts: Special Pale; Simpsons Aromatic, Dark Crystal, Chocolate and Black; CaraPils

Hops: Magnum in the kettle; Willamette in the whirlpool

Yeast: Common Lager

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Thunderfoot
Cherried Imperial Stout
ABV: 12%
IBU: 90
OG: 25.2 Plato
Ultimate Urban Renewal
There can be no doubt. Thunderfoot actively renounces the gentle tweak, the mild revision, and the imperceptible hint. Thunderfoot neither seeks to make a plausible case for adaptive reuse, nor can it be bothered with the nuances of historical preservation. Thunderfoot puts its elongated foot squarely down, advocating your palate’s restructuring the old-fashioned way – whole cloth, entire, complete, irresistible, certain and inevitable.

Malts: Special Pale, Simpson's Roasted Barley, Simpson's Dark Crystal, Flaked Oats

Hops: UK Challenger, Willamette

Special treatment: Hop-backed with dried Bing tart cherries. Aged for one year on oak and dried tart cherries.

Yeast: House English

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Tunnel Vision
ABV: 9.5%
IBU: 20
OG: 22.1 degrees Plato
The Ultimate in Sexy Subterranean Chic
Those hardy immigrant gnomes who came from the venerable hills of the Ardennes to take up residence beneath the mysterious Knobs of Southern Indiana get lonely, too. That’s why NABC gave them Tunnel Vision, a potion reminiscent of home, and sufficiently versatile for consumption in all seasons -- and on all continents.

Malts: Castle Pale, Castle Aromatic, Weyermanns Vienna, Flaked Rye, Honey Malt

Hops: Magnum

Special: Orange Peel, Coriander

Yeast: Belgian Chouffe

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Yakima
Rye India Pale Ale
ABV: 7.5%
IBU: 130
OG: 17 degrees Plato
How the Midwest Was Won
“Yakima is simple in design: This beer is for me, the hophead Brewmaster here in the land of no coast. After many years of liquid research, the time came to satisfy my inner desire to craft a Rye IPA so immaculate that it would ‘up’ our revolution even further. Mission accomplished.” -- Jared Williamson

Malts: Rahr 2-row, Flaked Rye, Weyermann CaraFoam

Hops: Columbus, Centennial, Cascade

Yeast: House ale

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Cask-conditioned NABC (pin at the NABC station; tapping time TBA):

Scotch-pin-aged Quadrageddon
It’s Belgian, it’s strong, and that’s all any of us know. Aged in a wooden pin that formerly held Lagavulin-conditioned JW Lees Vintage Harvest Ale

Scotch-pin-aged Solidarity
As above; Baltic Porter aged in a wooden pin that formerly held Lagavulin-conditioned JW Lees Vintage Harvest Ale.

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Cask-conditioned NABC (firkins at the real ale tent):

Beak’s Best
American ESB
ABV: 5.3%
IBU: 35
OG: 14.75 degrees Plato
American Bitter & Soul Liniment
Brewed with English malts and American hops, and named in honor of globetrotting historian and educator Don "Beak" Barry. You really need to meet the Beak, and sample his ale.

Malts: Simpsons Golden Promise, Simpsons Medium Crystal, Castle (Belgian) Aromatic and Special B

Hops: Triple hopped with Cascade pellets

Yeast: House English

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Community Dark
English Dark Mild
ABV: 3.7%
IBU: 12.5
OG: 11.5 degrees Plato
Inside Is What Counts
Indiana State Fair Brewers Cup gold medal winner, 2011. Inspired by traditional English Mild, the style that fueled the factory workers who made the Industrial Revolution, Community Dark is revolutionary in its own way: Dark-colored but light-bodied, and a session ale suitable for New Albany’s emerging downtown renaissance.

Malts: Special Pale, Dark Crystal and Chocolate malts

Hops: Double hopped with EK Golding

Yeast: House London

NABC on TV at the Great Taste.

Wednesday Weekly: Off again to the gentle embrace of a bluer state.

I’ve updated this previously published essay from 2009 to incorporate recent events. Otherwise, what was true last year remains valid this year, and the Great Taste beckons.

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We’re packing tonight for the annual NABC company jaunt to Madison, Wisconsin, and another educational and entertaining immersion in the city’s unequaled craft beer celebration, the Great Taste of the Midwest.

As oft times before, the Great Taste takes place on a single Saturday afternoon at a pleasant wooded park alongside Lake Olin, affording a gorgeous view of downtown Madison in what I fervently hope will be reduced humidity, compared to this dastardly Louisville summer of 2010.

There is no equal to the Great Taste, at least in our region. It is a savory, savvy, well behaved, open air forum for enjoying the liquid benefits of America’s craft beer revolution. Each year, hundreds of ales and lagers are available for sampling, many rarely seen, because for the Great Taste, participating breweries bring their “A” teams. Few seasonal beer festivals inspire such good-natured competition among breweries. Lucky ticketholders cherish the liquid rewards.

And “lucky” these ticketholders surely are, because if they’re inside the fence, they’ve beaten the odds. The Great Taste sells out months in advance, and last-minute road trips are discouraged unless you have an “in.” One possibility for those without advance ducats is a thriving “resale” market near the entrance, because what better way to espouse good ol’ capitalistic values than negotiating with a scalper, who probably voted for Glenn Beck’s favorite backdoor socialist, Barack Obama?

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That’s right: There’s a leftist tinge to Madison. Apart from the wonders of its one-day craft beer fete, the city’s fair-minded, intrinsic liberalism never fails to impress this unrepentant Social Democrat.

When one considers the strong likelihood that frothy right-wing politicians like Kentucky’s mercifully departing Jim Bunning habitually refer to Wisconsin’s state capital as “The People’s Republic of Madison”, it’s a reminder for people of my persuasion to go there whenever possible, investing early and often in the local beer-making economy, and recalling that in political terms, Kentucky remains apparently forever (and lamentably) “in the Red.”

2009 was my visit Madison since the Hoosier state finally turned a pale shade of blue, albeit it tenuously, thanks to Obama’s ascent to the White House. In the tumultuous months following my most recent trip north, Southern Indiana has seemed possessed by a steady crescendo of loony tea baggers, unapologetic Nativists, freaky fundamentalists and intolerant cretins of all shapes and sizes – unhappy with their own irrelevance, and determined to make someone pay.

It's the sort of phenomenon that makes me scoff, and also thirsty.

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I recall the time when a Bank Street Brewhouse customer asked one of our servers to explain my political beliefs in light of the red stars on the shiny new brewing equipment.

Our man on the floor made a game effort to interpret these complex threads of geopolitics, economics and the art of brewing, and to phrase them in a snappy sentence that is reproducible on a bumper sticker for a Lexus, and yet the customer remained unimpressed, writing this on his charge card receipt:

“Tell your Commie boss to share the wealth.”

Harrumph! I share the wealth of beer knowledge every day, and just in case this man wasn’t joking (right wingers are so lacking in a sense of humor that Vulcans seem positively Bavarian by comparison), I circulated this memorandum to staff on the topic of what to say when someone asks such a question.

The proper answer is: “We don’t care what sort of ‘ist’ he is, just as long as he keeps signing the paychecks.”

As always, I’ll drink a beer for everyone while in Wisconsin. Readers, don’t forget to support your local breweries. Their machines kill fascists, and they’re your chief bulwark against creeping swillism.

Here's what NABC plans to take to the Great Taste of the Midwest.

Following is what I've submitted on behalf of NABC to the Great Taste of the Midwest for inclusion in this year's program. The festival takes place on August 14 in Madison, Wisconsin, and is a must-visit at some point in your beer drinking career. This year, we're being placed close by The Livery, Schlafly and O'Fallon so as to enable a "collaboration corner" and feature cooperative projects brewed during the past year.

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NABC Beer Descriptions, for the Great Taste of the Midwest 2010 official program

(Includes both descriptions and details about NABC collaboration beer placements. *Recipe notes provided for collaborations brewed at NABC)

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At the NABC station, C02 pour:

Elector, Elsa von Horizon, Hoptimus, Thunderfoot

Cask-conditioned NABC (pin at the NABC station; tapping time TBA):

2008 Port-aged Bonfire of the Valkyries

Cask-conditioned NABC (firkins at the real ale tent):

Beak’s Best and Community Dark

Collaboration(s) casks, to be tapped at Collaboration Corner, not the real ale tent:

*NABC/The Livery Oaked Le Douche Mentale & Scotch pin conditioned Le Douche Mentale

Malts: Castle Pale, Castle Biscuit, Simpsons Medium Crystal

Hops: Wet Fuggles, Nugget, Fuggle, Cascade

ABV: 8.5%

IBU: 75

*NABC/O’Fallon/Schlafly C2 Smoked Belgian Dark Strong Ale

Malts: Castle Pale, Weyermann Rauchmalz, Castle Biscuit, Briess Smoked, Castle Aromatic, Castle Special B Mash hops: Mt. Hood, Crystal Kettle hops: Magnum, Celeia Yeast: Belgian Chouffe O.G. 1.097 or 24.3 Plato ABV: 10.4% IBU: 35 Color: 14.8

Collaboration Notes:
The Livery also debuts its 5th anniversary beer, Imperial Dark IPA (NABC’s Jared Williamson helped brew it) at its station, and O' Fallon debuts C3, the third collaboration series beer with O’Fallon’s, NABC and Schlafly, at its station.

Main NABC beer descriptions

Beak’s Best

Malts: Simpsons Golden Promise, Simpsons Medium Crystal, Castle (Belgian) Aromatic and Special B

Hops: Double hopped with Cascade pellets, finished through hop-back with whole cone Cascades

Yeast: House London

OG: 1.059 or 14.75 degree Plato

ABV: 5.3%

IBU: 35

Color: 10.3 degree Lovibond SRM

American bitter & soul liniment
NABC’s session-strength American Bitter is named in honor of globetrotting historian and educator Don "Beak" Barry, and in 2003 it was the winner of the "Louisville Magazine Best Of" award for Louisville area microbrews. Like its namesake, Beak’s is fond of traveling (albeit in kegs), lending itself to refreshing contemplation.
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Bonfire of the Valkyries

Malts: Weyermanns Rauchmalz, Simpsons Black, Castle Aromatic, Castle Special B

Hops: Czech Zatec (Saaz)

Yeast: Common Lager

OG: 1083

ABV: 8.5%

IBU: 5.1

Color: 46.2 SRM

Burning away the hours 'til Ragnarok
Although it’s probably somewhere in the German brewing playbook, we couldn’t find the rule prohibiting the higher-gravity crossing of Black Lager with Smoked Lager, so we brew Bonfire each year in autumn and let it age until release just before Christmas. For the Great Taste, Bonfire has been aged in JW Lees ’08 Port pin.

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Community Dark

Malts: Special Pale, Dark Crystal and Chocolate malts

Hops: Double hopped with EK Golding

Yeast: House London

OG: 1.046 or 11.5 degree Plato

ABV: 3.7%

IBU: 12.5

Color: 25 degree Lovibond SRM

Inside is what counts
Inspired by traditional English Mild, the style that fueled the workers who made the Industrial Revolution, Community Dark is revolutionary in its own way: Dark-colored but light-bodied, and a session ale suitable for New Albany’s emerging downtown renaissance.

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Elector

Malts: Special Pale and Simpsons Medium Crystal

Hops: Triple hopped with Chinook pellets, finished through hop-back with whole cone Cascades

Yeast: House London

OG: 1.074 or 18.5 degree Plato

ABV: 7.5%

IBU: 62

Color: 11.9 degree Lovibond SRM

Makes democracy pointless
Excessive hopping rendered moot the original modest plan to brew a traditional winter warmer, but the resulting hybrid was delicious and redefines the Imperial Red style category. The first batch of Elector was brewed on Election Day, 2002, a mere two years after the nation’s electors (most recently) made democracy pointless, and we persist in thinking that an Elector in hand is worth two Bushes in retirement, any election day, any old time at all.

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Elsa Von Horizon

Malts: German Pilsner, German Munich

Hops: Hallertauer Mittelfruh, Tettnang

Yeast: Common Lager

OG: 1.100

ABV: 10%

IBU: 80

Color: 5.4 SRM

Bekämpfen sie und ich beiße sie
It is deceptively simple. A Pilsner rich in noble continental hops is brewed to the strength of Maibock and beyond, and then even more noble hops are added to the recipe for balance and bite. Not even the Germans try it, and we consider this shyness as implicit encouragement to innovate. Elsa is a proud member of NABC’s Brewers’ Best Friend Series, along with Malcolm and Jasmine. They’re assertive, loyal specialties named for our brewers’ canine chums.

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Hoptimus

Malts: Special Pale

Adjunct: Pure, free-range sucrose

Hops: 4 additions of high alpha Nugget, 1 late addition of Cascade, finished through hop-back with whole cone Cascades

Yeast: House London

OG: 1.097 or 24.25 degree Plato

ABV: 10.7%

IBU: 100

Color: 6.9 degree Lovibond SRM

Made of sterner stuff
“Vicariously” is for rank amateurs and subpar international lagers, because Hoptimus lives vivaciously through itself, and is best consumed in the prime of youth, when its bold hop character is at its snarkiest and most blatantly unrepentant. Hoptimus has been named “the beer most likely to be preferred by the most interesting man in the world, if he really were the most interesting man in the world, but he isn’t” by Publicans Monthly magazine.

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Thunderfoot

Malts: Special Pale, Simpson's Roasted Barley, Simpson's Dark Crystal, Flaked Oats

Adjunct: Pure free-range sucrose

Hops: Quad-hopped with Northern Brewer and Willamette

Special treatment: Dried tart cherries fall into the hopback, and medium-toast American oak chips and dried Bing cherries go into each keg for aging. One year later: In your glass.

Yeast: House London

OG: 1.106 or 25.2 degree Plato

ABV: 12%

IBU: 84

Color: 72.7 degree Lovibond SRM

Ultimate urban renewal
There can be no doubt that Thunderfoot actively renounces the art of the gentle tweak, the mild revision, and the imperceptible hint. Rather, Thunderfoot advocates palatal renewal the old-fashioned way – complete, irresistible and certain. 20 months old; brewed January, 2009.

Great Taste views from Madison.

My first Great Taste of the Midwest was everything I'd been told it would be -- and more.

There were 100 breweries present and 5,000 tickets sold. The crowd was extremely knowledgeable, well-behaved and hip. At 2:00 p.m., Jared tapped our "pin" of cask-conditioned Bonfire of the Valkyries, smoked black lager aged in a JW Lees Port barrel.


New Holland probably won the annual outrageousness competition with fellow Michigan brewers Bell's, Dark Horse and Founders. Top hats and Marlene Dietrich torch songs are hard to top. Fortunately, all four breweries deliver the goods in the beer context.

The Real Ale tent featured casks from far and wide.

It was a capacity crowd on an uncommonly hot and humid day, and in the end, it's hard for me to imagine a better gathering. Numerous thumbs up.

Greetings from the People's Republic of Madison.

(Crossposted to NA Confidential. Stay tuned for coverage and photos over the weekend.)

By way of explaining my whereabouts, here's the text of my LEO column this week.

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Mug Shots: Abreast of a great beer fest

I’ve never been to Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, but that will change this weekend when I embark on an overdue visit to a city that has often been accused of being “The People’s Republic of Madison.” That’s encouragement enough to elicit warm and fuzzy pre-trip vibrations from me, but moreover, Saturday also is the occasion for the annual Great Taste of the Midwest beer festival.

The GTMW is the ideal craft brew dictatorship that purges dissent by offering hundreds of microbrewed treats available for scientific 2-ounce sampling, ranging across the spectrum of styles, and with nary an ounce of insipid light mass-market beer in sight.

It’s one of the top three beer celebrations in the great brewing nation that America has somehow become almost in spite of itself, standing alongside the Oregon Brewers Festival (Portland) and the Great American Beer Festival (Denver). Each year, GTMW tickets sell out months in advance, and thousands wait joyfully in line to enter the grounds adjacent to beautiful Lake Olin and revel in flavor, diversity and ingenuity.

More often than not, the breweries proudly displaying their wares at the GTMW have come about as the result of an all-American dream to do it yourself, and to do it better. “We brew beer, we drink beer, and we sell what’s left” is a common motto. I get goose pimples just thinking about it.

Big beer events like Madison’s have spawned a subculture of fest fanatics who attend numerous such tastings. An abnormally large number of these die-hards are attracted to the “extreme” end of the flavor spectrum, with its high-octane styles like Double India Pale Ale, Imperial Stout and Barley Wine — libations of complexity and octane, suitable for all weather conditions, and worth traveling long distances to seek out.

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Debarking in Milwaukee yesterday morning, the temperature was 72 degrees. The first thing I saw upon emerging from the jetway in Madison was the word "Wurst," German for sausage, advertising the presence of a German-themed, well, "Imbiss." Most of the streets have bicycle lanes, and people use them. I saw ordinance enforcement vehicles with OEOs at work in a neighborhood driving through.

Vacationing in a blue state paradise? Sweet relief. By the way, are there any Young Republican slumber parties planned back at the Sunny Side?

Great Taste of the Midwest program ad, 2007.