|
Warm up this winter with regionally brewed beer
Dec. 11, 2007
| If
You Go |
|
Name: Northwoods Brewpub and Grill.
Owner: Jerry Bechard.
Brewmaster: Tim Kelly.
Address: 3560 Oakwood Mall Drive, Eau Claire.
Hours: 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through
Thursdays; 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays through Saturdays;
8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays. On Sundays
over the holidays, the kitchen stays open until 9
p.m.
Phone: 552-0510.
Address: 840 25s St., Chetek.
Hours: Opens at 4 p.m.
Tuesdays through Thursdays,
kitchen closes at 9 p.m. Opens
at 11 a.m. Fridays through Sundays, kitchen closes
at 8 p.m. Closed Mondays.
Phone: 715-924-4861.
Web site: www.northwoodsbrewpub.com.
Availability: At Eau Claire and Chetek locations.
Festival Foods in Eau Claire and stores in Hayward
sell sampler six-packs of bottles, $6.99, and Floppin’
Crappie in cans, $6.59.
Beer prices: 20-ounce pints, $2 during
happy hour; $3.75 otherwise. Six-packs of
bottles, $6.99. Six-pack of Floppin’ Crappie Ale in
cans, $5.50.
Extras: Seasonal beers such as Irish Red
Ale and Oktoberfest Lager.
Name: Sand Creek Brewing Co.
Owners and operators: Jim Wiesender and
Todd Krueger.
Brewmaster: Todd Krueger.
Address: 320 Pierce St., Black River Falls.
Hours: Tours usually are available at 3 p.m.
Fridays and always by appointment. Call ahead.
Phone: 715-284-7553.
Web site: www.sandcreekbrewing.com.
Availability: Some local pubs and stores in
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa. See
Web site for a list of exact locations.
Beer prices: Varies by retailer. We paid
$7.99 per six-pack at The Coffee Grounds in
Eau Claire and $7.49 at Marketplace Foods in
Menomonie.
Extras: Seasonal and special reserve beers
in limited quantities. In January, look for English
Style Special Ale; it won the Best English
Special Bitter in the Midwest award at the
2007 United States Beer Tasting Championship.
|
Beer and winter: a glorious combination. For centuries, brewers have known that winter beers should be fullflavored, warming and strong.
Today, that usually means microbrewed beer.
Happily, four out of five area microbreweries and brewpubs bottle their products. (The fifth — Menomonie’s Das Bierhaus — plans to set up a bottling line.) In this and next month’s Diners’ Notebook, we’ll profile locally brewed and bottled winter beers.
Northwoods Brewpub and Grill, Eau Claire
Northwoods’ awardwinning brewmaster Tim Kelly makes technically flawless beers that are nearly all light and mild.
Poplar Porter, a puretasting, well-balanced black ale, has a faint cream-and-brown sugar scent, low carbonation, toasted malt on midpalate and a polite, dry finish.
Kelly’s Stout has more body but less complexity. It stays with dry coffee from sniff through sip to swallow, finishing with a last little bite of coffee bitter.
The deeply amber Red Cedar Red is the exception to the rule of Northwoods’ mildness. Its full, rounded malty middle is balanced by healthful hop bitterness that grows as you drink.
Northwoods can bottle but is still learning to label. Ours might have been affixed by happy kindergartners.
Sand Creek Brewing Co., Black River Falls
Sand Creek brewmaster Todd Krueger, another technical perfectionist, is a three-time gold medal winner and a flavor-monger. We marvel at his skill.
Badger Porter has a sweet coffee nose; a silken quaff; and fine balance between rich and dry. A first touch of hops yields to a profoundly roasty midpalate and a lingering malty finish.
Oscar’s Chocolate Oatmeal Stout won gold at the 2000 World Beer Cup. It combines dry, malty, toasty and sweet into an elegant, endlessly smooth sip. Time in old bourbon barrels lends a last light lick of rich vanilla.
Alas, Krueger brewed only 200 cases of Sand Creek’s Imperial Porter, 2007 Reserve, a masterpiece. Each delicious syrupy-black sip goes in three directions, with dry coffee at the sides of the mouth, sweet caramel and toasted bread on tongue tip and top, then finishes long and rich with a final dry flourish.
Wild Ride India Pale Ale is bright amber beer exuberantly cloudy with yeast. Spicy aromas, a vibrant tension between hop-bitter and malt-rich, and an unforgettable finish of citrus, flowers and piney resin make this a circus for hop heads.
Next month: Rush River Brewing Co. in Maiden Rock and River Falls and Viking Brewing Co. in Dallas.
Main
Course, the Leader-Telegram's restaurant review column, runs the
fourth Sunday of the month. Diners' Notebook, a sampling of favorite
restaurant offerings, runs the second Tuesday of the month.
|
