I haven't posted a photo of Piper lately so here's one where she's enjoying the sun as she blocks my keyboard. That her face is half in the light and half in shadow is the purrfect symbolism for her naughty-nice personality.
21 March, 2025
Na zdrowie to Prost!
I finally made my first visit to Prost!, the German beer hall & restaurant which is the heir apparent to Essen Haus, if/when the venerable German restaurant/bar is demolished to make way for apartments or condos or a hotel or whatever is slated to take its place.
Housed in a former church, Prost! is a lovely space with stained glass everywhere.
A friend and I had lunch and I dined with a Früh Kölsch. The bier was delicious, full of bready/crackery goodness. And the food was very tasty. There were enough pickled vegetables on my plate to fell a horse and I think that I ate the equivalent of 2 cucumbers.
With such a lovely space, it's a shame there are TVs. On the other hand, the bier selection is pretty good. However, there was no gose, no altbier, no Dortmunder Export, no schwarzbier, and, most importantly, no rauchbier. But what's not to like about having drei Helles's on tap? Perhaps they'll put a Maibock on tap once Easter has passed.
The wurst was really good and we were told that it was artisanally made by, if memory servers, a Chef Mike somebody-or-other in Chicago. And the senf was sehr gut too. A nice little kick.
Polka on a Sunday afternoon
Next month on the 27th The Bur Oak will host an afternoon of polka - music and dancing.
DJ Shotski kicks things off at 1 with classic polka on vinyl and the dance lessons begin at 2. And then you can put your lesson to the test at 2:30 with The DB Polka Express.
Winding my way down to Bakers Place
Whenever I find myself on East Washington, I marvel to one degree or another at the transformation of the avenue from the home of industrial buildings and used car dealerships to a constellation of fancy high rises. Well, as high as you can get when near the Capitol.
Here are a couple of the latest builds: the Moxy, a boutique hotel and Bakers Place, a mass timber building that nears completion and shall be home to folks who can afford luxury apartments. Costs to live in the lap of luxury will surely be high but their website curiously omits prices.
The white exterior makes Bakers Place stick out but is not my cup of tea. Just looks too clinical, too sterile. On the other hand, I was pleased to see that the graffiti had been removed from the Gardner Bakery Co. ghost signs.
A snowy start to spring
Yesterday was the vernal equinox and to celebrate I went on a hike. (I wonder if my boss has noticed that my first time-off requests of each new year are for equinoxes and solstices - followed by gaming conventions, of course.) After suffering through 4 lanes of stop & go traffic on the Beltline and then some slippery country roads I arrived at my arboreal destination.
Wednesday's lousy weather had left about an inch of the white stuff on the ground and the temperature was just below freezing. However, it was nice and sunny so my spectacles did their best Peril Sensitive Sunglasses imitation as my body synthesized an abundance of vitamin D.
The snow scrunched beneath my feet and so I didn't see many critters - just a bird or two and a chipmunk that scurried across the path just a few feet in front of me. However, I did hear a lot of birds with my whole walk punctuated by the cries of woodpeckers and even one pecking away for breakfast.
Soon enough the forest will be lush and verdant and I shall return.
Chocolate pierogi!
I bought these at Deli 4 You in Schaumburg a couple months back and finally pulled them out of the freezer and lovingly bathed them in boiling water. Served with plain yoghurt.
The choco-filling was gooey goodness with a bit of grittiness from chocobits. Good stuff!
No Dominion yet but soon
Restaurant & brewery --> brewery & restaurant?
Driving home yesterday I noticed that the sign for North of the Bayou the Restaurant out on Cottage Grove Road had been covered by banners reading "BREWERY" along with another banner advertising North of the Bayou the Brewery opening on the 24th.
It appears North of the Bayou is transitioning from a restaurant that has a brewery to a brewery that serves food. There's even a fancy new website.
I've wondered why the brewery was given virtually no attention at their old website/Facebook page for a while now. While I still don't know, it is nice to see the brewery finally get its due.
The website lists 5 brews on tap: an amber ale, an American wheat ale, two IPAs, and Porterton Pinker. Now wait just a minute. Old IP-Abe is named after Old Abe, the bald eagle that served as mascot of the 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. Didn't Wisconsin Brewing Company have an IPA named after him too? Indeed they did - Yankee Buzzard.
I think that a visit to North of the Bayou is needed.
With Rue Bourre just down the road a piece, Cottage Grove Road is now ground zero for Cajun food in Madison.
19 March, 2025
Some classic Summerfest footage
Some music-loving, Super8 converting soul has posted some Summerfest footage from way back in 1971. Sadly it's silent. Still, pretty neat. Was there only one stage back then?
18 March, 2025
St. Patrick's Day brew
While I didn't make corned beef and cabbage yesterday and instead cooked up some jerk chicken, I did have an Irish-style beer. Tasty stuff. Not too sweet, nice hoppiness.
17 March, 2025
The Camera Rye: Choice Rye Lager by Pipeworks Brewing Co.
The other day I had a conversation with a friend of mine about bread. We discussed the art and science of making it and both of us admitted to lacking the requisite abilities to make a good loaf of the Staff of Life. At one point I opined that rye bread is the tastiest and my friend agreed. Knowing that I had fellow ryeophile was heartening.
My love of the grain borders on the monomaniacal though I am developing a love for buckwheat. Regardless, I seek out rye bread and Gardetto's rye chips, was near ecstatic upon discovering that Origin Breads here in Madison offers a Sourdough Rye Dark Chocolate Brownie, and still lament years after the fact that Nabisco discontinued their rye Triscuits and that Snyder's did the same with their Pumpernickel & Onion pretzels. Plus I buy any beer with rye that isn't an IPA.
My M.O. was on full display back in January at the Binny's in Schaumburg - this was the stop where I found that Viking beer from Old Irving Brewing - when I spied Pipeworks' rye lager. What luck! A couple months previously at a Binny's I had found Phase Three's Rye Lager and then I find another. Gambrinus was truly smiling down upon me.
With two varieties of Rauchbier, a Helles, and that Pastrami on Rye beer with both rye and smoked malts, the venerable Chicago brewery was already a favorite but a rye lager put Pipeworks into my even gooder graces. They understand that beer is, metaphysically speaking, about fermenting sugars culled from grains and not about hops that taste like tropical fruits.
I really lucked out as I was able to capture the lovely off-white head that topped my glass in a photograph for a change. It sat atop the clear, amber liquid for a good while. A modicum of bubbles were to be seen inside. The aroma was positively delightful with the malts giving spicy, earthy rye and bready notes while the hops contributed green, hay-like smells. Either there was no canned/best by date on the can or there was one but in a cryptic code instead of a date but my guess is that my 4-pack was not old as this stuff just smelled fresh to my nose.
My first sip revealed a medium-light body with a healthy fizziness. The rye contributed its lovely earthy-spicy flavor while the barley had a cracker taste. I also detected a slight caramel sweetness. The hops seemed to add a peppery flavor. All the malt flavors lingered only briefly after swallowing as the spicy hops offered a medium level of bitterness and a fairly dry denouement.
For once we have some truth in advertising. Pipeworks wasn't lying when they named this beer "Choice" because this is one toothsome brew. The restrained sweetness allowed the piquant rye flavor to shine. And credit to the hops as well with their complementary spiciness that was the perfect balance to the grains and made for a refreshing finish to boot.
Junk food pairing: You can't go wrong by pairing this fine rye lager with a bag of Herr's Cheddar Horseradish potato chips and a tub of Helluva Good!'s Bacon Horseradish dip.
The first signs of spring
First I saw 2 robins. Then I heard and finally saw several red-winged black birds. A killdeer sighting came next. This was followed by the sight of orange barrels along the interstate. And now Just Coffee's spring seasonal, Early Bird, a mighty tasty coffee.
Join together with the prog band
Last week I discovered a Madison band called Golden Joining that play "eclectic progressive rock". And I did so by scanning Crucible's schedule. I told you it was a prog-friendly venue!
They played Crucible yesterday but I was not there. However, they have a gig coming up on 2 May at Gamma Ray. Check them out.
The ritual Maibock
I had my first Capital Maibock of the season over the weekend and it was tasty. As best as I can recall, this was the first microbrew I ever tasted ergo it will always have a special place in my liver and I endeavor to have some every spring.
The Horror at the Little Free Library
After my Seventh Doctor bluray set arrived I set out to my favorite Little Free Library to donate my DVD copy of "Remembrance of the Daleks". And now that I think about it, I seem to recall owning "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" as well so now I have to go take a look to see if I need to make a second donation.
Just look at the books that I found there.
Arthur Machen! Robert E. Howard! Edgar Allen Poe! Douglas Adams! Arthur C. Clarke!
I initially became enamored of the Library because someone made sure there was always at least one Stanislaw Lem book in there whenever I peeked in and now it's early/Gothic horror.
Goodbye Birnam Wood
When listening to the new Jethro Tull album, I came to the song "Dunsinane Hill" and found that the word "Dunsinane" rang a bell - outside of Shakespeare and in a more Tullian way. It took me a few days but I finally recalled that the band had performed an instrumental called "Birnam Wood To Dunsinane" at some shows back in 2007.
Well, it appears that the new tune is the old one with lyrics added, by and large. Take a listen.
I was unable to find "Birnam Wood To Dunsinane" as a standalone Youtube video and have tried to embed a video of a full concert that contains it starting at the desired song. Since I am shite with HTML, know that the tune begins at 38:54.
And here's the new version.
Another new song from Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson
Another tune from Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson has been released: "Marching Jaybird". I am really looking forward to their What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow album which comes out next month.
Foraging in Fitchburg: Blackberry Grape Kombucha by Forage Kombucha
Having sampled all of the Soul Brews available to me, I looked once again to Madison for more kombucha to taste and blather on about. I had intended to dig into the brews of Rude Brew Kombucha but they were no longer on the shelves at the Willy Street Coop or, at least the one on the north side. I would swear I've seen their teas there in the past couple months but there wasn't even an empty bit of shelf space with a sticker giving the prices of the absent brews. Their website is gone as the domain has expired. Does it still exist?
And so I perused the shelves in search of another local kombucha and came upon the teas of Forage which is brewed by our neighbors to the south in Fitchburg, a suburb of Madison.
Forage puts their teas into lovely, colorful cans and taking one from the shelf and laying it in my basket made me feel like I was going to abscond with a bit of summer, as if one can put sunny skies, sweltering heat, and road construction into a can.
I went with their Blackberry Grape for no particular reason. I suspect that it was at either side of the shelf and I decided to start at that end and make my way to the other.
The tea was a hazy light purple. Its aroma smelled tangy sour, at first, and then my nose was greeted by blackberry followed by something I can only characterize as an indistinct fruitiness. I smelled fruit but I couldn't really discern which ones. Finally there was a tad of the floral. Certainly not a bad start.
Taking a sip, I found it had some really nice fizz to it with a light body and not much sweetness. A firm tang was accompanied by a herbal tea taste, a mellow fruitiness, and another tad of the floral. Normally I don't look at the ingredients list until I am done sampling but there are times when I look at it mid-tasting. Such was the case here.
I was not surprised to see hibiscus near the top of the list. So that's where that floral taste comes from. I was, however, surprised to see red wine grape skins & blackberry flavor towards the bottom as well as the fact that genuine blackberries were absent. (Same with lychee - "flavor" only.) Closer to the front of the line were currants, schisandra, and guayusa. What the heck are schisandra, and guayusa?
Schisandra is a climbing vine that Wikipedia says is native to North America and I presume its fruit was used here. Guayusa, on the other hand, is an Amazonian holly tree whose leaves are used to prepare a tea.
The finish was fairly dry in a tanniny way and I was able to taste the lychee flavor. I also tasted herbal tea and a hint of hibiscus in addition to a general fruitiness that lingered.
With all the fruits and the flavors, the two types of tea (black and green), and those exotic berries & leaves, I was rather surprised that everything seemed to be in balance. There wasn't really any single flavor that stood out; instead it made for a nice gestalt. It was also not particularly sweet, which I really appreciated. The fizz was the perfect amount, there was a very nice tanginess to it, and this brew had a tasty fruity-botanical combination. Oh, and there was no SCOBY.
My gripe is, that for a drink that is touted as organic and probiotic, whose maker always uses "pure ingredients", and, in general, is touted as natural and healthy, the use of blackberry flavor and lychee flavor is disappointing. I much prefer that real fruit be used. (Do these flavorings come from Amoretti?) I find is disingenuous to put blackberries on your label when you only use blackberry flavor.
The Rauch: Rauchbier by Dovetail
It's a shame that the Steve's Liquor out on Junction Road is on the far west side instead of the more fashionable east side where I live. This is because that store is a reliable source of the elixir that is rauchbier. They always have Schlenkerla's Helles available, if nothing else, and are happy to stock rauchbiers from whomever may distribute them to Madison and not just Schlenkerla. Last year I recall going in and finding they had a rather nice selection of Schlenkerla's smoky brews.
On a more recent stop, I found some of Dovetail's Rauchbier which only has to make the trip from Chicago and not across the ocean from Bamberg. (Though I didn't see the Fastenbier on my this visit. But, it's not too late as it's still Lent.) I tasted it several years ago when I took a trek out to Ravenswood and stopped in at the brewery. Sadly, I had never seen it on a Madison shelf until now and had somehow always missed it on my various stops at Binny's.
It has been the Mr. Snuffleupagus of brews. The Dovetail website declares it's Rauchbier season and the Binny's website says, "Oh yeah, we've got some." Yet it's nowhere to be seen when I am wandering the aisles. It's as if another rauchhead always buys that last 4-pack just before I walk in the door so I just miss it by mere seconds.
And thusly I was thrilled to see it here in Madison.
My recollection of having drunk it several years back does not extend beyond "Ooh! This stuff is amber and tasty." so there was this sense of tasting it for the first time all over again.
The big tan head of loose foam that topped my pour lasted a goodly amount of time so you are able to see it in my photograph. The beer was clear and had a deep amber hue. Lots of bubbles were to be seen inside. Oh mama, did I smell the smoke! Others seem to describe every rauchbier they encounter as smelling and tasting like bacon. Yet no one seems to describe smoked beef brisket as smelling or tasting like bacon. Who among us thinks smoked cheddar has any bacon-like qualities? Does anyone add smoked paprika to their food thinking it will add the aroma and flavor of bacon?
It's just this beer piety that most people accept and generally ends further attempts to really dig into what the malt is laying down for your palate.
Here the smokiness is distinctly unbaconlike and more akin to smoked Swiss cheese. There was also plum in the aroma as well as a herbal hoppiness.
This stuff had a really nice fizziness and a big dose of rauch caressed my tongue into a smoky bliss. I also tasted a bit of caramel, though this was not a particularly sweet brew, some mild stone fruit, and a bit of bread. Oh, and those herbal hops added a nice bit of balance.
The smokiness lingered on the finish a bit before a wave of hops came in to provide what I thought was a moderate bitterness and slightly more dryness. This is not a particularly hoppy beer but there was enough to balance all those malt flavors and I liked how they came in and washed the smoke away.
Sehr schön! The smoky taste was the star of the show here with a clean, sharp flavor not dulled by sweetness. My hypothesis is that sweetness makes for a heavier taste that mimics fat in some way and gives rise to comparisons to bacon. Without the sweetness, the smoke flavor is cleaner and more woody and leans towards the fuliginous.
And thus ends my hypothesizing for today.
But, in truth, I loved all the malty flavors, especially that bit of bread. I wouldn't have minded a little more hoppiness but, as it is, they offered balance and a nice herbal-spicy flavor. The bitterness was nice on the finish too. Just a great mix of flavors.
Junk food pairing: Bleu cheese is the perfect pairing for your Rauchbier and I recommend grabbing a bag of Buffalo Blue Cheese Combos. The spicy heat complements the hops while the creamy, earthy taste of the cheese brings out new, albeit subtle, dimensions to the smoke.
Hot For Teacher's Aid: Teacher's Aid by Soul Brew Kombucha
I went back to see if I could find out which Soul Brew flavors my Frau selected back in 2022 when we first encountered their kombucha at Milwaukee's South Shore Farmers Market and found this:
Aren't they pretty?
Teacher's Aid is the third and final flavor I've seen at the Willy Street Co-op and the subject of this post. I recall enjoying the other flavor, Cherry Bomb, and hope it becomes available again. Perhaps it's only available during the summer. Cherry season in Wisconsin is June/July, after all, though I suppose they can be sourced from somewhere out west at other times.
Soul Brew's website is unavailable right now so I cannot find out what other flavors they offer and when they might be available, if not year-round. And so this looks to be my final Soul Brew review, for now.
When I opened my bottle I heard a brief sploosh sound as if a wee depth charge has gone off inside and bubbles came rushing up and out of the mouth. It wasn't like shaking a can of soda and opening it but a more leisurely rush of foam - like how people exit a building during a test of the fire alarm system as opposed to there being a genuine fire. I'd never encountered this with kombucha before. Heck, with any carbonated drink to my recollection. I swear I had treated the bottle gently. I swear!
The brew was a hazy light red and less brown than my photo portrays. There were plenty of bubbles inside. I received a big burst of cinnamon when I put my nose to the glass. This was followed by a nice vinegar tanginess and a small dose of berry which the labels informs me was elderberry.
My tongue received a large dose of fizz on my first sip, which was not surprising considering all of those bubbles I spied with my little eye. Cinnamon came next which was again not surprising as it was so prominent in the aroma. It had a delicious sweet-tart flavor which featured that elderberry along with some tasty floral something - hibiscus, said the label. This wonderful 1-2 of elderberry and hibiscus became more prominent as the tea warmed, though that spicy cinnamon remained at the fore.
The fruity, floral, and even cinnamon flavors quickly dissipated on the finish leaving a nice tang that was accompanied by a fine tannin dryness. As the tea threw off its chill, Soul Brew's distinctive lemon-mint combo added a hint of briskness to my tongue as the liquid made its way down my gullet.
My notes say that the ingredient list didn't have any flavored teas so it appears that the lemon flavor came from lemons and the elderberry goodness came from genuine elderberries. Oddly there was no SCOBY. How do they get a small disc of bacteria and yeast into each bottle? Is there a machine that does that? A SCOBY Inserter, perhaps?
Teacher's Aid was very good. I personally would like to have a little less cinnamon in the recipe to allow the fruit-floral combo to come through a bit more. However, I would still gladly drink this brew again.
01 March, 2025
24 February, 2025
21 February, 2025
Spam, Eggs, Gotländsdricka, and Spam: Visby by Old Irving Brewing Co.
Last month I spent a few days in Chicago attending some performances of the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. And of course a polar vortex descended upon the city as I was driving south and held the city in its icy tendrils as it blew frigid blasts of wind through Chicago's street grid the whole time I was there. My walks to the theaters were quite brisk, I can tell you. Luckily one was only about 3 blocks away. While I was bundled up with all 13' of my Doctor Who scarf, gaggles of young women walked out of smart restaurants on Halsted dressed for a pleasant autumn evening and then observed with a whine, "It's so cold out!"
I returned to Madison on the day the vortex began to lift but not before stopping to meet a cousin for a fine Polish lunch at Opolska Restaurant in Schaumburg. She informed me that right across the street from the restaurant was a Polish grocery store, Deli 4 You. I was pleasantly surprised to see shelves of Polish goodies and bought more sweets than I perhaps should have. And, since it was close, I also went to the local Binny's outpost.
Not surprisingly, there was a decent selection of Polish beers and I bought a couple. Unfortunately, they were both skunk and I have vowed to only buy Polish beer at Polish stores. Well, except for pale lagers as I think that Okacim and its ilk sell alright. But craft brews, nope.
My eyes became strained and I grew bored scanning the shelves for non-IPAs when I saw a label that read "Smoke * Kviek * Spruce Tips * Juniper".
They had me at smoke.
The style was listed as "Gotländsdricka" which was somehow familiar to me. It took me about halfway to Madison to recall that New Glarus had brewed a beer with a similar name. When I finally got home, I looked it up and found that it was Gotlandic, one of their R&D brews from several years back that I recall enjoying.
This brew was called Visby, named after a port on the island of Gotland which is out in the middle of the Baltic Sea east of Sweden. And it was brewed by Old Irving Brewing back in my old neighborhood. I enjoyed their bock, Lifeblood, and was happy to find another of their brews that held appeal for me. Another mark in the beer's favor was diacritical - that umlaut. The ingredient list plus that umlaut surely meant that this was a Nordic style. And Nordic peoples live near the Arctic Circle (most do, anyway) where they must get polar vortices daily so this stuff had to be suitable for winter, if not entirely appropriate.
I think I can count the number of times I've drunk a beer fermented with kviek yeast on one finger so I figured this would be interesting.
My pour produced a nice, big, frothy head of just off-white foam that sat atop a brew that was a slightly hazy gold. For some reason I thought it would be darker. Firstly, I seemed to recall that New Glarus' take on the style was dark and, besides, if this was what the Vikings drank, shouldn't it be Stygian? I mean, wasn't Viking society all dark, grey, and sooty? Didn't these people see The Northman?
Inside I saw a smattering of bubbles.
As expected a sniff revealed a healthy dose of pine. Unexpected, however, was an even healthier dose of pineapple aroma.
"Well, that's kviek for ya," I reasoned.
Taking a sip, I found that it had a medium-light body - not as heavy as I thought it would be - and had a very nice fizziness. That kvieky pineapple was right up front and was accented by a hint of citrus. And there was that resiny/piney flavor. Missing was any smokiness. Even after I let the beer warm I still failed to discern much smoke. As best I could taste, any fuliginous goodness was mellow to begin with and was overshadowed by the resiny one-two punch of spruce tips and juniper.
The pineapple taste lingered on the finish for a spell before being overcome by all that pine flavor which boosted the dryness and let a little bitterness through.
Despite the absence/paucity of smokiness, I really enjoyed this brew. There is just something about how my tongue tasted the pineapple first and then made the shift over to pine that I found intriguing and delicious. Maybe it's because both flavors have "pine". There didn't seem to be a lot of malty sweetness which I appreciated. The grain flavors and what I suspect is a modicum of hops weren't readily tasted and instead seemed to be keeping the more prominent flavors from becoming overwhelming.
Despite a fairly light body, Visby is 6.5% A.B.V. so it definitely helped keep the cold at bay on a recent night as the mercury was taking a dive to below 0.
Junk food pairing: Pair your Visby with a big bag of Crunchy Cheddar Jalapeño Cheetos. The jalapeño adds another sharp taste to complement all that pine. And who doesn't like cheese?
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