Brews of the Season (Part 2)

I reported yesterday on some tasty brews from the Madison area to help keep the cold of winter at bay. Today I want to look east towards the Milwaukee area for some suds.

A short drive east of Madison on I-94 lies Lake Mills and the Tyranena Brewing Company.



They are offering their Shantytown Doppelbock this winter. While I've never had it, I can vouch for the high tastiness quotient of a few of their other beers as well as for the ability of a German strong doppelbock to chase the chill of winter away.

In the western burbs of Milwaukee is the Sprecher brweery which has long been a favorite brewery of mine.



It should be no problem finding a 4-pack of their Winter Brew. As with Tyranena's seasonal, I am loathe to admit that I don't think I've ever had Sprecher's Winter Brew. Considering the vast quantities of their Amber that I've consumed, I find this odd. Still, I'd give this stuff a go as I've never had a beer from the folks at Sprecher that I didn't like.

In Milwaukee proper there's the Lakefront Brewery who are pushing their Holiday Spice lager.



It's brewed with honey, oranges, and spices. And by "spices" I presume they mean nutmeg, coriander, etc. Personally, I can only handle one of these kinds of spiced beers. Some just plain have too much spice which maskes the flavor of the beery goodness. But others have more balanced tastes. It's not that I don't like such brews, it's merely that I can only handle such stuff in smaller amounts.

Again, I am ashamed to admit that I've never quaffed this stuff. Then again, I have drank their Bimetallic. Six or seven years ago, my blue-faced drunken Finnish friend, Kias, came over to my place bearing a sixer of the stuff. It turned out to be a very, very potent spiced beer which was tasty. I will also admit that I drank more than one bottle. More like my share of three bottles. The story I was told is thus: The owner of Lakefront is friends with the owner of an auto body shop in Fort Atkinson or Whitewater or some town in that area. The Lakefront guy brewed a batch of special holiday spiced beer and gave the bottles to the owner of the body shop to give to his employees as a holiday gift. Luckily for me, Kias knew the owner of the body shop or one of its employees and got his grubby hands on the stuff. As I said, it was very tasty and so, if the Holiday Spice is anywhere near as good as the Bimetallic, then I can give it a thumbs up.

On a side note...To the southwest of Milwaukee is Burlington which is home to the Aeppletreow Winery. In addition to selling a variety of apple & pear wines, they also offer various hard ciders, long known for their ability to keep folks warm during the winter. I see that they also have cyser.