Bourbon Barrel Plot Foiled at Tyranena

As I wrote yesterday, I spent some time in Lake Mills over the weekend, including a stop at the Tyranena Brewery. Never having been there before, I was fired up to check the joint out and quench my thirst.

Parking the car out back, one can't help but notice the huge silo of malt.



Walking around the side of the building, we are greeted by the friendly sign.



Walking inside, we were once again greeted but this time by a couple hounds.



The smaller one's name was Barley but I can't remember the name of the larger dog. Cereberus they ain't. These fellas were hyper-friendly - always sniffin' your feet and looking for a friendly hand to pet them. I didn't get a good picture of it but the larger hound had a mini-church key dangling from his leash. Once we gave the hounds some affection, we looked up to see the brewing room directly ahead of us through glass doors. To our right was the tasting room.



Charles ordered something I can't recall (the 2005 Peated Wee Heavy scotch ale available only at the brewery?) and The Dulcinea had me order her a beer too but I don't remember what it was. However, I recall my pint of Three Beaches Honey Blonde Ale well. We retired to the beer graden.



It was a nice sunny day and the beer went down well despite that bloated feeling from having eaten too much lunch. When I went back for a second pint, I had the Bitter Woman IPA. It had been a while since I had one - a few years, in fact. There was a summer back in aught two or so when I was all over IPAs and I drank every one I could find. That fetish died down but, after enjoying the bitter flavor of Bitter Woman and reveling in its fruity palette, I'm thinking I might have to increase my IPA consumption. The tour of the brewery was to start at 3:30 but it was running late as the brewmaster had some cleaning to do first. But that was done quickly and we were called in from the bier garten soon enough.

Our guide was a woman whose name escapes me from the Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild. She was friendly and proved knowledgeable as she led us around brewing area. The first thing we noticed upon walking in was the sweet, sweet smell of barley. Rob the brewmaster was cooking some up with a spot of yeast for a base hoolie to be used in future batches.



We got to poke around the equipment and check out the magical vats which give us our elixir.





Ooh! There's the new fermenting tank in the foreground which just got delivered on Friday. All of the fermenters had women's names. For instance, one was named Kathy.



All the beer is put into kegs and bottled at the brewery. Here's all the empties.



And here's the bottling line. ("Schlemeel, schlemazel, hasenfeffer incorporated!")

You throw the bottles in here.


They get washed in this contraption.


And then they're filled by this device.


And then we were lead into the cooler. Just look at all the beer!





Just look at all the bourbon barrels aging the precious porter! Mmmm...Now here's your humble narrator plotting a little subterfuge involving one of those barrels making its way into the trunk of my car.



Unfortunately, my plan didn't, um, go according to plan. And so, after another round, we headed back to Madtown but not before buying some merchandise including a nice Bitter Woman thong for the little lady.



Til next time...