Sprecher's Bier und Restaurant & Mehr Bier

Last Friday I took the family over to Sprecher's Restaurant und Pub. We were celebrating The Dulcinea's record of acing exams and the end of the workweek. In addition to sustenance, I lucked out as they had some of Sprecher's Wisconsin Fresh Hop Amber Lager. It's their Special Amber aged on a bed of Wisconsin Cascade hops.

We didn't have a camera and the lighting in the restaurant was dim and yellow so I can't give a great description of its appearance. However, it looked nice and amber as the beer usually does but was a bit hazy. It tasted a lot like your normal Special Amber at first with the lager crispness and complementary hop bitterness but, as the beer goes back, you get this wonderful floral hop rush. More on the sweet side like honeysuckle than, say, a rose. I really enjoyed it.

As for the food, I had schnitzel while The D and the kid had the fish fry. It was schweineschnitzel (pork, not veal) and it was serviceable. It is served with a creamy lemon sauce with capers and I take this as to explain why the breading was so bland. While it had the requisite amount of salt, I felt it could have used some pepper, dry mustard, and maybe some thyme. I guess everyone seasons their schnitzel breading differently. Still, a little would have been good as I prefer to go with straight lemon juice on my schnitzel instead of a sauce. The fish was nice'n'crispy. The cheesy mashed potatoes were good and I like the cole slaw as well. However, my seasonal vegetables (broccoli and cauliflower) were mush as if they'd been sitting in a steam tray for hours.

The food won't bring me back but it's nice that they carry limited edition Sprecher beers and that I can stop there and get a growler. They also have a seasonal red apple soda as well.

I've noticed that the Whistle Stop now bottles their beer and have seen it at Woodman's. Their Kölsch-style brew is made with pistachios and sounds intriguing but the only brew of theirs I've had is the New Zealand Pilsner, a "lager featuring the grains and hops from Down Under".

I don't know what type of hops are in this beer nor if there are any adjunct grains. But I liked it as did my friend with whom I shared a bottle. It certainly isn't your typical pilsner. It basically tasted like one at first but the crispness is overcome by some malt sweetness followed by a hoppy aftertaste. It was like all the components of a pils were there just not in the right order and/or proportions. The usual malt-hops balancing act was weighted in favor of the former. It was odd, but I liked it.

My last tidbit of beer news is this:

Introducing TAP X: Nelson Sauvin from Schneider USA on Vimeo.

This is a promo for Tap X: Nelson Sauvin by German brewer Schneider Weisse. SW is perhaps the premier brewer of weiss bier. They've been doing it for 100+ years and their Avenitus, a wheat doppelbock, is considered by many to be the ne plus ultra of its style.

Tap X refers to a new line of limited edition annual brews and the inaugural edition is a weiss bier with Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand and Belgian yeast. I've read that limited shipments are going to the East Coast and California only so we apparently won't be getting any here in flyover country.

The video is interesting. Brewmaster Hans-Peter Drexler says that the Reinheitsgebot isn't really limiting as there are countless varieties of hops and yeasts out there. And those are some mega (open) fermentation tanks.