It's a Boat, Silly: Muddy Tugger by 7 Hills Brewing Company

The Frau and I recently heeded Horace Greeley's exhortation to go west and made a trek to lovely Dubuque, Iowa. When we arrived, it was roughly high noon and our stomachs were indicating that it wouldn't be a bad idea for us to fill them. We made our way to the heart of the city's Millwork District and stopped in at 7 Hills Brewing Company. Apparently Dubuque thinks it's Rome as "7 Hills" is one of the city's nicknames.

Being in the Millwork District, the building 7 Hills calls home has a manufacturing past -  it was a lumber warehouse in its previous life. And so it should come as no surprise that the brewpub has that repurposed industrial vibe with vaulted ceilings and exposed structural elements cozying up to finished walls and bar/restaurant accoutrement. The brewpub opened in the summer of 2017 and, from what I gather, it was an early adopter in an area that continues its transformation into a place where you can get a craft beer and a fancy meal instead of one where you'd get a new door or set of cabinets.

We ordered a 4 beer flight. Town Clock is an American pilsner made with corn. I was in Iowa. I had to get the beer with the corn in it – when in Rome, right? It was exactly as I expected and a sample glass proved plenty but it was crisp and refreshing in the 90 degree heat. It Gose Lick Swallow Suck is a margarita Gose which was fine in the heat but, again, a few ounces was plenty. Remedy, a cherry wheat ale, was more to my liking with a lovely fruity tartness. Lastly, there was Green Teatotaler, a cream ale brewed with green tea. The Frau really liked this beer and I agreed with her. Its herbal dryness was tasty and, like the earlier beers, just hit the spot on a very hot day.

The food was good and the restrooms had hoppy signs.

On the way out, I picked up a mixed 6 pack so that we could bring some Green Teatotaler home and try some of their other brews including Muddy Tugger.

"Muddy Tugger" sounded like a mildly kinky name until I looked at the label closer and figured out that it referred to the boats that aid and abet shipping on the Mississippi River. It is a nut brown ale made with oats and buckwheat honey, neither of which are, to my knowledge, used much in the brewing of brown ale these days but I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn either or both were common ingredients back in the day.

The brown ale originated in England and has referred to various styles of beer through the ages and so the brown ales of today likely bear only a modest resemblance to the nut brown bowl belonging to little Sir John in the old folk song "John Barleycorn". While American brewing heritage owes no small debt to English traditions, no doubt brewers here usually brew something similar but not totally the same as what their cousins across the ocean do. I think of a brown ale as having some sweetness along with caramel flavor, a bit of roastiness, and some hops struggling to keep up.

Muddy Tugger filled my glass with a lovely mahogany liquid with a short but attractive tan head that stuck around long enough for me to get a photograph which does not do the beer justice. The beer smelled mainly of malty sweetness but also some honey, a bit of grainy roastiness, and a tad of spicy hops.

My tongue noted a nice firm fizz followed by roasted grain and malty sweetness with a some spicy/grassy hop flavors underneath. I didn't catch any tastes that I could discern as being from honey until the beer warmed up a bit at which point I think I did, but only just. I am unsure if I was simply unable to discern the honey flavor or whether it was genuinely buried in the mix by the generous malts like Steve Hackett's guitar on Seconds Out. Buckwheat honey has a distinctive grainy/malty taste which endows mead made from it with a flavor that stands in stark contrast to that made from other varieties. My guess is that it can easily get lost in a beer. At the finish, that malty sweetness faded to a spicy hop bitterness giving it a rather prominent dryness.

Despite not tasting much honey, this was a good little beer. It had a medium body which was fairly smooth owing to those oats, but it wasn't too sweet as that fizz helped steer it away from a syrupy overload. The dry finish was unexpected but welcome as it made for a nice contrast to the malty sweetness.

Junk food pairing: Since one traditionally pairs beer with cheese, grab a bag of some kind of Keto-friendly cheddar cheese crisps like Whisps. Their cheesy goodness will limit your carbohydrate intake and give you a healthy dose of protein while a delectable savory-salty combo will help cut through the beer's big malty flavor.