Funnily enough, this summer I've been seeing bus wraps - those ads that take up the whole of or both sides of a bus - trying to lure Madisonians on a trek up north to Superior way on the opposite side of Wisconsin in the far northwestern corner. These ads refer to the city on the Great Lake of the same name as the Paris of Wisconsin. I smile every time I see a bus with this ad drive by me.
Superior is a town of some 26,000 people and a not insignificant number of them are drunken blue-faced Finnish Americans. And I'd bet that a fair number of these folks are relaxing in a sauna plotting some kind of socialist workers revolution as I type. No wonder that Douglas County is a blue island that stands out in a sea of red up north.
I've been trying to sample the breweries of northwestern Wisconsin as they're not generally available down here and have been successful at several of them. While I was in Spooner, home of Round Man Brewing, back in June, I was there on a day when, alas, the brewpub was not open. I find it odd that brewpubs up in that part of the state aren't open every day of the week during the summer. It's tourist season with thirsty Chicagoans and Minneapolitans everywhere up north. Plus, the bars in your town are open Monday through Sunday. Maybe they're just short-handed.
Whatever the case, I've been able to sample Lazy Monk (arguably west central), K Point (ibid), Bloomer Brewing, Valkyrie, MoonRidge, Agonic, South Shore, and the Angry Minnow. One brewery from up that way that does distribute down here is Earth Rider.
While perhaps never exactly common here in Madison, I used to be able to find their brews at Woodman's with ease. Not so lately. Both east and west. Who knows. Maybe the Earth Rider supplies are always replenished the day after I do my shopping. Regardless, I managed to find their beer at Brennan's which seems to be a good source for less common brands and brews.
I know a couple folks from the northwest part of the state who have good things to say about Earth Rider so I was looking forward to putting another notch on the beer bedpost.
The brewery's website doesn't have much to say about Earth Rider history but I discovered elsewhere that it started up in 2017. Their claim of being "the first brewery in Superior, Wis. to produce beer for the region since 1967" belies the fact that Thirsty Pagan Brewing, just down the street from Earth Rider, predates them by 11 years or so. Maybe the marketing department at Earth Rider considers Thirsty Pagan to be a brewpub and pizzeria and not a brewery proper.
While it was a bit frustrating that their website didn't give me much fodder for this blog post, it was nice to not have an overly sentimental and probably half true story about how the founder's quadriplegic father gave his life so that his only begotten son could attend brewing school or some such thing. But I did learn that the brewery and its taproom are in historic buildings and that they use Lake Superior water for brewing.
While Brennan's had a mix pack thingy that would have given me a variety to choose from, I decided not to jump in and instead dip a toe into the water. Perhaps it had an IPA and/or a pale ale which didn't appeal to me. So I settled on their North Tower Stout.
It's an oatmeal stout, I discovered, even though the label doesn't mention oats on it. The brewery is near North Tower Avenue and the label seems to picture the big grain silos behind the brewery and a cargo ship out in the choppy waters of Lake Superior.
North Tower looked oddly out of place on my deck on a sunny summer day. A lovely tan head of loose foam sat atop the positively Stygian stout. It lasted an average amount of time, in my estimation. Despite its opaque appearance, when I looked at that little dimple where the stem meets the bowl or whatever you call the part of a glass where the beer resides, I could see it was, in fact, a very deep brown color. Taking a whiff, I caught coffee, milk chocolate, plum, and just a touch of grass. Nothing unexpected but it looked beautiful, if a bit menacing, and smelled wonderful.
My first sip revealed a firm fizziness and a medium-heavy body. Milk chocolate was out front and it teamed up with a fair dose of malty sweetness. There was a bit of coffee in the back and I found that the plum that I had smelled translated to something more like cherry on my tongue. As promised with the addition of oats, this stuff was creamy and smooth. I found that, as it warmed up, the beer developed a slight smokiness which I quite liked.
The stone fruit and milk chocolatey sweetness lingered a bit on the finish. A mild herbal hoppiness offered just a modicum of bitterness and a little dryness. These provided some counterpoint to the sweetness but not enough to truly balance things out.
I am ambivalent about North Tower. Credit must be given for avoiding the typical American stout recipe of bitter coffee, dark chocolate, and heavy roastiness. Those flavors are all here but are toned down in favor of a sweeter malty flavor that ended up tasting like milk chocolate. While I liked how this paired with the cherry flavor, I found myself thinking that this was like a dessert beer. It was rather sweet, fairly heavy - just not a good choice for an 85 degree day for me personally.
North Tower is a very good beer but its sweetness means that one is enough for me. I now need to find something else from Earth Rider to follow up one of these.
Junk food pairing: Pair your North Tower with a bag of Lay's Roasted Garlic Oyster potato chips.
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