[BW] Beer Blog

Brewery: Pearl Street Brewery
Style: Brown Ale
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: Not Listed
RateBeer.com Rating: 3.09 (48th Percentile)
Serving: 12oz bottle or on Tap.

Greetings everyone this is Jake “Sconsin” Magnuson, your Midwestern Beer Consultant. Now that I am out of the Northwest I convinced Rick to let me be a part time writer on this good ole’ fashion beer blogolum. Here is my mission and my purpose….to show people that Wisconsin is where beer, be that shitty macrobrews, was taken to the next level. This is just proof that even us Midwesterners know what a good beer tastes like. So stay tuned for more reviews of the wide, and damn do I mean WIDE selection, of Wisconsin brews.

Up first is Pearl Street Brewery’s Downtown Brown Ale. PSB is a small micro nestled in the heart of La Crosse, WI….my current residence. Pearl Street has primarily been distributed throughout La Crosse with just a handful of brews, most of which are only on tap in various places throughout Wisconsin. Downtown Brown (or Downtown Nut Brown as on RateBeer) is the most widely distributed from the brewery.

Color: Pours really light with a nice reddish, brown caramel color. A little transparent but nothing that should alarm anyone.

Smell: Nutty with a hint of molasses. The smell isn’t over powering and truthfully a little weak….but it’s the smell so who cares.

Taste: The body of the beer tries to be thick and flavorful but sadly falls a bit short. The dark chocolate flavors rise to the surface but it doesn’t seem to be as hopeful as most would want. Yet, I think that the flavor is worth it especially if you get to enjoy it on tap here in La Crosse. It’s seasonable and light enough for even some of the biggest snobs out there. With very few prominent Brown Ale’s available throughout the state this is truly a treat to have. When enjoying a nice Friday Fish Fry or something else that has been deep fried back to the stone age this is a fun, easily drinkable beer.

Well there you go folks my first review. Let me know if you think I am just full of crap or enjoy the subtle Midwestern scrappy humor. Like I mentioned before there is a lot different reviews ahead I can’t wait to get started. Peace.

Share This

Over the last couple of weeks I had the opportunity to try a couple new beers that I’d like to talk about. The following reviews are strictly from memory, so I apologize about not having full reviews.

Brewery Ommegang’s Three Philosophers Quadrupel Belgian
This brew hailing from Cooperstown, NY was introduced to me by a friend who came over for dinner. To be completely honest I think he purchased it based on the fancy bottle and the fact that it comes with a champagne-style cork. I was hesitant at first, as most of you know I am still on the fence about Belgians. However, this one was a hit!

The novelty of this quadrupel is that it is brewed with cherry lambic. The very dark cherry flavor is noticeable, but not completely overwhelming. Think of this as almost a step between a traditional quadrupel and what most people expect from a full on fruity lambic. Readers of Beer Advocate gave it an 89, so it looks like I’m not the only one who enjoyed it.

Coeur d’Alene Brewing Company’s Lakeside British Ale
This was listed on the menu as Cd’A Brewing’s favorite brew, so I thought I’d give it a try. Disappointingly, it was a decent attempt at a brown ale at best. The first sip was reminiscent of New Castle, although perhaps a little bolder. I can see why the Ale House tends to cook with this a lot, but I don’t think I’ll be ordering a pint of it any time soon. I guess all of their brews can’t be as excellent as their Vanilla Bourbon Stout.

Share This

Well, it looks like I got taken advantage of and didn’t even realize it.

You may notice that my couple posts about Stella Artois are now removed. This is based on new information thanks to fellow beer blogger Stonch.

While Stella Artois and most European lagers may be virtually off the radar here in the Pacific Northwest, the situation is quite different in other parts of the world. It turns out that Stella Artois is owned by a company called InBev, which is one of, if not, the largest macro breweries in the world. Other brands owned by InBev are Brahma, Cass, Skol, Chernigivske, Alexander Keith’s, Bergenbier, Beck’s, and Leffe. If you’re from the American Pacific Northwest then you’ve probably only heard of Stella Artois and Beck’s.

I understood going into this that it was a viral marketing scheme, but I didn’t know I was assisting a huge multi-national conglomerate of swill beer. Without fellow bloggers like Stonch out there doing their part to assist in the awareness and promotion of local breweries, ignorant folks like myself would be taken for fools.

I hope I didn’t lose too much credibility with my readers and from now on I will do MUCH more research before I decide to promote anything.

Share This

Brewery: Eugene City Brewery
Style: Red Ale / IPA
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: Not Listed
RateBeer.com Rating: 3.36 (74th Percentile)
Serving: 22oz Bottle

From Rogue:
“100 Meter Ale is an anniversary brew celebrating the 100th batch of beer by Trevor Howard. Combining two of his award winning recipes, Natty Red and and Track Town IPA, this ale features the best of both. Rich aroma, mildly floral and big with a smooth finish! 100 Meter is made from Pale, Munich, Crystal, Chocolate and Carastan malts, with Chinnok, Simcoe, Centennial, Palisade, and Cascade hops, with a dry-hopping of Amarillo hops. Available on draft only.

Also noteworthy is this ale received a silver medal in the 2007 Australian International Beer Awards.

For those of you who may not “get” the title, Eugene is a huge Track and Field Town. The University of Oregon takes a lot of pride in their track team and is the former home of famous runner Steve Prefontaine.

Appearance: Very dark red with a couple centimeters worth of tan head.

Smell: Definitely India-style! This smells very similar to other IPAs brewed by Rogue. Also a very faint fruity smell.

Taste: Oh I’m definitely a fan. This has all the hoppiness of an IPA, but goes down smooth like a red ale. I really don’t have much to add that the description doesn’t already say. I love truth in advertising.

It’s unfortunate that this ale is brewed as a limited run. I can definitely see this being a huge hit with pubs in Oregon at the very least. It’s a very likable brew that I can see appealing to even the pickiest of IPA fan.

Share This

Brewery: Mateveza
Style: Vegetable Beer / Pale Ale
BeerAdvocate.com Rating: 81
RateBeer.com Rating: 2.94 (39th Percentile)
Serving: 22oz Bottle

Yerba mate infused beer? Sounds interesting to me. But first, let’s consult my favorite infallible source of all information, Wikipedia, for a little biology lesson.

“Yerba mate / Erva-mate*, Ilex paraguariensis, is a species of holly (family Aquifoliaceae) native to subtropical South America in Argentina, eastern Paraguay, western Uruguay and southern Brazil.

The yerba mate plant is a shrub or small tree growing up to 15 meters tall. The leaves are evergreen, 7–11 cm long and 3–5.5 cm wide, with a serrated margin. The flowers are small, greenish-white, with four petals. The fruit is a red berry 4–6 mm diameter.”

Also noteworthy is that yerba mate is caffeinated to an extent slightly less that coffee. I don’t know about you, but I feel much smarter.

Appearance - Very cloudy and orange/amber in color. Only a very small, white, and quickly dissipating bubbly head appeared when poured.

Smell - Smells like a mildly hoppy pale ale. There’s also a slight citrus hue.

Taste - Hmmm…definitely unique. What surprised me is almost all of the taste occurred in the back of my throat area. At first I exclusively tasted what tasted like a mild pale ale. The citrus hue is there too. Other reviews I’ve read have described yerba mate as “tea-like” and I guess that does a decent job of describing it. I’ve also found this is much more enjoyable when you let it sit for a bit. I’m about half way through a pint glass right now and it is quite refreshing.

I’d suggest this to anybody who wants to try something totally different. I suppose the only turn offs would be if you despise anything that tastes like cascade hops or is made from yerba mate.

Share This