Polish Moon Stout at MKEBrewing.com, in Milwaukee's 3rd District

Polish Moon Stout is outstanding by every measure, from it's mild toasty aroma to its chocolate coffee taste, this stuff is nobody's Irish knockoff.  The ABV is a bit high at 4.8%, but nobody seems to be counting at the MKE Ale House, where it's the lowest gravity beer on the menu.  

Sure, I looked for a Wheat beer, it being not winter and all, but I guess you just can't get there from here. These folks at MKEBrewing.com know what the hell they are doing, even if you don't. 

Far and away (not the movie, that's about a stout from somewhere else), but far and away one of the best Stout pours I've had.  It was so good that the next two samples I tried had me wishing I doubled down on the brown water.  

The tap handles are a little #meh and unimpressive from where I sit, but not awful.  I mean, these people make Harley Davidsons-- I'm sure they could have fabricated something a little more extraordinary than chain linked tap handles..  like maybe Harley style handle bars for tap handles.  Anyway, I didn't sit at the bar to bust balls on some blog nobody reads. 

 

Does MKE know beer?  If there is any doubt, Milla Coorz gag order agreements not withstanding, don't asked the locals a bunch of dumb questions-- just check out MKEBrewing.com and find you a sample somewhere, because it's some of the tastiest beer that your face will ever meet.  Look at the FRIGGIN head-- it's like a time machine that makes you want to order a 5 cent cigar from the bar keeper.  I don't think I ever seen froth on a beer like it. 


And, as I said, the flavor was right there, fantastic, a true marvel.   Don't get me wrong, the Milla is great, if you like the sweet thin, anemic, low calorie taste of a mildly hopped fermented corn machine and all that peeing... I mean, a lot a lot. 

And sometimes I do like to pee a lot, but where flavor is concerned, those big giant multinational production brewers, running on funny money finance are just not putting out the flavorz when you sit it up next to a monster taste like this MKE stout.

MKE Brewing is tearing up downtown MKE and you can see from the crowds that come to wash down these outstanding burgers with their suds.  This is the "Naked Burger", with a blue cheese salad instead of fried things.  It was grand and glorious.   You just can't get that kind of blood soaked vitamin B12 from a garden-burger.

Nobody is saying to skip your trip to Dublin, but, as I said-- get to MKE Brewing for this stout.  I'll not tell yee again... (sorry Lads).

  

Duvel at Benlux in Milwaukee

It's kind of ironic to order the best beer in the world while sitting in Milwaukee, the epicenter of America's beer production for decades, watching The Brewers on a big flat panel over the bar.  Sure, it's still a MillaCoorz town.

But there again, maybe where it's served is as important to the life of a city as where it's made... even if it costs about two nickels to make the stuff as compared to all the shipping and handling, brainwash mass marketing and promotion that goes into a glass of suds.  If enough Duvel were ordered in Milwaukee, maybe they'd make it here too (or say  somewhere like Cooperstown, NY...  wink), and maybe it would feel a little more like buying the best beer on Earth, and buying American at the same time. 

Jingoism can be it's own reward, yes?  So I say go Brewers!  Aren't we all kind of sick of seeing 3 baseball teams win every year anyway even in this post- Money Ball era?

The rooftop at Benlux, an extraordinary Belgian beer bar restaurant, is a great place to a lot of different beer, including a slew of Belgian, so get you down to the Milwaukee's historic 3rd District and show a little nationalism (not too much, please, I think we know where that leads).  See,  http://www.cafebenelux.com/

Here is their beer menu: http://admin.lowlandsgroup.com/public/documents/menus/cafebenelux_bierbook_july_2013.pdf

As for the particular beer-- let's face it folks, Duvel is the greatest beer on Earth, color, feathered froth, smell, flavor... it's all there.  I'm not even going to argue about it, it's a question of taste, and there is no accounting for it, no matter how much big data collecting beer rating and blogging goes on around these hopped art. 

5 Rabbits Five Grass APA at The Map Room

Brewed with juniper, sage and pepperberry to augment the hops, this is another epic beer hatched by the actual Wizard of Beer, Randy Moser and carried out by to exacting standards at the Lollipop guild by craft beers most interesting man in the world, Greg Hall, of the beer formerly known as Goose Island brew pub fame.

 

5 Grass is well balanced, frothy, malty, colorful and exploding with great taste.  So if these things matter to you, take the time to make a note, and fine you some to lay on friends who don't know what they don't know about the varieties of craft beer out there.  

 

Although they call it a Latin inspired APA, it has a Belgian quality, similar to the sage beer on the roof at Birrieria in NYC.  I keep thinking that I'd like a shot of good local gin with this at some point, maybe right after, or just before great breakup sex with a woman in a pink slip, and bright red lipstick, who curses at you a lot, all Depth Charge- Harvey Wallbanger style.  What?!

 

Just joking, Auntie Bee--  I'm trying to match the effort Moser and Hall put in to spice up the mash because I know how boring beer blogs can be too... kind of like MillaCoorz64 with lime extract in it at a rainy BBQ. 

 

Don't be completely swayed by the Hop heads rating beer online like fascists at a some perverse online youth rally.  You'll find that Beer Advocate's Geek Squad places this beer at 81, or merely "good", as if it's some run of the mill event to slurp down beer that includes juniper and pepperberry flavors where da hopz usually go: 

• http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/25544/81268  

Pay them no mind. They won't be having that hot break up sex with the stringy haired red head in the pink slip, who'll be writing "FUCK YOU TIM!" on your bathroom mirror with her lipstick, after you refuse to give her cab fare to Oak Park, right?   And hey, even if you don't, at least you won't be Goose Island stepping your way past the big data collection force in Rio, on the other end of your beer store's bar code scanner. 

Nice to see this extraordinary 5 Rabbits beer showing up on more chalk boards near you.  Your mission Mr. Derps: get you some 5 Rabbit 5 Grass. 

As always, it's being well served at The Map Room in Bucktown.

Arcadia Stout at Map Room, Chicago

Nitro Oatmeal stout, starts out great...  looks like Irish, and tastes like thin Chocolate Ovaltine at 5.6% ABV. 

 

It's sippin stout with high gravity but without those little beer ferries in the first name in Irish Stout. 

 

Map Room, as always, keeps clean lines to the intended flavorz.  

Virtue's Red Streak Cider at Small Bar on Division in Chicago

I make hard cider.  I make wine, beer and I even ferment tea. 

So what? 

The only thing hard about making hard cider is getting good heirloom apples to mix in for good flavors.  But making truly great tasting hard cider is another story, and no simple matter.

Virtue's Red Streak is the best tasting cider I ever had.  Light, thin, not terribly sweet, but bursting with flavor, and no off notes, none, anywhere. It's like drinking one of Scotty Anderson's perfectly executed, epic guitar pieces... (okay, what the hell am I talking about?  Look here if you haven't heard him burn down a place: http://youtu.be/IRJbg1XyEbo )

Virtue's Red Streak is thin and a bit tangy like a Belgian sour, but not at all sour.  You'll taste apple, and other hints from fruit orchards but without the sweetness of a juice box left on a school bus after some kids lunch pale was popped open by the 5th grade class funny guy.

And for the life of me, I'm not sure how Virtue does it.  It doesn't look absolutely clear, like big commercial hard cider (soda-wine cooler style) producers out there, who shall remain unnamed, in the great beer loving state of Vermont.  So it seems naturally fermented, rather than dosed with flavorings. 

As I understand it, Gregg Hall is the guy behind the curtain, handing out like The Great Oz at Virtue in Michigan, which apparently he is juggling well along with his outstanding work at 5 Rabbits brewing on Chicago's South Side. I've made maybe one batch that's some 85% as good as this stuff, so I'm seriously considering taking Gregg's course at the storied Siebel Institute, just to learn how the trick is done.  I'm sure there is a pun there about a magician revealing how he pulls 5 rabbits out of a hat, but I'm not going to reach for it.

If you don't try this cider, shame on me for not hyping it enough; so get off your dead ass and get you to someplace carrying it, such as Small Bar on Division where I got it, or Local Option, which announced it's tap by Tweetz.

Chicago Trib's Trib to Gregg Hall:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-04-17/features/chi-virtue-cider-greg-halls-virtue-cidder-debuts-20120417_1_cider-beer-terms-drinkers