Third Space Brewing, Menomonee Valley

October 28, 2017November 25, 20173 Comments

Take a deep breath and breathe that in. Smell it? Feel it? That’s the putrid scent of failure my friends, and that smell is probably one of the most comforting things in the world. If we are back under the hazy, heavy cloud of comforting failure, that must only mean one thing. We. Are. Home. That’s right, friends, we are back in Milwaukee! God, it feels good to be back in the 414 where we can finally take off that riot gear, loosen our grip on our pepper spray, and purge any remaining Old Bay from our system. Okay, fine, maybe keep the riot gear and pepper spray handy, but trade in that Old Bay for some cheese curds and let’s rock and roll because on this episode of Daze of Beer, we are talking about Third Space Brewing!

As I have mentioned innumerable times across this blog, my personal Twitter, this blog’s Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, my real life, my fake life, and my Second Life, Third Space’s Happy Place is my official beer of 2017 (and maybe the rest of my life but I’ve only just started drinking it in February) so this was definitely going to be a special trip for me. We headed over there on September 16th to celebrate their one year anniversary with them! Well, I mean, they were celebrating it with us, the consumers. It’s not like an exclusive party. Again, this is a bullshit blog. I would never get invited to a real party. That’s only for Good Bloggers™, which has been well established that I am not. But honestly, how exciting is it for them that they lasted a year and in the course of their first year in existence, they immediately knocked it out of the park by making my official beer of 2017? How is that possible? How do people just start doing something and then are immediately like really good at it? I have yet to succeed at anything in my 24 years on this earth, and these people just show up one day and start making a lot of good beer? That’s horseshit*.

But anyways, let’s get back on track. Ashley, Jake, and I headed over before the surprise Brewer game that we were going to attend later that afternoon. Despite it being mid-September, it was hot that day. Like brutally so. I was wearing a knit crop top that fully exposed my bra without concern. That’s how hot it was. I put aside any notion of modesty because it was approximately a billion degrees outside**. But know what pairs well with a hot day? That’s right, a cold beer. Unless it’s a stout or a porter or most IPA and some APAs and a few other pale ale variations. But Landshark definitely pairs well with a hot day. But alas we were not wasting away again in Margaritaville, we were in Milwaukee.

So we roll up, park, and wander in. Immediately we hit up the outdoor taps because we are not amateurs and know that the best way to enjoy yourself is alcohol. It’s the most responsible thing you can do. Drink. I learned that from Boy Meets World. (Or I learned the opposite of that from Boy Meets World. Sometimes lessons get fuzzy.) In the spirit of the anniversary party, we all started with their special anniversary IPA You’ve Said It All. This was actually a delightful IPA, even on the disgustingly hot “fall” day. Even Jake liked it and he doesn’t like IPAs (not in the same way Nicole doesn’t like IPAs, but it’s still a thing).

You’ve Said It All Special Release IPA

Jake’s official review on it, which is the only real note I made about the beer is, “It’s easy to drink with a hoppy finish,” which sounds so goddamn smart. Like, this kid knows what he is talking about. As we all know, as I am not a Good Blogger™ I usually just say “good” or “fine” or “bad” but Jake is quite articulate on his emotions. I am so proud of him. In fact, I am proud of everyone that joins me on these endeavors because I am watching my friends grow into these beautiful hipster craft beer snobs and it brings a tear to my eyes. It’s like watching the student become the master because, to be honest, I’m not sure I’m learning shit.

Along with the beer, Third Space had live bands and food trucks to keep these party animals rocking. The band that was playing while we were there was Life In a Tree who was startling good. They played mostly covers of pop-punk and classic rock music. And then we found out they’re sophomores in college and probably not even old enough to legally drink and it made me feel very old. Like ancient. Like, these kids are in a band and playing at breweries and also have to get back to their dorm at UWM so they can study for their econ exam on Wednesday, meanwhile I’m drinking to forget that I have learned the truth about life and it is that college is a scam and there is nothing in the world that even remotely resembles “happiness” or “joy” as it has been sold to us by the Don Drapers and real-life ad men in the world. And as I saw the darkness creeping into my vision from the ever-present looming reality that we will all die someday, I decided that was my cue for a second round. And Ashley and Jake followed suit.

My second beer was a That’s Gold, which was a traditional German style ale. This was the kind of thing that I needed to be drinking on this “global climate change exists” kind of day. It was refreshing and kind to me. Ashley got a Happy Place because, if we’re being honest, Happy Place is one of the few genuinely “happy” things left in this world. Jake went for their Fest Bier, which was their Oktoberfest beer. He found it resembled more of a brown ale than a true Oktoberfest, though, but he didn’t hate it.

At some point around here, I should mention that Tim showed up. He was going to the Brewers “away” game with us, but he had to work so he came late. I believe we bullied*** him into a You’ve Said It All because if you’re not going to try the special release beer, you can’t hang with us. Like, we are now all living in a different world than we once did. We are living in a post-Baltimore world and post-Baltimore Natalie is a changed woman because she had to drink a beer with Old Bay in it. If I can endure that bullshit, we can all suck it up and drink a delightfully delicious special release IPA that did not betray anyone by thinking it needed to put Old Bay or any other table seasonings in it. Third Space would never betray their consumer like every goddamn Maryland based anybody tries to on a daily basis by adding Old Bay to everything, like even the air. Thank you Third Space, and literally everyone else outside of Maryland who knows that Old Bay has it’s place and it’s not in beer.

We at some point wandered over to the taproom just to get a feel for it, but it was crowded because they were playing the Badger game on protectors on the wall. The upside was that the Badgers were playing BYU which allowed me to go into one of my well-worn rants about the state of Utah and the State Of Utah and Mormon culture and the time I got slut-shamed while walking down the street in Salt Lake City while I was dressed far more conservatively than I was on this particular day at Third Space. I’m not a hundred percent sure anybody was listening to me at this point because I think everyone is quite tired of my issues with SLC but Salt Lake broke my heart. I thought I was going to find the Promise Land and instead I found social isolation and snow in July (that technically was when I went into the mountains, don’t @ me).

For our last beers, Ashley went with the That’s Gold based on my stellar endorsement (look at me advising people in what beers to get!) and I got a Unite the Clan which is a Scottish Rye Ale. I don’t know what those words mean, I just read it off their website. I do know that I liked it but I think at this point I was just really hot and I don’t like to drink when I’m really hot. Or really cold. You need to keep me at a constant 74 degrees Fahrenheit or else all systems slowly start to melt away. That’s why I only once successfully drank ALL the way around the world at Epcot, and that was miserable. It was July 4th, I had gotten drunk, sobered up, drunk again, and sober again in like a ten-hour park marathon pushing through nearly 50,000 tourists. I don’t drink when I’m hot.

But an important note on the Unite the Clans Scottish Rye Ale: Since our trip to Third Space in September, the beer has since won an award! The beer won a gold medal at this year’s Great American Beer Festival and the only Milwaukee beer to win one and only one of two Wisconsin beers to win this year. That’s pretty damn impressive and now I’m feeling a little hipster and snobbish to say proudly, Oh that beer? Yeah, I drank it before everyone knew it was good. But that would be terribly rude, now wouldn’t it?

Now, here is the part that I need to release a formal apology to Tim. I for some God forsaken reason have no notes about you buddy. I know that you drank a You’ve Said It All, and I know that you had a second beer, but I didn’t write any of that down. Again, this bitch ain’t no Good Blogger™, and I would like to formally apologize.

But anyways, this is where we ended our day with Third Space because we had to get over to the Brewers-Marlins “away at home” game, to watch the Brewers further blow their chance at post-season despite being God handing them an additional 3 home-games by trying to level the city of Miami in Hurricane Irma. The most important thing to note here is that at Miller Park they have a local craft beer pavilion and I was feeling a little sad about myself at this point because I went to Happy Place’s home, it’s happy place if you will, and I did not even get one. What kind of monster am I? So I rectified it as best I could and had two Happy Places at the game. Happy Place has the gold medal of my heart.

Us at Brewer Game, less hot

And so that’s where we leave it. Next time we brunch and then accidentally create content on the fly, guerrilla blogger style (not really).

*said with love and reverence (also I recognize that they definitely had previous brewing experience long before they just decided to sink a shitton of money and energy into their own micro-brewery. Like, they obviously knew they were good before I knew they were good.)

**citation needed

***or he picked it himself because he knows the nature of these gatherings, who’s to say

Waverly Brewing Co, Baltimore, MD

October 24, 2017October 24, 20172 Comments

Today is the day. The day you all have been waiting for. The day that this sub-format of this loosely thrown together blog wraps up. Today, this day of all days, is the last day of Good Morning Beertimore! I know, I can feel that applaud in your heart. I’m cheering too. And shedding a solitary tear. Don’t be ashamed. You’re allowed to have mixed emotions about the conclusion of my time spent in Baltimore. On one hand, it was nice to just have content to create but on the other hand, Baltimore is a garbage city and it’s going to be comforting to not have to pretend to care about it anymore. I know, I feel you, my dear reader. (Except you, you know who you are, who is going to try to tell me Baltimore is a great city with a lot of offer. Stop. Stop trying to convince me.)

The final brewery visited in Baltimore was Waverly Brewing Company in the Hampden/Woodberry neighborhood of Baltimore!

Nicole and I rolled into the brewery in the late afternoon during the Packers/Seahawks game during the first football Sunday of the season. Outside on the patio there was a diverse group of people hanging out, drinking beer, socializing with friends and strangers, dancing to a DJ, and inside were people wearing Green and Gold watching the game on the set in the corner. The vibes were completely different, but the Green and Gold was comforting to my Midwestern sensibilities. My first beer I ordered was the Mo Kings APA and Nicole got the Resting Peach Face, which is their first sour. Nicole and I both liked their sour a lot and the APA was good as well. She still wasn’t sold on it, as APAs are very similar to IPAs and we have already established how Nicole feels about those.

After ordering, we decided to enjoy our beers on the patio. Like I said, the crowd outside was not what you would expect from a craft brewery scene. It was lively and friendly and everyone was just hanging out. People were sharing tables and strangers even talked to us of all people. One girl asked how we were enjoying our beers and Nicole’s sausage, and then another guy Postmate’d crabs to the brewery and then offered them to everyone, and again, even to us. Very Maryland.

Rattlesnake sausage

Sitting out on this patio, though, is where I had a crisis of faith moment. Seeing this scene unfold and being jarred by how it did not line up with any other brewery I have yet to attend on this journey of mine (ours) made me realize that this might be a futile effort. After a while, can I really denote the differences in beer? Can I honestly appreciate one brewery’s “vibes” over another? They all start to blend together. The beer. The people. The patios and taprooms and tours and bartenders. And you don’t realize it until something stands out, like here at Waverly, where they had a food vendor on the patio where Nicole got a rattlesnake sausage and there was a DJ playing songs I didn’t know but everyone was grooving to. It did not align with the hipster bullshit I was starting to become blind to, but the moment when you walked back into the taproom, you saw it. The same scene as every other brewery. The Edison bulbs. The distressed wood. The kitschy tchotchkes definitely bought at Goodwill but intended to make it look like they were acquired over a long period of time and travel. They were all the same.

Now, that is not to say I don’t still enjoy it. I do. And I will keep on this journey because, as many times before stated, this is more than a journey. This is our destiny. This is what we were born to do. Drink beer. But I have to accept that I am a type. I am a hipster who is blind to the aesthetic until the aesthetic is disrupted.

For our second drinks, Nicole and I sat in the taproom. I got the P-Don Pils and Nicole went for the guest tap which was the Wynridge Cider. My pilsner was good. It was straightforward. As with most pilsners, it was a beer your grandfather would drink, only with a little more flavor. Nicole’s cider, however, was a bit of a misstep. It was just a lot. We both struggled to finish it. It tasted like a very syrupy apple juice and it was just overpowering. Again, though, that’s not a knock. It just wasn’t our style.

We drank it, though, and watched the Packers win their first game of regular season. The two Packer fans in the place seemed pleased and I felt nostalgic for a place where people are pleased about football and sit in dive bars drinking $3 Miller Lites and cheer loudly. But I was only in Baltimore for the weekend, so it wasn’t that I was missing Wisconsin fiercely. I was missing a certain lifestyle I have been far removed from in recent years. I miss un-ironic enthusiasm. I just don’t have that in my life much, especially now that I spend my weekends at craft breweries where people cannot risk showing their true emotions about anything other than maybe Rick and Morty and Game of Thrones. I need to reconnect with my roots, go back to those rural dive bars in desolate parts of the state that everybody leaves the second they can and drink the champagne of beers with men who lived through the second World War and helped get Trump elected. Or not.

So anyways, we finished up our seconds pretty quick because the joint was closing. Then, on our way out, I finally agreed to the one thing Nicole had been asking me to do since we first arrived at our first brewery over twenty four hours earlier. I agreed to one game of bags. That’s right. I said yes. And know what? I won. I don’t remember the score for certain, but I do remember winning. And I feel like that is the best story arc you will ever find on this blog. Over the course of four Baltimore (or Maryland) breweries, I finally agreed on our way out of our last brewery to play a game of bags. And. I. Won.

That’s a wrap on Good Morning Beertimore! fam!! Next time we talk about my happy place, Third Space Brewing!

Flying Dog Brewery, Fredrick, MD

October 12, 20171 Comment

I apologize for how lacking in inspiration my last post was, but I promise Baltimore isn’t all dull and hazy beers overshadowed by a slightly buzzed girl craving a cheeseburger and nothing else. Of course, sometimes Baltimore isn’t enough to satisfying the curious case of beer daze. Sometimes you’ve got to veer from your own sub-format to another sub-sub-format because rules don’t apply here, beyotches! On the third episode of Good Morning Beertimore! Nicole and I leave Baltimore to visit Flying Dog Brewery in Fredrick, Baltimore.

Flying Dog is a brewery that I had read a lot about online. Every list that I perused trying to decide which of Baltimore’s many breweries always said that this was the best one to check out, although they are actually an hour northwest of Baltimore. I tried hard to stick to the true theme of Beertimore, but how do you pass up the brewery that all the other online beer blogs and commentators are constantly raving about? I’m already shitty enough at blogging, I couldn’t also bypass the opportunity of a lifetime*! So Nicole and I drove up after brunch Sunday morning/noon/afternoon.

Let me start by saying that this was by far the wisest choice we made all weekend beer-wise. Upon first driving up to the place, I was nervous because it was in the middle of an industrial park which is always a little off putting, but within that industrial park we found a fun taproom with thee most personable brewery employees we encountered the whole weekend. For example, the women ID-ing us (note: I think this is the only time I got carded the whole weekend because recently I have started to look old as dirt thanks to poor skincare and sunscreen habits my whole life) asked why I was visiting from Wisconsin I said “to see Nicole!” to which the woman looked at Nicole’s ID and was like, “But you’re from Texas?” And her confusion was enough to satisfy my needs right there, and this was even before we had beer in hand.

So we moseyed over for some beer, which is where I done eff’d up and just ordered, you know, a beer. Well, not just any beer from their limited edition Peach Cobbler Ale, which, guys, move in close, I have words to whisper to you. This beer was so good. Like, appallingly, against the laws of nature good. Although I know I should have gotten a flight like a Good Blogger™ would do, I chose so correctly in just blindly ordering a whole pint. It’s a tap room exclusive, I believe, so in order to see if I am being hyperbolic or not, you’ll have to check out Flying Dog yourself.

Nicole, who is a lowkey Good Blogger™, actually ordered a flight. Honestly, Nicole needs to come around more often because she is a legitimately smart and well put together Good Blogger™ and I am just a mess of a human who drinks beer and then has nothing insightful to say about it other than that it may or may not have been good, and some times I don’t even have that much to say. Nicole thinks in terms of what would be good content, what would be the smartest blogging choice, what kind of content do the people want to read! And since I am actually the one blogging and not her, that is why this blog still sucks and no one reads it. Not even my “friends.”

But anyways, her flight included the Dead Rise Old Bay Summer Ale, The Fear IPA Nitro,Raging St. Eadman Abbey IPA, and the Belgium Red. The Dead Rise Old Bay Summer Ale was alarming. I understand that Old Bay in an institution in Maryland, they use it in everything, and it’s their go to seasoning. But this beer legitimately had Old Bay and it smelled like Old Bay and it upset me. It felt dirty, and wrong, and uncomfortable. That might be the outsider in me who does not have Old Bay running through her veins, but I could not handle it. It wasn’t like it was impossible to drink, but it was a lot to smell for sure. The nitro was good, I think? If I recall correctly, I enjoyed it and Nicole did not but she did actually kind of enjoy the St. Eadman Abbey IPA, which is a big deal because she does not like IPAs as previously stated. And I think we were pretty equally good on the Belgium Red.

But overall, the place was nice. The taproom was cool and the guys working it were pretty cool. The patio was gorgeous and we got to half-watch a game of bags were the boards were not at a regulation distance and it distressed Nicole just how far apart they were. It really was worth the drive up to Fredrick and the other blogs run by Good Bloggers™ were not wrong in insisting that everyone check it out. Really, truly, guys. Flying Dog was a great place with great beer.

On the final installment of Good Morning Beertimore!, I make Nicole’s dreams come true and there is rattlesnake.

*citation needed

The Brewer’s Art, Mount Vernon

September 26, 20171 Comment

Guys! You came back! I’m so glad you could be here to share in round two of Good Morning Beertimore! wherein Nicole and I grab dinner at a brewpub that was a little too fancy and had a couple beers that I made no notes about! So welcome to the post on The Brewer’s Art located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood in Baltimore!

Okay, guys, I will warn you. This entire post might feel half assed, but it’s not because I’m half-assing the writing, it’s because I half-assed the drinking. I know what you’re thinking. Natalie, how could you possibly half-ass drinking? You come from a long line of definitional alcoholics and proud Wisconsinites. How could you disgrace your people? And let me tell you how… I was hungry and sort of just didn’t care anymore. Not about like, beer and Daze of Beer and the entire experience as a whole. I just mean, I was less focused on drinking and more focused on eating, which, if we’re being completely honest, is how I live most of my life. I’d rather die of heart failure due to a lifelong love affair with unhealthy but delicious foods than of liver failure caused by a lifelong desire to drink away my demons. Unfortunately, though, at the rate I’m going, these two things might just catch up with me at once. Pour one out for me, everybody.

Anyways, let’s focus in. Nicole and I headed over to Brewer’s Art after we got kicked out of Union. Upon arrival, it took us a minute to find because either I’m blind or there is no sign. It was another game of the GPS announcing that We are here! while we were most decidedly not “here.” But we figured it out. The neighborhood is beautiful and so was the building Brewer’s Art is in. I will say, as much as I shit on Baltimore (with no intention of stopping), it is a beautifully historic city, as you tend to find in older parts of the country. Wisconsin has it’s fair share of “old things” but our old things are still centuries younger than Baltimore’s old things. What we consider ancient here in the Milwaukee metro is just like, moderately old in Baltimore terms. That’s because white people had killed off most First Nations people centuries before anyone even discovered that there was land west of the Appalachians. So while Milwaukee’s oldest building was built sometime in the 1870’s (I googled it and no one has hard dates), the oldest building in Baltimore was built in the mid-1700s and the state itself has buildings older than that. But I digress.

Nicole and I wandered in and the place just seemed nice and adult. Everyone was dressed smart-casual and eating very fancy looking food. For a minute I wondered if this was the place I had read about online because why would I ever let two of us wander in so delightfully under dressed. But we proceeded to find the hostess who informed us they take reservations and that they were totally booked for the night. Excuse me? I thought this was a casual brewpub and you take reservations? I never go anywhere that takes reservations, let alone places that get booked up for entire nights. But she did tell us we could sit in the bar on the lower level and they have a full menu down there.

And that is what we did. The lower level bar was incredibly dark, and when we first sat down, it was completely empty save for one table with an older couple at it. I assumed it was because it was getting passed dinner time a tad. I believe it was already onto just past 7 by the time we got down to the bar, but before long the entire place filled up with a good mix of smart-casual older adults who were turned away from the main dining room and smart-casual young professionals who seemed to be aware that this lower bar existed.

In terms of beer, Nicole had the Beazly which is their Belgium style beer and I had the Birdhouse which was a nice, summery pale ale. That’s the extent of my notes. I swear to God, guys, I owe you one. Nicole and I each only had one beer and I didn’t take any other notes on it.

Only known notes.

I did have a cheeseburger, though, that I devoured. I had drinking munchies so bad that day, in a way I never get, and at the point where I was three and then some beers deep, I was starving. My cheeseburger was unremarkable. Not bad, just not noteworthy. It satisfied the craving I had in that moment and nothing more.

Final thoughts? Just because they make their own beer doesn’t mean I will fit in there. I mean, I did not stand out by any means, but there food was so fancy and I am a poor person. I mean, overall I literally just wanted a cheeseburger going into the experience and got exactly what I wanted. I wish I could tell you more about the beer but I am such a bad blogger. Deepest apologies.

On the next Good Morning Beertimore! post, I step it up a little bit and Nicole and I roadtrip to Flying Dog Brewery in Fredrick, Maryland!

*For some idiotic reason, I took all my pictures in portrait instead of landscape at this place so excuse how terrible they all format. Clearly I was drunk.**

**Was not actually drunk

Union Craft Brewing, Hampden, Baltimore, MD

September 15, 2017September 15, 20175 Comments

Honestly, if we were going to nail down the aesthetic of this blog it would be “simple yet focused premise but still cannot seem to maintain a theme.” Just look at how this blog has been going so far. How many Milwaukee breweries have we actually been to? Three? Sure, there have been other miscellaneous events and breweries here and there, but that doesn’t adhere to the premise which was simply visit every Milwaukee brewery and write a blog post about it to get a hands-on knowledge and appreciate for beer culture. See how simple that reads? It’s a great logline if I were to run into a producer in an elevator and wanted to pitch them my blog to be adapted into a Travel Channel show. Simple. But somehow I still cannot maintain that theme. So, that brings us to today, which is part one of four on our special Baltimore Series that shall henceforth be known as Good Morning Beertimore!

That’s right jerks! I’ve strayed from theme again!

So, I decided to take a long weekend to visit Nicole in Baltimore for her birthday and I figured, what better way to celebrate my best friend’s birthday weekend than by making her go to breweries with me although she does not like beer. So on Saturday, September 8th after bumming around Hampdenfest, we would hit up a brewery. Briefly, I will tell you that Hampdenfest was fine. It was a pretty run-of-the-mill street festival with food and beer vendors and a bunch of people just milling about. The one noteworthy thing to mention about Hampdenfest was that there are toilet races? I know. People decorate toilets and form teams and RACE THEM. Like, down a hill. There are costumes and cheering and themes. It was quite the sight to behold. But that is not why you are here. You are here to hear about Union Craft Brewing.

Union is also in the Hampden/Woodbury neighborhood, but since travel efficiency is not one of my high points, first Nicole and I tried to hit up a cemetery which was like fifteen minutes away and closed. So then we were like, “Well, we can check out a brewery now I guess?” And it was honestly like, five minutes from The Aveune*.

I made it to the cemetery eventually.

Full disclosure, while I did want to hit up as many breweries as possible and Union was on the list, it was not what we were aiming for. We were aiming for Waverly Brewing, but could not find it. The GPS proudly announced that you are here! but we did not know where here was. But Union is on the same street and just slightly further down so we decided to start there, which I am glad we did because they closed at six and it was already a little after four.

The taproom is small, but definitely has that familiar craft beer charm to it. Along with the cute little taproom was also an outside patio that had picnic tables where people were sitting outside on the nice Saturday afternoon with their friends and dogs. There was also bags. Nicole and I ordered our first beers, hers was the Old Pro Gose Sour and I got the Royal Farmhouse Double IPA. Nicole loves sours and she did really enjoy this beer. I also liked mine quite a bit. Nicole, however, did not like my beer. I mean, I shouldn’t be offended because she does not like IPAs at all and I suppose I am not offended but she had a very vocal opinion on what it tastes like. Grass. She thought it tasted like grass. In turn, most of the rest of the weekend devolved into this following gif for the two of us.

Nicole also really wanted to play bags with me at this point, or as she insists on calling it, cornhole. But the problem with this request is one, what the eff is corn hole amirite? But also, two I am terrible at bags. And so is she. Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be for me and my street cred if the entire city of Baltimore found out how bad I am at bags? It would almost be as bad as if they found out I run a beer blog (which the entire city might already actually know because Nicole is a good friend who promotes as if it actually matters).

For our second rounds, I got the Steady Eddie Wheat IPA and Nicole got the Mid-Century Modern Belgium Table Beer. First off, shout out to the guys at Union for just know what they have on tap and how to help out a helpless girl trying to get her life together (me). I wandered in from the patio for our second round and Nicole just said to me “the table beer one. It’s Belgium.” And I wanted to seem in the know when I got in there, but no matter how quickly I scanned the board I could not figure out what she meant or what it might be called so when the guy came over to as me what I would like, I stuttered and panicked and said, “I dunno some Belgium one? Table beer?” And then magically he was like mid-pour of what I wanted and was like “Yeah, it’s the Mid-Century Modern.” And I was like, you, kind sir, get it. And he didn’t even throw any beer-itude at me about not knowing what exactly I was trying to order. And that has taught me that I think I have a misguided fear about breweries.

Although now in my life I have been to many taprooms and many tours and many beer halls and gardens and keggers (two truths and a lie time), I still always feel like I do not belong there and that I will be met with judgement, but know what? People working at breweries do not care about my bullshit because they are just doing their jobs and do not care enough to judge me. They just see a girl who wants to expand her beer horizons and, more importantly, is willing to pay $7 for a craft beer rather than $4 for a Busch Latte. Sure, there are some elitist assholes that exist within some of these breweries who will side eye me, but honestly, I think I fit the profile more than I think I do. And that’s not exactly something I am proud of. I’m not looking to fit any profile and certainly not the hipster beer snob profile, but I dress just like the rest of them (homeless-chic) and talk like them (oh wow, I am definitely getting the subtle notes of witchhazel in this experimental small batch!) and I think like them (Bernie would’ve won if only we could have KCCO’d and if they would have released season 5 of House of Cards soon #UnderwoodUnderwood16 #teamFitivia #JedBartlettIsMyPresident). I need to get over my self absorded, self-conscious, “I’m doing this ironically” attitude and just drink beer and realize that I am the person who drinks beer. Sure I might tell everyone my favorite beer is Landshark, but honestly, my favorite beer is Third Space’s Happy Place. I am no better or worse than anyone else that chooses to spend their Saturday afternoon in a parking lot patio at a brewery in some trendy neighborhood in Baltimore. It is who I am and I should just embrace that about myself.

21462351_10155848605239252_2383531550774999334_n

Anyways, comments on Nicole’s beer were that her and I kept passing it back and forthing trying to figure out how we feel about it. Honestly, it just sort of tasted like nothing. I mean, I kept saying that it tasted like a crouton which is just to say that it was very wheat-y, which is to be expected from a Belgium beer but since I am not like good at beer yet, I could only articulate that as “IT TASTES LIKE A CROUTON!” Again, if you came here for facts, you came to the wrong place. Honestly, if you came here at at all, you came to the wrong place. Go outside, take a deep breath, and ask yourself, do you really want to spend the limited amount of time you have on this earth reading this blog? If the answer is yes, welcome back. Let’s continue.

My second beer, the Steady Eddie, was good. It was another IPA, Nicole still thought it tasted like grass. I thought it was fine. Didn’t knock off my pants or anything (mostly because I was wearing a skirt but sh) but it definitely served it’s purpose. We had fun sitting around, though. But, sadly, we were only able to enjoy these two beers apiece because they closed on us. I mean, we knew it was coming. The internet did warn that they closed at 5, although did not actually close until 6, and we did arrive around 4. But still, it’s hard to have a Beer trip when there is only two of you and you can only get two beers apiece. It makes it hard to fully appreciate and sample a wide variety of the menu offerings. So while I have learned that five beers is too many, when there are only two of you, two beers/piece is not enough. I’m not saying that I need to drink more than two full beers, but just sampling the four beers between Nicole and I did not give me a wide ranging opinion on the brewery in whole.

In terms of vibe, though, it was very chill. Very laid back. Overall, Union was a cool place. I would definitely recommend checking out if you are in Baltimore, especially since there aren’t many alternative options in the city.

Come back next time for more Baltimore beer!

*not a typo

Miller Brewing, Miller Valley

September 11, 2017September 11, 20175 Comments

Not every visit to a brewery is in search of the next great beer. Sometimes you have to see where beer started. You have to understand the history. You have to hold tight to the beer of our forefathers, the beer that stocked your grandpa’s garage fridge, that Don Draper sipped at backyard barbecues, that you first stole a sip of at eight when no one was looking. You have to get to the core, the essence. You have to appreciate the past to understand the present. That is why I paid a fine visit to Miller Brewing.

For this visit, instead of the usual crew getting together to pretend that we are the foremost leaders in the beer blog and snobbery industry, I went with my parents and my sister. It was something to do and it was free. Yes, guys, you heard me, the MillerCoors tour is free. So we ventured down to the Miller Valley, which, as you would guess, is a numerous city blocks occupied by Miller. It was also fun to venture outside of Walker’s Point again. The Miller Valley has this beautifully eerie feeling of lost time. It’s quite literally a valley, blocks of the city that the freeway goes over, not through, not around, over. Everything feels suspended in time in the Valley. The first time I ever went to the Miller Valley, I was probably about ten or eleven and my parents were taking us for a nice dinner and my father called it the land that time forgot, and he is very right. It maintains the charm and grit of turn-of-the-century Milwaukee.

So, the tour kicks off in the Visitor Center where there is a gift shop as well as some taps that go unused. I’m sure they host events here, but I’m a bad blogger and legitimately do not know. As I mentioned, tours are free and you can just walk in and ask to get in on the next tour, which run every half hour. Unlike the micros and crafts in the area, as a huge brewery, tours can have a lot of people. I’d say there were at least thirty people on our tour from all over the country. I know this because we had to do that dumb thing where the tour guides were like “RAISE IS YOUR HAND IF YOU’RE NOT FROM MILWAUKEE! OKAY NOW KEEP YOU’RE HAND RAISED IF YOU’RE NOT FROM SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN! ALRIGHT, KEEP THAT HAND UP THERE IF YOU’RE NOT FROM WISCONSIN!” And so on. It was painful. We all know that I hate icebreakers and pretending to form attachments with strangers for forty five minutes just to never see them again.

Then we all walked into this little theatre that showed us a 12 minute video about the history of Miller Brewing starting at the beginning and ending sometime around 2012, mentioning the Miller/Coors merger and how great they are to the environment. It starts out benign enough but once you start telling me about your “corporate responsibility,” I start rolling my eyes. Don’t sell me on your company about how well you pay your staff and how you recycle, impress me through your beer but then just don’t be assholes to your employees and the Earth. You shouldn’t have to brag about how you’re good people, you should just be good people, yah dig? I will say, though, the second half of the video had a very Living with the Land feel with the dated footage and the tone and cadence of the narrator, and we all know that I have a soft spot for Living with the Land. It speaks to my soul.

After the video, the kind tour guides ventured out with us. Honestly, there was not so much about specifically how beer is made like you get on tours are the micros. I guess no one cares when you’re producing beer at that scale. What really is talked about a ton is production and distribution. The tour does make the bold claim that Miller was using assembly lines long before Henry Ford and his automobile factories, which I would like to see hard data on. I feel like having grown up in a Milwaukee suburb my whole life, someone would have said that to me. Instead I have been inundate with the whole “Henry Ford didn’t invent the car, but he did invent something much more important. Efficiency!”

I just feel like at some point some teacher would have maybe said that there may have been another man who used the concept of an assembly line to make beer. In fact, I know that my junior year AP US History teacher would have almost 100% told us this if there was even a remote possibility of this being an important fact because this man (shout of to Doc Sobot) is the same teacher who told us that when he was a young student at Marquette University back in the 70s when the drinking age in Wisconsin was 18, him and his friends would go and do Miller tours over and over again all day because you get free beer at the end of the tour. And they would just do like 10 tours in a day. So, if this man who had done the same tour so many times in his life and then grew up to have a PhD in American History and taught us so much stupid stuff about America (see the 5 days we spent watching a re-enactment of an unabridged Lincoln/Douglass debate or the two days we spent discussing an article called “From the Front Porch to the Back Seat: A Brief History of Dating in America) he would have also told us when we got to the stuff about industry, that maybe a German immigrant who settled in Milwaukee, WI invented the assembly line. Maybe not. Maybe I’m too cynical and bitter.

Anyways, that tangent was uncalled for. Why should I doubt them? They seem like nice enough people over at MillerCoors. I guess the one thing that is most important to note is that they mentioned that the number one beer brewed, packaged, and shipped out of the Milwaukee facility is not actually Miller Lite or High Life or MGD or anything like that. It’s Coors Light. That’s right, Coors Light. Like, excuse me but go back to Golden, you impasta. I’m kidding. It’s fine. I understand that MillerCoors are one now, just like Voltron. And I mean that more seriously than you think. Under the MillerCoors banner, there are so many more beers that they now own that have all come together to make a major beer fighting robot. For example, Blue Moon? MillerCoors. Leinenkeugel’s? MillerCoors. Milwaukee’s Best? MillerCoors! Fosters? DAMN RIGHT, THAT TOO. So much beer guys.

After getting a peek at packaging and distribution, we got to go into A CAVE! Not a real cave, but the beer storage caves they used to use before refrigeration. It was dark and beautiful and then there was a hologram of Fredrick Miller (or an actor pretending to be Fredrick Miller). It was almost like the time Tupac’s hologram showed up at Coachella. People were losing their goddamn minds*!

The cave was actually pretty cool, though, and it can be rented out for corporate events and weddings (sometimes) and honestly, I cannot picture anything that says “true love” more than saying your vows under the watchful eye of the Girl in the Moon.

Leaving the cave, we got to head over to the outdoor beer garden for our free beer samples and free pretzels. So, for those of you keeping track at home, the tour costs $0 and you get three free 4 ounce pours for $0 and little snack backs of pretzels for $0 which made this entire outing free!

So, it’s time for the beer roundup as to what everyone had to drink. They make everyone use one of their free beers on a Miller Lite, so we all had that. Then my dad got the Leinie’s anniversary lager, my mom got a Blue Moon, I got the Leinie’s Grapefruit Shandy, and Emily also got a Blue Moon. This is where I must tell you, none of us had our third beers. Why? Because ONE OF THE BEERS GAVE ME HIVES. Like, splotchy, itchy, hot, uncomfortable hives all over my face and neck. Seriously. I tried all the beers my family got, but all of them are beers I’ve had before without incident, but this time one of them betrayed me. So we took off.

Final opinion on the Miller tour? It’s free and it’s fine. Almost everything is pre-recorded but it helps to understand how the beer industry shaped Milwaukee and Milwaukee shaped the beer industry. But, like I said, something there betrayed me and I am really good at holding grudges.

Coming soon to a overblown beer blog near you: A multi-part series on the Baltimore beer scene ft. Nicole and a sausage made of rattlesnake.

*open for interpretation

Lakefront Brewery, Riverwest

August 30, 20173 Comments

Do you hear that? Lowly, in the distance, that sound? What is that? The rumbling from some far off land. It’s getting louder. The ground is shaking. What could it possibly be? Is it… is it… choo choo! It is! It’s the Daze of Beer train getting back on track! #hollah

Well, here we are again friends. Another trip to another Milwaukee brewery. This time we visited one of the better known breweries in not just Milwaukee, but also the entire Midwest (maybe country?). We went to Lakefront Brewery. Now, you might be wondering, “Hey, Natalie, how do you qualify that Lakefront is one of the better known breweries?” And let me tell you, my sweet friend. I have determined this by the fact that according to Jake, somewhere on their website they brag about being the fourth best brewery tour in the country (New Belgium made the claim they were number one on that list so maybe this is a real thing) and also, when I was in Utah, one of my friendly bartenders who kept me more than a little hydrated throughout the weekend told me he once visited Milwaukee and did “that one brewery tour there.” And when I said, “Oh, the Miller tour?” He looked at me with big shocked eyes and said, “They brew Miller in Milwaukee? Wow, I didn’t know that! No, I did the other one! The other big one.” And I shrugged and guessed, “Uh, Lakefront?” And he nearly jumped over the bar and said, “YES! THAT ONE.” So, I think it’s safe to say someone, somewhere knows about Lakefront Brewery.

We visited the fine brewery on Saturday, August 19th and did the 6:30 tour. We had booked our tour only a few hours in advance, but it’s still important to plan as far ahead as possible because their tours routinely sell out. There are several things I hated about this situation before it started. One, there were people everywhere just existing. We all know how I feel about people who insist on existing. Drives me mad. Second, the entire pastiche is that everyone is SUPER excited to be WORKING there!!11!!!!!! I hate enthusiasm, and I especially hate over-hyped false enthusiasm. But it was fine.

With each tour you get four drink tokens so before our tour began we started with a round. My first beer was the hull melon. Jake’s first beer was the El Wisco, which I have at length discussed on the CurdFest post. Tim had the Amplified Ale, which is sponsored by 88.9, I believe? Ashley also got a hull melon to start. And Monica got a Fixed Gear. I wish I had something insightful to say about these beers, but guys, I have to be honest. We consumed more beer on this tour than any Daze of Beer event to date. Like, five a piece. Remember when I said we each got four drink tokens? Well, Monica and Ashley had an additional three tokens from a previous tour so we were really swimming in the beer. And it would be disingenuous to pretend I remember anything about anything regarding the tastes of the beer.

But what I do remember, because it mattered to me profoundly, was another one of Jake’s great useless stories about Milwaukee history that he imparted on us while waiting for the tour to begin. While sitting, enjoying our first beers, he told us about the lights that are hanging in the beer hall/tap room. Apparently, the lights are from an old hotel in Milwaukee that was never finished due to funding issues stemming from the Great War, now known as World War I (see Wonder Woman). No one took interest in finishing this hotel at any point, apparently, and the city finally hit a point where they were like “eff this, let’s just tear it down.” But they went through and pieced out items that were already in the building for auction and put these beautiful lights up for auction with the minimum bid of $1000. Lakefront, apparently, put up some silly bid like $1031 (that figure came from Jake, citation desperately needed) and were immediately outbid by some big shot Chicago company that was like “FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS PLEASE.” But in one of the city of Milwaukee’s finest moments in preservation, they thought it best to keep history here in Milwaukee and they were like “Nah, bruh, I think Lakefront should have these.” And now you can see the beautiful lights that Lakefront got a screamin’ deal on hanging up there, illuminating the world and the beer.

After Jake gathered us for this story, our tour began. We all filled up before we ventured off and with the second round, I had the IPA called IPA, Jake had the Organica, Tim tried the New Grist which is gluten free, Ashley also went with the Organica, and Monica tried the Pumpkin Ale.

Let me tell you a bit about our tour guide. He was nice enough and did grow on me. But let me tell you the two notes I took on him.

Underemployed theatre major.
Cuddle puddle.

Those were the two notes. I’m not 100% sure what I meant by cuddle puddle, but I’m confident it’s some gross thing he said to describe something about the beer making process. The underemployed theatre major thing speaks for itself. He had an enthusiasm and showmanship that can only be found at Disney World and breweries, the two places you’re most likely to find theatre majors trying to convince you they made the correct choice in majors while secretly crying themselves to sleep at night about how they should have went into accounting just like their wise cousin who sells cigarettes at the local gas station and vapes inside when their manager isn’t looking said.

Overall, the tour was entertaining. At first I had an attitude problem about the over-the-top underemployed theatre major tour guide, but in the end he made some decent jokes and we were able to riff on them a little bit in our side huddle, because we can never risk being in the presence of someone funnier than us. God forbid.

At midpoint in the tour came a refill station which housed four options for beer. Ashley, Monica, and I had a Clutch Cargo. Jake when with the White. Tim had the Pumpkin Lager, not to be confused with the Pumpkin Ale that Monica had earlier (can you tell it’s almost fall?). Again, if I was a good blogger I could have told you which beer option there was that I did not have, but as has been long established with this blog, I am not a good blogger. And also, for some reason (probably related to the lack of food), I was feeling these beers pretty decently at his point.

More touring happens, and at the end we all get to sing a song together. I won’t spoil which song for you, but I will tell you it’s a television theme song and I already knew all the words.

The tour dumps out on this beautiful patio right on the river. Saturday was a beautiful night and there was a beer man there ready to take our last tokens (which in practice were not Monica and Ashley’s last tokens) and fill your beer for the final time (which again, was not actually our final time). Last beer roundup is as follows:

Me, Snake Chaser
Jake, Smash Ale
Tim, Riverwest Stein
Monica, Riverwest Stein
Ashley, Riverwest Stein

Before we departed the brewery, though, we ended back in the taproom to finish off the tokens. Monica’s last beer was an El Wisco, mine was a Fixed Gear, and Jake’s was a Pumpkin Lager. Included in the tour, also, is a free pint glass if you turn in your plastic cup you’d been sipping from all night and within that free pint glass is a coupon for a free Lakefront beer at Stubby’s, the neighboring restaurant. Obviously we were all starved, and we also have been sitting on a Stubby’s gift card for well over a year, so we went to cash in on our last free beer, which as a shitty blog would do, I did not write down what any of us got. But Stubby’s has great cheese curds and I’d definitely recommend them to anybody.

Overall, great trip to Lakefront. Lessons were learned (five beers is TOO MANY when blogging). Friendships were formed (I watched two people beat a keg together and become illegally wed). And mistakes were made (Jake knows what mistake he made). I’d recommend it, for sure. Definitely a great stopover for people visiting Milwaukee, like your one friend from college that lives in the Northwoods who thinks you lead a really exciting life in the “big city” of Milwaukee but really you just go to Target and watch Netflix but you’ve gotta show her a good time so, take her here.

Our next post is going to be on big name giant industry leader MillerCoors. Sneak peek from the next post: A beer gave me hives!

#tbt New Belgium Brewery, Fort Collins, CO

August 10, 20171 Comment

Trust me, I’m as disappointed as you are. How could we possibly just get started on this Daze of Beer train to just derail it with a Throwback Thursday post about a trip I made to a brewery nearly two years ago? I am sorry, my dear reader, for letting this happen but sometimes content doesn’t flow smoothly as Miller Lite from a vortex bottle. Sometimes you have to dig for the content. You have to work for the content. You have to reach for it.

So here we are today, on this fine Thursday, reminiscing about visiting the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins. As stated, this tour took place in the heady days of 2015. It was a simpler time. Obama was president. Adele had just released her smash single Hello. I was unemployed and had not yet learned the true drudgery that is adulthood. It was a sunny, warm November day in the mountains high above the sea. While most people visit Colorado for the scenic hikes, death defying rock climbs, and legal marijuana, I am neither a hiker nor a rock climber, though I am sure that others in attendance on this journey would have loved a beautiful stroll or vertical crawl through the mountains, and after a showing display of me being so aggressively not a hiker the previous day at the Grand Canyon, beer seemed like a safe bet for my kind of person. But more than a safe bet for me, it was a sure bet for David, who loves beer.

We did not plan ahead for this tour and when we walked into the tap room and gift shop, a kind man sitting at a table asked us if we had reservations. Spoiler alert: We did not. He then informed us that the tours typically fill up months in advance but it was our lucky day and they had space available on their next tour that was to start in approximately ten minutes. I am not sure if he was bullshitting us on the “months in advance” joke, but it honestly would not surprise me. The tours are free, first of all, which right there makes it worth the trip. But secondly, I think throughout the course of the nearly hour long tour we got five samples a piece. And I’m not talking little sips. We were getting four ounce pours.

My memory of my trip to New Belgium Brewery is a bit hazy, to be completely honest, but I do remember our tour guide was genuinely passionate about being an employee of the brewery. He believed in the brand and the product and was proud to be apart of the organization. He spoke quick and excitedly about the history of the brewery and all the things that set them apart from other craft beers. It was an inspirational story of a man, who maybe is named Jeff?, and how he went on an “Eat, Pray, Love” journey to Belgium to study the art of brewing and he came back and started a microbrewery that in only a few short years exploded into a mega-popular no-longer-micro craft beer producer. There’s just something about people achieving their dreams of becoming master brewers that really warms my heart, if we’re being honest.

Since it was November, I remember us trying their pumpkin lager that I believe Nicole did not like, I was okay with, and David appreciated. I don’t think there was a single beer that David outright did not enjoy, but I think it’s because he was a mature man with a mature beer-loving palate that can discern all the subtle hints of whatever the tour guide says. I also distinctly remember us trying a porter that was made in partnership with Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream that was a brownie flavored porter? I also remember not liking it. David did though, because again, he has a mature taste for beer and at the time I was just coming off that mean Landshark phase that had sprung up in Florida.

Photo credit: Nicole Sagullo

But this was also the place I first discovered one of my all-time favorite beers and the first IPA I was ever able to tolerate. New Belgium’s Citradelic Tangerine IPA. Boy, do I love this beer and this beer and I have stories together now. All because of this brewery tour. It introduced me to Citradelic Tangerine and now we have shared a string of life and times together that are unrivaled by almost any other beer. (Except for Landshark. Landshark and I also have stories together.)

At the end of the tour there was a fun little slide you could go down, which David and I politely declined to do. I vaguely remember Nicole deciding to go down the slide, but that might be a false memory because by the end of the tour we were all feeling the effects of drinking alcohol at 5,000 feet above sea level.

Then, after the tour, we went to Culver’s which was David’s first time there and he ate the entire order of cheese curds I believe we intended to share among the three of us. That’s okay though because there aren’t many vegetarian friendly options at Culver’s, but also, how could you possibly be mad at someone who becomes immediately enamored with the fried glory of breaded Wisconsin cheese? But I digress.

In summation, I apologize that this was a throwback post, and a fuzzy one at that. My life has changed so much since this day in Colorado. My brain is slowly melting and remembering fine details of a day so aged in memory is difficult, but guys. It was great, okay? Remember that next time you journey to Colorado and find yourself dissuaded from hiking and partaking in the devil’s lettuce. And as previously stated, there is so many other breweries to check out here too because every city has a budding “craft beer industry.”

I’ll catch y’all on the flip side when hopefully I will had gone to another brewery and continue this arduous journey that is Daze of Beer.

MobCraft Beer, Walker’s Point

July 24, 2017August 26, 20173 Comments

I don’t want anyone to get overly excited, but I have some news. On the eighth day of July in the year of our lord two thousand and seventeen, something miraculous occurred. Something that has been so long discussed, dreamed about, longed for. Something that could possibly change the course of history, but mostly just change the course of this blog. On this day, July 8, 2017, Daze of Beer officially started.

Alright everyone, calm down. Focus back in. Let’s talk about it. Let’s dig deep on exactly what occurred on this day that made it so remarkable. Ashley, Jake, and I, with special guest appearance by Karen Smith, decided that we had waited long enough and booked a brewery tour at MobCraft Beer on 5th and Virginia down in Walker’s Point. As Daze of Beer progresses, you’ll start to notice that a lot of breweries we intend to visit will be in Walker’s Point. As previous stated in the CurdFest post, that has a lot to do with the fact that Walker’s Point used to be a very industrial neighborhood and now many of those factories and warehouses are empty and leave enough space to brew some beer. So over the course of the next few weeks (or months or years), we will become very familiar with Walker’s Point.

Saturday was a beautiful day, too. The weather was warm but not hot, the humidity was low for the first time in weeks, and the sun was shining. It was overall a lovely day to be bumming around the city. So we booked our tour using Groupon, which got us the tour for half price. They run tours every Friday and Saturday assuming there is enough interest and included with the price of the tour is two drink chips per person good for any of the beers on tap.

Upon arrival, the place was busy. Or, as is so important to Jake for me to tell you, it’s was hoppin’. Don’t worry, guys, I stared at him with so much disdain for a quarter of a century to let him know that I did not approve of his puns. But, though, he was not wrong. The bar in the taprooms was two-deep and every table inside and the picnic tables outside were full of people. There were also some fun table games, like foosball and ping pong, that had some intense games in progress when we arrived. The nice thing about it, though, was that it definitely felt busy but it by no means felt crowded. The taproom was lined with garage doors that were all open to all for a breezy indoor-outdoor feel and allowing for people to be able to smoothly float in and out of the bar to get drinks and to allow the more nature-averse among us to take in fresh air while still shielding our delicate skin from the harmful rays of sunlight. The vibe was chill and the staff was friendly.

There’s a fear I harbor whenever I enter places like this, microbreweries in trendy areas. It’s that people will be so absorbed with their pretension that when someone who does fit the prescribed “hipster” look will be greeted with a cold judgement. That’s certainly what I had to overcome in Salt Lake, and it’s a constant source of anxiety. But there was none of that here. Everyone was just enjoying beer and not giving a shit about who you were because clearly you also enjoy beer, and that’s all that matters. No one had shitty hipster attitudes and no one seemed like beer snobs. Everyone just kept to themselves and smiled and cleared an inch of space at the bar so you could order your beer just like everyone else. Excellent culture.

With our two drink chips in hand, we decided to enjoy a beer before/during the tour. Ashley started with a Booze Cruise which is a saison beer. Direct quote from Ashley on her opinions on the beer, “Booze Cruise was amazing. I could literally drink it on a booze cruise all day.” Seems like a glowing endorsement if you ask me. Jake got an Oddball first, which, as Henry, co-owner/co-founder/tour guide, described as “Beer flavored beer.” Jake loved it. Karen got a Man-Go Away, which was a double IPA which was heavily mango flavored. We all sipped it and loved it. I mean, what’s there not to like about a double IPA that also suggests that men suck and should just go away. Fight the patriarchy. My first beer, then, was the rhubarb IPA which was also just delightful. Our first rounds really set the stage for what would become a very hard act to follow in terms of Daze of Beer.

Then there was the tour we took. I don’t want to spoil anything about this tour, but my major takeaways were:

I attended the same college as Henry, the co-founder/co-owner/tour guide, at the exact same time and he was brewing his own beer and I was just fighting the urge to not jump off Winther every day. So clearly he succeeded at Whitewater and I was failed.
I simultaneously love and hate people who are my age who have dreams to follow and live, while I cannot even imagine what my dream job would be. Good on these guys though.
Anyone can make beer but it takes dedication to make good beer.

One of the coolest things to mention about ModCraft, though, is the way they decide to make new beers. They crowdsource to get ideas. People submit ideas on their website for what they think would make a good flavor, then if enough people vote for it, it gets brewed in a small batch. Then people can pre-order the beer and sample it in the taproom and if enough people drink it and buy it, it becomes a REAL beer. And if your beer idea becomes a REAL beer, you get free beer for life. Guys, remember above when I said I didn’t have a dream job to follow? Well, I still don’t, but I do have a general dream and it is free. Beer. For. Life. Also note that I may have gotten the technical details wrong, but obviously this is all also available on their website which is definitely more reliable than me, a girl who just heard free beer for life and instantly stopped caring about anything other than achieving such a dream.

My beer suggestion.

After the tour we got to have a sweet little gabfest with Henry, co-founder/co-owner/tour guide. He’s a nice guy who knows his shit and isn’t an asshole about it. Again, super chill vibes. Then we enjoyed a second beer a piece. Jake got the Roundabout Pineapple which was a weisse ale that he liked a lot. Also, shout out to JD who Jake purchased this beer in honor of. JD loves pineapple, helped talk me through the purchasing of this domain, and is, lastly and most importantly, not dead but we’ll still pour one out for him anyways because he lives in Los Angeles and that’s as good as dead, so… Karen then got the Oddball because we’ve already established that it’s just a good German style beer and who doesn’t enjoy one of those on a breezy summer afternoon? Ashley got a rhubarb IPA because I sold her on it as I am the best salesperson around. And my second beer was the Sour Support. I just adore sour beers guys and I am happy to see more of them and that they aren’t all costing like $12/pint.

At this point the taproom had cleared out a bit. People were probably moseying off to grab dinner or to hit up another local brewery. We enjoyed our second beers while also engaging in a cutthroat game of foos which Jake and I dominated our opponents, Ashley and Karen.

In summation, this must have been a terribly boring entry for it being the first Daze of Beer official outing, but goddamn this place was just outstanding. And it sucks that there are other breweries that are going to have to try to beat this act. I know that everything else from here will probably also be brilliant and enjoyable in their own ways, but this really set a high bar. I cannot wait to go back to MobCraft to just hangout in the taproom on a beautiful afternoon (especially if Ashley does move to Bay View) and I cannot wait to see what beers they brew next. Everything we drank was flavorful and developed and distinguished. The people were not assholes. The entire atmosphere just welcomed you in like a warm hug. Too much? Well, I don’t care. I’m glad we could start our journey here and here’s to the next outing, whatever that may hold.

Squatters Brewpub, Salt Lake City, UT

July 17, 2017August 26, 20172 Comments

Wow, the content keeps rolling and the official Daze of Beer events haven’t even remotely come close to actually starting. But I feel like you guys are so worthy and deserving of content that that I have decided to write a brief post about a recent trip to a brewpub in… Salt Lake City, Utah!

Now, before I begin, let me tell you guys that I only ordered one beer and I only drank like half of it. I was sick with anxiety and heat and didn’t even want a beer, but I had just hauled twenty minutes across the city on foot in 100 degree weather where I faced aggressive homeless people and was slut-shamed by a woman for my “inappropriate attire” and I felt that it was imperative that I have at least one beer with my lunch. So don’t say I never did anything for you, dear reader.

I went to Squatter’s Brewpub on W Broadway 300 South. Those are, believe it or not, the same name for one street. Salt Lake City’s streets don’t usually have names, they just have numbers to denote how far they are from the Mormon Temple. So, 300 South is the name of the street, which actually runs east and west, but is 3 blocks south of the Temple. Does it make sense? On the surface, no, but in experience. Yes.

Now, let’s explore my experience at Squatter’s. I wandered in around 2pm on a Sunday and it was rather busy. There was a pretty significant wait for a table, so I opted to sit at the bar as I was alone. There also were not many options at the bar, but I squeezed myself in. Upon sitting down, I had not even been seated thirty seconds when the bartender had asked what I would like to order. As I was hot and felt like fainting, I had not even touched the menu that had just been placed in front of me, so I ordered a water to start. “Just a water?” Was the response I got with so much disdain that I almost wanted to walk out. Mind you, I had already had a rough weekend in the city, and everywhere I had been that day I had been faced with serious hipster attitude from the remarkably hipster citizens of this otherwise conservative state. While I recognize homeless is a major issue in SLC and these bartenders probably didn’t want to have to deal with the scene of someone who is just ordering water and then turns out to be homeless(I was also wandering around with a thirty pound backpack on my back which didn’t help the suspicion), I also was not even given time to get near my menu.

So a bartender brings me my water and then suddenly, no one looks at me for quite some time. Slowly, the bar clears out and I’m left sitting alone at the bar save for the bartender’s roommate who is just here hanging out until the bartender gets off so he can give the roommate a ride home. And although the roommate was definitely not a paying customer, he still apparently was more important than me, the girl who was trying to order lunch while simultaneously dealing with United to fix flight delays and also battling like the creeping symptoms of heat stroke.

Eventually, someone did pay mind to me. Not the bartender who was just leaning against the bar, gabbing about how their third roommate’s girlfriend had woken both of them up at 4 in the morning when she decided to make food and take a shower, but just some other guy who appeared from the backroom. I ordered their fish tacos for lunch and then got a Squatter’s Apricot Hefenweizen, which I now cannot find any trace of on their website. So either I fever dream hallucinated it, or they had it on tap last week and this week have struck the memory of this beer from public consciousness.

I should start by saying that I should not have ordered a hefenweizen because I do not like hefenweizen beer, but the apricot sounded delightful. Again, I was hot and dying. And when I took my first sip I thought to myself, “My God. It has finally happened. A hefenweizen that I like!” And then as the beer faded from my mouth, trickling down my throat, and only leaving a shadow of the liquid that once was, it was still there.The very reason why I hate hefenweizen beers. The sunscreen aftertaste. I’ve yet to find anyone who agrees with me on this point, but I feel like hefenweizen beers all taste like sunscreen. I believe I addressed it in a previous post. What made this doubly upsetting for me, however, was that I liked the initial flavor of the beer but what lingered was unpleasant. It felt like another disappointment in a long string of disappointments that weekend. The beer accurately represented my feelings for Salt Lake, though, on the surface it seems delightfully light but underneath it is just another disappointment in an already disappointing city.

In general, the vibe of Squatter’s was unwelcoming. The bartender was alienating. The beer was disappointing. And the heat was oppressive. Everyone talks about the booming craft beer industry in Salt Lake right now, but really, every moderate-to-large city has a booming craft beer industry they are all proud of now. Just look at Thrillist or any local cultural reporter. The beer was not worth the attitude. I think I’ll stick to my city for now and keep the drinking in the family.

Guys, I an delighted to announce, though, that our next post will be the first in the intended series of Daze of Beer summer. Look forward to it, because I am!

*Sorry for the lack of pictures. This lunch truly sucked.