The Underrated Midwest
When the discussion on national leaders arises, a few predictable states elbow their way to the front of the line: Colorado, Vermont, Oregon. Fans from Midwestern states, the heart of the last great brewing boom, sit humbly on the sidelines. Michiganders make a bit of noise, true, but Wisconsinites and especially Minnesotans do not blow their horns enough. Having spent the last couple days here (and made a few trips to Minnesota I’m recent years), I can tell you they should.
My trip started at an old-timey downtown Minneapolis restaurant called the Normandy Kitchen, where I chose a Castle Danger’s cream ale from a very sparse taplist. It was tremendous! The body was all kinds of characterful, with a creamy texture, subtle corn undertones, and toast. I swear there was even a hint of vanilla. “Cream ales” were basically a marketing gimmick by ale breweries trying to compete with lagers in the 19th century. They weren’t originally that creamy, and it’s hard to coax them to live up to their name. To balance the body, the brewery draped a delicate garland of spicy German hops over the malts, and it finished with a satisfyingly dry snap. Perhaps the best example I’ve ever encountered. Nice way to welcome me to the Midwest!
I arrived Monday night, not a good time for brewery-hopping. After a couple misfires, I landed at Utepils. I try not to be the guy who only writes about lagers. Really I do. This was not my fault. Nevertheless, it was lagers I got, and I was delighted. The titular Pils was good, but start with their helles, which really popped. I also quite enjoyed the festbier, but that is clearly a seasonal favorite.
My event on Tuesday was at Fair State, where the brewery’s sensory specialist, Katie Montgomery, joined me on a guided tasting of their Vienna Lager—highlighted in the book—and a Dortmunder. Fair State, like so many breweries, sells a lot of IPAs, but they’re also committed to lagers, and I have come to believe that the discipline required to switch hit like that makes a brewery do better work in both veins. I think my favorite beer was an all-Citra IPA that sat somewhere midway between clear and mud on the patented haze-o-meter. It had a bit of bitterness that created a three-dimensional, lemony hop experience. It was crisp, as balanced as IPAs get, and I would have happily enjoyed a session with nothing else.
A couple of notes on Minneapolis. The downtown area seems to have been pretty badly hit by Covid. Lots of old bars and restaurants permanently closed, and very few people on the streets. Also, is there some law that prevents brewpubs? Not a single brewery I looked up offered food. None. I get that taprooms are the way of things now, but I can’t ever remember seeing a city with none (though of course I may have missed one).
I haven’t been back to Madison, Wisconsin since I left graduate school in 1995. It wasn’t my intention and a return always seemed imminent. By the time I strolled out onto State Street with my friend and first roommate Guy, I was weirdly anxious. The city looks nothing like I remember, and that is both due to my memory and serious change. We spent the afternoon trying to reconstruct the fractured images in my memory and situate them in real, current Madison—with some success. It’s the kind of town that may change physically, but never seems to lose its unique spirit. My Uber driver this morning said he experienced the same thing after leaving in the early 70s and returning around the turn of the century.
One thing about Madisonians—they know how to drink beer. And because of that, it makes a lot of sense that someone would open a brewery specializing in high-gravity beers, as Jessica and Erika Jones did three years ago with Giant Jones (you see what they did there?).
I’d like to return to the brewery in a fuller post some time. Jessica was inspired by big beers in the Bay Area when she was in graduate school and happened to attend Toronado’s legendary barley wine festival, and there’s a lot of story to tell.
What I will note is that at the event last night, attendees were able to get a nice sense of what my job entails. Jessica and I went back and forth as we talked about beer, and pretty quickly several themes emerged. I was able, mid-discussion, to point out how a through-lime was cohering in my mind based on her approach. It was the kind of discussion I am privileged to enjoy in my job, and everyone there had a ringside seat to what it’s like. (Wink to those in attendance: “pear esters.”)
All right, I’m going to post this, even though I’m sailing into Chicago now and will surely have more to report.