Leinenkugel's Fireside Nut Brown Lager

Last year Leinenkugel's dropped Heather's favorite beer - Apple Spice. Now they are announcing a new winter brew.

Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. said today it is launching a new seasonal beer: Leinenkugel's Fireside Nut Brown Lager.

An English-style beer, it contains 4.9% alcohol by volume and has a roasted malt character with amber tones. English two-row malts give it a "maple aroma and pronounced chocolate, caramel and hazelnut top notes," according to the brewer, which said in a press release that the seasonal brew "harkens to a time when multiple generations of the Leinenkugel family would gather with friends and enjoy a special brew crafted especially for the holiday season."

The beer will be available during November and December.

Great American Beer Fest - Wisconsin Winners

Here are the Wisconsin medal winners from the 2008 Great American Beer Fest, held last week in Denver. I'd say that Henry Weinhard cleaned up!

Gold Metal Winners

Capital Brewery Co. Capital Autumnal Fire - German-Style Strong Bock
Central Waters Brewing Co. Bourbon Barrel Barleywine - Wood- and Barrel-Aged Strong Beer
MillerCoors Coors Light - America-Style Light Lager
MillerCoors Henry Weinhard's Hefeweizen - American-Style Hefeweizen

Silver Metal Winners

Dells Brewing Co. Dells Chief Amber Ale - Scottish-Style Ale
Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. Leinenkugel's Creamy Dark - American-Style Dark Lager
Lakefront Brewery New Grist - Gluten-Free Beer
MillerCoors Hamm's - American-Style Cream Ale or Lager
Titletown Brewing Co. Railyard Ale - German-Style Altbier

Bronze Metal Winners

Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co. Old Scratch Barley Wine '99 - Old Ale or Strong Ale
MillerCoors Keystone Light - American-Style Light Lager
MillerCoors Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve - American-Style Lager or Premium Lager
MillerCoors OE 800 - International-Style Pilsener
MillerCoors Henry Weinhard's Classic Dark - American-Style Dark Lager
MillerCoors Henry Weinhard's Blue Boar Pale Ale - American-Style Cream Ale or Lager

Dallas Stampede Light Beer... wait for it... PLUS!

Someone else is using the Vitamin Beer™ idea, but not my special name for it. Stampede Brewing Company from Dallas, Texas is brewing Dallas Stampede Light Plus (the Plus means vitamins!) with the help of Jessica Simpson, who now owns 15% of the brewery. Kind of weird and kind of sad.

According to Stampede's website, their beer is made from "pure mountain spring water" (from the Texas mountains?) and infused with "smoked, white oak chips" but they don't list what vitamins are in there.

My Vitamin Beer™ will be chock-full of vitamins and they'll be proudly listed right on the bottle.

From the LA Times: Jessica Simpson pushes new vitamin-spiked beer!

New Schlitz beer now available on tap

From JSOnline, the new "classic formula" Schlitz beer is now available in draft. Maybe I'll get a keg.

Pabst Brewing Co., which owns the Schlitz brand, has begun distributing the brand's "Classic 60s formula" in kegs to taverns in Milwaukee and other areas in an effort to meet demand for the beer. The demand for Schlitz in bottles has outpaced production, which is done under contract at a MillerCoors LLC brewery in Eden, N.C.

Compared with the Schlitz sold in cans, the reformulated Schlitz in bottles has a more full-bodied taste. Schlitz has not been served as draft since 1999.

The King of Beers - Boston Beer Company

With Budweiser's acquisition by Belgian-based InBev, Boston Beer Company is now the country's largest, independent, publicly-traded brewery. But even with this new status, the maker of Sam Adams beer has less than 1% market share in the United States.

Fortune Magazine has an interview with Boston Beer CEO Jim Koch.

They also have a great interactive beer guide that shows which company makes which beers - 99 bottles in all.

Sleep well, sweet prince

From JSOnline, regarding Heather's favorite holiday-themed spiced malt beverage:

Leinenkugel drops Apple Spice, adds Nut

Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. is dropping its Apple Spice seasonal brand and replacing it with Leinenkugel's Fireside Nut Brown Lager, it was announced today.

The new holiday seasonal beer will be sold during November and December. The Chippewa Falls-based brewer says it will be "the perfect complement for holiday foods such as glazed hams, roasts, gravies, pies and pastries."

Apple Spice, which had been Leinenkugel's winter seasonal beer, is being dropped. Apple Spice had good sales, but its growth is currently limited by production costs and ingredient availability, a company spokeswoman said.

HBO's John Adams

I'm looking forward to watching HBO tonight for the first episode of their 7-part mini-series, John Adams, a biopic of the 2nd President and the story of the first fifty years of the United States.

HBO has made a bunch of great historical films: Band of Brothers, From the Earth to the Moon, and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. This one looks good too. It'll probably be more informative than anything you learned about John Adams from school. They could probably show this movie in 6th grade and skip history class for the rest of the year.

Paul Giamatti plays John Adams and Laura Linney plays his wife Abigail.

It should be cool seeing all the other characters from history too, like Benjamin Franklin (played by the great Tom Wilkinson).

If you don't know who invented something, or you wonder who said some famous quote, you should always assume it's Ben Franklin. The next time you're playing your glass harmonica during a thunderstorm, thank Ben that the lightning rod on your house will protect you from electricity shooting right up your urinary catheter.

Samuel Adams is in this movie too. You know, the guy who invented beer . Oh wait, that was probably Ben Franklin.

Vermont looks at lowering the drinking age

I used to care more about the legal drinking age when I was younger, but now I understand why the it's 21.

I don't understand how they can legally say that you can't drink at age 18, but I think it makes sense to try to discourage immature people from drinking. And everyone under the age of 30 is immature.

This week, a committee of the Vermont Senate approved a bill to have a task force weigh the pros and cons of rolling back the drinking age there to 18.

Organizations and lawmakers in other states are considering similar ideas.

In South Dakota, a lawyer had drafted an initiative petition to allow 19- and 20-year-olds to legally buy beer no stronger than 3.2 percent alcohol.

In Missouri, a group is using the Internet social networking sites Facebook and Meetup to try to collect more than 100,000 signatures to get a measure on the ballot to lower the drinking age to 18.

In South Carolina and Wisconsin, lawmakers have proposed allowing active duty military personnel younger than 21 to buy alcohol.

And last year, former Middlebury College president John McCardell started Choose Responsibility, a nonprofit that favors allowing 18- to 20-year-olds to legally buy alcohol once they've completed an alcohol education program.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving is against these proposals, saying the higher age limit has saved thousands of lives since the 1984 enactment of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. The act required states to raise the age to 21 or lose federal transportation money. South Dakota was the last state to comply, in 1988.

Read the full story on Yahoo! News.

Movies and the new iPic Theater

I watched a few new movies:

We Own the Night starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, and Robert Duvall.

Brooklyn, 1988. Crime is rife, especially drugs and drug violence. A Russian thug is building his heroin trade, while everyone laughs at the cops.

Brothers have chosen different paths: Joe has followed his father Bert into New York's Finest; he's a rising star. Bobby, who uses his mother's maiden name, manages a club. Bobby too is on the rise: he has a new girlfriend and a green-light to develop a Manhattan club.

Joe and Bert ask him to help with intelligence gathering; he declines. Then, Joe raids Bobby's club to arrest the Russian. From there, things spiral out of control: the Russian puts out a hit on Joe, personal losses mount, and Bobby's loyalties face the test.

This was a good action flick, but nothing you'll remember a year from now. Worth a rental.


Blue State starring Anna Paquin, Breckin Meyer (where do you know him from? Maybe from one episode of The Wonder Years in 1988) and George W. Bush. Blue State is a romantic comedy about a disgruntled Democrat who actually follows through on a drunken campaign promise to move to Canada if George "Dubya" Bush gets re-elected.

I thought this might be funny, but it was amateurish and not very good. I would skip it, even if you're a Bush-basher.


I went to the new high-end iPic movie theater at Bayshore Town Center to see the chick-flick Definitely, Maybe.

The theater is really cool - we had reserved seats that an usher escorted us to. The $9 seats ($6 for the matinee show plus $3 for VIP seats) included a large popcorn for each of us and you can add your own butter-flavored topping and various powders like barbecue flavoring, parmesan cheese, and salt.

The VIP seats are probably most comfortable movie seats I've experienced. They are giant high-backed love seats with an armrest that you can move out of the way and each side can rock back independently of the other side. The seats are also really spaced out so there's only like 10 people in each row.

The theater was immaculate and the sound and screen were excellent. I think the higher prices might keep out the riffraff too, like the damn rich kids I ran into at Marcus North Shore last December.

The theater also has a restaurant, a bowling alley, and a bar (you can bring your drinks into the movie and micro-beer prices are $5, not bad for movie theater prices). I was impressed with the theater and I'll definitely be back, even if the prices are slightly higher than at Marcus theaters.

Here's a free tip for you. On Tuesday nights you can get a half-pound hamburger from Bar Louie at Bayshore for just $1. And if you go before 7:00pm, all beer taps are just $2, including all sorts of microbrews like Lindemans Framboise and Delirium Tremens. So for $5 you can get two great beers and a decent burger; there's your cheap date before a movie.

Definitely, Maybe was OK. It starred Ryan Reynolds, who I think plays generic roles that could be played by any young, male actor. He was decent in this, but reminded me too much of comedian Dane Cook.

In this movie, a political consultant tries to explain his impending divorce and past relationships to his 11-year-old daughter. There are a lot of Madison, Wisconsin, references in the movie, although none of the movie is filmed there.

I was entertained by this romantic comedy, but probably could have waited for the DVD.

New beer technology

I don't know how I could have missed all of this new beer technology from Coors. Maybe it's because I avoid that swill.

Still, I think everyone can appreciate Coor's new way to drink beer faster than ever before. Maybe after the Miller/Coors merger we can enjoy some of these fine new technologies on cans of MillerCoors High Life Banquet Light.

From Brandweek.com:

Coors has introduced a “Vented Wide Mouth Can” for six and twelve packs of Coors Light and Coors Banquet. The new vented mouth directs airflow into the can to enhance the swigging experience for can drinkers.

The packaging is an evolution of last year’s introduction of the “Smooth Draft Vent Can,” which featured a wide opening that enabled the liquid to pour smoothly like a draught tap.

Last year, the No. 3 brewer also debuted its “Cold Activated Bottle” which features a thermochromatic label that turns the Rocky Mountain label blue when the beer reaches the optimum temperature.

This year they will also introduce a 24-ounce “Cold Activated Can” as well as distribute pint glasses with the Rocky Mountain logo that turns blue when beer is cold enough.

Mmmm.... Dirty Old Man

The Madison Isthmus website has a review of a beer I just had at the Midwinter Brew Fest at the Milwaukee Ale House last weekend: Tyranena's Dirty Old Man.

I'm a big fan of Tyranena beers, especially their extra hoppy styles like their Bitter Woman IPA series. This beer is part of the Tyranena Brewers Gone Wild series of beer - extreme flavors and unusual styles that are all very good.

Dirty Old Man is an Imperial Rye Porter that was aged in rye barrels that used to contain Jim Beam Yellow Label (Rye whiskey, aged 4 years, 80 proof).

This beer is strong, dark, and sweet. It also has a strong whiskey taste.

Beer aged in bourbon and whiskey barrels is very popular lately and it took me awhile to get used to the whiskey taste, but now I really like it, especially when it has warmed a little in a glass.

Tyranena Dirty Old Man is rated an A- on Beer Advocate.

Healthy beer idea stolen from brewery

According to the Courthouse News, the Cleveland brewery Brewmandu is suing a former employeed for stealing their idea for healthy beer. The beer has "vitamins and nutrients to protect the liver and offer increased nutritional content to combat the negative effects of alcohol consumption."

I think it's a good idea. I've always wondered why they don't put vitamins and minerals in stuff that's bad for you, like candy. Mmmmm, Mike & Ikes with Vitamin C.

In fact, I'm going to invent my own healthy beer and call it Vitamin Beer™. Ha! Now that it's written somewhere, you can't steal the name.

I can't find any records for Brewmandu anywhere on the web, so it must be a really small or really new brewery. The brewery that the employee started himself, Lott Bier Works, also doesn't seem to exist anywhere. The Lion Brewery, which is the evil employee's partner, does have a website, but they don't mention the healthy beer anywhere.

I guess it will be awhile before we can buy Vitamin Beer™ in stores.

New beer on tap: Lakefront Big Easy Lager

I finally finished the half-barrel of Lakefront IPA that I had on tap since the end of October. Not all of my guests like IPA-style beers, so it went a little slower than some of the other beers I've had. I thought it was great, and I liked the taste even better as it aged. I probably should have bought just a quarter-barrel, but they didn't have any available at the time.

My new beer on tap is another Lakefront Brewery selection, Big Easy Lager (in honor of Mardi Gras and something light for my Super Bowl party).

This beer won a Bronze Medal at the 2004 World Beer Cup in the German Style Heller Bock/Maibock category. Heller Bock and Maibock beer are described by the World Beer Cup here:

The German word helle means light colored, and as such, a heller Bock is light straw to deep golden in color. Maibocks are also light-colored bocks. The malty character should come through in the aroma and flavor. Body is medium to full. Hop bitterness should be low, while noble-type hop aroma and flavor may be at low to medium levels. Bitterness increases with gravity. Fruity esters may be perceived at low levels. Diacetyl levels should be very low. Chill haze should not be perceived.

BeerMe.com describes Big Easy as a bright amber with a big thick head. Clean toasty malt aroma. Medium smooth body. Sweet toasty malt flavor all the way through. Just a hint of noble hop flavor at the end, and maybe just a bit of alcohol.

This barrel was kegged just 8 days ago, so it should be nice and fresh from the brewery.

The world's most expensive beer: Vintage No. 1

In November I wrote about Sam Adams Utopias - the $140 per bottle beer that's 27% alcohol.

Today I heard about a new beer that's even more expensive, but it doesn't come in a bottle that's nearly as cool as Utopias.

Carlsberg A/S (the the 5th largest brewery in the world) has produced 600 bottles of a special beer that will only be sold at three upscale restaurants in Copenhagen. The beer is called Vintage No. 1.

Vintage No. 1 contains 10.5% alcohol and comes in 12.8 ounce bottles (the golden Utopias bottle looks much larger than that).

The bottles cost $396.47 each.

The beer contains hints of prune, caramel, vanilla, and oak from the French and Swedish wooden casks in which it is stored.

Utopias is described with hints of passion fruit, peach, pear, sweet vanilla, butter, toffee, and fig.

I'm not even going to bother asking for a bottle of Vintage No. 1. I'd rather have a bottle of the Utopias and put the extra $256.47 towards some Miller High Life.

Leinie's Northwoods Lager is back

From JSOnline:

Chippewa Falls-based Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. is bringing back its Northwoods Lager seasonal brand to Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and portions of Michigan and Illinois beginning Feb. 4, the company announced today.

Northwoods Lager, was first introduced in 1986 as a fall seasonal and became a year-round brew in 1990. It has been out of distribution for two years, and is returning as a seasonal brand in response to customer demand, a company statement said.

I like most beers Leinenkugels. North Woods Lager is pretty good.

New Milwaukee brewery: Buffalo Water Brewing Co.

I may be late to the game, but according to Suds, Wine & Spirits, a new brewery has opened in Milwaukee called Buffalo Water Brewing Company. Their website says both Buffalo Water Beer Company and Brewing Company, so who knows?

From the pictures on their website, it appears they are using Milwaukee Brewing Company's brewing equipment at their new stand-alone brewery at 613 South 2nd St (Jim McCabe owns the Milwaukee Ale House and Milwaukee Brewing Company). The Suds website says BWBC leases space at the 2nd Street brewery and is a separate company from the Ale House, although their relationship with them is obviously a close one. They plan on eventually brewing their beer via contract at multiple locations around country.

Their website says that Buffalo Water Beer Company is located at the intersection of Water Street and Buffalo Street in the heart of Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward district, which is also where the new and popular Water Buffalo Restaurant and Bar is located (and just down the block from the Ale House).

The Buffalo Water Brewing Company's flagship (and only) beer, Bison Blonde is now on tap at the Milwaukee Ale House and Just Arts Saloon (also on 2nd Street). The brewery has two more beers in the works: a witte and a nutty ale.

The blonde beer was specifically formulated to be paired with Buffalo wings and other hot and spicy foods. Bison Blonde is brewed in accordance with Reinheitsgebot and has 4.4% ABV.

Update: I tasted this beer last weekend at the Midwinter Brew Fest. It's OK. I think the beer might be more about marketing right now instead of taste. Pretty soon all the young teens will be saying they "slammed a Blonde" this weekend, which is one of Buffalo Water Beer Company's slogans.

Obama gets the beer vote

The National Beer Wholesalers Association has a new website (http://www.whodoyouwanttohaveabeerwith.com) that that asks the question "Which of the presidential candidates would you rather have a beer with in 2008?"

Thank God for the National Beer Wholesalers Association. They're not afraid to ask voters the tough questions.

If you think the results of the presidential election will be based on the beer vote (and I do), then Barack Obama should win by a landslide (he's currently at 28%). Internet favorite Ron Paul is 2nd with 15%. I admit, it would be fun to have a drink with Ron Paul and find out why he'd decriminalize drugs at the federal level.

The website states, “drinking a beer with someone means more than just quenching thirst. It means spending quality time with another person.” I would think getting a buzz from alcohol is also a part of it.

“Sitting down for a beer is a great way for people to get to know each other and share stories. And the 2008 presidential campaign is all about getting to know the candidates better.”

Best Madison Beers of 2007

Robin Shepard from the Isthmus lists the best Madison beers of 2007 (Madison and the surrounding areas, I guess). The complete descriptions and links can be found on their website. There are some great beers listed here, and I haven't tried them all yet.

Here's the breakdown:

Most surprising beer
New Glarus Brewing Company -- Smoke on the Porter

Biggest beer
Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company -- Big Eddy Russian Imperial Stout

Best seasonal beer
Tyranena Brewing Company -- Gemuetlichkeit Oktoberfest

Best beer for a nightcap
Central Waters Brewing Company -- Bourbon Barrel Stout

Best summertime beer
Furthermore Beer -- Fatty Boombalatty

Lowest-cost beer with "some" flavor
Minhas Craft Brewery / Joseph Huber Brewing Company -- Berghoff Red

Best beer for a bowl game
Ale Asylum -- Hopalicious

Best beer to ring in the new year
Great Dane Pub and Brewing Company -- Merry Isthmus Ale

Best beer after shoveling snow
Capital Brewery -- Autumnal Fire

Best beer of 2007
Lake Louie Brewing: Louie's Reserve (L.R.)

The best toilet paper ever

Charmin Extra Strong is the only toilet paper that I'm going to buy from now on. It has the perfect combination of strength and comfort, just like Clint Eastwood in The Bridges of Madison County.

I can never go back to weak regular toilet paper that falls apart with each use. You could use this stuff to dry your car or wallpaper your kitchen.

Why is it so good? Let's see what Charmin's website has to say about it:

Charmin® Extra Strong holds up better than the regular kitten brand to help get your family clean. That’s because it has uniquely woven FlexWeave fibres for extra strength. And it still has the softness you love!

Wait a minute, what does regular kitten brand mean?

kitten \ˈki-tən\, noun
a young cat; also : an immature or young individual of various other small mammals

The bottom of their website states: Claims valid only in Canada. That explains things a bit, like why they wrote fibres instead of fibers. You know, just like Kellogg's Fruit 'n Fibre, a delicious blend of wholewheat flakes packed with your favorite fruits including raisins, coconut, banana, apple and hazelnuts. Your spoon just can't escape the fruit!

So I did some more research, and apparently all toilet paper in Canada is made out of kittens! To citizens of the United States this might seem cruel, but Canadians have a long history of using kittens in a variety of products such as toilet paper, Canadian bacon, and Labatt Blue beer.

That's one of the reasons why Canada's murder rate is so low - they take out their anger on the kittens instead.

Beer by satellite

I justed discovered a cool website that allows you to download Point of Interest (POI) files to your GPS unit.

The site is called POI Factory and there are tons of free downloads - lists of places that other people created and mapped out the coordinates to - so all you need to do is download the list to your GPS and the new POI's will show up on your map.

They also have locations of red light enforcement cameras to help remind you to not go through a yellow-ish light at certain intersections. Wisconsin doesn't have any of the cameras yet, thankfully, but Chicago has a lot of them.

The site also lets you create your own POI lists and upload them to the site for others to use.

Here are the Wisconsin ones I could find.

• Milwaukee Attractions
• Wisconsin - Door County Attractions
• Wisconsin - Door County Restaurants
• Wisconsin - Lakes
• Wisconsin - Landforms
• Wisconsin Brew Pubs & Breweries
• Wisconsin Elks Lodges
• Wisconsin Ham Radio Repeaters
• Wisconsin Interstate Rest Areas
• Wisconsin military sites (historical)
• Wisconsin State Parks
• Wisconsin Waterfalls
• Wisconsin Wineries

I already downloaded the Wisconsin Brew Pubs & Breweries list - which contained 57 different entries. Now I can search for breweries along my current route or near my current location, or just have my GPS alert me when a brewery is nearby.

Most of the major GPS brands support POI's and the POI Factory is definitely worth a visit.