Northern WI Brewery Extravaganza part 2 of 3, here (in case you missed it, check out the first installment for the whys and wherefores of this trip).

Day 2 was slated to involve a jaunt to Duluth to meet up with a friend, but it sadly didn’t work out. Left with an entire day to fill, the obvious solution was to find another brewery. Fortunately, the Angry Minnow Brewpub was just an hour or so off the intended route.

I have actually attempted to visit the Angry Minnow several times in the past, but managed to fail at recalling its location on every occasion. Since these attempts occurred back in the days before smart phones and GPS-enabled everything, they typically involved driving through tiny towns and soliciting navigational expertise from perplexed citizens, who inevitably provided directions to the nearest bar.

World’s Largest Muskie.
Image copyright Bobak Ha’Eri, use under Creative Commons CC-By-SA-3.0 license

At any rate, to clarify, the Angry Minnow is not in Sayner, St. Germain, or Boulder Junction. It is, in fact, located in the fine town of Hayward, WI, home of the American Birkebeiner, the Lumberjack World Championships, and the world’s largest Muskie.

But enough of that; now for the facts:

Angry Minnow Brewing Co.

The Angry Minnow is housed in a historic lumber company office in “downtown” Hayward. It’s got a refreshingly quirky, eclectic atmosphere that’s uncommon in the Northwoods and is clearly a happening local hangout. At mid-day on a Friday, the place was absolutely packed.

The beer selection was a bit limited and included the usual brewpub lineup – stout, pale, honey wheat and light – plus a few seasonals.

River Pig Pale Ale, a year-round offering, had a great coppery color and nice body, but, for me, was disappointingly malty and a bit lacking in the hop department. Definitely a pale ale for the masses.

The seasonal Rye IPA, on the other hand, was potent and packed with an interesting array of flavors ranging from spicy to piney. This one was also quite malty, but sweetness was a bit more fitting here than in a standard APA.

Food here is not what you would expect around these parts. I’ve traversed a fair few pubs in the northern reaches of WI and can’t say that I’ve ever seen raw beef tenderloin sliders or sweet potato fries with citrus basil sauce on a menu. It suffices to say that the food is pretty great. The spent-grain pretzel (with a side of Sriracha mayo!), in particular, is not to be missed.

Back in June, I learned that I had a few unexpected vacation days that needed to be burned by the end of the month, so, naturally, my thoughts turned to beer. What better way to spend extra days off than by visiting as many breweries as possible? Thus, the Northern WI Brewery Extravaganza scheme was hatched.

Highway 51, which runs straight up the center of WI, is a hotbed of fine breweries, so it’s naturally an ideal route for beer-themed roadtrip. The itinerary for this 3-day excursion included the following establishments:

1. Red Eye Brewing Co, Wausau
2. South Shore Brewery, Ashland
3. Angry Minnow Brewing, Hayward
4. Minocqua Brewing Company, Minocqua
5. Central Waters Brewing Co, Amherst
6. O’so Brewing Co, Plover

View Northern WI Brewery Extravaganza in a larger map

Given the sheer volume of beer to discuss, I’ll break this trip down into easily digestible chunks of prose. This first installment covers day 1 (June 27): Red Eye Brewing Co and South Shore Brewery.

Red Eye Brewing Co.

Red Eye’s beers were lackluster all-around – most were either too watery or too sweet for my taste. The brewery/restaurant is a pretty hip place, though, and it’s worth a visit. The interior is industrial, decked out in concrete and stainless, and features bike-themed decor. A sunny patio offers scenic vistas of the gun shop across the street.

Food is where Red Eye really shines. The menu is upscale pub fare that features local ingredients and housemade breads – a rarity in the northern reaches of WI. If you’re into fries, though, you’ll be disappointed; in an effort to promote “healthy options,” Red Eye has no deep fryers.

Here’s a rundown of the beers on the sampler tray:

Bloom Belgian Wheat: Very light and kind of watery; OK if you like witbiers
Thrust American-style IPA: Very sweet with lots of citrus notes, not enough hops for my taste, also thin-bodied and watery
Scarlet 7 Belgian Dubbel: Very sweet, tasted a bit like raisins; not enough carbonation – made for a sticky mouthfeel
Charlatan Imperial Stout: Nice roasty/chocolatey flavors, but, like several of the others, a bit lacking in body
Dyna-Mighty Wheat: A beer for the masses; vaguely wheaty but not much body or flavor at all
Some kind of shandy: Ick.
Mexican Lager: Corona clone

South Shore Brewery

South Shore was really the centerpiece of this trip. I’ve become acquainted with their beers through several Great Tastes and wholeheartedly believe their Bourbon Barrel Coffee Mint Stout to be the product of some sort of divine intervention. Sadly, it was not on tap when I visited. These beers sufficed nicely, though:

Rhoades’ Scholar Stout: Chocolatey and light-bodied, with a thick, creamy head; a very solid stout

Norther Lights Cream Ale: This stuff is amazing. The base is a pretty standard cream ale, but it’s brewed with lavender, chamomile, and a few other herbs that put it way over the top.

Point, with a side of Plaza Sauce. This photo was so bad that the only a watercolor filter could make it worse.

Recently, I’ve been chastised for my seemingly ill-conceived beer choices, so I’d like to take a moment to reiterate the one essential rule of this project: only beers that I have not tried before are allowed. For some, this might not present much of a challenge, but, with nearly a decade of love for great beer to my credit, this narrows the field significantly.

150 years of crappy beer

On a stop at The Plaza this past Friday, my “only new beers” rule backfired a bit, leaving Point Brewery Special Lager as the only qualified option. Well-known in the swampy, flat area of the state that I hail from, Point Brewery has been supplying the northern half of Wisconsin with cheap, nondescript lager since the Civil War era.

In 2007 or so, after 150 years of crappy beer, Point re-branded a bit and added some craft-ish styles to its lineup. Offerings such as 2012 Black Ale and Point Oktoberfest demonstrate modest brewing skill and are tasty enough to outweigh the shame of drinking Point in public. Some of the old standards, however, remain. Among these, of course, is Point Special Lager.

Not much to say here; it’s a typical American lager, albeit without that tinge of iniquity that accompanies macro lagers. Despite its shortcomings, however, Point Special, still does a fine job of washing down a Plazaburger. The facts:

Point Special Lager