Mobcraft Beer

The cool thing about this brewery, is that they never have the same beer for more than a month or two. Mobcraft beer is a brewery in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood, and rather than decide what beer they want to brew, they put up to a community vote. They call it “crowdsourced beer.” First, people submit their ideas for beer. For example, a s’mores cream ale or a strawberry banana hefeweizen, then people vote on it. The voting is performed by people taking preorders on the ones they think will be the best, then whichever beers have the most pre orders get made. It leads to some very interesting combinations of flavors.

Something that is important to note about mobcraft, is that not all of the beers are particularly good. Due to the fact that they dedicate their brewing talents to flavor experiments, the experiments don’t always turn out too well. However, they do tend to do a good job. The strawberry banana hefeweizen that I had, called the Monkey Berry Hefeweizen, was actually really good, the strawberry came in hitting hard at first but smoothed out into a nice banana twist.

There are two beers that Mobcraft have regularly. One of them is the Oddball, so named because it's their only beer that have permanently on tap. It never changes, it never goes away, and in a brewery like mobcraft, its the odd one out. Oddball is a lighter kӧlsch-style ale, it’s refreshingly crispy, however in terms of beers that are that style, other breweries do it better. The other beer that they have regularly is the Ode to Sahti. While they always have something that is similar to this beer on tap, it isn’t always the same. The Ode to Sahti is a Finnish style ale, made with spruce and juniper berries. The result is (typically) a refreshing pine aroma with a tinge of juniper to accentuate the flavor. When I went most recently, the variation of this beer that they had was the Ode etta Sahti, which was brewed regularly, but instead of regular yeast, they used brettanomyces, a wild yeast typically found on the skins of fruit. This is an unpredictable strain of yeast, and thus it lends an unpredictability to the flavor of the beer. Overall, the Ode etta Sahti is just as good as I would have hoped, it has been one of my favorites at Mobcraft (or at least the other variations that I’ve tried), since my first trip there.

Overall, Mobcraft is a great brewery with a great mission, however if you are a beer traditionalist, then it’s not the place for you. On the flip side, if you are a beer enthusiast with a more adventurous palate, Mobcraft is a must for your Milwaukee beer adventures.

Noble Roots Brewing Company

I know this is technically the Milwaukee Beer Blog, but for this entry I turned my tastebuds elsewhere, about an hour and a half north to be precise. Noble Roots Brewing Company of Green Bay gives a new meaning to the word microbrewery: their taproom caps out at 50 people, making it the smallest brewery I’ve been to so far. However, by no means does that mean they don’t have good beer. The beer was actually incredible, and the small taproom only increased the intimacy of the establishment. They are on the Wisconsin Brewers Guild app, with a coupon for a dollar off a pint. The pints themselves are only $5 apiece, so this is a good coupon to use. As for the food options, they had a (seemingly) semi-permanent food truck in the parking lot that served the normal pub fare: tater tots, cheese curds, burgers, etc. The nice thing is that when you ordered at the truck, you could tell them where you were sitting and they would take it in and give it to you.

Now to get to the exciting part: the beer. I tried the Salty Leipz, a refreshing gose, and the Red Morning Sky, an incredibly creamy red ale, while my girlfriend tried the Blueberry Cream, a lighter cream ale than any I’ve tried so far. To start with, the presentation of the Blueberry Cream was cute, they filled the pint glass with beer and it was garnished with 3 blueberries. It tasted good, not overpowering with the blueberries, but you could definitely detect a few subtle notes. It was also very light, it didn’t really look like a cream ale, and clocking in at 5.2% ABV, it didn’t taste like most others I’ve tried either. Still a very good beer, it was definitely creamy, just a little different from what you might expect.

Now onto the Red Morning Sky. My favorite beers tend to be sours and ambers, but if you show me a good red ale I will love you forever, and this was a very good red ale. It was deliciously creamy (more creamy than the blueberry cream, in fact), it had a beautiful red color, and it tasted really good. It was slightly sweet, but also had the nice taste of a classic red ale. This was definitely one of the best red ales I’ve ever had (right up there with the Vanilla Rooibos Red of Dangerous Man Brewing Company in Minneapolis).

The Salty Leipz was one close to my heart, as most goses do tend to be on the sour side. This one was no exception, however, it wasn’t overpoweringly sour, which can ruin an otherwise splendid beer. This gose is “based on the Leipziger gosenschenke of yore,” and while I haven’t had the original, this take on the classic was really good. The mild sour taste made it refreshingly crispy to drink, and because the sour flavor wasn’t too overpowering, I felt like I could drink more of it than the average sour. This beer was another score for Noble Roots, and I’m sure that had I tried others, I would have been equally as impressed.

All in all, Noble Roots, while the smallest brewery I’ve been to yet, has managed to come out close to the top. The beer was really good, the taproom was adorable, and while it’s a bit of a drive from my house (1.5 hours), it’s definitely somewhere I will go again if I find myself in the area.

Good City Brewing

Good City Brewing Company is the subject of this blog post, and in refreshing change of pace, I’ve actually been to this brewery recently. Located in a large building adorned with their key logos on Farwell and Windsor place on Milwaukee’s East Side, one of the highlights of this brewery is the rooftop patio. They also have like three bars in the building: The main one in the taproom, a smaller one in a larger room meant for gatherings and events, and a third on the rooftop patio. Their beers tend to be a little hoppy for my taste, so I haven’t tried too many of them, but they do have some that I’ve found to be really incredible.

The first time I went there was last fall, I tried a few, and found that they were mostly hoppy, and I settled on the Film Festival Lager, an amber colored märzen that was remarkably easy on the palate, perfect for drinking on a cool, fall day. Recently, however, I tried the Stadt. The Stadt is a smoked version of the Film Festival, and in my opinion, is better in every way than the original. The smoky taste of it alone was incredible, it tasted almost like bacon, or a good smoky gouda. I’ve talked a lot about how the Cherry Bohemian from Exile is my favorite beer, but this smoked lager passed it up, it was truly incredible. I’ve also tried the Nomad, their summer ale, the Good City Pilsner, and the Detail porter.

At first sip, the Nomad was too hoppy for me. I kept drinking it, because I didn’t want it to go to waste, and after a few more sips I started to taste the fruity notes, and it became much more pleasant. It wasn’t on the level of the Stadt, or even the Film Festival lager, but it was an enjoyable beer to drink, especially on the patio. The Pils, which is the name for their pilsner, is good for the first drink, but after that it got a little too hoppy for me. It’s a good beer, fresh tasting and light in color, but I wouldn’t say it stood out apart from anything else I’ve tried. The Detail porter is another good one. A classic porter, it was dark and creamy and you could taste the notes of chocolate and coffee that make up any porter worth its salt. Coming in at only 5.4% ABV, it’s not too hard to drink either.

Overall, I would say that while Good City doesn’t have a lot beers that I personally like, if you are a fan of IPAs, you need to go there. They do also have a bunch of good darker beers, like the Detail porter and the Stadt. Other highlights include the rooftop patio and the fact that they actually have the menu of of an upscale restaurant. It’s definitely a place that I will be visiting again this summer.

District 14 Brewery

The second stop on my tour of Milwaukee’s breweries was District 14 Brewery on Lincoln and Howell in the Bay View neighborhood. The parking was tough, we ended up parking a block and half away, but that was before the blasted snows of April, so it wasn’t a problem. There are actually a bunch of cool shops in the area, we stopped into Halo Soap, a local soap company that uses all natural ingredients in their products, and Sparrow Collective, a small little store that sold a bunch of cute Milwaukee/Wisconsin themed knick-knacks and clothes. The brewery itself was really cool as well. They had a nice wood cabin-looking interior, and while it was a bit smaller than some of the other breweries I’ve been to, it didn’t subtract from the experience at all.

Now on to the exciting part: the beers. The coupons we had (courtesy of Wisconsin Brewer’s Guild) were for a half price flight and $2 off a growler fill. So, both me and my wonderful girlfriend got a flight. On mine, I got the Dirty Blonde, an easy to drink light beer, the Sour D, a surprisingly good sour ale, the Winter Solstice Barleywine, which was a very dark, rich beer, and another dark beer, the name of which eludes me. She got the Sour D and the Winter Solstice Barleywine as well, but she also got a lime shandy and a darker beer named for groundhogs. It should be noted that we went to this brewery about two months ago, so most of the beers are discontinued (at least until next year), and that’s why I can’t remember the name of a few of them.

The highlight of this tasting visit was easily the lime shandy. We are both big fans of summer shandy (the classic Leinenkugels weiss beer infused with lemonade), but honestly this beer was better. It had the perfect balance of being beer, but actually tasting quite a bit like lime juice, while at the same time the lime wasn’t too overpowering. It was a nice, easy to drink shandy, and if they ever get it back in, I highly recommend getting it. Unfortunately, they weren’t selling growlers of it, so we had to walk away with a different one, but we would have gotten that without hesitation given the chance. Another highlight was the WInter Solstice Barleywine. This beer was very dark, very rich, and had an almost ridiculous amount of alcohol in it: 13.4%. It reminded me a lot of the similarly named beer from Lakefront Brewery, however, it was rather expensive (it would have costed us $26 to get a growler, including the coupon). The Sour D was my second favorite beer from here. I am a huge fan of sour beers, in fact my favorite beer that I’ve ever had was the Cherry Bohemian from Exile Brewery in Des Moines, Iowa (It is now discontinued though). This Sour D only enhanced my love of sour beers. It was nice because it wasn’t too sour, but it also wasn’t super beer-like, a splendid balance between the two. A beer that neither of us actually got in our flights, they had a mango roasted habanero stout, which was really interesting. It was a stout, so very dark, but when you drank it, it tasted like a mango shandy, and then the aftertaste had a nice spicy nip to it. It was a really well done beer, I didn’t get it in my flight because I was afraid it wouldn’t be good, but it actually was excellent. The mango taste was well done, like the other beers it wasn’t too overpowering, and then the spicy aftertaste wasn’t overly spicy either, if they ever get it back I recommend trying it, because it was probably the most interesting beer I’ve had. We ended up going home with a growler of the Dirty Blonde, because it was cheap, and despite the initial taste of just plain light beer, it actually was quite good. It was easy to drink, and you could also pick up some mild citrus notes, which pulled the beer together nicely. It paired well with the Thai chicken meatballs we had that night. Also, seeing as it’s the only beer that they still have, it seems like it’s here to stay, so I encourage you all to go in and try it.

To sum up, District 14 had a lot more nontraditional beers than other places. The mango roasted-habanero stout was interesting, the lime shandy was amazing, and the Dirty Blonde was surprisingly good. The surrounding neighborhood was nice as well, I mentioned the two stores above, but there is also a wealth of restaurants in the vicinity, all of which at least looked good. It wasn’t the best brewery I’ve ever been to, but I would definitely recommend it to my fellow beer lovers of Milwaukee.

Introduction and Urban Harvest Brewing Company

My name is Alonzo, and for the past few weeks, I have been going to a brewery on Saturdays. This habit has largely been funded by my wonderful girlfriend, and also in part thanks to the Wisconsin Brewer's Guild. For a little bit of background on myself, I grew up in Wauwatosa, and went to college in Iowa for a few years, then transferring to UW-Milwaukee, where I still attend. I now live in Milwaukee, and have grown into a typical Wisconsonian that has a deep love of beer. One day, I was at Lakefront Brewery in Riverwest, and I noticed a post on their wall for the Wisconsin Brewer's Guild, and their companion app, Wisconsin Tap Chasers. I found that for $35 a year, I could become a member of the guild, and with the app, I get an immense amount of discounts at local and statewide breweries. I have utilized several of them so far, and like a true millennial, I decided to start a blog about it.

The first stop on my tour of Milwaukee's craft brewing scene was Urban Harvest Brewing Company, located on South 5th street in Walker's point. The coupons for this one were a free tour, a dollar off a pint, and 2 dollars off a growler. We called ahead, to check on the status of the tours, and were informed that tours are only offered on the second and fourth Saturday of the month. Lucky for us, it was the second Saturday. So we drove down and walked in about 10 minutes before the tour started. There was a bit of confusion about the coupons we had, but it all ended up being solved with little trouble, and we were able to go on it.

The tour itself was interesting, it wasn't so much of a tour as much as a detailed dive into the seasonal beers that they had to offer, and a little bit about the company itself. We sampled 4 beers: the Weizenbock, a darker beer with a rather high ABV, the Espresso Amber, an amber ale made with cold brewed Stone Creek Coffee, the Whiskey Porter, a rich chocolate-ish beer aged in whiskey barrels, and the Wicket Wheat, a light wheat beer with mild notes of lemon. The information they gave us was really enlightening, I learned more about the brewing process than on any other tour that I've been on, and there were only about a dozen or so people on the tour, so it was a nice and personalized experience. While the Weizenbock was my favorite (we ended up getting a half growler of it), the Espresso Amber was one of the most interesting ones, they paired it with a chocolate made by Indulgence chocolates that had hints of orange zest in it, and the the relationship between the two was striking. I won't go too much into depth because I don't want to spoil it, but I highly recommend giving it a try. 

The brewery as a whole was a very nice place, the taproom was small, but pleasant, it gave off a nice vibe of community, and the essence of any local business. They have the requisite popcorn machine for any bar, and the head brewer (who lead the tour as well) was out behind the bar serving up drinks and talking to the patrons. I actually came back a few days later to buy a present for my girlfriend (shirts and posters with black puppies on them!), and the head brewer was there and he recognized me! With wonderful costumer service and the warm aesthetic, I will gladly build my tab up any day. I would say every interaction I've had with this place was positive, it's easily one of the best breweries I've been to, in terms of beer and of how the space felt, and with prices that are reasonable, it's high on the list.