I love how cheap beer is here in these parts. $3? $4? $5? Stop it, I don't believe you. But I'll take it.
We went on a $5 tour (complete with free pint) of Ale Asylum, which is the giant gray box right by the airport (so you can get quickly get drunk prior to boarding your flight, of course).
Ale Asylum, home of Wisconsin's fave beer (or something to that effect... read it off the bar blackboard and everything) Hopalicious.
Not that that was my beer of choice, especially not after the Double IPA struggle of Tuesdays at Tyler's. I like my beers dark and/or thick and/or creamy with chocolate/coffee/malty notes. It's basically like liquid dessert. I went with the Contorter Porter because Julia got Big Slick.
Anyways, we learned much from our charismatic tour guide. Like that Ale Asylum practices pure beer brewing aka water, yeast, hops, malt only. No fluffy aromatics/flavors added. We sampled Ambergeddon (if I remember correctly) that had been siphoned out right at the end of fermentation and then compared that to a batch that had been aged two weeks. The difference was insane. Even forgetting that the two week old beer was chilled, the younger sample was slightly hazy, very bitter, and hardly drinkable. Moving on, the Kink rack torture machine was a hilarious contraption we played with before getting to the in-house bottling line. The background story is that Ale Asylum built this thing to debut their new KINK ale (which had to be renamed because Happy Ending was already taken by SweetWater) at some sort of festival. Kasia climbed on and strapped herself down while I got to "torture" her by turning the wheel. The ultimate roommate bonding experience. Hah. Haha.
And as a treat, since we were a small group, we got to climb to the area where hops are added and look down into the tanks.
We went on a $5 tour (complete with free pint) of Ale Asylum, which is the giant gray box right by the airport (so you can get quickly get drunk prior to boarding your flight, of course).
Ale Asylum, home of Wisconsin's fave beer (or something to that effect... read it off the bar blackboard and everything) Hopalicious.
Not that that was my beer of choice, especially not after the Double IPA struggle of Tuesdays at Tyler's. I like my beers dark and/or thick and/or creamy with chocolate/coffee/malty notes. It's basically like liquid dessert. I went with the Contorter Porter because Julia got Big Slick.
Anyways, we learned much from our charismatic tour guide. Like that Ale Asylum practices pure beer brewing aka water, yeast, hops, malt only. No fluffy aromatics/flavors added. We sampled Ambergeddon (if I remember correctly) that had been siphoned out right at the end of fermentation and then compared that to a batch that had been aged two weeks. The difference was insane. Even forgetting that the two week old beer was chilled, the younger sample was slightly hazy, very bitter, and hardly drinkable. Moving on, the Kink rack torture machine was a hilarious contraption we played with before getting to the in-house bottling line. The background story is that Ale Asylum built this thing to debut their new KINK ale (which had to be renamed because Happy Ending was already taken by SweetWater) at some sort of festival. Kasia climbed on and strapped herself down while I got to "torture" her by turning the wheel. The ultimate roommate bonding experience. Hah. Haha.
And as a treat, since we were a small group, we got to climb to the area where hops are added and look down into the tanks.
I am only a little ashamed to admit that I was towing the line between tipsy and drunk by the time we walked out of the brew room and into the attached restaurant. If you took a look at me and guessed that I might be a lightweight, then you'd definitely be right. (Cheap date and proud of it). But in my defense this time, I only had a doughnut for breakfast. So naturally I was hungry. Starving.
I went with the Danny Burger after I confirmed with myself that I could not actually wait until getting home to stuff my face. Kind of deviated from my burger quest with this vegan (and gluten free... ehhh) patty, but I've had good veggie burgers that I'd prefer to some meat burgers before (Buns), so we're going to say that this still counts, and a comparison is fair.
I really just wanted the avocado, and the sprouts were a pleasant plus. That purple leaf looks like a tongue. The veggie burger was great, no Buns, but I enjoyed all of the smokey bites. Did not enjoy the chips and salsa though... it just felt so weird eating a burger with chips, but apparently they don't fry anything.
Two more days and a stat test to get through before getting home to the warmth (and now Buns).
I went with the Danny Burger after I confirmed with myself that I could not actually wait until getting home to stuff my face. Kind of deviated from my burger quest with this vegan (and gluten free... ehhh) patty, but I've had good veggie burgers that I'd prefer to some meat burgers before (Buns), so we're going to say that this still counts, and a comparison is fair.
I really just wanted the avocado, and the sprouts were a pleasant plus. That purple leaf looks like a tongue. The veggie burger was great, no Buns, but I enjoyed all of the smokey bites. Did not enjoy the chips and salsa though... it just felt so weird eating a burger with chips, but apparently they don't fry anything.
Two more days and a stat test to get through before getting home to the warmth (and now Buns).
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