Happy Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there.

My mom and I headed over to the liquor store earlier today to pick up some beers for quality father-son bonding.

My dad is a self-described "locovore", so I decided to go with some beers that have more of a local flavor to them.  Unfortunately, none of the great breweries in Madison sell beers that he doesn't get regularly, so I had to stretch it a little bit.  I'd say that New Glarus is close enough to Madison to count that as local, so we got him a 4-pack of their Imperial Weizen, as well as a bottle of their Belgian Red.  We finished it off with a beer that was local to me while I was living in Milwaukee, Lakefront's Bridge Burner--seriously, I lived a few blocks from the brewery.  That was awesome!

Dad and I split the Bridge Burner and each had an Imperial Weizen.  He definitively told me that he preferred the Bridge Burner.  Frankly, that surprised me a bit.  He generally prefers beers that are more like the Weizen, though he isn't huge on higher alcohol stuff so I guess it makes some sense.

I'm not really sure which one of them I thought was better.  I love weizens and I definitely have no issues with higher alcohol, but the Bridge Burner was a very good beer.  To be honest, I'm not actually a huge fan of a lot of the stuff at Lakefront (it's not bad beer, it's just generally not my style) but this was a very nice one. The Belgian Red is an entirely different experience, as it's a low alcohol cherry beer.  I actually got it for him on his recommendation, and we split it.  I'd agree with his initial take: it's absolutely phenomenal.

Did you give/receive any Father's Day brews this year? If so, what?

Three Sheets has found a home

So it appears I'm a little late to the party...

Three Sheets will begin airing on Spike in February.

I first heard about Three Shets from a Beer Thread on an NBA message board.  After that, I started watching it on Hulu.  So far, I'm through the first three seasons of the show.  I like it; the host is entertaining and the content is interesting.  Unfortunately, all of the beer except for some featured in the Belgian episode and a few brewpub exlusives scattered throughout the episodes are pretty blah.  Zane, you travel to the other side of the world and drink a Corona? 

I understand that a reason for this is that the show is meant to expose people to beers they probably haven't heard of that are readily available in the U.S., but if you're going to expose people to the world of beer beyond Bud and MillerCoors you can do a hell of a lot better than Baltika 7, Birra Moretti and Stella Artois.

On top of that, it seems that Drinking Made Easy--a show about American bars, breweries and distilleries that Lampley started while Three Sheets was in limbo--is furthering the idea that America has bad beer.  In my hometown of Milwaukee, Sprecher and Lakefront are the top micros.  Drinking Made Easy--Milwaukee focused on the original breweries in the city: Pabst, Blatz, Schlitz...basically the cheap stuff that gives Milwaukee's micro scene a bad name.

With that said, I'm excited to have Three Sheets back on the air after Brew Masters seems to be on its last legs.

New additions to The Wall--1/3 to 1/9

Here are the beers that have been added to the list this week:

Capital Brewery

Maibock

Goose Island

Demolition

 

Lakefront Brewery

Big Easy Imperial Maibock

This week, I pretty much stuck to a few beers I know I like.

Expect a crazy list once Phin gets back from his band's concert in Chicago.  I can't wait to get back to Milwaukee.  We're going to be adding at least 30 beers to the wall.

Have you tried any of the beers we're adding to The Wall this week? Let us know what you thought about them in the comments!