What's your favorite Wisconsin beer? (Green Bay, Oshkosh: vacation, parks, top)

[SportFury59]

Old Ox Head Sturdy Ale....oh, wait a minute, that was a few years back up in the state of Maine. Now I prefer Leinenkugel Honey Weiss.....man, that Ox Head was stout.

[ekg56]

Red Eye has a dark beer that you can actually taste the coffee in it. I don't drink beer or coffee but I know someone who does and they loved it.

[almost3am]

Originally Posted by ekg56

We were at Red Eye brew pub in Wausau the other night. He said growler got its name because 100 years ago kids would go and get beer for grownups often bringing it to the factories. If they spilled it they would get growled at. Not sure if that is true.

I have heard at least 3 different stories on the derivation of growlers: The one you just told, another that the first growlers were metal pails with a lid that "growled" when the CO2 escaped while carrying, and a 3rd that the people's stomaches growled as the kids brought the beer pails to them. I personally like the 2nd story for the derivation of growlers.

My favorite WI beer is a nearly impossible question as it varies by time of year & by day, and I drink a lot of different kinds/styles. BUT, I probably drink Miller High Life most, that is just the old stand by in the fridge. I do really like belgian wheats, and probably the best WI one I have had is from Lakefront brewery (Lakefront White-seasonal), Lake Louie's is also quite good. In the winter I like malty beers, and Lienie's Russian Imperial Stout was awesome when it was available, but you have to be careful drinking it as the ABV is quite high. Capital has a nice Porter. Oktoberfest's are quite good, and I like a wide variety: Lienie's, Lakefront, Capital, etc.

I am not a fan of IPAs/DIPAs, as I find overly hoppy beers less drinkable...but that is my personal preference.

[mikki]

Lite and cold, but only on a hot summer day..the brand does not matter!

[ggggoat]

I Love Lakefront's ESB beer, the first 100% organic beer in the USA, and delicious. New Glarus' Spotted Cow is always a favorite, a little lighter, but not too light, goes down easy and you'll want em to keep coming. I'm also a big fan of their oktoberfest, staghorn, unfortunately it's seasonal, so when october hits, I always make sure to take full advantage. Sprecher's most popular is definitely the Amber, but I don't know, I think it's just alright. Over in Janesville, Grey's makes an pretty solid Oatmeal Stout. Capital Brewery is supposed to be really good and everything, but nothing I've tried from them has really stood out. Probably some others I've forgotten about, but those are the one's I make a point of repeat buying.

And if I'm going out and/or watching finances, it's cheap domestics for me, which I pretty much lump into the same category: miller, pbr, point, leinys, whatever....

[jtur88]

I alway assume, perhaps mistakenly, that when people ask for the best beer, they are asking for the best beer that they can go to the store and buy. It serves no useful purpose for anyone to brag about the microbrewery down the street, because not everybody can go down your street.

Besides the nationally marketed beers, there are three that you can buy just about anywhere in Wisconsin. They are Leinenkugel, Point and Hubers, which I have listed in my own order of preference. All three sell in most supermarkets, for about the same prices as Miller, Coors and Bud. All three are greatly superior to the pig slop that is in cans marked Miller, Coors and Bud. You can pay twice as much for "specialty" beers, but unless the specialty beer happens to conform with your particular specialized taste, you won's get a better beer than Leinenkugels OriginaL Sadly, Leinies makes a couple of dozen odd varieties, and I would never pretend to tell anybody which of those varieties they might like and which ones they might not. But Leinies Original is the best popular-priced lager in America, in my opinion, by a wide margin.

Unfortunately, my mother no longer lives in Wisconsin, so I will no longer be driving home wth my van full of cases of Leinies and Point. Here in Texas, I buy Schlitz, which is made only in Texas, and it is about 15c a can cheaper than Bud, and a hell of a lot better. Also rated much higher by ratebeer.com, so try it if you can find it in Wisconsin. I've heard that original-recipe Schlitz is now being marketed in Wisconsin, and would be worth a try.

[almost3am]

[quote=jtur88;6651416]All three are greatly superior to the pig slop that is in cans marked Miller, Coors and Bud. [quote]

Quotes like this amuse me, as it is easy and cool (to some) to put down any of the major brewers that have somewhere around 85% market share in the US, although they all make very high quality beers in a variety of tastes. Easy to pick on the popular guy and act cool. BTW, guess who produces Schlitz...& Leinie's.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by jtur88

I alway assume, perhaps mistakenly, that when people ask for the best beer, they are asking for the best beer that they can go to the store and buy. It serves no useful purpose for anyone to brag about the microbrewery down the street, because not everybody can go down your street.

The title of the thread isn't "what's the best Wisconsin beer you can go to the store and buy," the title is "What's your favorite Wisconsin beer," period. No conditions, no qualifications. And yes it does do good to talk about local brewpub beers, because here in Wisconsin we have these things called "cars." We like to get in them and drive around the state and sightsee, and some of us even make it a point to stop by the local breweries and try their beers. I don't actually live in Wisconsin, but I have made frequent trips up there to retrieve or drink beer, including two weekend tours of the state with the specific purpose of checking out the various breweries across the state. Discussions like this one help point me toward where to look.

Wisconsin breweries and brewpubs I have visited so far, thanks in large part to discussions like this one:

Lakefront, Milwaukee
Milwaukee Ale House, Milwaukee
Water Street Brewery, Milwaukee
Onopa Brewing Co., Milwaukee (now Stonefly)
Rock Bottom, Milwaukee
Delafield Brewhaus, Delafield
Grumpy Troll Brewpub, Mt. Horeb
Lake Louie Brewing, Arena
Capital Brewery, Middleton
Angelic Brewing Company, Madison (defunct)
Great Dane Pub and Brewery, Madison
Angry Minnow Brewpub, Hayward
Muskie Capital Brewery, Hayward
Viking Brewing Company, Dallas
Gray Brewing Company, Janesville
Log Jam Brewing Company, Tomahawk (defunct)
Tyranena Brewing Company, Lake Mills
Central Waters Brewing Company, Junction City (since relocated to Amherst)
Central Waters Brewpub, Marshfield (now Blue Heron Brewpub)
Rowland's Calumet Brewing Company, Chilton
Minocqua Brewing Company, Minocqua
South Shore Brewery/Wilmarth's Deepwater Grille, Ashland
Moosejaw Pizza and Brewing Company, Wisconsin Dells
New Glarus Brewing Company, New Glarus

[JoshB]

Drover, You must really like your beer.lol That's quite the list!

[ShadowCaver]

Originally Posted by Drover

My two "go-to" Wisconsin beers, meaning those I drink on a casual basis and keep stocked up on, are Rocky's Revenge Bourbon-Barrel Brown from Tyranena and Arena Premium Pale Ale from Lake Louie. I'd say the absolute best Wisconsin beer is New Glarus Wisconsin Belgian Red, a cherry ale that is ranked as the second-best fruit beer in the world by the folks at Ratebeer and the best fruit/vegetable beer in the world by the folks at Beer Advocate. Ratebeer ranks it the 35th best beer in the world regardless of style, out of several thousand that are listed and reviewed there. That's high praise.

The brewery's Raspberry Tart is also very highly respected, coming in at #4 on Ratebeer's fruit beer list and #2 on Beer Advocate's fruit/vegetable beer list. I'm not a big fan of fruit beers but these two are astoundingly good.

Well, I've a sweet tooth, even w/ my beer and Leinenkugel's Berry Weiss is [so far] my favourite beer - in or out of WI. 'Discovered' couple years ago during vacation to hollowed ground of Green Bay [Packers - one of top 3 favourite teams], Newport, Potawatomi, and couple other beautiful state parks, Oshkosh, etc. general areas... Will have to find some of these you speak of here.