2012 Wisconsin Beer Lovers Festival

[sid]

The Wisconsin Beer Lovers Festival was held last Saturday at the Bayshore Town Center in Glendale. I went with my brother and his wife. It was hot and sunny (after rain on the drive up) and the all-Wisconsin brews were great. Every brewer was paired up with a restaurant or cheese maker, so there was plenty of free, delicious food as well. The fest lasted four hours and tickets bought online were about $48 including service fees.

Photo gallery

There were 33 brewers on hand. I'm not gonna try to list them all, but thanks to the spiffy program we were handed when we entered, I can list some of them, along with which beers I tasted and some of the food offerings:

Stevens Point Brewery, Stevens Point, Whole Hog Raspberry Saison
Stone Arch Brew House, Appleton, Houdini Honey Wheat
Northwoods Brewing, Eau Claire, Floppin Crappie
Sprecher Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Summer Pils
Hinterland Brewery, Green Bay, Saison Farmhouse Ale and Door County Cherry Wheat (with House Made Saison Bratwurst with whole grain mustard)
Port Huron Brewing Company, Wisconsin Dells, Alt Bier
Silver Creek Brewing Company, Cedarburg, Imperial Maibock
♥ ♥ Vintage Brewing Company, Madison, Rhine Heights, Jinja Ninja, Daytripper, Hibiscus Saison (Braised Chili Pork Belly in a honey/chipotle glaze with picked red onions, queso fresco and cilantro)
Ale Asylum, Madison, Bedlam (Mongolian Ginger Chicken stirfry)
Bull Falls Brewery, Wausau, Edelbock and Zwickel Bier
Fox River Brewing Company, Appleton, Caber Tossing Scottish Ale (Caerphilly Traditional cheese)
Minocqua Brewing Company, Minocqua, Scottish Ale (Pesto Shrimp with angel hair pasta)
Potosi Brewing Company, Potosi, Hefeweizen
The Grumpy Troll, Mount Horeb, Keller Brau and Dragon Ship Wit
Great Dane Pub & Brew Company, Fitchburg/Wausau, Midwestvleteren - Belgian Strong Ale (Bison chili)
O'so Brewing Company, Plover, Rusty Red Amber Ale
Delafield Brewhaus, Delafield, Fruhlingzeit Maibock
Milwaukee Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Louie's Demise
Titletown Brewing Company, Green Bay, Pullman Porter (Beer braised short rib with whipped carrot, smoked onion and black pepper mustard)
New Glarus Brewing Company, New Glarus, Totally Naked American Lager (pulled pork slider)

Comments

[evilawyer]

Titletown Brewing Company, Green Bay, Pullman Porter (Beer braised short rib with whipped carrot, smoked onion and black pepper mustard)

Don't know the beer, but the combo sounds fantastic!

[sid]

Oh, yeah, that was a fascinating little sampling of food! We think they may have run out of the mustard by the time we got there, because we didn't detect it. This was one case where the food was specifically designed to go with this particular beer, and they were perfect together.

[evilawyer]

Had something uniquely paired at a fest I went to this past Winter --- it's lovely when the beer and food mesh.