A second visit to Pitchfork Brewing

Right after our visit to American Sky last Sunday, me and Frank made our way to Hudson, Wisconsin's other craft brewery: Pitchfork Brewing. This time, we were there for the Sunday tour that was offered by the brewery. Some of my regular readers will remember that I visited the brewery back in May during Minnesota Craft Beer Week as a last minute decision; A decision which I don't regret at all.

Sure enough when we walked in the door we were greeted by Mike, the owner & brewmaster of Pitchfork, who was working the taplines along with another gentleman. After sampling their Oktoberfest beer (more on that shortly,) me and Frank along with 2 others took a tour of the brewing area (Sunday at 2PM for those wondering.)

Now the brewing area is, admittedly, quite small as expected. However with Mike giving us a tour, he kept us hooked by telling us about starting in homebrewing, his experiences working at Northern Brewer, his efforts to relax homebrew laws in Wisconsin, as well as getting Pitchfork Brewing started. He could've kept talking all day and I still wouldn't have been bored. Mike also expressed his desire to stay small, a decision I respect because I feel like it would give one a lot more creative control over deciding what to brew.

After the tour, we decided to try out some of the latest offerings from Pitchfork. Like last time, it was a mixed bag of offerings that provided a craft beer lover with a good amount of diversity.

Pitchfork Oktoberfest - Much like my visit to American Sky, an Oktoberfest was also the first beer that we tried out. Solid Munich/Marzen malt base with some caramel sweetness and a fairly strong-for-the-style floral hop profile. It may not be autumn yet. but it sets the mood right.

Pitchfork Thistle Scottish Ale - Fairly roasty and chocolate malt flavor overall with just a bit of vanilla sweetness. It does taste pretty sweet though, especially on the back end of the flavor. I've been on a bit of a streak with having some fantastic Scottish Ales lately and this just continues that trend.

Pitchfork Night Shift Dry Stout - Usually I don't find dry stouts outside the spring months and yet here was one right in front of me. The flavor starts out with some chocolate maltiness and even a flaked oats taste. The aftertaste, as expected by the given name, was quite dry with just a slight hop bitterness on the back end of the palate. This is a pretty good "sessionable" stout!

Pitchfork English Old Ale - An old ale during the summertime? Count me in! The flavor is very molasses and caramel malt forward with some chocolate sweetness and a strong licorice aftertaste. Very heavy body and very thick to boot, thanks to the molasses. Needless to say, this was very tasty and I can only imagine the work that Pitchfork had to go through to make this!

Pitchfork Dig Deep Double IPA - There is always a spot for an Imperial IPA, regardless of what season it may be and this beer is no exception. Strong citrus hops and grapefruit notes make up the bulk of the flavor with a nice caramel maltiness with a piney/resin bitter hop aftertaste.

After I left Pitchfork with my growler of their Pale Ale in hand, I stopped by Casanova like I always do whenever I'm in Hudson and ended up picking up some beers for reviews down the road.

Overall, it was another fantastic visit to Pitchfork Brewing with some quality brews to boot. Having their beers makes me wish that I could drink them on a regular basis. For the time being, I'll just have to grab a growler (or two) whenever I'm down in the Twin Cities.

Keep up the great work, Mike!

A visit to American Sky Brewing

Over Labor Day weekend while I was down in the Twin Cities for the State Fair, I decided to pay a visit to a couple of breweries over in Hudson, Wisconsin on a nice sunny Sunday afternoon. I was invited by Frank, who hosts the Minnesota Skinny Radio Hour on Sizzlin' 99.9, over to American Sky Brewery where we met up for Beer and Free Bacon.

Upon entering the taproom, the first thing that popped into my head was that it was exactly how I had imagined it would look. It resembled a giant airplane hanger and adorned on the wall were photographs of men & women, both past and present, in uniform. Even the bar itself looked like it was ripped from a World War 2-era hanger.

While we were there, I decided to get a flight along with some bacon and try out the offerings that the brewery taproom had to offer on a cool propeller flight board. All the while we were talking about beer, culture, politics, and everything else in-between.

Amber Salute (5.5% ABV) - Starts out with a solid roasty maltiness with some nuttiness and a sweet malty and light dry hop finish. Nothing that I haven't already seen in an Amber Ale before but it was drinkable and quite good.

Tailgunner Blonde Ale (5.0% ABV) - I want to make a formal apology to American Sky on this one. In my original review, I said that this beer was bland, unremarkable and that anyone looking for a decent blonde ale should pass this one up. Upon having this again, I noticed a vast improvement in terms of flavor. Everything from the pale maltiness, the hop profile and even the overall quality were much better from when I had it in a bottle, which leads me to believe that the bottle I had was older.

Wombat Combat Belgian White IPA (6.3% ABV) - Starting out with a nice citrus hop profile, this beer has some nice Belgian yeastiness and a nice wheat malt base. White IPAs have been gaining popularity in recent years and this is one example as to why that is.

Hellcat Munich Helles (5.2% ABV) - A nice, lightly hopped Helles lager with a good pale malt backbone. Considering that it was a was a nice, warm summer afternoon, it's a perfect beer for such an atmosphere.

Red Tail Oktoberfest (5.6% ABV) - Is it fall already? Well, it's pretty darn close when you start seeing Oktoberfest beers on tap. Red Tail has a solid Munich Malt base with a nice mild hoppiness, light boozy and roastiness. Not overly complex but it was nice!

Dogfight Sorachi Ace Saison (9.2% ABV) - The brewery's Saison. In addition to a strong Belgian Yeast profile, there's also a prominent lemon and berry sweetness and a light hoppiness and dill tanginess on the end of the palate. I can safely say that if this were available in my area, this would definitely be a regular of mine.

All and all, me and Frank had a great time at American Sky....and we weren't finished! After finishing up, we made our way over to the other Hudson-based brewery. Stay tuned for my next post as I revisit an old favorite of mine: Pitchfork Brewing!

American Sky Tailgunner Gold Review

Name: American Sky Tailgunner Gold
Style: Blonde Ale 
ABV: 5%

It's time to look at another beer from American Sky Brewing based out of Hudson, Wisconsin. Since my last review, I found out that American Sky is also known as the Hudson Brewing Company but the website makes no mention of that, which leads me to believe that the latter is used as an LLC name.

The beer we will be looking at is their Tailgunner Gold, which is the brewery's Blonde Ale offering. As you will notice in the photo above, the label actually fell off of the bottle while I was removing the the beer from the fridge.

Tailgunner Gold pours a very dark & hazy yellow color with a thin filmy head. I am picking up on some mild carbonation but there are a ton of tiny sediment pieces floating around in the beer. I'll be honest, this isn't exactly the prettiest looking beer I've come across.

The aroma has a distinct dry hoppiness at the front of the nose that comes off as floral more than anything else. Aside from that, there are some pale malts and noticeable grassiness in here as well.

Flavor-wise, it's very dry from when it first touches your lips up until you swallow the beer. What I am able to up on are some mild dry hops and a light pale maltiness...and that's pretty much it. When I have to dig, figuratively speaking, for flavors, that's never really a good sign. The palate is rather moderate in weight but light when it comes to carbonation.

Tailgunner Gold is not offensive by any stretch of the imagination but it's just so very bland. The nose is somewhat promising but the flavor is just so incredibly dry and borders on being almost non-existent. It just lacks the flavors that I'm used to seeing in a Blonde Ale. I know that Blonde Ales aren't exactly held to the highest standards in the craft beer industry but even those have some type of flavor most of the time. If you're looking for a decent blonde ale, I wouldn't advise picking this up.

American Sky Tailgunner Gold - 6/10

American Sky USA IPA Review

Name: American Sky USA IPA
Style: India Pale Ale
ABV: 6.8%

Up until a couple of years ago, Hudson, Wisconsin was the small sleepy town on the St. Croix River that residents of Minneapolis/St. Paul flocked to for their Sunday beer run and that was pretty much the only reason why people even went there. Then last year, two breweries all of a sudden popped up in Hudson and it has since been gaining a reputation aside from the one it's already known for.

As mentioned before, Hudson currently has two breweries to it's name: Pitchfork Brewing (which is a fantastic place to go to if you haven't been there already) and American Sky Brewing. Today we'll be looking at a beer from the latter called USA IPA and it has perhaps the most patriotic name I've ever seen on a beer, hands down.

USA IPA pours a very hazy dark orange color with a thin foamy khaki colored head. The sheer haze of the beer also makes it very hard to pick up any type of visible carbonation.

The nose has a pretty nice citrus hop and grapefruit scent backed up by some caramel malt sweetness. On the back end, I am picking up on some faint piney hops but they're subtle at best.

The flavor is surprisingly piney hop and resiny resin forward upfront with the citrus hops taking more of a backseat. The maltiness definitely isn't as strong here but it manages to provide somewhat of a balance in terms of flavor.

Body is moderate in weight but fairly thick and the carbonation is actually quite mild. This also has somewhat of a creamy texture so it's fairly easy to drink.

In the end, USA IPA is a pretty standard IPA that doesn't really do much to stand out from the crowd. With that said, it possess a good taste and is easy to drink. So while there's nothing to write home about, you aren't doing anything wrong by checking this out.

American Sky USA IPA -  8/10