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