He Said, She Said

Where love is blind, but taste buds aren’t. Husband and wife tasting team Marc and Aimee cordially square off on brews and breweries.

I started my career as a summer intern during graduate school in 2006. That summer, I gave my husband Marc an earful about how my colleagues back in Chicago would offer condolences when they heard my client engagement was in Madison, Wisconsin. Clearly they did not know good beer (or about fried cheese curds, for that matter).

I saw beyond the pint sized town and cow décor in Madison and entered the city with big barley hopes of having intimate access to unique craft breweries and a college town brewery culture that was said to rival my personal standard of excellence -– Bloomington, Indiana’s Upland.

Day one in Madison showed its malty muscle as I waded through the ocean-sized sampler at the Great Dane. The Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company opened one block off the state capitol square in November 1994 and became the first brewery to operate in the city of Madison after the closing of the Fauerbach Brewery in 1966.

When my sampler came, patrons glared, wondering if anyone else would be joining me and my large wooden paddle of brews. I had never seen such a bevy of brews in a beer platter, which decidedly dwarfed my table for one. That day I learned that at the Great Dane, you can order different numbers of samples and if you generically order The Sampler you will receive at least 10 beers! Be warned or be smitten. I was just happy that my sampler sophistication quotient had jumped a notch –- I’ll be ready next time!

Those first (many) sips of Madison’s Great Dane left enough of a finish for me to bring my husband, Marc back for a visit which we achieved as part of a thoughtful detour en route from a family wedding in Iowa last month. This time, The Sampler arrived without traces of shock or shame.

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Well, fellow beer lovers, it’s been a while since we’ve posted last… mostly because work and travel schedules have limited our time together for beer tasting, but we’ve also attributed a small part of our silence to this week’s beer: Lagunitas’ Cappuccino Stout.

While neither Aimee nor I fear beers that describe themselves as “big, dark and scary”, this one had us running for the hills. Only now — some six weeks later — have we mustered the courage to tell our tale.

He Said:

Lagunitas has a history of brewing up some rather . . . ah . . . unique beers, but that is why we loved them.

I’ve always viewed Lagunitas as the West Coast’s answer to Delaware’s Dogfish Head — both wildly creative and not afraid to hold back even under the harsh light of commercial appeal. A 2Pac to the East Coast Biggie, if you will.

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While Cupid was busy making love connections on Valentine’s Day, the Alpha King at Three Floyds Brewery was making our frothy fortunes come true. My Valentine and I hearkened back to our Honeymoon’s delight by visiting a unique craft brewery. During our post wedding wonderment, Stone Brewing Co. inspired love with its tranquil landscape and teeth-tingling IPAs in California. This weekend we sought a similar sensation, but something within closer reach. The 30 minute Zipcar jaunt from Chicago’s Loop to Munster, Indiana – a nook of a town tucked in the pocket of Midwestern crossroads – proved a perfect sampling experience of the bubbly love potion we most enjoy.

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Editor’s Note:  It is with great pleasure that I introduce to you a new feature on BeerADay.net, called “He Said, She Said.”  Each week, Marc & Aimee — a husband and wife tasting team — will size up a beer or a brewery and share their opinions. Enjoy!

This week’s “He Said, She Said” beer was Dogfish Head’s Pangaea, a ginger-infused malt beverage with an alcohol content so high that drinking the entire 25oz bottle would be enough to call it a night.  Fortunately, two can play at this game — and on “He Said, She Said” that’s kind of the point.  With the bottle split down the middle, we had a fair shot at finishing off this beer before it finished us.

Pangaea is named for the tireless effort of DFH staff to pull ingredients from all corners of the globe. Probably the most herculean stunt was brewing the beer with water straight from Antarctica. However, despite its unifying global message, this week’s beer split an opinion wider than the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

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