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Category: In Your Glass

  • Cheers!: Good Beer and Minty Fresh Breath

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    Whenever I’m in Ashland I make it a point to stop at the South Shore Brewery, which celebrated its 20th year in 2015. I’m a longtime fan of their Nut Brown Ale and Rhoades’ Scholar Stout. To my surprise, I reached deep into the fridge and pulled out a bomber of South Shore’s Bourbon Barrel […]

  • Cheers!: Kicking the Tires of A 72 Imperial

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    After a long and taxing day, I relaxed once I got home by hopping in the driver’s seat of a 72 Imperial. Let me be more precise: A 72 Imperial Chocolate Cream Stout from the Breckenridge Brewery of, according to the screen-printed label, Denver, Colo. Creamy, rich darkness washes over me with each sip. The […]

  • Cheers!: Whatchoo Talkin’ ‘Bout, Marc Buttera?

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    Of all the absurd names to appear on beer labels, O’so Brewing Co. leapfrogged to the front of the line when it released Wheat you talkin’ ’bout Willis? What Gary Coleman’s catchphrase in the 1978-86 TV series Diff’rent Strokes and a brandy barrel-aged wheat barleywine have in common is beyond my ken. However, I was […]

  • Hmong Spirits: Brussels distillery turns rice into potent alcohol

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    Po Lo has been quietly making traditional Hmong rice spirits at his Lo Artisan Distillery in Brussels for several years now, but he has a new product he hopes to unveil in the future. He brings out a bottle of his private stock of a 180 proof rice spirit infused with a giant centipede at […]

  • Cheers!: Say Uncle to This Dunkel

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      Sometimes I need to recalibrate, which, for me, means going to a classic beer. Needing to do so recently, I turned to Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel, which, for those of us who don’t or won’t speak German, the neck label kindly translates to “Authentic Bavarian Dark.” I’ve never met a beer from Ayinger that I […]

  • Cheers!: A Portly Barleywine

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    My eyes almost popped out of my head when I saw another variety of J.W. Lees’ Harvest Ale on the shelves of my local. Not long ago I mentioned two 2013 vintage Harvest Ales – one aged in Calvados casks (liquid candy) and another aged in peaty Scotch casks (Robitussin DM and iodine). This latest […]

  • Learn to Make Classic Drinks from Wicked Cocktails

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    Do you want to learn how to make great craft cocktails at home? Then check out Wicked Cocktails, the new web TV show from DoorCountyPulse.TV. The monthly show features Mike Holmes of The Wickman House and other great bartenders teaching you how to make classics and local specialties. Check out the next episode, featuring a […]

  • Door County Distillery Introduces Some New Spirits

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    Door County Distillery introduces two new spirits: Java Infusion and Barrel Finished Gin. Java Infusion is a rich, warm combination of Door County Distillery’s neutral grain spirit and locally roasted coffee from Door County Coffee & Tea. It has a deep chocolate color that’s slightly opaque and aromas of sweet cocoa bean, nuts, and caramel. […]

  • Door County Brewing Co. to Release L’hiver Dec. 1

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    Door County Brewing Company announced the Dec. 1 release of their Winter Farmhouse Ale aptly called L’hiver, French for “the winter.” L’hiver is inspired by the traditional Belgian Strong Dark Ales and is described as dark brown, dry, with notes of dark fruit and a slight hint of citrus. L’hiver comes in at a hearty […]

  • Cheers!: Seeing Stevia-induced Pink Elephants

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    It’s always good to see pink elephants, especially when they are on the faux ceramic 11.2-ounce bottles of the Delirium family of beers from the Huyghe Brewery of Melle/Ghent Belgium. This one is Delirium Red – a dark red 8 percent Belgian cherry ale. Big cherry nose. Cherryish taste, but also something I can’t identify, […]

  • Cheers!: Bell’s Beer Series Celebrates The Planets

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      As a big fan of Gustav Holst’s The Planets, I was excited to run across a bottle of Neptune the Mystic from Bell’s Brewery of Comstock, Michigan. Of all the strange but wonderful reasons for making a beer, this one makes me smile. Neptune is just one entry in “a seven-part series inspired by […]

  • Ice is Nice

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    With just a few hours notice on a freezing cold day, Steve Johnson, winemaker at Parallel 44 Vineyard & Winery in Kewaunee, will muster a cadre of friends, neighbors and wine enthusiasts to show up before dawn at the vineyard and pick grapes. Clad in parkas, snowpants, hats and boots, the workers pick frozen grapes […]

  • Cheers!: Liquid Candy and Robitussin DM

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      Since it was such a lovely, gloomy Halloween, I contemplated treating myself to the first port of the season, but before arriving at the small collection of port, my eyes fell upon a limited edition 2013 vintage J.W. Lees’ Harvest Ale matured in Calvados casks. J.W. Lees is a brewery based in Manchester, England, […]

  • Cheers!: A Mystery Within a Mystery

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      When I lived in England in the middle and late 1970s, I felt it my duty to fully investigate the country’s beers, even though I was only 18 years old when I arrived in Liverpool on a foggy Sunday night in June of 1974. My first residence was in a pub in a village […]

  • Cheers: Night Tripping

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    A cold front moved in, bringing with it a bracing wind from the north. I needed something deep, dark and elemental to ward off this too-early blast of cold weather. Reaching deep into the fridge, I pull out a bottle of Night Tripper, an imperial stout from New Holland Brewing Co. This 2015 vintage weighs […]

  • Third Vintage of Baco Noir Available at Parallel 44

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    Parallel 44’s third vintage of Baco Noir is now available at Parallel 44 Vineyard & Winery in Kewaunee. Just like their 2013 vintage these Baco Noir grapes were grown in a little vineyard just south of the winery in Manitowoc County. The Baco Noir is of French parentage and reminiscent of a Burgundy style wine. […]

  • Cheers!: A Sweet Tart and a Monstrous Wit

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      All I knew for certain about Old Stock Ale from North Coast Brewing Co. is that it weighs in at a hefty 11.8 percent. I’d never heard of it until I saw a four-pack of 2014 Old Stock recently. Being a longtime fan of the brewery’s Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout, I looked forward […]

  • Cheers!: A Visit to Estonia with Funkadelic

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        The arrival in the mail today of a 180-gram reissue of Funkadelic’s 1970 tripster classic Free Your Mind…and Your Ass Will Follow made me dig deep into the fridge, and I pulled out a tubby 22-ounce bottle of No. 6 Saaremaa Island Ale, apparently release No. 6 in Anchor Brewing’s Zymaster Series. Yup, […]

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    5 O’Clock Somewhere: Pumpkin Spice Coffee

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      by Daniel Dersé Autumn in my previous life was often filled with campaign events of varying sorts. Pumpkin socials were events I always chuckled during, donated pumpkins being carted off by prospective voters against the intense colors of autumn, while a hopeful politician promised them a better future. Politics and pumpkins – an odd […]

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    Cheers!: PC Police Pick on the Wrong Skull Splitter

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      A few years back, the PC police tried to lower the boom on Skull Splitter, a big malty ale from the Orkney Brewery. It’s a beer that has been revered by beer enthusiasts for as long as I can remember. The complaint by the PC police was that the name implied violence and trumpeted […]