Category: Beverage of the Week

Beverage of the Week: Hubbleton Brewing is all the best things about Wisconsin

Hubbleton Brewing isn’t really near anything. And that’s part of the charm (also charming? great beers).

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. 

Hubbleton Brewing Company’s unofficial motto is along the lines of “it’s only hard to find the first time.” This is untrue. It’s hard to find the second, third and fourth times.

But it’s worth it.

The space between Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin is filled with lots of things, but nothing more frequent than farmland. I haven’t been to all of them, but I’m reasonably sure Hubbleton is the only one with a working brewery, tap room and beer garden.

I first visited Hubbleton four years ago, in the middle of winter, to find a three-table bar, about eight beers on tap and a very good brewery dog who stole my gloves each time they hit the floor. In the time since, it has expanded considerably.

The gravel parking lot out front became a pavilion with outdoor tap lines, picnic tables, tailgate games and a live stage for music. Walk past the brew kettles inside and an expansive bar awaits with room for maybe 100 people and enough pub games to keep even the most jittery patrons occupied.

The staff — primarily founder Dan Schey and his son Mike — have always been friendly and helpful. Everyone in the beer garden, whether they’re driving west from Milwaukee or just riding over from their nearby farm in an ATV, is pleasant and welcoming.

The tap list has expanded as well. Notably, I’ve never had a bad beer there.

The sum of these parts is an authentic, communal experience. Hubbleton is best experienced in person and, given the modest reach of their current distribution, possibly the easiest option for any beer lovers rolling through the midwest.

There’s going to be something you like there. You may not organically find yourself six miles east of Waterloo, WI in a town whose Wikipedia page runs exactly two sentences long, but you’ll soon realize the extra mileage was worthwhile.

Hubbleton continues to grow without losing the identity that makes it special. So how are the beers?

Beverage of the Week: Harvey & Harriet, the wine sports people love (and I have no opinion on)

Yep, that sure is wine all right. With grapes, if I’m not mistaken.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. 

Professional sports used to be beer’s domain. Miller Lite cemented this by making legends like John Madden and Red Auerbach its spokesmen back in the 1980s.

But lately, wine has eaten into that market share. Lebron James loves it so much he’d previously fit visits to Napa Valley into the Cavaliers’ West Coast road trips. Former NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe’s second act is as a celebrated vintner in his home state of Washington. More and more, American pro sports’ relationships with fermented grapes has grown beyond bottles of Korbel champagne soaking championship locker rooms.

In that spirit, I’m branching this feature out into unchartered territory (for me). Harvey & Harriet is Booker Vineyard’s “cult wine,” a $30 Bordeaux blend from a company that typically specializes in bottles that start in the triple digits. It’s an ode to vintner/farmer Eric Jensen’s parents, and since Eric’s Popping Corks podcast has had a bunch of sports figures on it, like Joc Pederson, Rick Mirer and Will Blackmon, well, it seemed like a natural fit for this column.

But while I am a Rhode Island high school football legend much like Blackmon (having successfully led Pilgrim’s freshman team to a 4-3 record in 1998), I am not a wine expert. My experiences with the grown-up grape juice generally falls into three categories:

  1. Sips of left-behind chilled white wines, snuck away during slow moments during my time as a gondolier on the Providence River (long story).
  2. Gulps of Sunset Blush, pulled directly from a freshly-slapped bag of Franzia.
  3. MD 20/20, transferred from the bottle and into a can to make for easier gesturing at Purdue University tailgates.

So I’m going into Harvey & Harriet with an open mind and a complete lack of understanding about what I should be looking for. OK. Well, let’s see how this goes.

Beverage of the Week: Sierra Nevada’s beers? Still good. Their hard kombucha? Oh, buddy

To be fair, I’m not sure I’m qualified to judge even a soft kombucha.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. 

Sierra Nevada is a big deal. It seems like a smaller deal because of the continued crush of quality local independent breweries that followed it, but the California landmark was proof of concept for many beer lovers 42 years ago. That’s when Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi turned a homebrewing hobby into a craft beer movement and, for better or worse, helped steer microbrews toward the once-ignored pale ales macrobreweries had left behind.

That makes their beer easy to take for granted. In an evolving world of beer, their Pale Ale is a rickety wooden roller coaster at an amusement park that’s added a dozen steel hypercoasters over the last two decades. But wooden coasters still rule — especially you, Kennywood’s Thunderbolt — and if you’re overwhelmed in the beer aisle you generally knew you had a reliable Plan B by grabbing whatever Sierra Nevada sixer happens to be on hand.

It’s been a while since I’ve dabbled in the Chico, California brewer’s wares, so this review was a chance to try some of Sierra Nevada’s new offerings. And, because I’m all about broadening my horizons, that includes hard kombucha. Let’s see what we’ve got.

Beverage of the Week: Lone River’s Ranch Water doesn’t taste like much, and that’s OK

Ranch Water in an air conditioned bar? Meh. Ranch Water outside on a hot day? Oh yeah.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. 

My experience with Ranch Water is limited, but I can safely say this: Your enjoyment will weigh on how hot it is outside. The 80-calorie West Texas hard seltzer delivers on every promise the can makes. There are bubbles, there’s a little bit of lime and there’s enough agave to suggest the tequila of the drink’s cocktail inspiration, even if the two feel like distant cousins.

But Ranch Water goes much lighter than its seltzer colleagues. This is either a feature or a bug. Inside an air conditioned bar, it’s not going to give you much more utility than a club soda. That makes it a proper pause in between bigger drinks or a slight incline for anyone looking to avoid the mountain climbing of party liquors.

Outside on a sunny day? That’s where Ranch Water shines. These cans are straight-up refreshing when you push the hot-versus-cold contrast. Let’s talk about each primary flavor.

Beverage of the Week: Simply got spiked lemonade (almost) exactly right

The regular lemonade is… whatever. The flavored versions, however, completely rule.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. 

Like I’ve said before, I’m open to trying just about anything. But after being tricked into sipping sunscreen salad dressing (TikTok’s healthy Cokes), I needed a win.

Simply Spiked Lemonade was already on my radar after hearing good things about their foray into the world of adult beverages. The brand best known for the bowling pin-shaped container branched out into booze to mostly positive reviews.

Would it be the new hotness in a market that’s turned hard to beer alternatives in the summer months? Or would White Claw’s unfortunate foray into lemonade be the template for disappointment?

Beverage of the Week: Schöfferhofer is a great beer for when you don’t want a beer

Schöfferhofer’s line of radlers are more fruit drink than beer. Sometimes that’s just what you need.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. 

Living in Wisconsin has made me intimately familiar with shandies, the beer-lemonade (or other fruit-based beverage) mix that permeates the summer. This is thanks largely to the constant presence of Leinenkugel’s flagship beer in the Badger State. What started out with lemon has now expanded to roughly a dozen flavors, of which maybe three are any good. I remain bitter that for several years I could get an orange shandy (terrible) but couldn’t find Sunset Wheat anywhere (it is, fortunately, coming back this fall).

This left me sorely lacking in radler knowledge, however, until I made the trip out to Munich for Oktoberfest.

Roughly six days in and in desperate need of hydration, I turned to the half-beer, half-soda mix that’s roughly one Euro more per liter than a Diet Coke on its own. My brain, polluted by a mother who’d grown up poor and simultaneously respecting the restorative “hair of the dog” wisdom passed down to me by an older cousin who only drank liquor from plastic bottles, opted for these hybrids in hopes of nursing my body back to half-speed.

This was a wonderful decision, as the helles/lemon-lime tincture not only restored my ability to form (mostly) coherent sentences but also created a calm port inside a stormy stomach tossed by marzens and a diet made up entirely of sausage, sauerkraut, and doner kebab. I rode that horse all the way through the rest of my vacation in Germany. Then I went to Scotland and had the same exact damn problem courtesy of whiskey because I. Do. Not. Learn.

This left a high bar for Schöfferhofer to clear. While it doesn’t say “radler” anywhere on the bottle/can, the description makes it clear this is a beer/”flavored drink” mix and, since it checks in at 2.5 percent ABV and is German well, yep, that’s a radler.

Schöfferhofer sent me a lovely bouquet of these beer/soft drink mixes for a taste test. Let’s see how they are.

Beverage of the Week: Spritz Society is the summer drink your aunt’s been waiting for

It’s a wine spritzer. In a can. Big divorced mom energy shining here.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. 

I am not a wine guy.

This may be an attribute of family gatherings where boxed Sunset Blush was the fanciest offering and children were given small glasses in an effort to scare us straight from the world of booze. It may be from a summer in college where my alcohol stash was greatly supplemented by warmed-over bottles of leftover chardonnay as a gondola attendant on the Providence River. Either way, old grapes burrow into a very specific niche in my brain that just flashes “YUCK” spelled out in old-timey light bulbs each time I taste it.

So, not my jam.

I had reservations when Spritz Society offered to send out a four-pack of its wine-based sparkling cocktail for review. Then I remembered I drank vinegar last week (three times!) and felt much better about this exercise. I still didn’t feel great about it — I hadn’t had a spritzer, as far as I can tell, in my life. I don’t believe I’ve heard one ordered anywhere in years (though I live in Wisconsin and if there were some kind of brandy-old-fashioned spritzer it would be a cultural phenomenal akin to the Beatles in 1964).

The marketing materials for this just say, “Welcome to Spritz Society.” Not “the” Spritz Society. Not “a” Spritz Society. This is Spritz Society, and if we want you to put on an owl mask and watch a series of high-stakes toddler fights, well, dammit, you’re gonna watch or have your membership revoked.

The mansion where Society holds its scandalous meetings smells strongly like peach, which gives off a nice summer-y feel to begin with. Once you take a sip the wine base is unmistakable. I couldn’t tell you *which* white wine we’re dealing with here, but it quickly overpowers the peach to fulfill the “spritz” part of the bargain. Unlike the hard seltzers that have been a mainstay in this column throughout the spring, the carbonation isn’t really there. There are a few bubbles, but nothing especially sparkling.

The end result is a light fruit wine, and to its credit, it doesn’t taste cheap. Despite my lack of grape accolades, I’ve had my share of bum wines — an amount of MD 20/20 I would never disclose to my health insurer — and this is considerably better than that.

It’s refreshing enough but not really something I’m into. The fruit fades quickly, but it’s not sickly sweet and is dry enough to be a nice complement to the light booziness that follows. It gets better as it goes on, but the light bitterness of the grapes remain, giving this all a very different taste than any of the hard seltzers with which it’s likely competing.

Which is the point, but it’s betting hard on people having strong feelings for a drink that traditionally pairs better with macrame vests and jigsaw puzzles than a tailgate or brunch. This is very much a wine spritzer, just dolled up for a new generation. Throw all the hashtags on it you want — deep down, this is a beverage that tastes like it drives a Subaru Outback and adopted too many dogs.

That said, this whole idea was apparently crowdsourced through Instagram, so there’s probably a much bigger audience than someone’s dad taking a break from New Glarus beers in Wisconsin.

Wine drinkers might feel differently, but it feels like there’s something missing. A little sweetness. A little carbonation. Something along those lines. It’s entirely drinkable, but at 8.4 ounces per can, 6 percent ABV, and $17 for a four-pack there are better options out there. If you like wine — if you like spritzers! — don’t listen to me. The peach is delicately placed and tasty. The whole drink is relatively pleasant.

But if you’re looking for something refreshing on a hot day, you’re probably better off with a light beer or a hard seltzer.

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Beverage of the Week: I drank La Croix and vinegar because I don’t respect myself

It’s called a “healthy Coke,” and it’s proof TikTok must be stopped.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. 

OK. Full disclosure. I started this feature because I wanted to drink a bunch of fine German beers and then talk about fine German beers. While that very much remains in play, my beautiful, pure vision has since been perverted into hard seltzers, cookie liqueurs and a truly unhealthy amount of Coffee-Mate creamers.

But never did I see it getting this far.

Somewhere, somehow, from the dark recesses of TikTok came an ungodly creation. An abomination of ice, seltzer and balsamic vinegar known, for reasons I can only assume are ironic and/or idiotic, as a “healthy Coke.”

This disturbs me. Greatly.

My stance on La Croix is that it tastes like someone whispering the description of a soda they had weeks ago. My vinegar usage is limited to steak fries and descaling my coffee maker (different vinegars, but still). Like you, I, at no point, considered pairing the two, just as I’d never considered drinking either on its own.

But, because I drank Utah’s dirty sodas, added booze to Utah’s dirty sodas and have sipped cookie dough whiskey in the name of science, this duty fell on my shoulders. “Vocation” comes from the Latin “vox,” or voice, meant to imply a calling from God. In my case, that voice is filtered through my coworkers, lovingly reaching out to say, “hey dummy, drink this.”

So I did. With my head tilted toward the heavens, quietly asking, “why?” I did.

Like last month, when I had to purchase two gallons of coffee creamer in a single trip, I felt weird running this through the checkout line. I fondly remembered the words Ryan Dunn’s urgent care doctor gave him after an x-ray showcased a toy car inside his rectum at the end of the first Jackass movie.

“You don’t talk to anybody. To your girlfriend, to your boyfriend, to whomever. You don’t tell nobody. [My editor] already knows. That’s too many people.”

But while I can hid that shame from the cashier, I can’t expense these drinks I don’t want or salad dressing I won’t use unless I write about it. Such is the plight of my offseason.

Beverage of the Week: White Claw’s new lemonade line is not an improvement

Finally, a White Claw that tastes like something (but not something good).

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. 

I have nothing against White Claw. I just don’t think it tastes like anything.

The brand that helped launch the ongoing hard seltzer trend has, for me, stayed too true to its source material to be all that enjoyable. Every flavor offers a faint hit of what it could be, washed away by dry bubbles. It’s a reasonable alternative that tastes fine on ice but has been utterly skippable when it comes to my beer fridge.

I assumed all seltzers were roughly in that range before High Noon’s vodka/soda-based offerings changed my mind. Those tasted like actual cocktails while retaining the fizz and low calorie count of its genre. With summer set to settle upon Wisconsin at some point — 66 and rainy all weekend! — it felt like a good time to give White Claw another shot.

That led me to their new REFRSHR line of flavors which promise “a completely new take on lemonade.” That seems ambitious since there are already a bunch of other hard seltzer lemonades on the market, but the mix pack I was sent also led me to Google whatever the hell “calamansi” is, so there’s at least a partial truth in that statement. The flavors seem tasty enough and at 5.0 percent alcohol and 100 calories, it packs more of a punch than light beer or High Noon without ruining anyone’s diet.

So sure, let’s see what White Claw’s gonna use to secure its standing in the seltzer world.

Beverage of the Week: Welp, they made me try peach lemonade vodka

Honestly it’s way better than I expected.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Previously, we’ve folded these in to our betting guides, whether that’s been for the NFL slate or a bizarrely successful run through the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey. 

Flavored liquors have taken off in recent years. The booming popularity of spirits like Fireball and Skrewball (540 percent growth in 2020!) is a reflection of a market that’s typically rewarded tinkerers trying to make middling drinks taste a little less like themselves.

That’s especially true when it comes to vodka, which offers the blankest canvas for experimentation of all the major liquors. There’s a wide gulf between connoisseurs buying top-shelf brands to drink on ice and the multitudes happy with neutral spirits swirled with fruit juice in a garbage can or whatever.

Pinnacle and Burnett’s have made “bad vodka mixed with a bunch of random crap” their business model; a trip down their line extension reads like a Baskin-Robbins menu. While I had a whipped-cream-vodka phase for a minute back there — especially with Mountain Dew, which somehow tasted like Sour Skittles (try it, in moderation) — I’ve mostly steered away from flavored vodkas and toward whatever would mix best with Zing Zang, hot sauce, and a beef stick garnish.

Smirnoff is hoping to bring me back on board with its new 2022 offering: Peach Lemonade Vodka. I wouldn’t have bought this unless it ended up in a bargain bin at my local grocery store, but my general rule remains: If you send me booze (or non-alcoholic beverages!) I will drink it and write about it.

Right away, this bottle flies in with some lofty promises. It’s wrapped in pink and yellow like it was a leftover prop from a Duran Duran video. The description printed therein promises “a refreshing taste like crisp waves hitting the sand” and “tangy flavors as bright as the sunshine.” I don’t know what the hell a crisp wave is, but fine. Shoot your shot, copywriter.

The bottle also includes three recipes, though they’re more suggestions than actual guides. Let’s try them out, along with a classic vodka tonic since that’s effectively a perfect summer drink and, despite the fact it’s currently 55 and raining in Wisconsin, summer is pretty much here.