The Beer at Becket's

If you like to chase good beer around Oshkosh, you’ll end-up spending a fair amount of time around the bar of Becket’s Restaurant at the City Center in downtown Oshkosh. Becket’s been a great addition to the Oshkosh beer scene since opening in August of 2008. They treat their beer well and they’ve made a practice of bringing in unique brews that you don’t often see at other spots around town. The current line-up at Becket’s is excellent and includes a couple of beers that haven’t been on-tap before in Oshkosh.

Snake Hollow IPA from Potosi Brewing is the first beer I’m going for the next time I’m at Becket’s. The samples I had of this at the 2010 Hops & Props tasting were very promising. The beer was drenched with the citrus and pine flavors of American fresh-hops and featured a strong, bitter finish. This is the first time this beer has been on-tap in Oshkosh. I’m looking forward to finally getting a full pint of it.

Over the last few weeks, Becket’s has been bringing in beer from Stone Cellar Brewpub in Appleton. The current offering is Stone Cellar’s Masterpiece Porter. This is an easy-going Brown Porter with a gentle mix of coffee and roasted flavors that make for a nice session beer. It’s good to see a place going out of their way to bring in local beer. And Becket’s has taken that approach to the next level by growing a lot of their own herbs and vegetables for their restaurant. They’re even growing hops! Kris Larson at Becket’s said, “We have one beautiful and fast growing plant so far.” Who knows where this could lead?

A couple of other beers we should point out at Becket’s are the French Country Ale from Two Brothers Brewing and Old Chub Scottish Ale by Oskar Blues. The French Country Ale is definitely one of the best American-brewed Bière de Gardes, while Old Chub is an absolute bomb of malt. Overall, this is a great line-up of beers, but the current list won’t be around long. Becket’s cycles through their beer faster than any of the other spots we’ve been following so don’t sleep on this batch.