A Bucket of Beer Links

Time to catch up with some of the recent chatter. Here’s a load of chitchat for the next time you find
yourself standing under a beer light at midnight bantering with the geeks.

Let’s start with some Wisco news. You may have seen that Wisconsin is now the fifth most beer drinkingest state in the U.S., but did you hear that two of the top three rated breweries in the nation are working the soil here? True to form, they’re both primarily lager breweries. About time the lager gets a little love.

Also: Wisconsin ranks 9th in the number of craft breweries in operation. Nationally, there are now 1,559 breweries in the planning stage. But not one of them is slated for Oshkosh. What the hell is with that?

Our good friend Jeff Fulbright, the man who brought you Chief Oshkosh Red Lager, is finally getting some props. He’ll be featured in the cover story of the September issue of All About Beer Magazine (and I think my name is going to pop up in there, too). The new issue should land on the shelves at Paper Tiger in Oshkosh later this week.

Now that homebrewing is legal in all 50 states, maybe it’s time you consider brewing your own. The Society of Oshkosh Brewers always welcomes new members. In fact, they’re having a meeting tonight (Wednesday July 17) you could drop in on.

Speaking of homebrewers, Oshkosh homebrewer Brett Hintz is now brewing beer for the Pigeon River Brewing Co. in Marion, WI. If you get up that way, drop in and check out their brews. I had their Dunkelweizen recently; it was fantastic.

Remember Joe Walts? He used to be the Assistant Brewer at Fox River Brewing here in Oshkosh and also used to write for this blog from time to time. After a stint at Ale Asylum in Madison, Joe is now Brewmaster at Narrows Brewing Company in Tacoma, Washington. The grand opening of the brewery was last Friday. Sounds like Joe’s beer is still kicking ass.

And finally, Dogfish Head will be returning to the beer isles of Wisconsin later this year. To be honest, I don’t really care. But this video they released about their return is sort of cute.

Enough. Prost!