A Couple of Brews & Some Other News

A couple of brews and a few other tidbits to share from the local beer scene

Bare Bones Coaster

Bare Bones Amber
Let’s start with the first beer from Bare Bones Brewery. Brewmaster Lyle Hari fired-up the Bare Bones brewhouse for the first time on July 16 by brewing an American-style brown ale. Last week, August 6 to be exact, that beer went on tap. Named simply Bare Bones Amber, it’s a 6% ABV, copper ale that reminded me of Düsseldorf altbiers I’ve had. Amber features a clean, moderately rich malt flavor punctuctated by a firm hop bitterness. Creamy and sessionable, I had to have a couple mugs of it. Next up for Bare Bones is an American pale ale. That one will probably hit the tap lines later this week. They’re off to a promising start.

Xtra

Fox River English Xtra Pale Ale
This one is only available in the tap room at Fox River Brewing Company Oshkosh and I doubt it’ll be there long. This is a beauty of a beer. Hazy and pale red, Xtra has a bright hop aroma and flavor that made me think of orange marmalade. There’s a slight sweetness to the malt (honey malt?) that makes a wonderful compliment to that juicy hop flavor. If you want to get in on this one, don’t wait. FRBC is going through their beer at a record clip these days. The last IPA they had on (Cluster Bomb) was tapped and gone within two weeks.

Tap Hunter
Here’s something to keep your eye on: Tap Hunter is a website that allows bars and tap rooms to list their offerings online. At the moment, just Bare Bones and Dublin’s in Oshkosh are using it to publish their tap lists. You can check those out here. The lists are sleek and give you all the pertinent info you'd like to have before selecting a beer. I wish more places in Oshkosh that serve good beer would start using this or something like it. It would only benefit them. Tap Hunter also provides apps for your mobile devices.

Dublin’s Pairing of the Week
I mentioned a few weeks back, that Dublin’s is now doing a weekly beer and food pairing special. I think it’s a great idea, so I’ve started including those pairings in the sidebar there on the left under the "Oshkosh Area Beer Events” header (if you’re on a phone, you’ll need to use the web view). This weeks special is Fruli Strawberry Belgian Ale paired with Irish cream cheesecake with a Strawberry drizzle.

Green Dragon Brew Pub
This won’t come as too much of a surprise, but it looks like the Green Dragon Brew Pub in Fond du Lac, will remain a restaurant and not become an actual brew pub after all. When it opened last summer, Dave Koepke at Green Dragon had hoped to have a nano brewery up and running within the restaurant before the close of 2014. That never happened. Koepke announced yesterday that he has parted company with Green Dragon and has no plans to begin brewing commercially any time soon. Oh, well. The Green Dragon continues on, though, and is still worth the trip to Fond du Lac.

Hops
I want to close with a picture I took about 15 minutes ago of some young, fresh hops hanging around in my backyard. If these don’t make you feel good, you have no soul!