millstreambrewing.com

Hello Everyone

 Right now we are very busy at the brewery getting everything ready for the big Oktoberfest Celebration that we are having tommorrow.  I sure hope you all are coming out!

Last week there were mutiple beer festivals on the same day.  We were unable to send a personal representative to the one in Mount Horeb, WI, so instead we sent up some of our most loyal fans.  Here is their report:

At the last minute, Dave Gross of Verona, Wisconsin arranged for a Millstream booth at The Thirsty Troll Beer Festival in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. Pat McArtor and I (Tim Rask) drove up from Iowa City with a shipment of 3 1/6 barrel kegs—two of Schild Brau and one of John’s Anniversary Ale.

On the drive up, we grabbed a late dinner at Mount Horeb’s Grumpy Troll Brew Put (Mount Horeb has a troll theme, in case you weren’t aware—it’s some kind of Scandanavian thing, but we were there for the beer, not the trolls. On Saturday morning, we took a van over with the Millstream supplies, then the three of us rode our bikes on the Military Ridge Trail from Verona, an nice little pre-fest ride of 13 miles. (Dave’s wife, Cindy, joined drove out separately).

The fest is in its fourth year, and one of the volunteers told us it seems to double in size every year. It started out with 100 or so visitors four years ago and this year they expected 1000 people to crowd the beer tent and festival grounds. Cool, rainy conditions probably kept them under 1000 this year, but a large, festive crowd still packed the tent.

Even though we were familiar with most of the breweries at the fest, we still found a few surprises. Furthermore Brewing of Spring Green, Wisc had a pale ale with hints of black pepper, the Corner Pub of Reedsburg had some bourbon barrel port, and Lakefront of Milwaukee had this year’s version of their famous Pumpkin Beer, one of the great fall seasonals.

Despite our late entry, we had a great location in the tent—just down from the food vendor, and between the wine booth and Bell’s of Kalamazoo (Jason, the Bell’s rep, kept us well supplied with bottles of their fine brew). Our booth was at the end of the tent, and it proved to be the starting point for a lot of the samplers. Some people didn’t get too far, as we had a lot of returning drinkers, and we received a lot of raves for both brews. In fact, the beer proved so popular that we were completely out of beer with an hour of fest time still to go! The music tent was right behind us, too, but the rain put the kibosh on the Kissers (who sounded really good) after only one set.

Sunday morning, Pat and I checked out the beer selection at Brennan’s Market in Madison, where Chris, the beer guy, was very pleased to see us. He said that Schild Brau was one of their best sellers and he’d already had some customers stop in and ask for Millstream, based on sampling it at the fest.

Thanks, Aaron, for letting some veteran festival goers get some time in on the other side of the sampling table! A great time was had by all.

Hmm a grumpy troll?