This particular time, I was there with my High Life slugging brother-in-law, Mark Shaw. This guy can put back Miller High Life like no other. It's what he does best. We had an amazing time. The brewery is not big at all with 3 - 40 bbl fermentation vessels. It's located in the old Lacrosse shoe factory that relocated over-seas in 2001. They have the entire 4 floor warehouse!!! It's huge.
I started off with their Fruit Bat Belgian. Interesting beer, nothing to write home about. I have no idea if it was true to style or anything like that. It was pretty merky, and a little fruity, but not overbearing fruit. Then I got a Pale Ale and we went on the tour. Pretty fun tour and tour guide. Found out that the reason it's called Pearl Street Brewery is because they started out many years ago on Pearl street in the basement of The Bodega. The Bodega is the quintessential beer bar in Lacrosse. The owners of The Bodega let Owner and Master Brewer, Joseph Katchever, open up shop in their basement. That kicks ass! We went upstairs and saw the malt, and downstairs and saw the cooler where they had their new Scotch ale crashing. Then we went back up to the main floor where Assistant Brewer Dane Gonzales was brewing up a batch of their German Wheat- El Hefe. He also had some DT Brown carbonating in one of their tanks, and hooked up a little sampling device and we got to sample some DT Brown that just finished carbonating. Very tasty, fresh beer! That was a nice treat. I got to talking with Dane at the end of the tour and he ended up hooking me up with some hops that they got during the big hop shortage. It's a weird strain called Celeia that I think is a low alpha Slovakian hop. I'm thinking about using it for Flavor and Aroma in one of my upcoming IPA's just for fun. We will see. We ended the afternoon off with a Java Lave- Coffee Oatmeal Stout and were on our way.
I'm a huge Pearl Street Brewery fan and hope that everyone can eventually enjoy their brews as they expand throughout their huge facility!
Wow, how is it that I have never heard of this place. I think a trip to LaCrosse is in order. Sounds like a good tour and friendly employees.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I spend a lot of time in Lacrosse with the in-laws. Pearl Streets Downtown Brown has been on tap for many years now, but just in local bars and restaurants. In the last two years they started bottling!
ReplyDeletePearl Street beers rule the world!
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