We had my company holiday party tonight at a pizza place just south of downtown. Being day 11 in MYoB, I wasn't worried about finding a beer there that I hadn't had yet. But thinking ahead to day 327, I decided to find something off the beaten path. Their seasonal tap beer was Big Bay Portside. I had never even heard of the Big Bay Brewery, so I found my beer. I took out my tasting notebook and a sniffed, sipped and gulped my beer, trying to come up with something to say about it, and I came up with nothing. No that isn't exactly true. I wrote "sweet note" and "coffee." I swear I tasted cherry in one sip, but I couldn't find it again, so maybe I imagined it. So "hint of cherry" became "sweet note." And "coffee," well it was a porter, don't they all taste a bit like coffee since the malt is roasted the same way that coffee beans are roasted? (Companion, p. 173) It was ok, I'd have another, so it rates a 3. Day 11 and I have nothing to say about a perfectly competent beer. Maybe that is the problem, I have written about Porters before and since this one didn't suck or wow me what else can I say?
I don't want to drink "extreme beers" just to have something to say... "The habanero peppers worked well with the marshmallow in this Equadorian ale..." So what can I write about? Thanks to the internet I now know that Big Bay is a craft brewer with a tasting room and store located on Oakland Avenue in Shorewood (Milwaukee County.) I was not able to find a website, but did read a press release. I also read that they don't have a location to brew their own beers, so they contract out their production.
Jim from Milwaukee
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