Summers Wheat and other Midwestern Beers

Summer is a good time for Wheat beers, not very hoppy with a an easy drinking flavor...I wish I could say more about beers from dogfish head or San Diego or others but I have not been exposed to all of them.  For Midwestern summer beers--I like Bell's Oberon the best--wonderful craft beer flavor--next would be Boulevard unfiltered wheat, New Belgium Sunshine Wheat, Island Wheat from Capital Brewing in Middleton WI and Leine's Sunset Wheat...for me Oberon is the winner at Bell's in Michigan, I hope you like this one Jen and Matt, I am sure you have had it before...New Belgium is not really a Midwestern beer, but close.

Craft beer or not?

   Some people say Leine's is not craft beer--partly because it is owned by Miller.  I think if you enjoy it and like and its different, it is craft beer--the Leine's family still has plenty of input into the product.  I still enjoy the Leine Lodge newsletter...you can get it sent to quarterly by going to Leinie.com.  My favorite would have to be Creamy Dark followed by Fireside Nut Brown and Red.  Honey Weiss and Summer Shandy are too mellow for me, Honey Weiss on tap is not bad...Berry Wiess is like soda pop.  Like I said at the beginning I don't mean to offend anybody, but its just not for me...if you like it great!  Some other old favorites are easy drinking Fat Tire from New Belgium in Ft. Collins Co. and Sam Adams Octoberfest...this one is better if you let it bottle condition for about 4-6 months.  I love Autumnal Fire from Capital Brewing in Middleton Wi. (Madison)--watch out for this one--is close to 8%.
   I do recommend visiting both the Leine Lodge in Chippewa Falls Wi. and the afore mentioned New Belgium...in 2007 New Belgium gave away free bottle openers, free coasters and had $1 nice small posters...if you like that kind of thing.
  Next time I let you know a little about my visits to the Leine Lodge in Wisc., or Capital Brewing in Middleton or the visit to New Belgium, Odell and Left Hand Brewing all in Colorado.

What draws me to craft beer

   I have always liked beer.  At least since I was 18 or 19.  The problem I faced in the late 70's or early 80's was that I was very tired of the blandness of mass produced big brewery beer.  Very boring, no flavor.  A friend of mine named Doug bought me some Beck's dark in about 1982 or so...I loved it, but it was a special order--that was a drag!  So I just went back to Coors light or Miller light (and I am not knocking these beers--because they are very popular, I just don't want to do it anymore)  In Iowa Falls, IA, there was no flavorful beer to find.  The craft beer revolution was just starting and had no idea that Sierra Nevada and Samuel Adams were starting to develop very cool, thrilling beer...
   In about 1991 or so, I had my first Samuel Adams Boston lager, I thought it was very strong, but very good--at least very interesting, I wasn't sure what to think at first, but I was thoroughly intrigued!  I had be drinking a classic lager at that time--Leine's original or Leinenkugel's 24 pack long necks...they were only 11.99 at the time--as case.
  Needless to say after having that first Samuel Adams Boston Lager and trying a few others I was hooked--many people have called me a beer snob, I may be, but I just have a huge curiosity to try new craft beers and see if they are something I like...it is really fun!  As you get older it not about copious quantities, but about flavor (by the way, I don't feel Sam Adams is strong anymore)
  One of my goals with this blog is to turn people on to craft beer that may like Leine's Honey Weiss or Blue Moon, or Fat Tire and step out into some others kinds of beer that are NOT over the top with hops but accessible--to most everyone.  Join me please...
  I never want to offend the various "Light" beer drinkers--this blog may not be for you...if you want to explore flavor come along.  Like I said to my daughter who is in food science at ISU, craft beer is like chocolate chip cookies with walnuts, ghiradelli dark chocolate, real butter--and real vanilla.  Mass produced light beer is like store bought dollar store chocolate chip cookies...the "craft" is the most important part--craft brewers work so hard to produce flavorful beer that will excite and bring you back for more.  Their heart and souls are put into it...it is very important to create something very good and different--with much care--this is craft beer.
  Next time I will talk about some of my favorite breweries to visit--and why, and a few of my favorite brews...so many beers to try--so little time!