San_Diego_Matt wrote:This is a bit embarassing to admit, but I've never heard of Summit Brewing. Luckily I have inlaws in Sheboygan!
Summit's a great brewery from St. Paul, MN producing consistant traditional styles adding a twist with some of the styles. Their EPA and IPA are good English versions, their Porter is fantastic, their hefe (and their now-retired "Scandia" wheat a Scandinavian-spiced hefeweizen) is really good, their pilsner is flavorful and drinkable, "Horizon Red" is a 60-ish IBU red ale with lots of hop flavor and good balance, their maibock is one of my favorites of the style (and up around 7% if I remember correctly), and their Oatmeal Stout, which is nitro-tap only and only available at a few places near the brewery, is really great.
They've recently added the Unchained Series (which you'll hear about on Sunday) which has given individual brewers a bit of free reign. First they produced a Kolsch (I'm not looking for the proper spelling/symbol) which was, by all reports (I've not had a traditional German version), a really good and accurate reproduction of the German beer. The second beer was a really good Scottish 90/- with heather. They sold a ton of it at my local store (which typically doesn't sell a whole lot of the Scottish "Schilling" style beers). The third was a RyePA brewed with Crystal Rye, Chocolate Rye, flaked rye, and summit and citra hops. The hop flavor was good and it was drinkable but I can't recall ever liking a rye beer and this one was no exception. I believe the fourth beer was announced to be a Belgian Pale Ale of some sort.
Until I have an in-town brewery, they're my adopted local. Their beers are great and somehow they feel like family even though I've only been to the brewery once.
Bottle: Lonely Beer Party Bitter, Mildly Amused, Saison Du Biz (two fermentors with slightly different ferm. temps), Noah's Parti Bitter
Fermentor: Noahs Parti Wine-o
Coming up:
