Thirsty Thursday | Door County Brewing, Bière De Seigle

After visiting Door County last month, the thoughts from our fun trip still linger. A constant reminder in the liquor stores/grocery stores in our neck of the woods has been mostly because of a relatively new player in the Wisconsin brewing business, Door County Brewing Company.

We have had some of their flagship beers over the past year and finally tried their latest offering Bière De Seigle. A smooth Belgian farmhouse ale that has a slight champaigny quality highlighted by two types of rye and saison yeast this mild brew goes down easy. With an ABV in the neighborhood of 7% it’s right at the boarder of a good session beer and heady Belgian beer. As the label says it’s “The range of flavors is a tour de force”!

Rumor has it they are in the process of building a brand spanking new facility sometime in the near future that will be available for tours and the whole nine yards right in Door County. In the mean time get a taste of the local flavor and grab a bottle today!

Credits | Author: Krista & Photography: Fornear Photo

Turntable Tuesday | Don Henley, Building the Perfect Beast

With some of the last days of summer hanging around, after all the county fair is now over and the evening are slowing growing shorter that means songs like The Boys of Summer start playing in your head. Having this song in your head means you need to listen to it to get it out of it, or so I find helps!

Unless you live under a rock you most likely know that Don Henley was a member of one of the greatest bands of all time, The Eagles. I personally find it very cool that as great of a group together almost every single member had a very successful solo career as well.

Coming out in 1984 Building the Perfect Beast is that perfect summer album not only with the mentioned The Boys of Summer but also has the hits All She Wants to do is Dance, Sunset Grill and was even named to Rolling Stone’s top 100 albums of the 80’s list. Pretty cool fact if you ask me! If need a good soundtrack while the temperature is still above 60 degrees (YES I said 60 because in these parts it’s been a glorious and “cooler” summer than normal) you should give this album a spin!

Credits | Author: Krista & Photography: Fornear Photo

Thirsty Thursday | IPA Day 2014

Yes, it’s finally here!! It’s like the Christmas celebration you wished for but with beer and hops! Like many craft beer lovers I am a big fan of the bitter, delicious and bold IPA. Every August 7^th for the last few years has become IPA Day to those of you not in the know and this year it just happened to fall on a Thirsty Thursday. How cool is that!?

When I conduct beer tastings I often get met with the question, “What does IPA stand for?” To my knowledge this is the response I normally give…. Back when Brittan ruled the seven seas and had colonies all over the world (specifically in India) the passengers of the ships making those long voyages needed to make their beer last and when I mean last, I mean not go bad or spoil on them. It had been learned that hops are a natural preservative so brewers would hop the heck out of the beer to make sure the beer could make said trips to India… hence this is where the name India Pale Ale derives from.

I thought I would toss in a few images of some of the IPA’s I have shared to date on My Northwoods Life, including one of my all time favorites Bell’s Hopslam though there are many other great IPAs that I simply haven’t gotten around to posting about yet like: Sprecher IPA2, Three Floyds Dreadnaught and Ballistic Point Sculpin. Plus there are many others that I have yet to try that I am dying to get my hands on like Russian River’s Pliny the Elder and The Alchemist’s Heady Topper. 

Hop you have a great 2014 IPA Day, what will you be drinking??

Credits | Author: Krista & Photography: Fornear Photo

Turntable Tuesday | AC/DC, Who Made Who

 So I am back after an unexpected week off from blogging, what can I say, between beer meetings and weddings life has gotten a bit crazy. Maybe this Turntable Tuesday should be back in black but I am not nearly that dramatic, ha!

Growing up I always loved AC/DC… my personal favorite song was always (and still is) If You Want Blood (You Got It)… thank you Empire Records! Though I have to say my second closest favorite song is easily Who Made Who. We have actually been looking for this album for awhile in fact, especially after recently re-watching the 1986 movie Maximum Overdrive based on the book of the same name by Stephen King in which this album serves as the movie’s soundtrack.

Not only is the movie inspiration behind the soundtrack a classic but so are songs like Hells Bells, You Shook Me All Night Long and For Those About to Rock (We Salute You). So basically I am sure you have heard most or all of these songs unless you live under a rock but otherwise be sure to rock out to some AC/DC!

Credits | Author: Krista & Photography: Fornear Photo