November Backlog Pictures

On Big Eddy

“So here it is.” My friend smiled and handed me a beer.  “It’s called “Big Eddy” and we got the growler from a bar we go to by our place.”  I take a sip and it overpowers me as well as brings a smile to my face.  That was a few years back we you could only get at a few bars around the Madison and Milwaukee area as Leinie’s was testing out the market.

Leinie’s has caught a lot of flack in the beer circles for 1. “selling out to Miller” 2. “making their target audience soccer moms” and 3. “ingoring the home market.”  Something needed to be done.  Since nothing shuts up beer nerds faster than a big beer.  Why not give them a big beer?

Leinie’s actually has a small brewery in Milwaukee called Tenth and Blake.  By all accounts it is a sparkling gem of what a brewery can be, except for the location that is.  Having a pilot brewery five hours away from your show piece visitor center creates confusion and even some resentment from the Chippewa Falls locales.  “Not good enough for us, I see, better put it next to the purse strings?” 

“The Chippewa Faultily is set up to handle lagers and Tenth and Blake handles ales.”  Never mind the fact the Point Brewery can make lagers and ales at the same facility, the Chippewa Falls Plant has solid production schedule and dedicating tank space to an experimental project would make no sense.  So the decision was made to make an India Pale Ale and a Russian Imperial Stout at Tenth and Blake in Milwaukee.  Beer nerds rejoiced at the prospect of two extreme styles being made by such a giant in the brewing industry.

After producing, disturbing, and observing the feedback the decision was made to go with the Russian Imperial Stout.  Perhaps the IPA market was too saturated?  Perhaps a RIS is an easier sell to non beer people? 

But how easy of a sell would it be?  The marketing posters and table tents look like a baseball trading card complete with a map of the Baltic Sea, gravity readings, and hops used.  Above all the single biggest marketing coup was the glass.  Leinie’s issued a special glass to the bars to serve Big Eddy in.  These got stolen all the time.  So now typically you have to give a credit card on hold until you return the glass.

As sales in the liquor stores Leinies over promised and under delivered in terms of quantity available.  This allowed a strong word of mouth to build that there wasn’t that much of this product around and you needed to buy it while you had the chance.  Duschetts did with Abyss a few years ago; advertize the scarcity to get a premium price.

In 2010 I took some friends from Austria to the Chippewa Brewery.  You were given a golden ticket to try Big Eddy.  The Austrians thought it was too much like coffee and gave me their tickets in exchange you my normal beer tickets.  I was pleased as to me Big Eddy is robust, smooth, and a pleasure to drink.

Bottom line:  When a major company enters a new market they will do it over the course of a few years and leave nothing to chance.  Beer Nerds will always find something to bitch about.  Big Eddy was a horse. 

Eau Claire the John Hughes Movie

So I had some beers with Ron Johnson’s Eau Claire Guy the other day.  I’ll admit that is somewhat of a peculiar drinking partner for me, but he had some good points: get professional politicians out of office, a need for a citizen legislature, and get the debt under control.

Eau Claire is something of a John Hughes Movie.  Hippies, Hipsters, Hicks, Bros, Conservatives and Mudducks all call this city home.  Who do you identify with?

I don’t really identify with any of these groups.  Or at least I think I don’t.  Why?  The negative aspects of the culture are used too often.  No one wants to be a stereotype.  Often times the negative aspects of something are all that get talked about. 

This brings me back to my new drinking buddy.  I’m a big fan of Russ Feingold.  He stands up for what I believe in and is willing to work with people to get things done.  I don’t know anything about Ron Johnson.  I will never trust Republicans as a result of W.  Every problem the country has is somewhat the result of W. in my mind.

This type of thinking isn’t going to solve anything.  We have to start working together and stop blaming each other.

I’m sure people have another type of person in Eau Claire: the Beer Geeks/Beer Nazis.  I would be in that group given the fact I basically love beer more than life itself.  I can’t wait until we all eat breakfast together.          

Halloween Costumes are like Beer

Old favorites always bring a smile, homemade ones always are good, and plenty of people are trying the latest thing.  Am I talking about beer or Halloween costumes here?

Halloween comes close to my birthday.  26.  I turned 26 this year.  And I am still chasing down this dream I had when I was 18: a beer movie.  Sometimes things in your head just appear so clear.  I don’t know how long it will take but it will happen.  The dream doesn’t end there.  See I want to take that movie and tour on it, promoting Wisconsin and in turn become an icon of beer.  That plan may sound silly to you or it may sound genius, either way I’m sticking to it as anything worthwhile is hard and I’m attacking this piece by piece.

When it is your birthday in Eau Claire you go to the Pickle.  For many that is the only time during the year you go to the Pickle.  The Pickle has a reputation of lowest common detonator behavior that once you actually turn 21 you try to avoid.  Loud music, fights, grouping and all other types of assorted drama as if the casting directors of Jersey Shore/Jerry Springer hang out there.  But on your birthday you get to spin a wheel and win shit.

Sign me up for that.  For me the Pickle keeps all the people that go to the Pickle at the Pickle.  It is good at what it does and as high class as Eau Claire thinks it is the Pickle is one of the busiest bars in town.  I’d love to interview the owner for “wisconsinbeerun” as he is quite the character: loud, outspoken, and Patriotic.  I’m a big believer in the more Patriotic you are the shadier the business you are running is. 

But hey, I got to spin the wheel and win 2$ shots for the bar.

Last Halloween I got to do a field sobriety test in my costume.  Really didn’t want to repeat that this year so I put myself on a three beer maximum for the night and had a great time and shared some laughs.  My costume was “future man” which was just me in duct tape, tin foil and garbage bags. 

Went to a few bars and got home with no run ins with the law this year.  Drinking in a costume is always an adventure and even sociably acceptable this time of year.  

Rubee is now on the market!

The Tomahawk Room in Chippewa Falls is one of the more Beer-Savvy establishments in the area. Case in point, they are one of the first places to have Rubee in bottle form.  Rubee is the lead brand of Valkyrie Brewing out of Dallas, Wisconsin.  “wisconsinbeerun” will have to do some investigation behind the beer selection.

The Biggest Night in Eau Claire History (in terms of Death Metal)

You are going to have to have a hobby in northern Wisconsin.  We don’t have the luxury of having too much to do like Madison or Milwaukee.  This is not a bad thing.  No traffic jams for one and cheaper prices for another.

Actually now that I’m doing this “wisconsinbeerun” thing I’ve quickly found out that there is something happening every weekend in Northern Wisconsin that has to do with beer or music.  It only seems that there is nothing to do when you compare whatever subculture you identify with to that subcultural home. i.e. Seattle’s Grunge Scene in the early 90s.

I joke that Eau Claire is the epicenter of the Hipster movement.  This is because every artistic thing that happens in Eau Claire gets overanalyzed and if you don’t like it it is because you don’t understand it.  See Hipsters love talking about Art.  They use it as a tool of dominance.  Don’t get me wrong I like art as well but you can’t take Art and instantly put it on a pedestal and then get pissed because someone else doesn’t like it.  Art needs a struggle.

Death Metal is about as anti-Hipster as it gets.  First off it is down with Satan, Hipsters talk a half an hour to explain they are somewhat atheist, somewhat agnostic.  Hipsters wear goofy outfits, goofy colors and goofy shoes, the Death Metal crowd wears black shirts, black pants, and black shoes.  Whereas Death Metal music wakes you up, Hipster music makes you want to go to sleep.  And so on.

The Death Metal crowd has started a NPO to get more and higher quality Death Metal acts stopping by Eau Claire.  They scored big by getting The Carnival is Forever Tour to pull through town and a random Wednesday night in October.  The Carnival is Forever Tour consists of Rings of Saturn, Decrepit Birth, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Decapitated.   They have a giant black tour bus that pulls a black trailer full of their black equipment.

So what does this all have to do with beer?  Simple.  Craft Beer is like Death Metal  in that an outsider will not be able to really tell the difference between similar acts.  For me all the bands sounded the same last night.  Much in the same way that a flight of beers used to taste the same for me.  This is because you have to develop your palate to pick up on the smaller differences between things, and much like my wine palate, I may never develop my Death Metal palate.

Nor do I want to.  As a photographer I don’t go to shows to hear the music, I go to shows to see the music.  I like it when things are different.  You can’t fake enthusiasm.  Enthusiasm is also contagious.  I’m trying to use my enthusiasm for Craft Beer to get you to like Craft Beer.  Hearing my Death Metal friends talk about this show for weeks made me want to go to the show.

And have a great time.  Going outside your comfort zone and dive head first into somewhere that you don’t belong is a great thing to do.  You make new friends who also made that plunge.