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.    

A Tale of Three Cities

Saturday, October 15, 2011 was a great day for Beer in Wisconsin.  And strangely it has nothing to do with the fact it was a Badger home game.  Instead it has to do with the fact that there were three organized beer festivals in Madison, the Wisconsin Dells, and Eau Claire.

The Madison festival was held at Capital Brewery and called “Fire Fest” as a way of celebrating the beloved “Autumnal Fire” as well as the new kid on the block “Eternal Flame.”  They sold bad ass chalices full of twelve ounces of either fire related beer for seven bucks, had a campfire, and probably were going to have a band or something.  I was there early in the day when all that was going on was a bunch of middle aged people watching the Badger game on TV and a couple Coasties sitting at picnic tables.  It was the first time this event happened.

The Wisconsin Dells festival was held in conjunction with the “Wisconsin Dells Autumn Harvest Fest” near the River District.  The price for the “Dells on Tap” beer fest was thirty bucks pre-fest or thirty five bucks day of.  Everything was held and big tents and there was even a craft fair and petting zoo associated with this festival.  This festival has been going on for a few years now and is awash with Bears fans as many of them have cabins in the area because Illinoise scenery is lame.

The Eau Claire festival was held at The Firehouse.  It was called “Wisctoberfest” and was a celebration of Marzen/Octoberfest Style Beers.  They sold bright orange plastic mugs of beer for five bucks and had a polka band.  Later in the night the “Zombie Pub Crawl” stopped by and there were plenty of creative costumes around.  This was the first year for both “Wisctoberfest” and “Zombie Pub Crawl.”  It showed of the fact that Downtown Eau Claire is cool again.

Creating your own holiday is nothing new and was really popular in Medieval Europe where basically every other day was some type of Saint’s Day and was cause for celebration.  What I feel drives these events is not so much “giving people an excuse to drink” but more “allowing people an excuse to be a part of something.”

Going to all of these events really sold each of them short:  I’m sure “Fire Fest” got a lot livelier later in the day, I didn’t want to pay the thirty five bucks for “Dells On Tap” and therefore didn’t get to walk around in the beer tent or get the souvenir glass, By the time I got to “Wiscotberfest” Lazy Monk Oktoberfest was all gone. 

But variety is the spice of life.  I had a great time driving around the state with my friends taking pictures talking to people and drinking beer.  My decision to wear my 2011 NFC Championship shirt did draw ire from people in Dells as did my half assessed cowboy zombie outfit which was just me wearing cowboy shit with fake blood smeared on my face.  It was a great day and I hope next year the starts align and all these festivals are one the same day again.  

Capital Fire Fest

Dells On Tap

Wisctoberfest/Zombie Pub Crawl



Review: Cicione's

I’ve got a soft spot for anything Italian. Or claiming to be Italian. Fast fact: they don’t have breadsticks in Italy. I spent a few months living in a town of 60,000 halfway between Milan and Turin. It was awesome, because no matter how bad things get with the economy over there the people will still find a way to get by. And entertain themselves.

Italy is an entertaining place as it is full with Italians. Therefore there is never a dull moment in life and copious amounts of emotion are exuded in everyday tasks. I’ll not get into exact stereotypes here, but chances are whatever you’ve heard is true.

Italians are also very proud people. It is no surprise that a restaurant in Eau Claire that is run by an Italian would claim to have the best of something. Cicione’s claims to have the best burgers in town.

Now a burger isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when I go to an Italian restaurant. Like I said before there are no rules in the service industry. I might have to revise that. A rule I’ve noticed is: get hot chicks to work at your restaurant. Cicione’s Wait Staff is pretty banging. I got the burger and fries with a Peroni.

Like Australians with Foster, no Italians drink Peroni. After my first sips I remember why: it’s skunky. Then I had some fries and the skunk tasted mellowed out and the Peroni became divine. The combination of Peroni and salty French fries is so good I became pissed I’d never had it before. The burger was worthy of the title best in town.

The décor of Cicione’s is made to replicate an Italian café. It is thought out and classy. They got a lot of photographs all the walls from various cities in Italy taken in the 1980s. I almost cried looking at them as I remembered how simple and beautiful life is in Italy.