So another Great Taste of the Midwest Beer Festival has come and gone..and once again I am very impressed with some of the fantastic beer names that these brewers come up with.

Here are my faves this time around (in no particular order)

A Cart Ride to Mexico: a Mexican style Maibock from Red Eye Brewery in Wausau

Where Lizards Dare: an India Pale Ale from Figure 8 Brewery in Valparaiso Indiana

Razzmanian Devil: Raspberry Bockfrom Old Hat Brewery in Lawton Michigan (Runner up: Suave Chicken, a Saison).

Bingo, Bango: wild rice beer (gluten free) from Right Brain Brewery, Traverse City Michigan

A Beer Named Sue: two different breweries had beers with this name..Goose Island, and Thirsty Pagan from Superior Wisconsin

not to be confused with..

Pseudo Sue: an American Pale Ale from Toppling Goliath Brewing Company in Decorah, Iowa.

I can’t wait to see what the brewers come up with for next year. The 26th annual Great Taste is set for August 11, 2012.

Great Taste of the Midwest 2011

To get you in the mood for The Great Taste of the Midwest which  happens at Olin Park on Saturday..and this is just the thing to get you all fired up..awesome retro beer commercials.

Even if you couldn’t score a ticket to this sold out event, you’ve got to get a kick out of these things.

See if you can spot the former child star in this one:

Is that the Brawny man making a cameo appearance?

Schlitz, just the thing to quench your thirst in your “Brick House.”

Do you like beer? Do you like drinking it, learning about it, exploring new flavors?

Then Madison Craft Beer Week is for you! It goes from April 29-May 8, and features all kinds of beer related tastings and events. I perused the website and these are some of the ones I found to be most compelling.

Learn how to make beer based cocktails, Saturday April 30 at Underground Kitchen. It says they run the gamut from apertif to dessert.  I generally like to have cocktails and beer on completely different days, but this sounds interesting.

Biking and beer! On Sunday May 1 you can go on a New Belgium bike ride, starting at Dexter’s Pub at 1pm. They’ll have a bunch of New Belgium beers on tap and giveaways as well. After you’ve tried a few, pedal over to Ivory Room, Madhatters and Memorial Union for 1 hour stops at each place. And you thought the only thing New Belgium had to do with biking was the Fat Tire logo!

Create some Bedlam! Ale Asylum celebrates the re-release of Bedlam! IPA, and invites you to design a teddy bear to represent your darkest inner bedlam and you get a free pint of this hoppy beer. Starts at 4pm Sunday.

Monty Python’s Holy Grail Night at The Cooper’s Tavern, from 5-11pm Thursday May 5th,. Dress as your favorite character from that wild movie and your first pint is on the house. Best costume gets a $50 gift certificate.

For me, every week is Craft Beer Week, but this week it appears I have some extra reasons to raise a glass. Cheers!

More info on Craft Beer Week here.

What could be better in the dead of winter than a festival dedicated to beer and cheese?

I had a great time at the Isthmus Beer and Cheese Festival on Saturday. Because Mike and I haven’t missed a Great Taste of the Midwest in years, and plan vacations around visiting brewpubs, you might think we would have tried every beer there is.

You would be wrong, Hops-and-barley breath! Yes, I did have a chance to re-sample some old favorites. And I did find some new tasty treats.

I even discovered a couple of new brewpubs. St. Francis Brewery is located in the southern Milwaukee suburb of St. Francis. How it managed to open in the spring of 2009 without me knowing it is beyond me. I tried the Lust Weissbier, which I really enjoyed, even though I usually don’t like wheat beers. According to their website they use a special strain of yeast that results in wonderful banana and clove flavors, and they didn’t lie. And I was glad it was not too yeasty.

The Woodman Brewery is located in Woodman, WI, between Boscobel and Potosi. I tried the pilsener, which was a light (but not “lite”) tasting, drinkable brew. A quick check of their website shows they also offer more choices include a honey raspberry beer which sounds interesting, and a chocolate porter coming soon.

Other ones that I circled in my beer menu were the Scottish Porter from Brewery Creek in Mineral Point (Mike also raved about the Frankenshandy), the Bitter Blonde from South Shore Brewery in Ashland (it wasn’t bitter), and the root beer from the Potosi Brewing Company.

Oh–there was cheese too. I loved the Apple Smoked Cheddar from Carr Valley Cheese in Middleton, and Mike kept going back for the Buttermille Blue from Emmi Roth USA in Verona.

Organizers of the festival say it was a big success, and they’re planning another for next year. I suggest you attend.