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Starkweather Beer Company

 When I moved back to Madison to attend law school in 1987, we moved to a crappy little apartment near the banks of Starkweather Creek on the unfashionable east side.  Today, the east side is booming, and one of the newer brewpubs is called Starkweather Beer Company. It was Saint Pat's Day.  While Guinness is a decent light-bodied stout, I opted for Starkweather's dry Irish Stout, named "Jamestown Jackdaw." Coming in at 5.9 ABV, it had a malty chewable backbone.  It's a new favorite stout for me.  Julia had Late Winter Haze, a New England IPA that didn't have as much fruitiness as she likes in a hazy.  It was still well-executed. We walked down the street to the Harmony Bar, where Julia enjoyed a complete corn beef and cabbage dinner.  I opted for the Reuben sandwich.  Mine was washed down with an Edmund Fitzgerald porter from Great Lakes Brewing.  Julia enjoyed her Chaos Pattern IPA from 3 Sheeps Brewing.  Both are great beers. Justin update:   After a long h

Traveling Shoes

This winter has been a long one. I guess it goes without saying that the pandemic hasn’t made things any easier. There has been some good news. Justin is back at school, living his best adult life. Allie is launched in San Francisco with a good job. And, as Justin's family caregivers, we were able to get early vaccinations. We are more than two weeks out and as protected as we are going to be for awhile.

We have no idea what the future holds, so we are going to take this opportunity to move about the country a bit, socially distanced and masked when around other people. At the time of this writing, and it was written awhile ago, we aren’t quite sure where we will be headed, but it will be to warmer places. I'm in the mood for some southern bbq and maybe some fresh seafood. Some place where we can walk without a heavy coat, hat, gloves, and long underwear would be nice.

The Scamp is not available, due to the steep hill and winter conditions outside its protected storage. However, the Subaru is available and ready for an adventure. I will keep you posted.







Comments

Bill said…
Nice BBQ teaser pic. Only missing a stout beer.
John said…
A stout would have been good with the bbq. I did have an oatmeal stout today in a different locale.
Bill said…
I was interested in one of your past postings (when you were in Sheboygan) that good seafood/fish restaurants are hard to find in Wisconsin. Doesn't any fish come from Lake Michigan? Maybe you could do a post or comment expanding on that.
John said…
That is an excellent topic. I’ll write a post about it this summer when we are camping on Lake Superior or Lake Michigan.

Commercial fishing has been decimated on Lake Michigan. When we lived in Green Bay thirty years ago, we used to enjoy Friday night perch fish fries at least a couple of times per month. Door County fish boils (whitefish) were also popular. Commercial perch is very difficult to find today and very expensive. Populations for perch and whitefish are very low.

Sports fishing is still very popular. My father-in-law used to bring home lake trout and coho salmon frequently. However, one must be careful about consumption due to health advisories. Mercury, PCB’s and PFAS are the main concern. Our DNR recommends not eating lake trout over 30” due to contaminants and only one meal per month of many other fish from the Great Lakes. Smaller, younger fish (perch and whitefish) are probably safest.

https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/Fishing/consumption
greg said…
Dad and Uncle were avid recreational fishermen and boy, do I remember those fish-frys and boils from when I was a kid! (As well as developing fish-cleaning skills, since- well - you know, us kids were part of the cheap labor force!) A military buddy of mines dad was a commercial white-fisher on Lake Superior but even back then, the late 1970's, the fishery was a mess an there were more boats on the beach than in the water.

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