October 14, 2002 -- Tasting notes from the 2002 Great Taste of the Midwest beer festival were supposed to appear in KTT last month, but circumstances delayed that posting. So here, in two parts, are some of the festival highlights:

- The Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery took a page out of the Schlenkerla book with their Smokehouse Hefe, a smoked malt wheat beer in the Bavarian style. It boasts a big, rich, smoky nose holding banana notes, a fruity body with the smokiness sitting at the start and the end of the taste, and some light alcohol notes on the off-dry finish. A thoroughly enjoyable example of a solidly smoky weizen.

- Granite City Food and Brewery of Saint-Cloud, Minnesota, impressed with their Duke of Wellington, a pale ale billed as being in the English style, but on the evidence of its floral and grapefruity nose, hopped with at least some American varieties. Soft apple fruit in the body balanced citrus peel bitterness and led to the dry, nutty finish. A nice quencher on a hot afternoon.

- And speaking of quenching, I enjoyed that characteristic of the O'Kelly's Hefeweizen from the Govnor's Public House of Lake in the Hills, Illinois. A citrusy, peppery nose heralded the crisp, lemony character and dry, lightly grainy finish.

- The Buckeye Brewing Company of Bedford Heights, Ohio, generated some buzz around the fest with their Vanilla Bean Porter, but my attention was held more by their Martian Marzen, a toasty, malty beer with notes of hazelnut and a hint of chocolate in the body, and a lightly alcoholic, drying finish. In keeping with style and very enjoyable.

- And finally - for this round of notes, at least - the Dragonmead Microbrewery of Warren, Michigan, presented a delicious Belgian-style ale modelled after the Pawel Kwak. The 6.8% alcohol ale was a little phenolic on the nose, but presented a lovely perfumey sweetness in the body, along with some lightly roasty notes and hints of citrus peel and oil. I pretty much ended my tasting day with this beer, and it was a delightful way to go.

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