This week, Niko wraps up his list of the 10 best craft-beer bars in Madison.
3. The Great Dane
Unlike most brew pubs, The Great Dane possesses an alter ego that comes out at night and manages to break past the typical microbrewery vibe—you know, businessmen on happy hour, gastroburgers and a 10 p.m. last call. With four pool tables that are always busy on weekends and a mix of college seniors and recent grads populating the large space, The Great Dane downtown retains a pretty fun atmosphere well past dinnertime.
The beer is also quite good, but to find the best stuff you have to seek out the more adventurous styles on the large list of slightly reserved ales. The Great Dane’s Imperial IPA, Black Earth Porter and a few good barley wines stick out on the pub’s seasonal rotation. The prices are also pretty reasonable, and the back beer-garden-like patio is one of the coolest hidden little spots in Madison.
2. Brasserie V
This little neighborhood bar and restaurant over on Monroe may just have the best beer selection in town. The bottle list (which is close to a novel in length) features mostly beers you can find at a liquor store, as is the case at pretty much every craft-beer bar out there. However, Brasserie V stands out with some phenomenal harder-to-find picks, like De Struise Pannepot Grand Reserva and occasionally a bottle of Cantillon. Unfortunately, picking out the rare from the common is a task even seasoned craft-beer veterans will find a challenge, so rather than making that investment, you may be better off trying one of the many taps.
Filled with mostly European beers and a few unique ales, the tap menu at Brasserie V is arguably as good as anyone’s in Madison, though you should be aware you may not recognize the vast majority of the options. Though there are a few regional taps, try a Belgian ale if you’re there.
1. Tipsy Cow
Though Brasserie V may have the best craft-beer selection in town, in my entirely subjective opinion, Tipsy Cow is the best bar in Madison. Whereas the former has established itself as a great neighborhood eatery and a quiet place to relax with a date and grab some phenomenal beer, Tipsy Cow manages to absolutely nail every single aspect that goes into making a great corner bar.
As a “How I Met Your Mother” fan, I had been searching for my very own MacLaren’s for a long time, and after extensive and grueling research on the matter, I think I can say confidently Tipsy Cow is our MacLaren’s Pub. No it’s not Irish, but the perfect crowd of upperclassmen, post-grads and a handful of regulars makes this spot feel like home. Fortunately for us beer geeks, home is well-equipped with a tap list to die for.
Unlike a few other bars on this list, Tipsy Cow opts for quality over quantity, with the kind of taps you just don’t see consistently appearing anywhere else: Bell’s Expedition Stout, Dark Horse Tres Blueberry Stout and Double Crooked Tree IPA as well as some of the elite local brews out there.
I could easily ramble on about how great this bar is for a few columns, but sadly my word count is starting to reach its limit, and I’m glancing down to see I only have 125 left on the semester, and painfully, forever as your beer expert (aka local drunk) here at The Daily Cardinal. So instead, I want to leave you with a few last thoughts.
The world of better beer is in our hands. We are the generation that will make it explode. The process starts with recognition. You may be a broke college kid now, forcing Keystone down your throat in a mildly effective attempt to get drunk for six bucks, but you’re a Badger, and you have a great education, and you’ll find a job, and you’ll get that money. And then you’ll be faced with a question: Do I still really want to drink this watery 4 percent ABV bullshit?
In the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people of the finest and proudest damn booze drinkers of this great nation to separate themselves from the crappy “six beers in and I’m kind of buzzed” cornwater to which they have been connected by $5 cups and $11 30-packs and to assume the powers of the Sconnie, the separate and equal laws of beer pong and flip cup to which the mighty Badger empowers them, a decent respect for their taste buds and their liver requires they should declare the causes that impel them to pour out that Natty Ice and order that badass Jason Bourne mothafucking 15 percent, black-out in a bottle of Imperial Russian Stout that we all deserve.
The revolution is brewing.
Cheers,
Niko
Send feedback to Niko at ivanovic@wisc.edu.
