Green Bay – Titletown Beer

I am off to northern Wisconsin in search of gangster sites – Al Capone, John Dillinger, and many others often hid out, distilled liquor or robbed banks up here. My first stop for the night is Green Bay, my one-time stomping grounds when I was in college.

As I exited US 41 at Lombardi Avenue, I reached into my bag in the back seat to pull out my Green Bay Packer hat. Sort of like putting on a veil to enter a mosque or something, I had to display the sacred G as I drove past the shrine that is Lambeau Field.

I met up with a couple of friends at my standard watering hole, Titletown, a brilliant restaurant and brewpub. Dave Oldenburg the Brewmaster always has a few regulars on tap and an equal number of rotating beers which as he puts it, “forces you to keep coming in every couple weeks” lest you should miss one.

They went through 40 half barrels during the recent marathon in town. “26.2” is an Americanized version of a wheat beer. A nice opaque golden color but without the coriander or banana notes you’d expect from a typical Belgian wheat beer. It went great with some smoked gouda fondue, in-house pretzels, and the fabulous semi-sweet beer bread. My friend Tom had an elk burger. (Yes, elk. There is also buffalo on the menu, more native meat, though farm raised, and healthier than beef.)

Had an oatmeal pale ale, smooth and hoppy, and sampled several others including a Dortmunder and Rye Not? a slightly smoky beer which, as the name says, is brewed with rye. Titletown never disappoints. In the morning I will tape an interview for the local CBS affiliate WFRV (yes, just like Favre, an eerie coincidence that suggests the Favre years were written prophesized.)

I’ll post a link when that interview goes live. There’s a link on the home page to buy the book, Backroads and Byways Wisconsin; expect a dedicated page for it soon!