Madtown Brews
Rockhound

"Like its namesake rock formation at Devil's Lake State Park suggests, perfectly balanced. A healthy hopping of three American hop varieties are balanced by a strong malt foundation and 30% rye." – Balanced Rock Rye, Rye IPA, Rockhound Brewery










There really never was a chance for objectivity when evaluating my own first microbrew, the Balanced Rock IPA, at Rockhound Brewery along Park Street near West Washington. It had been only five days beforehand that my middle daughter and I had stopped at Devil's Lake Park for a sunday hike beginning from the south shore and up along one of the most fascinating rock trails we've ever encountered, Balanced Rock, a mesmerizing jewel that seems to sit like a giant top on the flat surface of an outcropping. This day it was fifty degrees, not a cloud, which left the lake itself a wide blue mirror with little swirls of wind touching down across its surface, and the broad rockfall along the east side looking something like a false painting of the four corners down in Arizona...a scene right out of Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire. Devil's Lake no doubt must be a geologist's dream – for it is a one of its kind here in Wisconsin, most of our own bluff faces being lime or sandstone. Devil's Lake is

quartzite and shows a far more varied and extremely solid surface than sand. Coming out of some of the crags and crevices of the rock, especially once at top, might be white pine, birches, and the wild and gnarled juniper, whose sage blue green berries still sit suspended on the branches here near December. The scene itself and the long climb up call for some other missing component, and one that we micro lovers can all relate – a crisp clean, perfectly balanced beer! One could imagine a small flash brew stand (yes they do exist out in the mountains out west), where the magic of the rocky landscape meets the magic of a well crafted beer named after the very rock that is within eyeshot. All this is to say: you had me at Rockhound. The Balanced Rock IPA could have been mediocre, it could have been grade B and not particularly well-conceived, maybe still in development, and I would have entered into one of my rock dreams and enjoyed the concept itself as much as anything else. Concepts come and go and there are many bandwagons to choose from in both the beer and food industry, but I always hoped somebody, somewhere down the line, would take geology to micro menu, or for that matter, take a trail system or a favorite state park. Beer is of the earth. We imagine hops, barley, wheat, spruce tips for goodness sakes. It's time to give nature its due, and Rockhound has done this with a wonderful little system references. And the Balanced Rock held up its end of the bargain, maintaining interest and clarity after three, which is always a good mark. One can seem perfection itself; two might begin to show its irregularities; but if three still tastes crisp and does not linger too long in aftertaste, you likely have a winner.