First Beer Review - Lakefront Brewery's New Grist

Jon and I at the top of the Ramsey Falls Trail - Smokey Mountain National Park

There's been a big gap in between posts since, you know...I've been busy honeymooning in a place with no internet connection or even cell phone service!

Jon and I left Milwaukee with a Kayak loaded up with the remainder of the open bar loaded into it, balanced precariously on top of our tiny car. I'm not sure how Jon, or my brother and father in law got it up there without breaking anything but the entire drive home to Michigan every time we would hit a bump or turn a corner we would hear bottles roll and clink.

I figure I should start out my first "review" with my old standard - Lakefront Brewery's New Grist. This is the first gluten free beer I had tried - my mom found a six pack and brought it home for my sister and I awhile ago. It wasn't very alcoholic but it seemed like a great beer to drink, one after another, on my porch chatting with my friends. Indeed, it is labeled as a session beer - and it serves exactly that purpose with me. For more information on session beers, go here.

This beer is very light, and just sweet enough that it has a tiny hoppy bite, enough to taste while it is in your mouth but not enough to really leave any sort of aftertaste. Because of it's lightness and sweetness, I don't tend to pick this up as much in winter, but it is the staple beer in our household in summer.



Lakefront Brewery's New Grist:

Link: Lakefront Brewery

Look: When poured this bottle of beer isn't ridiculously heady, though it is bubbly. I pour it into a pilsner glass (partly because we received some gorgeous ones for our wedding, and partly because that it really displays the color and "texture" well.) It is darker than the typical "light" beer, but only a smidge.

Smell: Floral, almost - sweet and light. This is a very bubbly beer, believe it or not and the bubbles tickled my nose when I sniffed to hard.

Taste: Sweet and light - can you catch the theme? This beer is relatively sweeter than the average gluten free beer, and has all the markings - the fresh, clean taste, the light texture, the fizziness - of a great summer beer.

Drink With: Summer food, or just by itself. And by summer food I mean Gluten Free Grilled Cheese, Salads, Gluten Free Pizza, Ice Cream, Gluten Free Cold Pasta Salads,

Where to Buy: This can be purchased at most organic or natural food stores - I believe whole foods has national distribution of this one. The website will give you further details.

How a Gluten Free Girl Had A Brewery Wedding

When my husband (husband! It's so neat to say that!) were talking about what type of wedding we wanted, we knew we wanted a "very Milwaukee" wedding. And...what is more Milwaukee than a wedding at a cream city brick brewery! Jon is enthusiastic about beer, and...I am too...only I have to be pretty careful about what type I drink.

Planning a gluten free wedding presented a different challenge - one that I had not encountered in any bridal magazine. I had to restructure and research everything from the Rehearsal Dinner to the cakes (we ended up with three and a cupcake tree. Don't get me started on baked goods!) I couldn't have the typical dinner with breaded everything and tons of dinner rolls, and a cheap barrel of beer wouldn't cut it for our palate or dietary restrictions.

Luckily, some of my favorite gluten free beer is brewed right in my hometown at Lakefront Brewery - their New Grist brew is as fresh as it is hearty and is so good I have to put threatening post it notes on the bottles in the fridge to keep Jon from drinking it all. Holding a gluten free wedding wasn't too bad once I got things rolling, and had some conversations with people to explain exactly what it was.

Our wedding involved a lot of bikes, so it made sense for us to have the rehearsal dinner at Cafe Hollander, a place with a great beer list that sponsors a lot of cycling events in the city. Coincidentally, it was right around the corner from one of my houses in college so I spent a lot of time there doing homework and hanging out with my friends there.

My great in-laws planned most of the rehearsal dinner working with Cafe Hollander to accommodate both my families gluten intolerance as well as my vegan bridesmaid. One of my favorite thing was working with them to choose the beer selection. Because they were not serving gluten free beer at the time but were interested in doing so our rehearsal dinner served as a sort of "test run" for them. I was able to simply suggest some of my favorite gluten free beers and they went out and got them! We had (no surprise to anyone who knows me) Lakefront's New Grist as well as a few others. I have to say that my wedding was the one event in my life where I wasn't really paying attention to the food and drinks, I was too busy being and getting married. Fortunately, Hollander made up a gift basket with a bottle of wine and the rest of the gluten free stash for us so we were able to take that home with us and enjoy it later!

We held the wedding reception at lakefront brewery - good beer was one of our requirements and having good gluten free beer brewed in house was a big bonus and we knew they would understand the dietary limitations and challenges of it. The space, while cavernous, had a lot of potential and filled up really well with all our friends. Everything went really smoothly and the chef was able to make three special plates for my mom, sister, and myself of gluten free food and we ordered a few cases of the New Grist along with the beer on tap. The reception was so busy and such a blur that I don't really remember the food (yikes!) but one of my favorite moments happened when all my friends from Milwaukee and I went and sat along the Milwaukee River and just drank beer and enjoyed ourselves like old times.

Here is my advice to anyone planning a gluten free wedding:

• Have really in depth conversations with the chef of the venue, not just the wedding planner or event coordinator. If the chef seems unsure of their ability or unaware of what gluten free even is (I did run into that talking to venues!) then feel free to move on to the next place.
• Most places will have wine, which you can drink if you a GF, but if you want beer, don't be afraid to ask if they can order some especially for you for the day. If you are plunking down thousands of bucks to have a giant party at their place, most will oblige
  
• Have two cakes - one gluten free and a larger one that is not. I found it was cheaper to order a gluten free cake for a "cutting cake" that jon and I would eat (and my sister and mom could eat a piece of) and then cupcakes for everyone else. Gluten free cakes can cost a pretty penny!