As I write, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Milwaukee enjoying a Leinenkugel's Northwoods Lager. In an earlier post here, I lamented the demise of Northwoods Lager when the Leinenkugel's brewery decided to discontinue the beer in favor of some of their newer varieties. Even though it was brewmaster John Buhrow's favorite beer, Leinenkugel's management decided to stop production of the beer because they didn't have the capacity to brew the Northwoods Lager and the other "froo-froo" beers they've come up with over the past few years.
Northwoods Lager has a distinctive taste kick to it compared to most American Lagers. It's especially good on a hot afternoon or after doing a vigorous chore. It's very smooth and doesn't leave a chippy aftertaste.
When the decision was made to phase out Northwoods Lager, it was met by a public outcry of beer fans who thought the same as me - it was the best beer Leinenkugel's brewed. I was one of hundreds - perhaps thousands - of people who wrote the brewery protesting the decision.
I got an e-mail back from Jacob Leinenkugel - a form letter, no doubt - that said it was a difficult decision to drop the Northwoods Lager beer from the line-up, but they didn't have the brewing capacity to keep brewing the beer since they had come out with the new Sunset Wheat, as well as couple of their fruit beers. Fruit beers, yuck. I was destroyed. Leinie's Northwoods Lager was one of my favorite beers.
As a member of the "Leinie Lodge", the special group of Leinenkugel's beer enthusiasts, I get a tri-annual newspaper on all things Leinenkugel's called "The Legend". The January 2008 "Legend" announced that the brewery would be making the Northwoods Lager available in six-packs only on a limited basis for the month of February and only in the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota. I was just ecstatic at the news.
Well, I had a dilemma. We've had a pretty harsh winter in the Midwest and it's been tough to travel. I don't travel to Minnesota or the Dakotas from November until April 1, at the earliest. And I'll only travel to Wisconsin if I know there's no weather heading in.
Actually, when we had the big storm in early February I was supposed to go to Milwaukee the day before it hit. When I found out that it was supposed to be worse in Wisconsin than what we were forecast to get in Iowa, I canceled the trip. But I couldn't get to Wisconsin until the final week of February. I was hoping that they hadn't sold out by that time.
Armed with a long list of stores that were selling Northwoods Lager in Wisconsin, I set out for a four day trip across the state. Well, actually, my trip was for work as I did need to call on some dealer accounts. But I had ulterior motives to go to Wisconsin, as well. I was running out of beer, and Northwoods Lager was available.
My first stop was at Steve's Wine and Liquor in Madison - both locations, as a matter of fact. I was somewhat horrified to find that they had only one six pack of Northwoods Lager at one location, and only two at the other location. I bought them all. That was the last of the batch Steve's would see.
I went to the two Woodman's locations in Madison. They were out of stock on the Northwoods Lager. Gone. Completely out. I was starting to panic. On my way to Green Bay, I stopped at a couple locations in Appleton. Both were sold out. I went to three locations when I was in Green Bay - all sold out.
As I was heading to downtown Green Bay to get some lunch, I passed a liquor store. Even though it wasn't on the list, I thought I'd stop in and give it a shot. The place, West Side Liquor (see map), looked like it was a good place to find some good beer. I wasn't just looking for Northwoods Lager, as I was beer hunting for other brands as well. My uncle Jack would have been proud of me. I have to stock up the beer fridge for the upcoming Spring.
I pulled in and went in to check out what they had. To my surprise, they had three six packs of Northwoods Lager. I got to talking to the owner, Mark, and he said he thought he had more in the back. He went back in the cooler and looked. He came out with one more sixer. He said, "I didn't get any at first, then I bitched at my distributor and they brought me over about six cases a couple weeks ago."
OK, so I had 1 3/4 cases in my possession. I thought I had enough. Hell, it had been a couple years since I had a Northwoods Lager. I was happy to have what I had.
Of course, the story goes on. You didn't think you were going to get off THAT easy, did you?
When I got into Milwaukee, I was driving down Brown Deer Road and passed a place called Otto's Wine Cask (see map). It looked like a large store and since I was still on the beer hunt, I went back. Otto's is a very nice wine and liquor store. I looked around for a while and perused the beer selections they had in the cooler. They had a good selection of beers, but no Northwoods Lager.
I didn't feel like picking anything up, so I headed for the front door. I almost tripped over a large floor display of cases of Northwoods Lager. I circled around the stack of Northwoods Lager like I'd found the holy grail. There had to be 12 to 15 cases there.
I picked up a case and took it to the counter. The lady who checked me out called for a price check on a case of Northwoods Lager. I said, "I think they're only available in six-packs."
A manager came over and said, "They're $23.95 a case."
I said, "I'll take a second case."
The manager helped me carry the second case out to the car. He looked at my plates and said, "Iowa, huh? Stocking up?" I opened my trunk and he looked inside. He said, "I guess you are."
I said, "I've been hunting all over the state for this, getting a sixer here, a couple there. I wish I knew you guys had a bunch. It would have saved me a lot of time and stops."
He said, "We just got these in a couple days ago. This is the last we'll see of it."
I said, "Has it been selling well?"
He said, "We've sold out of all we've gotten in."
I told him that maybe Leinenkugel's will look into bringing it back on a full time basis. He said, "As well as it's sold, I think they'd be stupid not to bring it back."
Well, I've got quite a few Northwoods Lager beers to keep me happy for the time being. I'm really hoping that sales during the limited availability period were through the roof so Leinenkugel's will bring it back full time. I just love the stuff.
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