DUBUQUE, IOWA
Saddled in a small industrial port along the Mississippi River amongst old red brick warehouse buildings, Dubuque boasts the fittingly blue collar BRICK TOWN BREWERY (defunct as of ). A small deck area fronts the Main Street saloon better known as the Back Water Grill, which served burgers, wood-fired steaks, ribs, and chops to go with on-site beers from glass-encased copper kettles, August ‘06.
L-shaped bar offered candelabra sampler tray of mildly grassy-hopped, maize-rice-oats-smoked, hay-barnyard-wafted sedation Crown Pilsner, honeyed tea-soaked, creamy caramel-burnished, agave-tinged The Mexican, and moderate mainstay, Laughing Ass (with its sour bruised fruit tartness upstaging fig-pear jot).
Though light-bodied Buckeye Stout scored lower with its masked coffee dirge, sour fig wisp, and meager hop-roasted chocolate malting, perfectly descriptive Orange uniquely mimicked the pulpy bittersweet tang of an orange-tangerine above a quenching lemony hop prickle.
Also admirable were the refreshingly tart raspberry-blueberry-kissed gummy bear-like approximation Gorilla Vanilla and the citrus-spoiled prune-dried fig-soured white-wined Bulldog Double Bock.
