Pitchfork Brewing

 

Looks like a new construction building on the east side of Hudson WI. Parking lot outside. Smaller serving room. L-shaped bar, with more stools along the wall. Wood high top tables and community tables. Concrete floor and wood plank ceiling. Wagon wheel light fixtures. Interior windows allow view of brewing equipment. Fourteen taps, with a good selection of styles. Canned beer to go. Kitchen offers pizza, sandwiches, and appetizers. Friendly staff. Can get loud with all the hard surfaces. Neighborhood joint.

 

 

 

I've been there a few times. There's a decent amount of seating. Their beers are pretty good. If you want food Paddy Ryan's next door has top notch food, and they have a Pitchfork beer that only they serve - it's not even available in the brewpub. I do recommend a stop there if you're in the area. As an added bonus, during Football season, they have blacked out Packers games on TV.

 

 

Pitchfork is located in a small strip mall just off I-94. We arrived here during the Packer game so needless to say it was packed. Service was very good. The tap room has seating for 15-18 people at the bar, 5-6 booths and a couple high top tables.

If I'm ever in the area I would stop in again.

Great little taproom. Check it out!

We had a good time at pitchfork. Only complaint was the scalding hot water in the bathroom.

 

 

Their beer needs more flavor. I applaud them on the styles they are making (especially the cask) but the beer seems a little plain.

 

Intending to try a new brewpub last weekend, an invite by a good friend to drink at the very first Spring Festival at Pitchfork Brewing in Hudson was welcomed. I've heard rumblings from several beery friends that Pitchfork was worth the trip.

Ten dollars bought the glass, which is a pretty cheap festival ticket these days, and then five dollars a pint afterwards. Plus, drinking with a good beer friend means twice as much tasting. I started with the Maple Maibock, a solid and drinkable but slightly out of style maibock, which is good for me. The cask of Jen's Cherry Pale Ale was fine for a round but lacked balance. Robin liked the Quite Right UK IPA, very much the English IPA that I didn't love. However, the cask of English Pale Ale w/ Kent Goldings drank like a trip to London, authentic, tasty and well served.

My favorite was the growler of Oatmeal Stout that I saved for last. Billowing brown, fluffy head over an opaque black stout. Light roast and chocolate in the nose over sweetness, soft water and more than a hint of hoppy spice. Slightly acrid bite feels dry to balance the sweet, full bodied malt and the characteristic smoothness of oatmeal.

I remember seeing pics of the Pitchfork bar being built, and the loving craftsmanship is clearly evident in the bar. The servers are friendly and proudly serve their fare. Added to this is locals who are comfortable in their new space—felt a little like bar in my small Iowa hometown, except the beer was good.

My only disappointment was that I had missed lunch getting ready to go out and all of the food for the festival had meat in it. Pitchfork has a small menu of appetizers from Paddy Ryan Pub next door, so I headed there for something to eat. Two veggie options and but they were out of the brewpub pretzels, so lunch was Battered Cheese Nuggets; very good and it served reasonably well as a base for the beers. Leave your beer behind at Pitchfork and pay at the Paddy Ryan bar, and they will deliver the apps to you back at Pitchfork.

Overall, it was a great Saturday beer hunt and a relaxing chat with a friend. A strong beer list kept us going for several hours before we needed to leave, our bar stools filling quickly as the party started to roll. I went home with two growlers on the strength of the Pitchfork Pale Ale, the sampled West Wing Porter and the likelihood of a Sunday fill during speech season.

PIctures at http://pintsizedrevelations.blogspot.com/2014/05/pitchfork-brewing-hudson-wi.html

 

 

 

Like many breweries, this one was a bit out of the way, tucked back off a no-outlet highway service road between an ice skate sharpening place and next to an Irish Pub in a small strip mall. This place is tiny and understated from the outside and I never would have discovered it by accident. The interior hosts a small dark bar and a few booths and tables. Most of the building space is taken up by the incredibly small brewery (3 barrel?) visible through some glass behind the bar. I instantly loved the vibe in the taproom. Old pitchforks and country art hang from the walls in a homey rural fashion. Milk pails used as lamp shades hand from the ceiling along with old burlap grain and feed bags. Rustic dark stained wooden signs and chalk boards are tastefully displayed behind the bar. There was even a standing bar table made out of an old pitchfork!

Our server was very attentive and pleasant, flinging down some old compact discs as coasters for us. Mine was (suitably) Appetite For Destruction. Welcome to the jungle indeed! We were quickly served our shared beer sampler in an appropriately unaffected wooden holder. They had a good mix of beers available including a brown, pale, UK IPA, and a stout. I could see an extensive list of upcoming brews that shows a lot of variation in the brewery's line up. I really wish I had liked the beer more than I did. With such a fun and relaxing setting and great staff I was hoping for more fro the beers. The best of them was a Munich dunkel but even that was pretty pedestrian. Most had a house flavor that was distracting and borderline tainted tasting. My wife was not a fan of them either so it wasn't just me being a hater. I love the setting of this hidden little homespun gem of a tiny tasting room but they have a long way to come before I'd recommend the beers. Check them out just for the setting, and maybe they will be improving the brews by the time you get there--I can't find details but I think they just opened this year!

 

Stopped in on a recent trip out to Dave's Brewfarm. Smaller almost coffeehouse feel. Very clean a neatly decorated. A bar and several booths for seating. About eight beers on tap with one firkin as well. Free water and popcorn station. The beers ranges from good to being off. The pumpkin porter had a weird rubber flavor to it and the Scottish ale had a sourness to it. The ipa and west coast porter were both good though. A really nice variety on tap and a cool setting. The two women behind the bar were very friendly. Decent place to check out for the area.