Saturday 23rd of July 2011 01:00:08 PM

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After enjoying Tyranena beers in the bottle for a couple of years, I was really looking forward to visiting the source.

I arrived on a Friday around 5PM. Because they are a brewery first and the "tasting room" second, it is in a large stand-alone industrial building. There is plenty of parking in their private lot.

The tasting room was pretty small. There is a bar with about 12 stools. I didn't find the stools to be super comfy, but they weren't too bad. There was a chair rail, but no purse hooks for the ladies. The other side of the room was filled with about 6 high tables.

So I settled at the bar and ordered the sampler. They were out of one of the beers and we substituted with their root beer instead.

The beer was fantastic. I like the Fargo Brothers hefe, the Scruvy IPA, Bitter Woman IPA, and the Rocky's Revenge. The "kinda lambic" sour was not as good as I had hoped for. I do like sour beers, but this one just didn't have the pucker I was expecting. And of course, their easy drinking Three Beaches Honey Blonde was very popular with other patrons, but I found it boring.

There were some live music on the patio between 6PM and 9PM. They opened the door and windows so I could hear it fine without leaving my spot at the bar. It was some kind of folk/country music mostly. I didn't love it, but it was a nice touch for an otherwise pretty sterile environment.

After my sampler, I ordered pints of a few of my favorites. The Scurvy is really good on tap!

The bartender was not particularly engaging. Friendly, but he did not seem genuinely interested in interacting with self proclaimed beer tourists. That's OK though, he kept my beer and water filled, so I was happy.

Note: When I ordered water "no straw" as is my habit, he replied that they don't even have straws. I was so happy to hear this. They also apparently don't have ice as the water was served without that as well.

Having had my recommended daily allowance of pretzels and mustard I decided to get more food. The bartender provided me with the book of delivery places. My wife ordered a pizza from Timber Creek Pizza. After some initial confusion caused by the girl that answered the phone (she wasn't sure that they delivered to Tyranena), we eventually got a pizza delivered right to the tasting room. The poor guy didn't even know the name of who he was delivering for, but I saw him and completed the transaction.

There are dogs. Why anyone feels compelled to bring dogs to a bar I am not sure, but the ones in attendance were well behaved and there was no barking. This is a little quirky thing only made possible by the fact that they don't serve food I guess.

Once the sun went down, the decision to open the door and windows for the music turned into a poor one. The mosquitoes infiltrated the place and it got pretty annoying. But not as annoying as the choice of loud country music that filled the place as well.

As the sun went down and the mosquitoes and young drinkers started taking over the Tyranena tasting room, I was ready to end my day.

Overall, I enjoyed my visit to Tyranena. My rating seems low because although the beer was great, the service and atmosphere were nothing special. The bar space is small and sterile. It is fine for enjoying a few beers, but it is not really trying to be a pub. The lack of food makes it hard for me to spend the day. I would definitely come back to Tyranena if I was in the area, but I don't know if the good beer is enough to draw me out to the middle of Wisconsin.

Tuesday 26th of April 2011 02:35:27 PM

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I spent the afternoon here with my girlfriend yesterday. I wish I didn't live so far away since I could spend many afternoons here.

The place is verry subdued and classy. Elegant wood bar with oversized wooden stools. Large wood tables with stools if you don't want to sit at the bar. The beer garden although not massive it was a perfect setting for having a beer on a beautiful summer day.

The beer selection is top notch. They offered 9 different beer and their own rootbeer as well. We tried everything they had. The bartender was so nice. She made sure we always had a full beer and had plenty of information for us.

They actually offered us a private tour if we wanted to wait for the brewer to finish his work but, we declined. We had a long drive home and he wasn't going to be done for another couple hours. I found that very thoughtful none the less.

Overall this a great place to sample Tyranena's delicious beer selection.

Sunday 23rd of August 2009 02:21:26 PM

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Tyranena has a nice little tasting room attached to its brewery. I've been there plenty of times and it has a good atmosphere and a nice patio when the weather is nice.

They always have their stapes on tap (Porter, IPA, blonde, burbon barrel brown) but then they also have their Brewers Gone Wild series on tap and then usually something that never gets bottled. So every month or two there is always something on tap that you can only find at the brewery (Chipotle Porter, Blueberry Lambic).

It isn't far off of 94, so stop by on your way to or from Madison. And most (all?) taps are $5 or less, so a good price for craft beer.

Monday 27th of August 2007 12:46:37 AM

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I brought the whole family to the brewery for a Saturday tour which was excellent. The tour was free and we were encouraged to purchase a beer before the tour began. We ordered the wit beer from the tasting room (indoor bar with a nice array of beers) which I shared with my wife through out the tour. The brewery tour was about a half hour long and the tour guide was one of the assistant brewers. He was very open to questions and encouraged us to show our interest in brewing, the process and whatever we wanted to know about Tyranena. This was definitely one of the best brewery tours that I have ever been to as in most of my experiences on brewery tours, the tour guide is not a brewer but usually just an employee bartender or employee hired specifically to give tours. Nearing the end of the tour, the tour guide opened the bright tank (which is where the beer is carbonated just before it's bottled or kegged) and poured a few glasses of the "HopWhore Imperial IPA". This super fresh beer was consumed with tons of hop flavor and aroma which I hear is in super limited supply around Wisconsin.

After the tour we bummed around Lake Mills, did some shopping and at dinner time headed back to Tyranena to eat dinner at the beer garden. There is no food served at the beer garden but they do recommend that you bring your own food or order from the limited supply of carry out or delivery restaurants around Lake Mills. We had brought along some left over homemade pizza (chicken bbq & greek style pizzas) which we made for dinner the night before. I have to mention that the Tyranena beer garden and tasting room are populated with up to three resident dogs which are very friendly but will beg for your food REALLY BAD. One of the dogs, the golden retriever, actually managed to steel a bit of my daughter's pizza right out of her hand! Besides for the dogs, the beer garden was very enjoyable, very family friendly and has regular music throughout the good weather seasons in Wisconsin.

We came to the idea of coming to Tyranena after being invited by a band [url=http://damnshames.com/ Jimmy James and the Damn Shames] who we met while volunteering at this years' Great Taste of the Midwest. At the Great Taste, both my wife and I got the drummer (Brian Bentley) and stand-up bass player (Jeff Hammes) a beer and we chatted with them both after their performance about their upcoming gig at Tyranena.

Overall this brewery makes some of the finest Wisconsin craft brews and from what we could tell, is owed and run by some really great employees. Also, make sure to try their homemade root beer.

Thursday 2nd of August 2007 05:36:56 PM

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The beer at tyranena is.... tyranena beer. If you expect something else, then.... ??? Expect about 10 taps. Expect the specialties that are in season. Hope for something different like the blueberry infused barrel aged brown that I got to try this past weekend. pretty sweet... got the aging taste on the first pint, not so much on the second, the blueberry was more prevolent, which was sort of astonishing... it's like you hafta have a pint to introduce yourself to the beer and then another to approach what seemed like subtler qualites... but back to the review.

The atomsphere is pretty down to earth, mostly open on the weekends, this place is a place to chill. Expect dogs to be sitting in the tasting room. Those are the staff dogs... and they will beg for your food. Food is allowed to be brought in as there is a miniscule menu... but tyranena ain't no food place, it's about beer. The bar and enviorens are dark woods and it's got good lighting.... The bar seats about 20ish with seating for another 20ish in high tables. there's a spot out back to sit with patio tables for your pleasure, seats about 20ish as well, smoking is allowed outside, but not inside... Decent variety of swag.... the short shorts "tap this" with matching g-string ride up on me, so.... not so much for me. The events that go on here I would assume are held to the left of the patio area as tyranena's property is fairly large...

Business on sunday was initally slow, so the staff were very attentive and good.... (plus I was with a local whom was known to the staff) sundaze are laid back, and it's a perfect time to roll in for some beer, and then more beer as the day rolls on. And then growlers and the like can be taken home.

The tours are casual, from my experience. Set days and such, I didn't have a tour this trip, but the brewery is not to be missed as it is an example of a brewery that is made custom for the purposes of brewing... meaning the floors are slightly slanted for drainage, if tubing needs to be left across the floor it was engineered to be out of the way of everything else. If you've been on other brewery tours, you'll recognize the precision of the way this place was made.

as a added bonus... ask the brewer when he's going to use them open fermenters he's got sittin round.... I could go for a tyranena common....

oh, and sans some happy hour specials, this is as cheap as it gets for quality beer.