House of Brews is one of Madison’s rising stars of brewing!

Last night I had the opportunity to check out House of Brews off of Stoughton road in the Madison area.  Brett Myers (twitter: @brettspiel) was hosting a board game night there, so I decided to join him. Brett is a published board game designer, gardener, and hombrewer.  You can learn more about his game, Nanuk, at the BoardGameGeek page or the page at the Steven Jackson Games website.  He is also a co-designer of the forthcoming Lord of the Rings Dice Building Game by Wizkid Games.  So, as an aspiring designer it was great to be able to meet Brett in person.

I arrived around 7pm and the group was finishing up a game of For Sale.  This is a really fun filler-type game.  The game is broken into two halves.  In the first, players use coins to bid for properties valued from 1 to 30.  In the second half of the game players use their properties to earn income.  Income cards are values from VOID to 15,000, with two of each value.  At the end of the game players add any leftover coins from the first half of the game to the value of their income cards.  The player with the most money wins.

After they finished we joined the table next to us and a few more people showed up.  Brett got out the game Dixit by French publisher Libellud.  Dixit is a party game that is very similar to Balderdash, but rather than making a definition you’re telling a story.  I’ll review it in a different post, but here is a picture of the game:

Dixit Odyssey on the table (image from BoardGameGeek.com)

With ten people it was a really fun game.  I imagine that it could be a lot more fun with people you know.  Then you’ve got all those inside jokes with people and could have an easier time getting other people to guess your card.

During the game night I had the privilege to try two different brews.  I first had the Snug Oatmeal Stout and then the Standing Stones Scotch Ale.  Both of these beers were very delicious.  The Oatmeal Stout was perfect for a night where temperatures dropped to about 7 below (F).  And the Scotch Ale was a perfect beer for playing Dixit with ten people.

House of Brews has another really cool feature.  Many of you are probably familiar with CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture).  Those are where you sign up and get fresh vegetables and fruits.  Well, House of Brews has a CSB.  Of course the “B” stands for “Brewery.”  Customers can subscribe to receive beer by paying up front for either a 6 month or one year term.  You can find out more on their CSB Info page.  Sounds pretty cool to me.  I would consider signing up if I weren’t about to dive into the world of home brewing.

Overall I had a fun night.  It was great to meet Brett and learn from him.  He and I may try to set up a play-testing night prior to Protospiel-Milwaukee in March.  That would be a great opportunity to get some final tuning done based on his feedback prior to the convention.  It was also very nice to meet some other people who share an interest in boards and barley!  They’ll be having another Board Game Night at House of Brews two Tuesdays from now from 6:30-9:30.  You should join them!