November 28, 2009
It’s easy to drive by Ale Asylum in its strip mall location. However, if you do, you’ll missing out on a gem. You must order a sampler. $1 each for 4 oz. pours. We tried everything they had on tap (10 beers) for only $10. What a deal! They have a wide variety of beers, including a few Belgians. The best of the brews, in my opinion, were the Hopalicious Pale Ale ad Ballistic IPA. Food menu is limited, but of high quality. Pizzas are made off-site and cooked in mini-ovens at the bar. Ingredients are local and fresh - surprisingly good! The chips & salsa are also tasty. Next time I’m in the Madison-area, I’ll be sure to visit the Asylum again.

August 30, 2009
Finished up my Lake Michgan beer tour here. Kind of a nouveau industrial park feel. Very good beer. In fact, only Right Brain had better offerings in terms of deliciousness. All 10 beers on tap were very tasty. Limited food offerings. Nice bar staff. I get the sense that the owners here are a bit full of themselves, but why not when you make beer this good? If you can only stop at one brewpub in Madison, right now, make it this one.

August 11, 2009
visited briefly on my last visit to madison. Nothing special, a few decent beers, reasonable pricing, nice atmosphere.

August 4, 2009
Went to this place while visiting in-laws and couldn’t have had a better visit - will definitely go back to this place. We took the tour, which was led by the head brewmaster and then sat around for drinks and snacks. The ambiance is pretty cool as you can see a lot of the brewing equipment from the side room. The service was always fine - plenty of bartenders around to get us our drinks. I didn’t pay much attention to the selection beyond their own offerings, but you can get several of their beers on tap or in the bottle, which is nice. The value is about average for pint prices, but if you get a beer for the tour it’s cheaper, and the tour was long enough that most of us had drank all of our beer, so the brewmaster got fresh bottles out of the fridge and passed them around for free. Nice! Overall, I really liked this place, their beer was great, and I will definitely be hitting this place next time I’m in Madison.

April 30, 2009
Finally stopped in Ale Asylum… I love this place. The pizza, made fresh at the brewpub, was excellent… it’s craft pizza so to speak. They offer a wide variety of choices. I already knew the beer here was going to be solid, and I wasn’t let down by the handful of taps I hadn’t tried before. The sampler platter is $1 a glass and you get some pretty good size pours. Building is what it is… In an industrial park, lined with Ale Asylum posters everywhere. Non smoking inside, always a plus. Location is decent, not too far off I-94 and not too bad of a drive from Milwaukee. I’ll definitely add this one when making that all too frequent trip to Tyranena.

April 8, 2009
Stopped in here for lunch yesterday - man, this is way out on the edge of Madison, on the corner of an industrial park - not the greatest of locations - cold exterior, etc. - the interior was about as homey as it could be given the circumstances - I’ve never been to a brewpub that had it’s own mechanized bottling line visible from the bar - it was kind of neat to watch as I had my lunch - the staff was young and hip (ie. lots of tattoos and piercings), but very friendly and attentive - the food is sandwiches and pizzas (there is not kitchen; they make all the food right in front of you behind the bar), so you get your food pretty fast- the sandwich I had was decent, but nothing special - the beers ranged from quite good, to mediocre - their strong suit seems to be session ales, and the stronger beers are less impressive - a good selection of ten beers, but I’d like to see more interesting styles - overall a nice place to stop, but I prefer the Great Dane downtown.

December 13, 2008
this is everything a brewpub should be to me. interior and exterior decoration is more then up to snuff, easy to spot and comfortable inside. modern and clean but without being obnixious. with 8 to 9 tappers flowing at all times, including 2 or 3 belgians, you cant go wrong. their american styles are wonderful. their food is simple yet refined and prepared with great care. my bartender jillian was a joy and i also made acquaintance with another employee who preps the food for the sandwiches and even bakes cookies. i would love to sit here and get good and drunk rather then the two beer lunch i did today.

November 27, 2008 [ Updated March 30, 2009 ]
Stopped here on the way to Darkness Day. Hard to find, because it’s in such an odd location. The place was busy, but there was plenty of seats. The first word that came to mind when I stepped inside, was kitsch. It seems like a trendy beer bar. You have to wait in line to make your initial order, only to have a waitress take the rest of them. Seemed strange. The patrons were mostly hipsters and were very unfriendly. SeveraI people made ignorant comments at me for no apparent reason, leaving me feeling hostile. I got their stout, which was beyond mediocre and stepped out to the patio for some air. I was berated on the patio by several people for smoking...In the designated smoking area. Also, from the patio I had a picturesque view of anti abortion protesters across the street at Planned Parenthood Wisconsin...This place had a surreal touch to it...Back inside, my food was waiting. The food was just plain bad. This place was a massive dissapointment. F*ck hispter/elitist beer places.

April 30, 2008
Sadly this place is kind of in the middle of nowhere, and hard to find at first. It’s a nice cozy pub atmosphere with most people shooting the shit and having a good time. The staff is very helpful and know and like their beers. They will give you free samples of beers and will talk to you about the styles they have and even other beers they like, as well as their brewing history. I didn’t have any of their food but was told that their pizzas are quite good. Beers are above average!

March 17, 2008
Kind of hard to find. The staff was very friendly and offered us a free tour of the brewery. I had the Scotch ale which I thought was pretty disappointing. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear they gave me the wrong beer. I’d be willing to give them a second chance, though.