Have a Sip: Three of Milwaukee's Lesser-known Brewery & Winery Tours

 

 

As winter approaches, we Wisconsinites are always looking for fun things to do on the weekends that are, well, warm.  A brewery tour or winery tour is a great way to spend the day (you probably have some in your area that you visit).  While you may be familiar with the bigger Milwaukee brewery tours, such as Miller and Pabst, there are many smaller ones to visit.  Here are 3 of them:

 

1) Sprecher

 



You may or may not be familiar with Sprecher.  They were founded in 1985, and are described as the area's first craft brewery since Prohibition.  Located on the north-side suburb of Glendale, their tour consists of a talk about the different ingredients that make up beer, and it's difference from other malt beverages, then a tour of the plant including the bottling and shipping areas, seen below.

 

At the end of the tour, patrons over 21 can sample up to 20 different beers in a, in my opinion, very large shot glass.  Or, if you don't like beer or are under 21, you can sample up to 10 of their flavored sodas.  You can also buy beverages along with shirts, bottle openers, and even frozen pizzas, in their gift shop.

 



 2) Cedar Creek Winery

Cedarburg is a gorgeous smallish city north of Milwaukee that is a great place to visit any time of year.  But during the holidays, it's decked out liked a country Christmas card.  On the north side of Washington Street, Cedarburg's main street, is the Cedar Creek Winery and Shops, which holds a lengthy tour daily.  You start off by watching a video on the history of the winery, then get a tour of the antique equipment they used to use to make their wine, and the casks used to store the wine and other mulled beverages, such as cider, seen below.

Their wine casks are huge, and kept in their limestone-walled cellar, ideal for fermenting and aging their wines to perfection.

When my friends and I visited last year, the tour guide said the casks were large enough that a tall man could stand upright in them, so one of the visitors had to try it:

3) Milwaukee Brewing Company

This brewery tour is by far my favorite of the ones I've done so far.  The brewery is located on the south side of Milwaukee, on 2nd Street, and you can tell the tour guides have a lot of fun and are passionate about their product.  They crack a lot of jokes, engage with the visitors, and contribute a lot to the relaxed atmosphere brewery tours should have.  Head brewer Robert Morton studied at the Culinary Institute of the Arts in New York, and infused their beer with different flavor combinations, usually in seasonal varieties. 

 

The brewers even add fun to the machinery they use:

 



The brewery holds a 5:00 PM "Open House" on Saturdays, where visitors can sample seasonal beers and socialize with patrons as well as the brewers themselves.

 

In addition to these three breweries/wineries, you can find other tours here.

My Summer in Photos

I, for one, can't believe it's Labor Day Weekend and summer is quickly coming to a close.  What's worse, I haven't posted anything new since March!  It's not that I didn't do anything this summer, although not as much as usual due to money issues, but I did get out with my camera to a few fun places and events, and got to meet some new photographers in my area as well.

One of my most favorite places in my area is the Milwaukee Public Museum.  I've been going there ever since grade school, but hadn't gone in about 8 years.  I primarily went this year due to the "Body Worlds" exhibit, but also got to see some familiar subjects such as the dinosaurs (above), the Native Americans,

"The Streets of Old Milwaukee", one of the most popular exhibits,

All of the various ethnic exhibits,

and the Museum's "Butterfly Garden" where you get to interact with real butterflies.

I also met up with a new group in our area for a photowalk of Milwaukee's Walker's Point (or 5th Ward), which I knew about but never visited before.  Walker's Point is the home of Allen Bradley, and a very diverse cross-section of the city as a whole.  That weekend, they had rainbow flags on the light posts in celebration of the "Gay Pride" festival at Meier festival park.

On my walk, I came across a very nice alley garden.  Very jealous I don't have a green thumb.

While on the photowalk, my friend, her husband and I went on the brewery tour for Milwaukee Brewing Company.  I have to say, MBC's beer has become my favorite microbrew in the city.  Many different flavors and not too heavy for a hot day.

 And, they definitely have fun on the job.

And no summer of mine would be complete without an annual trip to the Boerner Botanical Garden for my flower fix.  Unfortunately, the long cold winter and spring kept a lot of my favorite flowers (especially roses) from blooming, but I managed to get a couple of good shots of them.

As well as other hearty little flowers.

 



And, I found out that I really like Dahlias, and they come in many different varieties.  My favorites were the Peony variety.

Hopefully with fall coming, I will get out more with my camera and check out some local festivals and areas I haven't been to before.  I hope everyone had a fun and safe summer!

Celebrate Oktoberfest In The Park

In Autumn, citizens of Germany and the U.S. celebrate beer (and, really, why shouldn't we?) with the annual Oktoberfest.  In Germany, this 16-day event lasts from late September to early October in Munich, and originally celebrated the marital union of Germany's King Ludwig I to Bavaria's Princess Therese.  The original festivities included annual horse races, an agricultural show, and a parade.

The festivities now constist of consuming large amounts of German beer and food, and here in Milwaukee, we know how to do that well.  Milwaukee's official Oktoberfest is held at the former Bavarian Inn, but there are many (MANY) places around the city to celebrate our German heritage and partake of what made our city famous.

One of these places is the new Biergarten at Estabrook Park, which just opened in June.  The park is located on the north side of the city, off of Hampton Avenue and Port Washington Road.  What makes this beer garden so special is that it is the only one held in a county park in the U.S., and the first to do so since the beginning of Prohibition.  I took a drive over to the beer garden yesterday afternoon to check it out.

Estabrook Park itself is a very large, narrow park that runs along the Milwaukee River, and has many places for running, biking, and playing with your dog.  As you can see above, many bicyclists stop here on their ride to have a quick drink in the sun or spend the afternoon catching up with friends.

The photo above shows the concession stand where I saw that they serve 4 types of German Lager, some domestic offerings, as well as bratwursts and hot dogs.  If you buy one of their Lagers, you get a lot for your money.  A 1/2 litre is $5 and a full litre is $7, but there is also a refundable $5 glass deposit (I saw them - they are nice glass mugs).  But, you can also bring in your own mug, and in fact, it's encouraged.  Since it was only 3:00 and I had to drive back west, I didn't partake of the beer offered, but they did look good.

The scenery at this beer garden is gorgeous, and there are a lot of tables around the concession stand to take it all in.  After your drink, you can walk along the river path (above) or look out at the river itself (below).

The Biergarten at Estabrook Park is open weekends through November 24.  Milwaukee's Oktoberfest is held weekends through September 29.

For more information on the Estabrook Park Biergarten, click here.  Auf Wiedersehen!

Work and Play at Milwaukee Irish Fest

Today I spent the day along the Milwaukee Lakefront to work and attend Irish Fest.  Apparently, this is the largest Irish festival in the United States, and people come from all over (mostly Chicago) for one weekend in August to drink Guinness, eat fish & chips, and listen to Gaelic music.

I was there this morning as a volunteer with Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful, an organization which promotes conservation and the environment in Southeastern Wisconsin.  I had volunteered with this organization before at their Green Living Festival where I took photos for their website and other publications.  I did take some photos today for them, as well as work the Information table.  They had a really fun way to get kids involved in learning about the environment by having a Bingo game.  There were 7 tables set up where the kids could either answer questions or play a game to get a blot on their bingo forms and when they got 4 squares blotted in a row, they went to the end table to spin a wheel and either win a small prize on the spot or enter the raffle for even nicer prize.  Some of the sponsors of the raffle included Whole Foods, Olive Garden and Gift of Wings, a kite store in town.

Like I said, I did take some pictures, but as a volunteer, I believe that they now belong to Keep Greater Milwaukee Beautiful.  I did post one photo below to show you one type of display they had, this one from Weir Nature Center.

After my shift was over, I grabbed some lunch (shrimp and chips, yum!), watched one of the Irish Dance Troupes for a little while, and then ventured through the crowd to see what else was going on in the festival.  There was a lot of food, as with all of the ethnic festivals.  But, there was also music:

A rowing regata:

Irish dogs (hard to believe this one is only 6 months old),

And, even leprechauns:

Back to the dogs.  I had to do a double-take when I saw this sign.  A lot of other people were taking photos of it as well.

On the way out of the festival fairgrounds, I passed through the south exit where they have a brand-new sculpture to celebrate the fact that Summerfest, the 2-week festival held there in June/July, is the largest music festival in the world.

They also updated the south entrance itself:

Irish Fest is one of those festivals you can enjoy even if you're not Irish.  There's a lot of good music, dancing, food and history (and, of course, beer).  The festival will be held tomorrow as well from 11:00 until 10:00 p.m.  For more information, visit: www.irishfest.com.