This past Saturday MUGZ, the homebrew club I belong to, went on a bus trip to Milwaukee. We made stops at six Milwaukee area breweries. St. Francis Brewery, Milwaukee Ale House, Rock Bottom Brewery, Stonefly Brewery, Lakefront Brewery and Leinenkugel's 10th St. Brewery. Each place had it's own special charm to it.
St. Francis is a purpose built brewery and restaurant in a stand alone building in St. Francis, WI. The building looks brand new still, even though they had opened in 2009. Scott the brewer gladly answered any question fired at him. What interested me was that they brew on only a seven barrel system with 3 fermentors, so needless to say Scott has to be on his toes to make sure he has all of his beers on tap. He mentioned that they are in the process of securing a relationship to do some contract brewing to ease the demand of their customers. Also Scott mentioned that he does very little water treatment, because the local water does not need any. I can attest since I had a kolsch and a dortmunder, both were clean and delicious. After too short of a time we are of to our next stop.
Milwaukee Ale House is right on the river and has a great view from the back porch and patio. I do not believe the brewer was available so we were able to just enjoy the beer. The first beer I had I did not care for, Solomon Juneau Extra Pale Ale, it was not the beer I thought I was ordering, my bad. The second beer I had I enjoyed much more, Ulao a Belgian Wit, a Belgian wheat with coriander, orange peel and ginger. Also the Ale House is one of the breweries on the downtown Milwaukee boat tour which a person can do on the weekends.
Next stop Rock Bottom Brewery, still in the downtown and still on the river making it another stop on the boat tour. After a bit of confusion we were seated and had lunch brats and burgers as well as beer. I had their brown ale it was good but not outstanding. Their brewmaster's specials are the way to go if you want the good stuff.
Onto Stonefly Brewery, they are in an up and coming area of Milwaukee. They have a really cool beer garden area and seem to be trying really hard to brew good beer. My first beer was a Scottish ale, unfortunately I am not a fan, Second beer was a stout and it was very good. Also I tried a sip of the porter and it was good as well. Lesson learned they make really good dark beer!
Next stop Lakefront Brewery, this is another of the stops on the boat tour, I believe. The back of the building overlooks the river. They have multiple places to find beer, on the back patio it is limited to 4 beers I believe. The first beer I had was the IPA, I have had it previously and I know I like it so that is why I decided upon it. Second beer was the Lakefront white an interesting Belgian Wit. This place is constantly running tours through it and makes really good beer. This is a must stop on your Milwaukee beer tour.
Last stop Leinies 10th Street, a place that normally does not do tour groups. So we were very lucky to score a chance to go through this brewery. We had an opportunity to try their Big Eddy Imperial Stout, as well as a really nice IIPA and a really good bourbon stout. This brewery originally was owned by G Heilemans to brew in and was sold to Leinie's (aka Miller Coors). It was really cool to see what a large brewery set up looks like and yet they make some tasteful beer with it.
So we had a long ride home and a couple of people made it eventful, but we made it home with everyone that left in the morning. Overall it was a very good day, If you want to see a cool video go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1bdVHpAFYE. You can see the QCBG in several pictures including the last with my beautiful wife!
QC Beerguy
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