The Milwaukee Brewery Tour Trifecta Part 3 - Lakefront

The third leg of the brewery tour day was my favorite. I was interested in Lakefront beer when I tasted it in Milwaukee last summer when at Miller Park, where they served Riverwest Stein Beer on tap. The brewery is located just south of the appropriately named Riverwest section of Milwaukee, and occupies a factory building on the river with the brewery downstairs and the Palm Garden bar upstairs.

We entered the building from the street side and it led us directly into the bar with the gift shop and restaurant, which was bustling with the Fish Fry crowd and tour goers. Having waited so long for this brew I bought a pint of the Stein Beer while we waited in line for the tour tickets. They had tours starting downstairs periodically but having never toured there I did not realize they were taking groups of people right away without having people wait in line too much.

With the ticket we were given a plastic cup and 4 wooden chips and sent down right away. At the bottom of the stairs was a beer station with pourers offering 4 choices from their bar. Here I tasted a Big Easy Maibock (a seasonal lager) after finishing the RWSB, then I decided on the Monkey Wheat to take with me on the tour. This, I found, was a mistake, because I was not too thrilled with the fruity yet bitter taste (an odd combination).

The tour was informative but mostly entertaining, since the tour guide was a much tattooed local school teacher who emphasized the fun of it more than the education. But halfway through when we went around a corner near the mash tuns was Bernie's Brewhouse from County Stadium, and your choice of more beer to taste!

Here I sampled the Eastside Dark, a strong malty brew that was very satisfying for the rest of the tour. Back at the bar after the tour was over I sampled their IPA with my last remaining chip. It was a classic IPA and also a good choice. When the tour finished we were offered a choice: we could keep the plastic cup we sampled with or trade it in for a glass Lakefront pint. We took the glass pint.

The beer there is great and I had to bring some home, including the growler of Riverwest, the 2 sixpacks I bought at the Midget Store, and I couldn't resist buying the 8-bottle variety pack at the bar for $11. The beertender was even good enough to exchange the Monkey Wheat for an adiditional Eastside Dark for my variety pack.

I would strongly recommend going here, especially on a Friday. I did not sample the fish fry but enjoyed the polka band. For next visits I would like to try the Ale House and Water Street Brewery, two establishments I have not been to in many years. Milwaukee, what a great beer town.

The Milwaukee Brewery Tour Trifecta Part 2-Sprecher

The second leg of the tour of Milwaukee breweries really didn't happen at all. We were in the Miller valley where we enjoyed the first leg of the tour, then after consulting our GPS we saw that Sprecher, a beer that I have enjoyed in those familiar 16 oz bottles, housed their brewery a little to the north in Glendale. We were planning to meet our good friend around 4:30 at his house in Riverwest so we didn't have a lot of time. We arrived there at approximately ten minutes to three, and when walking into the brewery shop we were greeting by 2 gents drinking some fine Sprecher beer, so we knew we were in the right place.
We asked if we were in time for the tour, but they informed us that the first tour on a weekday was at 4 PM. We asked if we could enjoy a couple there, but we were told it was not allowed. Which is curious because they were certainly enjoying theirs.
We asked if they could give us a special tour, since we were probably the only ones expected, but they said they could not take care of us. We realized that we would not be able to take the 4 PM tour ( the first one scheduled) and meet our friend on time, so we had to take a pass. But, when we asked were we could enjoy one nearby the fine Sprecher brewery guy pulled out some coupons to the local watering hole where we could get a free one with the coupon.
It was off to the Silver Spring House where we enjoyed a couple Sprecher Ambers, on tap, which were cold and delicious. As it turns out, we probably should have done the tour and been a little late back to Riverwest, but we really wanted to hook up with our Milwaukee mate. Near his house is the ultimate goal of the trip, Lakefront Brewery.

The Milwaukee Brewery Tour Trifecta Part 1-Miller

Travelled up north on a Friday in February to visit with friends and sample that which made Milwaukee famous. Chose to visit the Miller Brewery first, since they offered the earliest tour, of our three choices. The 12:30 PM tour took us through the bottling and canning, the brew house and a walk through that portion of the Miller valley.

Kind of uneventful, and although our tour guide did a good job, I wish she didn't mention the fact that we were getting free beer at the end so many times. I think everyone understood that anyway. Not that many people were on the tour and all the Miller buildings seemed fairly empty of employees.

For a change since the last time I was there I thought the addition of Coors to the Miller mix would change things a little, but she mentioned that the only Coors product brewed in Milwaukee was Coors Light.

Now for some trivia: Q: What are the three most popular beers brewed in Milwaukee?

A: Lite, MGD, Milwaukee's Best.




At the end we went to the Miller Inn where we were able to sample three beers: Lite, MGD and the third of our choice. It was good having a fresh draft beer there and we sent free postcards out too. For my third choice I asked for the Pilsner Urquell, which was on tap there (MillerCoors now owns them , along with Fosters, Peroni and Molson to round out their international flavors). Unfortunately they were unable to pour me one from their tapper so I instead chose the Leinenkugels 1888 Bock instead. I was glad I did. I wished I could try a few more, but it was time to go on to the next leg of the tour, Sprecher.