Milwaukee's Lakefront Beer Coming to Chicago in a Bolder Way

Article about Lakefront and a mention of Chicago. I like their beer a lot, from Riverwest Stein to Fixed Gear to even their Klisch Pilsner. Unfortunately all I usually see, without going to Wisconsin, is their gluten free one and sometimes the IPA. This sounds like good news to increase their distributorship. Maybe into a lot more bars too. After reading this article I think I have to check out this new one, Bridge Burner?

Lakefront Brewery Expands its Orbit, but Keeps its Milwaukee Roots

 

by Parker Winship December 15, 2011

Lakefront Brewery has the distinction of being an intimate institution. It’s big enough to be one of the faces of Milwaukee beer, but unlike Miller or Schlitz, you can make out its wrinkles. Lakefront sold more than 15,000 barrels last year, which means it has officially graduated from microbrewery status. It’s now a regional brewery, and its beer is sold in 35 states. Still, that success is like your kids going off to college: You’re proud of them for going out on their own, but part of you hankers for the days when they were little tykes content to play in the front lawn.
Lakefront is 24 years old and still struggling as it comes into its own. “Hopefully they’re good pains,” Lakefront president Russ Klisch says. “But there are pains. Growing all of the sudden, you always have someone in your company who’s doing more work than they normally should be. There’s always some part of the brewery that’s being pushed to its limit.”
Racing to keep up with its own success is a long way from the brewery’s beginnings. Back in the 1980s, brothers Russ and Jim Klisch went into the business believing they could start a big-shot brewery—until it came time to actually finance it. “I didn’t understand the concept that you had to have money to borrow money,” says Klisch. “So all of the sudden, it became quite the realization that we weren’t going to get something really big.”
The brothers’ next plan was subtler: to sneak into the industry as an underdog. “What we were hoping would occur is that we’d win a bunch of awards with our beer, and then people would notice and invest in our brewery.” Unfortunately, that didn’t exactly happen. “We won a bunch of awards, but no one ever came up with money for us, and the few people that did make us an offer, it was like taking the whole brewery for basically next to nothing. We weren’t about to give that up.”
Lakefront couldn’t be a big brewery, and it couldn’t be the investor-loved underdog. Instead, it just had to be what it was. The Klisch’s built the company batch after batch, sale after sale, until one day they found themselves in that big brewery they dreamed of when they started over two decades ago.
As their empire of ale has grown beneath them, the brothers’ roles have changed. They used to brew the beer themselves in a converted bakery, but now Jim is the regional sales manager and Russ spends his time overseeing a corporation, entertaining potential clients, and traveling to visit accounts. “It’s becoming more like being a director in a movie,” says Russ. “That’s one of the things about growing any company—you have to get other people doing your job for you. If you’re really good, you aren’t doing anything.”
Lakefront’s success has even spilled over to Milwaukee’s neighbor to the south, Chicago. Tonight, the brewery will host a Chicago roll out party at the Long Room Bar (1612 W. Irving Park), where Fixed Gear, Bridge Burner, and Riverwest Stein will be on tap. So while it may look like the Klisch brothers are getting away from the kettle—and Lakefront away from Milwaukee—it’s clear that their orbits are simply expanding, while their centers remain the same.