Oddly enough, I made my way to another tour while I was in Milwaukee. This happened to occur at MKE, or Milwaukee Brewing Company.
This place is really just a big brewing area, with no frills or sunshine. Does that matter if the beer is good? Um, not even a little.
When you walk in, you are given your pint glass (not a tasting glass, a full pint glass), which does have the tendancy to be themed to a current seasonal release. I like the incentive to return to get the newer glasses, or the certain "gotta catch 'em all" mindset.
Before your tour starts, you head over to the bar, and yes, you read that correctly. It is a full fledged bar serving full pints of their beers to the crowd. Some limitations do apply, but it is really cool to get that kind of service.
As soon as you have your beer, your guide summons you to watch a quick video introduction to the brewery by its owner. This might be the only ho-hum point in the tour for me, but you have to give a nod to the bossman at some point, so I'll allow it.
The tour transitions to the various equipment items (mash/lauter tuns, liqour tanks, etc), but not before you are told to make sure you have enough beer. I liked how this was less important to the tour guide and more allowing people to get hands-on and directly involved with the ideas behind each stage of brewing.
The tour ends, ultimately, with another beer, and a quick view of some of their bottling and storage aspects.
This particular tour really came down to having great people leading us around. They were funny, enjoying the day, and really cared about their product. This was a smaller tour, but fun in a totally different way from the other great tour I took (check the other posts!). I would highly recommend that you take this one on if you are looking for something else to do in the Milwaukee area.
As always, drink well and be merry. Slainte!
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