Lion's Tail Brewing Co.
Wisconsin has seen no fewer than 58 new breweries open since 2014, and while some have rocketed to prominence in the state and beyond — Octopi, Third Space, Eagle Park — others have built a following more slowly, quietly. It’s okay if you haven’t heard of some of these breweries yet, but don’t sleep on some of the Badger State’s sneakier gems.
Tyler Conn
La Crosse, 2018
Call it my Dane County bias, but when I see the number “608,” I think Madison and not La Crosse. 608 Brewing Company, however, is working hard to make it stand for big stouts, hazy IPAs, and collaborations with Midwestern breweries both young and hyped. And if you’re thinking about how many other breweries this might describe, remember that ambition and trend-awareness doesn’t always equal quality.
Among its many brewery friends, 608 has established a connection with Funk Factory here in Madison, taking over the taps during Craft Beer Week 2019 and participating in the geuzeria’s pre-Great Taste bacchanal. The can releases have been selling fast, but I managed to track down cans of 608 BOYZ (a New England double IPA with Nelson Sauvin and Citra hops that was brewed with Mikerphone) and Ready to Pie (a blended sour beer made with Pulpit Rock Brewing and a whole bunch of Moon Pies). Based on the confident depth of flavor and construction of these beers, 608 is a number I’ll be looking to dial again soon.
Hillsboro, 2014
Plenty of breweries have taken old dairy equipment and repurposed it to brew beer, but the number of breweries that have sprouted up in old dairy plants is surely significantly smaller. In a state like Wisconsin, where there’s plenty of dairy infrastructure and beer demand, Hillsboro Brewing Company is making the best of things as it restores the 19th century Hillsboro brewing name.
Hillsboro’s canned releases trend toward the classic microbrew style: a blond, a milk stout, an IPA, an Oktoberfest. But that milk stout, Badger Sweat? It has vanilla in there, too, for a very sweet and luxe palate experience, with notes of blueberry and Tootsie Roll. And the Blonde Walks Into a Bar might be the most skillfully crafted blonde ale I’ve had in years, with exactly zero flaws and eminent crushability.
Neenah, 2015
If you’d have told 13-year-old me that the old insurance building I zoomed past on bike rides in downtown Neenah would one day house a cool young brewery sending kegs all the way down to Madison ... well, I probably wouldn’t have cared because I was an aloof teenager. But today, it still blows me away that Lion’s Tail Brewing is finding success creating IPAs and stouts and wild ales under the shadow of the Neenah clock tower.
There’s clearly a good relationship between Lion’s Tail and Mr. Brews, the burger franchise with locations in the Fox Valley as well as Madison. I first encountered the brewery’s signature Juice Cloud hazy IPA at the High Crossing Mr. Brews about a year ago, and just recently went back to that location for a pint of Tropic Slushee — a wildly overfruited kettle sour that’s more like Naked Juice than beer. Adjust your beer purity scale, and enjoy something unexpected from my hometown’s biggest brewery.
Hartland, 2018
The first thing you notice when you walk across the threshold of the Melms Brewing strip mall taproom is that there’s no room there. You have to walk down a flight of steps like you’re strolling into Cheers or something. And indeed, I bet it wouldn’t take many visits for the very friendly staff to know your name.
Melms is a resurrection of a historical beer brand by a distant descendant of one of the brewery’s founders. Melms excels at classical styles like a zingy hefeweizen with light banana flavors and a dry and warming Russian imperial stout cheekily named Collusion? — question mark included. Though Melms’ somewhat liminal brewing location is currently off-site from its taproom, the brewery hopes to be brewing on-site in the near future, and the beer should be even better for it.
Waukesha, 2015
Of the breweries discussed here, Raised Grain probably has the highest profile to date. It’s already expanded once, moving to a larger non-strip mall location. It’s received beer column coverage across the state. And yet, compared to some of its glitzier southeastern Wisconsin compatriots, Raised Grain still feels like it’s flying under the radar.
Raised Grain’s can design is consistent and understated, which maybe keeps it on the DL compared to the wackadoo packaging from breweries like Pipeworks, Brewing Projekt, and Drekker. Its beers straddle a line between old-school (Doktoberfest, Summer Vice) and new, like its flagship hazy IPA, Naked Threesome, with spicy, bruleed grapefruit notes. But there’s something to be said for a brewery that can brew and package to meet demand, and Raised Grain is getting beer to Madison in prompt fashion.
Vennture Brew Co.
Milwaukee, 2018
Take a cool third wave coffee shop (think Johnson Public House or Bradbury’s) and mash it together with a cool small-scale brewery, and you get Milwaukee’s very cool Vennture Brew Co. All the white walls and blond wood and succulents are firmly in place, with pour-overs and snackable pastries and a killer chai latte. But oh, then you see the tap list, and now we’re really talking about something new.
These aren’t afterthought beers. Peach Apricot Bruv is a Berliner weisse that isn’t fruited to the point that a fork could stand up in it, but is still unquestionably fruity. And as much as I enjoyed the light and drinkable Bashtoberfest festbier, the new coffee version should be even more fun. It’s as appropriate a stylistic hybrid as a coffee shop brewery could possibly brew.
