Guide to Milwaukee

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

JohnfromPurdue

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2013
Messages
647
Reaction score
527
Location
Indianapolis, IN
Figured it's time to do Milwaukee

Dear FIB's, buy your New Glarus at Woodman's in Kenosha. No Credit Cards, just cash, check, debit cards!

Beer Stores:
  • Discount Liquors - Best beer selection in the city, afaic. Bourbon/whiskey selection is good too. Prices are good.
  • Ray's Wine - Great beer and bourbon selection. Consistently $1 more expensive for any given beer than Discount. They just started a growler "gallery" that only consists of "rare" beers. They like unnecessarily hyping things but the growler gallery is a nice addition. From the sound of it, they will fill any growler.
  • Otto's on Oakland - Pretty decent selection of beer. Their bourbon/whiskey selection is above average.
  • Whole Foods - Good beer selection. Consistently $1 more expensive for any given beer than most places. Growler fills available.
  • Woodman's - Good beer selection. Good price. No Credit Cards, just cash, check, debit cards!
  • Malt Shoppe - Nearly everything is available as singles. The IPAs are stored in cooler (but w/ singles - still have to watch bottle dates) There are 30 taps (will growler fills on most) so you can drink as you peruse the selection.

Beer Bars/Pubs:
  • Burnhearts, Sugar Maple, Palm Tavern, and Roman's pub - All 4 spots are top notch beer bars. They are all in Bayview. The first 3 have pretty good bourbon/whiskey selections also. Can't speak for Roman's whiskey selection. There is no food at any of them but being in Bayview (hipster heaven) there are a lot of great eateries around (Lulu's, Honeypie, Odd Duck, Palomino's, etc...)
  • Rumpus Room - Expensive, Yippy, downtown near a lot of other things on Water street. Good beer and whiskey selection. Beware of out-of-date whiskey list. Good food.
  • Stubby's - Good beer selection. Food is overpriced for me. They try to be fancy with their food but it doesn't always hit. Don't get me wrong, their food is above average bar food but there are just so many good places to eat in MKE that they fall short for the price. If you're in the area go to Bel Air for tacos and walk down the street to Stubby's for beer.
  • Von Trier - Cool old German bar. They have a good beer selection, no food. I got 16oz of La Folie on tap for $6. Can't beat that. Eat at Comet and have a beer there then walk down to Von Trier.
  • Cafe Centraal, Cafe Hollander, Cafe Benelux - Belgian themed restaurants with a large beer selection and good food. Most beer is in bottles not on tap.
  • Comet - Great food, sister restaurant to Honeypie and Palomino but it's on the near north side instead of the south side of the city. Beer selection is Good. Not a ton of taps like Sugar Maple or Stubby's but some pretty quality beer. Pretty decent bottle list too. The last 2x I've been there I had Lakefront Johnson IIPA (fresh) and Oskar Blues Ten Fidy aged in whiskey barrels on tap.
  • Goodkind is a restaurant started by owner of burnhearts and some local chefs from other great restaurants.
  • Estabrook park, as well as a new one that just opened in hubbard park - German beer gardens open in the summer.
  • Milwaukee public market - It's a bunch of shops crammed in one open building:
    • Nehring's Market has 13ish taps, does growler fills, sells bottles and has good food.
    • Theif wine
    • West Allis Cheese shop has cheese (obviously) and local food.
    • a bunch of other places I don't remember the name of: mexican, middle eastern, seafood, soup place, salad place. All of which have good food.
  • Draft and Vessel - Small craft beer bar with growler fills, no food.
  • Vanguard - opened recently. Fantastic sausages and 22 (thereabouts?) taps.
Breweries:
  • Lakefront - Great tour. I find them to be hit and miss on their beers. Their best are Johnson IIPA, IPA, Fixed Gear, and Riverwest Stein.
  • Milwaukee Brewing Company / Ale House - I like Milwaukee brewing company. They are more hit and miss than Lakefront but they usually have some different things on tap at the Ale House. The food at the Ale house isn't bad but I've never really been impressed with it.
  • Great Lakes Distillery - No beer, just booze. The tour is just ok but you get to try their product line at the end. It's worth going in my opinion. Nice mixed drinks too.
  • Tornado Brewing - It's in Cudahy though...
  • District 14 - have seen positive checkins on untapped.
  • Brenner Brewing - Solid beers
  • Company Brewing - The food is pretty good, as are their beers. The grapefruit IPA, though not exceptional, was "clean" and easy drinking. I really liked their rye porter.
Random:
  • Bobby Nelson Cheese Shop - Same exit as the Mars cheese castle. Hole-in-the-wall, no gimmick, great cheese and sausages, Cash Only!
  • O&H Bakery - Sure WI is known for cheese but don't pass up the kringle (you can thank me later). Don't buy kringle from the Mars Cheese Castle. Theirs is terrible. O&H or bust!
  • Jake's Deli or Benji's Deli for a Reuben.
  • Colectivo Lakefront Cafe (formerly Alterra) - Local coffee chain. Good inexpensive food. The Lakefront location is in a prime spot on Lake Michigan. You could walk the lake, walk to Bradford Beach, or walk to the MKE Art museum from there.
  • The Best Place is a tour of the old pabst brewery that is pretty entertaining. They have a shop filled with vintage glassware that they found on the grounds.
Sheboygan
  • Il Ritrovo - Some of the best wood-fired pizza I've ever had. Their process and oven are certified by some authentic Napoletana Pizza Organization in Italy. They serve the standard lineup of Italian imported beer as well as some Italian craft and a couple local WI taps. Nothing too crazy.
  • 8th Street Ale Haus - This place was right down the street from Il Ritrovo so a nice option before or/and after dinner. They have food but didn't look too interesting. It seemed like they tap vintage kegs somewhat regularly (had 2011 NG Thumbprint Barleywine when I was there this past winter). Their bottle prices are very reasonable as well for a bar.
  • Kohler Design Center - Cool place to visit if you have any kind of interest in product/home design. It's free to visitors. I've never stayed there, but they're suppose to run a nice resort and spa on the grounds as well.


Calling other MKE people to complete my list...

Last Updated 6/16/2015
 
Last edited:
I'll second a lot of your suggestions.
The only thing I would add, since it seems like there are a lot of coffee minded people on here as well, is a stop at the Colectivo Lakefront Cafe (formerly known as Alterra). I make sure to hit it up at least one morning when I'm in town. Grab a coffee and breakfast sandwich/scone and walk across the street to unwind on the Lake.

Any interest in adding some Sheboygan spots since it's not too far from MKE? I found some great food and bars when I was last there for work.
 
I'll second a lot of your suggestions.
The only thing I would add, since it seems like there are a lot of coffee minded people on here as well, is a stop at the Colectivo Lakefront Cafe (formerly known as Alterra). I make sure to hit it up at least one morning when I'm in town. Grab a coffee and breakfast sandwich/scone and walk across the street to unwind on the Lake.

Any interest in adding some Sheboygan spots since it's not too far from MKE? I found some great food and bars when I was last there for work.

Sure, I can add a section for Sheboygan.
 
Sheboygan

Il Ritrovo

Some of the best wood-fired pizza I've ever had. Their process and oven are certified by some authentic Napoletana Pizza Organization in Italy. They serve the standard lineup of Italian imported beer as well as some Italian craft and a couple local WI taps. Nothing too crazy.

8th Street Ale Haus
This place was right down the street from Il Ritrovo so a nice option before or/and after dinner. They have food but didn't look too interesting. It seemed like they tap vintage kegs somewhat regularly (had 2011 NG Thumbprint Barleywine when I was there this past winter). Their bottle prices are very reasonable as well for a bar.

Random
Kohler Design Center

Cool place to visit if you have any kind of interest in product/home design. It's free to visitors.
I've never stayed there, but they're suppose to run a nice resort and spa on the grounds as well.
 
The Milwaukee public market is worth a visit. It's a bunch of shops crammed in one open building:
- Nehring's Market has 13ish taps, does growler fills, sells bottles and has good food.
- Theif wine
- West Allis Cheese shop has cheese (obviously) and local food.
- a bunch of other places I don't remember the name of: mexican, middle eastern, seafood, soup place, salad place. All of which have good food.

Goodkind is a restaurant started by owner of burnhearts and some local chefs from other great restaurants.

The Best Place is a tour of the old pabst brewery that is pretty entertaining. They have a shop filled with vintage glassware that they found on the grounds.

In summer there's a beer garden in Estabrook park, as well as a new one that just opened in hubbard park.
 
  • Rumpus Room - Expensive, Yippy, downtown near a lot of other things on Water street. Good beer and whiskey selection. Good food.
I went there a month or so ago. My only real quip was that their whiskey list was terribly out of date. It took my sixth order attempt before I had a drink in my hand.
 
Last edited:
Local Beer to grab while in town:
- Three sheeps: their IPAs are good.
- Black Husky: safe grabbing anything of theirs.
- Ale asylum: bedlam. I think everything else is meh
- I think there's a brewery located in new glarus, wi... I forget the name.
 
I went there a month or so ago. My only real quip was that their whiskey list was terribly out of date. It took my sixth order attempt before I had a drink in my hand.

Good to know. The last time I was there was before I was into whiskey. I was going off their list I saw online a little while ago.
 
Local Beer to grab while in town:
- Three sheeps: their IPAs are good.
- Black Husky: safe grabbing anything of theirs.
- Ale asylum: bedlam. I think everything else is meh
- I think there's a brewery located in new glarus, wi... I forget the name.
-Sweet Mullets: Aprikose (apricot AWA)

Found this at Stubby's and really enjoyed it. Didn't expect it to be as good as it was. I also hit their taproom in Oconomowoc on my way to Madison from MKE and the rest of their lineup was decent to solid. Tried their jalapeno beer and was shocked how much jalapeno flavor came through without too much heat.
 
bumping this--i'll in be in milwaukee, the fair city of my birth this weekend for a wedding with not much time to spare. there are weird beer buying rules, right? something about no beer buying late? also, am i going to find cranbic anywhere (please say yes). staying downtown but will have a car and some time on sunday. thanks in advance. go marquette
 
Can't buy beer after 9pm. Cran-bic is generally pretty scarce, though I did see it at Discount on Oklahoma about two weeks ago (first time I had seen in a while).
 
Figured it's time to do Milwaukee

Dear FIB's, buy your New Glarus at Woodman's in Kenosha. No Credit Cards, just cash, check, debit cards!

Beer Stores:
  • Discount Liquors - Best beer selection in the city, afaic. Bourbon/whiskey selection is good too. Prices are good.
  • Ray's Wine - Great beer and bourbon selection. Consistently $1 more expensive for any given beer than Discount. They just started a growler "gallery" that only consists of "rare" beers. They like unnecessarily hyping things but the growler gallery is a nice addition. From the sound of it, they will fill any growler.
  • Otto's on Oakland - Pretty decent selection of beer. Their bourbon/whiskey selection is above average.
  • Whole Foods - Good beer selection. Consistently $1 more expensive for any given beer than most places. Growler fills available.
  • Woodman's - Good beer selection. Good price. No Credit Cards, just cash, check, debit cards!

Beer Bars/Pubs:
  • Burnhearts, Sugar Maple, Palm Tavern, and Roman's pub - All 4 spots are top notch beer bars. They are all in Bayview. The first 3 have pretty good bourbon/whiskey selections also. Can't speak for Roman's whiskey selection. There is no food at any of them but being in Bayview (hipster heaven) there are a lot of great eateries around (Lulu's, Honeypie, Odd Duck, Palomino's, etc...)
  • Rumpus Room - Expensive, Yippy, downtown near a lot of other things on Water street. Good beer and whiskey selection. Beware of out-of-date whiskey list. Good food.
  • Stubby's - Good beer selection. Food is overpriced for me. They try to be fancy with their food but it doesn't always hit. Don't get me wrong, their food is above average bar food but there are just so many good places to eat in MKE that they fall short for the price. If you're in the area go to Bel Air for tacos and walk down the street to Stubby's for beer.
  • Von Trier - Cool old German bar. They have a good beer selection, no food. I got 16oz of La Folie on tap for $6. Can't beat that. Eat at Comet and have a beer there then walk down to Von Trier.
  • Cafe Centraal, Cafe Hollander, Cafe Benelux - Belgian themed restaurants with a large beer selection and good food. Most beer is in bottles not on tap.
  • Comet - Great food, sister restaurant to Honeypie and Palomino but it's on the near north side instead of the south side of the city. Beer selection is Good. Not a ton of taps like Sugar Maple or Stubby's but some pretty quality beer. Pretty decent bottle list too. The last 2x I've been there I had Lakefront Johnson IIPA (fresh) and Oskar Blues Ten Fidy aged in whiskey barrels on tap.
  • Goodkind is a restaurant started by owner of burnhearts and some local chefs from other great restaurants.
  • Estabrook park, as well as a new one that just opened in hubbard park - German beer gardens open in the summer.
  • Milwaukee public market - It's a bunch of shops crammed in one open building:
    • Nehring's Market has 13ish taps, does growler fills, sells bottles and has good food.
    • Theif wine
    • West Allis Cheese shop has cheese (obviously) and local food.
    • a bunch of other places I don't remember the name of: mexican, middle eastern, seafood, soup place, salad place. All of which have good food.

Breweries:
  • Lakefront - Great tour. I find them to be hit and miss on their beers. Their best are Johnson IIPA, IPA, Fixed Gear, and Riverwest Stein.
  • Milwaukee Brewing Company / Ale House - I like Milwaukee brewing company. They are more hit and miss than Lakefront but they usually have some different things on tap at the Ale House. The food at the Ale house isn't bad but I've never really been impressed with it.
  • Great Lakes Distillery - No beer, just booze. I've never been but people seem to like it.

Random:
  • Bobby Nelson Cheese Shop - Same exit as the Mars cheese castle. Hole-in-the-wall, no gimmick, great cheese and sausages, Cash Only!
  • O&H Bakery - Sure WI is known for cheese but don't pass up the kringle (you can thank me later). Don't buy kringle from the Mars Cheese Castle. Theirs is terrible. O&H or bust!
  • Jake's Deli or Benji's Deli for a Reuben.
  • Colectivo Lakefront Cafe (formerly Alterra) - Local coffee chain. Good inexpensive food. The Lakefront location is in a prime spot on Lake Michigan. You could walk the lake, walk to Bradford Beach, or walk to the MKE Art museum from there.
  • The Best Place is a tour of the old pabst brewery that is pretty entertaining. They have a shop filled with vintage glassware that they found on the grounds.
Sheboygan
  • Il Ritrovo - Some of the best wood-fired pizza I've ever had. Their process and oven are certified by some authentic Napoletana Pizza Organization in Italy. They serve the standard lineup of Italian imported beer as well as some Italian craft and a couple local WI taps. Nothing too crazy.
  • 8th Street Ale Haus - This place was right down the street from Il Ritrovo so a nice option before or/and after dinner. They have food but didn't look too interesting. It seemed like they tap vintage kegs somewhat regularly (had 2011 NG Thumbprint Barleywine when I was there this past winter). Their bottle prices are very reasonable as well for a bar.
  • Kohler Design Center - Cool place to visit if you have any kind of interest in product/home design. It's free to visitors. I've never stayed there, but they're suppose to run a nice resort and spa on the grounds as well.


Calling other MKE people to complete my list...
Have been to the Great Lakes Distillery and done the tour. It's worth checking out. They are fun and lively, and the Gin and Vodka is pretty good.
 
Yep Brenner is a cool place. Open since last summer but I think their official grand opening was last weekend.

You coming to MKE in 2 weeks?
Actually sooner John. My girlfriend Anjila and I will be heading into town on the 2nd, and leaving on the fourth. Going to see Wilco at the Riverside on Wednesday. Lets drink some beer! I've told her alot about the crew of random people that I stay in a cabin in the middle of the woods with for the CW party, so she is familiar with you and Rachel.
 
Brenner is good, Tornado is better. Beer, that is. Atmosphere is exactly the opposite....right now. Pretty sure Tornado is going to be a "destination" in 2015.
 
Any chance we could add regular bottle share groups to this list with links to their respective threads?
 
I've been to Company Brewing in riverwest twice now. The food is pretty good, as are their beers. The grapefruit IPA, though not exceptional, was "clean" and easy drinking. I really liked their rye porter.
 
I've been to Company Brewing in riverwest twice now. The food is pretty good, as are their beers. The grapefruit IPA, though not exceptional, was "clean" and easy drinking. I really liked their rye porter.

Interesting. This is in Stonefly's old location. Only went to Stonefly once. Was not impressed. I assume they are not affiliated.
 
Will be hitting Milwaukee several times this summer. Hoping to share a Two Women Lager with sherm1016

giphy.gif
 
Interesting. This is in Stonefly's old location. Only went to Stonefly once. Was not impressed. I assume they are not affiliated.
No affiliation. Was initially 50/50 owned by owner of Bavette and ex-director of coffee at Collectivo. Collectivo dude is now the brewer at company brewing. The food was going to be supervised by owner of Bavette (great place) but she had to back out because of some weird law that says since she had liquor license at bavette she couldn't be partial owner of brewery.
 
Last edited:
The Malt Shoppe in Wauwatosa is becoming a fast favorite bottle shop for me. Nearly everything is available as singles. The IPAs are stored in cooler (but w/ singles - still have to watch bottle dates) There are 30 taps (will growler fills on most) so you can drink as you peruse the selection.
 
Hey guys, I'm coming back to the motherland in a few weeks (I live in Florida now....) and was wondering if there are any new must hit places that have opened in the past couple of years. I haven't been back since my wife was pregnant maybe 3 years ago.

Thanks and Cheers!
 
We've had a rash of new breweries in Milwaukee of late that all seem to be producing good beer.

Third Space
Good City
Like Minds
Raised Grain (Waukesha)

I thought City Lights' beer was middling at best, but they have a cool space, and you can park there for free and take a shuttle to Miller Park on game days.

I'm sure I'm missing some others.
 
haven't had anything from the other two

Nothing from Third Space? For shame. You can get tall cans of Happy Place at Brewers games. And I find their space in the Menominee Valley to be the most inviting of any on my list. Although I haven't been to Raised Grain - they might as well be in Iowa as far as I'm concerned.
 
What they said above.

Third Space and Good City should be on your list. Also Black Husky if you like hops.

Pass on City Lights, Mobcraft, Fermentorium and Broken Bat.

New restaurants with good food and good beer lists: Camino, Vanguard, Doc's Commerce BBQ.
 
Thanks for the quick responses! I am super excited to get out of this heat and try some new breweries up there. I've been to most of the usual suspects a few times and was looking to Branch out.

Edit : I'll be hitting the Milwaukee/Madison/Janesville triad with a couple days in each. I'm going to be at Chilimania in Edgerton if anyone else is going I'm down to bring some FL stouts to share.
 
Last edited:
Nothing from Third Space? For shame. You can get tall cans of Happy Place at Brewers games. And I find their space in the Menominee Valley to be the most inviting of any on my list. Although I haven't been to Raised Grain - they might as well be in Iowa as far as I'm concerned.

been a few months since i've been in Milwaukee. i will be out at Songbird golfing in a couple weeks, though.

anywhere out near there (or off 41) that carries Third Space?
 
Close to 41 Woodman's in Men. Falls will be your best bet. They always seem to have something from Third in stock.

that's near the office i work out of when i have to be in Milwaukee (adjacent)

guess i'll have to make a point of checking the shelves a little more closely next time
 
Back
Top