It's not just big at frat parties. It's big at football games and family reunions, on weekdays and weekends, for parents and grandparents. It's a claim to fame across the entire state and it was just as big for Wisconsinites 150 years ago—in fact, it was bigger. Beer was introduced to us by German immigrants in the mid-1800s, and the tradition of homemade brewing would eventually turn Wisconsin into the nation's leading producer. Providing a focal point for new towns, breweries often rivaling churches in importance. Today, more than 60 breweries owe their Wisconsin origins to these immigrants.
Thanks in part to having the third lowest beer tax in the nation, Wisconsin also surpasses the rest of the country in consumption of the beverage and holds the highest rate of adult binge drinking.
Fast forward 150 years to a UW-Madison Friday night, and after a long week of class, you and your friends head off to the bars to wash away your stress with some nice, cold beer. However, you suddenly find that same ol' $2 pitcher of Miller Lite leaves your taste buds yearning for something a little different. Your solution? Indulge in Madison's abundance of local breweries and pubs—a way to live on the edge and try something new.
LOCAL FLAVOR
Local brewpubs are set apart from the average downtown bar most students frequent by brewing their own beer and serving it in the same building—a microbrewery and pub in one.
""Do you want to go through life bored? Experiencing life in a single dimension, what's the point?"" said Kirby Nelson, brew master at Capital Brewery and Beer Garden, 7734 Terrace Ave., Middleton. ""We believe anywhere from beer to local bread to restaurants, we are trying to reflect our area of the world.""
Plus, he added, this is more fun.
Living in the beer brewing and consuming capital of the nation, UW-Madison students are lucky enough to be able to take advantage of this local flavor more than the average college student.
""We look at ourselves as a neighborhood bar. Being privately owned gives it that personal touch you don't get with corporate bars,"" said Aaron Clevenger, general manager of TJ Whitney's Pub and Brewery, 674 S. Whitney Way.
Dario Tesmer, bar manager at the Great Dane Pub and Brewing Company, 123 E. Doty St., another Madison brewery, also said the personal atmosphere that exists at brewpubs is quite different from that in larger businesses.
""[Employees] can hang out with our guests. They're here to try beer. That's the whole experience,"" he said.
Capital Brewery and Beer Garden serves its beer in a beer garden and several restaurants and stores in the area. Like other breweries in Madison, Capital Brewery prides itself in being a local business by using Wisconsin ingredients to brew its beer.
""We really believe in looking to achieve local sustainability,"" Nelson said. ""We're unique in that a lot of the wheat we use is harvested on Washington Island, on the tip of Door County, which was one of the first areas of Wisconsin settled by Europeans.""
According to Nelson, this area of harvest dates back nearly 300 years, enhancing Capital Brewery's local orientation. ""We walk our talk,"" he added.
A FIVE-STEP PROGRAM
You may wonder how these businesses make the beer that makes them so distinct. It is a long process—one that happens in the same building you sit in, at the same time that you sip a cold one at the bar.
While all breweries may have a slightly different brewing process, the basics are about the same.
Malted barley is weighed, milled and shipped to the brewery. Different types of beer depend on
the kind of malt used.
The malt is mixed with hot water and mashed—a process that converts starches (the malt) to fer-
mentable sugars. It is then rinsed with hot water, creating a liquid called wort. Still non-alcoholic, the wort is then boiled and hops (the alcohol) are added.
During this step, the brewer's job is relatively effortless, Nelson said—
The wort is cooled, yeast is added and fermentation begins, Nelson said—
During fermentation, ales (darker and fuller beers) will take 10 to 21 days to age, while lagers (cleaner tasting, dryer and lighter beers) can take 25 days to 2.5 months, Nelson said.
The beer is filtered and moved to cold storage vats to remove all the yeast.
The beer is finally ready to be tapped or
bottled fresh.
KEEPING TRADITION ALIVE
According to Clevenger, a microbrewery's brewing process is no different from large breweries making domestic beer. ""The process is pretty much the same, just on a smaller scale,"" he said. ""Millers and Buds just brew in bigger batches.""
For Nelson, smaller, local breweries preserve the tradition of beer brewing that goes back for centuries, as the oldest recipe for beer is 7,000 years old from ancient Mesopotamia. Further, ancient beer brewing has actually led to other innovations used today. The ancient Egyptians, for example, were beer brewers. They brewed their beer in large jugs where fermentation took place, creating a layer of yeast at the top.
""[The Egyptians] drank the beer from the jug, but they didn't want the yeast on the top, so they invented the straw,"" Nelson said.
THINK OUTSIDE YOUR BREW
So why should you venture beyond your usual weekend hangouts to try the locally-brewed beers at Madison's brewpubs? To try new beer. Drinking locally-brewed beer allows for flavors outside of the domestics to be tried.
""When you mass market something, you want to offend the least number of people, so you keep it relatively mild,"" Nelson said. ""In terms of beer, [domestic] beer is well-made but mild and boring. Local beers tend to have more of a personality. [Local brewing] gives beer a flavor you can usually like or dislike. It's unique.""
UW-Madison junior Brian Hankel said he occasionally drinks locally brewed beer for just this reason. ""I think locally brewed beer tastes better [than domestic beer] because it doesn't taste so watered down,"" he said.
Tesmer added that when it comes to these local flavors, variety is key.
""It's unique to be able to walk down the street in a neighborhood and try several kinds of beers,"" he said. ""Variety is a spice of life. People come in who are not beer drinkers and we turn them on to it.""
Clevenger agreed.
""We've had 100 different styles of beers. Each one has gotten its own niche with customers,"" he said.
However, he warned students that brewpubs are not the place to build the tallest empty-can pyramid, but to enjoy beer. ""If you're looking for a good robust-tasting beer, a hearty flavor, pub brew is the way to go,"" he said. ""It's not the place to down a 12-pack. It's a place to enjoy the beer, not for mass consumption.""
For many UW-Madison students, however, the convenience of buying and drinking domestics—in addition to the occasional desire for mass consumption—can be hard to pass up.
""Going out to pub-and-breweries is more expensive than going to bars near campus,"" said UW-Madison junior Karlee Lucas. ""And when you go to parties, most kegs are not local beer and students just drink what is there.""
In the end, brewpubs may be a good solution to bored taste buds in need of a different beer—and like no one else in the country, UW-Madison students can continue the tradition of proud, beer-drinking Badgers by taking advantage of the unusually large number of local breweries in the area.
""If you're in Wisconsin, with its strong brewing heritage, do yourself a favor and check out the fine products out there,"" Nelson said. ""There's nothing in Germany, Great Britain or anywhere that you can't find here.\
