\n<\/a>duct also is a fun and enlightening treat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The full story. . .<\/p>\n
MILWAUKEE\u2014After Russ Klisch graduated from college in 1981, he started home brewing, and a friendly rivalry developed with his brother, Jim. Each tried to outdo the other, much to the delight of their thirsty friends.<\/p>\n
“They started telling us, `You should open a brewery,\u2019 \u2019\u2019 Klisch said. “When you\u2019re 20-something, you believe them.\u2019\u2019And so, in 1987, the Lakefront Brewery was born\u2014in 55-gallon batches. That\u2019s about 22 cases at a time.<\/p>\n
Today, Lakefront regularly brews eight to 10 beers, ranging from wheat to stouts, that are sold in 35 states and Canada. It also turns out six to eight seasonal beers, and expects to produce more than 15,000 barrels (nearly half a million gallons) this year.<\/p>\n
Its hottest seller is New Grist, a gluten-free beer made from sorghum and rice that accounts for about 25 percent of its production. The New Grist didn\u2019t bowl me over, but it\u2019s an admirable breakthrough. And I\u2019ve tasted much worse gluten-laden beer, generally from mega-breweries whose advertising tends to be much better than their beer.<\/p>\n
As a longtime home-brewer who didn\u2019t listen to those friends who told me I should open a brewery\u2014I was older than 20-something when I began\u2014I can tell you just about every beer Lakefront turns out is seriously good\u2014depending on your favorite styles.<\/p>\n
You can see\u2014and taste\u2014for yourself at a tour of Klisch\u2019s Lakefront Brewery. Housed since 1999 in a quaint old brick building that was built in 1908 to house a Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Co. power plant, it sits along the Milwaukee River, not far from the Bradley Center and the city\u2019s downtown.<\/p>\n
Klisch and his staff operate one of the most entertaining and educational tours around. The tours cost $7, and four beers are included in the price of admission.The upstairs portion of the brewery feels like a vintage beer hall, with a long bar and an endless stretch of tables under a chandeliered, 25-foot ceiling. Tour-goers are encouraged to start sampling before their tour in the beer hall, which hosts an excellent Friday night fish fry and can be rented out for weddings and other galas.<\/p>\n
“Now this is something you can\u2019t do at most brewery tours,\u2019\u2019 Klisch said, holding up a pint glass and toasting his audience at a tour we took last month.This was duly noted in an ESPN.com ranking of “Baseball’s Top-10 Bars and Grills,\u2019\u2019 which placed Lakefront fifth, behind top-rated Mickey Mantle\u2019s in New York and just ahead of No. 6 Ozzie Smith\u2019s in St. Louis. Now that\u2019s some All-Star competition.It\u2019s not just that a pre-game brewery stop was a natural in a city whose team is named the Brewers. When Milwaukee County Stadium was torn down, Klisch bought the Chalet and Beer Slide that Bernie Brewer used to celebrate Brewer home runs.\u00a0And then he placed Bernie\u2019s Chalet midway through his brewery, overlooking Lakefront\u2019s brewing and fermenting kettles and just around the corner from the bottling line.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re looking for fancy, huge and spotless, Lakefront is not the place for you. This brewery looks more like a bigger version of the mad-scientist lab where I brew beer in my basement.But if you\u2019re looking for a fun tour that explains how beer is made, Klisch is your guy.<\/p>\n
Noting that the Busch family, of Budweiser fame, and Jim Koch, who started Sam Adams brewing, both can trace their beer roots back for generations, Klisch said he has a family heritage, too.<\/p>\n
“At one time, my grandfather drove a street-sweeper for Schlitz,\u2019\u2019 he said.Klisch not only will tell you about beer\u2019s four key ingredients\u2014malted barley, hops, yeast and water\u2014and how they interact. He\u2019ll hold up samples, and offer tastes of different kinds of barley, complete with a well-developed monologue.<\/p>\n
For example, “Yeast acts like a college student,\u2019\u2019 Klisch said. “It eats and splits in half, and does it again and again. And then it goes to sleep.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
And no tour would be complete without a reference to Laverne and Shirley, the old sitcom about roommates who worked in a Milwaukee brewery. Klisch had no trouble finding a volunteer to work the bottling line while the L&S theme played.<\/p>\n
Kidding aside, Lakefront claims a long list of awards at beer contests, including two at a recent competition in Germany, which makes Klisch swell with pride.<\/p>\n
“American craft beer is the rage of the world right now,\u2019\u2019 he said. “Twenty years ago, people laughed at American beer.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Beyond the beer, the gags and the education, there\u2019s another plus to Lakefront tours, which tend to attract a fun-loving crowd.“Seven couples who met here have gotten married,\u2019\u2019 Klisch said. “You never know what your $7 gets you.\u2019\u2019At Lakefront, it’s not really all about the beer. It just seems that way.<\/p>\n
IF YOU GO
\nLAKEFRONT BREWERY: Located at 1872 N. Commerce St., near downtown Milwaukee. Tour admission is $7, which includes four beers, plus a coupon for another beer at several nearby bars and restaurants. \u00a0Tours generally begin at 2 and 3 p.m. most days, but extra tours often are added during peak times. Check at Lakefrontbrewery.com or call 414-372-8800. Tour reservations are not taken; plan on arriving early. Fish fry also available from 4 to 9 p.m. on Fridays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Even if you’re not from Milwaukee, you ought to know about Lakefront Brewery, a micro-brewery that features a great… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3767,3768,3769],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-milwaukee","tag-micro-brewery","tag-lakefront-brewing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/10\/DSCN2701-Rick.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/10\/DSCN2701-Rick1.jpg\")
<\/a>![\n<\/a>duct also is a fun and enlightening treat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nThe full story. . .<\/p>\nMILWAUKEE\u2014After Russ Klisch graduated from college in 1981, he started home brewing, and a friendly rivalry developed with his brother, Jim. Each tried to outdo the other, much to the delight of their thirsty friends.<\/p>\n“They started telling us, `You should open a brewery,\u2019 \u2019\u2019 Klisch said. “When you\u2019re 20-something, you believe them.\u2019\u2019And so, in 1987, the Lakefront Brewery was born\u2014in 55-gallon batches. That\u2019s about 22 cases at a time.<\/p>\nToday, Lakefront regularly brews eight to 10 beers, ranging from wheat to stouts, that are sold in 35 states and Canada. It also turns out six to eight seasonal beers, and expects to produce more than 15,000 barrels (nearly half a million gallons) this year.<\/p>\nIts hottest seller is New Grist, a gluten-free beer made from sorghum and rice that accounts for about 25 percent of its production. The New Grist didn\u2019t bowl me over, but it\u2019s an admirable breakthrough. And I\u2019ve tasted much worse gluten-laden beer, generally from mega-breweries whose advertising tends to be much better than their beer.<\/p>\nAs a longtime home-brewer who didn\u2019t listen to those friends who told me I should open a brewery\u2014I was older than 20-something when I began\u2014I can tell you just about every beer Lakefront turns out is seriously good\u2014depending on your favorite styles.<\/p>\nYou can see\u2014and taste\u2014for yourself at a tour of Klisch\u2019s Lakefront Brewery. Housed since 1999 in a quaint old brick building that was built in 1908 to house a Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Co. power plant, it sits along the Milwaukee River, not far from the Bradley Center and the city\u2019s downtown.<\/p>\nKlisch and his staff operate one of the most entertaining and educational tours around. The tours cost $7, and four beers are included in the price of admission.The upstairs portion of the brewery feels like a vintage beer hall, with a long bar and an endless stretch of tables under a chandeliered, 25-foot ceiling. Tour-goers are encouraged to start sampling before their tour in the beer hall, which hosts an excellent Friday night fish fry and can be rented out for weddings and other galas.<\/p>\n“Now this is something you can\u2019t do at most brewery tours,\u2019\u2019 Klisch said, holding up a pint glass and toasting his audience at a tour we took last month.This was duly noted in an ESPN.com ranking of “Baseball’s Top-10 Bars and Grills,\u2019\u2019 which placed Lakefront fifth, behind top-rated Mickey Mantle\u2019s in New York and just ahead of No. 6 Ozzie Smith\u2019s in St. Louis. Now that\u2019s some All-Star competition.It\u2019s not just that a pre-game brewery stop was a natural in a city whose team is named the Brewers. When Milwaukee County Stadium was torn down, Klisch bought the Chalet and Beer Slide that Bernie Brewer used to celebrate Brewer home runs.\u00a0And then he placed Bernie\u2019s Chalet midway through his brewery, overlooking Lakefront\u2019s brewing and fermenting kettles and just around the corner from the bottling line.<\/p>\nIf you\u2019re looking for fancy, huge and spotless, Lakefront is not the place for you. This brewery looks more like a bigger version of the mad-scientist lab where I brew beer in my basement.But if you\u2019re looking for a fun tour that explains how beer is made, Klisch is your guy.<\/p>\nNoting that the Busch family, of Budweiser fame, and Jim Koch, who started Sam Adams brewing, both can trace their beer roots back for generations, Klisch said he has a family heritage, too.<\/p>\n“At one time, my grandfather drove a street-sweeper for Schlitz,\u2019\u2019 he said.Klisch not only will tell you about beer\u2019s four key ingredients\u2014malted barley, hops, yeast and water\u2014and how they interact. He\u2019ll hold up samples, and offer tastes of different kinds of barley, complete with a well-developed monologue.<\/p>\nFor example, “Yeast acts like a college student,\u2019\u2019 Klisch said. “It eats and splits in half, and does it again and again. And then it goes to sleep.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\nAnd no tour would be complete without a reference to Laverne and Shirley, the old sitcom about roommates who worked in a Milwaukee brewery. Klisch had no trouble finding a volunteer to work the bottling line while the L&S theme played.<\/p>\nKidding aside, Lakefront claims a long list of awards at beer contests, including two at a recent competition in Germany, which makes Klisch swell with pride.<\/p>\n“American craft beer is the rage of the world right now,\u2019\u2019 he said. “Twenty years ago, people laughed at American beer.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\nBeyond the beer, the gags and the education, there\u2019s another plus to Lakefront tours, which tend to attract a fun-loving crowd.“Seven couples who met here have gotten married,\u2019\u2019 Klisch said. “You never know what your $7 gets you.\u2019\u2019At Lakefront, it’s not really all about the beer. It just seems that way.<\/p>\nIF YOU GO\nLAKEFRONT BREWERY: Located at 1872 N. Commerce St., near downtown Milwaukee. Tour admission is $7, which includes four beers, plus a coupon for another beer at several nearby bars and restaurants. \u00a0Tours generally begin at 2 and 3 p.m. most days, but extra tours often are added during peak times. Check at Lakefrontbrewery.com or call 414-372-8800. Tour reservations are not taken; plan on arriving early. Fish fry also available from 4 to 9 p.m. on Fridays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Even if you’re not from Milwaukee, you ought to know about Lakefront Brewery, a micro-brewery that features a great… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3767,3768,3769],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-milwaukee","tag-micro-brewery","tag-lakefront-brewing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/10\/DSCN2701-Rick.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/herbgould\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2010\/10\/DSCN2681.jpg\"){kind=link}