Sprecher Brewing Company, Inc.

Milwaukee' has historically been a great brewing town. Once known as "Beer Town" this wonderful city had been home to some of the country's biggest breweries. But that reputation, if you will, went flat as that image and reputation diminished.

Well, at least until 1985.

That's the year that Randal Sprecher, launched his one-man operation, Sprecher Brewing Company, Inc. bringing Milwaukee its first microbrewery since Prohibition. The rest, of course is suds history.

Today, Sprecher Brewery makes some of the finest European-style beers in its Glendale, Wisconsin location. Twelve European beers are brewed there (four year-round, eight seasonal) as well as seven varieties of gourmet soda. If you've not tasted a Sprecher brew or the company's famed root-beer, you're missing out on one of life's greatest pleasures.

And the best way to introduce yourself to this great beer is to visit the brewery and take one of its delightful and informative tours.

The tour takes you to the Rathskellar museum and then to the brewhouse, the aging cellar, the bottling line and warehouse. It ends in a beer tent where refreshing samples are served. Adults 21 and older get four samples of beer. Everyone, no matter your age can sample the soda.
Randy Sprecher had been supervisor of brewing operations at Milwaukee's Pabst Brewing Company. Layed-off in 1984, he got up, dusted himself off and established his own microbrewery.

Sprecher creates all of the product recipes and oversees the production. A stickler for precision and excellence, he brews in accordance with the Reinheitsgebot German purity law of 1516, mandating only malted barley and hops. An estimated 90 percent of ingredients used by Sprecher--among them malts, honey cranberries and ginseng-are either manufactured in the state or purchased from Wisconsin suppliers.

Tours fill up fast and reservations are highly recommended.

 

- by Lori Rotenberk , Milwaukee Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)

Lori Rotenberk

Lori Rotenberk graduated from Drake University and is a Chicago-based journalist whose work has appeared in The Boston Globe, Newsweek and various magazines. She worked as a staff reporter on The Chicago Sun-Times, the suburban section of The Chicago Tribune and The Des Moines Register. In addition, she has studied fiction writing in adult education at the University of Chicago.