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WISCONSIN CRAFT BREWERIES RAISE THE FLAG FOR INDEPENDENCE
Wednesday, November 14, 2018

    In advance of “Small Business Saturday”, craft breweries across the state are raising a flag and awareness for the independent craft breweries of Wisconsin.


    WISCONSIN, STATEWIDE - In advance of the holiday shopping season, craft breweries across Wisconsin are raising a flag to help beer lovers identify craft beers that are independently produced in the state. Nearly 30 breweries will hoist a flag at 10 am on November 20thbearing the Brewers Association’s “independent craft” seal. The Brewers Association is the not-for-profit trade group which advocates for small and independent craft brewers across the nation.

    The independent craft seal has been adopted by independent craft breweries in Wisconsin to help consumers identify which beers on retail shelves and taps are genuinely produced by independently owned craft breweries. The Wisconsin Brewers Guild, the not-for-profit trade association for Wisconsin’s small and independent craft breweries is adding its support to the initiative.

    Additionally, small and independent craft beer retailers across the state will be recognized for their support of and commitment to Wisconsin craft beer.  In appreciation for their shared goal of making Wisconsin “A Better State of Beer”, retailers of Wisconsin craft beer will be presented with Wisconsin Brewers Guild wall tackers signifying to consumers that their establishments are reliable Wisconsin craft beer destinations.

    “Our taprooms are the ‘test labs’ to share product innovations with consumers but our retail partners are vital to taking those products to a broader consumer audience.” said Mark Garthwaite, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Brewers Guild. “As an organization, we felt it was important to add emphasis to the significance of the Independent craft seal by extending its meaning beyond the brewery. Small and independent retailers are important to us and they are important for providing consumers with more choice.”

    The flags, bearing an icon of an upside down beer bottle emblazoned with “independent craft”, will be flown at a number of breweries just in time for “Small Business Saturday”, one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Small Business Saturday is a reminder to holiday shoppers to visit the small and independent businesses in their communities during the holiday season.


    Participating Breweries:

    Badger State Brewing Co. – Green Bay                       PUBLIC Craft Brewing Co. – Kenosha
    Bavarian Bierhaus – Glendale                                      Red Eye Brewing Co. – Wausau
    Biloba Brewing Co. – Brookfield                                   Rocky Reef Brewing Co. – Woodruff
    Capital Brewery – Middleton                                         Sand Creek Brewing Co. – Black River Falls
    Central Waters Brewing Co. – Amherst                        Second Salem Brewing Co. – Whitewater
    Dead Bird Brewing Co. – Milwaukee                            Sprecher Brewing Co. – Glendale
    Delafield Brewhaus – Delafield                                     St. Francis Brewery – St. Francis
    Eagle Park Brewing Co. – Milwaukee                           Stillmank Brewing Co. – Green Bay
    Enlightened Brewing Co. – Milwaukee                          Stone Arch Brewpub – Appleton
    Fox River Brewing Co. – Appleton/Oshkosh                 The Brewing Projekt – Eau Claire
    Lakefront Brewery – Milwaukee                                    The Explorium Brewpub – Greendale
    Lazy Monk Brewing Co. – Eau Claire                            The Fermentorium – Cedarburg
    Milwaukee Brewing Co. – Milwaukee                            Titletown Brewing Co. – Green Bay
    MobCraft Beer – Milwaukee                                          Wisconsin Brewing Co. - Verona
    Port Huron Brewing Co. – Wisconsin Dells                           


    Posted by Wisconsin Brewers Guild at 1:02 PM | 0 comments
CAPITAL BREWERY SUPPORTS BAT CONSERVATION
Monday, October 9, 2017
    Middleton, WI – Go to bat for bats during Bat Week this October by heading to The Capital Brewery Bier Stube and drinking a special brew celebrating Wisconsin’s beneficial insect-eating bats and their starring role in Halloween fun.

    Proceeds from sales of ‘Capital Bat House’ beer between October 27-29 in the Stube, 7734 Terrace Ave. in Middleton, go to the Wisconsin Bat Conservation Fund. That endowment fund supports research, monitoring, and protection efforts for Wisconsin’s native bat species.

    A costume party on Friday Oct. 27 at the Stube offers a fun way to raise funds for bats and see live bats up close. Department of Natural Resources bat biologists will be on-hand to discuss bat conservation efforts in Wisconsin in addition to bringing by a live big brown bat and a straw-colored fruit bat.

    Doors open at 3 p.m. on Friday Oct. 27 and the Bat-Oberfest party starts at 4 p.m. Beverages and snacks are available for purchase at this event - open to people 21 and older. Costumes are encouraged, and the best dressed patron will receive a Bat Program certified bat house!

    “Bats and brews are a winning combination during Bat Week and Halloween,” says Paul White, who leads the Department of Natural Resources’ bat program. “We appreciate Capital Brewery and the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin partnering to help bats and we invite the public to have fun and learn through these special events.”

    Bat Week, Oct. 24-31, is an annual, international celebration of the role of bats in nature. Bat Week is organized by a team of representatives from across the United States and Canada from conservation organizations and government departments.

    Bat House is the seventh installment in Capital’s Sustainability Series of beer offerings.

    Founded on March 14, 1984, Capital brewed its first batch of beer in the spring of 1986. The company has received over 240 major awards in both domestic and international competitions in over 15 categories, and the beer has been available in cans since 1997. Capital was named Grand National Champion in the 2013 US Open Beer Championship, winning six medals.

    The Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that provides sustainable funding for Wisconsin’s most imperiled species and public lands, while helping citizens connect with our state’s unique natural places.

    Posted by Wisconsin Brewers Guild at 6:26 PM | 0 comments
Raised Grain Announces Brewhouse, Canning Line Vendor
Friday, October 6, 2017

    Local company, ProBrew, to provide equipment for new production brewery.

    Waukesha, WI (Oct 3, 2017) — Raised Grain Brewing Co. has selected ProBrew, of New Berlin, WI, as the equipment manufacturer for its new production brewery. ProBrew will be supplying a fully-automated 20-barrel brewhouse, a state-of-the-art rotary canning line, a centrifuge with patented inline carbonation and a keg washer/filler, as well as ancillary production components.

    Raised Grain, Waukesha’s award-winning craft brewery, opened two years ago. They are currently in the process of a large expansion to meet the growing demand for their beer.

    “We selected ProBrew for their engineering capabilities. Initially, they were providing only our canning line, but as we got to know them and became more comfortable with their team, we realized the potential of working with them for much more,” said Dr. Scott Kelley, owner and brewmaster at Raised Grain. “We’re both relative newcomers to the craft brew scene, but we see this as a partnership of expertises.”

    ProBrew has been providing custom systems and solutions to the craft beverage industry for the past 4 years, including Shorts, Saucy Brew Works, Devil’s Backbone and many more.

    ProBrew’s parent company, TechniBlend, has been providing beverage processing equipment and solutions to companies such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, MillerCoors and Sam Adams for the past 9 years.

    Derek Deubel, President of ProBrew stated, “we are honored and excited to be working with the team at Raised Grain on this project. They brew fantastic beers with a deep commitment to quality, and our equipment and technology will give the tools to continue that tradition and also meet their growing demand.”

    “We’re both local companies, and there is tremendous value in that,” said Nick Reistad, owner and Sales & Marketing for Raised Grain. “We’re both pushing the Milwaukee and Wisconsin craft beer scene forward, and we’re creating and keeping jobs here.”

    *****

    Raised Grain Brewing Co. is Waukesha’s award-winning brewery. They are currently located at 2244 W. Bluemound Rd, Unit E, Waukesha, WI, 53186, next to Home Depot. Hours are T: 4-8, W: 4-10, Th: 4-10, Fri: 3-12, Sat: 12-12 and Sun: 11:30-6. More information can be found at rgbrewing.com.


    About ProBrew: ProBrew is a Wisconsin company established to provide craft breweries with world-class, turnkey brewery equipment, systems and solutions. ProBrew is dedicated to supplying breweries with innovative tools and technology that help brewers produce great quality craft beer more efficiently, consistently and economically. For more information about ProBrew and its products and services visit: www.probrew.com or email: contact@probrew.com.

    Posted by Wisconsin Brewers Guild at 2:27 PM | 0 comments
DOOR COUNTY BREWING CO. ANNUNCES THE GRAND OPENING OF THEIR SECOND BREWERY AND TAP ROOM
Friday, June 30, 2017
    BAILEYS HARBOR, WI - After opening its doors just 4 years ago, Door County Brewing Co. announced today that its second Baileys Harbor tap room and brewery will open on Saturday, July 1st with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 11:00am. The tap room and brewery is located at 8900 State Highway 57.

    To accommodate an increase in customer demand, construction of the 7500 sq. ft. facility began in October of 2016. Founder John McMahon says that initially only the tap room and beer garden will be open in order to take advantage of a July 1st opening. “Our goal was to build a tap room that honored the agriculture history of Door County and Wisconsin and I think we did just that,” says McMahon. “There are many traditional agriculture elements incorporated into the construction, including over 8500 board feet of barn wood, beams and corrugated metal from barns in Northern Wisconsin and 1500 bricks from the early 1900s. We also mixed straw into our plaster for added texture. In addition, we installed a fireplace inside the taproom and a fire pit in the beer garden to bring warmth and comfort to the space. Even though it’s a larger space than our current location, we paid attention to keeping the new building intimate while adding 60 more seats indoors and 60 outdoors in the beer garden to accommodate extra seating in the busy spring, summer and fall months.” McMahon concluded that the new tap room is designed to improve efficiency by adding 24 taps divided into two sections for quicker service.

    Door County Brewing Co.’s 15-barrel brewing facility will open in the fall. “With such a demand for brewing equipment it takes months to receive it, so in the meantime we will continue to brew draft at our current Baileys Harbor location, just down the road,” says Danny McMahon, Founder and Head Brewer. “Once our new facility is up and running, we will turn our current brewery into a wild and mixed fermentation space.” When operational, the new brewery will have the capacity to brew up to 10,000 barrels a year. In addition to draft, Door County Brewing Co. will be adding both a bottling and canning system to the new facility in 2018.

    Posted by Wisconsin Brewers Guild at 1:55 PM | 0 comments
Artist Selected for Downtown Brewery Mural, Work Underway
Sunday, June 25, 2017
    STEVEN POINT, WI - Work began Tuesday evening on a new downtown mural. The west-facing wall of the Galaxy Comics Games & More building (925 Clark Street) will be home to a new installation celebrating the 160th anniversary of the Stevens Point Brewery through an iconic mural that will serve as a landmark for both locals and visitors celebrating their time in Stevens Point.


    A design committee consisting of members of the Stevens Point Brewery, CREATE Portage County, and the Stevens Point Historic Preservation/Design Review Commission selected Chicago-based fine artist Nick Goettling to complete the installation. With public art in Portland, Washington state, and Chicago and past partnerships with the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry, Clif Bar, and Lagunitas --Goettling offered a strong concept and portfolio that aligned with the goals of the project.


    "I don't just want my work to remind passersby that they've been brewing in Stevens Point since 1857," said Goettling. "I want to inspire the people who live there and visitors alike to really think about the decades of locally-grown knowledge, skills, and ingredients that go into a pint of Stevens Point beer. It's nodding to the past while looking forward."


    Coming to a decision was not easy, according to Stevens Point Brewery Director of Marketing Julie Birrenkott. "The outpouring of amazing ideas, ingenious designs, and creative talent really humbled us. We are pleased that artists as far as Brazil and New Zealand wanted to commemorate Wisconsin brewing history. We're most impressed by all the local artists who spent hours and hours coming up with world-class designs that we would have loved to see in a public space. The applicant pool is not just incredibly talented - they are passionate about what we do."


    The project was designed to commemorate the Brewery's 160 years of exceptional beverage-making in Stevens Point, which predates the incorporation of the city itself. Eager to contribute to local placemaking goals, the Brewery partnered with CREATE Portage County to add to their growing downtown mural collection.


    The open call for artists was announced in late February. The organizers received submissions from 29 talented artists and designers from around Wisconsin, the United States, and the world.


    "Many of the exceptional submissions we received fell into two categories," said Greg Wright, Executive Director of CREATE. "Some created incredibly-detailed depictions of the history of the Stevens Point Brewery, while others offered modern interpretations of the Brewery's icons and its place in the community. Nick gave us the best of both worlds, while also coming up with a 'visual hook' we had not seen before."


    Goettling will be working on the mural for the next few weeks. Residents are encouraged to visit the site to watch the installation take place. A public dedication of the completed mural will be held on a date TBD in mid-July.


    The Stevens Point Brewery and CREATE Portage County would like to thank all artists for their thoughtful submissions. The resulting mural will not just be for the Stevens Point Brewery, but for the whole community, for everyone who helped spread the word, who submitted an original artwork, or simply enjoys Wisconsin craft beer.



    Posted by Wisconsin Brewers Guild at 4:15 PM | 0 comments

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