A Keg of Their Best: Brewing in the Beer State Capital, by Robin Shepard
Madison was never known as “the City that Means Beer.” However, onetime Isthmus beer columnist Robin Shepard makes the case that our state capital began brewing in the territorial days and continues to be home to small brewers.
Carefully researched and accessibly written, A Keg of Their Best shows that the German immigrants who settled in Milwaukee had the same idea and conditions as their cousins in Madison. Wisconsin soil was excellent for wheat and barley, there was ample water for brewing and the “dense strands of oak could be harvested for wood and turned into barrels.” Milwaukee’s beer barons eclipsed their Madison competitors, in part because of our city’s lake port and easy rail connection to Chicago.
At least half of A Keg of Their Best is devoted to Madison breweries/brew pubs opened since 1990, albeit not all have survived.
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