Bars, restaurants and liquor stores around Milwaukee County will host dozens of beer tastings and dinners from April 28 to May 8 as part of the third annual Milwaukee Beer Week. Modeled after similar Beer Weeks in New York, Cleveland, San Francisco and Austin, Texas, the event began as a way to spotlight the ever-growing array of craft beers on sale locally.
"Basically, it's a way to educate the public about the glory and the gospel of all the great craft beers that are available now," says Cliff Kaplan, a sales manager for Beechwood Sales and Service, the New Berlin beer distributor that is coordinating Milwaukee Beer Week. "We come from a state and a city that's very proud of its beer heritage, so it made sense for Milwaukee to have its own Beer Week."
Fifty breweries will sample their beers at Beer Week's kickoff event, Milwaukee's Taste of Great Brewers tasting at the Harley-Davidson Museum, from 6-9:30 p.m. April 29. Advance tickets are $40 and include unlimited samples of more than 200 craft and imported beers.
Smaller tastings will take place throughout the county during the week, featuring breweries including Fat Tire, Boulder Beer, Chameleon, Shmaltz, New Belgium, Lagunitas, Keweenaw, Anderson Valley, Wild Onion, New Glarus and Shock Top.
Caf Hollander, Hinterland Erie Street Gastropub, Karl Ratzsch's, Maxie's Southern Comfort and Rustico Pizzeria are among the restaurants that will host beer-pairing dinners.
Other Milwaukee Beer Week events offer a sampling of European beers, including Monty Python's Holy Ale, and gueuze beers, a sour, barrel-aged Belgium-style beer that remains a novelty in America. There will also be more than a dozen Beer Week-affiliated fish fries serving fish battered in beers including Spotted Cow, Fat Tire, Petrus and Louie's Demise.
For a complete schedule of Beer Week events, visit milwaukeebeerweek.com.
