Photo by Barry Houlehen
Lakefront Brewery entrance at night
Lakefront Brewery
For the first time in its storied 37-year history, Milwaukee's Lakefront Brewery will be acquiring another brewery: Public Craft Brewing Co. in Kenosha, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this month.
According to Lakefront president Russ Klisch, the brewery in downtown Kenosha, which features a taproom, bar, and food, will be kept much the same, including the Public Craft line of beers.
Klisch said that he was contacted by them recently and was told that the brewery was for sale, and unlike other breweries they had considered purchasing in the past, "there are certain things this brewery has that the other ones didn't," including "a decent size brewing system size, and they have a lot of room, so we could do tours." (Public Craft has a 15 barrel brewing system.) "They have a small canning line; we'll continue using that."
"We'll continue with the current line from them, and we might come up with some new stuff, and sell our Gluten Free and NA beers down there," Klisch said. "We have the same distributor, CJW; that's another thing we could benefit from." In addition, he said "They do make some nice sour beers. We'll probably, once we learn the system, try and take that across the state."
Public Craft had been open for 12 years, but according to a recent social media post by founder Matt Geary, Covid hit shortly after they began a major expansion, followed by "the fallout of the Jacob Blake shooting and ensuing events" in Kenosha.
"The result of all of this occurring at the same time we were investing heavily in our expansion, the extended recovery time, inflation, and restaurant partner problems, is our current untenable financial situation," Geary said in the post.
It might be two or three months, or possibly more, before Lakefront will be able to take over the brewery, according to Klisch.
