Wisconsin beer trek by way of Illinois
Sue and I took a mini trip to Dekalb, Illinois to visit her sister. Our first nights stay was at Galena, IL. It is just east of Dubuque, and what a beautiful town it is. If you have never been to Galena, it is worth a look. Its main street sits along a river and they have built a berm and also have two huge metal doors to close when there is a flood to protect the town. In fact I was so impressed with the city that I bought 4 bottles of wine from the local winery. One negative on the city is there are no brewpubs.
The next day we were off to Dekalb and when we got into town we found a hotel that was 3 doors from a Moose lodge. So you know where I was going to spend the evening. After visiting Sue’ s sister and going out for dinner, I suggested that the three of us should have an after dinner drink at the Moose. It was real quiet when we got there and everyone was real friendly. Being that I was an out of town visitor, we all got a free drink. Not much to choose from for a beer but they did have Old Style in the bottle. Like I said earlier it was real quiet, but by 7:30 p. m. people where showing up in droves. We found out that the club plays a game called“ lightning”. I never heard of it before but it is similar to bar bingo, but in goes much faster. You buy a ticket with three numbers on it for a dollar. They spin a wheel and call out a number and when they have called all three numbers on your ticket you win 75 % of the pot and the rest goes to the club. They play for only two hours, buy like I said these games fast and so does your dollars. I was playing every game and had not won and it was coming up to the last game for the night and darn if I didn’ t win. I won enough money to pay for all the drinks and the all of the tickets that I bought and still was able to pocket $ 50.00.
Next day we said goodbye to Sue’ s sister and now it was time to see some breweries in Wisconsin. The first stop was at Monroe, WI to visit the Huber Brewery. Well it is not the Huber Brewery anymore, but the new owners were remodeling and the gift shop would not be open until some time this summer. That was disappointing but I took a few pictures on the out side of the buildings. I don’ t know if the original building was brick, but now it has that metal siding much like the Gluek Brewery in Cold Springs, MN. The next stop was just up the road to New Glarus. The brewery sits just on the edge of town and it looks
guided tour and it was kind of neat because you took a cell phone like piece of equipment and when you come to a number station you press that number on the phone and a recording comes on. They had a very small gift shop about the size of Schell’ s old one. The only thing I bought was a six pack of my choice for $ 8.00. We hit the road again to go 40 miles west to Mineral Point, WI to the Brewery Creek. This place really looked promising because it looked like a brewery building that was made of out stone. It was an old warehouse that they made into a brewery and a bed & breakfast. What a neat combination but they also serve lunches and dinners. It was lunch time for us and we got seated at the back of the room. The bartender & waitress were the owners of the place and it took forever to get waited on. They were taking care of the locals first before they came around to take our order. I ordered a beer, sandwich and a bowl of soup and Sue ordered chicken strips & fries. Well, I would not recommend eating here. The beer and food was OK but not for the portions you got and the price you had to pay. The only thing this place had going for it was the bar & the back bar. They found this beautiful bar in Minneapolis and had it shipped down. While we were waiting for our meal, I was reading a local ad about an old brewery that housed a pottery business. I just had to check this place out which was on the other side of town. It was a neat old building and it did not look like it was open so I took a few pictures of the outside. Our last stop was at Potosi. The only thing I’ ve got to say about the World Class National Brewery Museum is it is going to be the greatest thing this side of Austin. I made a donation at the Legion Club and I can’ t wait for the scheduled opening in June of 2008.
This ends my little brewery search with some highs & lows but overall it was a lot of fun. I’ m always gamed to find a new brewpub or an Old brewery. As Always, remember to support your local brewery.
Murray – The Legend