As one of Wisconsin’s premier Beer Festivals, it’s no wonder the Great Lakes Brew Fest is on it’s seventh year! And this year marks a special change in the GLBF. This year will feature two days of GLBF rather than one!

Friday kicks off the fest with a celebration of Milwaukee Beer Week and features only Wisconsin Brewers. 35 of them to be exact. With more than 100 brews and food available to purchase, it’ll be a beautiful time watching a fireworks display over Lake Michigan. After that you may want to get your Gatorade and sleep on cause Saturday features even more beer-y goodness.

More than 90 American craft brewers will be serving up more than 250 different beers, food available for purchase, and Reggae and Ska music to compliment this years’ theme: Dreadlocks -N- Hops.  Come in your dreadlocks and tie-dye to have a chance at winning a prize for being the best dressed! Saturday also features Homebrew Island, a special section of GLBF dedicated to homebrew clubs featuring their own concoctions.

A word to the wise though; tickets go fast. It’s been sold out the last 4 years running AND the hotels are booked solid months in advance. I’ve already saved mine; the Radisson within walking distance. A very short walking distance. I suggest you do the same!

For more information on this event visit the Great Lakes Brew Fest website.

The past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the event with a guest courtesy of the owner Joel whom I thank for the great time! As my friend and I drove there, a bit behind schedule, I contemplated the layout of this event. It was advertised that over 75 beers would be available to try, and despite how spacious the location is, I was unsure of how the logistics would work besides serving outside.

As we pulled up my question was immediately answered. Three tables were lined up outside with people serving beer. I took a glance at the table as we walked in to get our glasses and was content with what I saw. Nothing out of the ordinary opened made it seem like another fest that contained a decent selection of beer I’ve had plenty of times. That was until after we went through our first table which had offerings from Summit, Milwaukee Brewing Co, Left Hand, Big Sky, and Schelle.

After a short stop at an Abita table my mouth began watering at the sight of the next table; beers I haven’t had! Koenings, Chouffe, Dogfish Head Red & White, and some great beers to revisit; Stone Arrogant Bastard and Ruination IPA, DFH 60 and 90 Min. IPA, and Piraat among many others.

Other tables included beers from Laguniats (who had an awesome poster!), strategically placed by the bathroom line, Reaper Ale, Potosi, Upland, and Fish Tale Organic beer. The real kicker is that my favorite table during the whole event wasn’t even a beer table. It was Crispin’s Cider table. They had six different ciders, all of them all-natural with no added sugar. They were spectacular and it was great to try them after constantly seeing them in stores and wondering how good they could be.

I’d consider the event a success simply based on the camaraderie there from the Lagunitas and Crispin reps to a fellow BeerAdvocate member, to some of the store employees including the owner Joel. The beer samples just made it that much better, and all for $15!

My only suggestion would be to group beers with people a bit more familiar with them or bring in more reps with large varieties of their beers. Trying new things is nice, but to have someone able to explain the style or particular beer helps explorers looking for something different. This doesn’t mean none of the servers were knowledgeable, in fact the opposite; most of the servers were. I for one would be happy to volunteer to pour for people at the next event. All in all, the first Beer Fest brought out a lot of good beers for people to try before buying as well as explore new styles which I consider a great time anywhere.

The turnout seemed pretty good as it grew substantially by the time we left (about 2 hours early too!)  so let’s hope that next year is even bigger and better!

Cheers Joel, thanks for the good time and thanks to my friend Jason for taking the pictures!

-Andy

I can’t keep my mouth shut any longer. I don’t like to rant on BeerFM, but this needs to be said: Wisconsin beer drinkers; step up your effin’ game! We’re getting a bad name and I’m sick of it. It seems like the only tastings or events any of the “beer advocates” or “beer geeks” go to are huge to-do’s such as Great Taste of the Midwest and Great Lakes Beer Fest. There is fantastic camaraderie between beer geeks in other states. Where is that for Wisconsin?! BeerFM just hosted an awesome night at Silver Creek a few weeks ago to release their Imperial Mai-Bock, turnout based on invites was sad but we had a great time regardless. There’s the Summer Solstice Beer Festival in Glendale, WI that’s the first ALL WISCONSIN beer festival with over 200 beers paired with same-size samples of food from the Glendale area. 1 person I know is going. Or how about the Beer Fest at Wine Cellar of Wisconsin in Brookfield in a little over a week? I’m the only person I know going.

I’m sick and tired of looking on Beer Advocate’s Wisconsin Beer Calendar to see nothing posted in the events and what’s there, next-to no one is attending. Now, what’s even worse is that I hear rumors floating around about Stone pulling out of the Wisconsin market. That’s the straw that broke the camel’s back; the spark that fueled my rage. I draw the line when a fantastic brewery, for yet unconfirmed and undisclosed reasons, will (possibly) discontinue distributing to this great state.

How could this possibly be? Maybe it’s because they just moved into Illinois and have a much better market there? Or maybe they realized they make no money here because the Joe-Wisconsin-beer-drinkers are too busy drinking ONLY Bud, Miller, and Coors shit!

Come on people. If you advocate craft beer, a) don’t by macro; spend your hard-earned money on GOOD CRAFT BREWED beer, and b) when you know friends that claim to “love beer” and their response to, “what’s your favorite beer?” is “Miller Lite” you should be doing everything in your power to enlighten them to a world beyond the bullshit they call “beer”. I’m not saying these beers don’t have a place in the world, but they certainly shouldn’t command such a disgustingly large percent of  market when there are much, much better offerings available! Wisconsin is known as one of the “drunkest” states based on population and alcohol consumption, but sadly, it isn’t off the type of beer that should be consumed; craft beer. Instead, the majority of sales are from a style that’s a bastardization of what real beer is, only to make the process cheaper and pump out more of it.

When will the Wisconsin beer advocates join the good fight to slay this preconceived notion that everyone here only drinks Miller Lite and finally show people there are people here, in this great state, that love good beer for the flavor, not necessarily for the effect? And more importantly, fight to show other people what flavorful beer can be? Next time you’re out picking up beer, pick up some local beer like Lakefront. Pick up some New Glarus. Hell, pick up some Stone and show support for a great brewery that might not be distributed to this state after summer because we’re too busy drinking beer-flavored water.

-Andy