Happy Thanksgiving, 1969 Syle

Bare Bones Brewery's Cookies and Milk Stout

Bare Bones Brewery's Cookies and Milk Stout hit the shelves at Festival Foods in Oshkosh yesterday. It's the first time an Oshkosh brewery has canned its holiday seasonal beer. And it's the first beer from an Oshkosh brewery to carry the Independent Craft Brewer Seal on its label. There's more on this year's Cookies and Milk Stout here...

A Century Later in Neenah

In 1917, the City of Neenah voted itself dry. A century later, that ghost has been exorcised This weekend people gathered at Lion’s Tail Brewing in Neenah to celebrate the brewery’s second anniversary. Long live beer in Neenah...

The taproom at Lion's Tail Brewing, Saturday, November 18, 2017.

HighHolder Breweriana

And here we have the first piece of breweriana from the HighHolder Brewing Company of Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Drink Local

It was a great weekend for beer in Oshkosh. The sign painted on the wall at The Granary says it all.

The Granary opened with 30 beers on tap. All four Winnebago County Breweries had beer on the tap list. Three of those beers were from Oshkosh. It's the first time three Oshkosh breweries have appeared on tap together since 1956. And I doubt there's ever been a tavern that served beer from four Winnebago County breweries simultaneously.

Saturday night was the grand opening of Fifth Ward Brewing.

Fifth Ward brought out its third beer this weekend. It's a red IPA named Forman's Basement.

Ian Wenger (left) and Zach Clark of Fifth Ward with Forman's Basement.

The dry-hopping of that beer included hops grown by Tim Pfeister in Winnebago County. That makes Forman's Basement just the third beer since the early 1880s to be brewed with Winnebago County hops.

It's all coming back around. When it comes to beer here, we're living through a revival period. It's going to be looked upon with envy. Enjoy it while you can!

The Opening of Fifth Ward Brewing Co.

This weekend we get to celebrate the grand opening of a new brewery in Oshkosh.

Ian Wenger and Zach Clark have been working to make this happen since 2012. For the last couple of years, they've been renovating the building at 1009 South Main in preparation for their brewery’s opening. 

On Wednesday, November 8, 2017, Fifth Ward Brewing began pouring its beer.

A Book on the History of Brewing in Winnebago County

I just signed a contract to write a book about the history of brewing in Winnebago County. It’s going to cover every brewery that's operated in our county –  past and present. My hope is that’ll be released before the end of 2018.

Not the actual cover.

I'm starting on the book this week. And I’m going to try to keep this blog rolling along, too. I think I can manage both. The posts here will definitely be shorter, but there may be more of them.  We’ll see.

I was just looking at the long list of blog posts I still want to write. When I started this blog in 2010, I didn't know what I was getting into. I never imagined the beer culture of this place would prove to be so fertile. I'm closing in on 900 posts now. I don't know if I'm even halfway to being done. There are so many more stories to tell!

The Return of Casks and Caskets

After a two-year hiatus, Casks and Caskets returned Saturday night.

Casks and Caskets was launched in 2012 by the Society of Oshkosh Brewers (SOBs).  The plan was to have an annual homebrewed beer festival. All went well until the event was shut down by the state after Casks 2014.

Even though money generated from the event went to charity, the SOBs were informed that selling tickets to a festival where untaxed beer is poured would, in the future, be considered illegal. It took the club a couple years to find a way to work with that decision. The solution turned out to be fairly simple. Make it a free-beer fest.

This year, Casks and Caskets was held at the Oshkosh Hilton Garden Inn. And it remained a charity event. Money was raised through silent auctions, raffles, and donations. This year, the money will go to the Oshkosh Hunger Network.

There's not another beer fest like this in Wisconsin. There's no other that's absolutely free. And there's no other where all the beverages – beer, wine, cider, mead, soda – are homemade. It makes for an atmosphere different from any other beer event I've been to.

SOB president Mike Engel presenting Travis Sullivan his trophy for his "Best of Show" beer.

Let's hope we can all get together and do it again next year.