Tours and Tastings at Lakefront Brewery

Oct 31, 2019 | Blog, Midwest, Brew, Distill & Ferment

If you are visiting craft breweries around the country, you know that Milwaukee, Wisconsin has its fair share. One of the oldest and most popular is Lakefront Brewery. Since 1987, Lakefront has been producing outstanding, inventive craft beers. The brewery and beer hall are located in a historic building that used to house the Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company’s coal-fired power plant. The locally owned brewery names many of their beers after Milwaukee neighborhoods, such as Riverwest Stein Beer and East Side Dark.

Tours

The tour at Lakefront Brewery is one of the best brewery tours in the country. Because of that fact, it is highly recommended that you purchase your tour tickets in advance. With the tour, you get a souvenir pint glass, four 6-ounce samples, and a coupon for a free Lakefront beer at a selection of local establishments, along with a very informative (and humorous) explanation of the beer-making process. The Weekday Tours are $9 and Weekend Tours are $11. There are also Mini Tours on Saturdays if you can’t get in for the full tour. These $8 tours still include the souvenir glass, samples, and beer coupon, but are much shorter in length. For the home brewer or beer aficionado, Lakefront offers a Technical Tour for $40 on Sundays at 11a.m. This up close and personal tour includes food, chocolate, and cheese pairings!

Beer Hall

The Beer Hall serves a full menu with sandwiches, sausage flights, and pub snacks. They also have a dozen year-round, seasonal, and limited release Lakefront brews on tap. The space is huge, and seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. On Friday nights the brewery hosts a full-service Fish Fry, complete with live polka music from 5:30-8:30p.m.

Innovations

One of the coolest things about Lakefront Brewery is their innovation within the beer industry

Pumpkin Beer– Lakefront was the second brewery in the country to bottle a pumpkin beer. The brewers found an old pumpkin beer recipe from Thomas Jefferson, and the Pumpkin Lager is now one of the brewery’s most popular seasonal beers.

Organic Beer– In 1996, Lakefront made the country’s first certified organic beer, the Organic ESB (Extra Special Bitter).

Gluten-Free– In 2006, Lakefront became the first brewery in the nation to receive federal approval to brew a gluten-free beer. That beer, New Grist, is made from only water, rice, sorghum, hops, and gluten-free yeast grown on molasses.

Lakefront Brewing
1872 N. Commerce Street
Milwaukee, WI 53212

Bonus: Visit the Milwaukee Public Market in the historic Third Ward neighborhood while you’re in town and stay at the one-of-a-kind Iron Horse Hotel.

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