Sprecher Brewery tour

Milwaukee's micro-brewery for craft beer & gourmet soda

Confession: Given the choice, I'd probably pick root beer over beer-beer. I just love the stuff — it tastes like summer as a kid. Especially if it's a Sprecher. I remember sharing brown bottles of Sprecher with my dad, and only on special occasions. Of course one of the perks of adulting is that you can finally drink whatever you want, whenever you want — but that perk doesn't apply to Sprecher in my book. To me, the nostalgic taste is one I still reserve for special occasions — all the better if shared with Dad.

Before you think this all father-daughter bonding and flowers and rainbows, I didn't go on the Sprecher Brewery tour with my dad. In fact the tour wasn't even on my radar until my friend Joel suggested we check it out. While I knew Sprecher was of course Milwaukee made, I didn't even know where exactly it was located (turns out it's super close to Bayshore and convenient for a stop at Kopp's). You can purchase brewery tour tickets online for a specific time, or buy tickets at the door — they're $5 or $6, depending on the time of year. And for $4, you can bring the kids (anyone under 21). 

The cool thing about Sprecher is that it's family friendly. Or at least it should be, if you don't have a bunch of buzzed buffoons shouting drinking songs littered with curse words while a pair of kids sits one table over (yep). Anyway, the tour is technically family friendly, given the root beer and many other flavors of gourmet soda they bottle. Just proceed with some caution.

As for the tour itself, it was just ok. It felt intimate, as the brewery isn't very big. But when you're up against the showmen at Lakefront Brewery, you might want to step it up. Our guide was knowledgeable, but his delivery was not so great. Oh well! At the end of the tour we all had four drink tickets to use. Each one gets you a small-ish sample of a beer of your choosing. Or if you go for soda like I did, they don't even take a ticket for it. Yes friends, this is the place to taste your way through the Sprecher gourmet soda lineup, and that part is wonderful. The cute little indoor beer garden and gift shop were fun, too — as was the company.

So should you go? Don't drop everything, but if you're looking for something different for the whole family to do, I say it's worth it to do the tour (it lasted maybe 20 minutes?) just to get to the beer and gourmet soda at the end. Cheers!