Sprecher Brewery: Milwaukee's Original Microbrewery

Sprecher Brewery has been creating fire-brewed and gourmet sodas for more than twenty years in the Milwaukee area.

In 1985 Randy Sprecher established Sprecher Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Their beer brews are inspired by those in Europe. Even his brewery is inspired by the microbreweries in Germany. Sprecher beers and sodas are all created in a hand-built, gas-fired brew kettle--this brings out the rich flavors of their ingredients. Because of their relatively small size, Sprecher is able to focus on creating high quality, rich tasting beers and gourmet sodas.

Tours of Sprecher Brewery in Milwaukee

Sprecher Brewery offers tours seven days a week, though reservations are required for all tours. Regular tours are offered for $4 for adults, $3 for seniors and $2 for anyone under 21. During the regular tours, adults can sample up to four out of the ten beers on tap and are able to sample all of the soda flavors inside the brewery's indoor beer garden.

There are also private reserve tastings on the weekends, comprised of smaller groups, which are $15 and are only for adults. With this tour, guests are given up to 10 samples of beer, each paired with a different cheese.

Sprecher also offers guests a chance to purchase their beers and sodas, along with a wide array of other Sprecher merchandise, in their giftshop, which is open daily.

Beers

• Year Round Brews: Special Amber, Black Bavarian, Hefe Weiss, Pub Brown Ale, and Light Ale
• Seasonals: Irish Style Stout (winter--St. Patty's Day), Mai Bock (spring/summer), Oktoberfest (summer/fall), and WinterBrew (winter)
• Premium Reserve: Abbey Triple, Pipers Scotch-Style Ale, Russian Imperial Stout (winter), Double India Pale Ale, and Dopple Bock (fall/winter)
• Limited Release, Gluten-free African Style Beers: Mbege (east Africa) and Shakparo (west Africa)
• Other Unique Beers: Barley Wine and Generation Porter

Gourmet Sodas

All of their sodas are sold in 16oz bottles vs the 12 oz bottles most sodas are sold in. This gives the buyer a better bang for their buck. Their root beer was also recently voted #1 by the New York Times and Imbibe Magazine. Sprecher sodas are all caffeine and gluten-free. While all of their sodas include Wisconsin honey and pure vanilla into their recipes, there are many other ingredients used in each soda to bring out that specific flavor (Ex: the Wisconsin cherry juice and ginseng in Ravin' Red).

Soda Flavors: Root Beer, Lo-Cal Root Beer, Orange Dream, Cream Soda, Ravin' Red, Ginger Ale, Puma Kola, and Cherry Cola.

**Flavors added after original publish date: Gorilla Grape, Strawberry Soda (Seasonal-Summer), and Red Apple (Seasonal--Fall/Winter)

But Sprecher Brewery does not just make beer and soda. They have expanded their magic to the production of an array of BBQ sauces, mustards, brownie/cookie mixes and bread mixes. Unfortunately Sprecher products are not available in every state yet--a list of retailers and wholesalers on their website makes it easy to find a local seller--but most of their products are available on their website.

With their commitment to their customers and the quality of their products, Sprecher Brewery will easily prosper another 25 years or more.

You can visit their website at www.sprecherbrewery.com

*this article was originally published by me on suite101.com on May 12, 2010