Saturday, August 21, 2010

Milwaukee, WI

Oh man.




There is a reason that this post is coming a day later than it was supposed to…



And that reason, is the Riverwalk Brewery Boat Tour.



Day drinking is tough as it is, but both Megs and I haven’t exactly been partaking in many alcoholic beverages over the last month or two… We survived. And made it to Chicago that night. But, here is what transpired…



We got up early in Madison, WI and headed to a county park where we took some much needed showers, as well as filled up on drinking water. Then we made the 2 hourish drive to Milwaukee, WI and still arrived at the closest Walmart to dowtown about 10am or so. We were immediately glad that we had not tried to stay there overnight… Let’s just say, the parking lot seemed less than desirable. There was a 24-hour security guy, patrolling the Walmart. His whole job, literally, is to drive in circles around the parking lot in his sweet vehicle with blinking yellow light. That and, apparently, to stop and have random conversations with people who parked there…



20 minutes later… We had the permission of the security guy, the assistant manager, the manager, perhaps even God himself, to park there for the day.



And we were off! Lucky for us, the Walmart we found was only 3 or 4 miles away from downtown Milwaukee. So within minutes we had biked into the city, did some recon work to find where our tour would start, and then spent the next hour or so doing a large loop through downtown. Even from this quick loop Milwaukee seemed like a fun city. Slightly older, and definitely hit badly by the recession, but nice. Had a river through it to Lake Michigan and a nice little riverwalk along most of it.



And so it begins…



The first stop on the brewery tour, and our first indication of how the day was going to go, was Lakefront Brewery…



We registered. Received our sweet red, plastic mugs. And two tickets to try out a couple of their beers. I chose the Fixed Gear Red to start out with, very good. Megs was drawn to the Wheat Monkey Ale. It was ok, but had a weird aftertaste in my opinion…





It was about this time we realized that we had not eaten anything yet today, and if this brewery was any indication, we were to be given 6 opportunities for free drinks over the next three hours or so. Our solution? The $2 slices of pizza which was provided…



Satisfied that we’d be held over for at least the time being, we filled up our second cups. An organic Amber for me, which was also really good. Megs followed my lead with the Red. And we were topped off just in time for an energetic guy, with an interesting sense of humor and a huge love for beer, to announce that it was time for the tour!



The tour consisted of learning about the 4 main ingredients of Beer, water, barley, hops, and yeast. Malt, apparently, is considered to be the same as barley, fyi. If you want more detail on that point, let me know…



We then proceeded to learn the whole process that they go through to mix, ferment, age, and bottle beer…





Complete with a strange, but entertaining, sing-a-long portion at the end…



With the tour finshed, we were hustled onto the waiting boat, where Captain Bob was waiting to take us up the river to the next brewery, Milwaukee Ale House…







It was at this point that we learned a bunch of interesting things… 1) Milwaukee is a cool city, especially along the waterfront. 2) The “boat tour” is actually a glorified pub crawl, which degrades quickly from tour to “sweet, two more free drinks!” 3) The locals know this and use the boat tours to start out their nights of debauchery… We had a large group on our boat there for a friends’ birthday.









Our suspicions were confirmed when the second “tour” turned out to be us standing in a room for a few minutes while the girl talked… She assumed that we had already learned about the whole process, and really, who were we to blame her…



The beers there were excellent as well. I had their “Pail Ale” that had a really good amount of hopiness… And then their Amber called Louis’s Demise was excellent! Megs was beginning to be concerned, mostly due to the fact that she hasn’t been out with me much before. But also because she wasn’t sure if she was going to be able to make it to the last two beers… I helped her out a bit finishing off her Ulao Ale and Flaming Damsel…



As we were waiting to board the boat, a gentleman was enthralled with my height. Per usual. But instead of talking to me about it, he told his granddaughter playing behind me, “Watch out! This giant here could back up and knock you over the edge, and he wouldn’t even notice a thing!” Welcome to my life everyone… Haha.



Shortly after this point, another couple sized me up and decided that they should offer me their extra drink ticket. Far be it for me to refuse such a kind offer!! Megs wasn’t exactly pleased. Hahaha.



She predicted that we would be walking our bikes back…



Back on the boat and off to the third and final stop, Rock Bottom Brewery???



Imagine my confusion that an establishment which I regularly frequented in DC would somehow turn up in the middle of Wisconsin…



But there it was, and it was pretty much the same place, except that it brewed a different line of beers. However, there was one other important and, dare I say, breathtaking difference. They handed us our two tickets and ushered us into the basement. Now, I am sure they did this in an attempt to keep us separated from paying guests as much as possible… I don’t blame them. But what we descended into could only be described as the holy land of beer! Every imaginable type of beer drinking game was represented… Beer Pong. Flip Cup. Cornhole (Basically beer horseshoes). Pool. It was like we had spent the last few hours on a pilgrimage…



There was probably another brewery tour, but nobody bothered going on it, from what we could tell. Instead it was utilizing the intriguing, Shot-Ski…



And playing many games. Megs and I didn’t join any, just hung back and chowed down on some delicious “Wisconsin Cheese Curds”. But even from my vantage point, I could tell that my old kickball team would have destroyed them all at flip cup… At least our crazy DC social life was good for something!! I would have loved to have had you all with me for this one…



But alas, it was time to go. And probably not a moment too soon for Megs and I… The boat took us back to Lakefront Brewery and our bikes. Thankfully, the past few hours hadn’t fully hit us yet, so it was an uneventful trip back to Walmart and the RV.



Immediately after reaching the RV, however, we were done. Exhausted. Dehydrated. Megs took a nice little nap. Briefly interrupted by my three separate attempts to get the Cubs tickets we purchased that morning onto her flash drive and in some digital form that the local Office Depot workers could understand and print. My route to Office Depot took me past a Pizza Hut, and there are only so many times that a person can pass such an establishment without breaking down and placing an order. It only took me three passes… But it was delicious!!!!



After a good 2 or 3 hours, we pulled ourselves together and made the move. Fond farewells to Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Hello Chicago and Illinois!!! We found a Walmart and promptly passed out.



Next up! Chicago!

2 comments:

  1. Scoot & Meg, this post had me CRACKING up here at work! I felt like I knew what was going to happen, like I was there with you guys, and so jealous because that boat tour sounds amazing. The picture of the bar basement reminds me of the DOL big time. How come Meg looks a lot cleaner in all the pictures?? Time for Scott to get a haircut? Keep up the posts Scott, they are so great.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow Scott that first picture amazing. I'm jealous of your beer tour!

    ReplyDelete