Home of the Cheeseheads

Breweries like New Glarus deserve a whole day to soak in and enjoy. After spending the first part of our morning driving along picturesque roads from the state capitol past one farm house after another, we arrived in the quaint little village also known as Little Switzerland, population 2111. Differing from much of Illinois to the south, Wisconsin features many rolling hills carved by glaciers. The pace of life out here is much slower than the hustle and bustle of Chicago to say the least and you almost hear the thoughts of the numerous cows as they laze with their cud amidst this seemingly endless expanse. The pillowy clouds checkering the sky with a bright blue backdrop reminded me of the spotted details of the bovines themselves.

Upon arriving in New Glarus, we saw the old brewhouse on our left. Barely discernible from the countless other red barns along the roadway, the old dairy farm was surrounded by an aura of great intrigue and mystery.  Inside the front entrance, a small country gift shop with the standard souvenir items and bottles of the magical beer only available in this lovely state. I will go into detail of the goings on regarding the brewery in a future post.

Following a tour by Dan Carey, owner and brewmaster as well as a facility tour of the brewery’s gigantic state of the art new establishment just down the road, we headed on about 20 miles south down the road to the town of Monroe. Home of Saraveza founder Sarah Pederson, Monroe was replete with wonderful 19th Century architecture from an era erased from the world. An old industrial brewery once known as Berghoff, today is known as Minhas, and produced the standard, uninteresting yellow fizz beers that craft brewery’s like Stone scoff at. It is the second oldest brewery in the United States dating back to the 1840s, and second to only Yuengling in Pennsylvania. In the Northwest and elsewhere, you can taste this Monroe-brewed lager if you go to Trader Joe’s and pick up a can of Simpler Times.

Minhas is in the process of expanding a great little brewing museum rich with breweriana much like stuff you will see in Saraveza in Portland. We stopped by two watering holes in Monroe. First, the Swiss House ajacent to the brewery-an old inn/tavern/diner with a small town vibe and a greasy spoon kitchen. Up the hill a block, we also entered thee tavern to go to in town called Baumgartner’s. The front portion of the establishment is a cheese store and the back is a tavern. Baumgartner’s sells famous cheeses from around the world as well as several sausage varieties. The lively pub in the back is a local favorite and features about 6 or 8 taps of Wisconsin beer including Berghoff’s Witbier and New Glarus’s Spotted Cow (Wisconsin’s #2 selling draft beer behind Miller Lite).

After this taste of history, we headed off into the pasture. Conjoining winding country roads unsuspectingly led us back into Illinois into the town of Rockford home of Rick Nielson of Cheap Trick, and our next brewpub.  Stay tuned…