Sprecher Brewing Co. Brewery Tour {Milwaukee}

Sprecher Brewing Co. Brewery Tour

Sprecher Brewing Co. definitely has a fantastic idea for a winter day -- visiting for a brewery tour! One particular chilly day last month, we ventured to Milwaukee for a little adventure including a brewery tour in nearby Glendale.

Exploring Memorabilia and Sampling Before the Tour

A variety of tours are available at Sprecher. We chose the general Brewery Tour because we were touring with our daughter. You can book the tours ahead to ensure availability. We arrived early to check out Sprecher products. We also discovered other locally made goodies including food items. We actually spent quite a bit of time perusing various pieces of memorabilia. There was more to look at than I had anticipated!

Vintage beer bottles at Sprecher.

We checked into our tour and received wristbands. Those drinking beer samples received four tabs that could be used for four tastes. You can start your tasting before the tour. All tour guests are welcome to unlimited soda tastes. There are 9 different sodas to sample. So, my daughter had plenty of fun! The hubby and I also enjoy root beer in between beer tastes.

We visited on a Sunday afternoon and certainly found the biergarten tasting area abuzz. We enjoyed a taste while waiting for the tour. Sprecher has 16 beers and 3 hard ciders. I think most were on tap during our visit. Tastes are so fun because you get to taste a little of everything! There were also tasting flights available.

Tasting flight adventure for a group!

Learning About All Things Sprecher:

During the tour, you are invited to see where brewing happens. Sometimes, factory tours do not allow you on the floor. But, that is not the case at Sprecher. We learned all sorts of Sprecher history including the fact that they originally made their root beer for something for kids to enjoy while on tours. Now, it is a top seller!

Learning about brewing beer at Sprecher.

While stationed in Germany, Randy Sprecher developed an appreciation for German beer. When he returned to the US, he realized he could only afford US beers and began homebrewing his own German lagers. He went to school originally for Oceanography eventually switching to course to learn what he needed to develop his brewing. Eventually, he was hired by Pabst. In 1984, he was let go from Pabst and decided to launch his own brewery -- Sprecher!

During the tour, we learned all sorts of fascinating tidbits like the spent malt is sent to farms in Cedarburg, Wisconsin for the cows. Also, Sprecher makes some of its own brewer's yeast. In addition to the brewing process, it was pretty interesting to learn about the bottling and packaging process. Towards the end of the tour, we received another sample before heading back out to finish our tasting. The tour was not overly long but was interesting and worth the trip.

After the tour, we found another room with even more memorabilia in it. The room sported rustic barrel tables to rest a bit while sipping.

Pretzel and a sampling of Sprecher mustard

Sprecher also offers noshing items, so we could not resist a pretzel with a variety of Sprecher mustards to sample. They also have cheese curds and a few other items. After enjoying our pretzel, it was time to go. We loved our tour of Sprecher and appreciated learning all sorts of unique tidbits about the company. I can see more Sprecher adventures in our future! We did get to bring home our souvenir glass -- a nice little momento for sipping Sprecher at home!