Great Lakes Distillery, Milwaukee

Welcome to stop #137 on the Brews and Choos project.

Distillery: Great Lakes Distillery, 616 W Virginia St, Milwaukee
Train line: Amtrak, Milwaukee Intermodal Station
Time from Chicago: 89 minutes
Distance from station: 1.3 km

My Brews & Choos Buddy once again rain the Milwaukee Half Marathon this past weekend, so I met up with her after the race for a couple of Brews & Choos stops. All three stops were great, starting with Great Lakes Distillery just south of the train station.

Since she doesn't like neat spirits, she had a floofy drink ("to recover from the race") instead. But before I sampled the spirits, I got us some food from Fox Den, which has a window into the distillery tasting room. My goodness, their Plain Jane burger—nothing more than two smash patties and two slices of American cheese on a brioche with no sauces or nothin'—may have been the best burger I've ever had. My buddy had El Chupacabra, their house-made vegan smashburger, which she loved. And we had a basket of fried cheese curds whose squeakiness survived the fryer. Much yum. Many calorie.

Samples of their spirits are about 10 mL and cost $1 each. I tried the basic Rehost Gin (88 proof), with lots of juniper on the nose nose, nice botanicals, not astringent; "would sip." The Still & Oak 6-year bourbon (90 proof) was delicious, with a nice sweetness, and lots of oak from the barrel. The Rehorst Barrel Aged Gin (94 proof), also excellent, had complex oak, juniper, and even molasses notes that would make a great drink over ice.

The distillery also has tours and a wide variety of social activities in the evenings. Walking over the bridges on S 6th St over various canals and railroad tracks does not give one warm feelings before entering the historic Walker's Point neighborhood. Once you get to the other side, though, it starts to make sense. Having a place like Great Lakes right there would make the area much more fun.

Beer garden? Yes
Dogs OK? Outside only
Televisions? Avoidable
Serves food? Delicious smashburgers and apps
Would hang out with a book? Yes
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes

NB: This is the first Brews & Choos review since the 5.0 release in January, so this is also the first review done entirely in Markdown. It was much easier to edit than the old HTML versions, I must say.