Five Things You Should Know about beer and brewing in Wisconsin:
Milwaukee was known as ‘The Beer Capital of the World’: While other cities were dominated by one large-scale brewer (Anheuser Busch in St. Louis or Coors in Golden/Denver), Milwaukee had four big-time players in the beer business: Blatz, Miller, Schlitz, and Pabst.
Milwaukee had several advantages as a brewing hub. There was access to a large, inexpensive labor pool compared to union-dominated Illinois. The large brewers were also competitors in some areas but cooperated in others. Several Milwaukee-area brewers worked together to found the Delta Cooperage Company because of a barrel shortage. Brewers also saw themselves as partners in securing the lumber for their barrels and for transporting their product.
Craft beer is booming in Wisconsin: Of Milwaukee’s four mega-brewers, only Miller remains. And it’s foreign-owned. After merging and forming MillerCoors in 2008, SAB-Miller now owns the Miller brand. The company has its origins in South Africa, is headquartered in London, and has its U.S. corporate offices in Chicago. Miller still has a large brewing presence in Milwaukee – but it also has large commercial brewing operations in Eden NC, Trenton OH, Fort Worth TX, Albany GA and Irwindale CA.
The other large Milwaukee brewers are long gone. Blatz sold out to Pabst in 1959. The historic Pabst Brewery was shuttered in 1996 and is now a Los Angeles-based holding company. Schlitz – once the largest brewer in the country – was sold to Stroh’s in 1989. The old Schlitz brewery in Baldwinsville was taken over by Anheuser Busch and was used to produce Bud Light in Wisconsin. Pabst has tried to reconstruct the original Schlitz formula and has tried to market it as a regional beer with limited success.
The decline in large, corporate brewers in Wisconsin has cleared the way for dozens of smaller craft brewers – there are about 100 in Wisconsin: Ale Asylum in Madison, Badger State Brewing in Green Bay, Black Husky in Pembine, Brewing Projekt of Eau Claire, Bull Falls Brewery of Wausau, Capital Brewing of Middleton, Central Waters of Amherst, City Brewing in LaCrosse, Great Dane of Madison, Horny Goat of Milwaukee, Leinenkugel of Chippewa Falls (today owned by SABMiller), K-Point of Eau Claire, Lakefront of Milwaukee, Lazy Monk in Eau Claire, Milwaukee Ale House, Minhas Brewery of Monroe, New Glarus Brewery, One Barrel of Madison, Potosi Brewery, Red Eye of Wausau, St Francis Brewing Company, South Shore Brewery of Ashland, Sprecher of Glendale, Point Brewery of Stevens Point, Titletown Brewery of Green Bay, Tyranena of Lake Mills, Valkyrie Brewing of Dallas, Vintage Brewing of Madison. The list is not inclusive.
Large industrial brewers still control 72% of U.S. beer market. But, considering there’s a 1-in-4 chance that a beer drinker will pick a craft beer, there’s a lot of market share to go around.
Beer is the king of adult beverages: Yes, there are millions of adults who enjoy wine – but beer is still number-1. 43% of drinking-age adults say beer is their alcoholic beverage of choice. 34% prefer wine. 23% favor hard liquor or mixed drinks.
Wine is slightly preferred by women (46% prefer wine, 40% prefer beer, 14% liquor), and wine overtakes beer as a preferred drink for people over 60.
We like our beer too much: A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report ranks Wisconsin as one of the drunkest states in the USA. In 2014 we led the nation in self-reported binge-drinking behavior. Last year we were number-2, behind only North Dakota. 22% of Wisconsin adults report they’ve been involved in a binge-drinking episode in the past 30 days. That’s defined as 5 drinks in a two-hour period for men and 4-drinks in the same time frame for women.
Wisconsin had more cities on the Wall Street Journal’s ‘drunkest cities in the US’ list than any other state. Milwaukee is 17th, Janesville 16th, Racine 15th, Sheboygan 12th, Wausau 11th, Eau Claire 9th, Fond du Lac, 7th, LaCrosse 6th, Madison 4th, Green Bay 3rd, Oshkosh 2nd, and Appleton 1st. The only other state with more than one city on the list was North Dakota (Grand Forks and Fargo).
Wisconsin has some of the most lenient alcohol laws in the country: Wisconsin remains the only state in the country where a first-time drunk driver does not need to appear in court. A first offense is classified as a violation – not a criminal matter. The driver can simply mail in their fine. You’ll still be fined between $150 and $300. 42 other states have mandatory license suspensions for a first offense. In Wisconsin you’ll face an administrative suspension if you refuse to take a breath test. We’ve toughened our OWI laws in recent years, adding mandatory jail time for a 4th offense and requiring ignition locks for offenders who are extremely dunk – above .15. But most of Wisconsin’s tougher laws are targeting repeat offenders.
Wisconsin is one of ten states with ‘kid in a bar’ laws – where someone under the legal drinking age can have a drink in a commercial establishment that sells alcohol while a parent is present. The others are Connecticut, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, and Wyoming. 42 states, including Wisconsin, allow minors to consume alcohol on private property while a parent or guardian is present.
25 states allow those 18 or over to serve alcohol. For most states, the “18 to serve” law allows for teenagers to pour beer as part of their duties in the restaurant or hospitality business. Wisconsin allows 18-year-olds to have a full bartender’s license. Other states require a supervisor of legal drinking age to be on-duty when an 18, 19, or 20-year-old is bartending. Wisconsin does not. Only Maine, where 17-year-olds can work as bartenders, has a more permissive law.
Wisconsin is one of ten states where drunk driving checkpoints are illegal. The others are Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.
Chris Conley
6.22.16