Category: Beer
The craft brewing scene has grown tremendously on the peninsula in recent years. Door County breweries have popped up in Egg Harbor, Sturgeon Bay, Baileys Harbor, and Ellison Bay, with two more just across the border in Kewaunee County.
Whether you love IPAs, Belgian saisons, ciders, or lagers, one of these Door County breweries will quench your thirst.
Door County Breweries
Door County Brewing Company
2434 Cty F
Baileys Harbor, WI 54202
(920) 839-1515
www.doorcountybrewingco.com
Founded in 2012, Door County Brewing Company is a family owned craft brewery. Owned and run by the McMahon family, Door County Brewing Company is located in Baileys Harbor and uses as many ingredients for their beer from Door County as possible. Their tap room features Wisconsin cheese boards and curds, live music, and they frequently bring in food trucks.
Island Orchard Cider
12040 Garrett Bay Rd
Ellison Bay, WI 54210
(920) 854-3344
www.islandorchardcider.com
Located on the northern tip of the peninsula, Island Orchard Cider makes its home in Ellison Bay. Island Orchard Cider owns an orchard on Washington Island where they grow the apples for their ciders. Their tasting room and cider pub offer customers an opportunity to see the cider making process.
Shipwrecked Brew Pub
7791 Hwy 42
Egg Harbor, WI 54209
(920) 868-2767
www.shipwreckedmicrobrew.com
Shipwrecked Brew Pub was the first microbrewery in Door County, opened in 1997. Housed in a historic building in the center of Egg Harbor that dates to 1882, the brewery and restaurant is open year ’round. Brewmaster Rich Zielke is in charge of brewing the hand-crafted Door County beers. Shipwrecked offers an extensive menu in their restaurant and also operates an inn.
Shipwrecked burned in a fire in August of 2017. Its owners hope to rebuild in time for the 2018 summer season.
Starboard Brewing Company
151 N. 3rd Ave
Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235
(920) 818-1062
www.starboardbrewing.com
Located in downtown Sturgeon Bay, Starboard Brewing Company is Door County’s first nano-brewery. Their tap room offers their in-house brewed craft beers, Wisconsin cheeses, smoked salmon, and more.
Kewaunee County Breweries
Ahnapee Brewery
202 Clark St.
Algoma, WI 54201
(920) 785-0822
www.ahnapeebrewery.com
Ahnapee Brewing stretches back as far as 1868 and is an integral part of beer-making in Wisconsin. This tap room offers flatbread pizza, snacks, small-batch beers and tasting events.
Thumb Knuckle Brewing Company
E0208 Hwy 54
Luxemburg, WI 54217
www.thumbknuckle.beer
Newly opened in 2017, Thumb Knuckle Brewing Company is located in Luxemburg, Wis. The brewery has three beers available with a fourth in the works. The tap room also offers its own soda and growlers.
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Cheers!: What’s Red & White and Full of Must?
When I poured this beer into a tall glass, its inviting glow reminded me of a tequila sunrise. So it does have that going on – it’s a pretty beer. A golden base laced with orange and red – sunset colors. Seems nicely carbonated, with a big tawny head. I take a whiff and get […]
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Cheers!: An Oddball and Heavenly Nectar
The first thing I wondered when I saw this four pack is why would anyone name a kolsch-style ale Oddball? But, then, kolsch is an oddball beer, a hybrid. Kolsch is an ale that is cold lagered, making it as about as close to a lager as an ale will ever get. It was born […]
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5 Door County Restaurants and Bars Opening in 2018
Liberty Tap House Liberty Square Shops, 7755 Highway 42, Egg Harbor, 920.868.4800 Now open Hand painted murals accent a comfortable bar area in the newly finished brew pub. Build a flight from the 20 beers on tap or build a bloody Mary at the build-your-own bloody Mary bar. The drink menu offers local and international wine […]
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How could you pass up a beer with this name – Bock’s O-Chocolates. Are you kidding? A chocolate doppelbock? I’m in. I miss the days of the annual spring release of bock beers. I’m thinking of the pre-craft days. Bock, a strong, dark, malty lager, was always released in the spring. Point Bock, Huber Bock, […]
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Cheers!: This Beer May Make You See Jesus
This stuff looked like a cross between ancient motor oil and liquid fudge when I poured it from the bottle into a snifter – dark, oily and infinitely inviting. I couldn’t wait to dive in. It’s a beer from Evil Twin Brewing and it’s called Aún Más Todo Jesús, which means something like Even More […]
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Cheers!: Old and Into Nostalgia
Back in the pre-disco mid-1970s there was a nostalgia craze that drove me nuts and eventually helped in my decision to move to England. People were dressing like 1940s Zoot Suiters while going to see Bette Midler or the Pointer Sisters. Marilyn Monroe was shamelessly exploited as an icon – she seemed to be everywhere […]
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Egg Harbor AleFest Tickets Now on Sale
Tickets for Egg Harbor AleFest are on sale now, with early bird pricing before April 30. Come try unlimited samples of craft beer with us while enjoying the beauty of the bay. AleFest will be held at Harbor View Park on Sept. 15. Join the fun and listen to live music from noon to 5 […]
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Cheers!: Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Beer
I could hear the bottle yelling my name from the cooler that held it captive, and it called to me all the way on the long drive home. Yes, I could not wait to become reacquainted with an old friend, Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, or in English, Original Schlenkerla Smokebeer. This is, quite simply, the […]
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April 3 – Election Day – might have been the worst day of winter, and it’s spring! It blew hard here in Door County, and we might have gotten more snow than any other storm this lengthy winter of 2017-18. It seemed that way when I trundled out the next morning to move the deeply […]
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Cheers!: I’ll Have S’more Stout, Please!
Who could pass up a stout brewed with graham cracker crumbs, chocolate and marshmallows? Not me. Well, not me in my current post-vegan mode. In the vegan days, marshmallows were off limits. I won’t explain here. You can look it up. Back to beer. The only thing missing from this one is the campfire smoke, […]
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Uncork Summer Tickets on Sale Now
Tickets are now available for Uncork Summer, Door County’s annual celebration of food, wine, and music in Ellison Bay. The festival returns to the grounds of the Wickman House June 23, with bites from more than 20 food vendors, plus wines, local ciders, craft beers, and hand-crafted cocktails. Jazz vocalist Erin Krebs and a surprise […]
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A question I’m often asked is what is your go-to beer? It’s always a complicated answer because there is never just one, until, perhaps, now. Just a few weeks ago I mentioned my reintroduction to red beers after turning away from them some time ago. Shortly after that happy encounter with an amber lager, I […]
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Cheers!: Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide!
Here was a bad idea – picking up a sixer of two different Wisconsin craft lagers, one a Czech-style pilsner and the other a German-style pilsner, and then deciding to sample them together. Who does that? Aren’t you just setting yourself up for failure? Aren’t you asking for a good punch in the face? There’s […]
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There was a time in another century when I would go out of my way for an amber beer. I was in love with the caramelly maltiness of the style. And then I wasn’t. I completely lost my taste for red beer. Tasted cloying, like someone trying to hang on in an affair that has […]
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Cheers!: A Dynomite Impy Stout and the Return of a Pre-Pro Lager
As soon as I took a whiff of this beer I was immediately transported back to my 10-year-old self hovering over a bowl of Neapolitan ice cream. Yes, I was certain Neapolitan Dynamite smelled like a bowl of vanilla-chocolate-strawberry ice cream, so much so that I wish I had a pint of the stuff. Instead […]
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Cheers!: A Heavenly Symphony in Your Mouth
It was one of those bone-chilling nights when the cold was working from the inside out. It didn’t help that old, cold things were rattling around in the brain pan, in particular, memories of a nasty dry spirit from the past surfaced like a bobbing corpse in inky memory. My own personal Marley, of the […]
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Cheers!: I’ll Ride That Orange Blossom Special
I was in need of a nice, soft lager when my eyes were caught by a grinning skull dripping with something. And then the cheeky name – Fresh As Helles. By Samuel Adams? There was a time in another century when finding a bar that served Samuel Adams Boston Lager in the bottle or, even […]
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Cheers!: A Fizzy Cocktail of Ale
OK. Here’s an odd beer on the shelf that I had to try – a bomber bottle with a typically ambiguous modern label featuring a New Yorker-type cartoon bartender, standing, I think, at a bar and under a banner that reads Dealers Circle. Hmmm! That means nothing to me. Beneath that scene are the words […]
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I was excited to see Michael on the shelves recently. This beer is named for the keg filler at Lakefront Brewery and is No. 24 in the brewery’s egalitarian My Turn Series, where everyone who works for the brewery gets a turn creating a beer for the rest of us. The six-pack comes with a […]
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Hacienda Brewing Launches This Weekend
Danny McMahon knows people are having trouble wrapping their minds around the idea of the successful, young Door County Brewing Co. spinning off a new brewery that launches this weekend. “I’ll probably have to explain it another thousand times. I understand it. We knew this was going to happen,” McMahon said, adding that the easiest […]