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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My palate braced itself for its first taste of Zwet.be, a Belgian porter brewed with wild yeast. Oh! Wow! This beer is almost too good to be true. Almost. Just an absolute explosion of flavors in all directions… I have no idea what Zwet.be means. Well, I know .be is Belgium’s web moniker, but Zwet? […]
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I have to laugh when I reach in the magic fridge, hoping for something extraordinary – because I need it, dammit! – and pull out a plum in the form of a New Belgium Lips of Faith Series bomber bottle of beer. Lips of Faith, as fabled a beast as Sasquatch or the Loch Ness […]
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Cheers!: Old Style Returns to La Crosse for Oktoberfest
If, like me, you bought a four-pack of Heileman’s Old Style Oktoberfest “brewed in LaCrosse,” you may have thought that true Old Style is back. Wrong! Yes, last year City Brewery of La Crosse started making Old Style Oktoberfest, and rolled it out again this year, but the brand is still owned by virtual brewer […]
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Shipwrecked Brewpub to Be Torn Down This Week
Shipwrecked Brewpub will be torn down starting Sept. 27. Crews hope to have the entire building taken down by Oct. 2, ahead of Egg Harbor’s Pumpkin Patch Festival as a courtesy to all neighboring businesses. The building, located on the corner of Highway 42 and Country Road G in Egg Harbor, was heavily damaged by an electrical […]
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Cheers!: Chasing the Blues with Ann Peebles and Kriek
Weird day today. Rained off and on, mostly on, so a steady stream of mushy tires driving past my window. I don’t know why that sound weighs on me so much. Smush. Smush. Smush. There’s a sense of Sunday afternoon sadness in the air, and I need something to dispel it. I pull out Ann […]
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Shipwrecked to be Remembered at AleFest
There will be something of a somber feel to the 2017 Egg Harbor AleFest, taking place as it does from noon to 5 pm on Sept. 16 in the shadow of the burned hulk of Shipwrecked, Door County’s oldest extant craft brewery. An electrical fire on Aug. 20 destroyed the popular establishment. “They’re actually going […]
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Craft Brews & Crazy Clothes: Bier Zot’s Ryan Castalez
If you’ve ever walked through the doors of Bier Zot Beer Café, chances are you’ve been taken aback by two things: the variety of brews consuming its beer list and the color and fit of the skinny jeans on the man you’re most likely to see behind the counter. Say hello to Ryan Castalez, Bier […]
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During a mid-day walk on the mean streets of Egg Harbor, I paraphrase Kris Kristofferson: On a Labor Day Monday morning sidewalk I’m wishing, Lord, that I was stoned ‘Cause there’s something in a Labor Day Monday That makes a body feel alone… Back at the lair, I reach into the magic […]
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AleFest, Dark Knight & More Weekend Plans
It’s your last weekend to soak up summertime in Door County, as the autumnal equinox arrives next Friday! Enjoy an evening of laughter with a 1940s-inspired murder-mystery, celebrate the upcoming grape harvest with a winey celebration at von Stiehl, or tip back a cold one at Egg Harbor AleFest. Friday, September 15 …And Then There […]
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Cheers!: Living in the Grain Belt
Back in the dark ages, before the craft beer evolution/revolution, when America was awash in lagers, all beer lovers had their brands or go-to beers. Growing up in Duluth, we were bombarded with ads for Hamm’s Beer “from the land of sky blue waters,” but I was always a Grain Belt fan. I liked the […]
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Cheers! New Glarus Presents Historical Revamp of Porter
I want to share two wonderful words: Sour Porter. In particular, the New Glarus Brewing Company’s Sour Porter. Amazing! Delicious! And, I am willing to bet, highly nutritious! The sour spreads across the palate like the wave from a nuclear blast, and once it rakes across the palate, it is immediately replaced by the warm, […]
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Cheers! Beam Me Up, Huckleberry!
Two things attracted me to this beer, and both are in its name, UFO Huckleberry. Number 1 was the huckleberry component. While I’ve never had a huckleberry, as a kid I was a big fan of Huckleberry Hound, and a little later of Huckleberry Finn, and later still of Val Kilmer’s performance as Doc Holliday […]
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Cheers! What In the World Is Tropical Stout?
The wind was howling like a banshee on a recent dark and stormy summer night. It felt like fall had arrived a couple months early. Not that I mind. Summer is overrated. So imagine my surprise when I reached into the magic fridge and pulled out a Tropical Stout from the August Schell Brewing Co. […]
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Cheers! Can’t Cut Loose Without My Juice: Gimme That (Barley)Wine!
Celebrating its 30th year in the craft beer industry last year, Summit Brewing Co. of St. Paul released a series of special releases in honor of its senior status among craft brewers. The first 30th anniversary release was an excellent double IPA, which I reviewed earlier this year. That was followed by a pils, which […]
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Cheers! In Big Slick’s Oily Grip
I reached deep, deeper, deepest into the magic fridge and pulled out something I am willing to swear on a stack of pancakes that I’ve never laid eyes on before – a beer from Madison’s Ale Asylum called Big Slick. When I first pulled the bottle out from the darkest confines of the magic fridge, […]
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Cheers!: A Lovely Beer from North Coast
This beer has been calling to me for weeks. I probably bought it three months ago and tucked it deep into the magic fridge, but it was not forgotten. It’s just that tonight the magic fridge coughed it up when I went looking for something to sample. I never question the magic fridge; I […]
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Cheers! Journey Into the Tart of Darkness
“We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness,” Marlow relating his story to the unnamed narrator in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. How could Conrad not pop into your brain with a beer named Tart of Darkness? And this beer from Bruery Terreux is just as unusual as Conrad’s strange journey into the […]
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Door County Brewing Opens Doors to New Taproom
The excitement in beautiful downtown Baileys Harbor was palpable Saturday morning, July 1, as a crowd gathered for the opening of the new Door County Brewing Co. – just three years after the brewery opened its first taproom just a few blocks away. VIDEO: Take a tour inside the new taproom>> But it might as well […]
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Cheers! When Temperance Rules!
Thanks to Rob Moore for bringing me beer from an Evanston, Ill., brewery with the ironic name of Temperance Beer Company. Ah, the temperance movement. We laugh at it now, but there was a time when it mattered to the point of the 13-year social nightmare known as Prohibition. The temperance movement was more than […]
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Legislative Proposal Could Close Craft Beer Taprooms
Standing in the new Door County Brewing Co. taproom in Baileys Harbor, brewery owner John McMahon expressed concerns about a legislative proposal targeting craft beer taprooms as work crews put the final touches on his newest investment. A proposal detailed in a leaked document would prevent beer producers from also having ownership in distribution and […]