My wife texted this to be yesterday, and as soon as I opened it I couldn’t scroll to Wisconsin fast enough. I figured that one of my go-to beers, and a go-to beer for anyone with dead taste buds, PBR, would be the oldest brewery in the state. Apparently, not so. The title goes to Minhas Brewery in Monroe. More on that in a second.
First though, this map is SUSPECT. Initially I thought we were talking breweries in an overall sense, but then I saw a bunch of breweries on the East Coast that started in the 1980’s and 1990’s and thought, ‘maybe we’re just talking about microbreweries?’ But then why would Coors or Anheuser Busch be on the map? I dunno. As expected, the internet ombudsmen were all over the comment section attached to this article. A whole lot of this:
Which is fair. People are passionate about their beer and also passionate about correcting other people on the internet and tagging that correction with, ‘smh.’
Now back to the original point of this blog: Minhas Brewery. I have never heard of it, nor have I heard of a single beer they produce. This appears to be their most popular brew:
They’ve also got a light version, a gluten free version, and an ice version. If I’m basing this purely on what the can looks like, I think this would be right up my alley. It appears to be a no frills beer that you could easily pound 6 of while grilling on a summer Friday night.
Apparently they were also the first brewery in the United States to make a flavored malt beverage, which they released in 1985.
I’ll be honest, I’m a little shook that the oldest brewery in the Midwest, and the second oldest in the country (allegedly), is in Wisconsin and I’ve never heard of it. I love history and I love basic beer. This checks both of those boxes.
A brewery in Wisconsin that I am VERY aware of, but have never toured, is New Glarus. Which is apparently only 15 miles up the road from Minhas. Feels like a weekend road trip is in order.
PS: I saw this on their website as well:
And instantly thought they had some kind of pizza flavored beer. Almost had a heart attack from excitement. Turns out ‘Pizza Brew’ is just the name of a pizza joint attached to the brewery. Still exciting, but not to the level I thought it was. Pizza flavored beer will remain on my dream board for now.
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