Introduction and Urban Harvest Brewing Company

My name is Alonzo, and for the past few weeks, I have been going to a brewery on Saturdays. This habit has largely been funded by my wonderful girlfriend, and also in part thanks to the Wisconsin Brewer's Guild. For a little bit of background on myself, I grew up in Wauwatosa, and went to college in Iowa for a few years, then transferring to UW-Milwaukee, where I still attend. I now live in Milwaukee, and have grown into a typical Wisconsonian that has a deep love of beer. One day, I was at Lakefront Brewery in Riverwest, and I noticed a post on their wall for the Wisconsin Brewer's Guild, and their companion app, Wisconsin Tap Chasers. I found that for $35 a year, I could become a member of the guild, and with the app, I get an immense amount of discounts at local and statewide breweries. I have utilized several of them so far, and like a true millennial, I decided to start a blog about it.

The first stop on my tour of Milwaukee's craft brewing scene was Urban Harvest Brewing Company, located on South 5th street in Walker's point. The coupons for this one were a free tour, a dollar off a pint, and 2 dollars off a growler. We called ahead, to check on the status of the tours, and were informed that tours are only offered on the second and fourth Saturday of the month. Lucky for us, it was the second Saturday. So we drove down and walked in about 10 minutes before the tour started. There was a bit of confusion about the coupons we had, but it all ended up being solved with little trouble, and we were able to go on it.

The tour itself was interesting, it wasn't so much of a tour as much as a detailed dive into the seasonal beers that they had to offer, and a little bit about the company itself. We sampled 4 beers: the Weizenbock, a darker beer with a rather high ABV, the Espresso Amber, an amber ale made with cold brewed Stone Creek Coffee, the Whiskey Porter, a rich chocolate-ish beer aged in whiskey barrels, and the Wicket Wheat, a light wheat beer with mild notes of lemon. The information they gave us was really enlightening, I learned more about the brewing process than on any other tour that I've been on, and there were only about a dozen or so people on the tour, so it was a nice and personalized experience. While the Weizenbock was my favorite (we ended up getting a half growler of it), the Espresso Amber was one of the most interesting ones, they paired it with a chocolate made by Indulgence chocolates that had hints of orange zest in it, and the the relationship between the two was striking. I won't go too much into depth because I don't want to spoil it, but I highly recommend giving it a try. 

The brewery as a whole was a very nice place, the taproom was small, but pleasant, it gave off a nice vibe of community, and the essence of any local business. They have the requisite popcorn machine for any bar, and the head brewer (who lead the tour as well) was out behind the bar serving up drinks and talking to the patrons. I actually came back a few days later to buy a present for my girlfriend (shirts and posters with black puppies on them!), and the head brewer was there and he recognized me! With wonderful costumer service and the warm aesthetic, I will gladly build my tab up any day. I would say every interaction I've had with this place was positive, it's easily one of the best breweries I've been to, in terms of beer and of how the space felt, and with prices that are reasonable, it's high on the list.