Mobcraft Beer

The cool thing about this brewery, is that they never have the same beer for more than a month or two. Mobcraft beer is a brewery in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood, and rather than decide what beer they want to brew, they put up to a community vote. They call it “crowdsourced beer.” First, people submit their ideas for beer. For example, a s’mores cream ale or a strawberry banana hefeweizen, then people vote on it. The voting is performed by people taking preorders on the ones they think will be the best, then whichever beers have the most pre orders get made. It leads to some very interesting combinations of flavors.

Something that is important to note about mobcraft, is that not all of the beers are particularly good. Due to the fact that they dedicate their brewing talents to flavor experiments, the experiments don’t always turn out too well. However, they do tend to do a good job. The strawberry banana hefeweizen that I had, called the Monkey Berry Hefeweizen, was actually really good, the strawberry came in hitting hard at first but smoothed out into a nice banana twist.

There are two beers that Mobcraft have regularly. One of them is the Oddball, so named because it's their only beer that have permanently on tap. It never changes, it never goes away, and in a brewery like mobcraft, its the odd one out. Oddball is a lighter kӧlsch-style ale, it’s refreshingly crispy, however in terms of beers that are that style, other breweries do it better. The other beer that they have regularly is the Ode to Sahti. While they always have something that is similar to this beer on tap, it isn’t always the same. The Ode to Sahti is a Finnish style ale, made with spruce and juniper berries. The result is (typically) a refreshing pine aroma with a tinge of juniper to accentuate the flavor. When I went most recently, the variation of this beer that they had was the Ode etta Sahti, which was brewed regularly, but instead of regular yeast, they used brettanomyces, a wild yeast typically found on the skins of fruit. This is an unpredictable strain of yeast, and thus it lends an unpredictability to the flavor of the beer. Overall, the Ode etta Sahti is just as good as I would have hoped, it has been one of my favorites at Mobcraft (or at least the other variations that I’ve tried), since my first trip there.

Overall, Mobcraft is a great brewery with a great mission, however if you are a beer traditionalist, then it’s not the place for you. On the flip side, if you are a beer enthusiast with a more adventurous palate, Mobcraft is a must for your Milwaukee beer adventures.