Midwest Trip, where to drink?

So I finalized my trip and here's were I'm going: St. Paul MN, Madison WI, Milwaukee, Kenosha WI, Chicago IL. So, where should I drink? Let the discussion begin! Thanks!

In Madison go to the Great Dane and nearby in Middleton you can find Capital Brewery. Great Dane is nice Brew Pub and Capital Brewery has a beer garden open on Fridays and either Thursday or Saturday (I forget). Look them up and double check brier heading over. Both places are great for beer and atmosphere.

My Chicago favorites

Map Room

Hop Leaf

Bavarian Lodge (my personal favorite, a bit outside the city but I love the food and the beer selection is awesome)

If you will be going a little bit south of Chicago. Their Pullman Brown is awesome.
Flossmoor Station

For brewery there is also Goose Island

In St. Paul... head to The Muddy Pig, if you like Belgians. If you want the best brewpub, I like Barley John's in New Brighton. If they have Dark Knight (barrel-aged porter), save room, and get a designated driver.

Goose Island Brewery is in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago (near Wrigley Field if you aren't familiar with the neighborhoods). They have a pretty big distribution area, but I'm not sure if they make it all the way out to CA. Admittedly, I haven't tried many of their beers, but haven't found one that I didn't like.

If you think you can make it about 30-35 miles west of Chicago, there is a great microbrewery and brewpub-Two Brothers Brewing Company. Free tours on Saturday at 1:00 and 2:30 (Goose Island probably does too, but I'm not sure). They have five year round beers on tap as well as 2 or 3 seasonal or limited run beers. On the weekends they have a cask conditioned ale (varies depending on what they have been brewing lately). If you can't make it to the brewery, they are on tap in a lot of bars in Chicago too.

Hopefully this helps a little and someone can fill in any must drinks in Chicago that I missed.

In Milwaukee:
Sugar Maple
The Palm Tavern
Roman's Pub

In Kenosha:
Uncle Mike's

I've Been to all these bars/pubs and they are all great. The Sugar Maple and The Palm are owned by the same people and are smoke free.

As someone else already said about Madison: Great Dane and Capital Brewery. Also try Ale Asylum, The Malt House, and Brasserie V. You have to have a V Burger there. Trust me.
Plus the beers are outstanding.

I like Short Drive's choices for Milwaukee. If you're like me, though, and downtown and don't want to drive, the Milwaukee Ale House is walking distance from all of the downtown area hotels, as is the Water Street Brewery.

When are you going to be in Milwaukee? It'd be great to have a meet-up.

Great info folks! I'll be in Milwaukee on 07/29-07/31 as of now. If it changes at all it would just shift up or down a day. We'd love to meet fellow HTB'ers!

When will you be in Chicago?

The Happy Gnome in St. Paul has a pretty extensive beer selection. The Summit Brewery also has a pretty good tour to take.

I'll be in Chicago 08/02-08/05. Hey Yoop, if you're in town those days let me know, I would love to meet with you. I'll have the SWMBO and the ankle biters with me.

Three Floyds is one of the best brewerys in the midwest. They're in Munster, Indiana. It's just south of Chicago. It's well worth the trip. Best beer in Indiana.

Here's a mass-transit trip planner for Chicago:

RTA | The Regional Transportation Authority: Public transportation in Northeastern Illinois

Quite useful when one needs to know which bus/train to stumble to after a bunch of alpha kings at the map room.

There is a new bar in downtown Milwaukee called the Abby. Nice place but the ones mentioned before are probably better choices being that there are three of them within 2 miles of each other. Plus the St. Francis brewpub is just down the road from them and the city lounge which has beer made for them.

BTW I'm down for a meetup. You just give me a firm-ish ok and I'll be there. :rockin:

Seconding Muddy Pig in St. Paul and the Map Room in Chicago. IIRC, the map room will even feed everyone during the weekend. Saw part of the Tour de France there. It was a blast.

uespe1022 said:

Goose Island Brewery is in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago (near Wrigley Field if you aren't familiar with the neighborhoods). They have a pretty big distribution area, but I'm not sure if they make it all the way out to CA. Admittedly, I haven't tried many of their beers, but haven't found one that I didn't like.

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Goose Island is a good one. Definitely worth checking out. It's definitely an area should head to and check out if you're in the city (downtown) or on the northside.

Also, if you're on the southside, heading the Three Floyds is good.

uespe1022 said:

If you think you can make it about 30-35 miles west of Chicago, there is a great microbrewery and brewpub-Two Brothers Brewing Company. Free tours on Saturday at 1:00 and 2:30 (Goose Island probably does too, but I'm not sure). They have five year round beers on tap as well as 2 or 3 seasonal or limited run beers. On the weekends they have a cask conditioned ale (varies depending on what they have been brewing lately). If you can't make it to the brewery, they are on tap in a lot of bars in Chicago too.

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Ahh, unless you're actually within 5-10 min. drive, I wouldn't bother. Not worth it. Although, their Mac&Cheese is really good (add bacon and ham). If you're out near there, head to Chef Paul's Bavarian lodge ... much better (I'm biased cause it's 5 min. from my house).

Kenosha? The only place I can think of is the Brat Stop. New Glaurus Brewing is pretty good and the spotted cow is damn good.

srm775 said:

Kenosha? The only place I can think of is the Brat Stop. New Glaurus Brewing is pretty good and the spotted cow is damn good.

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Uncle Mike's is across the Interstate from the Brat Stop on the frontage road.

Brewing Clamper said:

Great info folks! I'll be in Milwaukee on 07/29-07/31 as of now. If it changes at all it would just shift up or down a day. We'd love to meet fellow HTB'ers!

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I've cleared those dates. You could add Rockbottom Brewery to your list too.

eschatz said:

Three Floyds is one of the best brewerys in the midwest. They're in Munster, Indiana. It's just south of Chicago. It's well worth the trip. Best beer in Indiana.

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I would have to disagree on this point. Their beers are, IMO, over-rated and WAY too reliant on Cascades/Amarillos. I went to their brew-pub, and had more of the bottled beers from other breweries. The only Three Floyds that I like is Robert The Bruce, their Scottish Ale.