Looking for a family-friendly brewery tour in Milwaukee? Here’s one: Sprecher Brewing Company. Not all brewery tours are kid friendly, not that they should be, but as my family recently experienced, the Sprecher Brewing tour goes above and beyond appealing to all ages.
One of the main reasons: Sprecher’s soda sales top beer sales. That’s right, besides making fantastic beer, a variety of sodas roll out of this brewery regularly and they’ve been a hit since day one.
Apparently, the owner noticed kids were bored as their parents tasted beer and decided to play around with root beer (smart man) and he ended up developing a best-seller.
On a side note, as we roamed around Milwaukee for a few days it seemed to be in every cooler and on every restaurant menu. It got to the point my family was playing “I-spy Sprecher” at every turn.
But back to the tour…here are the highlights of visiting (I’ll try not to spoil any of the fun or funny jokes our guide shared) just one tip, remember to sign up for the tour before you go since tour lists fill up quickly.
Tour. The brewery tour kicks off in the gift shop with a lively guide who is teeming with fun facts and brewery history that dates back to 1985.
The tour stops by the brewhouse, aging cellar, bottling line and warehouse and there’s even a sample of beer and root beer along the way. The tour ends in the indoor beer tent where multiple choices of beer and soda samples are served.
Micro-brewed craft beer tasting. Upon check in, adults age 21 (bring your ID) and older receive a bracelet that also serves as a ticket holder you can trade in for four nice-sized beer samples and with that come a souvenir glass that you get to take home.
Indoor beer tent. You gotta love that there’s a year-round beer tent inside Sprecher’s, complete with picnic tables. No snow or mosquitoes to deal with! Here, choose from up to 20 beers on tap.
My beer preference leans toward wheat beers so it’s no surprise Hefe Weiss was my favorite, while my husband Jeff is a hardcore IPA drinker so Citra Bomb was his top pick. We tried to take some home but they were sold out – yeah, it’s that good.
Soda. Back to the sweet stuff…our two had a blast sampling the variety of sodas. Here are Sprecher soda offerings: Root Beer, Grape, Cream Soda, Cherry Cola, Ginger Ale, Orange Dream, Ravin’ Red, Puma Cola and Lo-Cal Root Beer.
Shopping. Before or after the tour you’ll likely have fun shopping and browsing in the large gift shop complete with a variety of Sprecher clothing (yes, Jeff and I bought shirts), stuffed animals (the kids’ choice of souvenir), flavored lip balm, glassware, and of course, soda and beer.
Tour (it’s a great deal!):
- Adults (21+)
- Minors (-20)
- Seniors (62+)
- Military ID: Free admission
A huge thanks to Sprecher Brewing Company for hosting my family; the tour truly is a fun, family-friendly experience, and my clan would love to stop by again on our next visit to Milwaukee. When you go, please let me know what beer or soda you loved!
I’m not a big beer person, same for Dale he prefers ale, but we are always looking for micro-breweries to see if we can find a beer we enjoy the most. Nice to see they thought of something for the kids too to get them involved, they would have been bored otherwise. How was the beer?