The Milwaukee Beer Party

Jay Brooks

17 years ago

In a modern day version of the Boston Tea Party — but without the Indian costumes or a ship — Wisconsin beermakers staged a protest today by dumping out kegs of beer into the Milwaukee River. The Milwaukee Beer Party, which is what I’ll be calling it, was held to bring attention to Wisconsin SB 224, a state Senate bill that would make things more difficult for small local brewers.

From the AP article:

Basically, it divides small brewers into two licensed classes — those who want to serve food as brewpubs, and those who seek to bottle and distribute their product on a larger scale. The latter would face new restrictions on food service.

The brewers, who acknowledge they’re not savvy about the legislative process, say it’s not fair for new beer makers to have to decide their fate that early.

“Every business takes on a life of its own,” said Jim McCabe, proprietor of the Milwaukee Ale House. “For the guy that wants to start a brewery tomorrow, he’s got to make decisions early in his business life that aren’t possible.”

After countdowns in English and German, the kegs were opened with mallets that spewed suds across the deck and into the Milwaukee River.

The whole issue started when the Great Dane Pub opened a third location in the Madison area, but couldn’t sell its own brews because the law only allows two such operations per chain.

The brewers are also upset that the law was introduced on July 3 and is already scheduled for a vote Wednesday in the Senate’s Transportation, Tourism and Insurance Committee.

“This is just a run-of-the-night operation that’s being ram-roaded down our throats,” said Russ Klisch, owner of Lakefront Brewery Inc. in Milwaukee and president of the Wisconsin Brewers Guild. “There are so many questions out there that have been unanswered.”

It appears that lawmakers were unaware if the consequences of the actions and amendments are in the works, according to Terry Tuschen, a spokeperson for the bill’s sponsor, Senator Fred Risser (D-Madison). “Everybody’s working hard to fix what needs to be fixed,” Tuschen said. Still, if you live in Wisconsin, it probably can’t hurt to contact your local state senator’s office and ask them not to support the bill unless those provisions are amended or removed.

The Milwaukee Beer Party
From Channel 3 Wisconsin