Octoberfest Tour

Expanding Our Octoberfest to Minnesota

We certainly love our local brews. However, a few weeks ago my husband received a birthday gift of assorted Oktoberfest beers from outside our WiscoBeer realm. They say it’s good to expand your thinking, so in preparation for our upcoming Octoberfest Brewery Tour we’re “working” to expand our palettes. Yes, sigh, it’s a tough, tough job.

This year we’re also expanding our brewery tour. In addition to our annual celebration of sipping and scenery, we’re including the Women In Sustainable Agriculture (WISA) Conference in St. Paul, Minnesota.

What a great conference this will be—fabulous women from across the country gathering to exchange ideas, find resources, and network. I’m super proud to be amongst them and presenting the workshop Be a Better Self-Promoter. Do join us!

But For Now, Let’s Talk Beer!

The Mississippi River region is truly glorious in October. After sampling the Twin Cities’ great selection of brews, we’re heading downstream to Fountain City, a cozy community nestled between the river and Wisconsin’s towering bluffs. Here we’re planning a few days of river exploration, state park hiking, and, of course, more sampling.

So Many to Sample

To the delight of beer enthusiasts everywhere, the number of craft breweries continues to grow. Each year as I plan our tour the number of venues seems to have doubled from the year before. Most interesting is the creative entrepreneurship of these small businesses; like, for example, the symbiotic partnership between taprooms and food trucks, which is a tasty win-win for breweries, food trucks and customers alike.

This all leaves us with a hardly-unfortunate dilemma: With so many breweries in Western Wisconsin/Eastern Minnesota, how does one choose? I’ve decided to prioritize our sampling to 1) interesting ambiance (I do like my historic architecture, you know) and 2) if the brewery was featured in Taproom Travelers videos (again, gotta love that creative entrepreneurship).

Promo of My Own

In the spirit of practicing what I’ll be preaching at the upcoming WISA Conference, may I present my 2019 Octoberfest Brewery Tour poster!

Each year as a personal exercise, I design a poster commemorating our tour (check out more of them here). This keeps me in touch with the industry and brings an added element of fun to our travels. Posters are great keepsakes for any event.

Perhaps you have an event you’d like to promote? Or maybe a new line of beverage you’d like to brand? Drop me a line!

Yesteryear’s Brewery: Today’s Small Business

While enjoying last year’s Octoberfest Brewery Tour, I came across the book Badger Breweries, Past and Present. Definitely on the rare list, it’s a detailed account of all the breweries known to have existed in Wisconsin. Look at how many it shows for my small town alone.

Badger Breweries: Past and Present

According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, nearly every town in the 1800s had its own brewery. A town’s brewery was its heart, providing steady employment, commerce and togetherness. It was also its fingerprint, each with a unique history and terroir.

While most of these breweries have died long ago, we’re now savoring a renaissance with the craft beer movement. These new breweries—most of them small and independently owned—strengthen communities just like the old days. But like an egg in our beer, their innovative owners have been bestowing neighborhoods with food venues, tourism and charitable causes.

As interesting as beer history is, what I really want to talk about are small businesses. This week is National Small Business Week and in the same way those small, 19th century breweries were the lifeblood a community, so small, locally owned businesses are today.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), more than half of Americans either own or work for a small business, and they create about two out of every three new jobs in the U.S. each year.

Maybe you want to become one of those owners! Maybe you want impress your fingerprint into the community. The SBA has great information online to get you started, everything from funding to launching your business.

And if you’re looking for help branding and marketing your new business, please keep me in mind!

Wisconsin Artistry and our 2018 Octoberfest Brewery Tour

I’m of the opinion that Wisconsin has the best selection of Oktoberfest beer and, admittedly, I’ve done my share of sampling since it hit the shelves two months ago. Here are a few of my favorites. To top it off, when the Oktoberfest comes out my husband and I get quite a thirst for our Octoberfest Brewery Tour. It’s truly our favorite time of year.

Even though our tour has become an annual getaway, this year’s arrangements are rather last minute. True, I usually begin planning the next before we’ve even finished the last. But sometimes life brings us detours. My beloved father died recently and our hearts just weren’t into the extensive trip I’d originally planned. Instead, we’re taking a few days in the comfort of familiar places.

Our Itinerary

Wisconsin celebrates the artistry of October like none other. It’s all about brilliant color, outdoor adventure and hearty festivals. Here’s our to-do list:

  • Fermentation Fest: This year the Farm/Art DTour is back better than ever. With a sparkling lineup of artists, musicians and food carts, it can’t be missed! Not officially part of our brewery tour, we’re using it as a day-tripping intro.
  • Fall Art Tour: Baraboo, Spring Green, Dodgeville and Mineral Point have developed into an inspiring art community and on this weekend it’s doors wide open! My favorite studios are those tucked inside repurposed, historical buildings and rugged, country barns.
  • Driftless Cafe: Food, Sustenance, Love, as they say. My kind of place, especially since it gleans ingredients from local organic farmers.
  • Trempealeau Hotel and Monarch Public House: We loved these locales four years ago and the area’s quiet simplicity is calling us back.
  • Long Lake Canoe Trail: It would be divine to explore these waterways—think fall colors, migratory birds, and flat waters (this is a brewery tour don’t forget, so there’s a necessary emphasis on “flat waters”). Other possibilities are Perrot and Roche-A-Cri State Parks.
  • Sand Creek Brewing Co: Before clicking into this company’s website, check out Google’s image of it’s building. I swoon!
  • Wisconsin Cranberry Discovery Center: Wisconsin is the largest producer of cranberries, yet I know so little of this industry. Time to see how those Thanksgiving berries are grown!
  • Knuth Brewing Company: Artisan beer and pizza by husband and wife entrepreneurs, perfect pairings.

Hot Off the Press

What’s Octoberfest Brewery Tour without some promo? I know you’re bubbling with anticipation and here it is…my 2018 poster!

Family and friends, if you’re in these areas, let’s get together and share a beer! Probst!

Octoberfest Brewery Tour promotional poster by Adunate

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Finalizing Our Octoberfest Brewery Tour

Octoberfest Brewery Tour 2017Autumn is here! That means Oktoberfest beer has been out for weeks and we’re finalizing plans for our Octoberfest Brewery Tour. With that…drumroll… comes the release of my Octoberfest poster!

The great thing about personal projects is that they can be just that—personal. Yes, commonly graphic design is communication to a full audience, but these Octoberfest posters are meaningful mementos of what’s become our annual tradition. Unique tours. Unique posters.

And…did you notice this year’s stork?

This October we’re minimizing our travels to within a 200-mile radius of home. As you might guess, we’re expecting a baby in the upcoming month —grandbaby, that is. Sipping beer may be fun, but nothing beats the arrival of a new child of God. One mention of contractions and we’re heading home faster than beer foams from a tap.

Our Lake Michigan Itinerary

Pending no news of labor, here’s our shoreline excursion. We’ve often vacationed in these parts of Wisconsin so I explored the internet for things out of our ordinary. Added to our to-do’s are Grafton Stone Mill, White Cliff Fen and Forest Nature Preserve and Rock Island’s Pottwatomie Lighthouse.

But hey, this is a brewery tour, is it not? Wisconsin’s got a brewing boom going on and new crafters are opening their doors everywhere. Here are a few we aim to sample:

  • Thumb Knuckle Brewery just opened this spring and seems like a perfect welcome into the Door County peninsula.
  • Ahnapee Brewery is a throwback to the original 1800s Ahnapee Brewery except now it’s a tap room in a garage—a tiny garage—how cool is that? Plus Von Stiehl Winery is right next door.
  • The Fermentorium—love the name—received good reviews from Milwaukee Magazine. It’s just outside of Cedarburg, always an interesting town.
  • St. Francis Brewing Company: Their beers are showing up in several area restaurants and one of my favorites is the brown ale Sloth (which is definitely what I’ll be after this tour).

Any more suggestions for this area? Let us know! We love the serendipity of life!

Packing Our Bags for Octoberfest 2016!

Octoberfest Brewery Tour 2016, promotional posterThe days have been on fast-forward lately and I’m working feverishly to wrap up several projects. On top of that, I’ve been doing some creative work for myself. As you can see, our annual Octoberfest Brewery Tour is just around the corner!

I’ve Perfected My Google Map (layer upon layer)

Octoberfest Brewery Tour 2016

This year our roads will follow the downpours of beer taps and waterfalls. It didn’t take much research on my part to find there are plenty of both along the shores of Lakes Michigan and Superior. The falls have been long been nature’s gift. The breweries? Well, it’s über exciting to know the handcrafted beer industry has spread to even the remotest peninsulas of U.P. Michigan. Prost! To those crafters who go forth with entrepreneurial (and tasty!) gusto, you have our love!

And to the Lake Express ferry: We’ll see you bright and early for a 6 a.m. sail. Heading into an eastern sunrise will be a glorious start to this year’s tour!

Stay tuned and catch my pictures on Instagram.

Wednesday Webs: Potica and Other Delicious Musings

Slovenian Potica

Last weekend we gathered the family together and made potica. If you’re of Slovenian or Austrian descent, you likely know how delicious this heritage coffeecake is—tons of butter, cream, honey and nuts. No calories whatsoever!

While beer-touring in northern Minnesota this fall, we ate lunch at the Biwabik Pub, easily the friendliest, tastiest bar and grill in all the Gopher State. The owner Sharon was more than happy to discuss potica with us because in that area everyone and their brother is Slovenian. According to her, each family has its traditional recipe and, like all traditions, each claims its is best. Sharon even offers annual potica classes right there in the pub (this year her Christmas class was cancelled because a family baby is on the way, instead she’s offering it at Easter—she’ll let us know).

So this week I’m eating potica, deliciously packing on seasonal pounds, and perusing interesting sites:

Fermentation Fest Converges Once Again

Touring Sauk County for Fermentation Fest 2015

It’s been a full month, but I’m still sighing with warm reminiscings of our Octoberfest Brewery Tour. The culmination of this glorious trip was Fermentation Fest in Reedsburg, Wis. We couldn’t have had a more flavorful or beautiful encore to our week than this.

In case you’ve missed my incessant promotions—deservedly so—Fermentation Fest is an annual, 10-day blending of agriculture, arts, food and appreciation of the land. Initially one considers this a rather eclectic mix, but once you experience everything the festival has to offer it all melds together in the most appreciative of ways. I find it especially exciting because in designing the event guide, I have the honor of being part of the event’s promotional team.

Fermentation Fest, Reedsburg, WI

Disregarding the well-worn travelers, check out this stunning entryway to the Fermentation Fest Headquarters. The building is a historic railway station and it otherwise serves as the Reedsburg Chamber of Commerce.

Details of Fermentation Fest entryway, Reedsburg, WI

Yes, these are the details of the entryway. It’s a collage of wine corks, seeds and beans all converging to represent the delightful elements of Fermentation Fest. Imagine the work put into this!

Lucky 13: Elephant in the Room, by Erika Nelson

This year our schedule didn’t allow us to participate in any of the food fermenting classes but we instead did the 50-mile Farm/Art DTour. The weather was glorious, the scenery stunning and the art installments were divine. Lucky 13: Elephant in the Room, by Erika Nelson, celebrates the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey’s announcement to discontinue using elephants in circus performances.

Fermentation Fest's appreciation of the land

Monday is Wash Day, by Brenda Baker

There’s something truly heartfelt about art displayed in the middle of such beautiful land. With her Monday is Wash Day, artist Brenda Baker pays kudos to the “historical and undervalued part of rural life.” I live in the country. I hang clothes to dry. So of course, I loved the story-telling thoughtfulness of this piece.

Meandering roads in Sauk County, WIsconsin

Farm structures in Sauk County, Wisconsin

Sauk County, WI

With meandering backroads, rolling hillsides and idyllic farm scenes,  Sauk County is a magical place. When we came upon Amish children riding home from their one-room school, my heart simply melted.

Red Piano, Fermentation Fest, Reedsburg, WI

Stevens Signs, Rock Springs, WI

Flood, by Molly Rideout, Rock Springs, WI

Flood, by Molly Rideout, Rock Springs, WI

Art comes in many forms: Music, architecture and storytelling. This story, Flood, by Molly Rideout, really hits home, given our fragile state of human relations. Must history always repeat itself? Can we ever learn to love one another?

antique farm machinery, Sauk County, WIsconsin

You can’t celebrate agriculture without appreciating its heritage. Farmhenge, created by Harlan Ferstl and the McCluskey Brothers was an arrangement of new and old farm machinery pieces. The artistry of old iron is beautiful, isn’t it?

So there you have it—my favorites of the Farm/Art DTour. You can see more beautiful shots posted by some of the 20,000 festival-goers who made this year’s Fermentation Fest the biggest and best yet. Check them out here!

Our previous Octoberfest stop: Leinenkugel’s Brewing Company

The Macro Economics of Micro Brewing

Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company

Way back in 1867, Jacob Leinenkugel and John Miller founded the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company. Jacob brewed the beer and John delivered it throughout the quaint town of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. Yes, this is the same Chippewa Falls where Jack Dawson, of Titanic fame, erroneously spent his childhood ice fishing on Lake Wissota. But that’s beside the point.

In 1884, John sold his stake to Jacob.

Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin

Fifteen decades and six generations later, the Leinenkugel family is still brewing away. Except for one thing—they sold out.

(Leinenkugels prefer to call it a merge.)

Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin

In 1988, Leinenkugel’s was acquired by Miller Brewing Company, a major manufacturer based in Milwaukee. In 1999, Miller was acquired by SABMiller, the second largest brewing company in the world. Now today, the acquisition of all acquisitions is bubbling with the upcoming sale of SABMiller to Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest brewing company in the world.

For a mere $104 billion.

That there is one chunk of change passing between hoppy hands, don’t you think? Except these are publicly traded companies and we could easily wager that the hands managing them have never touched a single flower of hops. These two companies—soon to become one—control every major label found on taps and shelves today. They do this with a single mindset—profit.

Can we say conglomerate?

Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin

Visiting Leinenkugels on our Octoberfest Brewery Tour was interesting. Unfortunately, we arrived too late for the tour and weren’t able to see those gorgeous, old buildings. But the Leinie Lodge was intriguing in a touristy way. This is especially true if you crave every bit of Leinie’s miscellanea possible, all using the very distinctive Leinenkugel script with underlining swoosh. (Being that it was the fifth day of our weeklong tour, we did not experience any such cravings.)

Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin

There were several displays attributing the company’s original history, although they did feel somewhat commercialized. Need a barrel? Buy one here.

Where’s the heart?

Yes, we had a fun visit to Leinenkugel’s. But being the simple, independent girl that I am, I couldn’t help wondering where’s the heart?

Where’s the heritage, like that of Schell’s Brewery, the second oldest family-owned brewery in the U.S.? (My husband and I drank Schell’s beer when we were college punks. Now decades later and with much more appreciation, we hope to return on an Octoberfest Brewery Tour.)

Where’s the welcoming hearth of artisans like Pearl Street Brewery, located in a repurposed, historic warehouse, or Central Waters Brewing, which is committed to environmental sustainability? These are darn good breweries where you can talk tap with the owner and see the magic happening just beyond the bar.

But most of all, where’s the humble, hard-working, entrepreneuring gumption that builds something from nothing? Something really special. I love New Glarus Brewing Company and how Dan Carey, co-owner and brewmaster, describes themselves as poor kids who fought their way up. Or how his wife Deb Carey, founder and president, has a “love of people, regardless of stature, education, or inheritance.” She believes it’s the “responsibility of companies to provide care for the employees who may very well spend their entire lives helping to make that business successful.”

Thinking economically

Okay, obviously, like most consumers, I’m driven by emotion. I’m a fan of the little guys and it’s my opinion they produce a better product, beer or otherwise. Knowing this, I recognize I need to exercise a bit of pragmatic reality, especially since my understanding of economics is limited. Therefore, I’m trying to look the issue from various sides.

Check out this Milwaukee Business Journal article where then-president Jacob Leinenkugel says the Miller Brewing acquisition took them out of survival mode and enabled them to become a sixth-generation brewer. Or this article by Bloomberg Business, where, after purchasing the Chicago crafter Goose Island Beer Company, AB InBev topped it off with more employees and expensive equipment so it could expand its line.

Greater security…More jobs…Improved facilities. Sounds good, right?

Now google “AB InBev lobbying.” You quickly suspect a seedy underbelly to the corporate giant and that its surface altruism is as self-serving as a bartender giving away free drinks to make more tips. Not only is AB InBev taking control of production, it’s also muscling its way into distribution via lobbying dollars and distributor company purchases.

Many beer aficionados worry AB InBev and like-minded corporations will destroy the spirit of the craft industry. They predict the craft labels AB InBev purchases will diminish in quality. They are concerned that small, independent brewers will be pushed out of distribution.

What do you think?

Our previous stop: Thirst Pagan, Superior, Wis. Our last stop: Fermentation Fest

 

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