First, Badger State Brewing’s BRW-SKI cracked the craft beers lineup at American Family Field. Now, the rest of Milwaukee gets a crack at the Green Bay brewery’s beer lineup. Same for Madison. And La Crosse.
Andrew Fabry, president and co-founder of Badger State Brewing, said the brewery was doing some self distribution in those markets for the past year, mostly at independent liquor stores, restaurants and bars. Working with wholesalers will expand the company’s reach, he said.
Core beers will lead the charge into all three markets including the brewery’s top sellers, BRW-SKI (a German-inspired lager) and Grassy Place Hazy IPA. BEERMOSA (a fruited slushie style sour) and popular seasonal beers will also make the rounds.
Badger State brews an impressive number of beer styles. It lists 11 beers as regular offerings, and also lists more than 30 other pilot beers, new beers, seasonal beers (not all available at this time) and specialty beers on its website.
Don’t count on all those beers debuting in the broader markets at once.
Fabry said they got a feel for each market’s tastes while self distributing and will use that experience to guide early distribution decisions. There will be launch events and tap takeovers to get feedback and introduce the brewery to new customers.
If you’re unfamiliar with Badger State Brewing, here’s a short FAQ.
Who owns and operates Badger State Brewing
Fabry and his friends Sam Yanda and Mike Servi founded Badger State Brewing in 2013. They started with a few small fermenters brewing three beers that could be found on tap at restaurants and bars around Green Bay and were available for growler fills at the brewery.
What beers are they known for
Most of the beer that’s not kegged for draft sales, gets sold in 4-packs of 16-ounce cans.
- Grassy Place Hazy IPA: As a craft brewery, you don’t go from selling growler fills out their back door to wide distribution without a popular IPA. This one gets “massive” hop additions in the fermenter and double dry hopping for all its tropical fruit flavors and aromas.
- BRW-SKI: Put a “German-inspired lager” in a can that’s wrapped in a Wisconsin license plate inspired graphic design and you have a popular beer in America’s Dairyland.
- Buzzy Badger Coffee Ale: Take a brown ale with a clean finish and add coffee.
- On Wisconsin Red: Yes, there’s a good bet this American-style amber will be distributed in Madison markets sooner rather than later.
- Tiki Tom Slushie Smoothie series: A rotation of fruited sours anchored by BEERMOSA made with four types of oranges.
- OKT-SKI: Like BRW-SKI except give the label an orange color scheme and fill the can with the brewery’s Oktoberfest-style beer.
Badger State also brews loads of IPA variations, multiple stouts and porters (barrel aged and otherwise), a Witbier and its own hard seltzers.
Which packaged beers will roll out in Milwaukee and other markets remains to be seen.
On the draft side of things, Fabry said they will get more fun with releases of limited and small quantity beers.
Where is the brewery located
Though the Badger name and imagery screams Madison, the brewery operates at 990 Tony Canadeo Run in Green Bay.
Fabry graduated from University of Wisconsin, so there’s your Madison connection.
With more than 20 beers on tap in its taproom, a large beer garden and a much, much, much larger parking lot within walking distance of Lambeau Field, Badger State Brewing is a popular stop during Green Bay Packers home games.
Why expand into new markets
Badger State added brewing equipment near the end of 2019 with plans to expand distribution, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed the push by a couple of years.
Fabry said they’ve connected with craft beer drinkers and built a customer base around the state at Packers games, beer festivals and other events during Badger State’s first nine years.
Badger State beers also are distributed in popular vacation destinations from the Northwoods to Door County.
Even if Badger State hadn’t been building its brand awareness for nearly a decade, Fabry thinks there’s still thirst for craft beer around the state.
“There’s still so much beer coming into Wisconsin from other states. That shows there’s still demand for this beer,” he said.
Contact Daniel Higgins [email protected]. Follow @HigginsEats on Twitter and Instagram and like on Facebook.