Milwaukee help

Check out discount liquor as far as shops go. I'm warning you now, be prepared to spend a shit ton of money. That place has a selection like I've never seen..(I take trips down there sometimes just for beer runs and its a 2 hour drive) as far as bars go.. I hear of sugar maple being good. However, I have personally never been to any down there! Hope that helps a bit!

 

Couple threads on this similarly in the past that you can get some good variety of opinions in:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/bottle-shops-in-milwaukee.158324/
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/a-couple-of-milwaukee-questions.125793/ (more bars and such)
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/bottle-shops-in-milwaukee.122990/

There's not a ton right downtown, so hopefully you're driving in and will have a car. Really, it boils down to a couple places in my opinion:
Discount Liquor (51st and Oklahoma) - probably biggest bottle selection in the city, my preferred choice typically, (FYI only open 10-2 Sundays)
Ray's Wine and Spirits (~90th and North Ave in Wauwatosa) - Another great liquor store with a big selection and a big plus that virtually all their beers are in the cooler
Otto's (Particularly on Oakland) - Nice store with good selection and always seems to have a couple bottles of a vintage beer (especially Central Waters Bourbon Barrel selections)
Woodman's (Oak Creek, Kenosha, Waukesha) - Huge store with big selection, good prices

For Bars, check out my posts in the second thread above, I wrote fairly extensively on them, but definitely agree with the above post and Sugar Maple

Hope that helps, and happy to answer any other questions you have.

 

Definitely make the trip to sugar maple. About 60 beers on tap, bartender was a great guy.

 

Milwaukee Ale House is awesome. It's Milwaukee Brewing Company's bar, and they make some excellent beer. Have heard great things about the Lakefront tour, but I also highly recommend MKE's tour

 

Store wise- Ray's ,Discount Liquor, Whole Foods, Otto's Oakland, Downer Liquor.

 

Sugar Maple
Romans
Burnhearts
Palm Tavern

are all musts in terms of Beer bars...Stubbys' which is closer to the east side is pretty awesome too - they have food, almost more of a sports bar feel but with like 50+ taps, usually all solid

 

I say this every time I see a post of this nature, and it's not a popular opinion as many Milwaukee natives love their beer bars in Milwaukee, but if you make a 20 min detour north on I-43 to Port Washington, you can go to Sir James Pub, I love this place, the two owners are almost always in there on the weekends tending, and they know all of their 500+ inventory of beers from all over the world. They have about 10 beers on tap, but it's all good stuff, my favorite addition of theirs has been FFF's gumballhead, you won't be disappointed by this place if you go

 

Please don't go to Mke ale house, it is a travesty of beer. Ottos in Bayside is great, but a bit overpriced. Sugar maple is a great bar, but a couple of their bartenders think they're better than God. The owner of Sugar maple is a really cool guy and interesting to talk to. Stay away from water and Brady street as they are full of drunk hipsters who think you should retire if your over the age of 25. There is a great etheopian joint on prospect ave, but don't expect great beers there. Benelux has a phenom belgian selection.

 

A word on Discount- as much as I love their selection, if you're looking for hoppy stuff watch bottle dates. 'Nuff said.

 

Must Milwaukee visits-

Stubby's (only a few minutes from Lakefront Brewery, closest good beer bar)
MKE Brewing tour (just like Lakefront's tour 10 years ago)
Burnheart's (Milwaukee's #1 beer bar)
Roman's (beware of owner/ bartender...total asshat but worth it)
Palm Tavern (same owner of Sugar Maple, less of a crowd, whiskey selection is top notch)
Discount Liquor (ridiculous beer selection, some bottles are outdated and most not refrigerated)
Ray's Liquor (awesome beer selection, most refrigerated)
Hotel Foster (nice romantic spot, except on Fri/Sat nights)
and pick one of these- Cafe Hollander (2 locations), Cafe Benelux, or Cafe Centraal (all owned by the same group and have an excellent choice of Belgians)

 

Forgot to add...Otto's on Oakland is the closest bottle shop to Downtown and well worth the visit.

 

Totally agree about MKE brewing. I've never had a beer that I really enjoyed there. Mediocre seems to be the ceiling for them.

 

After a day of beer drinking/bar hopping, end the night at At Random. Wives/girlfriends/paramours tend to dig it:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/at-random-milwaukee

 

Going on the 'Wives/girlfriends" will like it, check out Bryant's. Its Milwaukee's oldest cocktail bar, and has some good ones. Total mad men type vibe going on as well. If you don't know what you want they can create drinks based on what flavors you like. I told them I like stout beer, what I got was a muddy brown cocktail that was really really good.

Otherwise, Burnhearts is the best craft beer in Milwaukee. Which just happens to be very near Bryant's and Sugar Maple.

If you head to Otto's on Oakland, please stop at Downer Liquor. They usually have some gems in their bomber section, and have a fairly large pick 6 section, stocked with beers you would actually want to pick.

And just make sure you pronounce it correctly "Me-Lee-Walk-Kay"

 

Ha, I would follow that advice for almost every store here..

 

Yeah, but this was bad. Last Friday I saw of bomber of Clown Shoes' Hoppy Feet dated October 2012.

 

I get the joke but, having grown up there, the correct pronunciation is "Muh-wa-kee." The "L" is silent, you know

Also, bonus points for pronouncing Kinnickinnic correctly...

 

yeah... but if you actually say Kinnickinnic instead of "KK" people will think you're crazy