MKE Distro

Since this thread has derailed from distro to overall MKE beer scene, I just want to mention a great new brewery that no one seems to talk about on here - Raised Grain in Waukesha. Their Cherry IPA was phenomenal, Paradocs and Black Walnut Stout are both excellent, and all the beers I've yet tried have been at minimum good.

Regarding the OP's actual topic, I live in MKE, and travel a fair amount for work (typing this in Dallas), including frequent trips to Chicago, so have a good base for comparison. @EvilMidnightBomber nailed it, we actually have really good distro compared to many other places, it's just that Chicago gets basically that same distro (excepting New Glarus, regular TG and a few others), and with a city population greater than all of Wisconsin, they have the demand to support many more local breweries, and get more special release allocations. Seattle is a similarly sized city to MKE and though they get all the good West Coast breweries, they do not get as much Midwest and East Coast brewery distribution as you'd think, even from larger craft breweries (though that is changing more and more every year).

 

1.) Go to discount liqours
2.) Go to Rays growler gallery
3.) Start drinking toppling Goliath
4.) Start drinking black husky

I don't think we get bad distribution you just have to look harder than you do in Chicago to find great stuff. Also on the age of our ipas I see plenty of old ipas in Chicago. Simple fix just don't buy them all willy nilly look at the dates or if its seasonal look to see when its normally released.

 

They used to four or five independent HB shops in the Metro Milwaukee area. (This was back when I was homebrewing much more that I am today.) Nothing near downtown though, and they all did a mediocre job from what I could tell. NB came in and quickly did a very good job, and pretty much put everyone else out of business. NB is not from Milwaukee, true, but they only have three retail locations, one of which is in Milwaukee, staffed and run by people from Milwaukee. It's not as though they are WalMart or something. Surprised to hear that there's anywhere in this country with multiple homebrew shops within a bike ride's distance, but I haven't spent much time in places like SD or Denver.

The Beer Barons Club seems to be pretty good as well with a lot of active members. I have no basis for comparison though.

 

Personally I really like Northern Brewer. It has a big selection of grains and has all the yeast and hop varieties you could hope for. I don't think I've ever written any recipes and couldn't get the exact ingredients there. I think they ship too, so I imagine you could get all the fresh ingredients you needed within a day or two, if driving there was inconvenient.
I think there are a few supply shops in the Brookfield area too. Without NB in the area, we'd be in way worse shape.