I've started planning this year's trip. For a change of pace, I'm looking at flying into Madison on Thursday AM and then heading north up to Amherst/Plover to visit Central Waters and O'So. Where do you recommend I visit while I'm in the area? Ambrosia? Father Fats? ???
Ale Asylum, Karben4, and Wisconsin Brewing Company are all great places to visit in the Madison area. 3 Sheeps recently opened up their new taproom in Sheboygan. If you're making it out here to Milwaukee I'd also recommend Lakefront Brewery. Still one of the best brewery tours I've ever been on
One Barrel and Next Door are also good stops in Madison. Port Huron in Wis Dells too if you want to go a little off I-39.
New Glarus miiiight be doing something that weekend as well....Could be worth checking out ....but it'll probably suck and not be worth it
Has anyone received their mail-in tickets (lottery)? Or gotten your check back? I'm hoping to be able to make the trip from San Diego!
In a different thread someone posted they received their check back about a week ago. That's the only post I've seen about it so far. I believe people typically start getting tickets/checks in June
Thanks all. I did a really bad job of asking my question. I've been to GTMW multiple times and have made the trips to New Glarus (will hit the special release again this year), Lakefront (many times), Chicago, Munster, Toppling Goliath and most of the breweries in Madison. I'll fly in Thursday AM and probably head to NG first for the special release. As a change of pace, I thought I would head north this trip and check out Central.Waters and O'So. I don't think CW tap room is open Thursday, so I'd go to the shop (do they have bottles?) and was hoping to find some.of their beers on tap locally (Ambrosia Pub?). From there I was going to head to O'so, drink many beers and crash in Plover. What else is a "must do" up there and on the way up/back? Port Huron might be doable.
I have lost count of how many times I've been to the GTMW, more than ten now. It's a great trip to get out of the Houston heat in August and enjoy cooler weather and fantastic beer. My buddy is a UW grad, he talked me into going to GTMW years ago and we have made the trip almost every year since. Madison is awesome.
There will not be an R&D release at NG this year on Thursday. All R&D this year is Fri/Sat only. Just something to keep in mind while you're planning your weekend. As far as the rest of your question -- CW Taproom is, indeed, closed on Thursday but the bottle shop is open. Around that time, I'm not sure they're going to have anything you wouldn't have been able to buy at a store in Madison though. I'd say if you're not 100% sold on visiting CW to check out the brewery itself, you might just skip it. Just my two cents on that. O'so is definitely worth hitting, esp if they're doing something with FFG.
Thanks. I had not seen that the NG release was Friday and Saturday only. That settles which direction I go Thursday. I wanted to go by CW to check out the brewery (apparently not at the same address as the shop?). They and O'So were two of my favorite brewers from last year. If it's only 30 minutes-ish off of heading straight to O'So it'll be worth it to check off another brewery visited box.
No the brewery and bottle shop are the same. I think they just sell beer to go during the week and then have the brewery/taproom open the other days (someone correct me if I'm wrong). O'so is a good one to hit up and only about 20ish min away. As far as ambrosia, no. It's not really a pub. It's a local bar/restaurant. Yes they probably have some CW beers, but not going to have anything special on tap. We ate there after one of the anniversary parties based on the good yelp reviews and it was just ok. Standard rural bar food. Beer was nothing special. I don't know the area well, but to really hit up a beer bar, you're looking at going to Steven's Point probably. Otherwise O'so has other WI beers on tap as well as their own. Someone from the area can probably give better info, but wanted to throw that out there
