The Milwaukee craft brewers’ Beer Drive-Thru is back for a fourth, and final, time to help local independent brewers sell their products during this challenging period.
It will again be held at The Explorium Brewpub in Southridge Mall, 5300 S. 76th St., on Saturday, May 23, from noon until 5 p.m.
Once again, thanks to New Barons Brewing, folks can drive up and buy beer from local breweries without getting out of their cars.
Participating breweries include New Barons Brewing Cooperative, Broken Bat Brewing Company, MobCraft Beer, The Fermentorium Brewery & Tasting Room, Enlightened Brewing Company, Sprecher Brewery, The Explorium Brewpub, Sahale Ale Works, Third Space Brewing and Gathering Place Brewing Company.
"We were not certain we were going to be doing a fourth drive-through but due to the support of the third one, we recognized there was still a need," says New Barons' Heidi Dalibor.
"Our idea was not novel in that you can go pick up beer, most of our fellow breweries are providing this service. What was different about this was bringing the breweries all together and being able to sell a higher volume of beer at once in support of each other. In the beginning, it meant a distribution channel for the brewers when others had been taken away."
But things are in constant flux, it seems, and that's why New Barons is calling this the last drive-thru.
"We understand that things are going to start opening and also recognize there is still a demand for this drive-thru option as businesses put together their plans to open safely," says Dalibor.
"We feel our drive-thru has run its course as we start seeing businesses open up. These breweries will need patrons help directly and focusing on supporting local watering holes will be very important."
In the meantime, go here to pre-order your drive-thru beer, which is recommended as some are available in limited quantities and it helps speed up the line and ensure touchless transactions.
All volunteers working the event will wear face masks and customers are invited to wear masks and gloves, too, if they have them.
In addition, as during previous drive-thrus, there will be many safety precautions, including reapplication of hand sanitizer between transactions, rub-down of products with San-02-Gard and more.
The first three drive-thrus drew long lines of Milwaukeeans eager for great beer and to support local brewers. Hopefully, that will happen again, in which case we urge patience.
"It has been amazing to see Milwaukee show up every time when the call has been issued to help these amazing places out," says Dalibor. "We have now sold close to 20,000 cans.
"We want to thank everyone that came to any of these drive-thrus, to our New Barons member-owners that volunteered and made this possible, and Explorium Brew Pub and Faklandia Brewing for letting us host at their breweries and to their employees who volunteered, as well. We hope that everyone comes out this on the other side, and can’t wait to see you in person in our own taproom in the coming months!"
Did she say, New Barons' "own taproom"? She sure did. Stay tuned.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
