On Sunday, Nov. 17 at 10 a.m., Great Lakes Distillery will launch a brand new ... beer?!
That’s right, Milwaukee’s pioneer post-Prohibition distillery, 616 W. Virginia St., has teamed with its neighbors at MobCraft Beer to create Chaser American Lager, which will be permanently and exclusively sold at the Great Lakes tasting room.
The new all-malt American lager – described by GLD as being "on the lighter side of the style," is named for what might be its most perfect use: accompanying a Bloody Mary.
"It’s just a fun thing we did with our neighbor MobCraft brewery as an added element to our annual Bloody Mary Party," says Great Lakes Marketing Director Ross Salchow. "People always ask for a chaser with their Bloodys, so why not give them exactly that?"
The beer will be unveiled at the distillery’s annual Bloody Mary Party and Food Drive, which runs until 3 p.m. at the tasting room on Sunday. The event is free and open to everyone, but a donation of canned low sodium vegetables and/or tuna or chicken packed in water is strongly encouraged.
Donated food will go to the Hunger Task Force.
"We have a great relationship with Henry (Schwartz) and the whole crew at MobCraft," says General Manager Andy Doebele. "We are limited (by law) in how much we can do with them, and this ended up being the perfect solution for a distillery that wants to also serve a beer."
More at greatlakesdistillery.com.
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.
