While Milwaukee's Third Space will be celebrating its fifth birthday with a new solera beer on Saturday in the Menomonee Valley, out west in Waukesha, Raised Grain will also be partying.
In fact, Raised Grain's been celebrating all week long, as its website notes: "This is a celebration of all the wonderful people that have supported us over the past six years. We have a lineup of some of our favorite cellared beers throughout the week, culminating with the release of 2021 Haze Before The Storm IIIPA on Friday and the much anticipated 2021 Anniversary Stout on Saturday.
The festivities started Tuesday with a special tapping of last year's anniversary stout aged in bourbon barrels and continues today with Six Stone Bourbon Barrel-Aged Scotch Ale on draft.
On Thursday, 2018 Anniversary Stout Rye Barrel-Aged will be tapped, leading up to Friday's release of the much anticipated Haze Before the Storm triple IPA at 11:30 a.m.
According to Raised Grain's Nick Reistad, Haze is brewed with Citra and Amarillo hops.
"We have been releasing it the night before our Anniversary Party, and this will be the fourth year of this beer," he says.
It will be available in 16-ounce four-packs.
There will be live music starting at 6 p.m., plus fish fry, pizza by the slice and a limited menu.
And then, on Saturday, Sept. 25, there will be the "Big Blowout," with 2021 Anniversary Stout on tap, other special tappings all day and live music from 2 until 9 p.m.
"Our 2021 Anniversary Stout (is) a 10 percent bourbon barrel-aged stout aged in 8-year Elijah Craig barrels," says Reistad. "It is smooth with a big burst of chocolate flavors. It will be available on draft and in 22-ounce bombers starting at 10 a.m."
The Badgers game will be on the screens on the terrace and a limited menu will be on offer, too.
To close the circle, it bears mentioning that Raised Grain's Lonesome Citra Hazy IPA won the 2021 Wisconsin IPA Fest at Third Space Brewing last month.
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.
