In honor of this weekend's annual Santa Rampage, Lowlands Group has launched its seasonal Lowlands Brewing Collaborative Santa Rampage bier, brewed in Belgium by Brouwerij Van Steenberge.
The Santa Rampage brew is a “mystery cobbler parfait party pie” of a dubbel – sweet and spicy with coriander, orange peel and caramel – and is 8 percent ABV.
The beer is part of a curated list that includes other holiday beers at Café Benelux, Cafés Hollander and Centraal Grand Café & Tappery.
Other brews on the lists, which vary at each location, include, among others, Silly Barrel-Aged Chardonnay – a Scotch ale from Belgium! – Delirium Noel, Bofferding Christmas Lager, St. Bernardus Christmas, Saison Dupont Les Bons Voeux, N'ice Chouff and Val Dieu Winter.
The Santa Rampage is a “world exclusive,” available only at the Lowlands Group venues in the Milwaukee area.
“We love this event so much, we developed one of the world’s finest winter biers – Santa Rampage – with the brewery famous for Gulden Draak and Piraat,” said Eric Wagner, CEO of the Lowlands Group, in a statement Tuesday.
“We have been longtime supporters of the ride and always look forward to the crowd of Santas rampaging across our patios that day. It’s a one-of-a-kind Milwaukee tradition.”
One dollar of every Lowlands Brewing Collaborative Santa Rampage Bier sold Friday, Dec. 3 through Sunday, Dec. 5 at any Lowlands Group location will benefit the Wisconsin Bike Fed.
The Santa Rampage starts at 9 :15 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 4.
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.
