In 2004, Milwaukee-area native and UW-Madison grad Shane Welch founded Sixpoint Brewery in Brooklyn.

Now, nearly a decade later, his beer is launching in his hometown.

Earlier this week, at an event at Sugar Maple in Bay View, Sixpoint, which is distributed in the state by New Berlin-based Beechwood Distributors, was officially welcomed to the Badger State.

"I'd say this completes the cycle," says Welch. "I feel like a salmon swimming upstream returning home! Now its time to enjoy it all with a cold brew."

Welch started Sixpoint in a converted 800-square foot Brooklyn garage and the brewery has since brewed more than 200 styles of beer, via its many limited editions.

Until last year Sixpoint beer was only available on draught, but now a variety are sold in cans.

"All of the core Sixpoint beer recipes are extensions of my original homebrew recipes," says Welch, who apprenticed at the old Angelic Brewery in Madison.

"This literally defines grass roots. Starting with just an idea and passion in your basement, then moving to a pressure cooker like New York and making it work, and then finally coming home to share it with your friends and family in your native state."

In New York, Sixpoint beers are sold at famous eateries like Momofuku, The Gramercy Tavern and The Spotted Pig. The brewery also keeps the variety coming via its Mad Scientist series, which releases innovative beers every couple months, and the Spice of Life single hope varietals series.

"We are very much looking forward to representing Sixpoint beers in Wisconsin," says Beechwood's Dave Cartwright.

"(They) are all extremely drinkable, while also being flavorful and interesting. I am personally looking forward to trying some of the amazing limited edition beers (I) hear so much about."

I asked Welch if it was ironic that he left what many think is the beer capitol of America to craft his brews in Brooklyn.

"One thing most people don't realize," he says, "Brooklyn was actually the true beer capitol of the United States. Even at its heyday, Milwaukee never even made close to the total volume of beer that Brooklyn made at the turn of the century.  Brooklyn produced somewhere near seven times the amount of beer that Milwaukee did – no one was even close.