The ever-growing Third Space Brewing, 1505 W. St. Paul Ave., in the Menomonee Valley – which recently created a Valley beer with its neighboring City Lights Brewing – celebrates its third birthday on Saturday, Sept. 14 from noon until 10 p.m. The day offers up not only two new brews but chances to sample limited brews you might have missed in the past.
The new beers are a triple IPA called Billy Mumphrey's Downfall, which is described as "super hoppy, tropical and citrusy with a dry finish." In addition to being on tap at the event, this brew will also be available in four-packs of 16-ounce cans. A few of those four-packs are expected to trickle out to retail after the party, but if you want to be sure not to miss it, Saturday is your best bet.
The second new beer is Warrior Poet, a limited brandy-barrel-aged version of the popular Unite the Clans Scottish Ale. Brewmaster Kevin Wright made a mere 200 500ml bottles of this one, so you'd better beat it over to the bash if you want to try this one.
A pre-sale offer includes a ticket to the event as well as a four-pack of the IPA and a bottle of Warrior Poet.
In addition to tours of the brewery – which we dug into here – two food trucks and live music, the party will also offer an opportunity to make up for lost time as Third Space will tap seven of its limited barrel-aged beers at specific times during the day, including:
- Noon – 2019 Warrior Poet Brandy-Aged Scotch Ale and 2018 Haunted Maple BA Candy Bar Porter
- 1 p.m. – 2017 Nexus of the Universe BA Russian Imperial Stout
- 2 p.m. – 2019 Mystic Affogato BA Irish Stout
- 3 p.m. – 2017 BA Vanilla Bourbon Nexus of the Universe
- 4 p.m. – 2018 BA Bourbon Liquid Layers Barleywine
- 5 p.m. – 2017 Haunted Barrel BA Candy Bar Porter
- 6 p.m. – 2018 BA Maker's Mark Ice Bear Baltic Porter
The party will also be a launch event for Third Space's new Give 20 donations program. The brewery will host a monthly Give 20 Night and 20 percent of sales will be donated to a different partner charity.
Because, says co-owner Andy Gehl, Third Space wants to make the most impact on causes most important to the company's employees, the partner organizations will all be working in the areas of youth development and homelessness. Interested groups can go here for details.
"We have chosen youth development because of Kevin and my history meeting and working together at YMCA Camp Minikani where we dedicated a portion of our own young lives to working with children," said Gehl in a statement. "We have also chosen to support homelessness outreach in part because Homelessness is a growing issue in our own community, the Menomonee River Valley, but also because we want to help all people find their 'third space' and it is difficult to have a third space if you don’t have a first space, your home."
Wright added, "We are very thankful to the community for embracing our dream to open a craft brewery in our hometown and would like to do our part to give back."
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.
