Bay View's Torzala Brewing Co. – which has brewed beers with local flavor like Jones Island Pale Ale, Blood Third Irish Stout, Clock Tower Kolsch and South Side Crusher Cream Ale – will launch a new brew on Father's Day weekend that honors a gridiron standout, albeit not initilly at the brewery.
Retired Packers star Gilbert Brown will officially unveil Grave Digga oak-aged stout in bottles at Champions Riverside Resort in Galesville on Friday and at Wilderness Campground in Montello on Saturday, where there will be 93 bottles available for autographing.
Proceeds from these events will be donated to St. Jude Children's Hospital.
According to brewer Jeff Torzala, the stout has nine specialty grains, three hop blends, Belgian candi sugar, ghost peppers and is aged on Cabernet Sauvignon and bourbon barrel chips.
There are be two labeling variants from the same batch of beer, Torzala says. Blood Red is the one being released this week. Graveyard Green will be released later, when Brown will visit Torzala Brewing in the Lincoln Warehouse, 2018 S. 1st St. Stay tuned for news on that.
Grave Digga is named for Brown's legendary celebratory dances during which he'd mimic digging a grave.
The Gilbert Brown Foundation supports children who require financial assistance for surgeries and other challenging circumstances.
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.
