Is there any place in Milwaukee more appropriate for an outdoor beer festival than the home of the Captain himself? Hardly.
The Pabst Mansion, 2000 W. Wisconsin Ave., will host its first-ever outdoor brew fest, called The Beer Baron's Bash, on Saturday, Sept. 28 – during Doors Open MKE – from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the lot across Wisconsin Avenue.
Come rain or come shine, the event will pour local craft beer, offer brewing demonstrations, display beer artifacts, sell beer-related products made by local artisans and lure food trucks to give you a good foundation for festivity.
Also, my friend Justin Barney, who you know from 88Nine Radio Milwaukee, will provide the soundtrack.
Admission to the party is free, but you need a $2 wristband to buy beer. This money goes straight to the Pabst Mansion for the work it does in preserving this glorious bit of Milwaukee and brewing history.
The festival comes on the heels of the Pabst Mansion's debut estate sale in June.
"It was our first-ever estate sale and it far exceeded our expectations. People were lined up down the street to get in, we sold out of virtually everything and we even had people drive in from other parts of the country to buy a little piece of history," said Mansion President Pamela Williams-Lime.
"The Outdoor Estate Sale was so successful we thought we should introduce another outdoor event. A beer festival immediately came to mind. The Beer Baron’s Bash provides us a unique opportunity to showcase the Avenues West neighborhood and our event partners, to celebrate both Milwaukee’s brewing history and new craft breweries.
"We hope the event will also convey the evolution of beer from the Captain’s traditional Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) to the microbrews that are so popular with beer enthusiasts of all ages. For this event the Pabst Mansion is partnering with exceptional local breweries, food vendors, artisans and local non-profit institutions to celebrate all things beer in Milwaukee!"
Check out the list of event partners to see which trucks will be on hand and which breweries will be represented:
Beer Baron's Bash 2019 Partners: 1840 Brewing Company; Addicting Pretzels; Black Husky Brewing; Black Point Estate & Gardens; Component Brewing; Enlightened Brewing Company; Foxfire Food Truck; Gathering Place Brewing; Good City Brewing; Halo Soap; Hue Vietnamese; John’s Roasted Corn; LitMKE; Lumpia City; Meat on the Street; Melms Brewing Company; MobCraft Beer; New Barons Brewing Cooperative; Old World Wisconsin; Pabst Milwaukee Brewery and Taproom; Stock House Brewing Co.; UWM Ancient Brewing Program and Waukesha County Historical Society & Museum.
To think, we almost lost this place 40 years ago!
For more information, go to PabstMansion.com/events, call (414) 931-0808.
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.
