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We woke up friday morning feeling a bit of pain from the night before at The Great Dane. After a few cups of coffee, everything was fine and were off on our way up to Stevens Point, which is about 90 mins north of Madison.

Well, its 90 minutes on a normal day. It was like we had crossed a boundary as soon as we got north of Madison, it started to snow. It was one of those light drifting snows, that made visibility very difficult. We driving a Toyota Prius hybrid, which I now know has ‘reduced friction’ tires to get better gas milage. That does not translate into good handling in snow! Thankfully we had the car loaded down with beer so we got a little extra traction. I wish we could have put the beer right on top of the engine though, because that was where the weight was needed.

After about two hours were finally in Stevens Point. This is the city were I had my first brewing job, at a small pub called Isadore Street Brewing that is now defunct. I can say that it was a great learning experience. It was here were I learned to make good beer, and I had plenty of help from my friends Matt Hall, the QC manager at Stevens Point Brewery, and Paul Graham, a fellow brewer at the little brewery of Central Waters.

Stevens Point is also is in the dead center of the state, and a great place to drink the beers from all over Wisconsin. There are over 60 bars in this little town of 20,000. That includes 8000 college students. Iowa City/Coralville has about 60 bars for its population of 100,000. Yea, things are different up here!

Back to our trip. We made a beeline straight for the old Stevens Point Brewery. When we got there, we spent a few minutes perusing the gift shop while we waited for Matt to come down and get us. I noticed that they have changed their beer line up. They have dropped the Pale Ale, my favorite beer. Also they have renamed Point Bock to Point Spring Bock, and added a White beer to their line up.

Matt came down and started the tour. Point is one of the oldest brewery’s around. Started in 1857 it has expanded many times during its growth. Unlike Huber, Point is still using most of its brewery. They are still doing returnables, as Point still has a strong local following. It was great to see the insides of this big brewery. The have some really great old equipment, including a CO2 recovery system, and a double decker pastuerizer (though they are only using the first deck). They are still using old hoff stevens kegs. Its amazing to see them still in use, most breweries outside of wisconsin have migrated to Sankey kegs (ball lock). The one thing that stood out to me was how well maintained the whole place was, it was very clean for brewery of such great age.

After the tour we talked to Matt for a few minutes in the hospitality room. He showed us a treasure trove of old bottles they found of pre-prohibition breweries when they dug up a piece of land during an expansion. There must have been 15 different breweries represented. A real piece of wisconsin beer history. I hope that Point keeps up, they are one the last of old breweries left in the U.S.

Matt confided in me that he hoped to bring the Point Pale Ale back, as it was a favorite of the brewers. It reminded me of the same thing that John Lienenkugel said to me about the Lenies Northwoods Lager. I guess there are some beers you make your money on, and some you make for yourself. Or else why be in this business?

We talked about how much better things are now under the new owners of point. For years the brewery was owned by an out of state company, but two years ago a local man bought it, and things are really turning around. Point is now brewing the Augsberger line of beers (that were once made at Huber, of all places). And proof was shown at the GABF this year, with point winning two gold medals, one for the Point Special (beating budweiser and MGD in the American-Style Premium Lager category) and another for the Augsberger Golden (as a Munchner-Style Helles). It was good to see the brewery and we were sad to go, but we had another brewery to see this day!

Thankfully it had stopped snowing, so we were safe to drive ten minutes to Junction City, fondly refered to as ‘junktown’ by the locals. This little one street town is home to Central Waters Brewing Co. Started in 1998, this Microbrewery has grown steadily ever since. Appropriately for their location, they started with ‘junk’ equipment. Some old dairy tanks, etc. What is different about Central Waters is their creativity, and uncompromising thirst for quality. One of the original owners was a machinist, and he welded together alot of unique equipment for them. I naturally feel empathy, being an owner of alot of ‘unique’ equipment myself. My equipment is a little less tiring to use, however. They started off with a homemade one bottle filler and capper. It was a feat of home-brewed engineering, but a slow way to fill a six pack!

Central Waters is located in the middle of a state that loves beer, and they make beers like no other. Paul Graham, the owner and brewer, has a phrase that he likes - “over the top”. All of their beers are “over the top” in maltiness, mouthfeel, and especially hoppiness. I love them. They have won a Bronze World Cup Medal for their aged Barleywine, which is aged a year before they release it. And it could probably use another year, before you drink it, unless you love extremely bitter barley wines, like me! Their main beers though are their Mud Puppy Porter, Happy Heron Pale Ale, Junktown Brown, Ousisconsin Red Ale and Satin Soltice Stout. The stout is of the Imperial variety, clocking in at a nice 8% ABV. And their is plenty in the bottle besides alcohol, its a thick chewy beer. Their porter is crisp and clean, and also their best seller.

We were glad to see that they have been growing and are ready for a new building. They knocked a hole in the roof, and dropped in some new tanks. They took down a wall and squeezed a real 15bbl brewhouse. They got rid of the one head filler and purchased a 4 head Meheen filler. Too bad because I really wanted to show Chris the original one head filler. Their bottles are still all hand labeled though, something that I found incredible. They have been so short of room, they even shoved a walk in cooler in what was formerly the office! This cooler was where they were storing their bottled product. It was clue into their secret of success… it was pretty much empty! The demand for their beer is so high, they are literally selling everything they make! I wish we had that problem (especially in the winter time!).

I have to say, this was probably the most cramped brewery I have ever been inside. I hope they get their new building and expand soon! I ended up getting a six of the porter, red, and pale ale. Of course now i’m kicking myself for not getting some of their stout! Oh well, another reason to come back!

Well we didn’t stay long, as they were busy brewing, on a friday night. So ended our great little wisconsin trip. Next year, I’m hoping to go to Alaska for the Craft Brewers Conference. Now that will be a beer trip!

Aaron