Milwaukee brewers

When I was growing up in St. Louis, I knew that Milwaukee was our chief rival for beer brewing. We had Anheuser-Busch and Falstaff, while they had Schlitz and Miller. Both cities had a huge population of German immigrants, though Milwaukee kept more of a Central European flavor.

All that has changed, of course. Many big American brands have disappeared under the onslaught of imports and the change in drinking habits. But the craft beer revival should be able to build on this beer-brewing tradition in Wisconsin.

Traveling in Germany you knew that virtually every town and many smaller places would have their own brewery and one of the fun things about these trips was sampling the various traditional beers. I doubt that Wisconsin is quite like that with its regional and micro-breweries, but it looks like Madison, Milwaukee and Green Bay all have local brews.