J. Leinenkugel's Barrel Yard rolls out the first special pilot brew of the season as the Brewers face I-94 rivals the Chicago Cubs this weekend.
This time the brew will be around all season long.
The 4.2 percent ABV beer – Grand Slamber amber ale, named by a Brewers front office employee – quietly began flowing at lunchtime on Wednesday.
Pilot Brewer Corrine Georges has been making limited, stadium-only beers on the Barrel Yard’s three-barrel brewhouse since the venue opened in April 2023, replacing The Restaurant to Be Named Later in the former Friday’s Front Row Grill space.
Grand Slamber has a sweet malty flavor from caramel malts and a bit of grapefruit on the nose courtesy of Cascade hops.
"It's pretty balanced," says Georges, "because it's still at 20 IBU so it's not really overly sweet."
The beer, which will be available all season long can also be canned into 32-ounce crowlers to go on non-game days, something that’s new this season, as is the fact that the special brew will be available all season long.
While the recipe is a new one, Georges says, there was quite a bit of back and forth about which type of beer to brew as a season-long special.
"A lot of people threw ideas out there, and then this ended up being the easiest on me to make, and then kind of the most popular at the same time," she says.
The ease of brewing was an important factor, Georges adds, "because I'm doing a lot of it," and on a small system.
"I started off (with) 10 kegs right now, which isn't a lot," she says. "Once we start running low, I'll brew another batch and keep it going.
"But it's hard to say (when). Am I going to run out really fast? We have so many other things on (tap) at the same time. It's hard to know."
While some have been brewed along with Brewers players, this one was not. Georges expects there will be a player-brewed beer later in the season.
The J. Leinenkugel’s Barrel Yard is open 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
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.
