A couple years short of its 40th birthday, Riverwest Stein is dropping a limited run of retro 12-packs featuring the original 1987 artwork.
It was on Dec. 2, 1987 that Lakefront Brewery's Russ and Jim Klisch delivered the first keg of Riverwest Stein amber lager to the Gordon Park Pub on Weil Street, now Nessun Dorma.
Having played the Pub numerous times I wouldn't be half surprised if I was crammed behind a drum kit up in the front corner when they wheeled that puppy through the door. But I digress.
Every year since then, the Klisch brothers have celebrated at the Pub, and later Nessun Dorma, on Dec. 2.
“I think back to when I first heard of arguments at bars about our Riverwest Stein being the best beer in town, that’s when I started to realize that we might have something special here,” says Russ Klisch.
Now, you can celebrate, too, even if it's not Dec. 2. And you can do it at home, thanks to a limited run of 12-pack, 12-ounce cans in the original design.
That design was born from a photo that Jim took looking east on Clarke Street, with St. Casimir Church in the background, in Riverwest. Initially intended for use on table tents for the beer release, the photo was then tinkered into a line drawing that later became the centerpiece of the first label.
“A quintessential street view of Riverwest," Jim says, adding, “I think a local artist who went by the name 'Peggy Riverwest' converted it into a line drawing which we used at its grand unveiling.”
Peggy McDowell Riverwest, a MIAD grad, owns Jester Studio in Tomahawk, Wisconsin.
“It wasn’t until 1990 that I built a one-headed filler so we could start to bottle,” Russ recalls.
"We had a family friend named Linda Goehre who used the design to create our 16-ounce bottle labels which is more or less what you’ll see on these cans.”
Goehre now runs Goehre Creative in Oconomowoc.
When the switch to 12-ounce bottles was made, the Klisch brothers tapped craft beer legend Randy Mosher to redesign the label, which is the one we're all more familiar with now, and which more recently was redesigned again by the late and dearly missed Lakefront brand manager, Michael Stodola.
Now, the Russ says, "Lakefront is excited to offer this fun tribute to Milwaukee’s favorite craft beer in hopes that it will allow people to feel young again or just look really cool with one in hand."
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.
