This Week's Beer News: MBC Battles for Ope
Not powered by hot-dog flavored seltzer, whew
Minocqua Brewing Company is the kind of brewery that lacks a “Conflicts” section on their Wikipedia page (if it had one) because almost the entire thing would be about the battles that owner Kirk Bangstad chooses to fight, and fight often. In fact, I’d say MBC is perhaps the most embattled brewery in the Midwest.
It’s one thing when you do battle with the politicians that run the town you live in or defame the guy who publishes the local paper, but when MBC decided to play fast and loose with another Wisconsin brewery’s trademark — that being Ope! Brewing — people really sat up and took notice.
Two breweries in the same state heading for a court battle? Of course that made for the biggest beer story from the Midwest this week. Coverage came from the Journal-Sentinel, OnMilwaukee, KARE-TV, CBS58-TV, behind the paywall at Milwaukee Business Journal, and since the story is rooted in a beer named for MN Governor Tim Walz, the Star-Tribune got into the mix as well.
If anything, this is actually an interesting case study for how the media works. MBC has been involved with zoning battles and court cases in their home town for years now. But as soon as they messed with another business in their same industry and got called out for it, out came the coverage.
The OnMilwaukee story has the explanation from both sides which you should read before deciding whose side you prefer; MBC came out swinging first and Ope followed up to explain their position. Their first scheduled court appearance is Oct. 1st and given that MBC has already renamed the beer, it seems like things might be dropped fairly quickly … but MBC also might decide that this is the hill they want to die on so you never know what wrench might get thrown into things. We’ll keep an eye out.
See below for the most clicked link from last week’s email.
I told myself I’d cover beer news, and technically this is news involving beer, so here you go: Hulk Hogan is coming to Oak Lawn to sign 12-packs of his Real American Beer at Kenwood Liquors this Wednesday. Wear a helmet.
NCTV17 profiled the Miskatonic Brewing Craft Kitchen in Naperville.
Southwest Regional Publishing’s The Reporter, uh, reported on the closing of Great Lakes Beer & Bourbon.
Not specifically craft beer related but Eater’s list of great bars to day drink at is useful information that most of you should probably be aware of. What places would you add? Sound off in the comments.
According to the Telegraph, holding beer steins isn’t as easy as you may thing, as attendees learned at Old Bakery Beer Company recently.
Evansville’s Myriad Brewing Co. announced that they’d be closing by the end of the month. Their Newburgh taproom will remain open, though.
I rarely get to share links from Successful Farming and there’s no North Dakota section but Iowa is kinda close and very rural so please accept this story about the problems that barley farmers are having with the recent decline of beer.
Looks like Axios enjoyed (and briefly reviewed) Brew Detroit’s Oscura Lager.
MLive profiles the beers, meads and wood-fired pizzas made at St. Ambrose in Beulah.
RacketMN recommends five beers for September drinking including a foeder-aged schwarzbier from Fair State.
RacketMN also tried the hot dog-flavored hard seltzer called Glizzy McGuire recently produced by Insight Brewing. Ew.
The Cherokee Phoenix profiles Cherokee Nation member Nate Artinger, who opened Beard Engine Brewing Company in Alba, MO - which was recently voted the state’s best brewery for the fourth time in a row. This one’s going on the to-visit list.
The NeoTransBlog reports that Great Lakes Brewing Company may be once again kicking the tires on a new production facility in Cleveland’s Scranton Peninsula area.
Apparently Cincy Beer Week is returning after some time off, coming back in early October.
Hofbrauhaus Cleveland is celebrating its 10th Oktoberfest this year, which I only bring up here to note that someone has actually operated a Hofbrauhaus location successfully for more than a few years.
In non-MBC news, Isthmus asks if pickle beers are more than a gimmick, given the influx of new local options including Donna’s Pickle Beer from Pilot Project.
Eagle Park Brewing recently announced that their spirits would be available at the brewery taproom soon, thanks to some recent changes in alcohol legislation. More here.
What does the data on a “meme beer” look like? Over at PorchDrinking they took an interesting deep dive into what they could learn from the many recent “hawk tuah” beers released recently.
Most-clicked link in last week’s email: Looks like a lot of y’all were interested in what a cellarperson at Go Brewing might get paid, given the many clicks to that job listing.
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A friend in MKE told me about Minocqua Brewing and I subscribed to their email newsletter for a bit but had to unsubscribe because, as much as I’m sure the owner & I agree on things, that $#*! got real exhausting real quick.