“You pay for the beer and the foam.” Most beer lovers consider this before entering a bar. The ‘foam’ includes hospitable and competent staff, quality drink varieties, and a safe location.

In Milwaukee, the “Beer Capital of the World,” good pubs line every corner. And that’s understandable because the love of beer has brewed here since the 1840s.

Picking the best bar can be tricky since standards depend on individual preferences, but the top bars have niches and multiple beer options that align with most drinkers.

Here’s a list of ten such beer bars in Milwaukee.

• Burnhearts

  

  Even for those who judge bars based on beer quality alone, Burnhearts offers a rounded drinking experience. It’s located in Bay View and boasts 24 frequently rotated beer taps and a cocktail list crafted to satisfy patrons.

  Stepping in, the staff will introduce you to the friendly and welcoming atmosphere. The cozy interiors and old-school music provide a chill vibe whether you’re solo drinking or hanging out with company.

  Summer comes with two perks: outdoor drinking and the outdoor fest, which occurs twice yearly. At the fest, you enjoy rare beer, live music, and interaction with different people.

  2599 S Logan Ave. Milwaukee

• Sugar Maple

  

  Welcome to Lincoln Avenue, where one of the most noticeable things is Sugar Maple’s extending signage. Upon entry into its spacious halls, you’ll notice the harmonious use of the amber theme on the walls, artworks, tables, and bar.

  The next thing of note is the exhaustive list of over 60 craft beer taps. The bar greatly supports local breweries, so expect to find many local beers here.

  Before you get carried away with indecisiveness, the bartenders will guide you with beer options and even tastings.

  Sugar Maple is a cultured beer that pours beers only in the appropriate glasses. So, if your beer differs from your partner’s, the beer glass will also vary.

  You can enjoy your beer indoors or on the patio at the back (if the weather is favorable).

  Notable mentions are the games and music events they host. Ensure you get there early on such days to get a good seat.

  441 E Lincoln Ave, Milwaukee

• The Highbury Pub

  

  Some may say a great watering hole should be passionate about its beer, atmosphere, and patrons. The Highbury Pub adds one more with its dedication to soccer.

  It’s one of the few bars that open very early (as early as 6 a.m. at times) to show soccer matches and serve beer.

  The televisions hung above the bar, and flags honoring different teams are the evidence. What is most satisfying is how they all blend into the decoration.

  Importantly, they serve different brews to their soccer-frenzied patrons. If you wish for snacks, you must bring your own or buy nearby, as Highbury Pub doesn’t sell any.

  2322 S Kinnickinnic Ave, Milwaukee

• Old German Beer Hall

  

  Knowing a watering hole’s history helps you better appreciate its beer. This legendary bar is a testament to the beer-brewing culture that German settlers instilled in Milwaukee in the 1850s.

  The uniformed staff complement the Bavarian atmosphere of Hofbräuhaus brews and brunch. You can be sure of two things: beers in large quantities and pretzels and bratwurst with the taste of Munich in every bite.

  1009 N. Old World Third Street, Milwaukee

• Y-Not II Tavern

  

  The original Y-Not closed years ago. However, Y-Not II and Y-Not III have continued as standout beer bars in Milwaukee.

  The mystery of Y-Not II lies not in the quality of its beer or decor but in the nostalgic feeling it evokes.

  Y-Not II never takes down decorations from past holidays, which suggests that every day is a holiday because Y-Not?

  The furniture consists of unmatched pieces which suggest functionality over aesthetics.

  At the bar, you will be wowed by how cheap the beers are and the friendliness of the bartenders. They also offer free popcorn, hurray!

  The charm of Y-Not II lies in subsequent visits because you’ll find nearly everything the same way: the decorations, furniture, free popcorn, and cheap beer. That’s what creates the nostalgia.

  706 E Lyon St, Milwaukee

• Landmark 1850 Inn

  

  Landmark 1850 Inn is a historical beer, the oldest in Milwaukee. It has served drinkers across generations, witnessed several celebrations, and is a place of relaxation for travelers.

  It was once known as the New Cohen House, named after the area’s German, Polish, and Irish settlers. Its building was a gathering center for drinkers to get daily news before it became the Landmark 1850 Inn.

  The vibe here is always on the high side, thanks to the massive bar and the ever-interactive patrons.

  The beer list is extensive, with over 25 craft beers of American and European heritage. The restaurant also serves side dishes like pizza.

  5905 S Howell Ave, Milwaukee

• Camino

  

  Camino is a craft beer bar and eatery on Second Street. This space once had one of Milwaukee’s earliest combinations of bars and kitchens.

  Around ten pub tables crowd the bar front, and a similar number of stools are at the bar.

  Camino’s small space makes it a warm delight on cold winter nights.

  You can start with the tasty menu, which includes sandwiches, fries, and wings, mostly of American heritage. Then, you can choose a drink from the 20 beers on tap, bottled brews, and canned beers to complete your bar experience.

  434 S 2nd St, Milwaukee

• Champps Americana

  

  If you ask a sports fan what they require of a beer bar, the list will likely be:

  • A large television
  • Comfortable seating arrangement
  • A lively atmosphere
  • Good snack options
  • An unlimited supply of cold beer
  • Quality Service

  Champps Americana ticks these boxes and offers one of the city’s best game-viewing experiences. There are over 50 taps of rare beer varieties, a spacious area, and passionate sports patrons to interact with.

  All at the price of a beer.

  1240 S Moorland Rd, Brookfield

• The Drunk Uncle

  

  In Milwaukee, there’s a bar that aligns with your passion, and the Drunk Uncle will be perfect if you’re a pro wrestling fan.

  But don’t be mistaken—this bar still attracts people with diverse interests and backgrounds.

  So, while enjoying a glass of beer, you could amuse yourself with the games on the TV or the art on the walls.

  The bar offers a variety of cheap beers on 48 beer taps. Fun fact: they’re even cheaper on weekends.

  1902 S 68th St, West Allis

• Kochanski’s Concertina Beer Hall

  

  Kochanski’s is a lively bar of Polish heritage in Milwaukee. Its offerings make it an outstanding location in the neighborhood.

  First, the two stages often feature polka, blues, surf, and rockabilly bands. You can witness these bands having a musical duel if you’re lucky.

  Secondly, you have bar owner Andy Kochanski, who is constantly engaging and attending to patrons with courtesy. His genuine interest in his customers makes him a house favorite.

  Lastly, beer quality. Kochanski’s serves Polish beers that are value for money, whether you’re drinking from the tap or a bottle.

  1920 S 37th St., Milwaukee

What is the most famous beer in Milwaukee?

Milwaukee has a rich beer catalog. However, Miller Lite is the most popular in bars because of its smooth, refreshing taste and low calories.

Why is Milwaukee famous for beer?

At some point after the Civil War, no city produced more beer than Milwaukee. This is mainly due to the rapid establishment of breweries, including four of the largest in the U.S.: Miller Pabst, Schlitz, and Blantz.

This got the city the nickname “Beer Capital of the World.”

Wisconsin is home to some world-famous brewers. No, we’re talking about the major league baseball team. Rich with strong European immigrant culture and access to the right natural resources, Wisconsin has grown to become something of a beer destination. There isn’t a town or city in the state without local breweries cooking up a rich array of flavors. Brewery tours are a staple feature for these facilities and can offer a chance for home-brew enthusiasts and amateurs to get their lips wet with some of the finest lagers. Some brewing facilities even offer more in-depth experiences for a more technical, under-the-hood look at the company’s methodology.

Without further ado, here are some of Wisconsin’s go-to brewery tour destinations.

Capital Brewery – Middleton, WI

With more than 35-years of brewing experience, Capital Brewery is a bike-culture hub in Middleton, Wisconsin. It was established on the foundation of traditional German-style lager. The company offers private tours of its facilities and guest can peruse the brewery’s operations where it crafts its six-time platinum award-winning Capital Blonde Dopplebock. It’s also home to the best-selling IPA Capital Amber.

The business, located in a former Mazo Egg Factory building, features kettles from Hoxter Brewery in Germany and was founded in 1984. The company has won over 240 awards and was named “America’s #1 Rated Brewery” in 1998 and secured the national title during the 2013 US Open Beer Championship.

The company capitalizes on its outdoor venue spaces with its Bier Garten and Bee Patio spaces, which normally attract more than 1,500 patrons each Friday over the summer months. During the winter months, the company opens its doors for guests to enjoy drinks in its Bier Stube and Grain Room.

Hinterland Brewery – Green Bay, WI

The Green Bay, Wisconsin-based Hinterland Brewery is housed inside a repurposed meatpacking warehouse and offers brewery tours of its facilities. Tour guides offer behind-the-scene stories and facts about the operation while you enjoy hand-crafted beers in a souvenir glass. The name “Hinterland” is a call to break out of the status quo of overly commercialized beer and experience something with heritage and depth. The name literally means “the land behind” in Germain.

Owner and founder Bill Tressler launched the brewery with his wife in 1995 in an old cheese factory. After nearly burning down his brewery, they packed-up shop, ordered a dumpster rental, and began converting the Green Bay meat packing plant into a state-of-the-art kettle room. Tressler was hooked into the beer-crafting world while traveling across the nation as a musician. He said during his trips he would pore himself in Beer, The Magazine editions. Hinterland beers are served at the brewery’s affiliate restaurants known as the Whistling Swan Inn. There are locations in Fish Creek and Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Lakefront Brewery – Milwaukee, WI

Launched in 1987 in Wisconsin’s Brew City, Lakefront Brewery features craft beer made in Milwaukee, brewed for the world. The brewery located on North Commerce Street near the Milwaukee River has become something of a landmark in the city.

The company offers three types of tours of its facilities including its famous daily tours featuring a 45-minutes experience full of facts, lore, jokes, a souvenir pint, and, of course, two pours.

Lakefront’s technical tours offer three hours geared toward the sharpest beer enthusiasts. The tour is led by experts and dives into Lakefront’s methodology and equipment. Guests get to experience mind-blowing food and brew flavors, and access to exclusive merchandise.

For those unable to visit in person, Lakefront’s website also provides virtual tours with 360-degree viewing of its entire facility. There are interactive hotspots where viewers can access information boxes that fill you in all of the details.

Milwaukee Brewing

Hunkered down in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward shopping district, Milwaukee Brewing Company (MBC), was launched in 1997 on the principles of using the best local ingredients and suppliers. The brewery expanded a decade later with the addition of its 2nd Street packaging facility. MBC employs environmental, green-minded practices and processes in its brewing. This includes an integration of traditional and non-tradition methods to reduce water usage. The brewery also has explored ways to reduce energy usage for heating its kettles and reduce its carbon footprint by ordering ingredients over sustainable distances.

The company offers two tiers of tours of its operation — its public tour and its Sunday tour. All tour guests get to sample experimental and staple MBC beers throughout the experience. The public tour lasts about an hour and participants are led through MBC’s industrial brewery site. The Sunday tour brings a more in-depth, technical approach to the tour experience and lasts 90 minutes.

O’so Brewing – Plover, WI

Since 2007, Plover, Wisconsin’s O’so Brewing has been delivering hand-crafted beer selections in central Wisconsin. Founded by Marc Buttera and Bart Peterson, a college passion for craft beer poured over into a business venture which now is producing a varied lineup of more than 230 unconventional beers and names. These flavors include West Coast Pale Ale and Black Cocker Bock.

O’so’s brewery has a capacity to produce roughly 280 gallons of beer per batch, two batches a week. One-hour tours of the facility are available on Saturdays with timeslots beginning at 2, 3, and 4 p.m. All proceeds from all tours are donated to a different charitable cause each month.

Pearl Street Brewery – La Crosse, WI

Pearl Street Brewery, located in the old industrial Rubber Mills business center in La Crosse, Wisconsin, is a dream craft startup with now more than two decades in the craft beer space.

La Crosse is a historically rich beer town, with more than 160 years of beer heritage to pull from. The brewery crafts its famous D.T.B Brown Ale, El Hefe Bavarian Hefeweizen, Java Lava Coffee Stout, Linalool IPA, and a constantly growing portfolio of flavors.

The brewing journey at Pearl Street Brewery began with a father and son in a 1984 Eagle Wagon driven from Colorado with a trailer full of brew equipment. Once in La Crosse, it took 14 months of demolition, construction dumpsters, design, and building, but the aspiring brewers were able to kick on their kettles days before the turn of the century, in December 1999.

Pearl Street Brewery fans and interested parties can tour the brewery on the first Saturday of each month at 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. timeslots. The tours include a souvenir PSB pint glass, one free fill, and BOGO vouchers for local bars and restaurants.

There you have it. Breweries across the state, are owned by passionate craftsmen and entrepreneurs hungry to push the envelope in the industry. With a city like Milwaukee being affectionately known as America’s “Brew City,” you know the competition in Wisconsin for high-quality beer and customer experience is going to be peak. Tours are an incredible chance to get a closer look at this art form, sample a few beers, and spend a fun, light-hearted hour or two in town with friends.

It’s time to tackle the ageless question: where is the best brunch spot? To know which Milwaukee breakfast joint is the absolute best, we have to establish some defining characteristics of a perfect brunch establishment. This article will be grading the different restaurants in three specific categories:

Food quality: Do the pancakes make your mouth water every time you see them fly by your table? Is the hollandaise sauce drizzled to perfection over your Benedict? Is that bacon crispy enough to throw shade at any Kardashian sister?

Mimosas: If the restaurant doesn’t serve mimosas it’s not a brunch spot and has no place on this list. Here’s the question though, do the mimosas heighten the experience from orange juice, beer, and champagne to something truly special?

Vibe: A good vibe can make any dining experience exceptional. From incredible hole in the wall diners to refined five-star restaurants, a little care for the aesthetic goes a long way.

With the categories listed out and defined, it’s time to unearth where the best brunch spots are in Milwaukee.

Spot: Brunch

Location: 714 N Milwaukee St

Overview: Naming your restaurant Brunch is a pretty bold move. Luckily, this Milwaukee classic is able to deliver. Brunch is spectacular from experience to taste. From excellent customer service to wonderful aesthetic to a myriad of food and beverage choices, Brunch excels at everything it puts its mind to.

Food: There is a BACON FLIGHT here… I’m not sure I reasonably need to say any more than that. Okay, but I will. There is also an absurdly good Mac and Cheese Burrito as well as a Brunch Spätzle that will blow your mind. No, there isn’t a bad option at Brunch, but yes, you will always be jealous of what everyone else has. There are too many delicious options for any one person to comprehend. Will you be back eating at Brunch every Sunday until the eventual heat death of the sun? Probably, but that’s the risk you take when you go eat at Brunch. Consider yourself properly warned.

Mimosas: Brunch provides seven ways to consume mimosas. Essentially deciding to be the ideal that all brunch establishments strive towards and they succeeded. The Tequila Sunrise Mimosa is spectacular and the Bro-Mosa is a terrific choice for anyone looking for maximum flavor while devouring scrumptious food. They even have party sized mimosas if you’re looking to share. I never am… so I’ll keep my mimosas to myself.

Vibe: Absolutely delightful, this wood furnished spot seems as though it was stolen from France, scooted along across the Atlantic, and simply placed perfectly into its current spot-on Milwaukee St. Outdoor seating means that you can stay and chat with a few friends, or they also service pickup currently. So, feel free to run in, grab your food, and sprint to whatever place you think will be more delightful than Brunch’s exterior.

Spot: Blue’s Egg

Location: 317 N 76th St, Milwaukee, WI 53213

Overview: If you haven’t heard of Blue’s Egg I am exceptionally grateful that you decided to read this article. Your life is about to be forever changed. If you want the brunch classics cooked to literal perfection, drive yourself to Blue’s Egg right now! Incredible atmosphere, lovely staff, and divine food make this place the pinnacle of diner eating. They master the eggs Florentine and huevos rancheros, though their scramble just may be my favorite thing on the menu.

Food: Anything you’re looking for, it’s right here at Blue’s. Florentine Benedict, Evoo Browns, Pulled Ham Omelet… honestly, I just want to keep typing out the entire menu because everything is so good!

Mimosa: Blue’s Egg’s mimosas elevate just how delicious orange juice and champagne can be. Freshly squeezed, perfectly mixed, the experience of drinking these handcrafted beverages is absolutely heavenly. Most places can’t give me a traditional mimosa and blow my mind. Blue’s Egg already has.

Vibe: Your quintessential diner, this place is all about the people working there. Just an incredible wait staff, host team, and though I’ve never met the chefs, based on their food, I’m sure they are delightful. Blue’s Egg is a perfect getaway.

Spot: Uncle Wolfie’s Breakfast Tavern

Location: 234 E Vine St

Overview: Dang this place is cute as heck and so tasty! Vibrant atmosphere with food to match. This is a destination that will nail itself into your memory and never disappear. You’ll be haunted by the delicious tastes for years and years. It’s actually a curse to taste how good the flavors are at Uncle Wolfie’s Breakfast Tavern. Still, you need to go.

Food: Get the loaded fries! Or the Wolfunidido, or the BELTCH… really, get anything and everything ordered directly to your table. Come to Uncle Woflie’s hungry because there is no chance you will leave with any room in your stomach. The sizes are large and unbelievably tasty. Even the Breakfast Burrito which could be completely average is terrific. They do not slouch on a single item on this menu.

Mimosas: While the mimosas at Wolfie’s are wonderful, the Fermentorium and Warpigs are the superstars. Fruity, tart, no matter how sleepy you are, they will wake you up. Pairing perfectly with nearly everything on the menu. If sweet and fruity isn’t your style, the Revolution is a chocolaty wonderland. Go every day until you’ve tried each and every one of these handcrafted drinks. That’s an order.

Vibe: Rustic to the ninth degree. You will feel as though you are in a wood cabin. Escapism at its best. Unless of course, your house looks like a wood cabin… which is not completely unlikely… I’m digressing, the vibe is matched by excellent service that will brighten your day. Just make sure you tip them appropriately, otherwise I’ll set a curse on you that will make everything taste like ocean water.

There are spectacular brunch spots all over Milwaukee, but these three stands at the top. Their vibe is to die for, their food is to die for, their mimosas are… well be safe drinking. These three shops will make any brunch nonbeliever see the light. So, go start enjoying your Sunday (Or any day, don’t be controlled!) right now, and then send me a thank you letter.