By Brenda

Whenever I explain our Wisconsin Brewery Adventure Project to someone new, they inevitably ask, “So how many Wisconsin breweries are there?” It seems like a straightforward enough question, indeed an answer that would appear in a simple Google search. 

*Narrator* It is not actually a simple question. 

The answer is complicated, but one I deep-dove into because eventually Tim and I want to hit every Wisconsin brewery there is. Of course, that dream comes with some caveats. It’s impossible to set out with this goal in mind at the beginning and expect it to be unchanged at the end. When we started out our 100 Breweries in one Year Project (you can see our adventures here) we used the Reel Craft Pass as our guide. Since the beginning of 2023 when we took on this project, four breweries in the book have closed, and one has moved locations (that we know of). We could not have visited all of the breweries listed in the book even if we had wanted to. Such is life. Breweries seem to be as ever-evolving as their recipes – they grow, change, disappear, merge, etc, and no list will ever be 100% complete for more than a millisecond in time. There are also several factors to take into consideration: If a brewery has two locations, are they counted as one or two? If a brewery doesn’t have a location (brews through another brewery), do they count as their own? Is there a notable difference between brewery, brewpub, microbrewery, client brewer, and commercial brewer? If you as a Drinker can’t visit the location, is it still considered a brewery? 

Oh so many things to wonder. 

If your brain is already starting to throb, here is the straight answer:

According to the Brewers Association Registry there are technically 271 breweries currently in operation in Wisconsin*. Perusing through this registry, however, a few asterisks pop up, and our official number shrinks.

First, if a brewery has multiple locations, they only appear on Our Grand List once. Sure, some breweries may have different brews offered at only a specific location (Central Waters, I’m looking at you) and two of the same breweries can have very different atmospheres at each location. Central Waters again, but also Gathering Place, and Lion’s Tail, to name a few. But, considering both of these points tend to be the exception and not the rule, and it’s near impossible to predetermine which breweries will have different “vibes” at each location, a brewery only gets one spot on the list even if they have multiple locations. 

Fight me. 

Second, in the context of conversations I’m typically having with someone who asks me this question, it’s usually in reference to which breweries can someone visit. If Wisconsin had 500 breweries but only 50 of them were open to the public, 500 isn’t the number anyone really cares about. One can argue either way and if you prefer the former, then see the above number and move along your merry way. For the purpose of this project, we’re considering a Wisconsin Brewery as an establishment that you as a Drinker of Beer can enter at posted open hours and order a beer that they brewed in this state.

Still with me? Great. 

To break this list down even further, we have: 

44 Microbreweries, 91 Taprooms, 104 brewpubs, 18 client/contract breweries, 4 large breweries, and 10 in planning.

Let’s try to make some sense of this. Microbreweries and Taprooms are what we all love, and what we think of when the word “Brewery” comes to mind. They brew their beer onsite, they have a place to consume that beer, and they may or may not be in distribution. The only difference between a Microbrewery and Taproom is the amount of beer they sell on their premises. For the purposes of Our Project(™) all of these Microbreweries and Taprooms count. Brewpubs are also considered, as long as they brew their own beer (however, it’s worth noting that in the official Tim and Brenda scoring system, if the location has a hostess stand they automatically lose a wild card point). Some of these brewpubs may be more “authentic” breweries than others, but we’re not splitting hairs here. The remaining breweries require a bit more speculation. Regional/Commercial breweries basically refer to the ones that have grown beyond “micro”, including places like Lakefront and Eagle Park. These breweries definitely count, as they still provide all of the services we as the Drinker are looking for – the beer, the vibe, the location. The large breweries include places like Miller/Coors, Leines, etc., which are set up to brew in…large quantities, while microbreweries are not.  I suppose at the end of the day commercial breweries count although I can say with confidence Miller/Coors is not a “brewery” we’ll be heading to with any sort of eager anticipation.  

Anyway, let’s get to the real meat of the issue here – what’s up with these “client” brewers? This was a Google-able question, and here’s the definition:  A Client Brewer is a business entity that does not own its own brewing equipment but instead arranges to use existing brewing facilities to produce their owned-recipe beers.

Well, that’s pretty unhelpful. That means that anything listed as a “client” brewery could fall anywhere from “Must be included on Our Project(™) list” to “This is a Private Brewery you can only access with a Secret Handshake on the third Thursday of the month”.  Some may have their own locations (such as Rhinelander Brewing Co), some are brewed at locations that a Drinker can visit (Stone Arch Brewpub produces 3 Dachshunds Beer which you can order at their location), and some aren’t readily available to the public at all such as Blue & Gold Brewing which is a student-run brew business out of Marquette that only sells at select Milwaukee taprooms during specific days of their school sports season. 

See why this is so complicated? 

That means I had to look up each of the client brewer locations individually and determine whether or not they count. The criteria here match what we’ve already determined. 1) You must brew your own beer 2) You must have a dedicated public space where that beer can be consumed on a regular basis. With that being said, out of the client/contract brewers, only 12 made the cut. (If you want to know more about who and why, read more here). 

Taking all of this into consideration, assuming you’ve made it this far and think the opinions listed here are valid, the current-as-of-this-day-in-history list of Wisconsin Breweries to hit before one can proclaim they have visited them all is…

232 (cue the fanfare!)

*as of August 2025