MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – MobCraft Beer and Great Lakes Distillery are teaming up again to host a weekly virtual boilermaker class featuring a cocktail made with a Great Lakes Distillery spirit and a MobCraft Beer. Every Thursday at 6:30pm, MobCraft and Great Lakes will go live on Instagram to talk about that week’s boilermaker. A new boilermaker will be announced every Friday and sold through the following Thursday. The kits will range in price (depending on the liquor and beer used as ingredients) from $40-$52.
The first boilermaker in the series is the “Good $h!t” boilermaker which features Great Lakes Good Land Orange Liqueur and MobCraft Bat$h!t Crazy Coffee Brown Ale. The boilermaker kit can be purchased on Great Lakes Distillery’s new online store or by stopping in to the distillery between noon and 6:00pm, Monday through Saturday. The neighboring brewery and distillery will go live on Instagram tomorrow, April 9, at 6:30pm to show viewers how to make the Good $h!t boilermaker and discuss flavor profiles.
The partnership between Great Lakes Distillery and MobCraft Beer dates back to the beginning of MobCraft’s time in Milwaukee. MobCraft President and Co-Owner Henry Schwartz recalls enjoying Great Lakes spirits when he and now business partner, Andrew Gierczak, were first becoming friends. “When the opportunity came up to open the brewery in Walker’s Point, I made it a point to visit Guy [Rehorst] and get his blessing on moving to the neighborhood. We were welcomed with open arms. Over the years our collaborations have ranged from test products to collaboration beers to the exchange of used barrels for our barrel aging program. Combining our products together to create a series of boilermakers is only fitting!” reflected Schwartz.
Great Lakes Distillery had a boilermaker class planned for March 19th, but was forced to cancel as a result of health concerns surrounding COVID-19. Gierczak planned to join GLD General Manager, Andy Doebele, and GLD Marketing Director, Ross Salchow, for the boilermaker class, which was to feature MobCraft beer. MobCraft and Great Lakes wanted to find a way to work together despite the inability to host the class in person. Doebele logged on for MobCraft’s Sour Fest at Home, hosted on Zoom on March 28th, and thought the platform would be a good fit for a cocktail class. Salchow was on board. “Given the many strict laws surrounding beer and liquor sales, it has been incredibly hard to find a promotion where we can partner with our neighbors at MobCraft. We had to get creative, and that’s what we did,” says Salchow.
Salchow had been thinking about a boilermaker class for almost a year, and was looking forward to introducing Milwaukee to the complexity and sophistication that a boilermaker can possess. “It’s such an unknown way to enjoy fine spirits…this new program is a way to hopefully still spread the…word,” says Salchow. “Most people would never consider that a boilermaker could be considered craft: it will be exciting to change people’s minds,” continued Doebele.
Anyone can participate in the boilermaker lesson through Instagram: both Great Lakes and MobCraft will be live at 6:30pm on Thursday. Those who purchase the boilermaker kit from Great Lakes Distillery will also receive a code for a Zoom room so they can ask questions and interact with Salchow, Doebele, and Schwartz during the lesson and discussion.
Like many small businesses, MobCraft Beer and Great Lakes Distillery have pivoted their business models to adapt to the Safer at Home order resulting from COVID-19. Both businesses are currently open for to-go sales. MobCraft is open from 11:00am to 9:00pm Tuesday through Saturday. They offer delivery of pizza, wine, and hard cider, as well as curbside pick up of their full menu of drinks and food from Hidden Kitchen. Great Lakes Distillery is open for to-go sales from noon to 6:00pm, Monday through Saturday.
Interested in ordering your boilermaker kit or learning more? Check out the Facebook event or Great Lakes Distillery’s online store for more information.
MobCraft Beer was founded in 2013 by Henry Schwartz and Andrew Gierczak. It is the world’s first crowdsourced brewery. MobCraft’s taproom is located at 505 S. 5th Street in the Walker’s Point neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI. Each month the crowd submits and votes on beer ideas. At the end of the month, the winning beer is brewed and available for all to enjoy. These crowdsourced beers are served in the taproom with MobCraft flagships, beers from their Wild & Sour Program, and more.
Great Lakes Distillery is a craft distillery founded by Guy Rehorst in 2004 and is currently located in the Walker’s Point neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI. During times of health, the distillery offers daily guided tours, samples of their spirits, a tasting room serving cocktails, and event space. Since inception they have committed to producing quality spirits using time tested fermentation, distillation, and maturation techniques while using locally sourced ingredients whenever possible to benefit the environment and economy of the state of Wisconsin.
