leinenkugel brewery tour

Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company

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Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

Sun - Wed 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thu - Sat 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM
(0.56 mi) Cobblestone Hotel & Suites - Chippewa Falls
(2.13 mi) Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, Chippewa Falls, WI
(3.92 mi) Inn On Lake Wissota
(4.11 mi) Hampton Inn & Suites Chippewa Falls
(1.98 mi) AmericInn by Wyndham Chippewa Falls
(0.09 mi) Blue Marble Pub
(0.12 mi) Bresina's Carry Out
(0.27 mi) Olson's Ice Cream
(0.41 mi) Casa Mexicana
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Are you ready to join the Leinie side?! The Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company has been brewing beer in Chippewa Falls for over 155 years. We could tell you what bits and pieces of that history but we don't want to spoil what you'll learn while out on the brewery tour. Plan your Leinie Lodge getaway and get ready to relax with family and friends, sample fresh, award-winning beers and get the full flavor of all things Leinenkugel's!

No matter what you're here for, the historic tour, the beer, or the collectibles , it'll all begin at the Leinie Lodge. Brewery tours are encouraged to be booked online in advance, but the Leinie Lodge crew does offer walk-in tours during their normal hours on a first-come, first-serve basis. It'd be a shame to leave without trying the fruits of their labor.

After (or before if you just can't wait any longer for a sip of beer) your tour, pay a visit to the bar and order your beer samples . Did you know that you can mix their beers to create a whole new beer? Yes - it's a little term that Leinenkugel's likes to call "brewology" . Let's just say... it's our favorite kind of science up here in the Chippewa Valley. Grab your pints or flights and pull up a seat next to the cozy fire inside during the winters or pair a perfect summer day with friends and family at a table on their outdoor patio . Did we mention your pups can join outside too? Yeah, this place just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?!

From the moment you arrive, you'll be captivated by the natural beauty surrounding the brewery. Capture the scenery and your memorable moments with some photos! It's no secret that Leinenkugel's has some iconic photo ops throughout their grounds. Climb up on the big Leinenkugel's chair, stand under the rustic red barn, say "cheese" under the tap at the bar, or capture the moment of you doing your first "cheers" with a Leinie's beer in hand from wherever you're sitting. If there's one thing we can assure you, it's that you can never go wrong joining the Leinie side!

Other Things to Do While You're Here

Go shopping .

There's a good chance you're going to find some good stuff to bring home with you from the Lodge (that isn't beer). Leinie Lodge sells a variety of merchandise that'll look good on you, hanging on your basement wall or sitting on a bar shelf in a classic man-cave. If you want to continue shopping for "Northwoods" goods, check out local shops like The Local Store, Tangled Up In Hue , Raggedy Man and so many others in Eau Claire.

Indulge in a Classic Wisconsin Fish Fry

If you've already drunk Wisconsin beer and ate Wisconsin curds, then all that's left is a Wisconsin fish fry (maybe an Old Fashioned too, but we can get to that in a second). Locals rave about the fish fries at 4 Mile , Court'n House and Connell's Supper Club. Find all the restaurants in Eau Claire that serve up some mean fish on a Friday night here .

Soak in the Eau Claire Art Scene

Eau Claire is oftentimes referred to as one of the art capitals in the nation. That's because almost anywhere you look or go in the city, you can find some form of it. Take some time to embark on the self-guided Eau Claire Sculpture Tour , hunt down all the murals throughout the city, or catch a show at Pablo Center .

Visit the Local Wineries + Distilleries

We told you we'd circle back to that Old Fashioned! While you're exploring the tasty beverages the Chippewa Valley has to offer, take some time to visit the wineries and distilleries nearby as well.

Suggested Places to Stay

When you're planning your Leinie Lodge getaway, you want a hotel that's conveniently close to all the action. Residence Inn , Fairfield Inn , and Staybridge Suites are all located along HWY 53 - the road you'll want to take to get to the Leinie Lodge in under 20 minutes and maximize your beer-drinking time.

How to Get Here from Eau Claire

Plan Your Leinie Lodge Getaway!

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Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin : Leinenkugel Brewery Tour

Tour of one of the oldest family breweries in the country, with beer samples and souvenir glass at the end if you're old enough.

Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company

Visitor Tips and News About Leinenkugel Brewery Tour

Reports and tips from RoadsideAmerica.com visitors and Roadside America mobile tipsters . Some tips may not be verified. Submit your own tip .

Leinenkugel's is the eighth oldest family owned brewery in the country. Still run by the Leinenkugel family, it produces quality beers that are heavily consumed throughout the heartland. The tour of the brewery is free, fun and takes about forty-five minutes [2015: tour and samples are no longer free]. My favorite part was the bottling plant, where the beer goes into the bottles at a remarkable rate of about 450 to 475 bottles a minute.

It starts and ends in the "Lodge" a fairly new building resembling an old north woods lodge. At the heart of the lodge lies the heart of the Leinenkugel marketing empire, where any type of Leinenkugel merchandise imaginable is available.

Sept. 2015: Tour and beer sampling are no longer free. Sept. 2014: Photo added.

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Leinenkugel’s Cracks Top 10 Best Brewery Tours List

According to usa today, legendary chippewa falls brewery offers one of the best tours.

McKenna Scherer , photos by Neal Bennett | November 15, 2022

BREWIN' THE BEST. Locals (and Summer Shandy lovers across the country) already knew Jacob Leinenkugel's was one of the best brewers, but thanks to a USA Today poll, the local brewery cracks the top 10 best brewery tours in the nation.

USA Today recently shared news that most Chippewa Valley locals already knew: Chippewa Falls’ Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. is top-notch. According to USA Today ’s 2022 Readers’ Choice poll , Leinenkugel’s offers one of the 10 best brewery tours in the nation, coming in at eighth place.

The legendary Chippewa Falls brewery was founded 155 years ago in 1867 and is moving into its sixth generation of family-lead business, with current president Dick Leinenkugel set to pass the torch to his nephew, Tony Bugher, before the new year, ending his 35-year career with the brewery. (He has been president for the last seven years.)

Leinenkugel’s is one of just two Midwestern breweries that cracked the Top 10 list (the other being Michigan’s Bell’s Brewery), and since the Volume One squad just took a Leinie’s tour at the start of this month, we are uniquely prepared to say it certainly is one of the very best.

The V1 staff at the end of our Leinie's tour. Take it from us, it's super fun (c'mon, look at those smiles).

On Nov. 1, (most of) the V1 staff took a drive over to Chippewa Falls for the brewery’s Legacy Brewery Tour – one of several they offer – allowing us to tour the historic space, inside and out, with one of their excellent tour guides.

All tours start out at the Leinie Lodge, and for this tour, folks are armed with safety goggles that have to be worn once inside the brewery when it’s operating. Taking a short walk from the Lodge over to the brewery means getting to cross Duncan Creek, one of the state’s class one brook trout streams (the gorgeous and top-tier quality stream shown in the background of this photo), to where the beer magic happens.

Tour guides at Leinenkugel’s know all the stuff – family lineage and historical context, the beer-brewing process, and equipment used, etc. – and of course, have that Midwestern easy-going charm. What’s not to love?

There’s a plethora of family history the expert tour guides share, and they even show folks the hops used for your favorite IPAs (they smell very … hoppy, we found out on the tour). Wrapping up back at the Leinie Lodge, visitors who are 21+ get a few beer tickets to use. (Each of the V1 staff snagged at least one brew to enjoy out on the patio. It was awesome!)

The Leinenkugel family immigrated to Wisconsin from Germany in 1845. Jacob Leinenkugel started his own brewery in Chippewa Falls, then a small logging town, and by the early 1900s, the second generation of Leinenkugels would steer the brewery towards years of innovation and success. “The rest, as they say, is history,” Leinie’s website states.

To book a tour head over to the Leinenkugel website ( leinie.com/tours ) or call for more information (888) 534-6437.

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Inside the biggest Milwaukee brewery you can't tour: Downtown's 10th Street Brewery

It's right there off the highway. Big as a barn and just as red.

Leinenkugel's 10th Street Brewery — named for its 1515 N. 10th St. location — is the largest brewery in Milwaukee that you can't tour.

Bigger yet because of a recent two-part expansion that included $50 million for state-of-the art packaging operations and $20 million for cider production, which began in late 2018.

That Leinenkugel's script on the front of the building is only part of the story.

The MillerCoors-owned brewery produces varieties of Leinenkugel's beer, but it also makes Blue Moon Iced Coffee Blonde wheat beer; the occasional craft beer in the MillerCoors portfolio, such as Terrapin; and, since earlier this year, as much as 114,000 barrels of barrels of Crispin and other hard ciders.

There are no tours of the brewhouse. No space for people to watch grains being poured or walk past velvet ropes meant to keep grubby hands off polished copper.

This is an ever-moving production brewery.

It was built in 1986 by G. Heileman Brewing Co. MillerCoors purchased it in 1996 for its Leinenkugel's division.

The hard cider and packaging sides — the recent expansions — are the shiny and new parts.

Bringing hard cider to 10th Street was a case of addition by subtraction. MillerCoors closed the Crispin Cider works in Colfax, Calif., in December and brought production and head cider-maker John Enzenauer to Milwaukee.

If you could get inside, it would be difficult to miss the giant boxes of apple juice used to make the hard cider — mostly, because they look exactly like fat swollen oversized juice boxes in need of a straw.

Raw apple juice that has been pressed in the northwest side of the country is trucked within 48 to 72 hours to Milwaukee, where it's put in receiving tanks the size of small redwood trees before being shifted to fermenters of equal size. Yeast is pitched and the juice stays in the fermenters for 12 to 18 days.

The new addition added to the tank inventory for both brewing (56 tanks) and cider making (eight tanks) purposes. The tanks seemingly shrink the warehouse-size rooms, making them resemble a stainless steel forest. The doorways weren't wide enough, so they were installed through the roof, said Janelle Heinrich, the 10th Street Brewery's senior operations director.

Beer tanks share the space. That's 40 universal tanks that can be used for fermentation, 12 bright beer tanks (or holding tanks for finished beer) and four product-release tanks. In between is the dry-hopping cannon used to add hops into the fermenter at the end of fermentation. (Dry hopping is a method of enhancing hop flavor in beers.)

There is room for more expansion, Heinrich said. Currently, two shifts work at the brewery — first shift is 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and second shift is 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. They often end up working 10-hour shifts to keep up, which is why there are plans to expand to a third shift at the end of 2019 or early 2020.

Cider production space bleeds over to what used to be the 10th Street Brewery's keg line. Processed cider is pumped to the room where it's finished with water, sweetener or other ingredients depending on the brand or style. The juice comes from the giant juice boxes at about 10% ABV (alcohol by volume), but it's blended to an ABV of 4% to 6%, Enzenauer said.

Then it's filtered, or sometimes not. The juice is blended with water sugar or sometimes hibiscus, maple syrup, pear or rose petal, Enzenauer said.

10th Street Brewery produces The Saint Artisanal Honeycrisp, an unfiltered cider made with maple syrup. Filtered products include Crispin Pearsecco, Crispin Rosé with rose petals and hibiscus. Enzenauer also produces Browns Lane, a traditional UK cider using juice imported from the United Kingdom for its bittersweet apples and blended onsite.

On the production side, a machine grabs and folds cartons for the Blue Moon Share Pack. Inside the addition is a fully automated bottle and can line, a keg line and a warehouse with eight dock doors.

The equipment fills 75 kegs in an hour. Bottles or cans are filled at 300 a minute. More than that, the equipment can switch up sizes to fill 12-ounce cans; 16-ounce cans; 12-ounce sleek cans (skinnier versions); 12-ounce bottles or 22-ounce bottles, Heinrich said.

The line is so automated that a team of four workers can handle it. One person feeds the pallet of bottles to the line, which sanitizes and fills them. Others feed the equipment with cartons.

Not every beer is made at the brewery. In the case of the Blue Moon variety pack, Blue Moon varieties Belgian White and Mango are trucked from the Milwaukee Brewery while the Iced Coffee Blonde is made at 10th Street Brewery.

The thirst is real. Heinrich said that an average of 22 truckloads of product, from apple cider to beer, leaves 10th Street Brewery each week.

Beer Near: A guide to Wisconsin breweries

RELATED: This guide to 26 Milwaukee-area brewery tours will remind you why it's called Brew City

Contact Kathy at (414) 224-2974 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram at @katflanigan.

Leinenkugel’s

Opened in 1867, find us at 124 E. Elm Street • Chippewa Falls, WI 54729

The Leinenkugel family brewery was founded in 1867 in Chippewa Falls, Wisc., by Jacob Leinenkugel. Today, the sixth generation of Leinenkugels continues to brew the same German-inspired recipes that Jacob poured his heart and soul into.

Leinenkugel Brewery employees are generous within the Chippewa Falls community, donating $200,000 per year.

About Our Brewery

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" Our family has been hand-crafting our beers for over 155 years. We are inspired by our Northwoods Wisconsin location to bring relaxing moments that are full of the flavor of each beer we brew. "

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Jacob Leinenkugel Brewery Company

The Lumberjacks Were Thirsty

Designing a better brewery tour experience.

Challenge Accepted.

Embracing the 150-year history of Leinenkugel’s, ZEBRADOG’s experiential design team—equipped with digital technology, strong storytellers, and a love of beer—set out to show the world what Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company is all about.

Working with your team has been terrific.

Richard j. leinenkugel.

THE DETAILS

In 1867, Jacob Leinenkugel learned of the magic waters from the Big Eddy Springs. To the delight of the mighty, thirsty lumberjacks of Northern Wisconsin, Jacob built his brewery in Chippewa Falls. 150 years and six generations later, the fresh spring water is still the bedrock of the world-famous Jacob Leinenkugel’s Brewery Company .

This classic American immigrant story continues to inspire, educate, and delight visitors who come to sample original German recipes. And the Leinenkugel family, along with their partners at Molson Coors, know that story loyalty is brand loyalty.

ZEBRADOG’s experiential design team—equipped with digital technology and a love of beer—set out to show the world what Leinie’s is about.

The Legacy Circle provides a ceremonial bridge to the past as you learn origin stories and literally walk back in time to tour one of America’s oldest operating brewhouses.
A campus-wide signing system designed with meticulous authenticity weaves the story thread from building to building, room to room, bottle to bottle.
An easy-to-understand interpretive art program immerses visitors in each step of the brewing process from the water, grain, and hops, to the keg, bottle, and can.
Six generations of family history transform into an interactive media family album to clarify which Leinenkugel belongs to each generation.
An invigorated retail experience engages with a seasonal beer tutorial and interactive quiz to personalize the perfect six-pack to take home.

No trip is complete without sampling ice-cold beer at the Leinie Lodge and capturing pictures. Visitors are considered family and invited to share the love with a social media-integrated Family Photo Album to commemorate the day.

Special places have special stories to share.

Areas of Impact

Placemaking

Legacy Circle: A Walk Through Time

In the epicenter of the campus is a new Legacy Circle conceived of and designed by ZEBRADOG for tour guests to stop and learn about what the campus was like decades ago. When you step through the “Gateway” you are touching history—you walk over the original bricks that lined the brewhouse and pathways for the workers and horses making and delivering the famous brew.

Design Inspiration: A Rich Tapestry of Textures

The brewery campus provided a wealth of textural and environmental inspiration for ZEBRADOG to define a palette of materials, graphics, and digital environments. Red barn wood, copper, brick, historic labels, bottle caps, and the natural ingredients of hops, grain, honey, citrus, and water all made their way into the fabric that is Leinenkugel’s.

A More Cohesive Campus

125,000 customers file through the Leinie Lodge’s doors each year. A campus-wide signing system was designed to provide the “story thread” from building to building, room to room, bottle to bottle. All conceived of, and meticulously built, in an authentic style sure to extend the story for the next 150 years.

Brewery Tour

Spring Water Into Beer

Although it’s a 6,000-year-old process, many visitors don’t have a clear picture of how beer is made. ZEBRADOG demystified the process by designing an easy-to-understand interpretive art program that immerses you in each step of the brewing process from the water, grain, and hops, to the keg, bottle, and can in a multi-sensory environment.

Don’t feel like walking in the heat or cold of Wisconsin? No problem, ZEBRADOG designed an interactive virtual tour of the brewing, bottling, packing, and shipping processes. Plus the sample bar is a lot closer.

“We fell in love with the Leinenkugel’s Brewery after taking the new tour. The whole experience blew us away! We’ll be back.”

Storytelling

A Craft-Made Timeline

Six generations of product history await you at the Bottle House, where a timeline exhibit helps to identify Leinenkugel’s role throughout history from inception to Prohibition to today.

Welcome Home to Leinie Lodge

The brewery tour ends at the dream log cabin, complete with a four-sided fireplace, canoes, fishing lures, family pictures, custom clothes for everyone, and the BEST BAR in Northern Wisconsin.

When you collect 150 years’ worth of beer maker photographs for a single family, people get confused between great, great, great grandpa Joseph, and great Aunt Mary.

With modern technology and a History Major on staff, ZEBRADOG was able to make beautiful sense of all of it with an interactive display clarifying which Jacob belongs to each generation.

Everyone is part of the Leinie family! The Family interactive exhibit includes an invitation to add a selfie to the Family Photo Album that can also be shared through social media.

Discover the Perfect Six-Pack

An informed customer is a better customer. ZEBRADOG developed a special exhibit that teaches you everything you need to know about the current seasonal Leinie selections. Plus you can take a “Beer Quiz” that will guide you into selecting the perfect six-pack, all readily available to take home.

Top 10 Brewery Tours by USA Today

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EVERY BEER HAS A STORY. OURS IS JUST A LITTLE LONGER.

In May 1867, the Leinenkugel family brewery was founded in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin by Jacob Leinenkugel. He was a family man driven by an iron work ethic, and he knew that his German family heritage would play an integral part of his brewery’s success. Today, sixth generation family members are involved in the company, helping to bring the same family-inspired recipes that Jacob poured his heart and soul into to consumers across the country. Over the years, our family has grown and so has our brewery, but our history and heritage remain at the forefront. Take a step back in time and discover our flavorful history…

The story of Chippewa Falls is every-changing, just like the waters of the Chippewa River and Big Eddy Springs. But water isn’t the only thing that flows in Chippewa Falls. Our beer has been filling steins there since it became home to the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company in 1867. Our hometown was once the site of the world’s largest lumber mill. The hard-working, thirsty lumberjacks made great customers for Jacob and his business partner, John Miller. The rest, as they say, is history.

BACK WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

In 1845 Jacob Leinenkugel has his family immigrated to Wisconsin from Meckenheim, Germany, where Jacob’s father was an innkeeper and brewer himself. Equipped with German brewing knowledge and tradition passed down from his family, Jacob started his brewery in 1867 in the logging town of Chippewa Falls. Its rich soil was perfect for growing hops and grains, and the pure water that ran through the town was a perfect ingredient for crafting beer. The many lumberjacks that lived and worked here quickly became our loyal fans.

PASSING DOWN TRADITION

After Jacob Leinenkugel’s death in 1899, his son-in-law, Henry Casper, served as president. Then, following in his father’s footsteps, Matthias Leinenkugel took over as brewery president in 1907, followed by Jacob’s daughter Susan Leinenkugel Mayer in 1927. Under the guidance of the second generation, Leinenkugel’s growing market blossomed.

WANTED: BREWMASTER

After Prohibition, it was back to business, despite one major problem: our brewery didn’t have a brewmaster. President Raymond Mayer and sales manager William Casper had to act quickly. Breweries were popping up all over, each eager to capture a piece of the wide open market. Using all their resources, Raymond and William found a brewmaster, modernized our brewery, introduced brewery tours, and established new opportunities to grow the business.

WELCOMING MORE STATES

TV and national advertising changed the beer industry. Small breweries had to compete not only with each other, but with larger companies that began building multiple breweries across the country. For Leinenkugel’s this meant expanding into new markets and enlisting the help of Wisconsin heroes like Ray Scott, “The Voice of the Packers,” to be a part of advertising campaigns. Our brewery grew as well, with the addition of the Hospitality Center in 1979, a space for Leinie fans to gather and learn about the beer they loved.

A PROPER INTRODUCTION

Under the guidance of Jake, Dick, and John Leinenkugel our brewery continued to thrive. The brewery was bought by Miller Brewing Company in 1988. This partnership has allowed Leinenkugel’s to share its quality brews with beer lovers all over the country. Leinenkugel’s 10th Street Brewery was added in 1995 to handle the increased demand. In 2003, the Leinie Lodge opened its doors and now has over 350,000 members.

A NEW ERA BEGINS

Matt, Kirk, Ellie, and Katie Leinenkugel, along with Tony Bugher, carry on the Leinenkugel’s legacy by working to get more of our beers to more people in more markets that ever before. From running tastings to demonstrations to working in the brewery, the sixth generation of Leinenkugel’s is building on our family’s tradition that our great-great-great-grandfather began over 154 years ago. We’re making sure our beers continue to satisfy palates everywhere. Even though we’re not all in Chippewa Falls, we’re out here every day helping you Flavor The Moment.

Leinie Lodge 124 East Elm Street Chippewa Falls, WI 54729

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