Dairy State Pioneers: How Wisconsin Built America's Beer Culture

No state wears its beer heritage more proudly than Wisconsin. Long before craft brewing was a movement, brewing was simply part of who Wisconsinites were — and that history still pours out of taprooms across the state today. The 19th Century Foundations Wisconsin's brewing roots run remarkably deep. The Stevens Point Brewery has been pouring since 1857, making it one of the oldest continuously operating breweries in the entire country. A decade later, in 1867, Jacob Leinenkugel founded his brewery in Chippewa Falls, where six generations of the family have brewed on the same Northwoods site ever since. German and Central European immigrants brought brewing traditions that turned Milwaukee into one of the great beer cities of the world. The Modern Icon: New Glarus The modern craft era has its own legend. In 1993, Deb and Dan Carey founded New Glarus Brewing in the Swiss heritage village that gives the brewery its name. Their Spotted Cow farmhouse ale became such an institution that the brewery's decision to sell only within Wisconsin turned it into a genuine cult object — out of staters routinely smuggle cases home. The hilltop Riverside brewery is now one of the most beautiful bee…