Wisconsin drinkers, this bill’s for you: Wine at breweries, and more

Wisconsin Brewing Company in Verona is designed for summer parties. Guests can sip a Warped Speed Scotch Ale and watch the sunset from Adirondack chairs beside a manmade pond, near where the Ice Age Trail winds through a stand of woods.

Just one hitch throws cold water on local concerts and wedding receptions, when not everyone wants a lager or an IPA. If you want anything besides a beer, you’re out of luck. “Pre-pandemic, we had 100,000 tourists come to our brewery,” said Carl Nolen, co-founder of Wisconsin Brewing and now the director of business development. “There are those that like beer but not everybody does. “People might say, ‘Hey, can I get a seltzer? Can I get a wine? What else do you have?’ And we’re like, ‘Ope, sorry.’”

Breweries like Wisconsin Brewing Company and Lake Louie, which WBC bought in 2019, can sell beer, but not wine or spirits, under current Wisconsin law. That’s one of many things a substantial new regulatory bill — Senate Bill 332, in committee until legislative sessions resume in September — could change for alcohol producers statewide.

In Wisconsin, a “three tier” system regulates the production, distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages. For decades, these rules have been mired in ambiguity and contradiction, and many in the industry have been working to clarify and improve them.

The new bill, which has bipartisan support, aims to do that. Clearer rules could mean everything from the return of Great Dane beer to Mallards games and later hours for local cider makers, to new ready-to-drink cocktails in cans and downtown bars owned and operated by distilleries.