Get Your Crowdsourced Beer at MobCraft #VisitMKE

Greetings Great Beer Now fans and followers! This is the ninth and final entry in a multi- part series of blog posts relating to the Great Beer Now No Fibs Allowed Beer Tour 2018: A True Beer City Experience, which took place in the great city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Open up your favorite Midwestern- brewed beer and follow along as I explore Wisconsin’s largest city in search of the best in local suds. Cheers!  

 

With the advent of the internet, many things that once seemed impossible are now reality. Crowdsourcing is one such example- through this means of online funding, prospective businesses that would have never come to fruition suddenly have a fighting chance. And a prime example of a successful crowdsourcing effort is Mobcraft Brewery, located at 505 S. Fifth Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Crowdsourced Brewing

Mobcraft Brewery is located in an active part of the city and features a large interior with varied seating options, including outdoor seating. The large garage doors make for a very open feeling and add to the brewery’s industrial vibe.

Inside Mobcraft, guests will find table tennis and foosball, along with a large number of board games. The music playing in the background features 1950’s and 1960’s tunes for the most part, and many of them are quite obscure.

Mobcraft is a crowdsourced brewery and each month, they solicit their fans to help select which beers to brew. The beer that receives the most pre- orders, which is how they count the votes, is the one that will get brewed. They ship beers, too, across the United States provided individual state laws allow such actions.

Creativity is Evident

Because Mobcraft brews beer based on the votes of craft beer fans, the beer that is brewed is often quite different from the usual beer found at most breweries and brew pubs. Here is a listing of the beers I sampled, listed alphabetical by name, followed by the style and my Untappd rating for each, on a 5- point scale:

• Batshit Crazy, Brown Ale, 4
• Gentlemen S- Tart Your Engines, Sour Ale, 3.75
• Hold the Door, Pale Ale, 4
• Hoppy Hoppy Pants Pants, Double IPA, 4.25
• Laughing Clown, Imperial Stout, 4.25
• Mobcraft IPA, American IPA, 4
• Pivot Ale, Black and Tan, 4
• Pucker Monk, Sour Ale, 3.75
• Radagast the Brown Ale, English Brown Ale, 3.75
• Senor Bob, Cream Ale, 4
• Solid NON Fail Stout, Imperial Stout, 4.5
• Sour Support, Sour Ale, 3.25

Overall average rating: 3.96 out of 5

The creativity on display at Mobcraft is obvious and the choices are many. When I was here, there was something like 25 house beers on tap from which to choose. I found most all of them uniquely satisfying and I was beyond happy to discover so many non- IPA among the beers Mobcraft brews.

From Our Brewery to You

Mobcraft Brewery is a brewing establishment like few others. A crowdsourced brewery, it is one of the few breweries I know about that was founded by the people and that plays complete service to the people, even having the public vote on the beer to brew.

I visited Mobcraft late on a warm Milwaukee summer evening and the first thing I noticed was how dark it was on the inside. The lighting is minimal, so during the nighttime hours, one can expect to enter a dimly- lit facility that seems like it was tailor- made for nightlife. The garage doors provide an open and inviting feeling, like you’re stopping over at a friend’s house for drinks and conversation.

Mobcraft Brewery brews and serves interesting beer and easily its most unique feature is the fact that it is crowdsourced. I learned that the owner actually went on the television show Shark Tank a few years back in an effort to secure additional funding. His effort didn’t work, but it didn’t seem to slow Mobcraft down. The brewery is still doing well and its nationwide fan base can’t seem to get enough of a brewery that lets everyone cast votes on what to brew next.

The available beers at Mobcraft are many and the selection is one of the most generous I have ever encountered. It’s great to have choices, but it can also make the selection process more daunting. I decided to stick with flight samples so that I could try many of the beers and I’m glad I did because there are some real gems in the bunch. I really enjoyed several of the darker beers and it was beyond cool to discover a brewery that doesn’t over- emphasize the brewing of IPA style beer.

Thanks to the internet, businesses that may otherwise not exist have a realistic chance and MobCraft Brewery is a testament to the many positive changes that the world wide web has bestowed on the business community. It’s a unique operation in many ways and one of the few breweries that lets fans vote on beer and even have it shipped to them in other states. It’s a cool place to experience, so be sure to visit Mobcraft Brewing the next time you’re in the Milwaukee area. And tell them Great Beer Now sent you.