My love for beer started from my roots and the town that I grew up in. Being born into German Heritage you can probably understand the gravitation towards a good beer. This was further encouraged growing up in a small midwestern town at the Illinois /Wisconsin border. The small-town upbringing was centered around family, friends, a sense of community and of course beer. Now, I will admit in my younger days drinking beer meant grabbing any cold beer we could get at the gas station. I did however have the early opportunities to taste what good beer was about.

My father would have selected his beer choices from his background sticking to crisp Germann Pilsners and Lagers. Being the early 1980’s choices were limited on the German or German style beers available. My father however was able to find his staple beers in the area, Augsburger and Berghoff. These are the beer flavor that I grew up on. Now that is not to say the majority of my beer diet in my late teens was not Miller Liter. My financial position at the time drove much of those decisions.

As a young man I was fortunate enough to spend several summers in Germany as both my parent’s families still resided there. Those were the summers spent away from my Midwestern local beers and to German Regional beers, further encouraging my pallet to the finer beers.

As I continue this blog, I will share experiences in beer drinking (along with antidotal stories) and the evolution to where we are today with numerous different beer styles and their origins.

We will review Breweries we visit and delve into the work of Home Brewing.

I hope the information to be lighthearted and informative. I look forward to the feedback and sharing.

You can also find a link below to see the different Home Brewed beers that we currently have on tap.

https://taplist.io/rivertripbrewing

Prosit/Cheers,

Mike