BY DAN MURPHY AND CHRIS DROSNER
Open! Amorphic Beer
The motto for Milwaukee’s newest brewery is “beer without shape, engineered through scientific experimentation,” and it’s more than talk. Co-owner, head brewer and former engineer Ron Hockersmith is using cutting-edge innovations in products and techniques to tease every iota of flavor from the hops, malt and yeast in his beers. Amorphic’s beers are unlikely to be repeated; instead, each brew will evolve within a series of concepts anchoring the menu – IPAs are a focus, with multiple options and varying levels of haze and ABV, as well as a fruited sour and a beer of Czech origin. The taproom in a former Riverwest machine shop is warm and welcoming, with Edison bulbs illuminating lots of vintage wood and exposed Cream City brick. 3700 N. Fratney St.
Coming! Ope! Brewing, Perspective Brewing, Lion’s Tail Brewing
West Allis is on the cusp of adding two very different breweries. Ope!, with a brain trust that cut their teeth at The Explorium Brewpub, is setting up shop at 6751 W. National Ave., a former industrial area on the upswing. As startups go, this is a big one – a 13,000-square-foot building (once home to Perfect Screw Products Corp.) with a 15-barrel brewhouse, 6,000 square feet of taproom and a half-acre beer garden for all your lawn game needs. Expect beer in a mix of contemporary craft styles like milkshake IPA and pastry stout, and “beer that tastes like beer,” as head brewer Kyle Ciske explains. Taps should flow at some point this summer. Less than a mile away, brothers and science teachers Dan and Ben Naus are opening Perspective on a stretch at 7508 W. Greenfield Ave. They’ll have a 1,500-square-foot taproom, a small beer garden and a seven-barrel brewing system to supply 12 tap lines focusing on European styles, especially Belgian ales. Perspective is aiming for a spring opening. Over in Tosa, Lion’s Tail is building out its second brewery in the former home of Wisconsin Garden & Pet Supply at 8520 W. North Ave. Lion’s Tail, which opened in downtown Neenah in 2015, was one of the first Wisconsin breweries to make a hazy IPA, and similar beers remain the bedrock of its lineup. Expect the brewery, taproom and what should be a killer beer garden to open sometime in 2022.
Switcheroo! Component Brewing, Torzala Brewing
The Lincoln Warehouse in Bay View just keeps launching breweries. Eagle Park and Enlightened have gone on to (much) bigger things, and now Component has upgraded with a move into a larger brewery on the building’s first floor that will allow more regular canning runs and more beer in local bars and restaurants. Another new brewery will backfill the small second-floor space Component left; Jeff and Trish Torzala are aiming to open Torzala Brewing, featuring his traditional-style beers, around the middle of this month. 2018 S. First St.
