Seven years ago, Eagle Park Brewing and Distilling started out small, and now, founders Max and Jackson Borgardt and Jake Schinker have announced that the brewery has brewed its 10 millionth beer.
You read that right.
And now they plan to celebrate.
From tiny Lincoln Warehouse space to Gallun Tannery garage to sprawling modern brewery complex in Muskego, Eagle Park has grown massively during its short life span, even expanding into distilling and buying the Milwaukee Brewing Company recipes and brands.
"Seven years ago, we never thought we would ever make it to this point, let alone this soon," says Max Borgardt.
Eagle Park hosts a Customer Appreciation Day on Saturday, Oct. 21 at both locations, with a $1,000 gift card giveaway, merch sales, food specials and more.
You can find more on the event here.
Ten million beers is a lot of beers and it looks like it’s only going to keep growing, as Eagle Park recently wrapped up work on a facilities expansion that doubles its brewing capacity in Muskego.
"We started as homebrewers in a garage, and for nearly seven years, we've learned something new every day by pushing our knowledge and limits,” Schinker says.
“Having people truly enjoy what we put so much hard work and passion into has been the greatest fuel to keep us pushing forward."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
