In addition to the latest installment of the annual solera beer, Third Space Brewing will also celebrate its sixth anniversary by kicking off a partnership with the summer camp where its founders met more than 20 years ago.
Third Space, 1505 W. St. Paul Ave. in the Menomonee Valley, will unveil Six – the newest barrel-aged ale from its solera program (where Seven, Eight and Nine are already aging) – on Friday, Sept. 23, on the eve of its Sixth Anniversary Party the following day.
The Saturday party, with live music and DJs, and food from Riley’s Good Dogs, Ian’s Pizza and Third Space Brewing’s daily food truck, Triciclo Peru, runs from noon until 10 p.m.
SIX is a 16 percent barrel bomb is aged in in bourbon, brandy and PX Sherry barrels in a process that is most associated with Sherry production.
“The beer moves through three layers of different spirit barrels over time, each time leaving some beer behind to add age and complexity to the next year’s blend,” says Brewmaster and Third Space Co-Founder, Kevin Wright.
“The beer itself is modeled after the flavors in Sherry, brewed with raisin juice and honey. It is a complicated process and a unique beer recipe that will
be fun to compare year-after-year as the blends build upon one another.”
There will be limited 16-ounce cans of SIX and 500ml bottles of FIVE available. Pre-orders are recommended.
Some other brews are releasing for the special event, too:
Happy Happy, a double dry-hopped Double IPA version of Happy Place that Third Space first produced for its grand opening party in November 2016. This will be on tap and in limited 16-ounce four-packs.
Sixth Anniversary Citrus Wheat Ale with grapefruit and orange – which you may have already seen trickling out to retail in cans – was tapped last week in the tap room.
Acres Edge Toasted Oatmeal Stout, one of Third Space’s four original beers, is back on nitro. (Expect to see some special barrel-aged gems hit the taps during the celebrations, too.)
Acres Edge is named for a campsite at YMCA’s Camp Minikani, where Third Space co-founders Wright and Andy Gehl met as counselors many years ago.
The anniversary event also launches a new annual partnership with Camp Minikani in Hubertus.
“This ongoing partnership with Minikani fits better with Third Space Brewing’s overall community outreach strategy which we have shifted recently with initiatives like our quarterly Pints With a Purpose Program to make a bigger direct impact on a smaller group of local nonprofits,” says Gehl.
The partnership replaces the previous approach of selecting a new nonprofit to benefit from each year’s anniversary event.
“Our goal is to make the largest impact we can on organizations our team cares the most about. For the Anniversary Party, our strongest fundraising opportunity, we chose Camp Minikani because Kevin and I know firsthand the impact the camp experience can have on the lives of young people.”
The duo says that Minikani was their first “third space” and was an inspiration for creating a taproom experience that is fun and approachable.
“For this year’s Anniversary Party we are focusing on raising funds for the campership program at Minikani which means all dollars raised will go towards giving children a camp experience who could not otherwise afford it,” says Wright.
“As the partnership grows, we hope to continue supporting the campership program but also to help raise funds for other initiatives and projects at Minikani to keep the thriving for years to come.”
The Saturday party and Friday evening event are both free, but there will be a suggested donation (not compulsory) to Camp Minikani on Saturday. VIP tickets are $40 and include three beer tickets, a private indoor VIP room and backstage viewing of the live music outside. The entire $40 will be donated to Minikani.
You can buy VIP tickets, pre-order the limited beers and make donations to Minikani at the Third Space Sixth Anniversary website.
“I have seen Camp Minikani positively change the trajectory of thousands of kids’ lives,” says Camp Minikani’s Executive Director, Eli Fyksen. “Camp is a place where children build confidence and self-esteem while learning to work together with people that are different from themselves. Camp is a human-powered, technology-free adventure that allows space for positive risk and reward.
“Our goal at Camp Minikani is to give all children these experiences no matter their economic situation and the funds raised via Third Space Brewing’s Anniversary will go a long way to help families in need send their kids to camp.”
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.
