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Welcome to Miller Valley!

We realized how much of Milwaukee we still have not seen, and decided that taking the free tour of the MillerCoors Brewery was just the thing on a snowy winter day. In this picture you can see the large silver tankards where the beer is aged for three weeks.

The tour is for one hour, be prepared to take stairs and walk to several buildings.  Register at the front desk when you arrive. Good info to know before beginning the tour.

 A photographer was there to take our picture and had some props to make the picture even more memorable.  We would be offered a 5×7 and 2-4×6 print, a bottle opener and a can cozy at the end of the tour for $20.  We got it, such a fun memento of our visit.

We were on the first tour at 10:30, and it turned out to only be the two of us. Leah was our guide, she gave us the VIP treatment!

The tour began with a 10-minute film in the theater describing the history of the brewery. After that we went to the first building where the beer is made.

Here we could also see the conveyor belt rolling with filled cases of beer.

We went down to the lower floor of this building and saw it is also a vast warehouse for all the beer.  Would you believe all of this will be gone by the next day?  Most goes to Chicago with the rest points elsewhere. It is the size of 5 football fields placed side-by-side. Here are some stats.

We went back out and crossed the street, going under the bridge where you could see beer going across on the conveyor.

It was time to see where the Fermenting Room.  Copper tankards were on the upper level and the silver-colored ones were below.

After this we walked further up the street to our last stop, the Historic Caves building where the beer was chilled before refrigeration.

There was also a historic marker on the building.

We went into the hushed darkness of the cave, gently lit on either side but still allowing for night vision.  It was beautiful, and there was a mural painted in the back.

In here were were also paid a visit by Frederick Miller himself, via a projection on the back of the cave.

Very cool!  The tour was now finished, we then went to the tasting room. Al did the tasting since I don’t drink beer.  Thanks Leah, we really had fun!

While we were there we got our photo that we had taken at the start of the tour.  Our first silly selfie of the year.

We really had a good time here today. Since there is not a restaurant on site, we went .7 miles away to Saz’s State House for a great lunch.

It’s always Miller Time™ in Milwaukee!