PLATTEVILLE, Wisc.: When they roll out the barrel here, it's done only a few times a year.
At the Pioneer Haus Brew Pub, one of the nation's smallest commercial breweries, hops are measured in ounces, the brewmaster is a retired high school shop teacher and the German-made brew kettles are next to a pair of electronic dartboards.
The 1866 Lager and Pioneer Pale Ale can 't be found at Second Street college haunts like Badger Bar, Denny 's Char Bar or Roosters. Instead, it's only available from two taps in the Pioneer Student Center at UW-Platteville.
The brews are outselling Miller Lite, which costs $1 less per pint and is the only other beer offered at the pub.
"A lot of people talk about it, " said Matt Durda, 19, a sophomore from Janesville majoring in agricultural business who recently watched the brewing process while he ate lunch with three friends. "I haven 't tried any because I 'm not of age, but it 's cool. It makes us kind of special. "
The brewery, which makes about 10 barrels a year, is believed to be the only commercial brewery in the nation owned by a university and is on a campus that started its own home-brewing club last school year.
It's also nestled in an area of southwestern Wisconsin -- about 70 miles southwest of Madison -- that is known for its brewing history and tradition.
The Platteville Brewery operated from 1858 to 1941 along the Little Platte River on the city 's east side. The first brewery in the state was built in Mineral Point in 1835 and the second, a year later, in Elk Grove, just south of Platteville.
The National Brewery Museum in nearby Potosi is scheduled to open in June and is housed in what used to be the Potosi Brewery.
"Those breweries contributed to the infrastructure of the community, " said John Dutcher, a historian who has researched the brewing industry in southwestern Wisconsin. "They built the churches and the schools. It 's interesting that it has returned. "
'It's basically a novelty'
The idea of a brewery at the university, at one time known for its mining and teaching schools but now known more for its engineering programs, began in 1999 when plans were being considered for the student center.
The facility opened in 2002 and included a 10-by-20-foot room next to the pizza oven. The room, designed with drains in the floor, also came with a glass wall that allows those in the pub to see how beer is made.
The brewing, however, didn 't begin until July 2004. The university needed to get governmental licensing, find a brewmaster and import about $20,000 worth of brewing equipment from Germany.
"It 's basically a novelty, " said Doug Stockli, director of the school 's retail dining services. "A lot of students are curious about it. "
Tom Nickels, who spent 32 years teaching shop classes at Hempstead High School in Dubuque, Iowa, and has been making home brews on the back deck of his Platteville home since 1994, got the job as brewmaster.
"There was tremendous pressure to perform, " said Nickels, 60, as he prepared a batch of Pioneer Pale Ale, the 117th batch of beer he 's made at the brewery. "But I leapt at the chance to get my brew in front of the public and brew commercially. It was a huge advancement for me. I was very happy and lucky to get it. "
In the 2006-07 school year, he made about 330 gallons of beer at the Pioneer Haus.
Craft beer industry growing
Paul Gatza, executive director of the Brewers Association in Boulder, Colo., said there are smaller commercial breweries in the country, but most are making a few barrels a year just to keep their brewing license.
Growth of the craft beer industry in 2007 was up 12 percent by volume and 16 percent in dollars when compared to 2006, according to the association.
"The strength of this correlates with the American trend of buying local products and a preference for more flavorful foods and beers, " Gatza said
Each batch at the Pioneer Haus makes about 11 gallons, which is equivalent to about one-third of a barrel, and takes about eight hours to make.
The beer ferments for a week in a storage room cooler behind the student center kitchen and then ages for another two weeks in a walk-in cooler shared with vegetables, sandwich meats and other food items.
"What I 've learned here is that since we are so small, and that every barrel that goes online is a new brew, that repeatability is paramount, " Nickels said. "You learn to brew very accurately so you can maintain some kind of similarity between the brews. "
Self-contained brewing system
The centerpiece of the brewing room is a two-vessel, self-contained brewing system with its own water heater and wort chiller. The 50-liter vessels allow Nickels to use malted grain and water to create a porridge-like substance to convert the starch in the grains to sugar. After about an hour in the mash tun, the mixture is transferred to the second vessel called a lauter tun, where the wort is separated from the spent grain and then transferred back to the first vessel, which then becomes the boil vessel.
After an hour of boiling and the addition of a few ounces of hops, the wort is transferred back to the second vessel, which then acts as a whirlpool used to remove coagulated proteins and small specks of grain.
The brewing system is controlled by a computer that allows Nickels to control temperatures during the brewing process. The room also includes plastic bins of malted grains that can add color, allow for larger heads and increase flavor and body.
Nickels, a Sheboygan native, is paid about $100 to brew each batch, something he does every two to three weeks, depending on demand. For the 2006-07 school year, retail sales of his beers totaled about $3,573 at the student center. In addition, the beer was sold for catered events at the university. But the retail sales are a fraction of the $3.2 million in total food and beverage sales expected for this school year at the student center, which also contains a dining hall. The brewery breaks about even, but like the dining services, is supported by sales at the student center. No tax dollars are used to subsidize the brewery, Stockli said.
"What a person is looking for in brewing is acceptance, " said Nickels. "It's a very hard thing to nail down. But you're trying to get people to say it's a good beer. "
Russ Klisch, past president of the Brewers Guild of Wisconsin, makes about 9,200 barrels of beer at his Lake Front Brewery in Milwaukee. Klisch saw the Pioneer Haus operation a few years ago when he was in Platteville for a nephew's graduation. He didn't have a chance to sample the beer but came away impressed.
"If it isn 't the smallest (in the state), it's ... close to it, " Klisch said. "It gives students an idea of how to brew. It takes the mystery out of the beer and how it is brewed. "
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