Day Trip #9
Friday, October 15, 2021
The Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company, Chippewa Falls, WI. The Leinie Lodge is a combination of gift shop, museum and bar. A very enjoyable experience!
Fujifilm X-Pro3 23mm, 1/80 sec, f/6.4, ISO 160
The walk from the Leinie Lodge to tour the brewery is just a short stroll and the grounds are impeccably maintained.
Fujifilm X-Pro3 23mm, 1/1600 sec, f/2.8, ISO 160
The original spring which provided the water to make Leinenkugel’s beer. The spring is no longer in use, as the brewery has outgrown the amount of water it could provide. However, the spring house remains on the property as a nod to the original Spring Brewery and the history of Leinenkugel’s.
Fujifilm X-Pro3 23mm, 1/280 sec, f/5, ISO 160
The process starts on the fourth floor with milling and mashing of the grains and combining them with the critical Chippewa water. On floor two the mixture is boiled and then moved to the cooling room on the third floor. It is here that fermentation takes place and the beer becomes an alcoholic beverage. Fermentation takes 7-10 days and this is followed by a maturation process of 2-3 weeks. The beer is then filtered and sent to the bottling and packaging house.
Fujifilm X-Pro3 23mm, 1/80 sec, f/5, ISO 1600
In this room there are two brew kettles made of copper. The yellow tinting on the windows give the room a soothing and warm atmosphere.
Fujifilm X-Pro3 23mm, 1/80 sec, f/5, ISO 1250
This was the entryway to the original brew house. Because of additions to the building made over the years, this is now an interior wall. However, they have preserved the original brickwork and arch over the door as a nod to the brewery’s history.
Fujifilm X-Pro3 23mm, 1/35 sec, f/5, ISO 3200
This is the bottling and canning room. It is quite today because, as we discovered, the brewery is generally in full operation on Monday-Thursday and Friday is a day of cleaning. We were there on a Friday. I will be going back again on a different day because I really want to see this room in operation.
Fujifilm X-Pro3 23mm, 1/80 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1600
Here is the final step in the process; with the beer packaged it waits to be sent to distributors. This room holds roughly 1,500,000 bottles of beer, and the turnover is generally less than one week. Thus, since today is a Friday, all the beer in this room will be sent to distributors and it will be completely replaced with new product by next Friday. Leinenkugel’s only brews beer on demand - they do not brew and let the product sit until requested by the distributors. Instead, they brew only that which has already been ordered and this prevents the product from sitting idle in storage.
Fujifilm X-Pro3 23mm, 1/80 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200
A first-class operation. Our tour guide, Heather, was fantastic and all the information in this blog was provided by her. After the tour, all participants 21-years of age and older are given four 5oz samples of their choice from the many options on tap that day. There is definitely something for every beer lover’s taste.
Fujifilm X-Pro3 23mm, 1/850 sec, f/5, ISO 160
Mom, Dad, and Lisa posing for a photo-op with the Leinie Lounger. These giant Adirondack chairs are definitely “a thing” here in the midwest.
Fujifilm X-Pro3 23mm, 1/450 sec, f/5, ISO 160
A rural church and cemetery in Urne, WI. The dates on the older stones indicate it has been here from the mid-1800s.
Fujifilm X-Pro3 23mm, 1/180 sec, f/8, ISO 160
Click on the play button above to watch the video of today’s adventure. The video shows some of the brewery grounds but mostly concentrates on the Chippewa River and Hydro-Electric dam in downtown Chippewa Falls, WI.
