During our vacation, we made our way across the state of Wisconsin on our way to the Twin Cities. Along the way, we stopped into a place that I've been to before, but Cindy never has - The Leinie Lodge in Chippewa Falls, WI. The Leinie Lodge is the gift store, hospitality area and the launching pad for tours of the Leinenkugel brewery.
Of course, Leininkugel beer is some of my favorite beer in the world. I especially love their Northwoods Lager and their Oktoberfest beers. I'm hoping they make Northwoods Lager available again through limited distribution as they did late last year and earlier this year in Wisconsin and Minnesota. I usually don't travel to either one of those states from November to March, but I may have to just to get more of the beer.
The Leininkugel family has owned the brewery since its inception in 1867. Bill Leinenkugel, the great-grandson of the founder of Leininkugel, retired a few years ago and handed the reigns of the company to his oldest son, Jake. Next oldest son, Tom, is in charge of sales and marketing for Leininkugel and Bill's youngest son, John, is a sales rep for Leininkugel. Here is a picture of Bill, John, Dick and Jake Leininkugel in the Leinie Lodge. God, now how cool would it be to grow up in a family where the main business is a brewery?
Leininkugel beer is the fourth largest craft brewer in the U.S. They merged with the Miller Brewing company in 1998, but the Leininkugel family maintains control over the day-to-day operations of the brewery. The main brewery is in Chippewa Falls, just across the rushing creek from the Leinie Lodge. Tours of the brewery begin at The Leinie Lodge. We passed on going on the tour that day, but we did get two tokens each for an 8 oz. sample of Leinie products at the bar they have in the Leinie Lodge. My two tokens were used up in about three minutes.
I was in nearby Eau Claire on business about four years ago and I made the time to stop at the Leinie Lodge. I'd been in similar gift shops at other breweries, but none of them come close to the Leinie Lodge. The interior of the building looks exactly like a Northwoods lodge, complete with pine lumber walls and rafters throughout, a huge four-sided fireplace and beautiful hard wood floors. The vaulted ceilings are over 20 feet in height from the floor to the peak. For a gift shop, there's a homey, warm and comforting feel to the place.
During my first trip, I bought Cindy a great Leinenkugel sweatshirt with "Leinenkugel" spelled out in chenille lettering across the front. The Leinie Lodge has some of the best looking shirts and sweatshirts of any brewery gift shop I've been in. Here's a picture of Cindy looking through the racks of both men's and ladies clothing they had to offer. We actually didn't buy anything on this trip. We were told most of the summer wear had been picked over and they were getting ready to start putting out their fall and winter wear.
Here's a picture of the wall of fame for Leinenkugel. These are pictures of the men who have headed up the Leinenkugel brewery over the years. Family patriarch and brewery founder Jacob Leinenkugel is picture in the lower center of this picture.
In addition to clothing, the Leinie Lodge also has a number of specialty items for sale including chairs, signs, canoe paddles, clocks, playing cards and barware. They have golf bags and backpacks; darts and dice cups: model car banks to beer steins; and greeting cards to picture frames. There isn't one thing the Leinie people haven't found to put their name on. (Actually, I was looking for a Leinenkugel toilet seat, but they didn't have one of those.)
Here's a picture of the massive four-sided fireplace in the Leinie Lodge. They have comfortable leather chairs and couches to sit on and relax during the shopping experience. Some people will take their free samples of beer over to the couch to sip on and enjoy the fire. Even on a 75 degree day outside, the fire was roaring and it gave the Leinie Lodge more of a cozy and homey atmosphere. Check out the bear coming out of the chimney above the mantle.
Like many of the larger breweries I've been to, they don't sell beer at the Leinie Lodge. But they will direct you to the nearest places in Chippewa Falls in which to buy some. Since we had a trunk full suitcases, a cooler and other assorted things we bought while on vacation, we didn't have room to stop for any beer. Besides, a lot of the Leinenkugel beers we can get in Iowa.
In addition to a lot of things for sale, they also had a number of old memorabilia on display. One thing that caught my attention was an old Leinenkugel beer refrigerator stocked with Leinenkugel beers. It sort of reminded me of my beer fridge in the garage at home. I showed it to Cindy and I said, "See? They even have an old beer fridge here."
She said, "Yeah, but they don't have as many beers as you have."
We ended up buying just some basic stuff, nothing much of anything. Since most of the clothing was picked over (or very high-priced) we didn't find anything that we really needed. Cindy really like the Leinie Lodge. She said it was so much nicer than the ones she'd been to at both Miller and Budweiser. I have to agree. It's a great place to go and wander around in for an hour.
