Capital Brewery & Bier Garten celebrates 40th

Pull up a stool, blow the froth off a pint and relax in “Middleton’s back yard.”

Capital Brewery and Bier Garten was founded four decades ago in downtown Middleton with the hope that great German-style lagers coupled with a casual atmosphere would bring people together.

And they succeeded.

Forty years and 240 awards later, Capital Brewery has expanded its bier garten, opened a rentable community room, sells merch and has grown its distribution to several states — and is also a supporter of community charitable and outreach programs.

Capital Brewery is going strong in the heart of Downtown Middleton.

It might be difficult to imagine that back in the ’80s, craft breweries were not a common part of American culture. In fact, when Ed Janus and Tony Frey filed for incorporation for Capital Brewery on March 14, 1984, there were something like eight registered micro craft breweries in the United States. “Micro craft breweries” are defined by producing fewer than 15,000 barrels a year and selling at least 75 percent off site, according to the Brewers Association. A craft brewery is defined by producing fewer than six million barrels a year and is independently owned or operated.

Capital Brewery & Bier Garten is, by definition, a craft brewery but it is also the oldest continuously run micro craft brewery in the Midwest.

“Ed and Tony had zero assets to begin with; they just had a story to tell,” Wiener remembered of those early days.

To fund their dream, Janus and Frey crowd-funded before crowd-funding was a thing — no Internet to assist, just by word of mouth and newspaper ads. They told their story and the community responded.

They sold shares for $10 each with a $500 minimum raising $500,000. There were about 300 original shareholders, Wiener remembers, and now there are about 1,600. They used the money to lease (later buy) the historic Mazomanie Egg Factory on Terrace Avenue, purchase two brewing kettles from Hoxter, Germany, and begin their own legacy.

“Shareholders were given an empty commemorative bottle and told to bring it to the first tapping, and they did,” Wiener said.

In June of 1986, Capital Brewery invited its shareholders and others for the inaugural release of its first beers — Pilsner and Munich Dark — at a special tasting at the Madison Civic Center, now known as the Overture Center, in downtown Madison. Those two beers are still sold today and have won more than 40 medals between them.

“Celebrating 40 years is very exciting and to look back at the trials and tribulations to get here,” Wiener said, “I could write a book about those. But we’ve had a really good support staff over the years and the team we have now is fabulous. It’s exciting to turn the page and hit 40.”

Janus is still in Dane County and Frey has moved on to California. The current team is led by Wiener and general manager Kevin Bagstad and brewmaster Tanner Brethorst, who became the fifth brewmaster in 2021.

Brethorst has enjoyed the freedom to experiment on different brews using the seven-barrel system they installed in 2018, but he has also had his hand in making the entire brewery run more efficiently.

“I think the most rewarding part of being the brewmaster at Capital, or anywhere, is seeing the satisfaction you give people when they drink something you brewed,” Brethorst said. “I always tell myself, ‘Look at all the smiles you’re putting on people’s faces.’ That’s a bigger reward than you might think. It means I’m doing things right.”

He said that craft brewery’s smaller size is a huge advantage to reacting to what the public wants, whether that is trying out new — or bringing back old — recipes or making distribution changes.

Capital Brewery became one of the first craft breweries to can its product for distribution. Most of the canning is done at Stevens Point Brewery but the kegging is done on premises. Capital Brewery beer is sold by keg, bottle, can, on tap or by the growler, and Wiener said they are hoping to expand distribution of some of their tap-only brews by installing a small-batch canning machine at the brewery.

Community is important to the culture of Capital Brewery. Friends gather in the Bier Garten for a drink, as well as to celebrate everything from weddings to retirements. The Bier Garten, which first opened in 1986 and was later expanded in 2006 to its current glory, is open from spring until the snow falls, with live music taking the stage on weekends and picnic tables open to carry-in from local restaurants. The Capital Brewery Bike Club began in 2009 and meets three times a week at the brewery for rides around town.

“We are certainly Middleton’s Backyard,” Wiener said.  “Over the last 38 years (that the brewery has been open to the public) we’ve had who knows how many bands, our offerings are second to none, we’ve supported local fundraisers, worked with so many nonprofit groups and … we’ve been a part of the fabric of Middleton for a very long time.”

This gathering place they have created extends through winter with the Bier Stube — the indoor bar with a 100-year-old Brunswick Manufacturing Company bar that came out of a speak-easy in Chicago. In 2018, the brewery remodeled a storage space next to the bar called the Grain Room that can be used for overflow, group tastings, and private parties.

In addition to Pilsner and Munich Dark, Capital Brewery’s most popular seller is their flagship beer, Wisconsin Amber, which was first tapped in 1989 and was the first of theirs to be available by can. Other long-standing favorites include Supper Club, Island Wheat and Mutiny. And new to the lineup is Brethorst’s own creation, the Sticky Paw Honey Blonde Ale which became popular enough to be bottled and sold year-round in stores. The six-time platinum winner Blonde Doppelbock is served for a limited time each season with the first tapping during Bockfest, the brewery’s winter festival. This year, it will Feb. 21, 2025, and tickets are sold December through the day-of the event.

Brethorst says people are attracted to craft brews because they are atypical, unique, and their smaller size makes the entire process more accessible to interested visitors on tours and tastings.

“I think the biggest draw of craft breweries is that customers really get to know the place and the people behind the beer when they visit their local brewery,” he said. “Craft beer is different. Craft breweries are even more different. People get into visiting these sometimes out-of-the-way places that look like nothing they’ve seen before, to taste beer they’ve never tasted before, and to appreciate the variety of every nuance each brewery has.  It’s a great culture to get into.”

It’s a legacy worth cheersing to, or as they say in the Bier Garten — Prost!