I’m trying really hard to get regular content back in rotation so I’m just going to shelve part two of the Michigan series. It was a stretch anyways to make it a three part posting when one of those breweries was in Michigan City, Indiana. So I’m just going to write about what sparks joy. And something that sparks incredible and unspeakable joy is a relatively new brewery in Milwaukee that is right down the street from my house. And that brewery is Component Brewing in Bay View!
The first time (of many since) we went to Component it was on the night before the Midnight Magic parade when we decided to crawl through the city of Milwaukee trying to find coasters from as many breweries as we possibly could. We went to Eagle Park (bust), City Lights (I should’ve written a post on this but didn’t), Third Space (private party but also, bust), Mobcraft (Jamie let me steal a few coasters), and lastly, Component.
Finishing the night at a brewery like Component was dicey. On the upside, I was driving so I was sober enough to appreciate the experience, but my friends were not driving. And Jake was really embracing this because I told him I would drive his drunk ass all the way back to Mukwonago, which was a rare treat for him, so he was really not driving. But we arrived at Component Brewing, or more accurately, a warehouse attached to Twisted Path that, at that time, had just one little sign on printer paper that was just like “This a’way!” With an arrow pointing inwards to the warehouse. And I thought checks out and followed the sign, and the subsequent signs written in Sharpie on paper that said “keep a’goin’!” And I was like yes sir. My friends, on the other hand, were a bit more hesitant than me. Which is a fair response. I could’ve been following a trap set by a serial killer who knew exactly how to kill me and just blindly was like “Whatever, there’s beer at the end! Or certain doom! Both are great options.”
But our results were the latter. We walked into a tap room with two guys sitting at the bar, and then just the place to ourselves. And we ordered our beers. I didn’t make any notes from this night because I was so enraptured by the experience. This shining hidden gem right in my backyard. I know that both Jake and Ashley had the Rosie sour and I definitely had the Down The Road’s A’Piece IPA. That’s all I had to drink, but . I do not know if they had something else.
Since then I’ve had the Bay View Brunch, the Bascule Brut with both the pineapple and the mango tea, the Mosaic Theory, as well as the Rosie Sour. And those are just the beers that I have marked on Untapp’d, which we all know I am historically terrible at. And every beer has been outstanding.
And on that first night, Steve, one of the owners/founders/brewers/bartenders stopped by our table to ask how we were doing and what we thought. There we found out the incredible history behind the brewery. At the time (as of late November) they only had one employee that wasn’t one of the owners/founders/guys who were also two brothers and a cousin. And the beers were all themed after a very special place in their hearts– Bay View. The Rosie sour is named for their grandmother who raised their parents right there in Bay View. That’s like if I named a beer Kathy after my grandmother, who also raised my dad in Bay View (until she found herself with a whole Catholic brood of kids and Fresh Prince’d their asses out to New Berlin). It was sweet and personal. There was clearly a love and passion for their city and their neighborhood and their beer. And it showed.
As I kept saying, over and over and over again, there was no reason why their beer should have been as good as it was. They were a brand new, months-old brewery that were serving up beers that tasted perfectly honed and crafted and care for in a way many older, more established breweries still haven’t mastered. I asked where they brewed, and was informed that in a room about half the size of the tap room right next door. I was in awe.
This brewery is a one-of-a-kind kind of gem that you don’t find too often. It feels personal and loved and inspired. We have started hosting our own personal game nights in their taproom, and they always seem to not hate us for sitting there bitching at each other about cribbage counting errors, card game follies, which, in a taproom the size of their’s (read: small and intimate), it would be easy to find us overbearing and to kick us out. But they have never made us feel as though we are burdens to the vibe. We are just members of it.
Please check this place out guys. I want to see them both grow and flourish and thrive, but also I don’t want you guys to know about it and I demand that you forget everything I’ve ever said because this is our own personal Bay View haven. (But actually check this place out. I cannot stress that enough.)
I’m actually writing this inside a brewery right now! That might mean I will get another post queued up for you guys on this delightfully terrifying murder factory I may or may not be drinking in right now! With love and adoration, you malevolent dictator/founder.
Daze of Beer 
I remember your first time there you called and said “we must go.” The Rosie sour is a jam.
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