Great Taste of the MidwestSM

The Great Taste of the MidwestSM was established in 1987 and is now North America's second longest-running craft beer festival, second only to the Great American Beer Festival.

The Madison Homebrewers and Tasters Guild presents this celebration of brewers and their beers each August on the second Saturday of that month at Madison's Olin-Turville Park, a beautiful lakeside setting with a view of the State Capitol and of the Monona Terrace convention centre, which now stands on the former Olin Terrace Park and the former site of the Great Taste.

For a fixed admission ticket price, the lucky patron receives a beautiful imported commemorative tasting glass, a comprehensive program book describing the nearly 100 breweries and more than 400 different beers, and as many two-ounce samples as can responsibly be sampled during the five hours of the festival.

Read about the previous festivals and see what breweries exhibited!

Here's a modified version (sans advertising) of the program from the 14th Annual Great Taste, 12 August BOOT2000. It's divided into state-by-state listings for faster loading. The pages are in Envoy format. If you don't already have a viewer or don't have WordPerfect v.6,7, or 8, download a viewer here. After you install it (unlike Adobe Acrobat, Envoy is a small program), select the program sections you want to read or print.

Introduction and event information
 Wisconsin
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa and Kansas
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Ohio


1999 Great Taste

The 15th Annual Great Taste is 11 August 2001, 1-6pm. For more information contact the Madison Homebrewers.

How to order tickets
Tickets go on sale every year on May 1. The ticket price for 2000 was $20. It will probably be the same in 2001, but watch this space in the spring. Tickets are sold in advance only and do sell out each year. Buy early to avoid disappointment. Thank you for your support of the event!

How do I get to the Great Taste?
Two words: Don't drive! Patron parking is not available onsite. The limited parking that is available in the area is reserved for brewers and staff. They have to unload beer and equipment; all you have to do is carry yourself. No brewer/staff parking pass, no onsite parking. But there are plenty of ways to get to the park. The best ways are by free brewpub shuttles and by bicycle. Bicyclists get the best parking! Attended "valet" bike parking is provided just steps away from the festival gate. Shuttle buses run from Wonder's Pub, Great Dane, Angelic, J.T. Whitney's, and Capital Brewery. Other establishments outside of Madison are sponsoring bus trips. Click here for more information.
Coming from out of town? Click here for directions.


December 2000/January 2001 issue of Great Lakes Brewing News now available at distinguished beer establishments.

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Updated 1 December 2000
Bob "Now go have a beer" Paolino