Long Live the BrewFarm

In late 2021, I completed the purchase of the former Dave’s BrewFarm, a 35-acre farm on the northern edge of the western Wisconsin’s Driftless Region, home to one of Wisconsin’s only farmhouse breweries. I am now in the process of acclimating to farm life in Wilson, WI, and developing my own brand of “BrewFarm.”

Today I’m excited to share the new identity with you. Introducing. . . Botany BrewFarm!

So, what can you expect from this new iteration of the BrewFarm? Well, for those of you who spent time at Dave’s BrewFarm, it will be a lot of what you loved about Dave’s — with hopefully even more options.

In addition to making a wide variety of small-batch craft beers, often featuring ingredients grown right here on the farm, Botany BrewFarm is planning to secure licensing to make cider and wine from a to-be-expanded ‘brewer’s orchard’ of apples, stone fruits, and grapes already growing on the property.

The beers I am most excited to make are fruit-forward, wild-fermented ales featuring hyper-local ingredients and fermented naturally in our open fermenter (or “coolship”). But we have purchased the recipes to Dave’s old beers and will bring back a few BrewFarm favorites as well. Requests welcome!

Botany BrewFarm’s interim brewer and brewing consultant is Brett Bakko, currently the head brewer at Rush River Brewing in River Falls, WI. Brett will be helping get the brewing equipment updated and ready for production, and moonlight as our head brewer until product demand requires us to add more talent to the brewing team.

We have already started conversations with some of our favorite brewery, cidery, and winemaking friends about unique collaborations to broaden our product offerings and highlight our farm grown ingredients. We will also feature a unique array of non-alcoholic beverages like homemade sodas, teas, coffee, and other interesting NA libations.

If all goes as planned with the next steps of business planning, recipe development, aesthetic updates, and ALL the permitting and licensing that goes along with opening a BrewFarm, we will be fully open to the public by the spring or early summer of 2023.

Once open, we are so excited to be a gathering place for all kinds of people to come, kick back, and get together with old and new friends alike.

We will be open for regular taproom hours on weekends in 2023 and eventually host private events, farm stays, camping, WWOOFers, educational experiences, live music, and all sorts of other unique programming aimed at getting people outdoors and connected with the land.

Too excited to wait until 2023 to check out the BrewFarm? There will be some opportunities to sneak a peek very soon. Sign-up for email updates and we’ll send you more details about pop-up events, progress updates, and opening news.

Can’t wait to Drink in The Driftless with you!

Cheers,

Joseph Alton

The Botany of Beer