On Saturday we visited Algoma, a small fishing town in Kewaunee County about 30 miles due east of Green Bay and on the shore of Lake Michigan. The weather was mostly cloudy when we left Green Bay and we had a few short spells of drizzle on the way, but the day turned out to be pretty nice and the rain held off until evening.
Algoma has a rich history as a fishing village and still boasts one of the best places for chartering fishing trips on Lake Michigan. We heard the fishing is really picking up from some of the locals and quite a few "big ones" came in during a recent fishing tournament. We started off by checking out out the Crescent Beach and Boardwalk along Lake Michigan. Not too many folks on the beach that morning and the lake was looking a little too green for swimming, but we had a nice walk anyway and did some birding along the boardwalk.
Algoma Harbor and Lighthouse (receiving a paint job this summer)
The highlight of the day (and really the purpose for the trip, who am I kidding?) was the von Stiehl Winery and Ahnapee Brewery located right next door to each other and about a block from the beach.
The von Stiehl Winery is the oldest licensed winery in Wisconsin (est. 1967) housed in a historical building that was originally a brewery and then a manufacturing plant for a number of different goods since. The winery was started by Dr. Stiehl (a medical doctor) who came up with the idea of wrapping wine bottles in plaster of paris (i.e., casts) to preserve the color and taste. They don't follow this tradition anymore (they do sell some wines in white bottles as a throwback), but have really expanded the operation from the early days. They now make more than 70 wines for themselves and 2 sister wineries in the area. Not too shabby! The wines I sampled were delicious, but I really liked the cherry wines made from neighboring Door County cherries. We took an excellent tour and got to check out the underground barrel storage tunnels (where Henry supposedly haunts) as well as their stainless steel vat storage and bottling warehouse located across the street and accurately named "Over There."
Ahnapee Brewery (pronounced in Wisco vernacular as ANN a pee) is also owned by the winery but established much earlier (1868) in the original historical building that now houses the winery. They distributed their beer by boat and by horse-drawn carriage- pretty awesome. The brewery is not permitted to sell out of the same building as a winery due to Wisconsin law, so those wiley rascals bought the house next door and serve beer out of the garage. We did a tasting there as well, including a mushroom brown ale (really interesting). Scott was excited to find out that the original owner of the brewery was a local Civil War veteran named Henry Schmiling (recall Henry the ghost) and his discharge papers were displayed on the wall. The current owners (2 brothers) are descendants of Schmiling- one is the business manager and the other is the winemaker.
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