Milwaukee Traveling Beer Garden: Free beer on 1st day at each stop

Milwaukee County Parks leaders unveiled the schedule Thursday, March 16 for the 2023 Traveling Beer Garden.

MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee County Parks leaders unveiled the schedule Thursday, March 16 for the 2023 Traveling Beer Garden.

This year, like in previous years, you can get free beer and free root beer for the first day of every stop on the schedule.

Those stops are as follows:

Greenfield Park: May 17-May 29
Froemming Park: May 31-June 11
Cooper Park: June 14-June 25
Grant Park: June 28-July 9
Lake Park: July 12-July 23
McCarty Park: July 26-Aug. 6
Doctors Park: Aug. 9-Aug. 27
Sheridan Park: Aug. 30-Sept. 4

Milwaukee Traveling Beer Garden

It's Milwaukee County Parks' 10th year partnering with Sprecher for the Traveling Beer Garden.

"Everything from IPAs to our classic Black Bavarian, a nice German schwarzbier. We'll have our Special Amber, Abbey Triple," said Jesse Mix, Sprecher Brewing Company.

New this year, there will be rotating food trucks on the weekends, along with Milwaukee County Parks' prior favorites like brats, sausages, hot dogs, soft pretzels, etc.

They're also doing one tour with 12-day stops this year, featuring live music along with the food and drinks.

Parks officials said the Traveling Beer Garden has generated more than $4.5 million in revenue, and beer gardens, in general, have generated more than $12 million in revenue since 2014.

The money helps improve Milwaukee County Parks.

"With Juneau Park, we did a bike fix-it station," said Guy Smith, Milwaukee County Parks. "At Grant Park, which is one of our most popular stops, we were able to convert one of our restrooms into being ADA accessible. We’ve been able to do tree plantings throughout the park system and just be able to make various upgrades. It has greatly increased the visibility of our parks, and it’s gotten people not only to go to their neighborhood parks, but maybe they have gone to a park that they have never been to."

Since this started in 2014, Milwaukee County Parks has served 500,000 pints of beer, 30,000 beer liter steins, 50,000 pints of root beer and:

"Ten thousand root beer floats, 25,000 bottles of Sprecher soda, 18,000 brats, 13,000 hot dogs and 40,00 of those great pretzels," said Smith.

Smith said Traveling Beer Garden fans can expect one more thing.

"There may be something coming down the pike," said Smith. "This season, we may have another permanent stop that’s been one of our popular sites."