Craft beers a highlight at Taste of Wisconsin
STEVENS POINT –
About 250 people sampled foods and drinks from across the state at the annual Taste of Wisconsin, held Friday at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Greg Diekroeger, assistant director of campus activities, said the event, held in the Laird Room at the Dreyfus University Center, has been a regular event on campus for over a decade. For $25, people could sample items from 26 vendors.
Most popular were the craft brewers, with 19 vendors at the event. Zach Alger, a senior at UWSP from Neenah studying business, is the operations coordinator for the UWSP Basement Brewhaus and is responsible for helping put on Taste of Wisconsin. He said the amount of brewers this year tied the record for most ever at the event.
Along with local representation — including Central Waters Brewing Co. of Amherst, O'so Brewing Co. in Plover, Stevens Point Brewery and Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co. in Wausau — beers from Sheboygan, Milwaukee, New Glarus, Madison, Verona and Green Bay also were featured at the event.
"The amount of craft beer that's available keeps growing, and people are interested in trying new things," Alger said.
Along with drinks, several regional food businesses took part in Taste of Wisconsin, including Mullins Cheese of Mosinee, Ski's Meat Market of Stevens Point, Portesi Italian Foods of Stevens Point, and Nueske's Applewood Smoked Meats of Wittenberg.
Rusty Mitch, president of Portesi Italian Foods, and his daughter Sarah served samples from his company's selection of frozen pizzas and cheese fries. Mitch, who said he has been coming to the event for years, expected to go through about three dozen pizzas and fries.
"It's a fun event. I think people like to start out with the beer, but they end up coming to us looking for something good to eat," Mitch said.
Eric Glaze, 28, of Junction City has been coming to Taste of Wisconsin for the past three years with a group of friends. Along with sampling a number of beers, Glaze was also taking part in a selection of food provided by UWSP University Catering that included potatoes from the Russet Potato Exchange in Bancroft.
"I don't usually drink a lot of different beers but I like to come here and try something new, and the food is always good," Glaze said.
Nathan Vine can be reached at 715-345-2252. Find him on Twitter as @SPJNathanVine.