Heather Kerrigan traveled more than 2,600 miles across Wisconsin to sample as many of the state’s beer, brat, and cheese delicacies as her stomach could handle. Her debut book, Beer, Brats, and Cheese: A Wisconsin Road Trip (University of Wisconsin Press, 2025), is a guidebook for those hungry to follow in her footsteps. We sat down to discuss her research—i.e. sampling hundreds of rounds of food and beverages—and why it’s more important than ever to support the state’s butchers, farmers, cheesemakers, brewers, and chefs.
What was the impetus for your journey across the state?
Going on a beer, brat, and cheese road trip was initially just a fun way to see parts of Wisconsin I’d never visited, and the perfect means to introduce my husband, who is from Ohio, to the state. The whole planning process got me excited about all the cool places to visit. I wanted to share it with everyone! Thankfully, the University of Wisconsin Press saw the possibility in my idea, and I’m so grateful for their support in turning my little passion project into a book.
What was the journey like? Did things go as you expected or were there surprises?
My husband and I completed the 2,600-mile trip in four weeks, without any days off, to get to each part of the state. We sprinted to visit up to ten restaurants, creameries, taprooms, butcher shops, etc., every day. It was a grueling pace but so much fun to explore all those towns and their local flavors.
The first week was the most exciting, but also a huge learning [curve]. It turns out you can’t eat multiple bags of cheese curds, spreads, or wedges and then top them off with a handful of brats and a few flights of craft beers every day for an entire month. By the fourth week we had learned how to pace ourselves and were longing for some fruits and vegetables, but we were sad our epic adventure was coming to an end. We really had no idea when we set out how much we would learn and all the incredible, hardworking people we’d meet along the way, and their passion for Wisconsin’s culinary holy trinity.
Out of your hundreds of stops, what one or two establishments are worth a special trip?
There are so many amazing restaurants, breweries, butcher shops, cheesemongers, and more in every corner of Wisconsin that it would be impossible to pick just one or two. I always hesitate to give my favorites, primarily because something I like might not mean you will. Don’t love cream ale? I sure do, so any place serving it up is likely to be high on my top ten list. Love bleu cheese? I don’t, which means anywhere heavy on pungent cheeses is likely to rank lower for me. But that’s the great thing about Wisconsin—there is quite literally something for everyone, sometimes even at one spot. I wrote this book with that in mind because I wanted to take readers on a tour of what makes Wisconsin shine.
Thankfully, Wisconsin made this easy. The variety of brews and bites are easily matched with a variety of styles and features. I ate buttery yellow cheese on my lap lakeside on a beautiful Wisconsin summer day at the Green Grocer in Lake Geneva, drank a well-crafted beer in a restored bank at the East Troy Brewery, and had a phenomenal brat burger at a bar so dark I could barely see my plate at Big Daddy’s in Rhinelander.
This is what makes Wisconsin so cool. Where else can you eat Paraguayan food washed down with a Prohibition-style beer while sitting next to a calliope, like at AL. Ringling Brewing Co. in Baraboo? Or eat and drink in an old Wisconsin Central Railroad passenger depot, like the Thirsty Pagan Brewing in Superior? There’s also a railroad warehouse from 1854 at Commerce Street Brewery & Hotel in Mineral Point, and a turn-of-the-century rubber—and later shoe—factory at Pearl Street Brewery in La Crosse.
Want to see Wisconsin’s oldest tree while enjoying a farmhouse ale fermented with grapes? Gnarly Cedar Brewery in Greenleaf. Or try a unique take on brats in the form of a pasty at Sheboygan Pasty Company. Or eat Colby in its birthplace at the Colby Cheese Days, in Colby each July. I could go on forever.
Talk about the process of selecting your stops. Did you end up adding or subtracting stops as you went along?
I knew I couldn’t visit every place in Wisconsin making beer, brats, and cheese in one month, so I had to get picky, especially in cities like Milwaukee, where you could spend weeks visiting all the stores, taprooms, and restaurants. The best way to do that was to look for something unique about each spot, which meant combing through menus, social-media feeds, websites, and other information.
I started planning this trip [before the COVID-19 pandemic], first by finding the places I wanted to go, then figuring out the best way to get from point A to point B, while also being mindful of days and hours of operation. The latter was the biggest challenge, because local mom-and-pop type places keep short hours or close on short notice and some taprooms have their own irregular schedules. Then the COVID-19 pandemic happened, which upended the planning process due to operational changes at many businesses. Once things had settled, I started planning again in 2022 with a similar process. As much as possible, I tried to stick with more local places that might not be familiar to every reader, but I also sprinkled in some big names, like the New Glarus Brewing Company. Once we were on the road, we added in stops based on recommendations from a friend, a server, or a sign we saw.
Once you were home and your fridge was stocked with leftover cheese and brats, what was the process of sitting down and writing the book?
As much as possible, I tried to take notes and get my initial thoughts on paper as we were driving from place to place. Of course, along the way, I picked up pamphlets and books, and I was directed to various websites, so once I was home—with a fridge full of leftover cheese and brats and to-go beers—the hardest part was condensing everything I had learned and read down to something both useful and portable. I can honestly say I had enough to fill volumes!
As I wrote, I also needed to find a good way to fulfill my inner nerd. I seriously loved all of the little tidbits about beer, brats, and cheese I collected, which is how “WisconsInsights,” one of the book’s features, came to be. This gave me the chance to break up the road trip text with quick, fun facts. The same was true for the “Detour” feature, which focuses on stops along the way that are very much a part of what makes Wisconsin special, but are not necessarily beer, brat, or cheese related. Because Wisconsin has so many amazing festivals that can’t always be part of someone’s road trip due to timing, I added those as “Pit Stop” features to let readers know that if they’re in a certain area at the right time of year, they might have the chance to celebrate beer, brats, and cheese in a different way.
As each of these spots—and every place in the book—illustrate, at a time when many rural towns are struggling, Wisconsin’s butchers, farmers, cheesemakers, brewers, and chefs are coming up with unique ways to put these places on the map. I’m so lucky to not only have had the chance to visit them, but hopefully to encourage readers to check them out.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
All photos courtesy of Heather Kerrigan
