Sprecher Brewing Co.

Founded in 1985 by Randal Sprecher, Sprecher was Milwaukee's first craft brewery since Prohibition and has since become far better known for soda than suds -- it fire-brews more root beer than all of its beers combined. The house sodas are made in small batches with real Wisconsin honey (and locally grown ginger in the ginger ale) and are gluten-free, kosher-certified and fully non-alcoholic. In 2008 a New York Times panel ranked Sprecher's root beer first among 25 American root beers, calling it "a wonderfully balanced and complex brew."

The Glendale taproom at 701 W. Glendale Ave. leans into that heritage. Alongside the beer taps, guests can order the full soda lineup -- flagship fire-brewed root beer, cream soda, ginger ale, orange dream and cherry cola among them -- and the roughly 45-minute brewery tour pours four beer or hard-soda samples for guests 21+ plus unlimited soda samples for all ages, making it a genuinely welcoming stop for kids, designated drivers and anyone drinking zero-proof. An on-site kitchen serves food until an hour before close.

Sprecher's non-alcoholic bona fides extend beyond its own walls: the brewery was among the 50-plus vendors at Milwaukee Record's fifth-annual N/A Day "Dry January" beverage festival on Jan. 3, 2026, sharing the room with Athletic Brewing, Best Day Brewing, Ghia and Guinness 0.0. For the greater-Milwaukee sober or sober-curious drinker, it is a Brew City institution where the best thing in the glass never contained alcohol in the first place.