Breeze-Thru Wine & Spirits

June 28, 2008
At first glance, I thought this was just another hole-in-the-wall liquor store. Turns out it just looks like one. There’s not much room to maneuver here, but there’s pretty much beer around every corner. Pretty much a build your own six pack place. All of the bottles are stamped with the price of a six pack and you end up paying about 1/6th of that cost for a single bottle. There are sheets on every cooler stating what a single bottle costs. Prices seem reasonable and the selection is good. Just about everything is in coolers and extra stock is hanging out on top of the coolers. The variety is plentiful, especially on the domestic side. It’s right up there with Three Cellars in terms of variety of beer but the stock doesn’t rotate as well. There are a handful of offerings I haven’t seen elsewhere in Milwaukee. A bit thin on foreign and Belgian selections, but those are easy enough to find elsewhere in the city. Side note - 12oz bottles of all Ommegang and 11.2oz bottle of Samuel Smiths were nice since most bottles I see of theses brands are 750 or 500ml.

August 10, 2007
If you’re nearby, stop in. It’s a dingey little place and no one really took notice of me until I was checking out, but they have a pretty decent selection of brews, most available as a part of their reasonably priced mix-n-match deal. Coming out of the Chicago area, I appreaciated that deal, given the vastly different distribution here. Even picked up a Belgian that I haven’t tried. I’ll be back.

June 26, 2007
Not much in rare beers but you can any 12 ounce beer in singles and I left with 2 mixer sixers of stuff I have not had before. The mixer prices where not that bad either. Worth a quick stop if in the area.

June 23, 2007
A very easy-to-miss liquor store near the zoo. When you walk in, you are greeting by a dark, dusty maze of coolers. Walking between the coolers and peering through the cloudy glass, you see rows upon rows of single bottles, waiting to be made into a "Build Your Own" sixer. As a ratebeerian who loves Build Your Owns for the variety offered, this place is near the top of my list for such a purpose. Prices are reasonable and the US micro selection is remarkable.

March 17, 2007
Looks like a liquor dive on the outside but gets steadily more interesting as you walk around and realize (1) they have a ton of beer fridges and (2) they are going to a lot of trouble to allow you to assemble packs of mixed singles. Service while selecting was nil, but they were happy to calculate up a price for a set of mixed bottles. Not a lot of high-end belgian beers, but a respectable selection that I had no problem with picking out a number of desirable singles from.

December 31, 2006
Thanks to MrFacto for the tip. Lots and lots of singles. Nothing special at all gut if you are looking to grad some brews to add to your ratings this is a good spot. parking right out front. It is small and packed but did I mention a lot of singles??

November 26, 2006
Excellent selection of singles... nothing extraordinarily rare, but probably 500 to choose from. Everything comes in singles, which is by far the best thing going for this place. Not very aesthetically pleasing, but that’s OK. The first time I went there, I got a whole lot of crap from the owner when I was referencing my notebook when picking out beers. Good stop when you’re on the west side of Milwaukee.

October 28, 2006 [ Updated February 23, 2007 ]
Another neighborhood liquor store that has diversified into the world of craft beer. A lot of these places seem to be diamonds in the rough, as their exterior gives no clue of the riches inside. A friend recommended this place, so I went by to check it out. This place is relatively small, but is definitely craft beer focus, as it is packed with perhaps a dozen long coolers. All the volume seemed to be singles, which because I like to sample a range of beers, is great for me. Pricing seemed a bit on the high side, but it seems like you usually pay a bit of a premium for mixed six-packs, and I’m OK with that. I spoke briefly with the owner. He didn’t offer any help while I was in the store, which was OK because I was just browsing and found everything I was looking for. He apologized for the state of the store (a mess) and for not approaching me, citing a lack of help that day. Selection was mostly US; not a huge amount of imports. However, all beer was refrigerated, which makes it last considerably longer and makes me less concerned about buying something that’s ancient, which is a problem I’ve had at Discount on more than one occasion (although to be fair, those were imports at Discount, while this store has mostly North American products). All-in-all, it is a beer-haven, and if you dig craft beer, it is definitely worth a stop.

October 2, 2006
Another ’looks like nothing from the outside, beer hotspot on the inside’ place. Really cramped and hard to move around once inside the store. And the owner says he’s adding two more coolers. I don’t know where he’d put them. Great selection of singles at good prices. Worth a stop to find that one bottle, or to load up on a bunch of singles.

August 16, 2006
Build your own six packs with over 600 beers from which to chose. ’nuff said.