Potosi Brewing Company

Bacon popcorn, what more do I say? Nice hard liquor selection and solid potosi varieties on tap. Music inoffensive. Special brisket sandwich with pickle, tangerine bbq sauce and cheese was filling with perfect balance of tangy and sweet.

I went there this weekend for a birthday party. Atmosphere was great but it was very strange to go to the restroom and have the entire vanity filled with hair products so that the female employee could do her hair before work. I felt like I was sharing a bathroom with a roommate and I never liked doing that. It was very strange to say the least. She acted like I was in HER way. I can’t believe management would allow that. Food was fair. Very unhealthy but I knew that ordering. Beet salad was boring! Cheese curds were greasy and flavorless. Yuck!

If you’re looking for a relaxing afternoon, I’d recommend spending it on the patio at Potosi Brewing Co. The flights are reasonably priced, and you can sample a large variety of beers. The food is «so-​so.» If you really aren’t in to samples, I’d skip the trip and just buy the beer at your local store. Since there isn’t much else in the town, do t expect to make a day of it.

We made a little bit of a detour and stopped here on our way back to Madison from Galena, IL and I am SO glad we did! Very tiny town with not much else going on, but the Potosi building was very cool looking. I think it was $ 5 for the museum tour and there were about four floors to go through of really interesting old beer memorabilia– not just of Potosi beer but any kind of beer you could possibly think of. Took us quite a while to walk through the museum, as they had videos and lots to read about the memorabilia as well. For the $ 5 tour you also get a free pint in the restaurant. Didn’t stay to try any food but the restaurant was very neat looking and also had a patio outside! Also was not very busy on a Sunday in March. Would definitely recommend if you are at all interested in craft beer/​brewing in any capacity.

I enjoyed my visit here very much. It is way off the beaten track, but well worth the trip. If coming from the north, say La Crosse, the Great River Road is a wonderful, scenic drive. The building is original, and beautifully rehabbed. The museum had lots of interesting breweriana. And, the pub has, at this writing, 12 beers on tap — several of them were great. There is also a really nice outdoor beer garden. Agree with others that service is pretty average, but all these other things make-​up for that.

I made the annual pilgrimage to my mom’s hometown of Tennyson, which is just right up the road from the Old Potosi Brewery. It never disappoints.
The historic building has a lot of significance to the area and is now serving as the village’s anchor, allowing it to not slip into obscurity like other Midwestern towns this size.
The beer they originally served was not to dissimilar to carbonated Mississippi River water. This, along with changing trends in beer as well as the economics of the brewing industry was the reason PBC closed in the early sixties.
The buildings and facilities fell into disrepair where they were almost demolished. They had sat idle & empty for decades until some visionary entrepreneurs rescued this treasure from the wrecking ball.
The food is great, inexpensive, the beer is great and improving and it has a nice feeling of nostalgia without being garish. It is a museum after all so I guess that’s the point.
Our experience was pleasant. The chef came from the kitchen to tend to the floor. Apparently they weren’t expecting a Badger tour bus pull up. He sold me on the Rueben as I am on the quest for the worlds best. He steered me right as it is the best #rueben I’ve had in a long time. Quite possibly the best ever! But the quest continues.

If you live in imaginary Wisconsin this is really great. There is literally nothing but corn for miles in this part of SW Wisconsin. It’s cool that they have a brewery of historical significance. This part of Wisconsin is also imaginary as I had no Verizon service until returning to Dubuque.
If you are in the area anyways, gambling perhaps? Take the ride. I wouldn’t make a special trip.
The people at the bar are generally unfriendly and service is poor to non existent.
My other pet peeve is that there were children in the bar area. Yea, I realize this is a museum but it’s for beer. A toddler cannot drink beer.
Cool old building. I am sure there were #ghosts. The cave was out right creepy and reminded me of some old jails I had visited on the east coast.
I enjoy drinking beer absent screeching toddlers. And for that I award no stars.
But I am leaving three because the beer is good and I liked the building.

Pretty decent brewery tucked away in a faraway rural corner of Wisconsin. It’s about a 25 minute drive from Dubuque with nothing else really around, so this place gets a lot of locals. The «downtown» area of Potosi is quite odd, almost like something out of Deliverance, but once you walk into the brewery, that feeling goes away. Beer ahead.
The brewery itself is a little kitschy in décor (they pride themselves on being a historical «landmark»), but again, just keep forging ahead to the bar. They’ve got a decent selection of brews — our favorite is the Snake Hallow — and some friendly staff. The food could use some serious work (app portions are ridiculously small and also not that tasty), but again, we came here for beer, so let’s just focus on that.
It’s worth a trip if you’re really into beer and you’re in the area. If neither of those apply to you, don’t go out of your way.

Neat place, great museum, good beer. We did the self guided brewery museum first. That’s four floors worth with a couple of floors offering multiple rooms. Aside from the outstanding memorabilia, which touches on all US brewing as a whole, there’s a great deal of history to be learned here. Brewing as a whole is widely displayed and described in detail.
Part of the tour specifically deals with the history of the Potosi Brewery. I never realized how long the company had been in business and the cave was impressive to see.
We weren’t dinner-​ready when we stopped in so we dug into a couple of app’s instead. The pretzel bites and cheese curds flowed well with the two drafts I tried. Holiday Bock and Gandy Dancer. Bock’s generally aren’t my thing but their Holiday hit the spot. Great taste. light in volume. Gandy is their porter and it’s decent, nothing over the top. Oh yeah. had to try their root beer for good measure. Good stuff!
All in all we were very pleased with our visit. Potosi is probably going to be out of the way for most, but if you’re in Galena or Dubuque you should give it a whirl.
Cheers.

It was a long, winding journey through the driftless area to get there and once I pulled into the parking lot I knew I was in beer mecca! We tried the IPA, Cave Ale and Black Ale and all three were very good beers. The cod sandwich and beer cheddar soup were excellent. The museum is state of the art and featured memorabilia and artifacts from breweries of yesteryear and today. Friendly staff and clean. Worth the drive. Don’t forget to ogle the strangeness of «The Grotto» in Dickeyville on the way there.

This place is a great time for families and date night in the bar area. The Root Beer is second to none. Get a growler to go. Our family got one and it was gone the next day and now we are wondering when we can drive back 3.5 hours to get the next one. The Potosi Beer also very good! Service was excellent. Food was pretty good for the area. The museum was very interesting! Highly recommended.

Located on the furthest Southwest part of the state, the Potosi Brewing Company is home to some of the best Wisconsin beers around! My favorite? The Czech Pilsener– I don’t think it would be any better if I was in Pilzn myself!
The restaurant has a decent menu, with some tasty food. Also, PBC is home to the National Brewing Museum. Artifacts from long lost breweries can be found, and your entry fee (5 $) includes free beer!

Good ol’ Potosi — the brew that began the legacy that is Potosi Brewing Company. I happened to try this beer amongst a few others when my boyfriend and I visited this brewery last week. It is crisp, fresh, and made only with 100% natural spring water (flow straight through Potosi!). The highlight of our tasting experience was a particularly expensive oatmeal stout that was made using whiskey, and it was honestly delicious. We’ve tried many beers of that nature, and that stout may have been the best one I’ve ever tasted.
They have an area that you can walk through for free to learn everything you could want to know about Potosi brewing. There are a few interactive exhibits that guide you through the history behind their company and the hurdles they overcame during Prohibition.
Overall, I would recommend making a trip to Potosi if you’re in the area. They have a restaurant that is said to be one of the nicest in the area (as told to us by locals), but we did not eat there. The National Brewing Museum is also located in this building, so you can have two pretty fun experiences in one place. Keep it up, ol’ Potosi!

While we were on vacation in Wisconsin we went out of our way to go to this brewery as we heard great things about it. We ordered a flight of the beers they had on tap and I really liked what they had to offer. The museum is really impressive with a lot of vintage beer memorabilia.

I had checked out the menu online and was hoping for a half salami & cheese sandwich with a cup of beer cheese soup. Strike one was that it turned out to be about 90 degrees that day. I still would have gone for the cheese soup, however we were traveling with our dog so we hung out in the beer garden and learned that you can’t order off the restaurant menu outside. They did have a grill set up, offering chicken, burgers, sausages and pork chops.
Eventually we ordered a pork chop sandwich topped with caramelized onions, which was much better than I expected, and a good value at $ 6 with a bag of chips.
Even if we had been able to order off the restaurant menu, we learned that they recently took the salami sandwich off the menu.
First I tried the Good Old Potosi brew. Not quite my thing. Next I ordered an IPA and it was a great beer, but when I ordered a second one later, Snake Hollow IPA, it was a totally different beer, so I’m not quite sure what the first beer was. Delicious mystery beer, for sure.
The museum on site is worth the $ 5 price, especially since you get a free small beer with your admission. TONS of Wisconsin beer history, and then some.

«A long time ago, in a brewery far far away they brewed an IPA …»
They brew a lot of other things too, all of which taste mighty fine. Belgian Trippel, IPA, and a Czech Pilsner. Mmm mmm.
Potosi brewing is both a brewing museum that covers many of the breweries that made Wisconsin beer history as well as a nice restaurant. They make an especially good pretzel. We also enoyed a pulled pork quesadilla — sounds weird but it tasted good.
Do you remember Rahrs?, Adler Brau? People’s? You will after you visit here.
And don’t go away empty handed, they brewed more for you to take with you.

Been here twice so far as it’s the closest nice restaurant to UW-​Platteville!
First time was a Sunday afternoon. I ordered the special that day, which was a prime rib sandwich. It wasn’t that great. My hubby and his son ordered The Brewery Hollow Double Cheese Burgers. They both enjoyed them, but take the buffalo sauce on the side. Fries were okay. We ordered the cheese curds. You don’t get too many for $ 7, and they were average. We also ordered the grilled shrimp cocktail. Was delish, but not really worth the $ 10 for the small amount you get. The root beers are awesome and their beer selection is great. Ambience and décor is awesome. It’s a cool brew pub restaurant. They just need some work on their food.
Second trip was Friday night fish fry. $ 11 gets you 3-​pcs of either deep fried cod or catfish, fries, coleslaw and hush puppies. Two of us got the cod, the other two ordered the catfish. The cod was in the fryer too long as were the hush puppies. When we asked for some lemon they said they ran out at lunchtime (ummm, and nobody ran down the street to buy some more?). The overfried cod really needed some lemon to help it. The catfish was not over fried and were thicker and a much better choice. The coleslaw was nothing to write home about. The hush puppies were in the fryer too long as well, otherwise they could have been decent. We did order clam chowder too, and it was just average. Oh, we ordered a couple of loaded baked potatoes. They were like something you’d get a a coffeeshop diner. Like most of the food here, sadly, it’s average at best.
We will return because it’s a nice place and we’ll keep trying to we find some things we like. Their prices just do not align with the quality of food right now.

The beer battered cheese curds are fantastic here. The beers are also very good, but don’t come here if you are wanting something really extreme (that applies to most Wisconsin breweries though). I will recommend their seasonal pumpkin ale though, as it is as close to liquid pumpkin pie as I’ve ever had.
Do be warned that the beer that comes with your brewery tour is a junior size. Don’t let this discourage you though, as it is still a fun tour.

The restoration of the building is beautiful with great stonework. We really enjoyed the museum. You can see things on the ground floor for free, and it is $ 5 for those twelve and over to tour the museum on the second and third floors — but that admission price gets you a 12 ounce beer or root beer.
The root beer is delicious, by the way, and you can buy a growler of it.
We had lunch, I had a burger, which was delicious and prepared perfectly, plus a lovely pretzel roll. I really enjoyed their ESB beer, which is apparently only available at the brew pub.
Highly recommended for beer lovers.

The first time I went to the Potosi Brewing Company was during the 2009 Potosi Oktoberfest 100 bicycle ride. I was really impressed with this place, the restaurant is in the old Potosi Brewery, built on the natural springs (you can even see wild hops growing on the bluffs). And the fact that the National Brewery Museum is located here is fantastic! (Nice to see it in a small town, no big beer business pushing in)
After the bike ride, I decided to come back for dinner. The food was wonderful, a traditional, hearty, home-​grown menu that really compliments the fantastic traditional and new beer selection. When we were leaving, we met the mayor of Potosi, who told us about the inception and building of the PBC and museum. You can really feel the pride and heritage at the Potosi Brewing Co., this history behind this place is fascinating! I’ve gone back several time and have had a great dinning experience (two of which were for a UW-​Platteville graduation dinner and for my birthday last September). I hope to be back soon.
The museum is very interesting too, especially if you are a beer buff. The collection of memorabilia is quite impressive — a must-​go if you are in the SW Wisconsin Mississippi Valley. Cheers!