09/26/2026
These pictures from 2020/2021 tell the story of what Venture Wisconsin has become.🥰
We had been making a lot of video content, telling the stories of local businesses in Northeast Wisconsin since 2017, (the days before 'Reels' were king.) We had just launched our first product in, the WI Brew Deck, with 26 breweries (pictured). It was just enough for each brewery (Northeast Wisconsin breweries only at the time) to have 2 cards. We even added Tapuat Brewing Co. in Door County, a kombucha brewery, to help with our insecurity. Lion's Tail was our 26th brewery. They had originally said, "No," and I called back saying we were looking to add one more, and luckily they came around. 🍺
The Brew Deck was built on the back of our Biking Brewery Tours, which we used to do ~5-7 times each summer in Oshkosh, Appleton, and Green Bay from 2018-2021. Pictured are some intimate rides in Oshkosh and Appleton. We hosted anywhere from 15 to 200 riders and those 11 or 12 drunken-biker-hosts became our first craft brewery partners in the WI Brew Deck. 🚴♀️ 🥴
The first Brew Deck was a hit as far as we were concerned, pictured is my wife and I at my parent's counter, hand writing the addresses on our orders on Thanksgiving morning 2020. It took forever every time we went to the Post Office before we figured out how to act our age and order shipping labels online. About a week before that photo was taken, I went to the Kaukauna Post Office with our first batch of orders and the samples and instructions for all the breweries. I arrived about 20 minutes before closing time, my brother and cousin waiting in the car to carpool up to Deer Camp. A mother-daughter duo were hand typing all the addresses on both registers, and we were finally done just shy of an hour after close. 😅 They didn't forget me...📬
We launched a limited release "Brewing" Shirt with the first deck and it is still the best selling clothing we've ever created 😅 Pictured is the sketch I sent to Drew with Hype Visual to make it cool. A few months later, you can see me in that shirt with my pregnant wife, our first child, on the first ever Venture Wisconsin Stage at Paperfest. We put the pieces together in about 6 weeks with three Appleton Downtown breweries (Appleton B**r Factory, McFleshman's, Stone Arch) being the foundational sponsors. The whole event was a dream: Among other things, it was Cory Chisel's first show back from COVID and Christopher Gold and his son made me cry. Our various craft brewery partners are still the core to our Paperfest stage, bringing original music and local craft b**r to Paperfest and hopefully adding to the music scene in the Fox Valley every year.🎵
Shortly after that 2021 Paperfest, the video aspect of our business failed (for the time being. I'm still confident we'll find a way to build a team or system to sustainably make videos promoting things to do around the state). I lost my three person team in about a month span, but the ashes became the fertile ground for what Venture Wisconsin has thus far become. In a way, the Brew Deck directly led to all of our products today and the Paperfest stage, and with the help of a suite of excellent community partners, have continued to grow and evolve.📈
This year, thanks to Emily on our team, we split the Brew Deck into a North WI Brew Deck and South WI Brew Deck. We are very excited to bring it to you. It feels brand new and like what it was meant to be. You can only fit so many playing cards in a box, this way we can create a unique and fun product that is pound for pound more geographically impactful. Plus, if you're crazy, you can get both decks and you have variety and access to over 100 breweries... It's a win-win and we hope you love it.🍻
Let us know your favorite breweries, because we have 8ish spots left in both decks and we'd love to add your favorites. ❤️
