County’s Traveling Beer Garden Begins in May

Sprecher Traveling Beer Garden. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee County Parks‘ 12th annual traveling beer garden will kick off this year in Wilson Park on May 14.

For more than a decade Parks has partnered with Sprecher Brewing to convey a traveling beer garden around a variety of county parks, typically staying in each park for roughly two weeks.

The moveable braugarten, which relies on refurbished vintage fire trucks capable of dispensing beer, has been hit since the first keg was tapped. More than half a million pints later, some of the stops have become so popular Parks was inspired to turn them into permanent summer-long beer gardens.

Wilson Park is on the schedule for the first time this year, and the popular Lake Park stop is returning.

“Milwaukee County Parks are amongst the best in the country,” said Eric Kirkhofer, Sprecher Brewing COO, during a press conference Thursday morning. “And we are again looking forward to bringing the traveling beer garden to some of the wonderful parks, so that we can share our iconic craft beers and craft sodas with all the people in Milwaukee and all the citizens of the world who will visit Milwaukee this summer.”

The traveling beer gardens and the permanent ones have become a source of revenue for the county parks system, which does not receive enough funding from county government to cover all of its operations and relies on income it generates through food and drink sales, rentals and golf.

“The traveling beer garden is a really fun, really exciting event that we put on every summer,” said Deputy Parks Director Jim Tarantino. “It also really provides a ton of support for the park system, and over the 12 years that we’ve partnered with Sprecher for the traveling beer garden, they’ve made over $270,000 worth of park improvements to the system.”

Along with the Sprecher beer for sale, the traveling beer gardens also sell cider, sodas (like Sprecher Root Beer), Klement bratwursts and Milwaukee Pretzel Company pretzels.

“Our park systems is one of our region’s most unique assets,” County Executive David Crowley said, “and through the thousands of brats and hot dogs, pints, sodas and root beer floats sold each year, the beer gardens help support the other parts of the system.”

“So this summer, when you’re thinking about drinking a cold one, consider stopping at one of our Milwaukee County Parks’ beer gardens for a brew,” Crowley said.

2025 Traveling Beer Garden Schedule

Wilson Park: May 14-18

Greenfield Park: May 21-June 8

Cooper Park: June 11-21

Grant Park: June 25-July 6

McCarty Park: July 24-Aug. 4

Lake Park: July 23-Aug. 3

Doctors Park: Aug. 6-Aug. 17

Sheridan Park: Aug. 20-Sept. 1