Cheese, Beer, BlogHouse Milwaukee

Before going to Milwaukee all I knew about it was that they are popular for cheese and beer, and oh boy I was not let down. Over the course of my 6 day visit I ate more than my full share of the tastiest and most flavourful cheese and deep fried cheese curds as well as downing more than a few pints of various types of beer, because as cliche as it sounds, “When in Rome?”.

Cheesehead!!

Milwaukee and Wisconsin in general had never been on my “MUST SEE” before I die list. I had envisioned at some point traveling to all of the US states (so far I’m at 14 + Puerto Rico) but aside from that I hadn’t imagined that I would visit there anytime soon. However we (myself and Navigate Media Group) were searching for the next location for our 5th BlogHouse and it turns out that Milwaukee was the perfect location for it.

Mmmm Pabst. Not just for hipsters!

The BEST deep fried cheese curds!

I arrived a couple of days early like I typically do when traveling for an event so I could scope out the city and do some site seeing. However I ended up never going more than a 2 block radius from my first hotel. I ended up having some work to catch up on and it also just so happened that my hotel (the Brewhouse Inn and Suites) was the original brewhouse for Pabst Blue Ribbon and attached to my hotel, was a restaurant called Jackson’s Blue Ribbon Pub, which had the BEST deep fried cheese curds EVER. I might of had them twice…

How many travel bloggers can you fit in a fancy hotel bathroom?

During the BlogHouse we all stayed at the Potawatomi Hotel and Casino (say that three times fast) and it is also where BlogHouse itself took place. Our opening night party was held in the gorgeous presidential suite at the hotel and of course included a gynormous plate of delicious cheeses along with some other tasty bites and various drink selection.

For the rest of our time in the city we were based at the Potawatomi, holding BlogHouse in their Harmony room by day, and out on the town by night, while perhaps also enjoying the hotels blackjack and routlette tables from time to time… I, in no way condone gambling… however I did come away a winner! Woo! We rested our heads each night on these gorgeous beds seen above.

Tasty cheese curds at the Rumpus Room

Other experiences that we had outside of the hotel aside from our intense learning sessions and workshops varied from mingling with travel industry folk with more fried cheese curds at the Rumpus Room, exploring the Milwaukee Public Market and a tasty spin on the Wisconsin fish fry at Locavore. However my favourite thing that I got to do in Milwaukee was an amazing food tour with Milwaukee Food Tours. I have taken A LOT of food tours around the world over the past couple of years in Seattle, Puerto Rico, London, Dublin, everywhere. However the Milwaukee Food Tours “Bikes, Brats and Beers Tour” was without a doubt the most entertaining of them all.

First we started with a quick private tour of the Harley Davidson Museum (Fact: Milwaukee is where the Harley originates), which is the only Harley Museum in the world. We got to see almost one of every Harley model ever made, we learned how they changed throughout time and why and we also learned a cool, yet sad story about a Harley that was swept away by the Tsunami in Japan finally ending up on the shores of British Columbia.

Our next stop was the “Brats” portion of the tour where we sampled a few different brats and a zillion types of cheeses at the Wisconsin Cheese Mart. We had cheese with honey, grilled cheese sandwiches, brats on buns, fancy mustard, various charcuterie, pretzel bread, tasty craft beers AND deep fried cheese curds.

Our tour guide drank along with us!

Lastly the tour finished at the Lakefront Brewery. The tour through the brewery was extremely informative, as well as being the most entertaining brewery tour I have ever taken. As an added bonus there was also a stop midway through the tour on the brewery floor for an extra drink! Genius. The brewery itself was also a pretty happening and popular place to just hang out and enjoy some drinks. I would definitely hangout here again on my next visit.

We had a great group of bloggers at this BlogHouse coming from as close as Chicago and as far away as Scotland and New Zealand. I always love teaching fellow travel bloggers new things and am happy to always learn some myself at each BlogHouse.

While in Milwaukee for BlogHouse I got a great taste and overview of a pretty kickass city that I might not of otherwise visited. I would now definitely recommend a visit to anyone, especially if you are a fan of cheese and beer. I can’t wait to visit again myself!

This years BlogHouse couldn’t of happened with out my fellow BlogHouse Mentors Steph, Michael and Kate or our awesome sponsors Visit Milwaukee, FlipKey, the Potawatomi Hotel & Casino, Travel Wisconsin and The Bartolotta’s Restaurants. Thank you!