Running a microbrewery in Milwaukee, a city purportedly made famous by beers produced at larger breweries, might sound daunting. Jeff Hamilton (T’79), president of Sprecher Brewing Company, however, believes the niche market of catering to diverse tastes is vital to the company’s success. 

“People are a lot more concerned about what they put in their mouths these days,” Hamilton says. “They’re experimenting with menus and different types of foods. I think there’s also a desire to go local, maybe even as a backlash to big corporations. You might walk into a place and actually see the people who started the company.”

Founded in 1985 by Randal Sprecher, a former Pabst brewing supervisor, Sprecher Brewing was Wisconsin’s first brewery to open since Prohibition. Hamilton, who worked as a product engineer before moving into various management roles, joined Sprecher in 2005 as general manager and vice president — coincidentally well-timed with a growing microbrew craze. He became president in 2010.

Hamilton says there were fewer than 2,000 breweries in the United States 20 years ago. That number will top 5,000 this year. A former president of the Wisconsin Brewers Guild, Hamilton remains on the board of directors, which has jumped from 13 to some 70 members in less than a decade.

With about 60 employees, “Sprecher has good chemists and a sound manufacturing process for putting liquid into bottles,” Hamilton says. Heavily involved with everyone from the brewmaster to machine operators, Hamilton can trace that hands-on approach back to his Purdue days, where he first worked with automated equipment as a co-op student.

And what’s Sprecher’s biggest claim to fame? “It’s probably our root beer,” says Hamilton, noting what the New York Times heralded as “America’s best root beer” a few years back. “About 70 percent of the taverns in Wisconsin carry our root beer, either in bottle or on tap.”

Once called a gourmet soda and now being buzzed as a craft soda, Sprecher Root Beer gets its good taste from a unique brewing process. “Our sodas all start with honey and are caramelized in a gas-fire brew kettle. Most brew kettles are steam,” Hamilton says.

Though he plans to expand the company’s craft beverages (with and without alcohol) nationally, Hamilton hopes more Milwaukeeans will rethink what makes for famous homegrown brews. For a third consecutive summer, Sprecher is sponsoring Milwaukee’s traveling beer garden, complete with old fire trucks and ambulances turned into beer dispensers and food trucks. Last year’s events raised $750,000, with $400,000 going to city parks. “It’s a win for everybody,” he says. “There’s a family atmosphere, the parks make a bunch of money, and these old fire trucks don’t end up in the scrapyard.”