Common Questions

The tour includes an informative discussion on the distillation process and our distillery, as well as a full tasting of our award winning spirits.

The tour/tasting is approximately one hour long.

Yes, we hold 10 tickets per tour that are only available for purchase that day and in-person at our tour desk or bar. Walk-in tickets may not be reserved or held prior to the day of the tour. You may come in and purchase the walk-in tickets for that day anytime after we open our doors at 11am daily.

Yes, anyone under the legal drinking age of 21 is allowed on our tour as long as they are accompanied by their parents or legal guardians.

Children under the age of 18 are free.

Yes, however, to join the tour, the guest would have to exit our main entrance and follow the parking lot down to our production floor door. There are two small flights of stairs from our tasting room to our production area. We do not have elevators in our facility.

Yes! You can grab a cocktail in our tasting room before, during, and after your tour.

Yes, we have a retail area in our tasting room that carries all of our spirits, as well as t shirts, glassware, etc.

More info

Great Lakes Distillery is located on the edge of Milwaukee's Walker's Point neighborhood and the Menomonee Valley just south of Downtown Milwaukee.

  • Milwaukee's Latin Quarter- Centered around 5th and National Ave. and home to many excellent bars and restaurants.
  • The Harley Davidson Museum- 'Exhibits and events that celebrate the people, products, culture, and history which made Harley-Davidson the icon it is today'.
  • The Iron Horse Hotel- A modern luxury boutique hotel catering to business travelers and motorcycle enthusiasts alike.
  • Potawatomi Hotel and Casino- Gaming, dining and national acts performing regularly with an attached guest rooms & suites.
  • American Family Field- Home of the Milwaukee Brewers
  • Milwaukee's Third Ward- Entertainment, galleries, shopping and nightlife.
  • Summerfest- The world's largest music festival!
  • Brewhouse Inn & Suites- 'What could be more Milwaukee than sleeping in a historic brewery where you're welcomed by the by the stained glass visage of the patron saint of beer brewing?'
  • DoubleTree Milwaukee Downtown- 'Our friendly team is known for exceptional service that you are sure to remember. DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Milwaukee Downtown offers a prime central location with proximity to shops, restaurants and attractions.'
  • Milwaukee Marriott Downtown- Transform your visit into a brilliant travel experience when staying at Milwaukee Marriott Downtown. Living up to our name, you'll be right in the heart of East Town, downtown's thriving district brimming with shopping, dining and entertainment.
  • Great Lakes Cruises- Milwaukee is a port of call for many Lake Michigan cruises offered by Great Lakes Cruises.

At Great Lakes Distillery we make every effort to continually reduce the impact we make on the environment. We believe everyone (and every business) should be aware of waste and its impact on their surroundings and work to reduce it -it's just common sense.

Our innovative 'Bottle Conservation Program' benefits consumers, wholesale customers, the environment, and our distillery. In late 2010 our distillery received permission from the federal government to begin a bottle reuse program. Every bottle that is reused eliminates the need to manufacture another. By eliminating the manufacture of one bottle we save enough energy to power a 100 watt CFL bulb for 5 hours!

Bottles may be returned to any of our liquor store partners (see table at left). Some bars will also accept them. Some places may even offer a discount for their return. Bottles can also be returned to the distillery tasting room.

Recycle and Reuse- We recycle by reusing refuse whenever possible, as an example our case dividers are made by reusing the cardboard that our bottles come packed in from the glass factory.

A few additional things we've done to reduce our environmental impact include:

Location- Our distillery is partially under ground. This significantly minimizes energy used for heating our facility in the long Wisconsin winters.

Organic waste produced in the distillation process (spent grains and fruit) are re-purposed at Yuppie Hill Farm.

We also diligently collect recyclables for weekly pickup by an environmental services company. We estimate we have already reduced our amount of landfill refuse by approximately 60% compared to previous years.

Recycle Energy- We use hot water produced during the distillation process for cleaning our equipment before and after batches are produced. We are working on a system of converting this wasted heat to help heat our distillery in cool weather.

Produce Local- We buy local ingredients whenever possible. The wheat used in our vodka is grown right here in Wisconsin as is the fruit used in our brandies. For ingredients that aren't grown in our climate, we seek local suppliers even if costs are a bit higher.

Sell Local- The vast majority of our business is within 100 miles of our production facility. We focus on and primarily market within this 100 mile radius. The result is that our products are transported fewer miles than the vast majority of competitive products. Most companies in the US import alcohol from overseas, then ship it all over the US from their distribution point, a very inefficient and wasteful process.

These are just some of the steps we've made with regard to being conscientious of our impact on the environment. We pledge that we will constantly seek new ways of reducing our impact on an ongoing basis.

This privacy notice discloses the privacy practices for https://www.greatlakesdistillery.com/. This privacy notice applies solely to information collected by this website. It will notify you of the following:

  1. What personally identifiable information is collected from you through the website, how it is used and with whom it may be shared.
  2. What choices are available to you regarding the use of your data.
  3. The security procedures in place to protect the misuse of your information.
  4. How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.

Information Collection, Use, and Sharing

We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone.

We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to fulfill your request, e.g. to ship an order.

Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about specials, new products or services, or changes to this privacy policy.

Your Access to and Control Over Information

You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. You can do the following at any time by contacting us via the email address or phone number given on our website:

  • See what data we have about you, if any.
  • Change/correct any data we have about you.
  • Have us delete any data we have about you.
  • Express any concern you have about our use of your data.

Security

We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and offline.

Wherever we collect sensitive information (such as credit card data), that information is encrypted and transmitted to us in a secure way. You can verify this by looking for a lock icon in the address bar and looking for “https” at the beginning of the address of the Web page.

While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, billing or customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information. The computers/servers in which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.

If you feel that we are not abiding by this privacy policy, you should contact Great Lakes Distillery immediately via telephone at414-431-8683.