Skip the Mall, Head to the Brewery

Back in olden times, before the Internet and before November became a monthlong orgy of pre-pre-holiday sales, Black Friday was the undisputed heavyweight champion of shopping days.

Otherwise, reasonable people would leave the comfort of their family celebrations to stand outside stores in the cold for a chance to get the lowest prices of the year on name-brand merchandise when the doors opened before dawn.

Inevitably, these hordes of stampeding shoppers would clash in the rush for under-the-tree gold, providing salacious news footage and delicious irony as the spirit of the season was briefly paused to allow a couple of soccer moms to throw hands over the last talking doll on the shelf.

Black Friday is still a thing, of course, but it doesn’t provide the same door-busting debauchery as it did before. It does, however, continue to provide unique once-a-year opportunities here in Wisconsin, thanks to our craft breweries.

The day after Thanksgiving is when many brewers show their creativity, dropping limited-edition releases featuring unique ingredients, processes, and collaborations. While there are also hardcore beer nuts who will get their pumpkin pie to go so they can camp outside the brewery all night, to our knowledge, there’s no punching, biting or bouts of temporary insanity in the rush to get double IPAs when they open.

There are far too many fun beers to list here, but the good people at OnMilwaukee and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are both keeping track of local limited releases. Check with your favorite local brewery to see if they’re doing any special Black Friday varieties. Or just go grab a couple of their regular ones during normal business hours. It figures to be a lot safer than going to the mall.
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