Madison, WIBeer Halls and Biergartens

There is no brewery attached here, and Isthmus says that hardly matters: the taps are almost entirely Wisconsin craft, and the tables sit close enough to Lake Monona to catch spray on a windy day. Isthmus points out the gravel underfoot as a nod to Bavarian practice. Madison Magazine dates the garden to 2017, counts 12 taps and names pretzels from Clasen's European Bakery and Farmer John's cheese curds. Order a Wisconsin pale ale and a pretzel at a table near the shore.

Isthmus calls this a classic brewery biergarten: rows of picnic tables served by an outdoor bar, a covered stage carrying live music on Fridays and Saturdays, and about 15 beers on tap. Madison Magazine describes Friday evening concerts that draw hundreds and enough tap stations that the line keeps moving. The brewery puts the bier garten's season at May through October and calls it Middleton's backyard. Order the Capital Special, the crisp German pilsner Isthmus picks out as one of the original Garten Brau beers from the 1980s.

Isthmus places the Terrace in a class of its own, with sunsets that rival the beer list. Madison Magazine calls it the city's signature biergarten and describes trademark sunburst chairs, big groups and a summer concert series that fills the place to capacity, with the darker Rathskeller and Stiftskeller indoors for the Germanic hall and a giant pretzel. The waterfront view over Lake Mendota is the reason to stay outside. Order a beer and a pretzel and claim a sunburst chair before sundown.

The Wisconsin State Journal describes an atmosphere closer to a Bavarian drinking hall than a dining room, with 17 German beers on tap, 200 bottled imports, live oompah music, polka dancing and two liter boots passed around the room. Madison Magazine adds a cozy outdoor biergarten behind the main building, under an awning, pouring the hefeweizens, kolsches, doppelbocks and weissbiers the hall is built on. Order a boot or a stein and start with the soft salty pretzels with mustard and horseradish.

Both Isthmus and Madison Magazine put Hop Haus on their biergarten lists for the lawn it keeps across from the Sub-Zero headquarters in Fitchburg. Madison Magazine says the lawn chairs and fire pits are the real draw, ahead of the patio table seating, while Isthmus counts a patio, a rooftop deck with a full bar and about 16 taps. The brewery leans hard into IPAs and keeps lighter beers on for the rest of the table. Order an IPA and take a lawn chair by a fire pit.