By Garth Beyer · Certified Cicerone® · Owner of Garth’s Brew Bar · 1726 Monroe St, Madison, WI

Wisconsin has more than 200 craft breweries and ranks 11th in the country for beer production. Madison, Wisconsin’s capital, is the heart of it — a city of 270,000 people with one of the densest concentrations of independent brewers per capita anywhere in the United States.

This guide is what I’d tell a friend who just moved here, or a visitor who’s got one weekend to figure the scene out. Six bars I’d send you to, what to look for in the cooler, how locals order, and the events worth planning a trip around. I run a craft beer bar on Monroe Street, so I’m not pretending to be a neutral observer — but I’d rather send you to the right place than the closest one.

If you’ve only got an hour, skip to “Where to drink.” If you’ve got a weekend, read the whole thing.

Where to drink craft beer in Madison

Madison’s craft beer landscape is unusual because it’s built around independents, not chain taphouses. Six places worth your time, in no particular order.

Working Draft Beer Company

1129 E Wilson St — Capitol East / Atwood-adjacent neighborhood

A community-focused brewery taproom that opened in 2018. Pulp Culture and Close Enough to Perfect anchor the lineup, but the rotation runs deep across hazy IPAs, lagers, and a respectable barrel program. Small-plate menu (the lamb sammie is the move), food trucks Friday evenings May through September, and Astronomy on Tap nights with UW astronomy grad students. Open patio in summer, big windows year-round.

Best for: Drinking the source. If you like a beer at Working Draft, you can buy it at Garth’s the next week.

The Robin Room

821 E Johnson St — Tenney-Lapham

Cocktail-forward neighborhood lounge that takes its rotating beer taps seriously. The bar program is built around Chad Vogel’s microdistillery picks and homemade infusions — ask about the blood orange and cognac cordial Old Fashioned. Dark, mysterious, low-music vibe. Long bar, high tops, lounge corners.

Best for: Date night when one of you wants a great pour and the other wants a cocktail with a story.

Giant Jones Brewing Company

931 E Main St (Suite 9, entrance on Brearly) — Atwood / east side

Wisconsin’s only certified organic brewery, and the only woman-owned independent in Madison. They specialize in big beers — British-style barleywine, organic double IPA, Belgian-style ales made with Wisconsin grains. Partnerships with local farmers and social justice nonprofits, regular events around Trans Day of Visibility and other community moments.

Best for: Beers you can’t get anywhere else. If you’ve never had a properly-aged barleywine, this is the place.

Forward Craft & Coffee

2166 Atwood Ave — Schenk-Atwood

A craft beer bar and a coffee shop in the same room, with twenty taps and 80+ canned and bottled beers. Espresso and nitro cold brew on the coffee side, handcrafted cocktails in the lounge, and trivia, cribbage league, and game nights woven through the week. Open from 7am, which makes it the rare Madison bar that works for both a morning espresso and an evening pint.

Best for: A long afternoon that started with coffee and ended with a flight.

Cask & Ale

212 State Street — downtown / theater district

A whiskey bar with serious craft beer credentials — 27 rotating taps, 4 wines on tap, and 750+ whiskey bottles across the back wall. Late hours (open until 2am most nights), tucked between Comedy on State, the Orpheum, and the Overture Center, which makes it the natural after-show stop downtown.

Best for: Closing out a night you started at the theater. Or a whiskey-and-a-pint that doesn’t require choosing.

Garth’s Brew Bar

1726 Monroe St — Monroe Street neighborhood

Yes, this is mine. I’d be lying by omission if I left it off. Sixteen rotating taps of American craft beer — Madison breweries first, Wisconsin second, independent American craft third — plus two nitro draft taps for house cold brew coffee and tea, and 95+ craft cans and bottles in the cooler. Bring your own food, no TVs, board games on the shelves. Every beertender is trained for or holds the Cicerone Beer Server certification.

CraftBeer.com named Garth’s the Best Craft Beer Bar in Wisconsin three months after we opened in December 2019.

Best for: Trying something specific you can’t find elsewhere, asking a real question and getting a real answer, or taking craft cans home from the cooler.

What’s in the cooler — Madison breweries to know

Garth’s tap list rotates constantly — what’s pouring tonight isn’t what’s pouring next week. Rather than name names that’ll be wrong by the time you read this, here’s the live list:

See what’s on tap right now →

What stays consistent is the kind of brewery we lean on. Madison breweries lead. Wisconsin breweries fill in. Independent American craft from out of state rounds it out.

Madison and Madison-area breweries you’ll see often

• Karben4 — Atwood neighborhood. Fantasy Factory IPA is the flagship; their seasonal program is one of the strongest in the city.
• Working Draft Beer Company — Capitol East. We carry their hazy IPAs and lagers regularly.
• Giant Jones Brewing — East Main Street. Big organic beers; the barleywines are worth seeking out.
• Octopi / 3rd Sign — Waunakee, ~15 min from downtown. Sour and wild ale program is one of the best in the Midwest.
• Vintage Brewing Company — multiple locations. Reliable lagers, accessible IPAs, the kind of beer that wins over people who don’t think they like craft.
• Capital Brewery — Middleton. The original Madison-area craft brewery, est. 1986. Lagers all the way down.
• Funk Factory Geuzeria — King Street. Geuze-style and farmhouse-focused; wood-aged programs you won’t find at most bars.
• House of Brews — Capitol East. Small, neighborhood-scale, food-truck-friendly Friday and Saturday.

Wisconsin breweries you’ll find in the cooler

• New Glarus — the obvious one. Spotted Cow is the gateway to Wisconsin beer for everyone outside the state.
• Central Waters — Amherst. Bourbon-barrel stout program is nationally rated.
• 3 Sheeps — Sheboygan. Cashmere Hammer rye stout is a fall ritual.
• Lakefront — Milwaukee. Riverwest Stein remains underrated.
• Hinterland — Green Bay. The double IPA program is sneakily one of the best in the state.
• MobCraft — Milwaukee. Crowdsourced recipes; constantly experimenting.
• Door County Brewing — Baileys Harbor. Seasonal, often forgotten outside the peninsula.

We also keep a section for non-alcoholic craft beer — Athletic Brewing leads it, but we rotate in others — and a small cider and seltzer set for guests who want craft without alcohol or hops.

How to drink craft beer like a local

Three things Madison locals do that visitors usually skip.

Order a flight before you commit. Most Madison bars will pour you four or five three-ounce pours for the price of a pint. It’s the fastest way to figure out what your palate likes in a city you don’t know. At Garth’s, we’ll build the flight around what you’ve told us — “I usually drink Spotted Cow” gets a different flight than “I’m into West Coast IPAs.” That’s what the Cicerone training is for.

Ask about the brewery, not just the beer. Madison’s craft scene is small enough that the owner pouring your pint probably knows the brewer who made it. Asking who made the beer almost always gets you a story about why. That story is half the reason to drink craft instead of macro.

Bring your own food, where you can. A handful of Madison’s best craft beer bars — Garth’s included — don’t have kitchens, on purpose. It keeps the focus on the beer and lets you eat from whichever neighbor on the block makes the meal you actually want. Pizza from Ian’s, a sandwich from Salvatore’s, a bagel from Manna — all within walking distance of someone’s tap list. That’s a feature, not a bug.

Madison craft beer events worth planning around

Madison Craft Beer Week (November). The annual celebration of Wisconsin and Madison craft brewing — special releases, brewer dinners, bottle shares, and tap takeovers across most of the city’s craft beer venues. If you’re going to plan a trip around any one event, plan it around this.

First Friday on Monroe Street. Monroe Street’s neighborhood event the first Friday of each month — galleries, shops, and bars stay open late, and most of us coordinate something seasonal. Walking-route guide here.

Brewer launches at Garth’s. Several breweries — Rhinegeist, Humble Forager, Hidden Springs, Fair State’s FSB series — have launched their Madison distribution at Garth’s over the years. Watch our tap list and Untappd for these; they’re usually one-night affairs with the brewer pouring.

Bottle shares. Less formal, more frequent. A small group brings a bottle each, everyone pours small samples, and you taste through 8-10 things you wouldn’t normally drink alone. Etiquette guide here.

Camp Randall game days. Five-block walking distance from Garth’s. We’re a quieter alternative to the sports bars closer to the stadium — same proximity, different crowd. Game-day plan here.

Madison craft beer FAQ

How many craft breweries are in Madison?

Wisconsin has 200+ craft breweries; Madison itself counts roughly two dozen, with another dozen in the surrounding metro (Verona, Middleton, Waunakee, Sun Prairie, Stoughton). The state ranks 11th in the country for beer production.

What’s the most-poured local beer style in Madison?

Hazy IPAs and Wisconsin lagers, in that order. The lager scene has had a real revival — Working Draft, Vintage, and Capital each pour multiple lager styles year-round.

Are Madison craft beer bars dog friendly?

It varies. Brewery taprooms with patios (Karben4, Working Draft) are usually yes during patio season. Garth’s is not — we’re a small footprint indoors and we don’t allow dogs. Always check the bar’s social before you bring one.

What night is best for a Madison craft beer crawl?

Friday or Saturday, starting around 4-5pm so you catch the Monroe Street and Atwood neighborhoods at their busiest but before late-night crowds shift the vibe. Sunday afternoons are great for one-and-done, lower-key visits.

Are there Cicerones in Madison?

There are about nine Certified Cicerones in the Madison area as of 2026. Garth Beyer (owner of Garth’s Brew Bar) is the only one currently running his own bar.

Where can I find non-alcoholic craft beer in Madison?

Garth’s, Forward Craft & Coffee, and Working Draft all keep rotating non-alcoholic options. Athletic Brewing leads most NA tap lists; specialty Wisconsin NA brands rotate in periodically.

Plan your visit to Garth’s

This guide is updated quarterly. Brewery list current as of April 2026 — the Madison scene moves fast, so something here will be outdated by the time you read it. Email heythere@garthsbrewbar.com if you spot anything wrong.