In Milwaukee Record’s “Meet A Brewer” series, we aim to introduce you to some of the professionals behind the scenes who are responsible for making your favorite local beers. The recurring series continues with Ope! Brewing Co. co-owner and head brewer Kyle Ciske.
Milwaukee Record: So what brought you here? What’s your brewing origin and what were some stops along the way?
Kyle Ciske: I got interested in brewing beer early. Me and a friend started brewing at 19 because it’s actually not illegal to purchase ingredients to make beer if you’re underage. We started doing that early on and eventually I went to Siebel Institute in Chicago in 2007 to kind of learn more and get my foot in the door. I ended up working for about eight years up in Cedarburg at Silver Creek Brewery. It was a little brewpub that’s now Rebellion Brewing. During that time, I started working at Northern Brewer, the home brew shop, teaching classes and doing events. Then I helped Mike Doble start The Explorium Brewpub in 2017 and worked there for five years until coming over to do the build out on this property,
MR: During your home brew years, were there any especially good or bad creations? Or did you mostly just go by the book?
KC: We were mostly brewing off recipe sheets from the home brew shops. I just remember they turned out pretty tasty, but eventually we just got sick of all the work to do the bottling, so we got some of the old soda kegs and started kegging it up, having get-togethers, and seeing what people thought about it.
MR: If you had to pick one beer style to have—or a very short list of styles—for the rest of your life, what would you choose?
KC: My desert island beer style would be pale ale. I tend to generally drink a lot of lower ABV stuff, so pale ales are a go-to. Or I’ll go to lagers or pilsners in the summertime. Some of the other bigger beers I enjoy in smaller quantities, but it’s harder to drink some of the higher ABV stuff when you’re around it all the time.
MR: You’ve now been in West Allis for a few years, so what are some bars you frequent here or restaurants you’d like to let readers know about?
KC: Mark Lutz and Miles [Patzer] have a lot of cool stuff happening on Becher Street. We love popping over to Station No. 6, and we’ll go to Stalley Cats for a nightcap sometimes. In general, there’s tons of great stuff happening in West Allis. Camino came in a few years ago and has already expanded. The owner of Camino is opening another restaurant in the old Benno’s spot. There’s a bunch of great restaurants and bars and nightlife happening in West Allis. A week after we opened, Perspective Brewing opened right across from City Hall. That’s another great spot in town, and Layman Brewing over on 60th is doing cool stuff too. It’s a nice community to be in.
MR: So you book the bands at Ope!, but you also play drums, right? Can you talk about some of the bands you’re in?
KC: My main band is Lost Orange Cat. I’ve been in The Delta Routine for 19 years, and we don’t perform as often anymore with one of our members living out of town, but we still get together for some shows. I have a band called Tangent that’s going to start gigging out later this year. And I occasionally drum for The Zach Pietrini Band.
MR: Other than playing music are there any hobbies you have?
KC: I love getting outdoors. I love fishing and I like going out and playing disc golf every once in a while. I like going to local sports games. Additionally, I have a fanny pack company—Dope Fanny—so you’ll occasionally see us out at music festivals slinging fanny packs. That’s another kind of weird aspect of my life.
MR: On the less outgoing side of things, do you have any favorite shows or podcasts or anything?
KC: I do have a few podcasts I listen to. I love The Monday Morning Podcast from Bill Burr, Let There Be Talk by Dean Delray. Smartless always has a great guest on. I don’t really get into the murder mystery stuff. It’s usually something lighthearted while working at the brewery or driving around town.
MR: Are there any local breweries that you really enjoy or specific brewers you’re impressed by or who you want to shout out?
KC: Sure! Like I said earlier, I helped start the beer program at Explorium, so I’m always excited to go back there to see the steps they’ve taken since I left. I love the crew over there. When we were trying to get things rolling with Ope! and doing business planning, there was a number of people around town who were super helpful, shared information, answered questions, and helped get us in touch with people we needed to get in touch with. The Eagle Park guys and the Third Space guys have always been super helpful. I’ve done a lot with Kyle Vetter over at 1840. I’m sure I’m going to forget people. Really, the entire Milwaukee brewing community is amazing. It’s nice to know that it is really a community and that everyone is there to make sure everyone else is in a good condition.
MR: Whether here, during your years at Explorium, or during your time home brewing, are there any beers you made that really stand out to you? Like, where you feel you really nailed it or it’s turned out to become really popular?
KC: Well, here at Ope!, the most popular beers we offer have been our fruited sours and our fruited seltzers. We do a fluffer nutter-style beer too. That’s more of a winter beer and it’s not totally unique to brewing, but we do it as an imperial stout instead of with a porter base. I feel you get big malt character and more chocolate flavor to go against the peanut butter. That’s not a fun one to brew, but I enjoy that one when we have it for sure. It’s a huge headache and a huge mess, but some things are worth it.
MR: What are some of your favorite mainstream domestics?
KC: I would say Hamm’s and Coors Banquet. I also drank a lot of High Lifes at Summerfest this year.
MR: At two years old, your brewery is literally still in its infancy right now. Are there any goals you have for Ope! in the near future and down the road?
KC: You know, our main objective is to provide the best possible customer experience. We have to have good product. We have to have a space people want to come to. We have to have engaging staff and a brand people resonate with. Whatever is in the future for Ope!, we just want to make sure it fits into focusing on those things and continuing to provide the best experience we can. You can’t always please everyone, but we’ve tried to take ideas we’ve seen over the years at breweries all over the country—things we like and things we don’t like—to try to put the puzzle pieces together in a way to make a place we would want to go to. Whatever is in the future, I think, is trying to keep doing what we’re doing and keeping everybody having a good time when we’re here.
MR: Let’s end with an open-ended question. Fill in the blank: Brewing in the Milwaukee area is…
KC: It’s what we do. Our baseball team is the Brewers and our nickname is Brew City. It’s why Milwaukee was settled. We’re very lucky.
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