Minhas Micro Distillery

I think it’s funny that people complain about a cheap «No Tour» have fun and drink experience. The price is excellent, their mixes are good, and the options are tremendous. Me and the 6 people I was with really enjoyed it.

We had fun. The fee gets you four cocktails, a glass, and a bottle. If you want to taste the straight liquor, you get a little shot that doesn’t count against your four cocktails. Worth the trip to Monroe.

I am incredibly impressed by the marketing team of Minhas Micro Distillery. Whoever came up with this business idea was a genius.
First of all, there is no tour and no education. You walk in to a crowded room with bottles of alcohol everywhere and 4 tasting stations. When you check in for your ‘tour’ they hand you a tasting glass and a menu of sugary mixed drinks that you can try. There is absolutely no information about the alcohol itself or the process involved in making it (by the taste of it, it might just be gasoline they siphoned out of a rusty old truck).
Slightly confused I thought that maybe they would be telling us about the different spirits at the tasting stations. I waited about 10 minutes to get to the front of the line and the guy said «What do you want?» I said «Tell me about the different alcohols you have here.» His response was «Whiskey, Rum and Brandy. What mixed drink do you want, I have 20 people in line waiting.» So, we ordered one and shuffled on to the next station. We had very similar experiences at each station. No descriptions, just pick a mixed drink.
Needless to say, we were disappointed that there was no tour and no education.
Now let’s talk about the quality of the drinks. Every drink we had was the absolute sweetest alcoholic drink I’ve ever tasted. And after convincing the staff to pour me small samples of just the alcohol by itself, I know why. Every single alcohol I tried was horrible. I don’t mean it wasn’t very good, I mean it was the absolute worst stuff I’ve ever tasted, and I’m not picky when it comes to hard alcohol.
But here’s why I’m impressed with the marketing team. They realized that a bunch of people in the middle of Wisconsin probably don’t really care about what the liquor tastes like and they just want to get drunk. So, they pump them full of these sweet tasting mixed drinks which loosens up everyone’s pocket books and gets them to buy overpriced basement shelf liquor. There were people buying cases of this stuff. I can only assume that they had dozens of dirty paintbrushes at home and they had run out of turpentine.
Adding insult to injury they send you on your way with a bottle of something they call ‘Cosmopolitan’ which tastes like kool-​aid with vodka mixed in.
So, if you want to get tipsy on tooth-​achingly sweet mixed drinks in a packed room of drunk people for $ 10, this tour is definitely for you.

Not a bad little tour for Monroe, WI.
We would have been more impressed had everything that they talked about been found on the premises. The authenticity was missing. The price was right, the pours were generous and the family story interesting. Thanks for the bottle of tequila.

If you’re a fan of booze and in the Monroe area, I’d definitely check them out. Can’t beat the prices for the tasting or the tour! We did the tour while we were there. With the tour you receive 6 tastings, some history, a peak into the backroom & a free bottle of booze. Now who would complain about that? Make sure to check groupon before you go. They have been running a 2 for 1 deal for the tour for quite some time!

WE have done this tour several times, each time it gets less fun. No longer get to se the bottling line. Its a tasting not a tour anymore. The two guys working yesterday did not seem very friendly. nor interested in our experience there. WE always bring friends and family when they come to town for a tour, that may be a thing of the past. We spent around 80 dollars on products and they would not even give a sample so we bought without being sure we liked the booze.

We decided to make a weekend getaway to Monroe and New Glarus. And I must say that Minhas is such a fantastic place to visit.
The tour consists of watching a short video about the distillery and an employee talking about the history as well.
What surprised me was that the distillery only first started working at full capacity this year. This is due to the fact that the brewery across the street wasn’t operating at the time. A LOT has changed, to me this should really negate the negative reviews about this distillery. The reason for the «tour» being not much of a tour is because the building is fairly small and the distillery still is actually in the showroom. It may not be a tour but you still get plenty of info on the distillery and a great tasting as well.
You receive 6 generous samples of liquor as well as some snacks:
A cocktail with moonshine
A pretty strong margarita with tequila
Rum and coke
A brandy cocktail
Two other spirits of your choice (whiskey, vodka, etc.)
You get a spectacular tasting at this tour. So don’t be surprised if the entire group is quite tipsy by the end. Prices are reasonable and the quality is superb. Tours are done twice during the weekday and three times on Fri-​Sun. So you do have the option of doing the Minhas brewery tour across the street in the same day. Will definitely visit here again.

My husband and I purchased a groupon for 2 admissions to the distillery tasting for $ 10. The tastings were delicious and everything was inexpensive. We even left with a huge bottle of complimentary vodka. Definitely recommended!

Have you ever wondered where cheap, off brand liquor comes from? Me neither, but I found myself on the Minhas Distillery tour anyway.
As of my visit, Oct 2013, there wasn’t, nor had there ever been, anything distilled at this «distillery.» Which makes it strange that you would boast about the size of your still. It was a beautiful contraption, but as it doesn’t produce liquor, I don’t really care. Needless to say there was little to no talk of how liquor is distilled.
If you want to see a bottling line, this is totally your place! They bring liquor in from the Caribbean, Iowa and Canada water it down with sweet Monroe water and bottle it.
When asked how the stacks of «Made in Wisconsin» stickers can technically be applied to such a bottle the tour guide replied she was not familiar with the law. That is certainly accurate and she was doing her best.
Also proudly pointed out on the tour were the 55 gallon barrels of «whiskey type flavor» and other such nonsense.
Getting to the point, for $ 10 you get a tour, two glasses (one of which was quite nice), and one bottle of vodka. I love a good cocktail but this liquor was HARSH. Not good.
If you find yourself in Monroe with a few hours to kill, this isn’t the worst thing that’s ever happened, but it was really close.

I purchased the four-​person distillery tour Groupon for $ 20. I have been on quite a few brewery tours and I really wanted to switch it up and learn something new. For $ 5/​person, I thought I’d found quite the deal.
Well, the distillery itself is not actually active yet. which was the most disappointing part. The space they have right now functions more as a bottling/​packaging plant and a storage unit. Their spirits are shipped in from other states to be bottled and labeled in Monroe and then packed onto pallets and shipped out again. So functionally, the Minhas distillery is just one point in a long conveyor belt of spirits from Iowa and Illinois to our Canadian neighbors.
I thought the tour was disorganized and crowded (apparently they don’t turn people away because some folks drive from Chicago JUST to see the distillery… quite unfortunate for them because there really isn’t much to see). And the tour basically consisted of a video/​slideshow shown in the front tasting room and then a walk around the packaging facilities in the back. While our tour guides were sweet, they seemed quite unexperienced and probably still have quite a bit to learn about the distilling business. I would have loved to hear from a more seasoned employee.
Anyway, the best part of the whole deal was the unlimited tastings. I’ve never been to a spirit tasting before, but I assumed it would be a lot like beer tastings where you are given straight samples of the product. (Blech!) What I didn’t expect was to be able to sample the alcohol with a range of different mixers, so that was pretty cool. Did I mention that we also EACH walked out with a gift pack consisting of a 750mL sample+souvenir glass? That definitely sealed the $ 5/​person Groupon deal.
Ya’ll are invited to the BYOB party at my house afterwards! ;)

Got the deal from Livingsocial.
This distillery is not functional yet. But it was nice to see the large still, and learn about the process.
The tour was just of the packaging and what not, so not overall that great.
The tasting and mixing was a blast and the gift pack of 750ml vodka and glass was wonderful, also great prices on the other bottles of whiskey and rum.
VERY DISAPPOINTING THE SEASONED RUN HAD DAIRY. I was told EVERYTHING would be vegan.
But nice people and I will be fun to go back once they start distilling.