On today's One Tank Trip, WCCO's Laura Oakes takes us across the border into Wisconsin, where beer and boating are king.
At the famous Leinenkugel's Brewery in Chippewa Falls, Leinie Lodge General Manager Lindsey Everson gives us a tour of the operation which includes some of the important ways the company is reusing some of beer's byproducts.
“We Take all of the malts that are spent, meaning we've already used them for processing the beer,” explains Everson. “We've filtered them out of the beer. We dump them into this truck and he brings them out to farms. So our goal is to be a zero waste facility. And so we've tried to use literally every process.”
Everson is also a member of Leinenkugel's coveted "tasting panel," which gives the thumbs up or thumbs down to new varieties and flavors of beers they hope to bring to the market.
The Chippewa Falls area is also home to popular Lake Wissota, dotted with lake homes, family resorts and bars, and a number of paved trail systems for biking and walking.
Lake Wissota State Park, northeast of Chippewa Falls, has campsites, hiking, biking and horseback riding trails, picnic and playground areas and a swimming beach. Lake Wissota is a 6,300-acre man-made lake. Boating, canoeing, kayaking and water skiing are popular summer activities on the lake and there are plenty of fish including Musky, Panfish, Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Northern Pike, Walleye, Sturgeon and Catfish.
Apple Valley's Marty Christensen built a lake home there a few years ago and says there's plenty to do.
“The downtown is still very vibrant,” says Christensen. “There are wineries around here and there are even a couple of breweries and distilleries, besides the Leinie one which is the most well-known. And it’s also not that far of a drive from Eau Claire. So if you need something that is more of big nature, it’s not that far of a drive from there either.”
Christensen also recommends one of the many paved trails in the area for biking or walking or snowmobiling in the winter.
See all of WCCO's One Tank Trips here.
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