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Wisconsin Historical Foundation/Wisconsin Historical Society
Old World Wisconsin Brewing Experience

Education | Museum

Beermaking is a huge part of Wisconsin’s culture and heritage. Working in collaboration with the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS), we developed three media-driven experiences for Old World Wisconsin, an open-air museum located in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. The activities we created let visitors tap into the state’s rich brewing history, presenting captivating stories of the people, places and brews that have made Wisconsin famous.

Brewing Experience Video

Looping Video Projection

When visitors enter the new Brewhouse at Old World Wisconsin, they can experience live brewing demonstrations to get an up-close understanding of how beer and ales are made. We collaborated with the WHS team to create the 3-minute video that helps demystify the brewing process for the uninitiated—is it malting before milling or milling before mashing, and when do the hops go in? The video runs on a loop when live brewing demonstrations are not available.

Outdoor Listening Stations

Motion-Activated Audio Program

Our team worked with the WHS team to produce spoken word audio content for seven outdoor listening stations around the Old World Wisconsin site. Seven audio programs around the site highlight how the ingredients grown in gardens adjacent to the Brewhouse are used in the brewing process and offer other fun facts about Wisconsin brewing history.

Tapping Wisconsin’s Brewing History

Touch Screen Application

Our touch screen interactive “hops” all over the state to tell the story of craft brewers (some past, some present) who have established Wisconsin as one of the most prolific producers of beer in the world. To start, visitors can “whet their whistle” with a 2-minute animated video highlighting the history of brewing in Wisconsin that goes all the way back to 1835—before it was even a state!

Visitors then engage an interactive map of Wisconsin that features in-depth information about 50 brewers operating in the state between 1835 and 1935. Tapping on any of ten regions on the map brings up a short, animated video highlighting the brewing history of that region. Visitors can explore each region in more detail by selecting profiles of brewers in the region, with entertaining stories about the people, products, successes, and sometimes failures of each brewer. That’s a lot of beer!

Brewer profiles include historical images, vintage advertisements and beautiful product artwork spanning 100 years of Wisconsin brewing. The application includes simple, on-screen navigation that allows visitors to take a big gulp, or just a sip of the tasty history of Wisconsin brewing.

The Idea

Create a series of media-driven engagements that tell the story of craft brewing in Wisconsin. Produce audio, video, and touch interactive experiences that bring to life the history and culture of Wisconsin brewing for a wide audience. Develop the interactives so that visitors can choose to take just a sip of compelling content or knock back a barrel full of delicious Wisconsin history highlighting fifty brewers over 100 years.

Services

Our team worked closely with the WHS team to organize hundreds of historic photos and countless pages of content into a sleek touch interactive that makes it easy and fun for visitors to explore fascinating stories about 50 craft brewers across Wisconsin. We created a short video that helps visitors understand how the brewing process works and produced a series of outdoor audio stations at the site that engage visitors about the State’s delicious brewing traditions and culture.

The Result

Burp! The activities we created for the Brewing Experience at Old World Wisconsin help visitors take a big gulp of Wisconsin Brewing history. But our thoughtful application of media-driven activities won’t make leave visitors feeling too full. We made learning about brewing and Wisconsin brewers engaging and fun. It’s an experience that will make you want to say “Cheers!”.

Wisconsin Historical Foundation/Wisconsin Historical SocietyOld World Wisconsin Brewing Experience