Buffalo Water: cold beer for hot wings
Local brewer Craig Peterson makes a tasty lager to cure burned tongues
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In 2007, Craig Peterson embarked on a mission to create the world’s first beer brewed specifically to combat the effects of eating really hot Buffalo wings. Less than two years later, Buffalo Water is available in more than 50 spots around Wisconsin, including its first Buffalo Wild Wings location in Oak Creek. Will Peterson be Milwaukee’s first hot-wing beer baron? Decider recently shared a 10 a.m. toast with this Wauwatosa native to find out.
Decider: How did you get started in the beer business?
Craig Peterson: I used to be a lobbyist for the brewing industry in Wisconsin. So, one day I’m driving to Madison with Jim McCabe of the Milwaukee Ale House and Milwaukee Brewing Company, and somehow we got to talking about this LLC I started, Buffalo Water, and Jim said, “That’s a great name for a beer.” Then he starts talking about all the great beers that are named after animals: Dogfish Head, Moose Drool, Fat Squirrel, Spotted Cow—you can just go on and on.
D: How did you decide on a lager as your flagship beer?
CP: The No. 1 finger food throughout the country is Buffalo wings. So, sometime in that month, we got a bunch of buddies who are brewers together, had some nuclear wings, and profiled about 30 different beers. We figured out which beer goes with the hottest, most dynamite wings. Doing that exercise was very interesting, because you know you can’t eat Buffalo wings with a porter or stout or a real bitter ale. So, we came down to a lager. We wanted the profile of a smooth drinking lager that wasn’t too hoppy but had the presence and character of a craft beer.
D: What sets Buffalo Water apart from other beers?
CP: What I love about our beer is that when I taste it, my first taste is malts, and then after the malts, I start to taste sugars. But unlike some of my competitors that finish it with a floral sweet finish, this finishes with kind of a dry, little bit of a hoppy taste. So at the end, it’s refreshing. It satiates the sweet taste buds, but then at the end, it washes the heat off from the Buffalo wings.
D: How is doing your own distribution working out?
CP: I’m busting my butt, but I enjoy it and the customers enjoy it. It’s very unique and I want to do this as long as I can. Right now, how it works is I go out there and meet with clients, drive my pickup truck around and take the orders. And then—if not the same day, the next day—they’ll get a delivery from me in that same pickup truck. I’m 47, and sometimes I think I’m too old to be schlepping these 180-pound half-barrels up these little stairwells leading to a little makeshift cooler in a bar. My body is paying the price. [Laughs.] But I love it. If you work really hard, it’s a great business to be in.
