Third Space Brewing is turning 10, and the Milwaukee craft brewery is marking the milestone on September 26 with a party in the Menomonee River Valley that doubles as a fundraiser for youth camp scholarships. The celebration will feature live music, food trucks, family activities and a lineup of special beer releases, according to co-founder Andy Gehl.
A Decade Rooted In A Camp Friendship
The anniversary event's beneficiary is not a random pick. Co-founders Andy Gehl and Kevin Wright first met as summer camp counselors at YMCA Camp Minikani more than 25 years ago, a personal connection that led them to choose the camp's scholarship fund as the charity for their 10th anniversary celebration, according to Urban Milwaukee. Gehl appeared on 12 News at 11 to list the ways Third Space is celebrating, as reported by WISN.
Brewmaster Kevin Wright brings serious technical pedigree to the operation. He graduated at the top of his class from the UC Davis Master Brewers Program in 2009 and won the JS Ford Award for top exam performance worldwide before spending seven years brewing at California's Hangar 24, according to Third Space Brewing. Wright returned home to Milwaukee in 2016 to open the brewery with Gehl.
Retired Award-Winner Returns For One Night
For the September 26 party, Third Space is temporarily re-releasing Unite the Clans, a Scottish-Style Ale that won three Great American Beer Festival medals. The brewery is also debuting a brand-new brewery-only limited release called Super Happy, an amped-up version of Happy Place, per the same Urban Milwaukee report.
The buildup to the main event has included a recurring taproom tradition. Every Friday in September, Third Space has hosted a 5:45 p.m. Brewmaster's Toast, pouring $1 pints of a featured beer until the keg runs dry — a revival of a weekly ritual from the brewery's earliest years, the brewery notes on its own site.
From A 1929 Kiln Building To Statewide Distribution
Third Space's flagship taproom at 1505 W. St. Paul Ave. sits inside a 1929 historic kiln building once operated by Geuder, Paeschke & Frey Co., an industrial tinware maker that produced the nation's first Mickey Mouse character lunchbox in 1935, according to Third Space Brewing. The brewery's very name nods to sociologist Ray Oldenburg's 1989 book *The Great Good Place*, which defined “third places” as public social environments outside home and work where community members connect.
The company has grown well beyond that original Menomonee Valley taproom. After the Brewers Association named it one of the nation's 50 fastest-growing craft breweries in 2018, Third Space expanded distribution to Madison and southwestern Wisconsin in 2019 and throughout Wisconsin during 2020 and 2021. The company has also described plans for an Innovation Brewhouse in Menomonee Falls.
Medals Amid A Tightening Local Market
The brewery's trophy case keeps filling up. Third Space won a Gold Medal at the Great American Beer Festival in October 2024 for its Pretty Good Amber, bringing its career total to six GABF medals.
That growth has played out against a shifting backdrop for Milwaukee's beer scene. Greater Milwaukee's craft beer field grew from fewer than 10 breweries in 2016 to around 40 by 2024, a tighter local market that contributed to several area brewery closures in 2025, a trend Hoodline has previously covered in detail. Third Space's decade of survival and expansion, including its Menomonee Falls brewhouse and a proposed beer garden at Liberty Heights Park, has come as some competitors have struggled to keep pace.
The September 26 anniversary party gives Milwaukee beer fans a chance to sample a decade's worth of that growth in one spot — from the returning Unite the Clans to the brand-new Super Happy — while supporting the Camp Minikani scholarships that trace back to Gehl and Wright's own camp counselor days.
