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From home brewing to brew pub

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Mark Polebitski inspects a glass of the beer he brews at 22 Lakes Brewing Co. in downtown Waupaca. Robert Cloud Photo

Local family launches 22 Lakes Brewing Co.

By Robert Cloud


When Mark Polebitski brewed his first batch of beer in 1992 the results were not quite what he expected.

“My wife Mary and I took a trip to Germany with some foreign exchange students for three weeks,” Polebitski recalled. “We got back home and were standing in our kitchen when all of the sudden I hear a popping sound coming from the basement.”

He heard several more pops and went downstairs.

“There were bottles of beer exploding one after another because of over-carbonation,” he said.

Polebitski mastered the craft of brewing by reading books, meeting with other brewers and experimenting.

In September 2018, the Polebitskis, John and Ashlyn Parent and John Harris opened 22 Lakes Brewing Co. in downtown Waupaca.

“We generally have between four to six of our own beers on tap, plus some guest beers made in Wisconsin from other small breweries,” Polebitski said.

He has made about 40 batches of beer since obtaining his license to brew in August 2018.

The brew pub’s most popular beer is called Jane’s Dragonfly Porter.

There’s a story behind the name.

“We started late in the day and we didn’t get done till one in the morning,” Polebitski said.

A dragonfly came into the building while they were working. They let it fly back outside.

“Mary is always looking for dragonflies in the summer as a sign of her mother coming back,” Polebitski said.

Jane is her mother’s name. Jane was also John Parent’s grandmother.

“John and Ashlyn both played on Waupaca high School teams when I was coaching,” Polebitski said. “After high school, John would come over and watch me brew.”

When the building at 107 W. Fulton St. became available in March 2018, Parent asked Polebitski if he would be interested in opening a brew pub.

Chuck’s Steam Engine Stout is another dark beer named after a relative: Jane’s husband, Charles McGlinch.

“When he was young he worked on the railroad shoveling coal, and his father was an engineer,” Polebitski said.

It’s a real family business because John Harris, whose investment has made the brew pub possible, is Ashlyn Parent’s father.

“We really like making dark beers here,” Polebitski said. “Our drinking water in Waupaca is better suited for dark beers than for light beers.”

A profile of the city’s water found it to have a higher pH than is optimal for light beers.

“We do not treat our water,” Polebitski said. “We do not need to make adjustments for our dark beer, but with lighter beer we treat it with acidulated malt to lower the pH of the city water.”

Acidulated malt is widely used in German where the beer purity law only allows four ingredients: water, hops, yeast and malt.

However, German brewers are allowed to use acidulated malt, which has been treated with lactic acid.

“We’re able to improve our light beers by 10-fold,” Polebitski said.

The company plans to purchase four more fermenters so it can double its production capacity in time for summer.

22 Lakes is open from 5-10 p.m. Thursday and Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

The pub is also available for perty reservations during off hours.

To reserve the pub for a party, call Ashlyn Parent at 715-412-1019.

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