Another brewery takes root in state’s Northwoods

Bill Ruef admits that Some Nerve Brewing is an odd name. But it’s growing on him.

Bill and his wife, Jessica MurrayRuef, spent a significant amount of time looking for a name for their new endeavor. It was Jessica who coined Some Nerve, as in “we have some nerve opening a brewery.”

That seemed about right considering everything that went into opening the 3barrel brewery at 5586 Highway 51 in Manitowish Waters.

It took some nerve for the couple to pack up their home in the rolling pastures of New Glarus and move almost 300 miles away. They traded in one tourist town for another, swapping Green County’s all-things-cheese for Vilas County’s robust love of cranberries. Bill’s family had been vacationing in the Manitowish Waters area since the 1990s, and he and Jessica had been visiting the area for almost two decades.

It took some nerve to set up a 36-seat taproom at the edge of the Northwoods where he and Jessica brew and serve a selection of beers with names like Cream Abdul-Jabbar Cream Ale, Geronimo Jackson IPA, Idris E.S.B. and Maxwell’s Silver Amber.

It took some nerve for Bill to sell his New Glarus business — Ruef ’s Meat Market — to finance a brewery. Jessica works remotely as a scheduler for the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics system.

On an early fall day, a handful of visitors bellied up to the taproom bar with its picture window view of the woods obscured only by the many bird feeders the couple fills often. With a little prodding, Bill told the story (customers always ask) of how he and Jessica came to own a brewery.

While living in New Glarus, the couple would spend their weekends in different parts of the state enjoying brewery tours. Jessica thought they absorbed enough information to try brewing beer on their own. Bill resisted, a

See BREWERY, Page 9E