Steve Stricker’s New “Non-Poisonous” Beer: Strick9!

Who knew Steve Stricker had such a great sense of humor? Just In time for the US Senior Open, he is celebrating with his own brand of beer called Strick9, made by the District 1 Brewing Company which is headquartered in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, where the Senior Open is being played.

A wickedly named beer from one of the nicest golfers on the planet. Talk about a paradox. He’s kept it a pretty good secret, too.

According to Steve Stricker at the American Family Insurance Classic, District 1, a craft brewer, reached out to him last year with the idea of making a namesake beer with a portion of the proceeds going to his charity. It was something they had already done with a hockey player.

Steve Stricker explained.

“It took a few months to kind of come up with something,” Stricker said at the American Family Insurance Championship. “They gave me three choices after I told them what I liked.”

According to Dr. Mike Sheehan, one of District 1’s owners, Stricker wanted a beer that was easy to drink after a round of golf in the summer.

“We actually sent him three different options. We had three different beers kind of a blind taste test. I put a label over the label and just labeled A, B and C. We sent all three of those to Steve and to Mario (Tiziani),” Sheehan said. “They both picked Choice A.”

According to Sheehan, it is a pilsner-type beer.

“It’s got some corn in it that gives it a little bit more unique craft flavor than you would get from say something just like a Budweiser,” Sheehan added.

The Stricker contingent even had a name ready.

“There’s some people who call me Strick9, so kind of play on words,” he said with a smile like he was hiding something. The man has a secret. That’s all there is to it.

Maybe it’s that he’s deadly to play against. Players on PGA Tour Champions would probably agree with that.

If the beer plays like Steve Stricker, it should do well.

If it kills, like Stricker does to other golfer’s scores, sales should keep the brew meisters busy. In fact, there’s almost no way it can lose. It’s beer, and it’s in Wisconsin! (Throw in some cheese curds and bratwurst, and you’re home free.)

However, the story has more to it.  After Sheehan heard the name, he went to look up the formula for strychnine, which is a poison, the formula for which is C21H22N2O2, if you had enough chemistry to know what that means. Most of us didn’t. However, Dr. Mike is an actual doctor — he doesn’t just play one on TV.

He decided to turn the formula into a golf hole logo for the beer.

“You can see there with part of it ( formula) as the green and the water hazard and all that, stuck a flag in it ,and here you go,” he said.

They tested it with a small batch that sold out.  Now they are finishing up the first big batch just in time for the tournament.

District 1 also added two more specialty beers for the upcoming U.S. Senior Open tournament, one called Looper, in honor of caddies and Carl Spackler, the Bill Murray character in Caddyshack, and another called Mulligan, in honor of Murray’s “gunga lunga” speech, the interpretation of what the Dali Lama said to him. District 1 will hand out a can of each to the caddies at the tournament. Talk about a way to make friends in a hurry.

Right now, both Steve Stricker and District 1, are hoping it will do well enough that they have to make another batch. They are already getting calls and requests from those in and around Stricker’s hometown of Edgerton, Wisconsin, which has a little under 6,000 people. In fact, they just had a store owner drive in and ask for it.

“We were brewing yesterday, and some guy comes up and says, ‘Hey you know what, I own the Piggly Wiggly down near Edgerton where Steve’s hometown is and Steve’s mom came in and said, Hey, when are you gonna have the beer?’” Sheehan recalled.

The Piggly Wiggly owner was looking for it with the beer distributors that he uses and couldn’t find any. But he happened to be on a trip farther north in Wisconsin and was returning home through Stevens Point, so he stopped by the brewery. He told them he wanted to set up an account and wanted 10 cases to take back home with him.

“So we kind of scrambled and got 10 cases out the door just yesterday completely unexpected,” Sheehan said.

Apparently, there’s a television station that did a report on the new beer and where it could be found, which at the time was Harley’s Bait and Liquor Store in Monona, Wisconsin. Now, it’s also at Piggly Wiggly near Edgerton.

It seems that there’s more than a good chance of a sellout of this batch of Strick9 this week.

However, should that happen, District 1 makes all manner of craft beer, and they carry brands made by other beer makers and are happy to sell it in their tasting room. They have what they call lighter beers, like Strick9. They had one called Eight Ender for curling that they do in the winter. They have a Scottish ale which they call a winter beer.

“We got some that are aging in barrels for six months. We got an imperial stout that we age in barrels, whiskey barrels. We’re gonna crack that out pretty soon here,” Sheehan said.

They also have glasses with the Strick9 logo that are for sale.

So, if you happen to be vacationing in Wisconsin this summer, Stevens Point is on I-39, about two hours north of Madison or about 90 minutes west of Green Bay. Stop by and ask for Strick9. It’s about to be poisonously popular.