Turtle Stack Brewery expands to Onalaska with community focus

Turtle Stack Brewery is expanding into Onalaska, giving the La Crosse craft brewery a second nearby market while keeping the community-centered identity that built its following. The move extends a business founded in July 2015 from historic downtown La Crosse, where the taproom at 125 2nd Street South has become a regular stop for drinkers looking for on-site beer and a familiar neighborhood feel.

That expansion is built around a simple brewery question: how do you grow without losing the room that already knows your name? Turtle Stack’s answer has been to stay local in every sense. Its tasting room runs nine taps with hand-crafted beers brewed on-site, and the beer list rotates heavily toward variety and seasonal specialties. The brewery also says it adds local bars and restaurants to its distribution family, which gives it a footprint beyond the taproom and makes an Onalaska location a logical next step rather than a break from the existing model.

Brent Martinson, who co-owns Turtle Stack with Vincent Stodola and June Lambeth, has long tied the brewery to a gradual, homegrown path. Martinson’s first homebrew batch dates to 1998, and he spent about four years brewing at Water Street Brewery in Delafield before starting Turtle Stack in La Crosse. That backstory matches the company’s current approach: build carefully, keep the beer local, and grow from relationships rather than from a chain-store formula.

Onalaska gives the brewery access to a substantial nearby customer base. The U.S. Census Bureau lists the city at 18,803 in the 2020 census and 19,898 in the July 1, 2024 estimate. The city’s own website describes Onalaska as a place where residents can still greet friends and neighbors at the grocery store, a description that fits the kind of neighborhood traffic Turtle Stack has leaned on in La Crosse. The brewery also says it is committed to local sustainability, sourcing equipment, ingredients and labor from nearby Wisconsin communities whenever possible.

That same community focus has already shown up in Turtle Stack’s public events. In January 2026, the brewery hosted a Pints for a Purpose fundraiser with 2nd Chance to Shine and Fun Fur Pets, directing 10% of pint sales and 100% of tips to rescue dogs. The Onalaska expansion looks like the next step in that same playbook: more room, more customers, and the same local brewery identity that made Turtle Stack work in the first place.