Middleton (Dane County)

• John and William Reeves (1859?–1860)
• Reeves & Waddle, Middleton Brewery (1860–67)
• Jones & Isaacson (1868–69)
• L. T. Jones (1869-?)

According to an 1867 advertisement of the brewery’s availability for purchase, John Reeves & James Waddle built the Middleton Brewery in 1860. However, newspaper notices from early 1860 announced the dissolution of the John and William Reeves partnership in February and the formation of the Reeves and Waddle partnership in March. The latter solicited “a continuence [sic] of the former patronage of the concern, and further favors from the public,” and it is unlikely that a brewery that was not built until 1860 would already have any significant business worth continuing.1216 (It is also possible that Reeves and Waddle built a second brewery in 1860.) Reeves had an established farm, and the brewery was merely one of his businesses. As early as 1861, Reeves & Waddle provided a testimonial in an advertisement for May’s Patent Pumps, noting that the pump worked well by horse or hand power, and was used for stock and farm purposes as well as “large quantities for our Brewery.”1217

Reeves and Waddle were Englishmen, and therefore brewed ales rather than lager. Their agent in Madison, E. Oswin, advertised “Pale, Amber and Bottled Ales! Brewed at Middleton . . . in Messrs. Reeves and Waddle’s Completely Fitted Brewery.” Their ale cost $1.25 per dozen pints, and bottles not returned would be charged for. Oswin added: “These Ales are brewed expressly for bottling purposes, and for purity and genuine excellence of quality cannot be surpassed by any imported Ales. Recommended by Drs. Joseph Hobbins, Brown, and Hayes, for those invalids requiring strengthening drinks.”1218

Reeves and Waddle continued to operate the brewery until 1867, when they placed it on the market. The brewery included “all the appurtenances required for a first class brewery,” and was “complete in all its parts, and will suit any person who desired to invest in the business.”1219 According to excise records, the brewery was purchased by Jones & Isaacson in mid-1868, though the business was going by the name of L. T. Jones the next year. Jones made sure to keep his product before the public by the tried and true method of providing the local editor with a keg. The reviews proclaimed the keg of Brown Stout Ale “a very superior article,” with one taster claiming “it contained a very large amount of beer to the square inch.”1220

• John Wagner (1865–67)
• Lenz & Hess (1867–1873)
• Jacob Lenz (1871–72)
• John Hess (1873–74?)
• Hubert Bernard (1877–1880)
• Bernard & Findorf (1880–82)
• John Findorf (1882–85)
• Brunkow & Mueller (1885–1905)
• Brunkow & Mueller, Pheasant Branch Brewery (1905–1911)
• Werten Bros., Middleton Brewery (1911–15?)

Pheasant Branch was a small community within the boundaries of modern Middleton. Despite the competition provided by breweries in nearby Madison, John Wagner started a small brewery in 1865. While the 1880 county history claims that Wagner operated the brewery until 1868, excise records show that Lenz and Hess had taken over the brewery by November 1867.1221

Jacob Lenz and John Hess made significant improvements to the brewery, and pushed production over the 500-barrel threshold separating large from small breweries in the eyes of the taxman. In fact, the brewery produced 1,078 barrels in 1871, which ranked them in the top thirty breweries in the state. However, the improvements helped Lenz accumulate more debt that he could handle. In May 1873, Lenz “absconded,” leaving debts estimated (possibly exaggerated) between $100,000 and $200,000. Lenz had acted as a virtual banker for many Germans in the area, and his departure caused great hardship for many, especially John Hess, who was left holding the brewery and the debt. The First National Bank of Madison foreclosed on the brewery, and Hess eventually moved into Madison to operate a brewery there.1222

The brewery lay idle for nearly four years before it was acquired by Hubert Bernard. By 1878 he had started to turn the brewery around, and by 1879 production was back up to 760 barrels. He was still in debt, however, so he brought in wealthy farmer John Findorf to provide capital. The R. G. Dun & Co. credit reports had a high opinion of Findorf—the evaluator noted that while Bernard was the practical brewer, he had no capital, and it was Findorf that made the business “perfectly [good] and safe.” Industry directories suggest that a malt house was added in the early 1880s, but it is possible it was there earlier. However, business itself was mediocre, and Findorf’s term as sole proprietor ended after about two years.1223

John G. Mueller and August Brunkow, brothers-in-law from Racine, purchased the brewery in 1885 and established the business on a sound footing.1224 According to the 1895 Wisconsin industrial census, the brewery produced 1,600 barrels the previous year, which was among the highest totals for a small town brewery that year. The federal totals for 1896 indicated production was nearly 4,000 barrels, which suggest the partners had enlarged the brewery in the interim.1225 The brewery continued under Brunkow & Mueller until 1911, when they were succeeded by Wertin (Verten) Bros.1226 The latter firm was still found in state gazetteers through 1915, but the Brewers’ Handbook directory of 1916 lists the brewery with no officers or brewmaster, so it is likely that production had ceased by that point.

The old brewery, then in use as a slaughterhouse, was destroyed by fire in 1921.1227

• Capital Brewery (1986–present)
• 7734 Terrace Avenue

One of Wisconsin’s most important breweries of the craft era was Capital Brewery, which started in 1986 in a former egg and produce processing plant in Middleton. (More on the origins of Capital may be found in chapter 10.) Original brewmaster Fred Scheer left for Hibernia Brewing Co. in 1987, and Kirby Nelson took his place. Nelson had experience in large commercial breweries including Heileman and a brewery in the Philippines—making him one of the few early craft brewers with international brewing experience. Nelson began to introduce new beers to the lineup, though most of them were either German styles or emphasized malt character over hoppiness. Ideas for beer styles came from everywhere—they could be inspired by random comments by sales managers or by the brewing staff looking at leftover ingredients and trying to decide what to make. Even so, pragmatic considerations still guided production decisions. Capital shied away from making smoked beers, because of questions whether they could sell 1,000 cases. But a number of the experimental beers such as Autumnal Fire became big hits, and the company heard from disappointed customers when beers such as Kloster Weizen or Wild Rice disappeared for more than just a season.

In 1997 the company began to retire GartenBräu name and simply used the Capital name in branding and on packaging. (In the mid-2010s, the GartenBräu name reappeared [though smaller] on labels of Special Pilsner and Munich Dark, celebrating their heritage as some of the earliest Capital beers.) Capital made its first foray into canned beer in 1999 when Wisconsin Amber appeared in cans as a “seasonal package.” In the early years of the twenty-first century, Capital’s production slowly gradually approached 15,000 barrels, the industry threshold between microbreweries and regional breweries. An indication of Capital’s increasing prominence came in 1999 when Coors threatened to sue over the use of the name Winterfest for Capital’s holiday seasonal (Capital changed the name to Winter Skål).

The occasional experiments took more organized form through the Capital Square series, which were in four-packs of 12-ounce bottles when first introduced, but was converted to single twenty-two ounce “bomber” bottles in 2015. Sometimes the experiments were about process as well as flavor: for the Capital Square Tett Doppelbock, the beer was given a hot water infusion of Tettnang hops six weeks into the lagering process. Other beers represented experiments with raw materials. Capital was among the leaders in developing beers that would focus on Wisconsin-grown ingredients, including Island Wheat, introduced in 2005, which featured wheat grown on Washington Island in Lake Michigan. The first batch had 15 percent percent Island wheat, but as the growers increased their crops and the beer found success, the percentage of Island wheat grew to 50 percent.

Capital also was an early supporter of collaboration between and among Wisconsin craft brewers—in fact Autumnal Fire was first brewed as a pilot batch at Great Dane (and served as “Octuple Bock”). Capital joined with Great Dane and Lake Louie to brew a Scottish ale as a stone beer (made by lowering hot rocks into the wort to caramelize the sugars), and the brewery has also been a regular participant in the Wisconsin Common Thread collaboration beers.

Capital was unusual for a brewery of its size in that it did not have its own bottling facilities. The brewery was landlocked and had little room to expand (without shrinking the popular beer garden), and packaging equipment was expensive and diverted funding from other priorities. For the first two years packaging was done at Huber Brewing Co. in Monroe, but after that an arrangement was worked out with Stevens Point Brewery in which beer would be shipped north in a special milk truck for bottling. The company launched plans in 2012 for a new brewery and packaging facility in nearby Sauk City, but development was delayed and the plans were shelved in 2016.

While the company had several management changes over the years, the most significant departures came in 2012 when president Carl Nolen and brewmaster Kirby Nelson left to start Wisconsin Brewing Co. in Verona. The most notable change (aside from the Sauk City plans) was a number of new hoppy brands in the portfolio. The first IPA brewed by Capital was called Mutiny—partially a reference to the history of the British merchant marine fleet that brought the beer to India, but perhaps also an expression by brewers who wanted a freer hand in recipe design.

As the company celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in 2016, Capital could look back on three decades of struggle, success and innovative beers. Production in the early 2010s was generally between 25,000 and 30,000 barrels per year, and the brewery continued to turn out creative and popular brands under the direction of head brewer Ashley Kinart-Short, the first woman in charge of brewing at a large Wisconsin brewery.1228 (Additional illustrations of Capital products are found in chapter 10.)

Milwaukee (Milwaukee County)

• Simon (Herman) Reutelshofer (1840?–41)
• John B. Maier, Lake Brewery (1841–44)
• Franz Neukirch, Lake Brewery (1844–48)
• Neukirch & Melms, Menominee (Menomonee) Brewery (1848–1859)
• C. T. Melms, Menominee Brewery (1859–1870)
• Jacob Frey (1870)
• Philip Best Brewing Co., South Side Brewery (1870–1886)
• Virginia & Hanover (now Oregon) Streets

The argument over whose brewery was the first in Milwaukee may have been colored by the Yankee or German sympathies of the chroniclers who awarded the prize. Even as early as the 1870s and 1880s claims were made for both Owens’ brewery and the business that eventually became the South Side brewery of Philip Best. Simon (sometimes called Herman) Reutelshofer did not have a stable start at what was at least the first German-owned brewery in Milwaukee if not the first of all. According to one account, he tapped his first keg in May 1841, but business was slow and he got into financial difficulties. In a disputed transaction, Reutelshofer sold the brewery to baker John B. Maier, who, according to some accounts, proceeded to physically beat his predecessor from the brewery. Reutelshofer, who believed he had only signed a mortgage, eventually won damages from the courts, though not as much as he had sought, and by that point Maier had passed the brewery on to his father-in-law, Franz (Francis) Neukirch.

Neukirch steadied the business and soon brought in another son-in-law, C. T. Melms. Melms’ first stay in Milwaukee was for a few months in 1843—he returned in 1847 after spending two years trapping in Minnesota Territory and making a trip back to Germany. He was credited with bringing scientific brewing techniques to the company; these launched the Menominee Brewery into the front rank of the city’s lager makers. While obituaries following his death in 1869 claimed that he had the largest brewery in Milwaukee for twenty years, this was only true for a few years. Nonetheless, he was always close to the production of Best, Blatz and Schlitz, whose breweries were on the way to being among the largest in the nation. The brewery became a center of community activity: the first Sons of Hermann chapter in Milwaukee was founded at the brewery. Melms later opened beer gardens and saloons around the city. He was a master of promotion and found a way to get in the papers frequently. He sent a keg of “buck beer” (bock) to the printers of the Milwaukee Sentinel, which resulted in a column of thanks and praise. (He had apparently taken on for a time a partner named Schauss at this point in 1857.) Melms’ bock earned rather fulsome (if ungrammatical) praise again in 1859 when a Daily Sentinel reporter enthused: “Buck Beer—when sold by Melms—is a nectarian tonic that tiltillates [sic] the olfactories [sic], rejuvenates the cellular membrane, animates the inner man, quickens the tympanum, and makes a man jolly and jovial. It partaketh [sic] of the nature of lager without it[s] deleteriousness, and Ale without its specific gravity; it is light, wholesome—elysian—provided Melms makes it. . . .” A tour offered to a journalist in 1859 became a two-column feature article.1229 Melms’ position in the Milwaukee brewing firmament was well established. Several important brewers trained at his brewery, including Nicholas Klinger of Whitewater and Franz Falk—and experience at Melms’ was touted as a guarantee of skill. When praising the brewery of Charles Haertel of Portage, the Daily Sentinel could find no higher praise than to call him the “Melms of Portage.”1230

Melms occasionally was in the papers for less fortunate reasons. In 1852, he offered a reward for the return of his dog, which had been stolen from the brewery. A new beer vault collapsed in 1857 inflicting a loss of more than $4,000, though all the beer had been removed because weakness had been detected earlier.

By the 1860 census of industry, Melms reported production of 15,000 barrels, almost twice as much as his closest competitor in the state and double what he had reported a year earlier. Melms built an impressive residence near the brewery to show off his wealth and the importance of his business. Despite appearances, research by Leonard P. Jurgensen has shown that Melms’ financial position was precarious. He built a spectacular new brewery in 1865, and while writers claimed it was often mistaken for a cathedral, it may have placed him in more debt than his business could support. By the end of the 1860s, output had stagnated. The production in 1867 was just over 13,000 barrels, which was now about 5,000 behind Best and Blatz. Circumstances deteriorated further in 1868, when something went wrong with the brew and Melms had to dump about $48,000 worth of bad beer into the river.1231 Melms died in February of 1869, and his brewery was put up for sale.

The brewery was first purchased in May 1870 for $80,000 by Melms’ brother-in-law Jacob Frey, a brewer from Fond du Lac. Pabst historian Thomas Cochran claims was an attempt to save something from the estate for Mrs. Melms, but Jurgensen argues Frey simply may have been trying to buy and quickly sell the property at a profit. By November, Captain Pabst and Emil Schandein had completed the purchase of one of the best-equipped and situated breweries in the city for the Philip Best Brewing Co. at a cost of $95,000.1232

(For additional information on the Menominee Brewery, see Chapters 2 and 5 and the description of the Phillip Best/Pabst Brewing Co.)

• Owens, Pawlett & Davis, Milwaukee Brewery (1841?–45)
• Owens & Pawlett, Lake Brewery (1845–1850)
• Richard G. Owens & Co., Lake Brewery (1850–1864)
• M. W. Powell & Co. (1864–1875)
• Powell’s Ale Brewing Co. (1875–1880)
• 222 Huron Street (modern Clybourne)

Though one newspaper account erroneously claims a date of 1837, Richard G. Owens started Milwaukee’s second brewery around 1841. (Further detail is found in chapter 2.) At some point in the early 1840s William Pawlett appears to have moved to the Eagle Brewery, but returned to work with Owens again within a few years. One point of confusion is when the name of the brewery changed from Milwaukee Brewery to Lake Brewery. There was another Lake Brewery during the 1840s, and advertisements from as late as 1851 name Owens’ firm as the Milwaukee Brewery (with an address of 165, 167, 169 Washington Avenue).1233 The brewery built its first expansion in 1845. The resulting complex included a two-story building sixty feet long and twenty-five feet wide, with another smaller but taller building of three stories behind it, both with cellars beneath.1234

The brewery prospered through its four decades of operation, maintaining a position among the leading ale brewers of the city—though its standing relative to the lager breweries declined steadily after the first ten years. Owens produced 4,000 barrels of ale worth $20,000 during the year recorded for the 1850 Census of Industry, and 2,000 barrels worth $12,000 ten years later. While this would suggest a decline in the market for British ales, M. W. Powell, a Chicago resident who rented or leased the brewery from Owens after 1864, was able to increase production to 2,891 barrels in 1865 and 3,095 two years later.1235 Powell made the newspapers when he was unsucessfully sued by a woman who fell down a hatchway while visiting the brewery to obtain yeast and spent grain.1236

Powell eventually bowed to local preferences and introduced lager in the summer of 1869. This was made possible by the erection of a brick brewery built the same year. Powell was able to keep production around 3,000 barrels for the next few years. By the end of the 1870s, this brewery, now operated by Powell’s partner Owen Pritchard under the name Powell’s Ale Brewery, was the only remaining producer of ale in Milwaukee. A correspondent for Western Brewer observed in 1877: “In the long list of breweries in Milwaukee, we find but one making ale–the A. B. Powell Brewing Co. Their product is well known, having won a good reputation in years past, which the proprietors are rigorously maintaining. It is good to find a little ale in the great ocean of Milwaukee lager.”1237 However, the days of the ale specialist were numbered. Still making over 2,000 barrels when Western Brewer visited, the next year production was cut in half and in 1879 it was down to 562 barrels. In May, 1880, the Milwaukee Sentinel reported that the “’old Lake’” was no longer in operation, blaming both lager and “shipment of bottled ales from the East. . . .”1238

• Baker, Eagle Brewery (1841–42)
• Miller & Pawlett, Eagle Brewery (1842–44)
• Miller & Anson (also Miller & Knight) (1844–45)
• Levi and Alonzo Blossom, Eagle Brewery (1845–1852)
• Northwest corner of Eighth and Prairie (modern Highland)

Mr. Baker’s Eagle brewery appears to have changed hands several times in its first few years of operation, and was for sale even more times. An ad which ran for many months in the Milwaukee Sentinel offered.

For Sale.—Those valuable premises situated in the town of Milwaukie [sic]–comprising a NEW BRICK BREWERY three stories high, 30 by 40 feet, cellar under the whole, with horse-mill attached for grinding all necessary grain—large malt-kill, cooling rooms, dwelling house, stable, and a never-failing stream of soft water which is introduced into the top of the brewery. Said buildings and fixtures are entirely new, and will be sold at a great bargain, with one or two acres of land attached to said premises.1239

Miller apparently had financial problems, since William Anson placed an ad in the Milwaukee Sentinel notifying the public that he was not responsible for Miller’s debts, only those of the firm contracted by Anson himself. The real estate agent, Levi Blossom, eventually took over the brewery himself and ran it with his brother Alonzo for several years. Blossom evidently had difficulty retrieving all the brewery property, since he was compelled to run newspaper ads directing the public to return any kegs or other items of the Eagle Brewery to him rather than William Miller or his partners.1240

After this turmoil, the business settled down and prospered under the guidance of the Blossoms. The city directory of 1847 lauded the brewery, which was described as 175 feet long and three stories high, containing its own malting floors. The cellars were 100 feet deep with a masonry arch two feet thick that spanned twenty feet. Also on the property was a spring which was directed into a reservoir capable of holding 500 barrels of water.1241 Blossom advertised Milwaukee, Eagle and Scotch Ale, which was available in casks or bottles. The latter appears to give the Eagle Brewery claim to having offered the first bottled Milwaukee beer, rather than the much-advertised later claim of Blatz.1242 In the 1850 Census of Industry, the Blossoms’ enterprise was the third-largest producer in the city (and the state) with 3,900 barrels, just behind the 4,000 sold by both Owens and Johann Braun. However, the building was “entirely consumed” by fire in November 1852, and Blossom seems to have left the brewing business.1243

Some accounts have Blossom selling the brewery to Middlewood, but evidence suggests that Middlewood & Gibson built a new brewery very close to the old Eagle Brewery, and the address given was sometimes different.

• Conrad Muntzenberger (1842–47)

Conrad Muntzenberger was trained as a brewer in Germany, but also served in the German army in Algiers. He came to America in 1841, and was employed first in Cincinnati.1244 The only early source specifically mentioning his Milwaukee brewery is Hermann Schlüter’s 1910 work, which claims that Muntzenberger was the owner of the third brewery in the city.1245 Nothing is known about Muntzenberger’s operations in Milwaukee, and no documents have been found mentioning him. It is also possible that he was employed by another brewery for part of this time. He became much more prominent after he moved to Kenosha in 1847.

• Johann Wolfgang Weise (1843)
• David Gipfel, Union Brewery (1843–49)
• Chas. W. Gipfel, Union Brewery, Weiss Beer (1849–1892)
• Herman Schliebitz (1892–94)
• 417 Chestnut (modern 423–427 West Juneau Avenue)

According to Albert Schnabel, secretary of the Milwaukee County Historical Society in the 1940s, David Wiese started a brewery at what was then 417 Chestnut street in 1843, though an unidentified account also found in the files of the Milwaukee Country Historical Society claims that the founder was named Wolfgang Weise, and that David Gipfel took over later that year. The research of Leonard P. Jurgensen clarifies that the founder was Johann Wolfgang Weise. Another unidentified account claimed that David Gipfel “was the richest Milwaukee brewery of his day, but not a close business man.”1246 In 1849, the brewery passed to David’s brother Carl Wilhelm (Charles) who was in his mid-twenties. Most sources indicate that the first wooden brewery on this site was built in 1843, but a new brick brewhouse was added ten years later.1247 While Gipfel’s business is not included in the 1850 industry census, it is in the 1860 edition, where it was reported to have brewed 600 barrels the previous year. Interestingly, this census made particular mention of breweries producing “white beer” and Gipfel’s was not included in this list. This supports Schnabel’s claim that Charles switched to weiss beer in 1872—the earlier unidentified account gave no date but said he “later made white beer instead of brown, in a wooden addition at the rear.” Gipfel also owned a farm on Green Bay Road (to which he retired in the 1890s) and a piece of property on a hillside which Jurgensen has concluded was used for lagering caves, given that the parcel was always owned by brewers.1248

Apart from imprecise reminiscences of early residents, few details of Gipfel’s operations exist. David Meyer, recounting the early breweries in 1925 at age ninety-three, declared that Gipfel had an old white horse that used to provide the power to grind the grain. Charles Gipfel was in the papers more often for his activities with the Second Ward Democrats or other government interactions than he was for brewing. He was drafted for military service in 1864, but his name does not appear in the regimental listings.1249 He appears only intermittently in city and industry directories—suggesting that he did not brew consistently. His production in 1874 was only 100 barrels, though his 1875 output was reported as 5,211, a nearly impossible increase if this quantity is barrels, given the size of his plant and the smaller market for weiss beer. (It could have been gallons, cases or even bottles, since no other directory lists him with a capacity of more than 500 barrels.)1250 By 1888, Gipfel’s business was usually listed as a saloon, though it is possible that the wooden brewery in back was still used to make an occasional brew. Herman Schliebitz took over the business in 1892, and was listed as a weiss beer brewer in the city directory for a few more years. The building was subsequently occupied by the Marmon Soap Co., and then by the Elsner harness shop for several decades.

The Gipfel brewery may have more importance as a case study in the preservation of historic structures than for any merit as a brewery. The 1853 brick structure (which was the saloon rather than the brewery itself) was one of the few Federal-style buildings in the city to survive until the late twentieth century, and preservationists sought to keep the building from being razed. In 1998, the owners sought to demolish the building, contending that it was dilapidated and impossible to restore, but the city blocked the move. There was a proposal in 1998 by David Hansen of Ambier Brewing Group, Inc. to put a brewpub in the building, but that never came to fruition. In 2001, the building needed to be protected from damage when the Park East Freeway was being demolished. But since the building sat on a prime site in downtown near the Bradley Center, it was in the way of lucrative redevelopment opportunities. So, in March 2007, the building was uprooted and moved about a block to a new site on Old World Third Street. Two years later the city ruled that the structure was unstable and needed to be razed.1251

• Best & Co., Empire Brewery (1844–1853)
• Empire Brewery, Jacob Best, Jr. & Phillip Best (1853–1860)
• Empire Brewery, Phillip Best (1860–64)
• Phillip Best & Co., Empire Brewery (1864–1873)
• Ph. Best Brewing Co., Empire Brewery (1873–1889)
• Pabst Brewing Co. (1889–1920)
• Pabst Corporation (1920–1933)
• Premier-Pabst Corp. (1933–38)
• Pabst Brewing Co. (1938–1996)
• Pabst Milwaukee Brewery (2017–present)
• 917 Chestnut; 1037 West Juneau (2017–present)

While Pabst Brewing Co. eventually created a brewing empire on which the sun never set; early on the name Empire Brewery was more hope than reality. In fiscal 1850 John Braun produced nearly twice as much lager as the five-year old Best & Co., and Best also trailed both of the major ale breweries in the city. The area credit evaluator for R. G. Dun & Co. reported in February 1849 “Don’t know them.” Two years later he knew of them, but judged they were a poor credit risk.1252 This opinion was to change quickly and dramatically.

The Empire Brewery was started in 1844 when Jacob Best Sr. and his four sons, Jacob Jr., Phillip, Charles and Lorenz started their small brewery on Chestnut Street. The brothers did not always get along, and Charles left in 1845 to return to making vinegar. Lorenz, the youngest, was apparently more like an employee than a partner of Jacob Jr. and Phillip, and he left in 1850 to join Charles in establishing the Plank Road Brewery (later Miller Brewing). Jacob Best Sr. withdrew from active involvement in the business in 1853, leaving his two eldest sons in charge. During the 1840s the Bests also distilled whiskey and produced vinegar as well as brewing their increasingly popular beers.1253

The sons purchased more land, some of which was adjacent to the brewery and used to expand the plant, including a new brewhouse with additional cellars in 1857. Other land was used for beer halls, including a centrally located lot on Market Street between what is now East Kilbourn and East State. Best & Co. already was shipping beer to Chicago during the 1850s, and had established an office on Randolph Street by 1857.

Jacob Jr. retired from the partnership, receiving almost $10,000 and the Market Street beer hall as his share, and the fiery Phillip took full control of the company. The payout to Jacob Jr. as well as the economic depression of the late 1850s and the Civil War in the early 1860s meant that capital for expansion was scarce, and like most Midwest breweries, Best and Co. were forced to tread water while waiting for the business climate to improve.

The postwar expansion of Best & Co. was masterminded by its new leaders, Frederick Pabst and Emil Schandein. Both married daughters of Phillip Best: Pabst met Maria Best while he was captain of a steamer on Lake Michigan and married her in 1862, and Schandein married Maria’s younger sister Elizabetha (“Lisette”) in 1866. Best sought an opportunity to retire, and the appearance of two sons-in-law with business and technical ability and engaging personalities allowed him to turn over the family firm in 1866 with confidence. (Best died while visiting Germany in 1869).1254

The end of the war, the resumption of immigration from beer-consuming nations, and the recovery of the economy allowed Best & Co. to start growing again, and at a rate that outstripped breweries elsewhere in the country. Best & Co. had started shipping beer to Mexico in 1865, the expansion of the rail network opened markets to the West, and the Chicago fire of 1871 allowed Best and other Milwaukee brewers to move in to the Chicago market faster than they may have otherwise. In 1868 Best became the largest brewer in Milwaukee—a position it would not give up for the rest of the century. Part of the growth was likely due to the personalities of Schandein and Pabst (especially the latter; Schandein was less of a public figure), some due to their business ability and instincts. The most important move they made in the post-Civil War period was the purchase of the Melms brewery. The large, modern plant was subsequently known as Best’s South Side Brewery, and not only gave the company more production capacity but also better access to railroad links, and thus more efficient shipping facilities.

Best had an office in Chicago in the early 1850s, and other breweries followed the lakeshore south. The importance of the Chicago market is indicated by the fact that the manager of Best’s Chicago North Side branch, John S. Pierce, earned a higher salary than any other employee of the company other than the secretary and head brewmaster.1255 While Chicago was too close and profitable to ignore, most of Best’s first thirteen branches were in Wisconsin cities like Ashland, Eau Claire, Stevens Point, and Wausau. Other early expansions crossed the border to cities such as Peoria and St. Paul, along with Houghton and Calumet in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which were reached more easily from Milwaukee than Detroit. The notable exceptions were the Kansas City branch, which was the first branch other than Chicago, and the Pittsburgh branch, established in 1884.1256

In 1873 the Phillip Best Brewing Co. was incorporated in Wisconsin with Pabst, Schandein and Charles Best Jr. as the only directors. The company was estimated to be worth $600,000, which ranked it among the largest manufacturers in the country. Frederick Pabst, known almost universally as Captain Pabst, held a majority of the shares for all but a brief period from incorporation until his death in 1904, which effectively made him the leader as well as the public face of the company. Emil Schandein died in 1888, and was replaced on the board of directors by his widow Lisette, who for the next several years was probably the only female vice-president of a major brewing company. Pabst orchestrated a few leadership changes at the beginning of the 1890s. He brought his son Gustave into the company as secretary when Charles Best Jr. retired due to ill health, and also appointed accountant Charles W. Henning as assistant secretary—the first non-family member to serve as an officer. Frederick Pabst Jr. and J. F. Theurer, superintendent of brewing, were both given a few shares of stock in 1892. Theurer’s innovations in scientific brewing made him too valuable to lose to a competitor.

Phillip Best Brewing Co. changed its name to Pabst Brewing Co. in 1889, several months after the death of Emil Schandein, but the company maintained the logo of a capital B superimposed on a hop leaf in honor of the firm’s beginnings. The firm was augmented by another major purchase in 1892, when Pabst acquired the equipment, good will and some of the property of the fire-prone Falk, Jung and Borchert Brewing Co. This also changed the composition of the ownership, since members of the Falk and Borchert family were given stock as part of the agreement. (Philipp Jung, who had been superintendent of brewing for Pabst from 1873 to 1879, went into businesses on his own, first in malting and later buying the Obermann Brewing Co.)

In the period from 1873 to 1893, the company led by Pabst developed into a modern multinational corporation. America’s rapidly expanding population, especially urban industrial workers, created a huge new market for Best/Pabst and other brewers to supply. Best was an early adopter of bottled beer, and a series of brewmasters concluding with Theurer tinkered with the formula for the bottled beer until it was appealing in color, flavor, and stability. As Pabst Brewing Co., business was expanded into nearly every state by 1890 (New England was not an important market outside of the major cities in Massachusetts). In the mid-1880s the company began a concerted effort to start marketing beer overseas, instead of merely responding to special orders. While Best/Pabst only sent a few thousand barrels overseas in the years around 1890, this was still almost 30 percent of all U.S. beer exports.

Throughout this period, Best/Pabst continued to refine the marketing and promotion methods that would make the company one of the most important breweries in the world. The brewery celebrated the Centennial of the United States by producing a special Centennial Lager Beer, which was available on draught at selected locations.1257 They also brought out Century beer near the turn of the twentieth century and supported it with strong advertising. Pabst, Theurer and other executives were well aware of the ability to attract attention by introducing new brands and harnessing the publicity for advertising. Red, White and Blue followed Century, and capitalized on the triumphant expansionism that followed the Spanish-American War. Advertising manager Joseph R. Kathrens came up with the idea of using a bottle with a shamrock instead of the usual logo for St. Patrick’s Day. However, the company ended the label proliferation in the early 1900s and focused on their core brands. Pabst advertised extensively in newspapers and magazines, often with elaborate campaigns that stretched as long as three years. As early as the 1870s the brewery relied heavily on souvenirs for advertising, and this method of keeping the company’s products in the public eye only increased over time.

Captain Pabst and his advertising teams were particularly adept at identifying events that could be used to publicize the brands and the company. Not only were the heroes of the Spanish-American War featured in advertising (see also Chapter 5), but Pabst made sure the heroes were well supplied with his beer. According to a newspaper article (that was probably really an advertisement rather than an authentic news story), Pabst.

sent an unlimited supply of his amber fluid to Manila to be given to the soldiers, and after each battle one barrel of the famous Milwaukee brand is sent to each company from the agency in Manila. That the soldiers appreciate the action of Col. [sic] Pabst is shown by the number of letters that are being received from them, in which they declare that the lives of many of the United States soldiers have been saved by the generous use of Pabst Milwaukee beer.1258

Of course, capitalizing on the awards from the Columbian Exposition in Chicago to relaunch Pabst Select as Pabst Blue Ribbon was the most enduring of these promotions (and is covered in more detail in chapter 5).

Pabst worked hard to position his beer as a luxury product that was worth spending extra to enjoy. The move into the New York City market depended on this tactic. Since the many established New York brewers already had the tied house saloons under control, Pabst focused on high-class restaurants who would not be serving Blue Ribbon exclusively, but where it would get exposure in a distinctive setting. In some cases, this meant building his own establishment, such as the Pabst Hotel on Times Square, or later the Grand Circle Restaurant at Columbus Circle. Pabst Brewing Co. exhibited a team of six “perfectly matched” dapple-gray Percherons at state fairs and international expositions, where they won numerous awards. Adding to the publicity value was the specially designed and brightly painted railroad car that brought the team to each event.

As important as securing distant markets was to the company, it placed special emphasis on maintaining the home market—all the more difficult because so many of the nation’s large brewers called the Cream City home. The Pabst Theater, the Whitefish Bay Resort, the Pabst Building, Pabst Park and the St. Charles Hotel all kept the brewery name before the public and associated it with quality and entertainment. The company also erected an enormous electric sign in 1910 at Grand Avenue and West Water Street in which the lights flashed so as to make appear that the hand pointing at the bottle of Blue Ribbon moved and the blue ribbon itself waved. As prominent as these monuments were, the brewery itself was the best advertisement, and nearly every visiting group or convention was invited to tour the plant and enjoy beer fresh from the brewery.

Growth continued through the 1910s, and worldwide expansion continued even during World War I, when some markets previously served by German or British breweries could no longer get those brands. Pabst could be found in nearly forty countries and was generally available in distant cities such as Shanghai. However, the omnipresent nature of Pabst made it one of the prime targets of the temperance movement, which finally triumphed with the passage of the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act.

The Pabst brothers, Gustave and Fred Jr., decided against shutting down, and prepared to make the best of the situation until (what they believed would be) the eventual repeal of Prohibition. Fred took charge of marketing new products and did his best to retain longtime employees. The company produced a wide range of soft drinks, malt products, and cheese, and rented out portions of the brewery to other businesses. (More detail about Prohibition-era adjustments is in chapter 6.)

Pabst Brewing Co. was part of an unusual merger during Prohibition. The Premier Malt Products Co., successor to Decatur Brewing Co., had working capital that Pabst lacked, and Pabst had a national brand and reputation. Premier had also produced a brand of malt syrup called Blue Ribbon—Pabst protested the use of the name, but since they did not yet have a malt syrup under the name, they lost the suit. Premier’s head, Harris Perlstein, led a talented group of executives, and Fred Pabst Jr. may have been looking toward his impending retirement. The new Premier-Pabst Corporation was formed October 1932, and within weeks Franklin D. Roosevelt had been elected president—at least in part because of his pledge to repeal Prohibition.

Pabst was one of several Milwaukee brewers that was ready to deliver beer as soon as it was legal on 7 April 1933. The brewery had plants in Milwaukee and Peoria Heights, Illinois, and began working to restore its position among the leading breweries. Premier-Pabst predicted that packaged beer would dominate the market, and the company emphasized both production and marketing of bottled beer, and in 1935, canned beer. The company also rebuilt its foreign trade, and by 1941 sold about 60 percent of all American exported beer.

In 1938, the stockholders voted to restore the name Pabst Brewing Co., though in recognition of the multiple plants the plural Pabst Breweries remained on the seal for several years. The years prior to World War II saw the brewery engage it the same tactics that brought it to the fore in earlier years. Starting with Blue Ribbon, the brewery introduced additional brands. Red, White and Blue was revived as the “popular price” beer (which at that time was 10¢ per bottle at retail compared to 15¢ for a premium beer). The Casino brand was another “popular price” brand that had a brief run in the wake of the popularity of the Pabst Casino at Chicago’s Century of Progress exhibition in 1933 and 1934. Pabst also brought out two more flavorful beers: Old Tankard Ale in cans, and Andeker, an all-malt European-style premium lager, on draught only.

During World War II, Pabst was among the most vigorous supporters of the war effort: engaging in common activities like scrap metal drives and war bond drives, as well as unique activities such as supporting an essay contest on how to control postwar unemployment. (Two future chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisors, Herbert Stein and Leon Keyserling, won first and second prizes, respectively.) After the war, the company introduced a new slogan: “Thirty-three Fine Brews Blended into One Great Beer,” which may have had little meaning for the casual drinker, but was intended to highlight the consistency of the beer.

As the war drew to a close, Pabst began the territorial expansion that would characterize the growth plans of many of the large shipping brewers. In 1945, they purchased Hoffman Beverage Company in Newark, New Jersey, which gave them a modern brewery on the East Coast and access to a large distribution network. The growth on the Pacific Coast, caused in part by the booming military economy in the western states, made it imperative for brewers to enhance their presence, preferably in a way that would reduce shipping costs. To that end, Pabst purchased the plant of Los Angeles Brewing Co. in 1948. Pabst refrained from adding breweries in new regions until it built a new plant in Perry, Georgia, in 1971. The company attempted to purchase Blatz in 1958, but was blocked by anti-trust regulators. (Additional information about geographic expansion is in chapter 8.)

While Pabst Brewing Co. continued to grow in size and sales, it was unable to dislodge Anheuser-Busch and Schlitz from the top two spots in the national rankings after World War II. The sustained expansion program left the brewery with much more capacity than it needed by the 1970s. In a misguided attempt to boost sales, the company repositioned Blue Ribbon as a popular price brand, which worked for a few years but eventually devalued the brand and left the brewery without a true flagship premium beer. Pabst responded by buying even more breweries and labels, essentially following the lead of Heileman Brewing Co. in having a series of popular regional beers rather than a true national brand. Company annual reports adopted verbal gymnastics to place a positive spin on unsold beer, such as the claim: “By the end of 1979 we were able to reduce inventories of our products in the field to an absolute minimum.”1259

In the 1980s, Pabst was the subject of a takeover attempt by Minneapolis-based financier Irwin Jacobs, who initiated a proxy fight to take control of the company. Infamous in the brewing community for his 1975 purchase and closure of Grain Belt Brewing Co. in Minneapolis, Jacobs had joined the board of Pabst in July 1981, allegedly to engineer a turnaround and avoid a proxy fight. However, the proxy fight began anyway in December, and continued until early 1983. During the conflict, Pabst sought a merger with C. Schmidt and Sons of Philadelphia (not to be confused with the Jacob Schmidt Brewing Co. of St. Paul, at this point part of the House of Heileman) in order to deter Jacobs. A proposed merger with Pittsburgh Brewing Co. failed because the Steel City firm tired of waiting for the drama in the Cream City to end.1260

Ultimately, Paul Kalmanovitz ended up purchasing Pabst Brewing Co., and the end of the Milwaukee company was not far away. In 1995, production of most of the brands was moved to Heileman’s plant in La Crosse, and in October 1995 management announced that the 141-year old Milwaukee institution would close for good. The Pabst brands stayed alive, brewed under contract at Miller and other locations, and in the early twenty-first century Blue Ribbon saw a significant resurgence as a “hipster” beer, popular precisely because it wasn’t a nationally advertised brand (and was often served in inexpensive 16-ounce “tallboy” cans).

Twenty years after the brewery closed, the Pabst name began to come back, and the brewery neighborhood was revitalized. The former brewhouse has been converted to the Brewhouse Inn & Suites, a hotel featuring a line of restored brewkettles in the lobby. Other buildings in the complex still await reuse. The Pabst brands were purchased by Eugene Kashper, an immigrant, who moved to America at age six. (Some headlines reporting Kashper’s purchase erroneously reported that he was a Russian national, perhaps because of his holdings in Russian breweries.) Unlike several previous investors, Kashper was a beer industry veteran, and saw the opportunity to rebuild the Pabst brand. At this writing, Pabst has brought back Old Tankard Ale (reportedly brewed according to the 1937 recipe), recreated Ballantine’s Ale and is considering reintroducing other classic recipes such as Doppel Braeu from the 1890s. In 2017, Pabst opened a small brewpub in a church that had been part of the Pabst complex since the nineteenth century—bringing back old recipes and offering creative new brews typical of many modern craft breweries.

• John P. Engelhardt, Main Street Brewery (1845?–1861)
• Elizabeth Engelhardt, Main Street Brewery (1861–62)
• 37 Main and North Chicago Street (today Broadway and Chicago) (1845–); 1150 Windlake Avenue? (1857–1862)

The precise year in which John Engelhardt began brewing is unclear. An account from 1906 claims that he arrived in Milwaukee in 1845 and started the brewery shortly thereafter. However, it is likely that he was in the city by 1838, though he did not start brewing until later.1261 By 1850 Engelhardt was among the larger brewers in town, employing four men and producing about 500 barrels per year. Engelhardt built a new facility in 1857 on Windlake Avenue. Even though the brewery was now operated by horse and hand power, the few statistics available suggest that he did not increase production much. The fact that city directories still listed the brewery at the earlier address suggests that the new location may have been a storage facility, and that brewing continued at the original site.

Unfortunately, Engelhardt was a passenger on the ill-fated steamer Lady Elgin which was wrecked on 8 September 1860 in a collision with the schooner Augusta on Lake Michigan. About 300 people died in what is still one of the greatest losses of life on the Great Lakes.1262 Engelhardt’s widow Mary Elizabeth continued to run the brewery for about two years, after which it was managed by Jacob Wind, who had been employed at the brewery since at least 1851. Albert Schnabel’s history of city breweries indicates that Wind specialized in brown beer, as opposed to lager.1263 After 1862 Wind (or Windt) is no longer listed as a brewer in city directories. The property remained in the Engelhardt family, and Elizabeth leased the building to Franz Ludwig and Charles L. Kiewert (later a dealer in brewery supplies), but the brewery no longer operated. The vaults on Windlake Avenue collapsed in 1906, and Phillip Stephen Engelhardt sold the Main Street property in 1922, just before his death.1264

• Johann Braun, Cedar Brewery (1846–47); City Brewery (1847–1851)
• Valentin (Valentine) Blatz, City Brewery (1851–1889)
• Val. Blatz Brewing Co. (1889–1891)
• United States Brewing Co. of Val. Blatz (1891–1911)
• Val. Blatz Brewing Co. (1911–1920)
• Blatz Brewing Co. (1933–1959)
• 609 Broadway, later 1120 North Broadway

Johann Braun (John Brown) began producing beer in 1846 at his brewery at what was then Market Street between Martin and Division. First called the Cedar Brewery, in the 1848 city directory it was listed as the City Brewery, though it was sometimes still known by the former name.

Braun’s production in the early years is confused by later accounts. The 1850 industry census listed Braun as producing 4,000 barrels, a figure that seems accurate given his revenue was $18,000. Val Blatz later claimed that he started by making 400–500 barrels in 1851, but his obituary in 1894 claimed that sales that year were only 150 barrels. It is likely there was a large drop in production due to the sudden death of Braun and the delay in restarting under Blatz. However, it is possible that the 150 figure was a downward exaggeration since that quantity was used in many articles and was applied to several of the early breweries and appeared to be the standard number used to dramatize the growth of a mighty brewery from humble origins.

Braun was the first in Wisconsin to own two breweries—in addition to the Cedar/City brewery in Milwaukee he was also a partner in the City Brewery of Racine with Fred Heck. Braun may not have been a trained brewer himself, since he employed several other brewers, including Louis Brauchle (later of Columbus) and Valentin Blatz. In fact, the 1851 city directory lists four “brewers” boarding with Braun. Unfortunately, Braun’s multiple locations led to his demise—in March 1851, he was thrown from his buggy while traveling between the breweries and suffered injuries that proved to be fatal.1265

By this time, Val Blatz had started a small brewery of his own near the City Brewery. In December 1851, Blatz married Braun’s widow Louise and took her two children, John and Louise, into his family. He then merged the two breweries and took the name of City Brewery for the new business. Blatz had been trained by his father as a brewer in his native Bavaria, and at eighteen had been sent on a tour of prominent breweries in Augsburg, Munich, and Würzburg to learn the trade. In 1847 his father paid for a substitute to take his place in the army, and later that year he emigrated to the United States. He worked for the Born Brewery in Buffalo, New York for about a year, and arrived in Milwaukee in 1848.1266 Blatz was among the best trained of the early Cream City brewers, but he faced the same constraints as his local rivals. In an 1886 article in the Sentinel, he described the primitive conditions, and noted that most of the beer from this era was top-fermenting rather than lager and had to be consumed quickly (an 1892 article claimed that this so-called “present use beer” was entirely displaced by lager production at Blatz by 1855).1267

After Blatz took charge of the City Brewery, its growth kept it among the leading firms in the city. In 1856 he began working on plans for a significant brewery expansion, and in 1857 Blatz proposed a new seven-story malt house which was expected to cost between $15,000 and $20,000. (Sketches of the brewery from 1865 show no such structure.) By 1860 he ranked third in the city with 32,000 barrels, and would stay in that position for most of the rest of the century. His reach was expanding as well. In the summer of 1873, Blatz shipped about one thousand kegs a week to Chicago, and shipped out 300 to 500 a day to all points.1268

However, the growth was not uninterrupted. In 1865 Blatz was compelled to respond to allegations about a significant accident in his brewery:

To my greatest surprise I learn that it is rumored that a man had met with an accident by falling into a fermenting or mashing tub in my brewery. Hearing the report, at first I though it not worth while to pay any attention to such an absurd or malicious production; but learning that certain persons are making capital of this rumor, which was at first considered a bad joke, I declare said rumor an absolute falsehood, and offer ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS to any person, my workmen included, who will prove that any person has met with any such accident in my establishment.1269

Three years later Blatz himself fell seventeen feet through a trap door, and was badly bruised but recovered.1270 After the disastrous fire of 1873 (see chapter 4) the brewery was rebuilt significantly larger and featured a brewing copper of 425 barrels capacity—large enough to brew in one batch about as much as Blatz had sold in his first year. Indeed, in the first full year after the fire, Blatz produced over 55,000 barrels—well behind Schlitz and Best, but almost 40,000 barrels ahead of the next largest firm.1271

Throughout the next decades, Val. Blatz Brewing Co. was as much an innovator as it was a leading producer. Blatz adopted electrical power throughout the building as well as other fire protection measures (see chapter 4). Blatz was one of the first in Milwaukee to offer bottled lager, and for many years laid claim in advertising to being the very first to do so. Bottled beer enabled Blatz to increase their market across the nation, and their beer was on sale in San Francisco by 1877 (see chapter 5). In 1880 Blatz reached the 100,000-barrel mark, and could now be counted among the largest in the nation. In keeping with this status, Blatz advertised on a national level, sent elaborate exhibits to major fairs and exhibitions, and created a variety of souvenirs to keep the brand before the public.

As one of the leading Cream City businesses, Blatz was subject to the same labor unrest as its rivals (see Chapter 5). A few weeks after a maltsters strike in early 1888, there were a series of small explosions at the Blatz brewery, which the press was quick to sensationalize. The Sentinel claimed “there is now a strong feeling that they were not the result of any accident, but were the direct outcome of the recent troubles between the brewers and their employés [sic].” An anonymous brewery employee was quoted as saying that “There are men in the brewery who feel sore at being obliged to leave the union to retain their positions, and they are being watched now pretty closely.” However, Albert Blatz claimed that allegations of dynamite were “a d—d lie” and a less dramatic article in the Daily Journal hypothesized that the bursts were small grain dust explosions and quoted Blatz reassuring the public that workers would have no reason to blow up a building in which they would themselves be killed.1272

As one of the largest businesses in an important industry, Blatz needed to keep up with financial trends as well as advances in brewing. Blatz incorporated his brewery as Val. Blatz Brewing Co. in September 1889, with his sons Albert C., Emil and Valentin Jr. and son-in-law John Kremer as partners.1273 The new company produced 217,000 barrels in 1889, but was falling farther behind Pabst and Schlitz. Rumors of buyouts and syndicates were common at the time, and Blatz was the subject of several schemes. As was common, Blatz deflected any stories about deals, and in the fall of 1890 completed a striking new office building and announced plans for a significant expansion rather than selling the business.1274 However, negotiations with a large syndicate had been underway since 1889, and in February 1891 a deal was confirmed in which Blatz and five Chicago breweries—Bartholomae & Leicht, Bartholomae & Roesing, Ernst Brothers, Michael Brand and K. G. Schmidt—joined under English capital to form the Milwaukee & Chicago Brewing Co. Some of the Chicago breweries had previously combined as the American-owned syndicate United States Brewing Co., and the new company took the latter name, though newspapers used both names during 1891 to refer to the combination. Blatz rejected the patriotic (though corporate-sounding) name, and continued to use its own name on labels and advertising materials, and officially changed its name back in 1911. The sale was expected to be especially beneficial to the Chicago firms, since they could use Blatz’s marketing and distribution advantages to export more beer, but price wars during the mid-1890s limited the benefits and in some years the shareholders received no dividend.1275

Val Blatz himself became part of the syndicate and retained full control over the Milwaukee operations of the company. The sale was reportedly worth $3,000,000 to the Blatz family, which solidified their place among the wealthiest families in the state. However, Blatz did not enjoy the fruits of the sale for long. While stopping in St. Paul on the way back from a trip to California, Val Blatz died suddenly at a hotel in that city, aged sixty-eight. Milwaukee newspapers provided several days of coverage of his life and funeral arrangements, with articles praising his contributions to local charities, membership in civic organizations, and even his generosity to local waiters—who knew they could count on him for a (then) lavish 25¢ tip.1276 Luckily, the family was ready to take over the business, and Albert Blatz became the new president. Like his father, Albert had learned the brewing trade in a variety of cities, and had traveled to the American brewing centers of Cincinnati, Rochester, New York, and Philadelphia. Val. Jr. had studied in Germany, though it appears that his studies were less in brewing and more in business. For a while starting in 1879, he ran a confectionary company and introduced a line of candy. He returned to the family business upon incorporation, and was vice president and superintendent of the company from 1891 until 1920. Val Jr. is credited with modernizing the brewery in the 1890s, and with diversifying its businesses. He was in charge of Alliance Investment Company, which handled the Blatz real estate holdings. He purchased the Blatz Hotel in Milwaukee, and in 1916 went back into candy, which turned out to be a good idea with Prohibition approaching.1277

At the turn of the twentieth century, Blatz remained one of the most important breweries in the nation. The slogan of the era, “It leads them all” was not accurate as far as volume was concerned, but Blatz products were shipped across the country and to Mexico, South America, Australia, and Hawai’i. The company sang the praises of its product in a booklet intended for distributors just after the Spanish-American War, claiming “Complaints against the quality of Blatz are as scarce as Spanish victories in the Yankee-Spankee war,” echoing the jingoistic and often racially tinged language of the era.1278 Blatz Park was a popular resort on the Milwaukee River for those seeking escape from the city. However, as a national brewer, Blatz had already experienced financial losses due to the imposition of prohibition in several states, and was somewhat better prepared for national prohibition than other firms.

Blatz did more to keep the company name on products during Prohibition than most other breweries. The actually put some advertising support behind their near beer, Old Heidelberg, which proved popular enough that they kept the name for their flagship lager after Prohibition. The company manufactured a range of soft drinks, and continued to brew malt tonics. Blatz Bohemian Malt Syrup was available in plain and hop flavored varieties, and customers interested in ways to use it (for baking, not brewing, or so they claimed) could send for a free recipe book. In 1923 Blatz sought and was granted a charter to establish a warehouse in Kansas for its non-alcoholic products. This was remarkable not only for the simple fact of a brewery building new facilities during Prohibition, but also because Kansas had not granted a charter to any brewing company for any purpose for forty-two years (since Kansas became one of the first states to adopt prohibition).1279

Two important leaders took the helm at Blatz during Prohibition. Edward Landsberg, formerly of United States Brewing Co. and general manager of Blatz for that company, purchased the brewery from the syndicate in 1920 and became the president of the company, and his brother-in-law Frank Gabel became the secretary. The two would guide the brewery through Prohibition and through the decade of growth thereafter.

Since Blatz had continued to produce near beer throughout the dry years, the company was in a good position to make the conversion back to real beer. The Journal of 27 March 1933 featured a photo of Blatz’s bottling line at work—they had started the day before to fill 600,000 bottles per day, the first of Milwaukee’s breweries to bottle beer at the end of Prohibition.1280 The Blatz plant was one of several where revelers camped out waiting for the first legal beer, and Blatz beer was among the bottles sent by air to President Roosevelt as soon as it was safe to fly through the stormy weather that day. In 1934 Blatz made what they rather immodestly called “the greatest advancement in the brewing industry in 20 years,” placing the date of brewing on every bottle of Old Heidelberg. This feature was not entirely new, since perforated labels had been used for many years to indicate the bottling date. Contrary to late twentieth and early twenty-first century emphasis, however, the “Brew-Date” on Old Heidelberg was designed to show that the beer had been aged long enough, rather than to show how fresh the beer was. This was a reaction to the concern about insufficiently aged (or “green”) beer being sold in the rush to capture the market in the wake of Repeal.1281 Blatz began using “cone-top” cans in late 1935, making them the third Milwaukee brewery to offer canned beer (Pabst and Schlitz preceded them). The company erected a massive neon sign on top of the brewery in 1937 that was twenty-six feet high and thirty-three feet wide on all four sides and required 1,200 lineal feet of tubing.1282 The brewery still held on to one pre-Prohibition practice for a few years, however—they continued to do some bottling at their branch in Prairie du Chien until 1937.1283

During the 1930s Blatz was able to rebuild much of its national market. Edward Landsberg died in February 1941, and Frank Gabel succeeded him as president. Shortly thereafter, in 1943, Schenley Distillers of New York purchased the brewery from the Landsberg estate for $6 million. Gabel remained as president to guide the million-barrel brewery through World War II, but retired in 1946. Gabel assured the 1,150 employees that no changes in operations were imminent.1284

For the next decade, the only changes were expansion-related. In 1945 the company announced a major building program to increase capacity from 1.1 million to 2.25 million barrels. Blatz added a new bottle house and new guest facilities late in the 1940s (the bottle house is now part of Milwaukee School of Engineering). Finding the new additions still inadequate, in 1953 new president Frank Verbest started exploring the possibility of purchasing existing breweries, and was looking for facilities in California to the west, Louisiana, Texas or Georgia to the south, and New York, New Jersey or Pennsylvania to the northeast.1285 However, no purchase was made, and Blatz was hit hard by the 1953 brewers strike. Because it settled with its workers before the other Milwaukee brewers, Blatz was kicked out of the Milwaukee Brewers Association and the Wisconsin State Brewers’ Association. New product launches (such as Tempo, see Chapter 8), label changes and renewed advertising could not prevent production from slipping under one million barrels for the first time since 1943. In 1958, Pabst purchased Blatz, but the purchase was later ruled impermissible by anti-trust regulators, and Heileman acquired the Blatz brands. (See Chapter 8 for more details on the end of the brewery.)

• Henry Stoltz, Union Brewery (1848–1850)
• Stoltz & Schneider, Union Brewery (1850–1862)
• Henry Stoltz, Union Brewery (1862–65)
• Margaret Stoltz, Union Brewery (1865–68)
• Knab, Sprey & Co., Union Brewery (1868–1870)
• Paul Degan & Christian Fuss, Union Brewery (1870)
• Paul Degan, Union Brewery (1870–73)
• Joseph Fuss, Union Brewery (1873)
• Jacob Stoltz, Union Brewery (1873–74)
• Fred Borchert & Son, Union Brewery (1874–79)
• Jung & Borchert, Union Brewery (1879–1884)
• Jung & Borchert Brewing Co. (1884–88)
• Falk, Jung & Borchert Brewing Co. (1888–1892)
• 110–123 Ogden/Corner of Ogden and Broadway

While a few sources have claimed this firm dates back to the early 1840s under the management of Stoltz and Krell, the best documentation shows that the brewery could not have been that old. The research of Leonard P. Jurgensen indicates that Stoltz did not arrive in America until 1845, and that the lot he purchased in 1848 had no structures on it. Contemporary newspaper accounts place the construction no earlier than 1848.1286 Michael Stoltz, most likely the brother of Henry, was in charge of building on the hilly site, which was selected so lagering caves could be excavated easily. By 1850, in partnership with Leonhardt Schneider, the business had grown to 1,600 barrels. Around this time he built a malt house, and replaced the brewery in the early 1850s. The brewery continued to grow along with the city and, by 1860, was producing 4,500 barrels. While this ranked sixth among the Cream City brewers that year, Stoltz & Schneider were in some ways still a second-tier brewery. They used horsepower unlike their main rivals who had switched to steam. Schneider died in 1862, and Stoltz purchased his share. Stoltz himself died in 1866 (though some sources inaccurately claim 1865), and his widow Margaret took over the management of the brewery for a few years. (Michael appears in the 1867 excise records, but he may simply have been paying the tax. He lived next door at 678 Main and was listed in the city directory as a distiller.)

In 1868, Margaret Stoltz rented or leased the brewery to David Knab and Matthew Sprey, who had limited success. Their first year of business saw production drop to 2,845 barrels, and by 1870, they turned the brewery over to Paul Degan, who had married Leonhardt Schneider’s widow and had worked at the brewery during the 1860s. Sprey was subsequently employed at the Hartford brewery but was killed in 1873 in a railroad accident at Slinger (then Schleisingerville). The brewery was sold at a sheriff’s sale to Charles Koefer, but Degan seems to have stayed on as brewer. The brewery continued to slip in the local rankings and sold only 178 barrels during September 1874.

In late 1874, Degan obtained a $6,000 mortgage on the property, but transferred it the next day to brothers Jacob and Joseph Fuss. But the brewery property was soon embroiled in a dispute between the Fuss family and Jacob Stoltz. The Daily Sentinel reported:

A quarrel about the ownership of the old Stolz [sic] Brewery resulted in a savage fight between the Fuss brothers and one of the Stolzes. It appears that the Fuss brothers purchased the property for $15,000, and have had some trouble in securing possession of the premises. Last week there was quite a squabble for the books, and, on yesterday, one of the Fuss brothers, a step-father to young Stolz, got Fuss’s thumb into his mouth and bit it nearly off. . . . the quarrel is growing so bitter that the authorities will be obliged to bottle up the contestants.1287

This turbulent episode ended soon after when grain merchant Ernst Borchert bought the brewery with his brothers Charles and Frederick Jr. and named it after their late father.1288

Borchert took a few years to put the brewery “on a paying basis,” but by 1879 had boosted production to an impressive 10,000 barrels—still firmly in the second tier of local firms, but respectable. In December of that year Borchert brought in a new partner, Philipp Jung, who had been a foreman (brewmaster) for Phillip Best Brewing Co. There were conspiracy theories that Captain Pabst had sent Jung to the Ogden Avenue brewery to control its operations as part of a cartel, but these were debunked—Jung was simply a rising foreman looking for a firm in which he could be a partner.1289 Under this new management, the company expanded both its facilities and its reach. By the mid-1880s, the brewery had reached 60,000 barrels per year, just behind Miller, and had depots in cities around Wisconsin. In 1882 the company considered an expansion on land in the Chase Valley, but nothing came of these plans. During 1882 the brewery earned mention for using hops grown in nearby Wauwatosa.1290 Jung & Borchert was among the breweries involved in the labor disputes of January 1888, and their work force of 160 abandoned the union to keep their jobs for about the same high wages as the larger breweries.1291

It was clear that the growth potential of this brewery was limited, at least in part by its location. It was in a crowded neighborhood, and could not expand. In October 1888, Jung & Borchert joined with the slightly larger Franz Falk Brewing Co. to create the new firm of Falk, Jung & Borchert. The plant at Ogden and Broadway was used briefly for storage, first by Falk, Jung & Borchert, and later by Pabst when that company took over the former in 1892. In 1896, Pabst took out a building permit for a “lithographic institution” which became the new facility for Gugler Lithographic Company, the creator of labels and advertising material for Pabst and other breweries.1292 The rest of the firm’s history is covered under the Falk, Jung & Borchert entry.

• Green Bay Road Brewery
• Christian Pfeiffer (1848–1851)
• Pfeiffer & Conrad (1851–56)
• William M. Middlewood (1856)
• Rheude & Co. (1856–59)
• Davis & Co. Albion Brewery (1863?–66?)
• Green Bay Road and Third Street, Third between Galena and Walnut

According to Leonard P. Jurgensen, Christian Pfeiffer established the Green Bay Road Brewery in 1848. He was joined shortly thereafter by partner Valentin Conrad. The business was fairly small, since this brewery did not pass the $500 threshold to be included in the 1850 or 1860 census of industry. It was, however, significant enough to be mentioned in an 1853 survey of the industries of Wisconsin.1293 Pfeiffer was sometimes listed alone in the city directories during the mid-1850s. Around 1856, Anton Rheude purchased the brewery from William Middlewood, who had acquired the property earlier.

The Green Bay Road Brewery had a beer hall at 217 East Water Street during the mid-1850s. A. Rheude “respectfully invited [his] friends and the public in general” to hear a “Grand Vocal Concert” at the hall in January 1858. However, by late March, the beer hall was under new management and serving the bock beer of Sauer & Muehlschuster’s brewery.1294 It may have been that Rheude got out of the brewing business around that time. The brewery was sold back to Middlewood at a sheriff’s sale in 1859. In March 1860, he announced in the Sentinel:

The subscriber having purchased the brewery late in the possession of Rheude & Meister, and not intending to carry it on as a Brewery, offers for sale the Plant, &c., of said concern, consisting of a first class Copper Boiler, Steam Engine, Malt Mill, Wort Pump and other fixtures; also a parcel of Puncheons and loose articles.1295

The language of the advertisement suggests that the brewery was not in operation at the time of the proposed sale.

It may have taken Middlewood some time to find someone to run the brewery, but by 1863, it was rented to John M. Davis, one of the partners in the original Lake Brewery. Davis operated under the name of the Albion Brewery along with partner John Dearsley and brewer Titus T. Luin. This company only lasted a few years, and the Green Bay Road Brewery was sold to Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co., which was using the facility by 1866.1296

• August Krug (1849–1861)
• Joseph Schlitz, Chestnut Brewery (1861–1874)
• Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co. (1874–1920)
• Joseph Schlitz Beverage Co. (1920–1933)
• Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co. (1933–1981)
• 46–48 (later 420) Chestnut (modern Juneau) (1849–1868); Third and Galena Streets (1868–1981)

August Krug arrived in Milwaukee in 1848, and the next year started a small restaurant and brewery on Chestnut Street. Krug may have been more of a manager than a brewer, since his first employee was apparently brewer Franz Falk, a fellow native of Miltenberg, Bavaria (as was Val Blatz). Later accounts claim his sales in the first year were either 400 or 500 barrels, but these numbers were often used to show how small a brewery once was, and may be imprecise. While the neighborhood around Krug’s brewery was filled with breweries and other businesses, Krug was wise enough to buy other land so he could expand his business after filling up the first lot.1297

As Krug’s business expanded and he focused more on beer, he hired other employees, including bookkeeper Joseph Schlitz. (According to a later account, Schlitz had managed a brewery in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania prior to moving to Milwaukee.)1298 When Krug died in December 1856, Schlitz took over management of the brewery. In 1858, Schlitz married Krug’s widow Anna Maria (who was a member of the Hartig brewing family of Watertown), and later changed the name of the firm to Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co.1299 By 1860, Schlitz was producing about 4,000 barrels of lager a year, which placed him among the second tier of Cream City breweries, behind Best, Blatz, and Melms. (The Census of Industry for 1860 also reports that he made 2,500 barrels of “young beer,” which was probably another term for “present use beer,” as distinct from lager.) Schlitz’s Chestnut Street location was landlocked and did not allow for further expansion. (The brewery’s original cellars, sometimes erroneously claimed to be the first in the city, were at Walnut and Third.) As a consequence, a new brewhouse was built in 1870 and 1871 near their existing beer vaults, which enabled the company to nearly triple its production. The new buildings, which cost $30,000, showed off the latest brewery architecture and equipment, and some of them stayed in use for several decades. The ice house and cellar could hold 7,000 barrels of beer. Water came from a spring at Fifth and Sherman and was brought to the brewery through cement pipes.1300

By the early 1870s, Schlitz had passed 50,000 barrels per year, and trailed only Best among Milwaukee’s brewers. The brewery continued to expand rapidly. The company purchased the nearby Pfeiffer brewery at Third and Walnut in 1873.1301 In 1874, Schlitz brewed over 9,000 barrels in September alone, and the Daily Sentinel remarked “The table shows that Schlitz’s brewery is looming up in importance. It appears that the Best company have the largest home custom, and that Schlitz’s beer is in great demand as an article of transportation.”1302 Indeed, by the next year Schlitz was shipping third and sixth-barrels to California.1303 In November 1874, one of the vats collapsed, dumping three hundred barrels of beer into the offices below and causing $3,000 of damage or loss.1304 Regardless, the year was a good one for the company, with production topping 70,000 barrels. Like many wealthy brewers, Schlitz occasionally traveled back to Germany to visit friends and family. On April 18, 1875, the Milwaukee Daily News published a note:

Joseph Schlitz requests THE NEWS to announce that he hereby bids farewell to all friends and acquaintances whom he had not the opportunity to visit personally before his departure for Germany.

Tragically, this was his final farewell, for his vessel, the Eagle line steamship Schiller, was wrecked on May 8th off the Scilly Islands, with the loss of hundreds of passengers, including Joseph Schlitz.1305 Schlitz left behind the now twice-widowed Anna Maria, and four step-nephews who had been living with him: August, Henry, Albert and Edward Uihlein (pronounced E-line). (The four boys were sons of August Krug’s sister Katherina.) Schlitz had placed the four Uihleins in charge of the brewery while he was away, so the transition was smoother than it might have been. August Uihlein had worked as a bookkeeper at Schlitz’s brewery and had also been general manager of the Uhrig brewery in St. Louis during the early 1860s, returning to Schlitz in late 1867 or early 1868. He became the secretary and chariman. Henry, the new president, had served an apprenticeship in Bavaria, but honed his skills as the manager of the Kunz brewery in Leavenworth, Kansas. Vice-president Edward joined the firm around 1871, and was responsible for spearheading the effort to capture the Chicago market after the fire, and for introducing and refining Schlitz’s distribution branches. In some circles, Edward was better known for inventing an “improved wagon grease.” Alfred became superintendent and brewmaster. Two younger brothers also came from Germany to Milwaukee and were brought into the firm: William became assistant superintendent and Charles was superintendent of the Schlitz bottling works (after they established their own plant).1306 The company maintained the name Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. for the next century, but contrary to popular belief there was nothing in Schlitz’s will that required the name to stay the same.1307

Under the four brothers, the brewery continued to grow both in size and reach. The most important development in the years immediately after they took charge was the hiring of Voechting and Shape in 1877 to be the first official Milwaukee bottlers of Schlitz beer. (Bottled Schlitz beer was advertised by agents from Lincoln, Nebraska to Boston, Massachusetts in 1876.)1308 In the first year alone, one million bottles of beer left the bottling works, and the demand forced Voechting and Shape to open new bottle houses multiple times while they held the Schlitz contract. After five years of Uihlein management the brewery was making more beer (139,154 barrels) with more employees (300) and distributing it in more places than ever before. Beer was being shipped to Mexico, Central America, and as far away as Brazil. Local trade was covered with thirty-eight teams of horses and thirsty patrons were entertained at Schlitz Park, (formerly Quentin Park) which the company bought in 1879 for $23,000.1309

The company experienced enormous growth in 1880, increasing production by fifty percent to top 210,000 barrels. Quality was not sacrificed—a shipment of Schlitz bottled beer was sent to Germany where it was analyzed and tasted and earned high praise for both purity and flavor.1310 Shipping expanded to Australia, Japan and China. Bottles came from Germany (Milwaukee’s glass industry was still in infancy) and $20,000 worth of corks were required. Despite the expansion of the nation’s rail network, Schlitz still shipped to California via Cape Horn, since it was half the cost of rail shipment.1311

Over the next three decades, the story was one of steady and sometimes spectacular growth as Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. moved into the ranks of the largest breweries in the world. The brewery expanded its bottling agencies in distant cities, built hotels in many cities and taverns in even more. (See chapters 4 and 5.) The Milwaukee Sentinel excerpted an article from The Western Brewer that called Schlitz “America’s Boss Brewery” and detailed the extent of their operations:

There is a double track railroad entering the premises, with a loading capacity of fifty-two cars a day, and such are the working facilities of the establishment that it takes just fifteen minutes to load and pack one car of beer. The company manufactures all the fine grades of Bavarian and Bohemian beers, such as Salvator, Erlanger, Pilsen, Budweis and Wiener, for which they have been awarded the highest premiums for their brightness, pureness of taste and excellent flavor. Their brands are shipped all over America, Europe, South America, the West Indies, Australia and East India.1312

About 150,000 barrels of the 1883 production of 339,000 barrels was bottled—testimony to how fast bottled beer was accepted after its introduction only a few years earlier. This volume made necessary an all-new bottling works on South Bay Street, which cost $100,000 to build.1313 Since by law all beer had to be racked into barrels first, it was less of an inconvenience to ship the barrels from the brewery to the bottle house than it otherwise would have been. The success of the company brought great wealth to the owners. Several of the Uihleins built opulent mansions on what came to be known as Uihlein Hill. When Anna Maria Schlitz died in 1887, her will split up a fortune of half a million dollars. Henry could afford a six-month trip to Europe, and upon his return about 400 employees turned out with a band and a torchlight parade to welcome him home.1314 The workers were not always this satisfied with management, and Schlitz was beset by several strikes (covered in earlier chapters). There were other occasional problems as well. In 1888, an agent of the company in Chicago had been caught forging the company’s labels and doing his own bottling, while still representing it as the “brewery’s own bottling.” But in general, the brewery prospered, and the prosperity enabled the company to keep up with technological developments like artificial refrigeration—the brewery installed four ice machines in 1890 at a cost of $50,000. While this technology was available to smaller breweries as well, few could afford to make such a prodigious investment at one time.

The 1890s brought rumors of mergers and syndicates, but also plans for expansion. Schlitz had rival Pabst in its sights, and in 1892 planned an expansion that would eventually bring capacity to a staggering 1.7 million barrels per year, which the Sentinel called “the most colossal ever outlined by any brewing company.”1315

To sell this much beer, the company had to promote it. Like several other brewers, Schlitz participated in the Columbian Exposition of 1893, and its pavilion was an architectural marvel. Around the same time, the slogan “The Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous” was introduced in Schlitz advertising.1316 In 1896, the well-known Milwaukee solo sailor Adolph Frietsch announced that he planned to sail around the world alone in a twenty-eight foot schooner dubbed the Schlitz Globe. The voyage was to be sponsored by the brewery, the boat would be decorated with the Schlitz trademark, and he was to deliver samples of Schlitz beer “wherever he touches.” “The company has agencies throughout the world,” Frietsch proclaimed, “and I am going to visit most of them.” However, the grand voyage apparently never took place, since an article from 1899 about Frietsch’s next proposed adventure made no mention of the round-the-world trip.1317 Schlitz joined Pabst in sending beer to soldiers and sailors during the Spanish-American War, and shipped beer to Teddy Roosevelt when he was hunting in Africa.1318

In the early decades of the twentieth century, the brewery focused its advertisements on the purity of the beer and the brewing process. Ads announcing Schlitz’s presence at the St. Louis Exposition of 1904 not only described the several types of beers available (including Weiner draught and Export bottles at the Philippine exhibition) but also reassured readers “The doctor knows that malt and hops are nerve food and tonics.”1319

Schlitz survived the Prohibition years by making malt syrup, near beer (Famo was the most famous brand) and many other products. The attempt to start a new line of candy products called Eline (after the phonetic pronunciation of the family name) was a financial disaster, but in general the Uihlein family (now mostly the second generation) invested wisely and were able to preserve the brewery in a state that could return quickly to producing beer when the time came. (See chapter 6 for more on the Prohibition-era operations.)

Schlitz Brewing Co. helped lead the celebrations in Milwaukee and nationwide on 7 April 1933, when beer became legal again. Schlitz also led in the adoption of new technologies: the steel beer keg and the beer can. Schlitz attempted to continue the pre-Prohibition practice of touting the purity of its beer, but claiming that Schlitz beer contained “Sunshine Vitamin D” was too much for regulators, even if true. Newspaper advertisements spoke of “enzyme control” and proclaimed “No Wild Yeast in Schlitz.” Another advertisement advised: “Drink it freely. It flushes and tones the system. It is exhilarating by day and induces sound, restful sleep at bedtime. It is good and good for you.”1320 Schlitz also introduced a new “popular price” brand in the 1930s. Old Milwaukee wasn’t a standard popular price brand, however: There were bock and winter beer versions, and it was sometimes bottled by agencies outside Milwaukee—a practice that continued for some time after Repeal.

The brewery continued to expand and modernize its plant during the years before World War II, spending millions of dollars on buildings and equipment. A notable addition in 1938 was the Brown Bottle hospitality room, which paid tribute to the importance of the brown bottle in pre-Prohibition advertising (though now brown was the industry standard). During World War II, the brewery joined the war effort and became a leading provider of beer to the armed forces. Schlitz emerged from the war as the largest brewery in the country, and expanded capacity further with its purchase of the former Ehret brewery in Brooklyn, New York in 1949. By 1950 Schlitz produced more than five million barrels, and in 1952 it set a record with 6.35 million barrels in a year. However the 1953 strike set the company back and Anheuser-Busch moved into the top spot in the rankings. Schlitz and Anheuser-Busch alternated in the top spot for the next few years, but a concerted push by the St. Louis company gave it the lead in 1957 and it has remained the largest brewery in the nation until this writing.

While no longer number one, Schlitz still expanded production, again by buying or building new breweries. Schlitz moved into California in 1954 with a brand-new brewery in Van Nuys. The company acquired the Muehlebach brewery in Kansas City, Missouri in 1956, just a year after Schlitz became the radio sponsor of the newly arrived Kansas City Athletics baseball club.1321 The company started work on its new brewery in Tampa, Florida in 1957, and celebrated its opening in early 1959. Though foiled in its attempt to purchase Burgermeister Brewing Co. of San Francisco, Schlitz purchased the Hawaii Brewing Co. of Honolulu in 1963, and built a new brewery in Longview, Texas, that opened in 1966. Schlitz also attempted to one-up their crosstown rivals by proposing a brewery in Turkey, but these plans ultimately fell through.1322

Retaining market share required relentless advertising, both nationally and locally. Slogans such as “Real gusto in a great light beer” (first used in 1962) and “When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer” were featured in catchy advertisements, especially on television commercials. Most Americans alive during the era, including this author, can and will break into song when the ads are mentioned. The company also took the unusual step of advertising its popular price beer, Old Milwaukee. The reason low-price beers were lower in price was the lack of advertising. But the move was successful at first, as Old Milwaukee became the fastest growing brand in the country in the 1960s. Schlitz also introduced Schlitz Malt Liquor during this period, and “The Bull” became one of the best-known and best-selling high strength beers in the nation. Locally, Schlitz sponsored the Circus World Museum’s Fourth of July parade and Old Milwaukee Days, and the Uihlein family supported the Milwaukee zoo, museums, performing arts organizations, and donated land for the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center.1323

The 1970s started with Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. enjoying spectacular gains, but ended with the business on the ropes. The company opened new breweries in Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Memphis, Tennessee; and Syracuse, New York. The first two had capacities of about 4.4 million barrels per year; the Syracuse plant was the largest in the world at the time, with capacity for brewing 5.8 million barrels in a year. In 1973, new capacity was seen as essential, since the company was producing at 98 percent capacity (21.3 million barrels). However, while this expansion enabled the company to sell $1 billion of beer in 1974, a series of setbacks harmed the company irreparably in the next few years. Robert A. Uihlein’s death left the company without clear leadership, the federal government prosecuted Schlitz for illegal marketing activities, and the company’s new Accelerated Batch Fermentation had resulted in quality control problems that forced the dumping of ten million bottles and cans of beer in Memphis and Tampa. Failed ad campaigns only harmed the brewery in the public mind, and continuing losses forced the company to close the Milwaukee brewery in 1981. The company was eventually purchased by Stroh Brewing Company of Detroit after a proposed deal with Heileman fell through.1324 (More on the last years of Schlitz is found in chapter 9.)

• Charles Best, (Best & Fine) Plank Road Brewery (1850–51)
• Best Bros. Brewery, Plank Road Brewery (1851–53)
• Best & Schultz (1853–54)
• Best & Co. (1854)
• Frederick Miller, Plank Road Brewery (1855?–1873)
• Frederick Miller, Menominee Valley Brewery (1873–1888)
• Fred Miller Brewing Co. (1888–1920)
• Miller Brewing Co. (1920–2002)
• SABMiller (2002–8)
• MillerCoors (2008–present)
• 4000 block, West State Street; (Corporate Headquarters since 2009: 250 South Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois)

Prior to Frederick Miller’s arrival on the scene, the history of the Plank Road Brewery was rather turbulent, and even the circumstances of his acquisition of the brewery were less crystal clear than his beer. In 1845, Charles Frederick Best left the brewery he helped start with his father and brothers. Four years later, he began to erect a brewery along the Watertown Plank Road, then under construction. While Cochran’s history of Pabst claims that Charles didn’t start until 1850, it is likely that he made at least some beer in 1849, as his production for the year ending in June 1850 was 1,200 barrels, which would have been an extremely high six-month total for a start up brewery. Best’s first partner was Gustav Fine, a twenty-eight year-old German-born brewer. At some point in 1850 or 1851 Charles’ brother Lorenz joined the business and Fine left, though it is not clear if Lorenz purchased Fine’s shares or if Fine left later.1325

The partnership of Best & Brother, as the new firm was known, lasted only until the beginning of 1853, when Lorenz sold his shares to Otto Schulz and retired from the business.1326 During 1854 Best & Co. opened a lavish “Summer Retreat” near the brewery (described in chapter 2). The new beer garden was successful, but Best ended up saddled with a partner who ruined the business. Schulz sold his share of the brewery to F. Tolber, who then sold it to Henry Wild. Wild, who had just moved to Milwaukee, posed as a sharp businessman, but was in fact a reckless speculator who lived extravagantly, lost money in real estate, and pulled the company into bankruptcy. The brewery was purchased at sheriff’s sale by James Rogers, who then sold the brewery to Miller in 1856. Evidence seems to indicate that Miller was involved with the brewery in 1855, the date commonly given for the founding of Miller Brewing Co., perhaps as a renter, but the documentation is not conclusive.1327

Frederick Miller was among the best prepared of any of Milwaukee’s pioneer brewers. Miller began his brewery training in 1839 with a two-year apprenticeship, followed by several years of working at different breweries in Germany and France. In contrast to most early immigrant brewers, some of the breweries where Miller worked are known, including the Horst brewery in Innestadt and the Schonich brewery in Augsburg. In 1849, Miller obtained the lease for the royal brewery of the Hohenzollern family at Sigmaringen, south of Stuttgart near the Swiss border. Miller built a solid reputation at Sigmaringen, and also developed experience in reviving an inadequately equipped brewery, which would help him after his move to Milwaukee.1328 Once he took over the Plank Road Brewery, Miller pushed the business with great energy, even in the face of the stiff local competition. In a December 1857 ad announcing the release of his “Buck Beer!” [sic] at the Plank Road Brewery Beer Hall, the proprietor modestly proclaimed “Miller expects to receive a call from all his friends and the rest of mankind today.” A year later, the same hall featured “Munich Dopple Beer,” which may have been similar to a doppelbock.1329 Miller soon restarted Best’s beer garden, and according to some secondhand accounts, was shipping beer to Chicago (which is likely) and New York (which would be more surprising). The evidence is better that Miller was selling his beer as far away as Memphis and New Orleans by 1860.1330

Despite Miller’s efforts, his brewery remained in the second or even third tier of Milwaukee’s breweries for many years. Its production in 1867 of 3,281 barrels was less than one-fifth that of leaders Blatz and Best, and in the same range of breweries little-remembered today: Enes & Co., Stoltz, and Maier & Hohl.1331 Miller began to remedy this situation in 1870 by building an all-new steam-powered brewhouse and updating his equipment. He changed the name to the Menomonee Valley Brewery in 1873, established a branch office in Chicago, and over the next few years Miller was firmly entrenched in fifth place in Milwaukee (behind Best, Schlitz, Blatz and Falk). Miller joined the ranks of bottled beer sellers at the end of the decade, and by this time had a network of saloons and agencies all over Wisconsin and in the surrounding states. (A label from this period is pictured in chapter 5.) Miller’s most ambitious expansion of this era was his attempt to start a branch brewery in Bismarck, North Dakota, a money-losing proposition that lasted for about five years (see chapter 4.) In addition to the Bismarck effort, Miller made significant expansions at the brewery the Menomonee River Valley and continued building icehouses and agencies around the Upper Midwest. They also built their own bottling department in 1884.1332 Fred Miller insisted on pouring his profits back into the brewery, and generally was near the cutting edge of new brewing technology. The company’s production in 1886 exceeded 62,000 barrels—still in fifth place.1333

Fred Miller died of cancer in June 1888, and his widow Lisette (his second wife, of the Gross brewery family of St. Martin) and his five children took over the business. The five children all served as president of the company at some point, including the girls. (The details of the Miller family are covered exhaustively by Tim John in The Miller Beer Barons and will only be summarized here.) Building continued almost constantly during the next decades, with new stockhouses, bottling plants, and other facilities being added on a regular basis. About the only subtractions were the beer garden on the bluff above the brewery, which declined in popularity and finally ended its run when fireworks destroyed the pavilion in 1891. The extensive cave system also fell into disuse with the rise of artificial refrigeration, and were totally abandoned by 1906.1334 The turn of the twentieth century saw Fred Miller Brewing Co. now in fourth place among the city’s brewers, partially because of its own growth but also because the brewery of Falk, Jung & Borchert burned and its remaining assets were purchased by Pabst.

The Miller of the 1890s joined its fellow Milwaukee brewers in producing a wide range of brands: an 1892 article listed Standard, Export, Pilsner, Muenchner, Culmbacher, and Budweiser, which at the time was still considered simply a style developed in the Bohemian city of Budweis (Budvar), just like the three preceding it in the list, rather than a unique trademark of Anheuser-Busch. And in what would be an interesting contrast for a company that would make globally famous pale beers in the next century, the article noted “In a few days the Malto Cream, we understand, the darkest beer ever sold in bottle form, will be placed on the market.”1335

In the early years of the twentieth century, Miller Brewing was drawing closer and closer to its rival national shipping brewers. By 1910 it owned more than one thousand saloons around the country, many of them built by the company and identifiable by a seal with a large M in a sunburst displayed prominently on the building.1336 The brewery increased its advertising in all sorts of newspapers and magazines, mostly using the blunt but effective slogan “The Best Milwaukee Beer.” This slogan was used on the earliest advertising for Miller’s new flagship beer, Miller High Life, introduced in 1903. High Life was sold in a bottle with a tapered neck rather than the standard bottle with rather dramatic shoulders (which happened to serve the purpose of catching sediment present in all but the most carefully filtered beers). The bottle shape suggested a new slogan “The Champagne of Bottled Beers,” first used in 1907. (The claim that Miller used clear glass to show the clarity of the beer may have been true but was not particularly innovative—many breweries used clear glass instead of brown glass at this point, a fact used in counter-advertising by Schlitz.) The new brand also had a striking symbol—the Girl in the Moon. (The girl originally was portrayed standing in a stylized Mexican equestrienne outfit, but she was placed on the crescent moon in 1907).1337 The popularity of Miller High Life showed in increased sales: from an already impressive 260,000 barrels in 1903, production nearly doubled to 473,000 barrels in 1911. This turned out to be the pre-Prohibition high point because national consumption stagnated as more and more parts of the country went dry.

The company’s success was due to a combination of solid management by the founder’s sons Ernest, Frederick A., and Emil Miller, and a team of hired managers including Eugene Salbey, Oscar Treichler, and John Kraft, the brewmaster responsible for Miller High Life. The financial returns on the business were as impressive as the growth in production: net income was over $600,000 per year from 1902 to 1915, the value of the company’s property (including saloons and fixtures) nearly quadrupled to over $12 million during the same period, and the dividends earned by the Miller siblings in 1916 were $800,000 each, which was a staggering sum in that era.1338 The family built a grand new home at 3200 West Highland Boulevard (which was known as Sauerkraut Boulevard because of all the wealthy German residents in the neighborhood), and the family moved there in 1901.1339

When Prohibition arrived, Ernest Miller was extremely reluctant to switch to any business other than beverages. Miller made a near beer called Vivo, and an interesting companion product, a wheat beverage called Milo. Miller took the risky step of renaming its near beer Miller High Life Brew in 1920—most brewers were very reluctant to apply the name of a premium flagship beer to a product that was likely to have minimal acceptance. (A High Life Brew sign is pictured in chapter 6.) The numbers indicated that the beverage was not a consumer favorite: sales were just over 80,000 barrels in 1920 and dropped below 20,000 in just a few years.1340 Sales of near beer dropped in part because of low customer satisfaction, but also because the bootleg and wildcat business had adapted and was ready to fill the vacuum with something approaching real beer. While the near beer, soda and malt product lines were generally money losers, the company continued to be profitable throughout the dry years because the family had invested wisely in real estate. The company was diversified enough to cushion the effects of Prohibition and leave the brewery in a good position to pivot back to making real beer in 1933.

The solid financial position of the family and the company stood in contrast to the drama in the Miller family. Lisette Miller died in 1920, and while she was no longer involved in day-to-day business operations, she was an intelligent and able manager of the family, and was in many ways she was the glue that held the family together. The brothers followed their own pursuits in the following years. Ernest resigned as president to devote much of his time to Catholic philanthropy—in 1925 he received a papal medal for his devotion. Frederick A. Miller preferred spending time on his estates and gardening, but was a capable successor to Ernest as president. Emil earned a reputation as a dissolute playboy, and was in frequent trouble with the law or his shady creditors. The family put the company up for sale in 1925, but when the only serious bidder was Emil, they took the property off the market and decided to ride out Prohibition.1341

Miller’s brewery was a popular spot on 7 April 1933, like the other Milwaukee breweries that shipped out beer one minute after midnight. Even though the brewery had been producing near beer throughout the dry spell, much of the equipment was outdated. Frederick A. Miller approved a massive improvement program. Among the updates in 1936 was a canning line, making Miller the fourth Milwaukee brewery to adopt the new container. Miller decided to go with the flat top can rather than the cone top, which would ultimately be a money and time saver. Even though High Life was still the vast majority of production, the company had a few other brands that filled out the line, including Select, Export, and “Old Original.”

The company was also quick to capitalize on two new forms of advertising. Miller became a leading proponent of neon signs, and launched a radio campaign in forty states. Distant markets were becoming lucrative and by the start of World War II, Miller was no longer a large regional brewer but a true national business.1342

Frederick A. Miller retired at the end of 1937, and control of the brewery passed to his youngest sister, Elise John, though older sister Clara Miller (married to Frederick J. Miller’s nephew from his first marriage, Carl Miller) was still an active board member. The two sisters were sometimes at odds with each other, and this period through the end of World War II was marked by less aggressive expansion, stagnant sales, and the desire of some family members to increase their dividends at the expense of reinvestment. The brewery survived for a decade on a quality flagship beer, momentum, and talented management and employees.1343 Sales dropped off during the later years of World War II due to raw material quotas and decreasing the number of states in which Miller was sold from forty-two to twenty-five. The refusal to change the formula during the war to produce more beer more cheaply was another cause of decreased production, but in the long run it maintained the reputation for quality which would help after the war.

In 1946, Elise John’s only son Harry was installed as president of the company, but this experiment only lasted a year. While he was diligent about his work, his heart was in his devotion to the Catholic faith and a number of charities. He was replaced by Clara Miller’s only son Frederick C. Miller, who led a period of dynamic growth for the company. Miller supervised the building of what was essentially an all-new modern plant, including a new brewhouse, a new bottling plant, a new office building and a series of new “Stockhouses”—fermenting and conditioning buildings full of enormous vats. The new buildings were all done in a modern style, in particular the administration building, which was designed by Milwaukee industrial designer Brooks Stevens (best known for the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, but also for several other motor products, appliances, and the Miller High Life Cruiser).1344 Stevens also created the “soft cross” logo introduced in 1954.

The new facilities were one of the key factors in both Miller’s rapid increase in production and its climb up the national brewery rankings in the postwar years. In 1946, the brewery produced just over 650,000 barrels, but by 1949 had more than doubled that total, and in 1950 reached the 2 million-barrel mark. In addition, the company climbed from twentieth place in 1947 to eighth in 1950 and into the top five by 1952 with more than 3 million barrels produced. Another factor in Miller’s rise during this period was a concerted effort to expand abroad, especially into the Caribbean.1345

But the initiative that brought Miller the most national attention was its sponsorship of sports teams and events. Brewery sponsorship of sports was not new, and New York brewery owner Jacob Ruppert was responsible for bringing the Yankees to their dominant position in baseball. But Miller began to sponsor teams all over the country, especially NFL football teams. The sports connection, especially football, was logical for Fred Miller, who had been an All-American tackle for Knute Rockne’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the late 1920s (and played in the famous “Win one for the Gipper” game against Army in 1928). During the early 1950s Miller sponsored radio broadcasts of the Green Bay Packers, the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles, as well the telecasts of the Los Angeles Rams. (The Rams were a good choice not only because it gave the brewery exposure on the West Coast, but also because former University of Wisconsin standout Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch was a star for the Rams.) During the same period, the brewery also sponsored telecasts of the NFL championship game and all-star game. Fred Miller hired players to travel different regions on behalf of Miller during the off-season as representatives of their sport and the company, and was noteworthy for hiring African-American spokesmen in an era when that could have cost them business in some markets.1346

Fred Miller’s efforts were critical to encouraging the Boston Braves National League baseball team to move to Milwaukee. Miller had been a leading booster of the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association (who later moved to become the Toledo Mudhens), and led the drive to build Milwaukee’s County Stadium, the first major league stadium to be built using public funding. Miller then worked with Lou Perini, owner of the Braves (and of the Brewers) to bring the team to Milwaukee, where it set attendance records and brought a World Series championship to the Cream City in 1957.1347

Miller Brewing Co. suffered a major setback in 1953 when the Milwaukee brewery workers’ strike shut the company down for seventy-six days during peak brewing season. Unlike rivals Pabst and Schlitz, Miller had no breweries in other locations that could fill the demand, and production dropped thirty percent. Much more tragically, Frederick C. Miller, his son Fred Jr. and two pilots were killed in a plane crash in December 1954. Norman Klug, a vice-president of the company, took over as president. (Lorraine Mulberger, daughter of Elise John, remained an important board member, and brewmaster Edward Huber was elected to take Fred Miller’s place on the board.) Klug continued to build both the brewery and the brand. Miller Brewing purchased neighboring Gettelman Brewing Co. along with its brands in 1961, and used the brewery for extra capacity until 1970 when it was closed.1348

The end of family control of the company came during the late 1960s. Peter Grace, the CEO of his family’s firm, W. R. Grace & Co., had been brought onto the Miller board in 1960 by Harry John, but ended up owning the business. Norman Klug died and Lorraine Mulberger sold her majority interest in the company to W. R. Grace & Co. Harry John viewed Grace’s move as a betrayal and refused to cooperate or sell his 47 percent of company stock. After a few years, Grace decided that it was impossible to run the business the way he wanted to without full control of the stock, so he sold his shares to tobacco giant Philip Morris in 1969. The next year, John sold his stake to Philip Morris for $96 million and the Miller descendants were no longer part of the company.1349

While Miller had been growing consistently since Fred Miller took over the company, Miller’s most spectacular growth took place after the introduction of Miller Lite, a story recounted in chapter 9. Sales went from what had already been a record-breaking total of 12.8 million barrels in 1975 to 40.3 million in 1981. Miller built breweries in California, Texas, New York and North Carolina, another in California, one in Georgia and a final new brewery in Ohio. (The proliferation of breweries is covered in chapters 8 and 9.) Miller Brewing Co. was solidly established as the second-largest brewer in America, and one of the largest in the world.

Despite this success, Miller Brewing was stuck in second place, and the beer business was becoming less important to Philip Morris, the parent company. In 2002, the brewery was purchased by South African Breweries, and the new company became known as SABMiller, with headquarters in London. SAB had 4.8 percent of global market share (compared with 2.4 percent for Miller) though SAB had 108 breweries in twenty-three countries and over 40,000 employees worldwide. Miller’s headquarters remained in Milwaukee (for the moment) and all seven breweries (nine counting the two operating under the Jacob Leinenkugel name) remained open.1350

But even bigger mergers were still to come. In October 2007, Miller and Molson Coors Brewing Co. agreed to combine their U.S. operations to compete more effectively with Anheuser-Busch. This combination of the second and third-largest breweries in the country was still not enough to vault them past Anheuser-Busch, which itself was bought out by InBev of Belgium in 2008. But while the drive to control American markets was still a priority, the American market for premium beers by large international brewing companies was stagnating, and emerging markets around the world showed greater potential for growth. In Fall 2015, the move that many industry observers believed was inevitable finally happened: AB InBev made an offer of approximately $110 billion for SABMiller. But anti-trust regulators let it be known they would only agree to the merger if the new company spun off its North American operations to another company. In October 2016, Molson Coors completed its acquisition of SABMiller’s 58 percent stake in MillerCoors and all of the brands in the Miller portfolio. The company became the world’s third-largest brewer (by enterprise value) and as of 2017 had not closed any of its breweries.1351

In fact, MillerCoors added breweries to its holdings, as did other multinationals concerned about the rise of craft beer and the potential threat it posed to their market share. Between September 2015 and August 2016, MillerCoors purchased majority interests in four craft breweries: Saint Archer Brewing Co. of San Diego, Terrapin Beer Company of Athens, Georgia, Hop Valley Brewing Co. of Eugene, Oregon, and Revolver Brewing of Granbury, Texas. These became part of the Tenth and Blake craft beer division, and as of 2017 industry analysts predicted additional acquisitions in the future.1352

• William L. Hopkins & Co. (1849?–1855?)
• Martin Street (East State Street) between Market and Main Streets

William L. Hopkins probably started brewing sometime before 1850, since he appears in the industrial census of that year as a manufacturer of beer and soda. He had more employees than all but the two large ale brewers, Owens and Blossom, which probably means that several of his employees were involved with bottling (as was likely the case with Owens and Blossom). He appears in the city directory as a brewer in 1854, but not in any other year. The R. G. Dun & Co. records reported that he was still operating in Milwaukee in August 1854, but the next entry was not until 1859, by which time he had moved to Chicago.1353

• Taylor & Brother (1849?–1851?)
• Lake Brewery

John Taylor started a short-lived beer bottling operation with his brother Joseph that leased space in Owens’ Lake Brewery. The few details available suggest that the Taylors did not brew their own beer, since their inputs in 1850 did not include hops or malt, though they were listed as producing small beer.1354

• Henry Bevering & August Reimerdes (1849–1850?)
• Nicholas Schunck (1850–56?)
• Schunck & Hellberg (1856?–1860)
• Peter Gerstner (1860–62)
• Ninth and Walnut (modern Ninth and Galena)

Henry Bevering and August Reimerdes began brewing in 1849 at what was alternately called the Walnut Street Brewery and the Galena Street Brewery. The 1850 census of industry reported that the brewery employed five hands and produced 1,500 barrels of beer (which seems high, but is consistent with their revenue and raw materials used).

By 1851, Nicholas Schunck had taken over the brewery, and in that year had several employees boarding at the brewery. Louis Hellberg was not among these, but the distiller became a partner of Schunck at some point during the 1850s. When Schunck died in 1859, Hellberg ran the brewery with Schunk’s widow Mary (Maria) for several months. Mary married Peter Gerstner in 1860, and he took over management of the brewery for the next two years. The couple closed the brewery in 1862, and after several transfers, the property was purchased by Louis Hellberg, who continued distilling but did not reopen the brewery.

Peter Gerstner met with a sad end. He had aspirations of being an inventor, and became obsessed with perfecting a “water-wheel” which would convert a small flow into a considerable amount of power. His invention was a failure and that, combined with signs of mental aberration he had shown for several years, drove him to take his life in 1879.1355

• Henry Nunnemacher (1849–1851?)
• Bast & Nunnemacher, Wisconsin Brewery (1851?–52?)
• Bast & Klingler, Wisconsin Brewery (1852?–1861)
• Christopher Bast, Wisconsin Brewery (1861–69)
• Wilhelmina Bast (1869–1871)
• W. Manegold (Mangold) (1871?–72?)
• Meeske Bros. & Hoch (1873?–75)
• Meeske & Hoch, Wisconsin Brewery (1875–78)
• Grisbaum & Kehrein (1878–1890)
• 91 Knapp Street (1849–1883) 607–613 Cherry Street (1883–1890)

Henry Nunnemacher, a Swiss-born distiller, was among the immigrants who reached Milwaukee through New Orleans rather than an East Coast port. Nunnemacher joined Christopher Bast in a brewery the latter founded in 1849.1356 The brewery was at first called the Henry Nunnemacher brewery in the 1850 industry census, which is strange because the 1850 population census shows Bast as owning $2,000 of property and Nunnemacher with none. The brewery apparently got off to a quick start, since the partners sold about 800 barrels in their first full year of operation. The 1851 city directory indicated the name of the firm had been changed to Bast and Nunnemacher, and the Wisconsin Brewery name was appended (surprisingly no other brewery had taken advantage of that rather obvious name yet).

Nunnemacher sold his shares to John Klingler in 1852, and the name was changed to reflect the new ownership. The company ranked in the second tier of Cream City breweries: producing about 3,000 barrels per year by 1860. Klingler then sold his share in the brewery to Bast in 1861, and Bast became sole proprietor for the next several years. Production dropped in 1867 to only 1,244 barrels, but this may have been because of Bast’s failing health. According to Milwaukee brewing historian Leonard P. Jurgensen, Christopher Bast died in 1867, though the brewery remained in his name in city directories through 1869.1357

Bast’s widow Wilhelmina took over the brewery for a few years after her husband’s death, and kept the business going. The R. G. Dun & Co. credit reports noted that Mrs. Bast was an “active woman” who was “doing a small but safe bus[iness].” In 1871, Mrs. Bast sold the brewery, but sources differ on the purchaser. Jurgensen, whose research is quite thorough, reports that she sold the brewery to John George Museweller, who then sold it to Val Blatz. Blatz then leased the brewery to Charles Meeske and Reiner Hoch. However, the excise records, Dun Co. reports, 1872 city directory and the 1873 Brewers’ Register all list (Frederick) William Manegold (or Mangold) as the proprietor of the brewery at 91 Knapp.1358 The brewery and property may have been sold separately.

By 1874, if not earlier, brothers Gustav, Otto and Charles Meeske and Reiner Hoch were operating the brewery and converted it to produce weiss beer. By 1875, Gustav and Otto left the firm and Charles continued with Hoch. Meeske & Hoch sold the brewery business to Joseph Grisbaum and Jacob Kehrein in October 1878. (Meeske and Hoch would own other breweries in the Upper Midwest, finally ending up at Duluth [Minnesota] Brewing and Malting Co.) Grisbaum and Kehrein were not considered to be particularly good businessmen at first, but they established a small local business and improved their reputations. In 1883 they moved their business to Cherry Street, and the original site became the location of the new Blatz bottling house.1359

• Jacob Ziegler (1850–53)
• Tamarack (Modern State Street) between Fifth and Sixth

The research of Leonard P. Jurgensen has revealed that Jacob Ziegler opened a small weiss beer brewery in 1850 and operated at this location until 1853 when he moved a few blocks down the road to his better known brewery between Eight and Ninth.1360

• John Peter Weber (1850?–1853)
• Michael Muehlschuster (Sauer & Muehlschuster) (1853–1860)
• Thirteenth near Fond du Lac Avenue
• South Side of North Avenue near Lisbon Plank Road and Thirtieth Street

On 4 July 1886, the Milwaukee Sentinel published reminiscences of Val Blatz about the early days of brewing in Milwaukee. Among the old time breweries he mentioned was one started by Weber on the Lisbon Plank Road that later became Muehlschuster’s brewery. While Blatz implied the brewery was started in the mid-1840s, historian Leonard P. Jurgensen has discovered that this Weber was John Peter Weber and argues based on mortgage records that the date of founding was more likely around 1850. Records of the sale from Weber to Muehlschuster indicate that transfer happened in 1853 and the brewery was already on the property.1361

However, the history of the brewery is complicated by other accounts. Both Albert Schnabel and a 1926 Milwaukee Leader article indicate that Muehlschuster first had a brewery on Thirteenth near Fond du Lac Road (across from the West Hill/Cream City brewery site) and later moved to North Avenue.1362 But Muehlschuster’s only mention in Milwaukee city directories is in 1859 at the Fond du Lac Road location. (Further confusion is caused by a note in the Leader article that Val Blatz had been a brewer for Muehlschuster, which does not work with the existing dates because Blatz had his own brewery by this point, and Blatz makes no mention of it in the 1886 article.) The brewery was not big enough to make either the 1850 or 1860 industrial census, but was large enough to capture at least some of the Milwaukee trade. An ad for John Schauss & Co.’s beer hall in 1858 indicated that their “Buck Beer” was provided by Sauer & Muehlschuster’s brewery (which ads another player to the drama). Schnabel claims that Muehlschuster continued until 1861, but Jurgensen’s research indicates that Muehlschuster left for St. Louis in 1860.

• Valentin Blatz (1851?)
• Broadway and Division Streets

Val Blatz started his own brewery either late in 1850 or early 1851 at a location just down the street from that of his former employer, Johann Braun. Almost nothing is known about his independent operations at this location, since in April 1851 Braun died and Blatz took over the City Brewery and merged the two businesses.

• Alois Gallagger, Washington Brewery (1851?–58?)
• Mrs. Mary Gallagger (1858?–59?)
• Johnson and Water Streets (modern 207 East Highland)

Alois (sometimes given as Louis or Lewis) Gallagger (or Gallagher or other spellings) is reported to have started brewing around 1851. An account from 1926 relates that the Washington Brewery “was begun on the side hill from Market to Main, along Johnson St., but eventually chose East Water St. As its head and front. It was a near neighbor to the Braun/Blatz brewery and just as large.”1363 The brewery was built in a Flemish architectural style, and was still in existence well into the twentieth century.

The claim that the Washington brewery was the same size as Blatz’s brewery is surprising, but seems to be supported at least somewhat by advertisements in the late 1850s. There were several lager beer saloons that carried Gallagger’s beer, including a saloon at the brewery operated by Lewis Drucker, which advertised with poems extolling the atmosphere:

Saloons elsewhere in the city advertised that they carried Gallagger’s beer, which only would have been a useful advertising point if the Washington brewery had a large and solid reputation.

However, in the 1859 city directory Mrs. Mary Gallagger was listed as the proprietor of the brewery, and also as the widow of Alois. It appears that she did not continue the brewery long, because it is missing from the 1860 city directories, and one later account indicates the brewery “flourished” from 1851–60.1365

• Felix Calgeer (1852–58)
• Felix Calgeer, Phoenix Brewery (1858–1864)
• Davis & Calgeer, Phoenix Brewery (1864–65)
• Felix Calgeer, Phoenix Brewery (1865–69)
• Louis Liebscher, (1871–1880)
• 189–195 Sherman Street, South Side 200 Block of Vine Street.

In 1852, Felix Calgeer started brewing at a site on the side of a hill at Sherman Street and Second. According to local accounts, he made both white and lager beer. One account has him selling the brewery in 1854 to D. Bauscheck who made malt at the site until 1868, but that does not square with other records.1366 Calgeer bought the property in 1856, and added the name Phoenix to the brewery around 1858. Calgeer’s production in 1860 was about 600 barrels, but it is not clear if this was a mix of white and lager beer.1367

Calgeer encountered financial difficulties, and in 1861 the brewery was sold at sheriff’s sale to William Hensler and John Plankington, who appear to have bought it for speculative purposes. Calgeer remained as the brewer. John Davis joined as a partner in 1864, and was likely brought in as a source of funds rather than for his brewing experience. Calgeer continued brewing here for a few more years, but in 1869 he took a job in city government and ended his brewing career.1368

The brewery was not vacant long, since Louis Liebscher took over the Phoenix location after his partnership with John Berg dissolved. Liebscher’s term in charge was marked by a series of misfortunes. In 1871, William Henig, a boy employed at the brewery, was drawn into the gearing of the horse power, which madly mangled his leg. Later that year Fritz Huster, a driver for Liebscher, suffered a crushed leg when his team of horses collided with another. In September 1877, the brewery withstood a fire that caused about $5,000 of damage; it did not interrupt business because the brewing equipment was spared.1369 Liebscher converted the brewery to a malt house in 1880, but retained the Phoenix name.1370

• Ludwig Bruel (1853–1856?)
• Cherry between Eleventh and Twelfth

Old time histories of Milwaukee breweries include brief references to the brewery of Ludwig Bruel on Cherry between Eleventh and Twelfth. He is listed in the 1854 city directory, but sources disagree on whether he went out of business in 1856 or 1858. (He is not listed in the 1856 city directory, but this is not conclusive.)1371

• Christoph Schoepp (1852–55)
• Phillip Knippenberg (1857?–1860)
• Anton Korb (1860?–66?)
• Knoblauch & Schreiber (Carl Knoblauch) (1866–68?)
• Third Street near Williamsburg (near Shooting Park)

Christoph Schoepp’s brewery near what was then the village of Williamsburg was unknown until uncovered by historian Leonard P. Jurgensen. Schoepp brewed from approximately 1852 until 1855, when the brewery burned. Philip Knippenberg (sometimes Knippenberger in city directories) first appears in Milwaukee’s brewing scene as a partner of Jacob Obermann at Fifth and Cherry. Knippenberg sold his share to Obermann in 1856, and set out on his own. Several Milwaukee historians claim that Knippenberg started brewing at the Williamsburg location in 1857, though he did not actually purchase the property until 1858. Unfortunately, Knippenberg encountered financial difficulties and the brewery was sold at sheriff’s auction in 1860 to Anton Korb, who held the mortgage.1372

It appears possible that the brewery was out of production for a few years—Anton Korb was listed as a saloon keeper in 1862, and though he was listed as a brewer in 1863 and 1865 in the individual listings, there was no brewery listed at this location in the business section. Carl Knoblauch, the next proprietor, was still serving as foreman at Blatz’s City Brewery through 1865. The firm of Knoblauch and John Schreiber first appear in the 1866-7 city directory, and Knoblauch appears on his own the next year. Albert Schnabel reported that Knoblauch & Schreiber went out of business in 1868. However, other accounts claim that this site “finally became a weiss beer brewery, and a good one,” or “eventually brewing some of the best Berlin weiss beer made here.” It is never quite clear if it is Knoblauch and Schreiber who are brewing that beer, but no other brewery is ever listed in city directories at that location.1373

• John Hess (1852?–1863?)
• Northwest Corner of Tenth and Cedar

John Hess has been mentioned in several sources as a brewer in the 1840s. However, research by Leonard P. Jurgensen shows that he did not buy his saloon property until 1848, and probably did not begin brewing until later.1374 An article about the destruction of the building in 1909 reported that Hess had purchased the land in 1845, and claimed that brewing took place between 1852 and 1857.1375 An advertisement for Hess’s beer hall in the Taglicher Volksfreund in February 1852 does not specifically say that Hess brewed his own beer, but advertised a special wherein a quart of beer could be purchased for 6¢, and if a customer drank nine quarts the tenth was free (it did not say if that was in a single session).1376 Historian Albert Schnabel argued that Hess was better classified as one of the many tavern owners that brewed his own beer than as a brewery, but by later standards he would have been classed as a brewer. Hess sold his property in 1863, which was likely the end of his time as a brewer. The combination tavern and grocery store was later known as the Crow’s Nest, which was a popular establishment until it burned in 1909.1377 John Hess was active in Milwaukee politics, first as a Whig and later as a Democrat.1378

• Wehr & Forster, West Hill Brewery (1853–58)
• George Wehr, West Hill Brewery (1858–1860)
• Weber & Beck, West Hill Brewery (1860–62)
• John Beck (1862–1877)
• Jacob Veidt & Co. (1877–79)
• Cream City Brewing Co. (1879–1920)
• Cream City Products Co. (1920–1933)
• Cream City Brewing Co. (1933–37)
• 490–510 Thirteenth Street

It is a bit surprising that it took until 1879 for a brewery to adopt the Cream City name, given the imagery of the creamy head on the beer in addition to the cream-colored brick used so often in Milwaukee that was the actual source of the nickname.

According to a nineteenth-century account, George and Conrad Wehr and C. Forster started the West Hill Brewery in a residence and “after various vicissitudes” the company eventually became Cream City Brewing Co.1379 By vicissitudes, the author apparently meant financial setbacks and changes of ownership. The first of these happened when George Wehr bought out his partners in 1858, the next when brothers-in-law Stephen Weber and John Beck (Johann Peck in the 1860 census) purchased the brewery in 1860. The brewery listed as Weber & Peck & Co. in the 1860 industrial census was one of the smallest listed in Milwaukee, with production of only 500 barrels. Weber sold his share to Beck in 1862, and moved west to take over a brewery in Waukesha that he also would name West Hill Brewery.1380

John Beck built up the business over the next decade. In 1867 production was over 1,000 barrels, and he reported 1,800 barrels for the 1870 industrial census.1381 However, production dropped back under 1,000 barrels shortly thereafter, only to jump to 2,230 barrels in 1874. Such swings make it difficult to generalize either about Beck’s business or the Milwaukee industry in general, though Beck was now facing local competitors who were much larger and were beginning to bottle their beer. At the end of 1875, revenue officials seized Beck’s brewery and arrested Beck for reusing old revenue stamps on new kegs. This appears to have been just one symptom of financial difficulties, since the reports of R. G. Dun & Co. indicate that whereas Beck previously had been a safe risk, by 1876 he was in debt and was less creditworthy.1382

In 1877, Jacob Veidt moved from the once-mighty Rodermund brewery in Madison to lease the Thirteenth Street brewery. Veidt may have leased the brewery from a new owner, since most accounts claim that malter William Gerlach took over the brewery around this time. It is Veidt and not Gerlach that appears in the city directories, but it is likely that Gerlach took over the brewery from a bankrupt Beck especially if Beck was in debt to Gerlach for malt purchases.1383

In 1879, Gerlach, Charles Worst, and Veidt incorporated the company as Cream City Brewing Co., the name it would use through the 1930s. The brewery shared offices with Gerlach’s malting and milling operations at Eighth and Chestnut, but the brewery remained on Thirteenth. Under the new leadership, production blossomed from 3,245 barrels in 1879 to nearly 30,000 in 1884. William Gerlach died in early 1884, but the company was now on a sound footing.1384 That same year the company increased its capital stock from $30,000 to $125,000—the type of move that typically heralded a major expansion.1385 Unfortunately, Cream City Brewing was landlocked, so it was possible to modernize, but not to make a significant increase in capacity on that site. The company built a new brewhouse in 1886, a new cold storage facility in 1888, and new ice machines in 1884 and 1888. To conserve space, Cream City did not have its own malting on site, but since they were linked with Gerlach’s malting company this was not necessary. Cream City contracted with Adam Dillman and Ignatz Morawetz to bottle their beer in 1882, though in 1884 this partnership broke up and the brewery took control of their own bottling in the facility just north of the brewery.1386

By the end of the 1880s Cream City Brewing was solidly established in the third tier of Milwaukee breweries: far behind Best, Schlitz and Blatz, but approximately the same size as Obermann or Gettelman. A profile of the company in 1892 reported that Cream City beer was sold in Wisconsin and “neighboring states,” and listed seven different brands: Lager, Pilsner, Hofbrau, Edelbraeu, Extra Stock, Extra Pilsner and A-1 Cream (the last of which was only available in bottles). By the 1890s many of the directors were new and from different families, but unlike many of its rivals Cream City Brewing had never had a particularly strong family identity associated with its brand. Cream City had enough of a reputation to be the subject of merger or syndicate rumors: in 1889 it was believed to be a target of the ever popular “New York agents of English capitalists,” and in 1892 it was rumored that Pabst would purchase the company. None of these came to pass, and Cream City remained independent for the rest of its existence.1387 The brewery continued its modest export program, with depots or agents in several Wisconsin cities and a depot in Chicago at 13–15 West Ohio Street.1388

For the rest of the period until Prohibition, Cream City Brewing had a generally successful and steady business. They engaged in most of the same activities as other similar breweries, including sponsoring a baseball team.1389 There were a few newsworthy items: An agent in Chicago was found to have embezzled $3,000; in 1913 a truck belonging to the company struck and injured an eight-year-old girl in Milwaukee, and another truck was struck by a train in 1914 and both employees were killed.1390 Probably the most serious mishap was an explosion and fire in 1899 caused by an ammonia leak. While insurance covered the $10,000 of damage, one man died in the blaze. His death was not from the fire itself—after escaping the brewery he was struck in the street by a startled team of horses. Luckily, insurance covered the $10,000 of damage.1391 Despite these setbacks, Cream City Brewing continued to brew until Prohibition forced them to change products.

Cream City Brewing changed their corporate structure to adapt to Prohibition somewhat earlier than many of their rivals. Cream City Brewing Co. dissolved its corporation in February 1919. After a few months as Regal Investment Co., the company emerged as Cream City Products in June. During Prohibition, Cream City made a variety of products, including malt tonic and soft drinks of various flavors. The company was one of the more aggressive in promoting a variety of different near beers, including one called Pilsnear. In addition, Cream City Products was one of the very few breweries that made private label cereal beverages.1392

Because Cream City remained functional throughout the dry years, they had to spend relatively little to retool for beer, though they expected to increase employment from twelve to seventy-five—welcome news during the Depression.1393 The first two cases that left the brewery on “New Beers’ Day” were part of a shipment flown to President Roosevelt, and the third and fourth cases were delivered straight from the plant to Governor Schmedeman in Madison.1394

Interestingly, Cream City was one of two Milwaukee breweries that continued to make 3.2 percent beer even after Prohibition was fully repealed and strong beer was legal again (Gettelman was the other).1395 But Cream City had difficulty remaining competitive in the years after Prohibition. In just four years, the brewery went through several different brands and label styles, which is not a sign of a business with a stable, high-demand product. They also continued to brew beers under contract for bottlers and grocery stores, which is a sign of excess capacity that cannot be filled by the breweries’ own brands. Production dropped rapidly through 1936 and by spring 1937 its production was well under 2,000 barrels per month—less than many small-town breweries. Cream City stopped production in May 1937, and the building was razed in 1943.

• Western Brewery (1853–58?)
• Maier & Winkler (Maier & Co.), Western Brewery (1858?–1862)
• Maier & Hohl, Western Brewery (1862–68)
• F. W. Manegold, Western Brewery (1868–69)
• John Kargleder & Co., Western Brewery (1869–1875)
• Milwaukee Brewing Association (1875–1882)
• 624 Cherry

City directories sometimes make the history of a brewery more confusing. Sometime in the late 1850s John Maier, formerly brewmaster for Stoltz & Schneider, started (or took over) a brewery at Seventh and Cherry which was called the Western Brewery.1396 But in the 1859 directory, John Maier & Co. are listed at the corner of Cherry and Seventh, Meier and Winkler are listed on Cherry, corner of Seventh, but in the individual listing John Maier & Co. are listed not as brewers but as butchers, and the address is on Chestnut between Third and Fourth. On the other hand, the “Company” includes T. F. Hohl and T. F. Winkler, so at least the right personnel are present. In any case, Maier & Co. were established enough by 1860 to have produced about 2,000 barrels in the previous year. In 1862, (Joseph) Frederick Hohl’s name was added, though it is not clear if he bought out Winkler’s share (Winkler is not in the 1862 directory). By 1867, the brewery was one of several in town producing about 3,000 barrels per year.1397 The partnership lasted until 1868, when William Manegold purchased the brewery (though Manegold never appeared in the excise records). He sold it the next year to John Kargleder, though Manegold continued with the company at least through 1871, when he appears to have taken over the Bast brewery for a time. (Fritz Hohl was still listed as part of the business in the 1870 industrial census.)

Kargleder (who was listed in the 1866 & 1867 city directory as Nepomuck Kargleder), previously a foreman for Val Blatz, increased production from about 4,000 barrels in 1871 to over 11,000 in 1872, and to a peak of just over 18,000 barrels in 1874. In 1871, Albert Blatz, brother of Valentin, purchased the brewery, though Kargleder’s name remained on the business.

In 1874, the brewery was reorganized as Milwaukee Brewing Company, and a year later as the Milwaukee Brewing Association. An article from December 1879, seeking to debunk the rumors of a syndicate whereby the larger brewers were buying up and controlling the smaller ones, explained that “Kargleder was under obligations to the Second Ward Bank, and when he found himself unable to meet them, he turned the brewery over to the bankers, who, being brewers in the main, were conducting it to secure a fair return on the investment.” In fact, the Milwaukee Brewing Association was a joint stock company led by president Emil Schandein of Phillip Best Brewing Co. Charles Gezelschap, a manager at Blatz, left that company to become secretary, and Captain Pabst was also interested in the company. Pabst Brewing Co. historian John Steiner contends that Milwaukee Brewing Association may have served as a way for Best and Blatz to experiment with bottled beer without putting the reputations of their own brands at risk if the products did not meet with popular approval.1398

Fire struck the Milwaukee Brewing Association plant in April 1882, and despite claims that the owner would “make strenuous efforts to have everything in shape to resume operations in about two weeks,” the brewery did not return to production. Despite the attempt to claim independence for the Association, some papers referred to the plant as the “Best & Blatz brewing companies’ brewery.” Charles Gezelschap and Louis Knipp, one of the brewers, relocated to Janesville and purchased the Buob brewery. Charles Westhofen purchased the damaged property and entered a partnership with Jacob Froedtert to convert the facility into a malting plant. In 1884, Westhofen sold his share to Jacob’s brother William, and this became the basis of Froedtert Malting Company.1399

• Jacob Obermann, Germania Brewery (1854–1861)
• Obermann & Caspari, Germania Brewery (1861–64)
• J. Obermann & Co., Germania Brewery (1864–1880)
• J. Obermann Brewing Co. (1880–1896)
• Jung Brewing Co. (1896–1920)
• 502 Cherry Street

Jacob Obermann started to build his brewery in 1853 and sold his first beer in 1854. The company’s advertising in the 1880s used the 1854 date of establishment. (The R. G. Dun reports of August 1854 noted the company had been in business about a year.)1400 Obermann was fortunate to have a new line of business in 1854, since his grocery store on Chestnut Street burned in a fire that also destroyed Simon Meister’s brewery and tavern.1401 Obermann’s brewery was apparently too small to be included in the 1860 census of industry, but he made several major improvements throughout the 1860s. In 1861 he received permission from the city council to build a sewer at his own expense to take brewery waste across Cherry Street to an alley for dumping. Obermann himself served on the city council for multiple terms, and invited the council to his brewery for refreshments at least once in 1863 (and it probably was not a one-time event).1402

In 1866 Obermann availed himself of the services of the best-known brewery architect in Milwaukee at the time, Leonard Schmidtner, to design a new brewhouse.1403 The new facility helped him boost production over 1,700 barrels in 1867, which ranked tenth in the city. For a few years in the late 1860s, the company was listed in the city directories as Obermann & Fueger, recognizing the importance to the company of Max Fueger, former brewmaster for Phillip Best.

The early 1870s were a period of dramatic growth—Obermann & Co. jumped from around 2,000 barrels per year to over 7,500 by 1875. Obermann added a bottling house in 1877, which kept him among the leaders in this popular new package. Obermann was also an early adopter of artificial refrigeration. In February 1880 the company built a large icehouse on a railroad connection near Sutton’s Lake in Ozaukee County, and added on to it the next year. In February 1882 he had eighty-two workers dedicated to the ice harvest, but at the end of the year he was putting in an ice machine—at the same time as the mighty Phillip Best brewery.1404 While Obermann’s brewery was never among the largest in the city, he was respected enough by his colleagues to be elected president of the Milwaukee Brewers’ Association—a position he held in 1877 when the National Brewers Congress was held in Milwaukee.1405 In addition to this task and his city council duties, Obermann was also treasurer for a time of Milwaukee Mechanics Mutual Insurance, which he co-founded in 1857, and was later president of Brewers’ Protective Insurance Company of the West (later Brewers’ Fire Insurance Company of America).1406 The firm was incorporated as J. Obermann Brewing Co. in 1883, but this was more of a formality than an important change in business.

By the mid-1880s J. Obermann Brewing did a steady business of around 40,000 barrels a year—an impressive total except in Milwaukee. The company bought saloon properties and had branches or agencies in Racine, Janesville, Des Moines, Chicago, and elsewhere. An 1885 feature on the brewery celebrated the fact that Obermann “safely weathered the financial strain of 1857,” and was a prosperous company. Exactly how prosperous Jacob Obermann was revealed after his passing in 1887, when his will was estimated at about half a million dollars.1407 Obermann, like most Milwaukee breweries, was the subject of merger or syndicate rumors in the late 1880s and 1890s, though this was more because of the general trend than because of any relation to Jacob’s death. Jacob’s son George J. Obermann commented to the Sentinel that he thought the talk of English syndicates was more a matter of Americans trying to get rich by serving as agents for foreign parties rather than any genuine interest on the part of English investors in mid-sized American breweries.1408 An 1892 article about the company and its directors George J., Frederick, Philipp and Herman Obermann suggested that the company did not export that much, only to Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa and Michigan, which was only “not much” by Milwaukee standards.1409 Obermann Brewing’s expansion had traditionally been conservative—the company refused to expand into the Chicago market after the Great Fire “because it would [have] necessitate[d] the purchase of additional beer kegs.” When Obermann did move into Chicago, they did so during one of the many beer wars in the city, lost money, and abandoned the project in 1892.1410

While Obermann survived the Panics of 1857 and 1873, the financial crisis of 1893 brought the company down. Perhaps because of Jacob’s ties to the insurance industry (which was closely tied to the banking system in Wisconsin dating back to Territorial days when banks were outlawed and insurance companies served as the financial clearing houses), Obermann Brewing Co. failed when Wisconsin Marine & Fire Insurance Co. Bank (known as the “Mitchell Bank”) collapsed.1411 The company remained in limbo for several months, but was reorganized in February 1894. Even the reorganization did little more than to allow the company to tread water. The next major change for the company came in June 1896, when Philipp Jung purchased the business at auctions for $230,000. Jung had been a brewmaster for Phillip Best, moved on to start his own brewery, and ended up back at Pabst briefly when Falk, Jung & Borchert Brewing Co. was acquired in 1892. He opted not to stay with Pabst, but Jung had a non-compete clause in his contract that enjoined him from working for another brewery in Milwaukee for three years, so he spent his exile in the malting business. But the financial difficulties of Obermann gave Jung the opportunity to run his own business again.1412 Jung soon renamed the company, and reestablished his business and the firm’s reputation.

The most notable feature of Jung’s twenty-four years was how uneventful they were. The brewery was seldom in the newspaper, but held a steady market in the region with its Pilsener, Cardinal, Jung Brau and Pale brands, along with a malt tonic. Philipp Jung died in 1911 at age sixty-five, but his sons, led by Philip Jr., continued the business through Prohibition. (Like Jacob Obermann, Jung was a wealthy man at his death, leaving an estate of over $2 million.)1413 The company made a brief attempt to make alternative beverages during Prohibition, but was declared insolvent in 1922. Colditz & Reitzenstein (1854)

• George Schweickhart, Menominee Brewery (1855–1871)
• Schweickhart & Gettelman, Menominee Brewery (1871–74)
• Adam Gettelman, Menominee Brewery (1874–1887)
• A. Gettelman Brewing Co. (1887–1920)
• A. Gettelman Brewing Co. (1933–1961)
• Gettelman Brewing Co. (division of Miller Brewing Co.) (1961–1970)
• 4400 State Street

A case of similar names resulted in confusion about the origins of what would become the Gettelman brewery. The oft-repeated story was that Strohn & Reitzenstein started building the brewery in 1854, but died during a cholera epidemic that year. But the tobacconists Adolph Strohn and Guido (or Gustav) Reitzenstein were listed in city directories well into the 1860s, so they clearly did not perish a decade earlier. However, Leonard P. Jurgensen’s work shows that Charles Reitzenstein and Frederick Colditz did start a brewery on the Watertown Plank Road, and they did die in the cholera epidemic, so apparently the last name of Reitzenstein caused the confusion.1414

The brewery remained unfinished for more than a year, until George Schweickhart took over the property and completed the plant. Later accounts related that Schweickhart produced the (standard) 300 barrels during his first year.1415 He built his brewery up to about 1,000 barrels by 1860, and tripled this by 1870. The next year, he sold an interest in the brewery to his new son-in-law, Adam Gettelman. Gettelman was an experienced brewer who had worked for John Enes and Maier & Hohl prior to moving to his father-in-law’s firm. After a brief drop under 2,000 barrels, Gettelman built the business up to more than 4,000 barrels per year during the last half of the decade. Often lost in accounts of this period is Charles Schunckmann, another son-in-law of Schweickhart, who was a co-owner of the brewery during this time. While Schunckmann transferred his half of the brewery to Gettelman in 1877, the actual deed was not transferred until Schunckmann died in 1887, and the R. G. Dun & Co. credit reports suggest that Schunckmann was still interested in the business in the early 1880s.1416

Gettelman suffered a setback in October 1877, when the brewery was badly damaged by fire. The distance of the brewery from central Milwaukee added to the difficulty because the plant was beyond the city fire limits, but the department saved what they could.1417 While the brewery created their own ice field near the brewery, they replaced natural ice with artificial refrigeration in the 1880s. The company also added a side track to the Milwaukee Road railway in 1895, which not only made shipments to distant markets cheaper and more efficient, but also provided the inspiration for a celebration that featured six courses and five different Gettelman beers including “Golden Spike Extra Brew” bottled beer, brewed specially for the occasion.1418

Among the brews offered at the party was Gettelman’s flagship beer, $1000 Lager Beer, which had been introduced a few years earlier. During the 1890s the company also introduced Gettelman’s Hospital Tonic, which had much wider distribution than the company’s beer: it was shipped throughout the Midwest and as far away as Los Angeles.1419 In the 1890s, Gettelman was producing about 40,000 barrels per year—a drop in the growler compared to the millions brewed by Pabst or Schlitz, but consistent with Adam Gettelman’s desire to produce a consistent, high-quality beer in a family brewery.1420

During Prohibition, the brewery produced near bear and malt syrup on a limited basis. There was also one attempt at brewing root beer, but the trial batch was dumped into the sewer on the orders of Fred (Fritz) Gettelman, Adam’s son who had taken over management of the brewery.1421 A more important innovation during this period had little to do with brewing, except that the lack of business allowed the inventive Fritz more time to tinker and draw on his beloved butcher paper. He designed an improved high-speed snowplow that was adopted widely throughout the snow belt.1422

Gettelman was ready to ship beer the minute it was legal, and Gettelman beer was included in the shipment to President Roosevelt from the Milwaukee breweries. Anticipating a shortage of wooden cooperage, Fritz designed a new steel keg which was put into production by the A. O. Smith Company. (Fritz also designed a new pasteurizing system and improved storage tanks, and helped refine the modern “church key” can opener.) In the 1930s, Fritz turned down the offer of American Can Company to purchase the brewery and use it for experiments with new types of beer cans. He preferred to pass the brewery on to his sons, Fred and Tom.1423

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Gettelman had a solid local following—over 90 percent of the beer was sold in Wisconsin. Their popular advertising figure “Fritzie,” a Gettelman bottle with a head sporting a Tyrolian hat, appeared on walls all over the Milwaukee area. Because most of the prime advertising spots were already taken by larger companies, Gettelman settled for odd-shaped walls, but adapted the art to fit the particular setting. Slogans like “Let’s have a Beer!” and “Get . . . Get . . . Gettelman” appeared along with Fritzie on the advertisements. The company also took advantage of advertising opportunities specific to the moment. The company repainted its sign on the Wisconsin Avenue viaduct to welcome home General Douglas MacArthur in 1951. Gettelman also used special neck labels for purposes ranging from welcoming the American Bowling Congress to Milwaukee in 1952 to encouraging people to vote in that year’s election. Gettelman was also the first company in Milwaukee to sponsor a television show (in 1947), and was the first in the city to use one-way bottles (in 1949).1424

Fritz Gettelman passed away in 1954, and Fred and Tom took over. Fred was chairman of the board, and since he focused on production matters, he was known as “Mr. Inside.” Tom dealt primarily with sales and public relations, and therefore was “Mr. Outside.” Both were trained as brewers, which was unusual among the Milwaukee breweries in the post-Prohibition eras, where most top executives were businessmen rather than brewmasters.1425 Despite the numerous innovations by the brewery, Gettelman was still a very small plant in a large ocean of beer. The high point of production was 160,000 barrels in 1950, but few years were close to that figure. The Milwaukee brewers’ strike of 1953 emphasized the high cost of doing business, even though Gettelman (and Independent Milwaukee Brewery) was granted a 10¢ per hour accommodation by the union based on their small size. The brothers began discussions about selling the brewery, but their preference was to sell to a company that would continue to operate the plant, rather than simply closing it.

The buyer turned out to be the most logical suitor—Miller Brewing Co. Miller was already a neighbor, and the larger company was looking for a premium beer and a popular price beer to round out their portfolio. Gettelman Milwaukee Beer (which was $2.98 a case in Milwaukee at the time compared to High Life’s $3.13) took care of the “popular price” segment, and Gettelman’s $1000 Beer (at about $4 a case) provided a high-end product for the lineup. (Also included in the deal was the brand Milwaukee’s Best, which later became Miller’s nationally-distributed popular price brand.) The sale was announced in January 1961, with the reassuring news that not only would the Gettelman plant stay in operation with its own employees, but those employees would now be on the higher Miller wage scale. The Gettelman brewery remained in operation until 1970, when it was closed and production of the Gettelman brands moved into the Miller plant.1426

Miller continues to brew Milwaukee’s Best brands, and has brewed $1000 Beer for special events.1427 As of late 2017, Miller Brewing proposed demolishing the offices and malt house of the brewery, but the 1856 homestead portion of the complex was granted permanent historic preservation status by the Milwaukee Common Council.1428

• John H. Senne, Prairie Street Brewery (1854–58, 1860–61?)
• Frederick Schwartz, Prairie Street Brewery (1858–1860?)
• Prairie Street Brewery, John Enes (1861–62)
• Frederick Schwartz (1862–63?)
• South side of Prairie Street between Fifth and Sixth

John Senne is believed to have started a brewery at this location around 1854. A later account holds that the brewery was started in 1857 (which may refer to a beer hall rather than the brewery), but it did recount that Senne’s “beer was so rich that glasses stuck to the tables if undisturbed for a few minutes.”1429 Frederick Schwartz became the proprietor of this brewery after leaving his previous brewery on Chestnut. Schwartz may not have owned the brewery or at least not for long, since the 1860 industrial census lists the brewery under the name of Johann Senne, and Senne was still listed as a brewer in the population census that year with $3,000 of real estate to his name. Senne may also have returned as proprietor of the brewery, which produced 800 barrels of beer in the 1860 fiscal year. John Enes served as brewmaster for Senne at one point, probably in the early 1860s, before moving to the State Street Brewery. Fred Schwartz returned to the brewery after Enes left, and appears to have operated the brewery at least until 1863, which marked his last appearance in city directories.1430

• Jacob Ziegler (1854–1861?)
• John Enes (& Co.) (1863?–1879)
• Tamarack between Eighth and Ninth (later 810 State Street)

Jacob Ziegler moved from his earlier brewery to this location in late 1853 or early 1854. While Ziegler is still listed as a brewer at this location in the 1861 city directory, the research of Leonard P. Jurgensen has shown that Ziegler was in financial trouble, and the Fernekes brothers were the owners of the brewery. In November 1859, Anton Fernekes offered for sale “all casks, tuns, barrels and brewing kettles and oll other utensils vesels [sic] and appurtenances used in [the] brewery” as well as “the entire of beer malt and hops now in the cellar and building. . . .”1431 Ziegler was still listed as a brewer owning $5,000 of real estate in the 1860 census. In 1862 the Fernerkes brothers leased the brewery to John Enes, who had previously been renting the Prairie Street Brewery.

Enes was an experienced brewer who had worked for Val. Blatz before going out on his own. Ziegler brewed around 800 barrels of beer in 1860, but Enes quickly expanded the buisness and brought it into the second tier of Cream City breweries.1432 By 1868 he was producing over 3,000 barrels per year, and he kept that pace through the next several years. Existing data for the mid-1870s suggest that Enes was in business intermittently, since he reported no production in 1874 and only 300 barrels in 1875. The R. G. Dun & Co. credit reports indicate that his financial fortunes waxed and waned, and at the beginning of 1878 the sheriff was in possession of the property.1433 While was back up over 3,600 by 1878, he would not be brewing in Milwaukee for long. During 1879, he traveled to Henderson, Minnesota to help his son Christian reestablish a brewery at that location. But Enes had obligations in Milwaukee that were not turning out well. He was supposed to be the guardian of a man suffering from mental illness, and was brought before the district attorney for allegedly neglecting his duties in this case. Enes also was in debt and traded the brewery to former employee Peter Kunz in lieu of the debt. In January 1880, Kunz took his life in the brewery dwelling just before it was to be turned into a malt house by John G. Krenzlein.1434

Enes returned to Henderson to join his son in the brewery. When Christian sold his share John took over the brewery, and eventually sold his share to another son, Hans, who operated the brewery until it closed in 1918.1435

• Goes & Falk, Bavaria Brewery (1855–1866)
• Franz Falk & Co., Bavaria Brewery (1866–1872)
• Franz Falk, Bavaria Brewery (1872–1882)
• Franz Falk Brewing Co. (1882–88)
• Falk, Jung & Borchert (1888–1892)
• Eighth and Highland (1855); 29 South 29th Street (1856–1892)

Franz Falk was trained as a cooper in his father’s shop in Bavaria, but after his apprenticeship was over, he took a job in a brewery in his hometown of Miltenberg-am-Main and began to learn that trade. In 1848 he was part of the flood of Germans that left the turmoil of revolution and sought new opportunities in the New World. Like many other Germans, he stopped for a while in Cincinnati, but then moved to Milwaukee, where he found a position in August Krug’s new brewery. After six months, he was hired away by Charles Melms, and became the foreman (the term often used at the time for head brewmaster) of Melms’ brewery for seven years.1436

Anxious to start his own brewery, Falk became partners with Frederick Goes, a storekeeper who was content to provide the money and let Falk run the brewery. According to Milwaukee brewery historian Leonard P. Jurgensen, the partnership actually started in 1855, a year earlier than normally stated, and the pair leased space in Blossom’s Eagle Brewery for several months. (While the term was not in existence at the time, the arrangement at the Eagle Brewery resembles the alternating proprietorship practiced by some craft breweries that share a facility, and Jurgensen has hypothesized that Blossom brewed ale in the summer and Goes & Falk brewed their lager in the winter.)1437 This arrangement lasted only briefly, as Goes & Falk soon leased and then purchased a site on 29th Street north of the Waukesha Plank Road (modern Pierce Street) along the Menomonee River. They called their new plant the Bavaria Brewery, and it produced about 1,000 barrels in the first year, though another source claims their inaugural production was only 300 barrels (the standard amount usually cited in later accounts).1438 They may have been able to get to that level of production in the first year because of Falk’s extensive experience, and also because the Milwaukee market was growing quickly. By 1860 production was up to 5,000 barrels, which ranked fifth in the city (and the state). Goes and Falk also acquired the malt house at the old Eagle Brewery, converted the entire old brewery into maltings and supplied the brewery from that site until Falk built a malt house on the brewery property in 1873. The Eighth and Chestnut location also housed the brewery office, since that location was much more convenient that the brewery itself, which was well out in the countryside at the time.1439

Falk bought out Goes’ share of the brewery in 1866, though Goes continued in the malting business for several more years. Falk continued to expand production gradually, building a new brewery in 1870 and reaching 7,000 barrels in 1871. He launched a major expansion in 1873 that enabled him to push production to nearly 17,000 barrels in 1874.1440 Falk was now one of the leading brewers of the city and he joined his rivals in adding bottled beer to his products in 1877, with bottling done by A. Gunther & Co. With the recent expansion of the Milwaukee Road tracks through the Menomonee Valley and a spur to the brewery, Falk was able to become one of the leading shippers of Milwaukee beer.1441 Introduction of bottled beer helped expand production to 34,000 barrels in 1879, and to 60,000 by 1880. (Like most other brewers, Falk brought the bottling operations under his own roof after a few years.) While Franz Falk died in 1882, a few months after incorporating the business as Franz Falk Brewing Co., he left a brewery that was among the leaders of the industry, not just locally, but across the nation and the world. By the mid-1880s, Falk Brewing Co. had agencies in Chicago, Kansas City and Pittsburgh and two hundred employees at its home plant. In 1885, about 20,000 barrels worth of bottled beer were shipped throughout the United States, and to Mexico, Central America, and the Sandwich Islands (Hawai’i). Falk’s beer could be found as far away as India and Singapore.1442

Part of the reason for the rapid growth of Falk Brewing Co. was the high regard the public had for the company and its products. In its 1879 exposé of the use of adjuncts (additives) in beer, the Milwaukee Daily News singled out Falk for praise as the only one of the major brewers who did not use rice or corn, and claimed “expert beer drinkers find his beer more palatable than the doctored stuff dispensed by other brewers.” Falk employees and products regularly won contests of various types around Milwaukee, whether it was beer tasting or “most popular brewery foreman.”1443 Falk’s beer also collected international accolades, earning top prizes in the early 1880s at the Industrial Exposition in San Francisco and the International Exposition in Sydney, Australia.1444

While the passing of Franz Falk was a loss noted in newspapers across the continent, his sons Frank and Louis proved to be more than up to the task, continuing to expand the brewery and dealing with the labor crises of the 1880s. Falk management typically had good relations with their workers, and when the Knights of Labor called the 1886 strike, Falk’s employees stayed on the job until a special delegation of the Knights called them out. Likewise, during the labor disputes of 1888, the vast majority of Falk employees withdrew from the union rather than leave their jobs at the brewery.1445

In the fall of 1888, Falk Brewing Co. and Jung & Borchert Brewing Co. joined in the biggest change in the Milwaukee brewing scene since Phillip Best bought the Melms brewery almost two decades earlier. The new Falk, Jung & Borchert Brewing Co. combined the fourth and fifth largest breweries in the city, and brought the brilliant brewmaster Philipp Jung to the enterprise. Frank Falk was president of the new company, Jung was vice-president and superintendent of brewing, Ernst Borchert was the treasurer, and Falk brothers Louis, Otto, and Herman also held official positions. The new business picked up where the previous firms left off—with a strong reputation for quality beer and marketing that spread the word of that quality far and wide. Among their early successes was winning the contract to provide beer for the Milwaukee National Home (for Civil War veterans).1446

Unfortunately, the new company was pursued relentlessly by the “red demon” of fire. The brewery was destroyed by one of the most devastating fires in Milwaukee history to that point in July 1889, which caused well over half a million dollars in damage (early estimates were as high as $1 million). By the end of the month the company had started brewing again in temporary quarters, and preparations for the new brewery were under way.1447 The new plant had a capacity of 400,000 barrels per year, and production in 1890 approached 200,000 barrels. However, a second fire struck in August 1892. Again, damages exceeded the amount of insurance, and though the company pledged to rebuild again, they were apparently weary of starting over another time. In October, Pabst Brewing Co. purchased all the assets of Falk, Jung and Borchert Brewing Co. for $500,000 in stock. Portions of the old Falk brewery were used briefly, but Pabst closed them in 1893 and the property was sold a few years later.1448 Members of the Falk and Borchert families took positions on the Pabst board of directors, but Philipp Jung went into malting until his non-compete clause expired and he purchased the former Obermann brewery. Herman Falk decided to start a manufacturing company, beginning with wagon couplings and eventually gears. Falk Corporation was located along the Menomonee River on land that included the old brewery property. The company was a major producer of gears throughout the twentieth century, and remains in business as of 2017 as Rexnord Corporation.1449

• Ludwig Conrad (1855–57)
• Louis Arras (1858–1860)
• Fifth between Chestnut and Poplar (modern Juneau and McKinley)

According to Albert Schnabel’s history of Milwaukee breweries, Ludwig Conrad operated a brewery on Fifth Street from about 1855 to 1857, after which his cooper, Louis Arras, operated it for a few years. Arras appears in the 1859 city directory as both cooper and brewer, but Ludwig Conrad is more difficult to track. He is in the 1854 city directory as a brewer at another location (Fourth between Tamarack and Cedar) but not in other years.1450

• Phillip Altpeter, Northwestern Brewery (1856–1883)
• 601–605 Third Street at Sherman (now Vine)

Phillip Altpeter, a veteran of the Prussian army who came to the United States in 1846, appeared in the 1854 Milwaukee city directory as the proprietor of a cooperage on the corner of Third and Sherman. In 1856, he started a small brewery at the same location. His brewery was listed as a “small beer brewery” in the 1870 industrial census and some other accounts describe his business as a weiss or white beer brewery. However, the 1870 census also noted that he made seventy barrels of lager beer, so it is possible that he was brewing lager off and on throughout his career.

Altpeter’s brewery was never particularly large: The largest reported production was 781 barrels in 1874, but more often his sales were around 400 or 500 barrels per year. He built a new brewery in 1873, and even though the new plant was described as a “white beer brewery,” Altpeter still stored ice during the winter of 1873-4, which would not have been necessary unless he was still brewing lager. He also donated two kegs of lager to the fundraiser held at Quentin’s Park for yellow fever relief.1451

Altpeter was an alderman for the Sixth Ward, and his brewery was the site of many Democratic political meetings. Around 1883 he stopped brewing and turned the facility into a malt house the next year. Altpeter died in 1892 at age 73, but his family maintained a presence in the city’s brewing business as his daughter Bertha married weiss beer brewer Eugene L. Husting and son Oscar had a short-lived bottling business in the 1890s.1452

• J. Simon Meister, Weiss & Syphon Beer (1856–1867)
• 406 (or 408) Chestnut (modern Juneau) Street

John Simon Meister developed a larger reputation in Milwaukee than the size of his brewery would normally suggest. Historian Albert Schnabel recalled: “One of the most memorable [old breweries] was the Meister Brewery on Juneau near [f]ourth. It specialized in making heavy brown beer enjoyed by women and children.”1453 Another article written during Prohibition claimed that Meister “brewed some of the finest lager known to Milwaukeeans of that day.”1454 His brewery was a picturesque three-story structure on Chestnut Street with the brewery located in a brick addition at the back of the building. It is also possible that he was brewing at another site and used the address of his saloon for all his business. Meister died in 1867, and his brewery did not continue.1455 The Meister building was remodeled several times, but lasted until 1966, when it was razed.1456

Syphon beer remains something of a mystery. It may have referred to the “young beer” of which Meister made 400 barrels in 1860.

• Schwartz Brewery (1856?–1858?)
• Louis Liebscher (1859)
• Frederich Fritz (1863?)
• Chestnut Between Fourth and Fifth

Fred Schwartz operated a brewery at this location for a few years before becoming proprietor of the Prairie Street Brewery. According to an account from 1926, Louis Liebscher took over this location for a brief period in 1859, before going to Fort Atkinson.1457

A Frederich Fritz has also been associated with a brewery previously owned by Schwartz, but confirmation is elusive. It is possible that this was a garbled rendering of Frederich (“Fritz”) Schwartz.

• Middlewood & Gibson (aka Pearson, Gibson & Co.) (1857–58)
• Isaac Gibson & Co. (1858–59)
• Sands’ Spring Brewery (1859–1867)
• Eighth between Chestnut and Prairie (Now Juneau and Highland)

Located near the old Eagle Brewery, the Spring Brewery grew rapidly to become one of the largest breweries in the state, and faded just as fast.

William Middlewood and Isaac Gibson built a malt house in 1855 on the hill south of Chestnut Street, and added a large brick brewery in the fall of 1857. The Sentinel in 1858 described the “lofty” building and its network of cellars underneath. A separate report claimed the new brewery was to be used for lager beer, but all other accounts focus on the production of ale. The proprietors were still primarily concerned with the malting business, where they kept day and night shifts busy turning out 500 bushels per day.1458 Later in 1858, Gibson & Co. took over the brewing side of the business, and Middlewood remained in charge of the now separate malting company.

The precise date of the purchase of the brewery by brothers J. J. And J. G Sands of Chicago is unclear, but it was in late 1858 or 1859. John G. Sands had previously worked in breweries in New York City and Albany, NY, and was placed in charge of the Milwaukee plant. Shortly after Sands took over the brewery, the Daily Milwaukee News published a lengthy column admiring the 225-foot long, four-story brewery and its business, which was said to extend into Iowa and Minnesota. They appear to have been among the earliest Milwaukee breweries to advertise heavily, since the News reported their expenditures for signs, trade cards, and photographs were over $4,000 in 1859. At this point, the capacity of the Milwaukee facility was 100 barrels a week, large by the standards of the day but dwarfed by that of the Chicago branch which claimed 100 barrels per day. The brewery returned a favor in December by sending the News a keg of Cream Ale to help them celebrate the New Year. The editor gushed “Indeed it was so gratifying that we have procured a photograph of Sands’ Brewery, which we have hung up in our sanctum, that we may gaze upon the spot where such a delicious beverage is manufactured.”1459 Production was up to 5,000 barrels per year by the time of the 1860 census, and the brewery was adding to its product line. Advertisements in 1863 touted the firm’s Stock Ale, Burton Ale, Cream Ale and Porter. In 1865, Sands advertised in Madison that their ale could be ordered from the brewery and shipped directly, saving the customer the additional dollar charged by the local agent.1460 However, by 1867 production had dropped to 258 barrels, just enough to avoid being lumped under “other” in a January 1868 summary in the Sentinel. While the exact reason for ending the business is not clear, in 1868, the News announced that Sands’ frame brewery and other property in Milwaukee were for sale.1461

• William Grunert (1857?–1858?)
• Mineral and North Jones (modern Barclay)

William Grunert operated a very short-lived weiss beer brewery near the corner of Mineral and Jones “in the latter 50s.”1462

• Zwietusch & Forster, Weiss Beer Brewery (1858–1862)
• Otto Zwietusch (1862–64)
• 705–709 Chestnut Street (Modern Juneau)

Otto Zwietusch was better known as an inventor than a brewer. Zwietusch (sometimes spelled Zweitusch) came to Milwaukee in 1856 and was first employed as a machinist, which seems to have given him a foundation for many of his later inventions. In 1858 he joined with Christopher Forster, formerly of Milwaukee’s West Hill brewery, to start a “white beer brewery.” Their business was fairly large for a weiss beer brewery, reporting production of 500 barrels in the 1860 industrial census. In 1862 the partnership dissolved, but Zwietusch was still listed as a brewer in city directories for the next few years.1463

While he seems to have given up brewing beer around 1864, he continued to make beverages of other types for many years, particularly soda water. In 1881 he created a display for the Milwaukee exposition and placed the following ad: “Otto Zweitusch [sic], the soda water manufacturer, it is said offers $500 for the most beautiful girl in Milwaukee to attend his fine fountain during the exposition exhibition this fall. The fountain is now under process of erection and will soon be finished.”1464 He also was president of the New Era Brewing Co., which was among the first companies to attempt to brew a palatable non-alcoholic beer. (See Kenosha)

But it was as an inventor and manufacturer of brewing equipment that Zwietusch made the biggest contribution to the industry. Among his nearly sixty patents were fermentation equipment, bottling equipment, and a beer preservation process. Zwietusch’s name could be found in nearly every industry periodical for several decades, either in the news for having invented another device, or in advertisements touting their merits. Not only did he invent brewing machinery, but he also devised much of the machinery used to fabricate it. Otto Zwietusch died in 1903 at age seventy-one.1465

• Plattz Bros. (1859?–1860?)
• Corner of Main and Division

There are only a few fleeting references to the Plattz Bros. brewery: one in the city directory of 1859, and another in a manuscript history of Milwaukee’s breweries which may have just taken the reference from the directory. The only Plattz actually listed in the directory is Albert, so it is possible the other brother lived elsewhere (or was simply omitted from the directory).1466 A reference to a Mr. Platz building a new brewery in 1856 on Main Street at a cost of $40,000 is almost certainly supposed to be Mr. Blatz—if Platz had built a $40,000 brewery there would be much more information about his business.1467

• Liebscher & Berg (1865)
• Liebscher & Berg (1865?–1869?)
• John Berg (1869?–1877?)
• 517 Chestnut Street (1865); 936 Winnebago (1865–1877?)

Louis Liebscher returned to Milwaukee from Fort Atkinson in 1865, and started a new brewery with partner John Berg. The 1865 directory listed their business at 517 Chestnut, but a year later the address was given as 936 Winnebago, suggesting they found temporary quarters to begin their business. This idea was supported somewhat by historian Albert Schnabel, who claimed that Liebscher and Berg moved their brewery from Sixth and Juneau to Winnebago (though the starting addresses don’t quite line up). Milwaukee historian Leonard P. Jurgensen found that this partnership ended in 1869, but the business remained under both names in the 1870 industry census and in city directories until 1870. After Liebscher left for his own brewery at 189 Sherman, Berg continued at this location until about 1877, after which the brewery was no longer listed in the city directory.1468

• William Aschmann (1858–1860)
• Ninth and Cedar (modern West Kilbourn) Streets

William Aschmann was piano and organ maker who had a small brewery from 1858 to 1860. The city directory of 1859 includes the brewery in the business list, but Aschmann is listed only as a piano maker in the individual section. (The 1926 Milwaukee Leader series on old breweries erroneously reported that William’s brother was the piano maker.) It is not clear if he actually started this brewery or acquired it from someone else, but no previous brewery on this site has been discovered to this point. It is also unclear what happened to the brewery after it was foreclosed in 1860, though most likely it did not produce after that date.1469

• Frederick Schwartz & Co. (1858–1864?)
• Chestnut (Juneau) corner of Sixth

According to the Milwaukee Leader series of 1926, Schwartz & Co. moved from their location on between Fourth and Fifth Streets to a new location on Chestnut on the west side of the alley between Fifth and Sixth. But some of the dates he was listed in the city directory at this location conflict with dates when he was proprietor of the Prairie Street Brewery.1470

• Ludwig (Louis) Mesow (1860?–66?)
• South Side of Chestnut (modern Juneau) East of Seventh

Ludwig (sometimes Louis) Mesow (spelled several different ways in city directories) owned a grocery and general store during the 1850s. By the 1860 census he was listed as a brewer, suggesting that he had opened his small weiss beer brewery during the first part of that year. It disappeared from the city directories after 1863, though he may have continued brewing as late as 1866, when his brewery burned.1471

• William H. & Joshua C. Gray (1863–65?)
• West side of Ferry between South Water and Lake

The Gray brothers operated a small weiss beer brewery on Ferry Street around 1863. They may have brewed longer, but in the 1865 city directory they are listed as manufacturing root beer, so they may have switched entirely to soft drinks.1472

• Anton Wahner (1867)
• Shooting Park

Anton Wahner is only known from a single reference in the excise records. He is not listed in the city directory in 1867 or 1868. It is possible he may briefly have rented or leased Carl Knoblauch’s brewery near the Shooting Park.

• John Foude (1868)
• 679 Fifteenth

John Foude is another elusive single-reference brewer. He is listed in the excise tax records in September 1868, but never again. He may have paid his brewer’s tax, but never produced.

• F. Meixner, Lemon Beer Brewery (1872–77)
• John F. Meixner (1878–79)?
• 1112 Vliet Street

Francis (Frank) Meixner was listed as keeper of a boarding house in the 1870 census. He first appears as a brewer of “small beer” in the R. G. Dun & Co. credit reports in July 1872, though he may well have been in operation before then. According to the Dun reports, he had a small operation, and was of fair habits and character, but the business was struggling. In 1877 his lemon beer brewery was sold by the sheriff, and Meixner was out of business.1473 American Breweries II contains a reference to John F. Meixner, who was a soda water manufacturer in Milwaukee at the time. The people who best fit this description were either Francis’ much younger brother or his son, who were unlikely to have been in a position to take over the business. The only Frank or Francis Meixner in the 1880 census was a resident of the State Hospital for the Insane in Westport, and the age of this person suggests that it was the former brewer.

• Louis Werrbach, Weiss Beer Brewery (1873–1908)
• L. Werrbach & Co. (1908–1911)
• 88 Martin Street (Modern East State) (1873–76); 89 Biddle Street (Modern Kilbourn) (1876–1911)

Louis Werrbach operated a weiss beer brewery in Watertown in the 1860s before moving back to Milwaukee in 1869. (See Watertown) He worked for the Hickey soda factory before a brief partnership with John Mueller under Werrbach’s name. Werrbach appears to have eventually taken over the former Hickey factory and operated it as the Werrbach Soda & Mineral Water and Weiss Beer Brewery.

In 1876, Werrbach went into significant debt to build a new brewery at 89 Biddle Street.1474 While he appears to have had a large overall business, his brewing operation was still less than 500 barrels per year. His brewery was seldom in the news, though he did contribute some soda water to the large yellow fever fundraiser in 1878 in Quentin Park, and in 1896 a runaway horse became entangled with one of Werrbach’s brewery wagons.1475

Louis Werrbach died in 1911, and though his son Louis Jr. carried on manufacturing soda until 1917, brewing weiss beer appears to have ended with the death of Louis Sr., as the 1912 Brewers’ Hand Book no longer included L. Werrbach & Co.1476

• John J. Graf & Co. (Graf & Madlener), Weiss Beer Brewery (1873–77)
• Graf & Madlener, South Side White Beer Brewery (1877–1881)
• John Graf, South Side Weiss Beer Brewery (1881–84)
• John Graf Weiss Beer Brewery (1884–1913)
• John Graf Co. (1913–1920)
• 380 Grove (1873–76); 530 Elizabeth (later National) (1876–1884); 901–903 Greenfield Avenue and Seventeenth (modern Twenty-second) Street (1884–1920)

John Graf was probably the most important of Milwaukee’s weiss beer brewers. He started in business with Philip Madlener in 1873, and remained in this partnership for eight years. They moved several blocks west in 1876, and the factory then was called the South Side White Beer Brewery. Graf and Madlener dissolved their partnership in 1881, and Madlener went in to the soda bottle and equipment business.1477

Graf continued brewing weiss beer and making soda water, and in 1884 constructed a much larger plant on Greenfield Avenue. The extent of the growth of his business was dramatized by a county history from 1909: “His plant, which originally employed but four people, now has a list of sixty employes (sic) and its product is valued at $120,000 per annum. It requires fourteen teams and wagons in constant use to transport the product to Mr. Graf’s customers.”1478 Graf’s products were distributed throughout the state, and Graf’s slogan, “The Best What Gives,” became famous. (A weiss beer glass is pictured in chapter 5.) The company also manufactured beverages for restaurants and retail establishments to sell under their own names.1479 Graf continued to brew weiss beer until Prohibition, but he had such a well-established line of soft drinks that the loss of one product probably made little difference to his business.

John Graf died in May 1930, an event noted around the state. His son John Jr. had died the previous year, and John Jr.’s widow Sylvia succeeded to the business. The company remained in business into the 1980s under different names and the products remained popular through the 1970s.1480

• Charles Goerke (1877?–1882?)

Charles Goerke owned saloons in Milwaukee, first at 293 Third (according to the 1878 city directory) and in 1880 at 324 Chestnut. There was also a William Goerke who was listed occasionally as a brewer residing at 1202 Chestnut. Goerke later leased the Shooting Park and certainly served beer there, but it is not certain that he actually operated his own brewery at any point. He does not appear in industry directories, and while a number of saloons brewed their own beer, most of them did so prior to the Civil War and the excise tax.

• Joseph Wolf (1887?–1888)
• Mary Wolf (1888–1889?)
• 759 North River

Joseph Wolf had a soda factory in Milwaukee since the late 1870s. At some point in the later 1880s he added weiss beer to his product lineup (though he never appeared in the city directory as a brewer). Their business ran into trouble with the federal government in 1888 when warrants were issued for both Joseph and Mary for reusing revenue stamps. The Milwaukee Daily Journal reported that the brewery had been in Joseph’s name until 1 May 1888, after which it was in his wife’s name. A few days later it amplified the importance of the offence, noting that the penalty for reusing stamps could be as much as $5,000 or ten years in prison.1481 The government eventually dropped the charges, but the Wolfs also apparently dropped weiss beer brewing at the same time.1482

• T. W. Falbe & Co., Weiss Beer Brewery (1878)
• 1312–1320 Third Street

Anton (Toni) W. Falbe and partner Anton Czoernig were listed in the 1878 city directory as brewers of weiss beer. This was their only reference, and they did not appear in industry journals or other references. It is possible that they started the business and never began production or only produced for a very short time.

• John Arnold (1881)
• Ferd. Arnold (1881–82)
• Fourth and Chestnut (now Juneau) Streets (330 Chestnut)

It’s not clear that the Arnolds actually owned a brewery. John Arnold was listed as a brewer in the 1881 city directory, but boarded at the address listed and may have worked for someone else. Ferdinand (or Fred) was listed as a butcher in 1881 and as a brewer in 1882 but was not in the brewery listings.

• Eugene L Husting (1886?–1900)
• E. L. Husting Co. (1900–1918)
• Corner of Fifth and Vliet

Eugene L. Husting was one of the relatively rare natives of Luxemburg to operate a brewery in Wisconsin. His family moved to Dodge County in 1853 when he was five, and ten years later he moved to Milwaukee. After working as a wagon driver, he took a job at Philip Altpeter’s brewery. Sometime in the mid-1870s he left (with Altpeter’s daughter Bertha as his wife) to start his own business. Obituaries and company letterhead claimed the business was started in 1876, though he did not appear in city directories until 1878. (The 1877 directory listed an August Husting boarding at Altpeter’s brewery, which is likely to have been a misreading of Eugene.) Husting did not make weiss beer right away, and was listed as a manufacturer of soda and mineral water for several years with no mention of beer. One account reports “[h]is beginning was humble, the business occupying originally only the basement of his dwelling house, and all departments of the work being performed by his wife and children.”1483

Around 1886 Husting introduced weiss beer to his lineup, “which . . . brought him the best returns as a selling product.”1484 (This date would fit with Husting’s first appearance in brewing industry directories in 1887.) Husting continued to make weiss beer into the twentieth century, but directories indicate that he added ale and porter to his products in the early 1900s—a rare move for a weiss brewer and one that would have required additional facilities.

Husting died in November 1916, but his company continued brewing through Prohibition. Like compatriot John Graf, E. L. Husting Co. had a full line of established beverages to keep the business profitable. The company returned to the beer business after Prohibition ended, though this time as a distributor for G. Heileman Brewing Co. products. Eugene’s brother John P. Husting was a brewer at several locations in Wisconsin.

• Munzinger & Koethe (1892?–1895)
• Munzinger & Gerlinger (1895–96)
• Christian H. Munzinger (1897–99)
• 184–186 Burrell Street

Christian Munzinger started a small soda factory on Burrell Street in 1890, and the next year he partnered with Richard Koethe and built a weiss beer brewery at the same location. (Since the permit to build the brewery was not issued until late November 1891, it is possible that he did not begin production until the next year.)1485 The partnership with Koethe lasted until 1895, though the company was sometimes listed under Munzinger’s name alone. Munzinger then partnered with brewer Frederick Gerlinger, but this arrangement lasted only until the next year. Like most weiss beer breweries, this one manufactured and bottled a variety of other drinks. Munzinger continued to manufacture weiss beer under his own name for a few more years, and may have made soft drinks until 1901, when the business was foreclosed.1486

• F. W. Brinkmeyer (1887)
• 530 National Avenue

According to Wing’s 1887 industry directory, F. W. Brinkmeyer took over John Graf’s old location. He is listed in the 1887 city directory as a soda water manufacturer at that location. His term as a weiss beer brewer was very short, since in 1886 he was listed in the directory as a cooper, and in 1888 as the owner of a saloon and restaurant at 297 Clinton.

• Town of Lake Brewing Co. (1892–1893?)
• Milwaukee Brewing Co. (1893–1901)
• Milwaukee Brewing & Bottling Co. (1901–1)
• Milwaukee Brewery Co. (1901–1919)
• 1091 Eighth Avenue (now Thirteenth Street) at Southwest Corner of Clarence (now West Arthur Street)

Several reliable sources indicate the Town of Lake Brewing Co. started at the corner of Eighth and Clarence in 1892. However, local newspaper accounts suggest that there was no brewery at this location prior to the construction of the Milwaukee Brewing Co. in 1893. An existing brewery on the site is never mentioned, though that is not conclusive. No brewery by that name appeared in the city directories, so any such brewery was very short-lived.

In March 1893, the Journal announced that a new firm called Milwaukee Brewing Co. had been organized. Among the founders were a few familiar names: Louis Liebscher, Charles Carstens (formerly a brewer in Eau Claire), and George Amann, who may have been the person of that name (spelled Aman) who formerly brewed in Beaver Dam. The company picked a site at Eighth and Clarence. The promoters claimed that they had already secured a guaranteed trade of 37,000 barrels, and planned to build a brewhouse sufficient to manufacture 40,000 to 50,000 barrels. The cornerstone of the brewery was laid in June, and construction proceeded fairly quickly, despite rumors of the collapse of the South Side Bank.1487

By the end of 1893 production was underway, and the first beer was put on the market the following February. The company held a party on 8 February, which was described by a reporter: “It isn’t every day, even in Milwaukee, that a new brewery is opened, as was very plainly shown by the multitude that crowded to the plant of the Milwaukee Brewing company yesterday. A ‘beer test’ had been announced and the prospect of free beer was enough to bring a crowd.” The beer was apparently popular, since the crowd consumed fifteen barrels at the event.1488

The company went through a rapid series of management changes in 1901. The original company was dissolved and replaced by the Milwaukee Brewing & Bottling Co. for about two weeks, then succeeded by Milwaukee Brewery Co. Gustav Becherer headed the new company until the advent of Prohibition. The company continued to brew through 1918, but dissolved the corporation in December 1919.1489

• Castalia Bottling Co. (1893–95?)
• Wauwatosa

Castalia Bottling Co. first appeared in city directories in 1893, with George Schweickhart Jr. and J. A. Eberhardt as the proprietors. This firm proclaimed in directory ads that Weiss beer was among their carbonated products and it was included in brewery listings for a few years. The last directory appearance was in 1895, and in May 1897 the Weekly Wisconsin announced that the company was bankrupt. Among the creditors was Charles Abresch, which suggests that Castalia had purchased wagons they were unable to pay for.1490 The news of Castalia’s bankruptcy was reported in newspapers from Ohio to Montana, but this seems to have been the result of a slow news day rather than an indication of the company’s sales territory. Castalia was still listed in the Brewers’ Handbook Directory of 1900, but this was almost certainly simply a case of failure to remove an old listing. There was a Castalia Bottling Co. listed in the Watertown city directory of 1897, which also had Schweickhart as the proprietor, but this business is not recorded elsewhere.

• John Kohl (& Co.), Weiss Beer Brewery (1893–1900)
• 507 Twenty-first Street

John Kohl’s weiss beer brewery was located on an alley behind the dwelling at 507 Twenty-first Street. He appeared in a few directory listings and on the 1894 Sanborn Insurance map.

• J. F. Gruszczynski, Excelsior Bottling Works (1895?–1896)
• Oscar Altpeter, Excelsior Bottling Works (1896–97)
• 847 Tenth Avenue (Modern South Fifteenth and West Becher Streets)

Joseph F. Gruszczynski (or Grusczynski) ran the Excelsior Bottling Works at the corner of what was then Tenth and Becher beginning in 1884. His products included weiss beer, but it is not clear if he even brewed it there or for how long. The 1894 Sanborn insurance map shows a saloon on the property with no brewing equipment, but it may have been added the next year. Oscar Altpeter (son of Phillip Altpeter of the old Northwestern brewery) is first listed in the 1896 city directory as proprietor of a weiss beer brewery on that site. Leonard P. Jurgensen contends that his business collapsed after a year at least in part because he was sold a shipment of bottles that were undersized, which put him at a disadvantage relative to his competitors.1491

• A. H. Manske Brewing Co. (Manske & Co.) (1896–97)
• Henry Fahl Brewing Co. (1897–98)
• 626 (also 628 and 629) Eighteenth Street

In November 1895, the Sentinel noted that A. H. Manske & Co. was planning a brewery at the corner of Eighteenth and Vine. Arnold Manske was a brewer from Germany, and Henry Fahl was listed as one of Manske’s partners (George Gemeinhardt was also listed in the 1896 city directory). The same day, the Journal reported that the brewery “has been established.” While the Journal was an afternoon paper as opposed to the morning Sentinel, it is not likely that the brewery was done already. The Journal report also scaled down the capacity from earlier in the day: it reported a capacity of 6,000 barrels per year as opposed to the 12,000 in the Sentinel account. The Journal also described the business as “[a] brewery for making the kind of beer brewed before lager beer was brought into the market. . . .”1492

By the next year Manske was no longer with the business (and may have moved to Mazeppa, Minnesota and later to Pueblo, Colorado). Henry Fahl continued the business for about a year before it closed. Unlike some of the other short-lived breweries from this time period, Manske is known to have brewed beer, since bottles from his business exist.

• Peter & Charles Anderson (1896)
• 281 South Pierce Street

Peter & Charles Anderson were listed in the city directory of 1896 as brewers of “malt ale.” Very little is known about their operations, and it is not clear if they ever entered production.

• Obermann Brewing & Bottling Co. (1896?–1900)
• West Side Brewery (1900–1)
• 787 Twenty-fourth and a half Street and North Avenue

The Obermann name returned to Milwaukee brewing in 1896, when Obermann Brewing & Bottling Co. was incorporated in September 1896. It was clear this company would produce a variety of drinks from the start, since carbonated beverages were included in the articles of association. Gustav A. Obermann was the president, and Phil Obermann was the secretary and treasurer.1493 It seems clear that they were in production at least for a while, since the firm appears in the 1900 Brewers’ Handbook directory, and the Wisconsin Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 1898–99 that they had nine employees (though they were listed as soft drink manufacturers).1494

Sometime in late 1900 or 1901, John H. Knothe took over the plant, and with the help of superintendent Emil Kohn operated it as West Side Brewery for a short time.

• B. Roedel Brewing Co. (1897–99)
• Badger Brewing Co. (1899–1901?)
• Reservoir Avenue, northwest corner of Hubbard

Unlike many of the short-lived breweries founded near the turn of the twentieth century, the firm founded by Baptist Roedel, Philip Klein, and F. H. Kranpitz brewed lager beer. While they also proposed to bottle weiss beer and soft drinks in the articles of organization, the addition of an icehouse in early 1898, their listing as a lager beer brewer in the 1900 Brewers’ Handbook directory, and the factory inspection records indicate the production of lager.1495

The successor firm, Badger Brewing Co. continued to appear in directories and brewing periodicals through 1901. The description in the factory inspection records of 1899 indicated that the brewery was a three-story building which employed nine men.1496 According to the city directory of 1900, Badger Brewing Co. was I. H. Klein and O. H. Papke, but it is more likely that I.H Klein is a misprint of Philip Klein, who was listed in the 1900 census as a saloon owner. In 1901 American Brewers’ Review printed a cryptic note that the firm of Badger Brewing Co. was succeeded by the firm of Badger Brewing Co., but this most likely referred to the transfer of the company to Hartwig Harders.1497

• Ben Kornburger & Bro., Weiss Beer Brewery (1901–1911)
• Ben Kornburger & Bros. Co. (1911–1920)
• 578 Twenty-third Street

Benedict Kornburger and his brother John began brewing in 1901. Though the city directory first only listed them as soda water manufacturers, American Brewers’ Review of May 1901 listed them as brewers, as did subsequent industry directories.

Kornburger and Bro. (sometimes listed as Kornburger & Bros. when Louis and Fred joined the business in 1911) occupied several buildings on Twenty-third Street between Vine and Walnut, including the brewhouse, the bottling works, and a stable. In 1921 Kornburger & Bro. ceased to exist when the family sold the plant to Bright Spot Bottling Co.1498

• George Zeiger, Zeiger Soda Water Co. (1901–8)
• South Main Street

George Zeiger had a small weiss beer brewery and soda factory in South Milwaukee for a few years in the early 1900s. Little is known about his operations, but both soda and weiss beer bottles from the brewery are in private collections.1499

• Independent Milwaukee Brewery (1901–1963)
• 2701 South Thirteenth Street

Independent Milwaukee Brewery was more than another of the breweries formed by businessmen who wanted an alternative to the tight control of the beer market by the big brewers, it was founded by Polish-Americans seeking to improve their status in the community. (Additional details about the beginnings of the brewery and a photo of opening festivities are found in chapter 5.) Emil Czarnecki, well-known in the Polish community as a banker and politician, was the first president and remained in charge through Prohibition. Charles Evers and William Jung were the other original incorporators, but the person who became most closely identified with the firm as it grew was its secretary, Henry N. Bills.

Bills previously had been employed as a salesman for Milwaukee Brewing Co., and when he moved to Independent, he brought his promotional skills with him. A later article claimed Bills “joined every club and society in sight” to promote his work. He was apparently skilled at the other, less above board methods of beer sales in the pre-Prohibition era: “It was not unusual for beer peddlers to present new suits to a saloon owner and his kids in order to get a two or three year ‘exclusive’ contract, or even offer gifts of as much as $500 in cash.” Like many of his fellow Milwaukee brewery executives, Bills was fond of horses, and raced his trotting horses on what later became Layton Boulevard. At one point he owned the only two colts sired by the great trotter Dan Patch raised in Wisconsin.1500

In its earliest years, the brewery’s brands bore uninteresting names on simple labels: Pilsener, Pale Beer, Export, and Select among them. However, in 1912 the brewery trademarked the Braumeister label, and the smiling brewmaster became a fixture of Milwaukee beer for decades to come. Braumeister was advertised with an “unusual . . . taste, like that of imported beers,”—in this case unusual was a good thing.1501

Independent Milwaukee Brewery employed around fifty people each year and continued brewing through Prohibition, but converted quickly to other products. When Emil Czarnecki moved on to banking industry Henry Bills took full control of the company, and many of the Prohibition-era products bore the Bills brand. Braumeister malt syrup became one of the best-known products of its kind. Ads proclaimed: “Folks know their malts in Milwaukee . . . To get the Purest, STRONGEST, Best Malt Syrup . . . demand Braumeister.”1502

Because of its continued operations during the dry years, Independent needed relatively few changes to switch back to beer. Braumeister was among the beer shipped from Milwaukee on 7 April 1933. In the period after beer was legalized, many of the labels remained under the Bills name, and several contained the words “high power”—a claim that would soon be outlawed. Braumeister was only one of the brands manufactured after Prohibition—the company also brewed Deutscher Club, Log Cabin, and Independent brand beers. By this time the company was definitely a Bills family operation. Henry N. Bills Sr. was president, son Harry E. Bills was executive vice-president and younger son H. Newman Bills Jr. was the master brewer and chief chemist.

Independent was able to capitalize on the fame of Milwaukee beer and their own reputation in order to expand beyond their primary market in the Milwaukee area. Prior to World War II, Braumeister was available in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as well as markets in Iowa. After the decade after the war, Braumeister could be found in states from Arizona and New Mexico to Ohio and Florida, as well as Upper Midwest states such as Minnesota and Ohio. Even with the expanded territory, the company still sold most of its beer in the Milwaukee area. Like many other breweries, Independent sponsored radio programs to keep their name before the public. In the 1940s, they sponsored a ten-minute program on WIBU called “Pre-Game Dope” which preceded each Wisconsin Badgers football broadcast.1503

In the years after World War II, Independent Milwaukee Brewery continued to expand, though its relatively small size made it vulnerable to any changes in inputs or market conditions. After the brewery workers’ strike of 1953, Independent was forced to raise prices in order to meet the salary increases gained by the workers.1504 In 1960, capacity was listed at 300,000 barrels, though production never surpassed 187,000 barrels (in 1948). While the Braumeister brand still had a following, the company needed help. In 1963, G. Heileman Brewing Co. of La Crosse began negotiations to purchase the company, which at that point still had sales of “some 133,000 barrels in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and New Jersey markets” in addition to their Milwaukee business. (Another article about the sale claimed the major markets were in “Ohio, Michigan and parts of Indiana and Illinois.”) Production of Braumeister was moved to Heileman breweries at Sheboygan and La Crosse in October 1963, and on 12 December the sale was finalized. The sale included “brewing formulas, trademarks and copyrights, various pieces of equipment which could be used at the La Crosse and Sheboygan breweries, cartons, steel and aluminum kegs, certain inventories of raw materials and all inside and outdoor advertising signs.” H. Newman Bills, Harry Bills, and longtime officer Fred Elsner retired, and some of the remaining employees were offered positions with Heileman.1505

• Germantown Spring Brewery & Soda Co. (1915?–16?)
• 904 First Street (571 Third Street in 1916 city dir)

Germantown Spring Brewery & Soda was reported to have been a successor firm to Vogl’s Independent Brewery, though the addresses are different. This company produced some beverages, because bottles from the company exist. However, the bottles appear to be soda bottles rather than beer, and there is no definite mention of beer in industry publications. (See also the entry under Germantown.)

• Banner Brewing Co. (1933–36)
• 2302–2312 West Clybourn Street

Banner Brewing Co. was one of several firms to take advantage of the phenomenal enthusiasm for beer immediately after re-legalization. Incorporated 1 June 1933 by Albert W. Erdmann, David E. Beatty and Esther Erdmann, the company began brewing in September. The articles of incorporation reflected the changing technology of the industry, including a reference to any “appliances and things . . . such as are now or may hereafter be used for containing and transporting beer and the like.”1506

Banner introduced a few different labels, but none caught on in the face of competition from well-established brands. Production was nearly 1,000 barrels per month in mid-1935, but it began to drop precipitously thereafter. After finishing up operations with a mere sixteen barrels in February 1936—the company went out of business.

• Capitol Brewing Co. of Milwaukee (1933–1948)
• 3778 North Fratney Street

Breweries such as Capitol are relatively difficult to research since they generally operated outside the media glare that illuminated Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz, and Miller. Articles in newspapers and industry journals were few and far between, leaving an incomplete picture of operations.

The company was founded by Emil and Otto Fitterer, along with Edward and Elmer Keller. At least one of these men must have been based in St. Paul, as newspaper accounts at different periods noted the St. Paul ownership of the firm. They appear to have started production in the fall of 1933. Capitol’s production surpassed 20,000 barrels by 1936, which suggests that they were building at least some following for their flagship beers Capitol and Commander.

Capitol worked hard to secure markets outside its hometown. In 1940, it launched a campaign in Sheboygan against the threat of being excluded from that market. Noting that its products outsold all others at Sheboygan Marsh, they argued

The public has decided and should continue to decide that by their particular taste preferences. There should be no trade barriers against Milwaukee beers. Sheboygan breweries sell in Milwaukee County without any interference. If they were to depend entirely on their own county for sales, their production would be far less, resulting in less employment and income. The brewers of Capitol and Commander Beers ask no special favors, only to be permitted to compete with all other beers on an equal basis.1507

How successful this campaign was is not known.

Capitol brewed bock and holiday beers at various points during their history, but also brewed a number of private label brands for beer distributors such as Kaschner’s Beer Depot and the Conrad Private Beer Delivery. A significant portion of the beer was shipped out of state in later years.

In 1946, the Wisconsin Tavern Keepers Association voted to buy Capitol Brewing Co. About 180 tavern keepers subscribed $240,000 toward the purchase of the brewery, with more expected to join in time. The capacity of the brewery at that point was theoretically 35,000 cases under wartime restrictions, but was actually closer to 30,000 barrels. However, the sale fell through, and P. W. Heinrichs of Fergus Falls, Minnesota retained control for the time being.1508 The brewery closed in 1948, just before the brewers’ strike of that year.

• Century Brewing Co. (1933–34)
• Old Lager Brewing Co. (1934–38)
• Milwaukee Beer Co. (1938–39)
• 2318–2332 North Thirtieth Street

Century Brewing Co. was incorporated a week before beer began to flow again in 1933. Milwaukeeans A. F. Schad, John B. Lange, Joseph A. Schaab, and Herbert Frisch were the original incorporators of the brewery, which was located in a former soap factory. By early 1934 William A. Gettelman was president of the company, but this firm was short-lived, and later that year it was superseded by Old Lager Brewing Co.1509

Peter Graf, Joseph Amrhein and Frederick Stahl were the principals of the new firm, which did not resume brewing until 1935. They ramped up production quickly, brewing a respectable 1,025 barrels in May 1935 alone. However production never rose to that level again, and dropped off significantly through 1938.1510 The company was in nearly constant financial difficulty, and could only afford the necessary tax stamps by borrowing from their bank and leaving the stamps at the bank as collateral until needed for kegging.1511 The entire output of the brewery was sold in Wisconsin. Old Lager Brewing Co. is not known to have bottled its own beer, though there is evidence that independent bottlers packaged some of the output. (See Chapter 7 for a photo of an Old Lager tap knob.)

By late 1938 Old Lager was no more, and the successor firm was Milwaukee Beer Co. Like Old Lager, Milwaukee Beer Co. was a draught-only producer, and like Old Lager, production was very limited. Total sales in 1939 were only 1,563 barrels, and the company was out of business before the end of the year.1512

• Fischbach Brewing Co. (1933–36)
• 3045 West Walnut Street

Walter and Lydia Fischbach incorporated their brewery in June 1933. The articles of organization were unusual in that they authorized the company to “. . . conduct the business of manufacturing, brewing, bottling, buying, selling and generally dealing in all kinds of beer, ale, weiss beer, porter and other beverages. . . .”1513 While several breweries included a long list of beer styles in their founding documents, most of these were prior to Prohibition, and the Fischbachs were among the few actually to brew something other than lager. Fischbach Brewing apparently expected that weiss beer would be as popular after the dry years as it had been before. (See a label in chapter 7) Unfortunately, soft drinks had replaced weiss beer with drinkers looking for something light and effervescent. While the company occasionally brewed as much as 500 barrels in a month, production was usually much smaller. Even brewing a lager and manufacturing some beer under the Big Boy label for Hanover Bottling Works was not enough to sustain the company. Fischbach Brewing made a mere twelve and a half barrels of beer in November 1936 as it closed up operations.

• Sprecher Brewing Co. (1985–1994)
• 730 West Oregon Street

Randal Sprecher (no relation to nineteenth-century brewer Adam Sprecher of Madison) learned the brewing business at Pabst, where he rose to be superintendent of brewing operations. After Pabst eliminated his job as a result of corporate contraction, he worked with a partner to convert an old tannery chemical factory into the first brewery startup in Milwaukee since 1933. Sprecher made a deal with the company that owned the building to make improvements to the building instead of paying rent to keep costs down. By January 1986, the first kegs of Special Amber and Black Bavarian appeared in Milwaukee area bars and restaurants. (Additional information about the company is in chapter 10.)

Sprecher Brewing grew quickly, and by 1991 was brewing some draught beer at Capital Brewing in Middleton in order to fill orders. In 1993, the company purchased a site in the suburb of Glendale and moved there in early 1994.1514 (The rest of the brewery history is covered under Glendale.)

• Lakefront Brewery, Inc. (1987–present)
• 818A East Chambers Street (1987–1998); 1872 North Commerce Street (1998–present)

Lakefront’s story helped set the pattern for many of the craft breweries that followed it both in Wisconsin and around the nation. Brothers Russ and Jim Klisch got their start by homebrewing, and eventually decided to turn professional. They originally planned to brew at their home in the Riverwest neighborhood, but found a better site in an old bakery at 818 East Chambers Street. They sold their first keg in December 1987 to the Gordon Park Pub. Production figures from the early years were reminiscent of the output of startup breweries in the previous century: seventy-two barrels in 1988; 125 in 1989. The brothers started with two lagers: Klisch Pilsner and Riverwest Stein Beer. They soon broadened their line up, but did not include ale styles for several years, contrary to the nationwide trend in craft beers. After about a decade in their original location, the brothers moved their operation to the historic building at 1872 North Commerce Street that once housed the Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company power plant. (Additional information about the early years of Lakefront is found in chapter 10).1515

Lakefront was at the forefront of much of the diversity that marks the craft beer industry in the modern era. They were among the nine participants in the first Wisconsin Microbrewers’ Beer Fest at Chilton in 1992. Tours of the brewery quickly became popular, and as of this writing continue to be among the most popular regular events in Milwaukee. Visitors to the new brewery on Commerce Street could marvel at the faces of Stooges Larry, Moe, and Curly painted on 1,000-gallon fermentation tanks. (The three are no longer in operation, but the portraits were preserved and were still at the brewery at this writing.) Lakefront’s interest in history goes beyond locating in an old building—they have a prominent section on their website devoted to historic preservation. The company saved Bernie Brewer’s Chalet from the demolition of Milwaukee County Stadium, they rescued light fixtures from the old Plankinton Hotel and have been notable among craft brewers for keeping samples of nearly all their old packaging and souvenirs.

While deeply rooted in tradition, Lakefront has developed a reputation for exploring nearly every style of beer and for major innovations both in product and production. New Grist was the pioneering gluten-free beer, and helped make Lakefront’s reputation in new markets around the country. Lots of breweries make some kind of pumpkin ale, but Lakefront is one of the few ever to try a pumpkin lager, which has become their most popular seasonal. In 1996, Lakefront became the first certified organic brewery in the United States, and began brewing Organic ESB (Extra Special Bitter). Many years later, a much stronger beer (12.5 percent abv), Beer Line Barleywine, was converted to an organic recipe and in 2015 Lakefront released a limited edition Beer Line aged in organic whiskey barrels. In 2015, Lakefront introduced Growing Power, a USDA-certified organic hoppy farmhouse-style pale ale in cooperation with Growing Power Inc., a Milwaukee-based non-profit and land trust that focuses on community farming and health food.1516

With the increased interest in and availability of locally-grown ingredients, Lakefront introduced Local Acre in 2009, made using only Wisconsin grain and hops. Three years later, Lakefront got even more local with Wisconsinite, which is the first known beer to be made with a native Wisconsin yeast strain, and is believed to be the first in North America to use a native local yeast. In an unusual move, Lakefront made the yeast strain available to other brewers and even to homebrewers.1517

A dedicated collector could fill a long shelf with Lakefront bottles, not just with the year-round beers and seasonals, but also with distinctive one-time-only offerings. To celebrate their 25th anniversary, they brought out three seasonals marked by silver labels: A Belgian-Style Apricot Ale, an Imperial Pumpkin, and an Imperial Stout. A barrel-aged version of the Imperial Pumpkin was released the next year. In addition, Lakefront was one of the first craft brewers to make commemorative beers for community organizations and special occasions, and has continued to do so.

Lakefront’s brewers have collaborated with brewers near and far, a recent example being a “hopfenweizen” (hoppy wheat beer) brewed with Great Lakes Brewing Company of Cleveland.1518 They also worked with Bettina Arnold, a professor in the archaeology department of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, to create a braggot (a beer and mead hybrid) that would evoke the ales possibly made in Iron Age Europe.1519

Lakefront’s rapid growth in the past decade (it jumped from 6,300 barrels in 2005 to 23,0000 in 2011, then to 33,000 in 2012 and to nearly 47,000 in 2015) has created a capacity problem. In order to maintain its shipments to thirty-six states, Canada, Japan and Israel (though some markets come and go), the company has been looking for a local for a second production facility. In 2014 it acquired an option on 9.3 acres of land on Canal Street in the Menomonee Valley area for the possible location of a new brewery, but shortly thereafter acquired a parcel of land adjacent to the existing brewery for a future expansion. Through the rapid growth, the company has kept its sense of humor: An April Fool’s Day press release in 2016, reported with tongue firmly in cheek that Lakefront had become “one of those extreme metal breweries” and changed the logo and several beer styles to reflect the new identity.1520 During the summer of 2016, Kristin Hueneke, chef at Lakefront’s Beer Hall, created “beersicles”—frozen beer treats featuring Lakefront beers in three flavors: orange creamsicle, strawberry fudgsicle and pineapple basil.1521

• Water Street Brewery (1987–present)
• 1101 North Water Street

Milwaukee’s oldest brewpub, and the oldest still operating in Wisconsin, was founded in a historic brick building on Water Street. The same architects designed the Milwaukee Public Library and the Pabst Mansion. George Bluvas III, brewmaster since 1999, oversees brewing for all four Water Street locations, and the same beers are typically featured at each. (Beer writer Michael Agnew has detected slight differences in the beers from location to location, probably because of the local water characteristics.) Bluvas typically has between eight and twelve beers on tap at each location, representing a variety of lager and ale styles. In 2017, the original brewing system was removed and replaced with a new system fabricated by Quality Tank Solutions of Oconomowoc.

Owner R. C. Schmidt uses all four locations to display the Water Street Brewery Beer Memorabilia Collection, including many spectacular metal and neon signs, brewery lithographs, backbar pieces, openers and several thousand cans. The love of breweriana is reflected in the anniversary coasters, which pay tribute to great beer logos and signs of the past.1522

• Century Brewing Co. (1987–88)
• 2340 North Farwell Avenue

Century Brewing Co. was the second brewpub established in Milwaukee, and was located in Century Hall, which was a nationally known music venue that hosted concerts for important bands of the 1980s such as Hüsker Dü and Sonic Youth. It was also the second brewery in Milwaukee to use the Century name. Unfortunately, it survived about the same length as the earlier business. In April 1988, Century Hall was destroyed by an arsonist. The brewery did not resume business after the fire.1523

• Wisconsin Brewing Co. (1995–98)
• 1064 North Eighty-second Street, Wauwatosa

Wisconsin Brewing Co., the third business to take that name, was among the many breweries to open and close during the “shakeout” of the late 1990s. However this brewery closed due to double misfortune, rather than because of problems with the beer or the business plan.

Mark May started homebrewing in the late 1970s, and later moved to Milwaukee where he worked at Lakefront Brewery and started selling homebrewing supplies. One of his customers was Mike Gerend, who had earned his MBA at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Gerend drew up a business plan for a microbrewery, but neither of them was ready to put it into effect at the moment. The two met again in Minneapolis in 1995, where Gerend was now a business analyst for Northwest Airlines (currently Delta). They started the brewery later that year in a former food production facility for Big Boy restaurants with an investment of $655,000.1524 The first batch of Rainbow Red Ale was brewed in April 1996, and the brewery soon added Silver Fox Vienna lager, Whitetail Cream Ale, Wood Duck Wheat and Badger Porter. May worked as the general manager of the brewery and the founders hired Gary Versteegh to be the head brewer. (John Harrison, who would soon become head brewer at Delafield Brewhouse, was assistant brewer.) Wisconsin Brewing was experimenting with cask versions of their beers at Milwaukee bars, and even at this early date the brewery had a website.1525

The late 1990s were a difficult time to start a brewery, since the industry was overcrowded at the time, and breweries desperate to survive engaged in price-cutting to hold on to market share. This made it difficult enough for Wisconsin Brewing to turn a profit in its first year, but disaster struck in June 1997, when the brewery was devastated by a massive flood in the Menomonee River Valley that filled the brewery with six feet of water. While they had almost every other kind of insurance, the company had no flood insurance, so had to absorb the entire loss. All the raw materials were destroyed and the muck had to be painstakingly shoveled out of the brewery. All the equipment had to be completely disassembled and sanitized before it could be used again. One consolation was the support of local business and other area microbrewers. A group of businesses and brewers joined together to sponsor a FloodFest to benefit the damaged brewery, and other breweries lent equipment or offered space in their brewery while Wisconsin Brewing tried to recover.1526

During the recovery Mike Gerend took a leave from Northwest Airlines and devoted himself to rebuilding the business full time. The brewery was shut down completely for about a month, but by early 1998 was back on track to produce at pace that would allow the company to break even for the year. Wisconsin Brewing Co. beers were available in the Twin Cities as well as Milwaukee, largely because Mike and Julie Gerend lived in St. Paul and had connections there. Mike’s airline connections also helped place Whitetail Cream Ale as one of two beer offerings on flights of Mesaba Airlines (a subsidiary of Northwest Airlines).1527

Unfortunately, another flood struck the brewery in August 1998, and this time the business was unable to recover. The company was closed by the end of the year, and the labels were sold to Pioneer Brewing Co. of Black River Falls (which would later become Sand Creek Brewing Co.) Badger Porter was still being brewed as of 2017.1528

• Milwaukee Ale House (1997–present)
• 233 North Water Street

Jim McCabe and Mike Bieser were homebrewers who opened Milwaukee Ale House in 1997. Jim’s brother John had experience in the restaurant business, so a brewpub was a logical choice. It now occupies several floors of the Saddlery building (which in addition to housing a saddle maker, was also occupied by a sailmaker and the inventor of the Hula Hoop).1529 The location in the Historic Third Ward quickly built a reputation for good beer and attracted large crowds. The lower floor was developed into the Hopside Down. Because it is at river level, the Ale House is one of the few brewpubs accessible by water. Hopside Down has six slips to accommodate those arriving by boat.

Many of the popular beers had interesting stories behind their names. Louie’s Demise was inspired by a nineteenth-century photo of a group of men drinking. Jim and Mike repeatedly toasted these men, but eventually discovered that the men were at a wake for their relative Louie, who was killed in an argument over a woman.1530

The success of Milwaukee Ale House led to the opening of Milwaukee Brewing Co. a short distance away. Milwaukee Ale House also opened a second location in Grafton in 2008, offering most of the same beers as the Third Ward location.

• Rock Bottom Brewery (1997–present)
• 740 North Plankinton Road

The Milwaukee location of Rock Bottom Brewery was the thirteenth in the nationwide chain to open. Rock Bottom has been able to employ talented brewers by allowing them some freedom within the corporate guidelines for beer styles and names. Rock Bottom typically has at least one cask conditioned beer available along with eight or nine year-round or seasonal beers.

• Stout Brothers Brewing Co. (2000–3)
• 777 North Water Street

Dave and Bob Leszczynski opened Stout Brothers Brewing in an 1874 building that was originally a bookbindery. Brewmaster Al Bunde offered a variety of ales and an occasional lager. The brewery was located, according to the 2003 Great Taste of the Midwest festival program “. . . in the shadow of a corrupt City Hall. . . .” The same paragraph announced its imminent closing in September 2003.1531

• Onopa Brewing Co. (2001–6)
• Stonefly Brewing Co. (2006–2014)
• Co.mpany Brewing Co. (2015–present)
• 735 East Center Street

A single building in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood has housed three different iterations of brewpubs. The first was Onopa Brewing Co., which was open for about five years and offered a selection of ales created by Marc “Luther” Paul and his successor Jacob Sutrick. Onopa also experimented with barrel-aged beers.

In 2004, Milwaukee restaurateur Julia LaLoggia purchased Onopa, and renamed it Stonefly in 2006. Sutrick remained on as brewer, and the nature of the establishment was little changed—a local gathering place that was probably more famous as a music venue than as a brewery.

LaLoggia decided in 2014 to focus on her other restaurant, and the location was taken over (at first) by the team of restaurateur Karen Bell and brewer George Bregar. However, Milwaukee ordinances prohibited Bell from holding two licenses, so Rosy Rodriguez replaced her. (This was the same rule that originally forced Like Minds Brewing Co. to open in Chicago.) The new ownership changed the name to Co.mpany, but continued to feature live music.1532

• Milwaukee Brewing Co. (2007–present)
• 613 South Second Street

The most recent business to be named Milwaukee Brewing Co. is the production brewery that grew out of the Milwaukee Ale House brewpub. The first beer was kegged in November 2007, and since then a full range of regular and seasonal beers were bottled and later canned at the brewery. The brewery made use of new technologies to reduce water, fuel and electricity use. Milwaukee Brewing Co. installed the first “micro-canning” system in Wisconsin to reduce energy use at all stages in the process and to make the product more acceptable at outdoor activities.1533 The facility was also used to brew beer under contract for others, such as the early batches of Big Bay Brewing Co.1534

Milwaukee Brewing has made its mark with ales rather than lagers, and has also introduced several series worth of special beers. The Herb-In Legend Series is devoted to beers infused with tea from Rishi Tea company of Milwaukee including the “monster wheat beer” O-Gii, which clocks in at an extremely high 9.2 percent abv. The Destination Local Series are all high-alcohol beers whose labels are designed to resemble old airline luggage tags. (The brewery’s logo contains the airport code for Milwaukee—MKE.)1535 Many of these beers were piloted at the brewpub, and the favorites became packaged brands.

In 2016, the Second Street location was operating at full capacity and production was running at 30 percent above 2015 levels (when the company manufactured 10,702 barrels). To relieve the pressure, Milwaukee Brewing Co. leased space in the former Pabst Brewing Co. complex to expand its business. The company started using the building at 1311 North Eighth Street for storage, but plans include brewing facilities and public spaces including a rooftop beer garden.1536

• Horny Goat Hideaway (2009–2015)
• 2011 South First Street

Jim Sorenson, a beer industry veteran, established Horny Goat Brewing Co. in 2008 with the idea that craft beer should be fun and not take itself so seriously. The original bottled beer was produced at Stevens Point Brewery (production later moved to City Brewing Co. in La Crosse). In 2009, Sorenson and his partners opened Horny Goat Hideaway, a large brewpub on the Milwaukee waterfront. The beer served on draught at the Hideaway was brewed on-site, and helped test recipes for potential wider distribution. By 2013, Horny Goat products were available in nineteen states. Many of the brands had names that fit the Horny Goat theme, and several of the more popular beers included non-traditional flavors, such as Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter. The company closed the brewpub in October 2015 to concentrate on their brewing operations, which included continuing the pilot brewery at the brewpub location.1537

• Brenner Brewing Co. (2014–2017)
• 706 South Fifth Street

Brenner Brewing Co. was started by Mike Brenner, who designed the business plan while working on his MBA at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Like many aspiring brewers in the modern era, Brenner undertook formal brewing studies, first at Siebel Institute in Chicago, and then at Doemens Akademie in Munich. The brewery was funded in part by a Kickstarter on-line fundraising campaign which raised over $25,000—well over the $10,000 goal.

Mike Brenner was a member of the Milwaukee arts community as a musician and art gallery owner for many years, so his plan was to create and “Art-Centered Brewery” which would incorporate an adjacent gallery and commission local artists to create labels for the beers. The first labels were created by Sue Lawton for Star Baby IPA, by Erin Paisley for City Fox Pale Ale, and by James Demski “Jimbot” for Bacon Bomb Rauchbier.1538

Brenner Brewing also allowed MobCraft Brewing to use their brewhouse while MobCraft was under construction. A combination of financial factors caused the brewery to close in November 2017.1539

• District 14 Brewery and Pub (2014–2018)
• 2273 South Howell Avenue

District 14 (D14) opened in the Bay View neighborhood in September 2014. Owner and brewer Matt McCulloch quickly diversified his beer lineup to include different takes on standard styles. He released his first sour beer in 2017, but the brewery closed in October 2018.1540

• Black Husky Brewing Co. (2016–present)
• 909 East Locust Street

Tim and Toni Eichinger moved their brewery from the northeastern village of Pembine to the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee in 2016. The building was the former home of Manyo Motors, which relocated elsewhere in the city. The new location included an outdoor patio and a Northwoods-themed bar, as well as much more production space. The Locust Street location is also closer to their primary customers in southeastern Wisconsin.1541

• Enlightened Brewing Co. (2014–present)
• 2018 South 1st Street

Tommy Vandervort started as a homebrewer and in 2014 started Enlightened Brewing Co. in the Bay View neighborhood of Milwaukee. He brought in James Larson to serve as “Heady Brewer”—Larson is one of the relatively few brewers working in the Upper Midwest to have studied at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. By 2016, Enlightened beers were available in several dozen taverns and restaurants around the Milwaukee area, as well as in the brewery tap room.

• Good City Brewing (2016–present)
• 2108 North Farwell Avenue

Brewmaster and co-founder Andy Jones is a graduate of the Master Brewers Program at University of California-Davis. The motto of the brewpub is “Seek the Good,” which encompasses their approach to using locally sourced ingredients and creating an “open concept brewery.”1542

• MobCraft (2016–present)
• 505 South Fifth Street

MobCraft likely has the most unusual business proposition of any Wisconsin brewery. MobCraft is a crowdsourced brewery—which means that anyone can submit a recipe to be voted on by potential customers. Voting is done by placing a pre-order for the beer, and the one with the most pre-orders wins. Henry Schwartz came up with the idea while in a business class at University of Wisconsin–Whitewater (the idea was actually tested during the class). Meanwhile, lead brewer Andrew Gierczak was studying microbiology at UW–Madison. Schwartz, Gierczak and two other friends launched the idea in 2013, brewing their first batches at House of Brews in Madison.

After a few years, the team wanted more control (and a taproom) and decided to build a brewery in Milwaukee. They took a very modern American step—an appearance on the celebrity investment show Shark Tank, but did not succeed in winning any investors. The company also used more traditional funding sources, such as government loans, and was one of the first to use a new Wisconsin law permitting equity crowdfunding.

The site MobCraft selected for its new brewery was a former parking garage which had also been used to service the city’s road salt spreading trucks. Nearby Brenner Brewing Co. offered MobCraft use of their brewery during the build out period. The new brewery and taproom celebrated a soft opening in June 2016 and ramped up over the course of the next several months.

While there are some flagship beers available year-round, most of the beers brewed at MobCraft are single thirty-barrel batches of the crowdsourced winners. These beers have ranged from an all malt lager to Señor Bob, which was an imperial cream ale brewed with agave syrup and aged in tequila barrels. Many of the recipes submitted by would-be recipe designers involve barrel-aging and non-traditional ingredients. Flagship beers are sold in cans and contest winners are packaged in 22-ounce or 500 ml bottles. Originally the winning beers were shipped only to those who had pre-ordered, but soon the beers started appearing on shelves from Madison to Milwaukee. In 2016, MobCraft began a wild and sour beer program and by 2017 there were already several such beers available.1543

• Urban Harvest Brewing Co. (2016–present)
• 1024 South Fifth Street

Urban Harvest Brewing Co. opened its taproom in the Walker’s Point neighborhood in 2016. Brewer Steve Pribek features a variety of regular and seasonal beers made on his two-barrel system in this nanobrewery.

• City Lights Brewing Co. (2016–present)
• 2200 West Mt. Vernon Avenue

City Lights Brewing Co. grew out of the 4 Brothers Blended Beer company. This business, started Jimmy, Andy, Robin, and Tommy Gohsman in 2013, hoped to fill a gap in the beer market that offered full-flavored but more sessionable beers. Beers like Prodigal Son and Sibling Rivalry blended characteristics of multiple beers—in the case of Prodigal Son, a hoppy IPA and a smooth cream ale. The beers were brewed and canned at Sand Creek Brewing in Black River Falls.1544

The brothers planned to eventually open their own brewery, and in 2014 they began searching for an appropriate site and expanded the business beyond the family. They settled on the former West Side Water Works, which was a complex created to use coal gasification to provide gas for the city street lamps. Robin Gohsman became the brewery president, Jimmy (who had done most of the recipe formulation for 4 Brothers) became the brewmaster, and Dr. David Ryder was brought in as “Chief Innovation Officer.”1545 The brewery opened in 2016.

• Third Space Brewing Co. (2016–present)
• 1505 West St. Paul Avenue

Andy Gehl and Kevin Wright met at summer camp, which they referred to as their “third space.” Wright graduated at the top of his brewing class from University of California, Davis in 2009, after which he spent seven years at Hangar 24 in Redlands, California.

Wright and Gehl planned a production brewery in their hometown of Milwaukee, so needed a spacious building. Abandoned industrial buildings often have a lot of space at a relatively affordable price, so they settled on a former metal stamping plant that had been abandoned for more than thirty years.1546

• Like Minds Brewing Co. (2016–2018)
• 823 East Hamilton Street

Like Minds founders Justin Aprahamian and John Lavelle finally ended up with a brewery in the Cream City—after a detour to Chicago. The partners were originally looking for a location in their hometown of Milwaukee, but soon discovered they would not be able to get a brewing license in Wisconsin because the James Beard Award–winning chef Aprahamian already had a liquor license for Sanford Restaurant. They soon selected a location in Chicago and opened Like Minds in 2015.

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue made a “change in determination” and allowed the food-centric brewery to open in Milwaukee after all. (The Chicago location was sold to Finch’s Beer Company.) The new brewery and restaurant opened in October 2016, but in December 2016 Aprahamian stepped back to focus on Sanford and his family. The restaurant closed in April 2017 to make way for additional space for foeders and barrels.1547

Beer names such as Ellison, Doctorow, Sendak, and Holden took their inspiration from noted authors or literary characters. After selling the Hamilton Street location, the partners could not agree on a direction for the brewery and the business closed.1548

• Eagle Park Brewing Co. (2016–present)
• 2018 South First Street (2016–18); 823 East Hamilton Street (2018–present)

Jack and Max Borgardt were part of the band Eagle Trace and enjoyed drinking good beer. They decided that they had a better path to fame making good beer than recording a hit song. Along with Jake Schinker, they began brewing commercially in 2016 in a location vacated when Enlightened Brewing moved to a larger space in the Lincoln Warehouse. Brews on the one-barrel pilot system were supplemented by contract brews made at Octopi Brewing in Waunakee. In 2018 they moved into the restaurant and brewhouse previously occupied by Like Minds Brewing Co.—a former garage for the Gallun Tannery whose plant still dominates the view. Eagle Park focuses on IPAs, but also brews styles ranging from stout to Berliner weisse. Several of the beers are available in cans.1549