Algoma (Ahnapee) (Kewaunee County)

• Joseph Hipler (?) (ca. 1860)
• John Powell (ca. 1861)
• Mathias Simon & George Laux (ca. 1865–67)
• George Laux & Co. (1867–69)
• Wyta Stransky/Stransky & Swaty, Ahnapee Brewery (1869–1875)
• Ahnapee Brewing Co. (1875–1884)
• Henry Schmilling, Ahnapee Brewery (1884–85)
• John Skala, Ahnapee Brewery (1886–1890)
• Pytlik Klogner, Ahnapee Brewery (1890–93?)
• (Modern) 115 Navarino Street

The early years of Ahnapee’s first brewery are known only from indirect references. Joseph Hipler is listed as a brewer in the 1860 census. A county history from the early 1920s reported that in 1867 Louis Bruemmer purchased an interest in a brewery “operated theretofore by John Powell and others,” but he soon went into the hotel business.1 According to local historian Virginia Feld Johnson, Powell probably died after the battle of Perryville in 1862, so he could not have owned it for long. (Powell owned property on Block 15 between Steele and Clark and Third and Fourth, which may have been the site of this brewery.) Johnson also holds that Bruemmer bought his interest from Mathias Simon, and ran it with Simon’s former partner, George Laux.2 Simon was included in the R. G. Dun & Co. records from 1865 until 1867, and was also listed as the owner of a general store.3 Laux appears in the excise tax records in 1867, sometimes under the name of George Laux & Co.

The Kewaunee County Enterprize provides a clear link between the Laux and Stransky businesses. It reported in February 1869 that Wyta Stransky of Kewaunee and Herman Seidemann [sic] of Sturgeon Bay had purchased the Ahnapee brewery from Laux.4 Seidelman apparently didn’t stay long, since Franz Swaty became Stransky’s partner in the business soon after the purchase.

In the fall of 1869, Stransky and Swaty built a new brewery on Block 2 of Young and Steele’s Plat, between what was then South Water Street and the Ahnapee River. The brewery was praised as the first substantial brick building in the county. By 1874, Stransky had completed a new dock behind the brewery, and beer was shipped by water to customers north of town, sometimes in the sloop Whiskey Pete. The local newspapers quoted locals and visitors who claimed that Ahnapee lager beer was just as good as Milwaukee lager.

Henry Schmilling purchased the brewery in 1879, and began to make repairs and upgrades. By 1884 the malt facilities were expanded so that they could supply all of the brewery’s needs and the brewery had a reported capacity of 2,000 barrels per year. One unusual feature of the brewery (which predated Schmilling’s improvements) was the windmill on the roof used to provide power for grinding malt and pumping liquids. Schmilling also added an icehouse and a malt house, and sank a new well in front of the brewery.

John Skala and J. B. Orth leased the brewery in 1885, but encountered a run of bad luck. A fire that year caused minimal damage, but one the next year left the upper floor badly damaged. At first Skala planned to rebuild, but later that year he moved the brewing equipment to Menominee, Michigan.5

After Skala left, the property changed hands several times, eventually winding up with Edward Decker. Accounts differ as to whether Decker simply held the property or continued the brewery. The Enterprize reported in June 1889 that Pytlik Klogner was planning to lease the brewery and American Breweries II lists “Klogner & Ptilik” [sic] as running the business until 1893, but the firm does not appear in the state business directory of 1891 or in other records. The 1894 Sanborn Insurance Map shows the building still owned by Edward Decker, but indicated that a family lived in the premises and did not include the capacity of the brewery, which was common on these maps—so it is most likely that the brewery had not been in business since Skala left.

Several companies used the building for manufacturing and storage during the twentieth century until Dr. Charles W. Stiehl purchased it and started Von Stiehl Winery in 1968. The building was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.6 Henry Schmilling was the great-great-great-great uncle of Aric and Brad Schmiling [modern spelling], who purchased the business in 2003 and are the owners as of 2017.7

• Ahnapee Brewery (2013–present)
• 105 Navarino Street

Brewing returned to Algoma in 2013 when Aric and Brad Schmiling of Von Stiehl Winery opened a brewery taproom in a small building next to the historic brewery. The brewing is done in the former Carnival Guernsey Dairy northwest of the city. Head brewer Nick Calaway previously served as general manager of Titletown Brewing Co. in Green Bay, and moved to Von Stiehl for a job that demanded less time than the restaurant business. In 2017, Calaway fulfilled the original plan by purchasing the brewery from the Schmilings.

In keeping with the German heritage of the brewery, the original beers were traditional German styles such as Vienna lager, Bavarian dunkel and Munich helles. Even the English-style Noble IPA used German malts and hops. Calaway soon introduced creative special releases such as the Hobo series. The first was a Belgian-style quadruple abbey ale released in 2014, which was followed by several barrel-aged beers. Some of these were bottled for sale at the taproom (usually a limited release of 500 bottles), but bottling for distribution throughout northeastern Wisconsin began in 2016. The bottling plant was installed in a building across the street from the taproom.8

Alma (Buffalo County)

• John Hemrich, Union Brewery (1855–1862)
• John A. Hunner, Union Brewery (1862–64)
• Rissler & Jung, Union Brewery (1865–68)
• Rissler & Hemrich, Union Brewery (1868–1871)
• John Hemrich, Union Brewery (1871–1888)
• William & Alvin Hemrich, Union Brewery (1888–1890)
• Henry Huber & Fred Hemrich, Union Brewery (1890–91)
• Alma Brewing Co. (1891–1919)
• East side of Main, North of Water Street (Modern 800 Block of South Main)

The Union Brewery is usually credited with being the first industry in Alma—taking advantage of the surrounding farm country that supplied raw materials for producing lager beer. John Hemrich (Hemmrich) arrived in 1855 and built a log brewery to take advantage of the traffic from the nearby steamboat landing. According to local tradition, John Spany built the brewery, but supposedly forgot to put in openings for windows.9 L. Kessinger, writing in the 1888 History of Buffalo County, Wisconsin speculated: “it can readily be imagined that there must have been, and there still is, a considerable demand for their product.”10 Indeed, the 1860 Census of Industry listed Hemrich with a production of 1,800 barrels of beer in the past year with a value of $7,000—more than the breweries in La Crosse or any other city in the western part of the state. The Buffalo County Journal claimed, “He has facilities for manufacturing a Better Article of Beer than any other brewery in Northwestern Wisconsin.”11

In 1862, Hemrich rented his brewery to John A. Hunner, who then went “to La Crosse or Dubuque to engage a brewer.” He was evidently successful, because later ads reported he had engaged “the services of one of the best and most skillful brewers in the western country” and operated the brewery for about two years. In February 1863, Hunner went through the ice crossing the Mississippi River with a pair of horses and a wagon (though the account did not confirm that it was a brewery wagon). By 1864, Hunner had purchased the Wisconsin House and was preparing to start his own brewery (see next entry).12

Rissler and Jung operated the brewery for the next few years. Hemrich moved back into the business with William Rissler during 1868, a date confirmed by ads in October that listed Hemrich & Rissler at the top and Rissler & Jung at the bottom.13 By the summer of 1871 Hemrich was once more sole proprietor, but production had declined since the heady days of 1860 to about 400 barrels a year in the early 1870s, perhaps because of increased competition. Most of the sales were in Alma and the surrounding farm towns. Hemrich expanded the brewery over the next two decades by adding a brick malt house in 1876 and a stone icehouse in 1880. By the late 1880s the brewery was the least impressive of the structures, so Hemrich replaced the original log structure with a new frame structure containing a new steam engine and other fixtures acquired from a local mill. The brewery made a lager beer that was known as Alma Bride due to a label misprint (intended to be Alma Pride) and a bock beer each spring.14 Despite the progress, Hemrich had his share of bad luck as well. The brewery cellar was flooded in June 1880 and he lost most of his beer. The next year his fifteen-year old son drowned while swimming near the brewery.15 By 1888 Hemrich was now in his mid-60s, and apparently tired of the business, so he leased the brewery to his sons William and Alvin and moved west to Washington.

The two brothers only held the business for two years. In 1890, area newspapers announced that the brewery was to be sold at auction in April, and later that “parties from California,” had taken over the brewery.16 Henry Huber and Fred Hemrich brought in Christ Carisch from Fountain City to take over management of the brewery, and later they changed the name to Alma Brewing Co. after the other firm of that name closed in 1891. While popular as brewmaster, Carisch was perhaps more famous for having a son, George, who signed a contract to pitch for Cap Anson’s Chicago White Stockings of the National League (though he never reached the majors). In 1907 the brewery was sold to a new management team of Charles Huth, A. W. Hofer, and William Ulrich, who continued the business until Prohibition in 1919. The building stayed in the Ulrich family until it was razed in 1937.17

• John A. Hunner (1864–66)
• William Briggeboos, Alma Brewery (1866–1888 or 1891?)
• 215 South Main Street

According to the 1888 county history, J. A. “Squire” Hunner started this brewery in “the old Wisconsin House,” but sold it to old settler and Hunner’s former business partner William Briggeboos in 1866.18 In 1871, Briggeboos (various spellings) set about building a new brewery across the street from the original location.19 Production fluctuated during the 1870s from just over 300 barrels to more than 600. By the late 1880s industry directories listed his capacity at more than 2,000 barrels—though he probably never produced at full capacity. Several sources claim that the brewery closed during 1888, which is supported by an article in the Winona Daily Republican suggesting Briggeboos was planning to reopen it. The article enthused over his cellars and claimed “Many an old pioneer of this county who blew foam off Briggeboos’s beer back in the sixties would be pleased to do so again just for luck and to remind them of ye good old days.”20 One local history claims Briggeboos retired in 1891, but this may have been from his milling business. The family continued to live in the brewery after his death in 1893. The building was razed in 1924, but the caves were later used for growing mushrooms and even as a natural air conditioner for a filling station later located on the site.21

• Charles Zengel (1869–1870)
• “Above the Lime Kiln”

Charles Zengel’s brewery was derided in the 1888 county history as a “feeble attempt.” However in 1870 he produced enough to be included among firms that did at least $500 worth of business during the year—producing fifty barrels that were sold at the prevailing local rate of $10 each.22 By far the smallest of Alma’s breweries, he may have found the competition difficult to overcome. Excise records from January 1871 note that Zengel had ceased brewing on the previous June 30th and had “no beer on hand.”

Amherst (Portage County)

• Central Waters Brewing Company (2007–present)
• 351 Allen Street

Central Waters moved to their new location in January 2007, and at first the brewhouse was a “frankenbrewery” affair. The bottle filler was a 1968 model from Germany; the case erector (which prepares cartons for filling) was of 1950s vintage from the old Rainier brewery in Washington, and the bottle labelers came from the Stevens Point Brewery just a few miles away. Within a few years the brewhouse, cellar, packaging hall, lab, and barrel warehouse all featured state of the art equipment which enabled Central Waters to embark on brewing projects that have earned them national acclaim. Its Shine On red ale celebrates a partnership with the Midwest Renewable Energy Association. In 2009, the brewery added one thousand square feet of solar collectors which, when combined with a radiant floor heating system and other energy efficient systems, made the brewery Wisconsin’s “first Green Powered Brewery.”23 The brewery was able to double production from three thousand barrels to six thousand barrels in 2010 without any increase in energy consumption. The brewery is also one of several which has made commitments to buy local ingredients from the Midwest Hops & Barley Co-op.

For many craft beer lovers, the most important addition to the brewery is the barrel warehouse added in 2010 and expanded many times since. Several thousand oak barrels are used to age some of the brewery’s beers, including imperial stout and barleywine. The oak adds a variety of flavors including vanilla and coconut to the already rich beers. Central Waters has also launched a sour aged beer program with sixty-four barrels, though as of 2016 Exodus has been the only beer released in this series.24 With experimental projects there are risks and occasional setbacks. In 2012, Central Waters recalled that year’s edition of Peruvian Morning barrel-aged coffee stout because it was taking on undesirable flavors for the style.25 However, the vast majority of the barrel projects yielded excellent results and earned medals at national and international competitions. In several states, the barrel-aged brews are the only Central Waters products available. Paul Graham noted that since the local nature of craft beer is very important to consumers, the flagship beers are less relevant to distant customers, so the specialty products are more viable.

Antigo (Langlade County)

• Frank (John?) Chalupsky (1890–92)
• John Benishek (1892–93)
• (John) Benishek & (Albert) Fisch (1893–94)
• Frank Hanzal (1894–95)
• Antigo Brewing Company (1896–1920)
• Edison Street and Ninth

The town of Antigo was first started as an oasis of temperance, but the residents soon overturned the wishes of the founder and voted to grant liquor licenses. The establishment of a brewery in the town was noted with some irony by the Chicago Herald, which claimed it would “make a good market for all the barley raised in Langlade County,” but that it was “like the proverbial last straw on the camels [sic] back to the temperance zealots on Piety Flat.”26 Despite being founded relatively late, sources still show some confusion over the early years of Antigo’s first brewery. The name of the founder is given variously as Frank or John Chalupsky.

By November 1893, Albert Fisch (Fish) had joined John Benishek, and the company was registered as a brewer of more than 500 barrels, though figures in 1895 show output closer to 200 barrels. In September 1896, ten businessmen reorganized the business as Antigo Brewing Company.27 The brewery continued through Prohibition, during which they produced near beer for a short time.

The products of the building found a much wider market in its later years: The building was purchased by the Langlade County Creamery and produced cheese under the Kraft Foods Co. of Wisconsin label.28 In 1937, this plant claimed to be the largest producer of Swiss cheese in the world.29

• Citizens Brewing Company (1899–1920)
• (Superior Street) Edison Street and 9th

In September 1899, a group of Langlade county residents formed the new Citizens Brewing Co. to compete with Antigo Brewing Co.30 In 1913, the name of the firm was changed to Northern Manufacturing Company, though it continued in the beer business.31 Shortly after the advent of Prohibition, the plant was sold to the Langlade Farmer’s Cooperative and converted into a warehouse.32

As the end of Prohibition neared, Antigo residents hoped to build a new brewery, and twenty local businessmen met to plan a brewery that would employ forty men, though Northern Lakes Brewing Co. never got past the planning stages.33 (A label from Citizens Brewing Company is found in chapter 6.)

Appleton (Outagamie County)

• Anton Fisher (1858–1860)
• Carl (Charles) Muench (1860–1882)
• Mrs. Wallie Muench (1882–84)
• Muench Brewing Company (1884–1893)
• Mrs. Wallie Heid, Muench Brewery (1893–99)
• Appleton Brewing & Malting Co. (1899–1917)
• George Walter Brewing Co. (1918–1920)
• 1004 South [Olde] Oneida Road

Appleton’s founders intended it to be a virtuous university city. A laudatory passage in a county history claimed: “their previous religious training and the influence of the University raised the morals of this community to a high standard. Groggeries, doggeries or saloons were not permitted to locate here.” When gaps in enforcement appeared, alcohol was branded as a foreign contaminant. The Appleton Crescent of 15 July 1854 bemoaned “Heretofore there have been sundry places where Menasha beer was bought and drank.” However, strong liquor was a bigger menace, and by 1860 the Crescent reluctantly admitted “Most of the [whiskey] dealers have decided henceforth to sell nothing but beer and ale so that some good has been accomplished.”34

By this point, Appleton no longer needed to import beer from outside. Anton (John) Fisher started a brewery “on the old Menasha road, above the old canal.”35 After two years (one source claims the sale was in 1859), Fisher sold to Charles Muench (or Carl, even listed as Joseph), who had previously worked as a foreman in the Schlitz brewery. He began to improve and expand the brewery. In 1863 he built a “Summer House” in the beer garden of what was now often called the “Fourth Ward Brewery.”36 The brewery grew under Muench’s guidance and sold more than 1,900 barrels in 1879. However, Muench died on 20 May 1880, while construction of a new brewhouse was underway. His widow Wallie took over management of the brewery and appears to have run the business well: Western Brewer praised the new brewery and said it “speaks volumes for the enterprise and business ability of Mrs. Muench.”37 When she married brewery employee Math. Heid she was identified in newspaper accounts as “the wealthy proprietoress of the Muench brewery.”38 (City directory ads in 1887 listed Mr. Heid as the proprietor.)

The brewery continued under the Muench name and became a joint stock company in 1891 with Mrs. Heid remaining in charge as president. Son William Muench was now an important member of the firm, and in 1893 he was sent to Chicago to buy new equipment, including a refrigeration plant.39 The brewery was destroyed in a devastating fire in 1894, but rebuilt with “all the latest improvements in machinery.”40 The family sold the brewery in 1899 and the new owners formed Appleton Brewing & Malting Company. Among the officers was the brewmaster, John Haug, and Frank Fries, son of a former owner of the rival Star brewery. By 1910 the brewery was selling 19,000 barrels per year, most of it the Mellow Brau and Prime brands. Like many breweries of its size, it did its own malting and bottling, but it also boasted that it used “home barley exclusively,” which was less common. The firm claimed a delivery radius (by wagon) of twenty miles and a workforce of twenty men.41

The shortages brought on by American involvement in the First World War forced Appleton Brewing and Malting to combine with Geo. Walter Brewing Co. in 1918 in order to save fuel and other materials.42 The building was used mostly for storage after it closed in 1920, though the Wonder Instant Heat Co. proposed to use it to manufacture chemical heating and cooling products. (This company disappeared shortly thereafter and was suspected of fraud.)43 The Appleton Brewing & Malting site later became the location of the Stone Cellar/Arch brewpub.

• George Muench (1862–68)
• George Mayer (1868–1870?)
• Mayer & Unmuth (1870?)
• Louis Unmuth (1870)
• Fries & Unmuth (1870-?)
• Michael Fries (1871?–1876)
• Susan and Elizabeth Kohl (1876–1877?)
• Winz & Fries (1877?–1880)
• Walter & Fries (1880–85?)
• George Walter Brewery, aka Star Brewery (1885–1899)
• Geo. Walter’s Estate (1899–1903)
• Geo. Walter Brewing Co. (1903–1920)
• Geo. Walter Brewing Co. (1933–1972)
• Corner of Walnut & Lawrence (200/220 Walnut)

The exact origins of Appleton’s longest-lived brewery are not clear. The Geo. Walter Brewing Co. claimed an establishment date of 1862, but little has been found about George Muench’s years as proprietor except a listing in an 1865 business directory. Muench himself was listed as a brewer in the 1860 census, but was probably working at Carl’s brewery.

The “Third Ward Brewery” was an important meeting place for the local German community: in 1863 the German Draft Association met there to tell men how “to avail themselves of this opportunity to protect themselves against the Draft” into the Union army.44 Adler Brau historian Brian Zenefski has compiled the most complete research on the post-Muench years and has clarified the numerous changes in ownership. One county history claims that Michael Fries took over the business in 1869, though the records of R. G. Dun & Co. indicate that Louis Unmuth was the proprietor in 1870, and by the beginning of 1871 Unmuth and Fries were partners. American Brewers’ Gazette showed that Fries produced no beer in 1871–72, which makes sense if he was not yet sole proprietor.45 When Fries died in 1876, ownership apparently passed to his two daughters, who later sold their interest to Werner Winz (often listed in sources as Wing).46 In 1880, George Walter, brewery foreman at the Carl Muench brewery, purchased a half interest in the brewery. Winz retired in 1885, after which Walter bought the remaining interest of Fries’ descendants and changed the name to the Star Brewery. Walter had been trained as a brewer in Germany and had worked for Phillip Best and at Klinger’s brewery in Whitewater prior to coming to Appleton. Through the expenditure of about $40,000, this “hustling, wide-awake” businessman built the capacity of the Star Brewery to 30,000 barrels and employed twelve men all year.47 Refrigeration equipment was added in 1896 (if not earlier) as part of another large expansion project.48

During Prohibition, Geo. Walter Brewing Co. stayed in business making “’kickless brew” and soft drinks.49 Zenefski confirms that, like so many others, Bravo near beer was not popular, and the brewery stopped production and rented space to other businesses.50

Like most breweries, Geo. Walter Brewing experienced a mix of success and frustration when beer came back on the market. Walter was not ready to sell on “New Beers Day,” but chose to make a virtue out of the delay in newspaper ads that proclaimed: “We feel, however, that we could not risk producing a beer made under makeshift conditions. After all, the name of Adler Brau is synonymous with QUALITY.”51 Nonetheless, there were occasional quality control problems: in 1938, state regulators ordered the company to adjust the bottling line because it was underfilling the bottles which put them at risk of prosecution.52

Like many Wisconsin breweries, Geo. Walter was in good shape to take advantage of the wartime beer shortage, and increased production in the few years after the war. Walter joined other brewers in offering a smaller bottle (the Little Adler) and an annual bock, with dark malt purchased from Chilton Malting Co. (now Briess Malting). The brewery also produced Holiday Special during the winter. Longtime brewmaster Alex Knaus recounted that Holiday Special used imported hops and more grain, resulting in an alcohol content of about 4 percent, as opposed to Adler Brau which was 3.5 percent. The company only made three or four brews of Holiday Special each year, and it was only offered in bottles and cans. Sold for the same price as Adler Brau, it was made as a holiday gift to the customers.53

Geo. Walter Brewing continued to emphasize their local roots in an attempt to head off competition from national brands. Full-page newspaper ads proclaimed that the brewery employed forty-six Fox Cities people, had a payroll of $224,000 and paid taxes of $385,000. (See sidebar in chapter 7.) The beer was “Made in Appleton, Especially for Fox Cities Tastes.” Even while leaning heavily on tradition, Adler Brau was also a beer for the modern era because it was “Electronically Inspected.” The brewery supported local charities: one ad featured a photo of a brewery truck driver distributing March of Dimes canisters.54

However, sales continued to slip in the decades immediately after the war. By 1968 production was less than half the 54,000-barrel peak in 1947, and well below the 39,000 barrels sold in the resurgence of the early 1960s.55 As the struggles continued, a group headed by George M. Walter of Eau Claire’s Walter Brewing Company purchased the Appleton brewery and promised to “take a more aggressive stance.” Remodeling and repairs were started, and old-fashioned Adler Brau was slated to return in earlier packaging. However, the brewery’s stockholders rejected the new arrangement, and the brewery closed for good at the end of April 1972.56

• Mors & Becker (1867?-?)
• Becker & Bayer (1870?–1871?)
• Fourth Ward

The 1867 excise records list Mors & Becker of Appleton as a brewery of less than 500 barrels. American Breweries II includes an L. Becker operating in the 1870s: this is probably Edward Becker, who in 1870 was a 43-year-old Prussian living in the fourth ward. He shared lodgings with Anton Beyer, a 42-year-old countryman who was apparently a partner in the brewery. Neither of the two owned any real estate, so they may have been leasing their brewery. Becker and “Beir” appear in the 1872 state business directory, though by this time they had begun a partnership with Theodore Knapstein in nearby Hortonia Township, just southeast of New London.

• Krefertz & Wing (1877–79)

The R. G. Dun records list Krefertz & Wing as brewers from 1877 to 1879. They indicate that the two “formerly worked in a Brewer [sic] here and started from what they saved from their wages.”57 This account seems to indicate they started their own small brewery, but the presence of Wing (or Winz) leaves open the possibility that they took over another brewery for a brief period. They were not listed separately in Salem’s 1880 records, but if they were out of business by that point they would not have responded to his survey.

• Nicholas Kirsch (1896–97)
• Pacific & Bateman

It is possible that Kirsch succeeded George Dambruch, who was listed as a brewer on Pacific Avenue in the 1895 city directory, but was later listed as a soda water manufacturer. There is also a possibility that Kirsch or Dambruch were simply agents for another brewer—agents were sometimes listed in directories as breweries. The other mystery brewer of Appleton, Joseph Dethier, was not linked with this address.

• Appleton Brewing Co.
• Dos Bandidos (1989–1997)
• Adler Brau Pub & Restaurant (1997–2005)
• Stone Cellar Brewpub (2005–2017)
• Stone Arch Brewery (2012–present)
• Stone Arch Brewpub (2017–present)
• 1004 South Olde Oneida Street

The site of Appleton’s oldest brewery seemed like a logical spot to create Appleton’s first brewery in almost two decades. John and Phyllis Jungers opened Appleton Brewing Co. in 1989 in what was once Appleton Brewing & Malting Co. and was by then Between the Locks Mall. John Jungers worked with Gary Bauer to develop methods and recipes and hired Bill Gilbert to be the first head brewer, though eventually Jungers took over most of the brewing himself. Most beers were sold under the Adler Brau label, though they bore little resemblance to the old Walter product. (The Adler Brau label became unregistered after seven years of non-use.) Appleton Brewing produced about four hundred barrels its first year.

While usually classified as a brewpub, Appleton Brewing Co. supplied more than one restaurant in the complex so it went slightly beyond the original brewpub model. At first their beers were served in Skyline Haus as well as the Mexican restaurant Dos Bandidos (which is often listed as the name of the brewpub during this era). Adler Brau was also available at Johnny O’s pizza place until it closed in 1994.58 In 1997 Dos Bandidos closed and the space was converted to Adler Brau Pub and Restaurant—a name which placed more emphasis on the beer.

Jungers also went well beyond most early brewpubs in his production for markets outside Between the Locks. While the biggest project was brewing beer for games of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers minor league baseball team, he also brewed beers for local festivals like Greenville Catfish Races or Omro Oktoberfest, or even large family celebrations. He brewed Republican Ale for a festival in Ripon, which claims to be the birthplace of the Republican party. He also developed beers containing ginseng and another that tasted like shiitake mushrooms. When selling beer at baseball games, production was around 1,000 barrels per year.59

In 2004, Jungers retired and the father and son team of Tom and Steve Lonsway purchased the company. Steve had previously operated Homebrew Market in Appleton, and was a brewer for Fox River Brewing Co. (at both locations). The next year they changed the name of the business to Stone Cellar Brewpub and built a reputation with several award-winning beers.60 In their first year, Stone Cellar brewed less than 500 barrels, but they began steadily to increase production. From the beginning, the Lonsways operated a small bottling line and shipped kegs of beer to other restaurants in the area. Ultimately, demand became so strong that they expanded the brewery and created a new entity, Stone Arch Brew House, to supply the market with bottled and draught beers for consumption elsewhere.61 (A Stone Cellar coaster is pictured in chapter 10.)

In 2012, the Lonsways expanded the brewery in order to sell more bottled beer in outside retail outlets. However, they discovered the Stone Cellar name was already trademarked by a winery, so they renamed the brewery and the bottled beer Stone Arch, emphasizing a feature of the underground portion of the old brewery made from locally harvested fieldstone. By 2013, Stone Arch beer was already available in over 200 off-premises accounts. (As of 2017, about 21 percent of the annual production was bottled beer.) Stone Arch continued to brew beer for local festivals, such as the Mile of Music festival in Appleton and the similar Electric City Experience in Kaukauna. The same year the Lonsways bought the nearby Riverview Gardens event center to host larger events than the brewpub could hold, including buffets for Easter, Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day. In 2017 the Lonsways decided to consolidate the brewery, brewpub and event center under the Stone Arch name to eliminate confusion and create a stronger identity for the business and brand.62

• Fox Classic Brewing Co. (1991–92)
• 318 West College Avenue

Former high school English teacher Todd Hanson began planning the Fox Classic Brewing Co. in 1989. A homebrewer since the mid-1970s, he became one of the earliest to “go pro.” His investors were primarily family and friends. The brewery was located in an “entertainment complex” in the Park Central building. Unusually for an early microbrewery, Hanson specialized in lagers. The brewery had some striking silver foil labels and named beers after famous local figures such as Father Jacques Marquette and Harry Houdini. The beers were released in kegs and 12-ounce bottles, but Hanson’s expectations for sales were probably beyond what the market could then support.63

• Fox River Brewing II (1997–2007)
• Fratello’s Restaurant & Brewery (2007–2012)
• Fox River Brewing Company (2012–present)
• 4301 West Wisconsin Avenue (Fox River Mall)

Opened as a branch of Fox River Brewing of Oshkosh in 1997, the brewery built a strong business in the Grand Chute neighborhood. The name change to Fratello’s in 2007 represented no change of ownership or management. The establishment changed its name again to Fox River Brewing Company in 2012. The beers brewed at Appleton and Oshkosh were the same, but some included Appleton heritage in their names such as Houdini Honey Ale and Paper City Pilsner. Fox River Brewing installed a bottling line at the Appleton location in 2015, after which production jumped to over 1,100 barrels.64 (See Oshkosh for more information about Fox River Brewing.)

• Appleton Beer Factory (2013–present)
• 603 West College Avenue

Appleton Beer Factory represents the fruits of a multi-year renovation of the former Schreiter Auto Supply building in the historic downtown. Many of the furnishings were built from material reclaimed from the shop or the apartments upstairs. Most of the labor was done by the father-son team of Jeff and Ben Fogle and their wives Leah and Mairi—they estimated that about 25,000 hours of work went into preparing the space and fabricating the brewing equipment. Appleton Beer Factory opened in November 2013 and quickly established its credentials as a favorite location for beer lovers. The styles have all been ales which first bore the style name, though they acquired more colorful names later. After becoming established, they have made experiments with barrel-aging.65

Arcadia (Trempealeau County)

• Bills & Mergener (1872–75)
• Nick Mergener & Co. (1875–76)
• C. Wolf & Bion (1876)
• Shebert & Bion (1876–77)
• John Bion (1877–78)
• John N. Fertig (1878–1883)
• Fugina Bros. & Fertig (1883–86)
• John Bion (1886–1890)
• Courtney & Fricker (1890–92)
• William Fricker (aka Hohmann & Fricker) (1892–97)
• Fricker & Hugn (1897–98)
• William Fricker (1898–1900)
• Arcadia Brewing Co. (1900–1909)
• Arcadia Brewery, Peter Kronschnabel (1909–1920)
• Arcadia Brewing Co. (1934–1949)
• Corner of 3rd and Main (101/109 North 3rd Street)

According to the 1917 county history, “The Arcadia Brewery has long occupied a leading position in Arcadia business life.” It could be nothing less in a village where St. Joseph’s Catholic Congregation was licensed as a retail malt liquor dealer.66 While some sources have Nick Mergener starting the brewery in 1872, he was still part of Kasper Neher & Co. in Augusta at this time, so a starting date around 1875 seems more likely. Arcadia’s brewery went through a rapid succession of owners and lessees before finally settling down. In 1876 it was destroyed by fire, but Bion & Co. built “an imposing structure” which served as part of the brewery for several decades. Unlike many of their contemporaries, their loss was covered fully by insurance.67 When the Bradstreet Company assessed the creditworthiness of Wisconsin firms at the beginning of 1884, they noted that Fugina Bros. & Fertig ran a general store as well as the brewery (and gave them a “very good” credit rating—the highest they could have at their level of wealth).68 Christian Bion joined his brother in the business in 1887.69

The Arcadia brewery suffered an unusual misfortune in 1891, when a vandal dumped soap into a vat of beer—luckily the “mischief” was discovered before the bad beer reached the public.70 A single bad batch would have been a notable setback for a brewery only producing about 1,000 barrels per year in the 1890s and which was still dependent on horsepower.

At the end of the century, William Fricker gave up ownership to the newly formed Arcadia Brewing Co., but stayed on as brewmaster. The officers of the company were all leading businessmen, including vice president Napoleon Cramolini, a publisher who was described in a contemporary account as a “cultivated and educated typo” (the word typo was actually the typographical error).71 In 1909, brewmaster Peter Kronschnabl leased the brewery from the company and managed it until Prohibition. Perhaps even more mobile than other brewers of his era, he had worked at least eight different breweries around the Upper Midwest before arriving at Arcadia.72

During Prohibition, the company reorganized under Kronschanbl’s son-in-law Ralph Haines as the Arcadia Bottling Works, but did not entirely give up the old product. Federal agents raided the former brewery in October 1931 and broke up brewing equipment and dumped a quantity of homebrew so great that residents downstream on the Trempealeau River reported smelling the beer as it flowed by.73

Like many undercapitalized breweries, Arcadia had trouble preparing for legal beer, and was not ready for market until July 1934. Under the direction of Kronschnabl and Joseph Weiter, an investor living in Mexico, new machinery and fermenters were installed to double capacity to 20,000 barrels.74 By 1936 they had added bottled beer to their line-up and were expanding sales. In 1937 Weiter retired, and local businessmen purchased the brewery.

After Prohibition, Arcadia fit the romantic picture of a classic small Wisconsin brewery—making sure locals had plenty of free beer. This, however, stood the company in poor stead with the state authorities (as noted in chapter 7). The brewery had numerous other problems as well. The BTD was suspicious of the high rate of loss and waste reported by Arcadia, but an investigator found that the brewery was using pre-Prohibition bottling equipment that filled only ten bottles at a time and could only cap one bottle at a time, so which broke more than the usual number of bottles in the process.75 Even small misfortunes were magnified. One of their distributors in Ellsworth reported that mice or rats had eaten the revenue stamps on eighty-five cases of Arcadia beer, which could not then be sold.76 Like several other small Wisconsin brewers, production peaked in the mid-1940s, but the precipitous drop from 17,000 barrels in 1946 to 2,000 in 1947 showed that the end was near.77 The brewery closed for good in 1949.

Arena (Iowa County)

• Lake Louie Brewing Co. LLC (2000–present)
• 7556 Pine Road

Lake Louie isn’t really much of a lake—really a quarter-acre pond. Tom Porter left his engineering career to start a brewery with his 401k savings, and liked the local water, which was nearly identical to that of Burton-on-Trent. While the water supply was excellent, the rural location meant there were no public sewers, so wastewater was first treated on site and later put into holding tanks and trucked out for treatment. As a consequence, Lake Louie uses much less water per barrel of beer than most breweries (about a five to one ratio). The obvious first beer, a porter, required some experimentation, but reached the market in January 2000 and soon became popular in its limited distribution area around Madison.

The original three-barrel system was soon too small to keep up with demand, and Porter was compelled to expand to a fifteen-barrel system within two years. In 2005 they introduced six packs, which helped expand their market beyond what could be reached by draft accounts or growler sales. By 2007 capacity was 2,000 barrels, but that doubled by 2011 and distribution was expanded statewide. The brewery’s offerings cover the full range of ales, and have been notable for including several different scotch ales—in fact, the Warped Speed Scotch Ale has become the flagship beer.78

In 2014, Lake Louie introduced three new series: Hop-A-Louie, Session, and Dark Shadows. Several of the new beers, such as Bunny Green Toe IPA were named after movie or television references. One of the session beers, 10–81, refers to the police code for a breathalyzer request. In an interview, Porter claimed the new beers were partially about preventing boredom but also argued “I feel that with trends right now that any small brewer sitting on their laurels and saying ‘I’ve got a flagship and my bills are paid’ has a mindset that is going to get them to become a former brewery . . .”79 After fifteen years of brewing, Lake Louie finally released its first traditional lager, an Octoberfest. Since then, their Pilsner has joined the regular lineup.80

Ashland (Ashland County)

• Bay City Brewery (late 1850s?)

The exhaustive and reasonably reliable History of Northern Wisconsin published in 1881 reported: “The first brewery [in Ashland] was built in Bay City, but was discontinued after a short time.” Bay City was on the eastern end of pioneer Ashland, and was vacated in 1860. This suggests a date in the late 1850s for the brewery.81

• Frank X. Schottmueller, Ashland Brewery (1872–1885)
• Philip Becker, Ashland Brewery (1885–1892)
• 900 East 2nd Street

Frank (or Francis) X. Schottmueller left his brewery in Taylors Falls, Minnesota, to establish what was described as “a large stone brewery” in the growing port city of Ashland in 1872.82 He first appears in the excise records in November of that year. Production records indicate his output was usually around 200 barrels a year, though when the Ashland Union brewery opened his sales dropped to 79 barrels in 1875—whether this was from competition or other factors is not clear. Schottmueller remained in Ashland as a grocer after leaving the brewery, though he also resumed ownership of his former brewery in Minnesota.

Philip Becker took over the brewery in 1885—another stop on his brewing odyssey around the state. One industry journal reported in 1887 that he had a partner named Dutean. The brewery closed with no fanfare in 1892 as Becker focused his attentions on his Hurley brewery.

• Goeltz & Miller, Ashland Union Brewing Co. (1874–1876?)
• Ellis Division on Bay City Creek

The Milwaukee Sentinel noted that a second brewery was being built in Ashland, and the Ashland Press of 8 August 1874 provided a complete description of the plant. It reported it was “one of what is known as the new process breweries,” though the description was typical of other breweries of the era. It claimed a starting capacity of forty barrels a day, but it was “only being run to meet present demand.”83 Ashland Union produced 254 barrels in its first year of operation, but did not survive more than a few years. It is not included in Salem’s list or business directories after 1876. Adam Goeltz later built and operated a saloon and boarding house.84

• Miller & Co. (1888–1899)
• Ashland Brewing & Malting (1891–1901)
• Ashland Brewing Co. (1901–1920)
• Ashland Brewing Co. (1934–37)
• 100 block, 10th Avenue East

In summer 1887, the Milwaukee Daily Journal reported that Miller & Co. were planning to erect a brewery in Ashland. It was operational by 1888,85 and while it was called Miller & Co. for a decade, city directory entries listing it as Ashland Brewing Co. appeared as early as 1891.

By 1913, Ashland Brewing Co. was selling 20,000 barrels per year in a fifty-mile radius around the city while employing about 30 men. F. W. Miller was still the president of the firm, though it does not appear that he took a regular role in management.86 The firm was outspoken on the prohibition question. The manager of the brewery participated in a local option meeting at an area church, and the directors published a resolution against the proposed laws.87 As municipalities in northern Wisconsin went dry in the 1910s, Ashland Brewing sought to capitalize by offering to ship beer by the keg, case, or an early example of a six-pack to residents of surrounding towns. The ad urged customers “Because your town has gone ‘DRY’ do not become a whiskey drinker. We will be glad to assist you in being truly temperate, by furnishing you ‘ASHLAND,’ the Beer of Purity.”88 Among the products offered was their version of Standard Porter from Rochester, New York, but it is not clear whether they were brewing it or simply bottling it. (An image of the bottle is in chapter 2.)

By 1919, plans were underway to convert the brewery into a malted milk factory.89 The Ashland Brewing Co. returned to brewing after Prohibition, but was slow to commence production. Mr. C. Scott claimed that the plant would be ready by July 1933, but production did not actually start until May 1934, and was by then under the ownership of Theodore Oudenhaven, who was also president of the Electric City Brewing Co. in Kaukauna. Production was never more than a few hundred barrels per month, and from the middle of 1936 it dropped precipitously from 440 barrels in July to a paltry 6.75 barrels in February 1937. By May of that year, Edward B. Johnson, receiver of the bankrupt company, informed the Beverage Tax Division that he was selling the last few cases of White Ribbon Beer—“The Ace of Taste”—and wrapping up the business.90

• South Shore Brewing Co. (1995–present)
• Soo Line Depot, Third Avenue West at Fourth Street (1995–2000); 808 West Main Street (2001–present)

Eugene “Bo” Bélanger established South Shore Brewing Co. in 1995 in the old Soo Line Depot. The companion business Railyard (Brew)Pub was located in the same building. They started bottling later in 1995, during which two people hand-filled and hand-labeled 22-ounce bomber bottles at what Bélanger described as “the breakneck speed of ten cases per hour.”91 However, the brewery suffered from the same “Red Demon” which bedeviled many earlier breweries. In the spring of 1997, there was a fire on the restaurant side that left the brewhouse intact. However, a disastrous fire on 1 April 2000 gutted the historic depot and forced the brewery to look for a new home. South Shore relocated a few blocks away in the old L. C. Wilmarth #1 building (in which this author’s ancestors once operated a printing company) and reopened in May 2001.92 Once again, South Shore was associated with an independently owned restaurant, Deep Water Grille.

Bélanger and South Shore have been among the leading Wisconsin brewers in using locally grown ingredients. They were one of six founding members of the Midwest Hops and Barley Co-op, and in 2008, Belanger and a neighbor grew 140,000 bushels of barley—enough to supply the brewery’s base malt needs for the next year.93 Bélanger’s interest in “grain to glass” brewing was inspired by his maternal grandfather, who owned a farm in Indiana on which Bo and his family helped with harvests.94

South Shore was an early proponent of creative beers: in 2007 Bo brewed Applefest Ale with locally pressed cider and released the first version of Bourbon Barrel Coffee Mint Stout—and a barrel-aged version of the brew that was often one of the most talked about offerings at beer festivals of the era.95 However, most of South Shore’s beers are on the lower end of the alcohol range and designed for repeat drinking. For six years, Bélanger commuted to brew for Olde Hayward Eatery & Brewpub (Muskie Capital) in which he was a co-owner.

Ashwaubenon (Brown County)

• Legends of Ashwaubenon (2003–2013?)
• 940 Waube Lane

Opened as a branch of Legends of Green Bay in 2003, this sports bar had a slightly different feel than the other locations, but similar menu items and beers.96

Augusta (Eau Claire County)

• Kaspar Neher (& Co.) (1870–78)

Neher’s first appearance in the excise records at Augusta was in February 1870, and he and his neighbor Nicholas Mergener were listed as brewers in the 1870 census. Along with partner Jacob Haskett, the small company produced fewer than 100 barrels in its first year, but increased to more than 180 barrels by 1875. The editor of the Augusta Herald thought highly of their product and praised it in print several times, as well as insinuating that he should get a complimentary keg upon the birth of Neher’s son.97 Records of production exist through 1875, but credit reports of R. G. Dun & Co. noted in October 1876 that Neher’s Augusta brewery was mortgaged (at that point he was part of the Huber and Neher partnership brewing in Chippewa Falls). The Eau Claire Daily Free Press reported (perhaps belatedly) in June 1878 that the Augusta brewery had been closed up and advocated converting it into a cheese factory.98

Avon Center (Rock County)

• James Lane (1871)

James Lane made a brief appearance in the excise records in 1871. He produced for three months during the spring—though never more than two barrels in a month.

Aztalan (Jefferson County)

• Foster & Danner (1860?–1867)
• George Foster (1867–1873)
• Leissegger & Burns (1874–75)
• George Foster (1876?–1878)
• Charles Baireuther (1882–89)
• Johnson Creek Road

George Foster and Henry Danner began brewing north of Aztalan sometime in the early 1860s. Danner left the partnership in 1867, and Foster hired eighteen-year-old Rudolph Heger to work in the brewery.99 George Foster’s brewery produced just under 500 barrels a year at its peak in the early 1870s. Like many small breweries, it was taxed on nearly twice as much beer during the early summer months as during the rest of the year. The brewery narrowly avoided destruction by fire in 1871 when the nearby marsh caught fire. Foster was not able to escape an $800 fine in 1871 for violation of revenue laws—a substantial sum equivalent to the revenue from about one hundred kegs of beer.100 According to Schade, the new ownership of Leissegger & Burns just missed the 500-barrel mark, selling 499 during 1874. Leissegger and Burns may have been leasing the brewery from Foster, since he was reported to be the owner of the “Marsh Brewery Farm” again when he injured his hand in the malt mill at his brewery. Ironically, a similar accident occurred during his previous tenure in 1873 when a boy “got [his] wrist mangled in some machinery.”101 Foster died a year later, and the obituary noted that the business “was unprofitable & his wealth dwindled away.”102

The brewery apparently remained vacant for four years, until Charles Baireuther traded his horse and lot for the old Foster brewery.103 It is possible that Baireuther did not start brewing right away, because an 1888 Jefferson Banner article reported that “Baireuther now has his brewery running full blast, & his beer wagon is seen on the streets every morning.” Unfortunately, Baireuther suffered two catastrophic fires almost exactly a year apart. After the May 1889 fire he rebuilt quickly, but when the brewery burned again in May 1890 the rebuilding process dragged out over several years. It is unclear whether Baireuther ever brewed in the new facility, but in 1894 Hugo Graf, an employee of Pabst, purchased it. Graf next appeared in local accounts is as the local agent for Pabst, so it is likely that he did not brew his own beer. Graf moved to Burlington in 1896 and the brewery appears to have been abandoned, though a 1975 Banner article included photos of the cellar from the old brewery.104

Baileys Harbor (Door County)

• Door County Brewing Co. (2013–present)
• 2434 County Road F

Despite the importance of tourism in Door County, the area had been without a production brewery since before World War II. But in 2013, John and Angie McMahon and their sons Danny and Ben started production at their small brewery in Baileys Harbor. At first, some of their beer was produced under contract at Sand Creek Brewing in Black River Falls, but over time, production moved to the Baileys Harbor facility. The first brewery tap room opened in 2014. Door County’s beers exhibited a strong Belgian influence, both from the Belgian heritage of the region and because of the brewers’ tastes. Among their more noteworthy beers were a series of farmhouse ales for each season. In July 2017 Door County Brewing opened a new tap room at 2088 Highway 57.

Baldwin (St. Croix County)

• John P. Mueller (1873?–1875)
• “East of Town”

The Milwaukee Sentinel also noted in September 1873 “At Baldwin they are building a brewery and circulating a petition for a Good Templars Lodge.”105 The Baldwin Bulletin added that the proprietor was John P. Mueller. It is likely this was not his first brewery building, since the Bulletin noted in January 1874 “Mr. M. has heretofore been unable to supply the demand, and when we consider the quality of that manufactured by him, in comparison with the impure stuff made in St. Paul, we are not surprised that every dealer prefers Baldwin beer.” By September, Mueller was already adding to his brewery. Unfortunately, one of Mueller’s sons was injured while working at the grain mill, which forced the partial amputation of several fingers. Mueller produced 957 barrels in 1874, which was more than many established breweries in larger cities, however production dropped precipitously to 161 barrels in 1875—which suggests that he may not have operated for the full year.

It is possible that Mueller used at least some local hops, since they were grown in the area and were reported still to be clinging to a fence at the Hopyard School in the 1930s.106

Bangor (La Crosse County)

• Joseph Hussa (1862?–1891)
• Estate of Joseph Hussa (1891–95)
• Hussa Brewing Company (1895–1920)
• West End of Commercial Street (West of Modern Seventeenth Street)

When Joseph Hussa started his brewery in Bangor is in some question. 100 Years of Brewing claimed 1858, but the 1860 population census places both Joseph and brother John in Fox Lake, boarding with and probably junior partners of Frank Liebenstein. In some records, ownership of the Bangor firm was listed as J. & J. Hussa in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Despite being so close to the major brewing center of La Crosse, the brewery thrived on a small scale for several decades: typically producing between 400 and 1,000 barrels each year. Following Joseph’s death, his heirs undertook significant expansions. 100 Years reported that a malt house was added in 1893 and a bottling plant in 1896. These improvements helped push sales from 650 barrels in 1885 to 4,760 in 1895 and to 8,500 barrels in 1902.

The Hussa brewery suffered many of the typical industry disasters. The plant caught fire on 15 February 1911 and suffered a loss close to $50,000. The damage was higher than it might have been, for though fire crews arrived from La Crosse, mud in the water clogged the fire engine and made it impossible to pump. This may have been the motivation for creating an unusual and possibly unique municipal water arrangement. By 1916, the city of Bangor owned 6,100 feet of water mains, but the Hussa brewery owned the wells, the pumps, and the water—and collected the revenue. The city had a contract with the brewery for hydrant service, fire protection and public fountain service. When restrictions on fuel use were imposed after entry into World War I, the Hussa Brewing Company was ordered to close in February 1918 for violating the Monday closing order designed to conserve fuel. However, the brewery successfully appealed the order by claiming the brewery was responsible for heating and furnishing water for the village.107

The approach of Prohibition encouraged the company to act quickly rather than hope beer still would be allowed. By mid-1919, the brewery already had been converted to a pickle factory under the same management.

• Kinky Kabin Brewing Co. (2012–13)
• 105 16th Avenue North

The first brewery in Bangor since Prohibition started production in a former garage in October 2012. Owner and brewer Jeff Steidl used modified dairy equipment to produce his Apricot Naughty Wheat beer, which was sold in bottles and on draught. Steidl hoped to brew 200 barrels his first year, but only produced fifty.108 The brewery closed in December 2013.

Baraboo (Portage County)

• H. A. McCartny (1850–1851?)

H. A. McCartny began advertising in the Sauk County Standard of Baraboo in July 1850, proclaiming “Citizens supplied at their door.”109 McCartny does not appear in the 1850 census. An article in the Sauk County Standard of 5 October 1853 specifically notes that there was no brewery in Baraboo, so he must have closed prior to that time.110 A note in the 1880 county history claiming “[T]he first brewery in the place was located on the north side of the river, and was burned down, with other property, at an early day” may have referred to McCartny’s brewery.111

• M. Schu (1860?)

M. Schu and his younger brother (?) Jacob were listed as brewers in the 1860 population census. They owned substantial property, so it is likely though not certain they operated a brewery at least for a while.

• George Ruhland (1866?–1902)
• Ruhland Brewing Company (1902–1918?)
• 235 Lynn Street

While 100 Years of Brewing claims that Ruhland founded his brewery in 1867, the 1880 History of Sauk County claims he started in 1866. He does not appear in tax records until 1871. In the 1870s Ruhland’s was among the smaller breweries in the region but showed the growth typical of similar breweries at the time, selling 241 barrels in 1874 and expanding to 470 by 1879. The 1880 history explained: “capacity . . . has been increased from time to time to accommodate local custom.”112 With the approach of Prohibition the financial position of the brewery deteriorated, and by mid-1918 the firm was in bankruptcy court, though some sources suggest the brewery ceased production in 1915. (It was still listed in a 1916 industry directory, though these had a tendency to lag behind events.) In 1918 residents of Baraboo voted the city dry, and the brewery’s fate was sealed.

• Parrish & Brother (1867–68)
• Parrish & Bow (1868–1870)
• 412 Oak Street

Loomis and Caleb Parrish had both lived in Baraboo for a time, but Caleb then moved to Oregon and Loomis became involved with a brewery in Sparta. In November 1866 they returned to Baraboo and purchased a building which they quickly converted to a brewery. The ale brewery of Parrish (or Parish) and Brother first appears in tax records in January 1867, though local papers indicated that the first brewing did not take place until February.113 In 1868, Loomis sold his share to Edwin R. Bow, who carried on the business with Caleb Parrish, though they put the brewery up for sale in June of that year and did not brew during the period when the brewery was on the market. Parrish & Bow seem to have been more interested in their feed store than the brewery, but appear to have brewed on and off until 1870, when, according to the 1880 county history, “the business was suspended.” Loomis Parrish moved to Eau Claire and managed a brewery there for several years.114

• Bender & Miller (1867–1870)
• George Bender (1870–74)
• Anna Bender (1874–1880)
• Bender & Effinger, Baraboo City Brewery (1880–1881?)
• Ferdinand Effinger (1881?–1911)
• F. Effinger Brewing Co. (1911–1920)
• The Effinger Co. (1933–1949)
• Effinger Brewing Co. (1949–1966)
• 331/335 Lynn Street

The 1880 county history reported that George Bender and Frank Miller founded Baraboo’s third brewery of 1867, but that Miller withdrew shortly after the founding—circumstances borne out by tax records. Bender appears to have had trouble making money at first. The R. G. Dun & Co. records note that “When he was running his brewery without retailing, he was pretty hard up, but he now keeps a Saloon in his brewery + is making money. Was consid[ered] rich before he built the brewery, invested all he had prob[ably].” Bender provides a nineteenth-century example of how a brewery taproom was essential to build the brand and cash flow—a method adopted by many twenty-first century craft breweries.

George Bender died in 1874 but left his widow Anna with few debts, and she carried on the business with great vigor—even adding a two-story hotel to the complex at the corner of Bridge Street.115 With the help of her oldest son Robert, Mrs. Bender’s brewery became the largest in town, passing the 500-barrel mark in 1879. At the end of 1879, Ferdinand Effinger arrived in town, and took over as superintendent of the brewery. The next year Effinger rented the brewery with Adolph Bender, and around 1881 he bought out Bender and ran the business on his own.116 The brewery was destroyed by fire in July 1884, but Effinger held his customers by distributing Milwaukee beer until his new brewery was completed. The brewery installed a bottling operation in 1896, and with the work of five employees could produce 5,000 barrels a year.117 Effinger purchased one of the first trucks in Baraboo in 1908, but could only use it for city deliveries because the roads in the surrounding country were so bad. A large expansion in 1913 featured an artificial refrigeration plant, allowing the brewery to discontinue using ice.118

When Prohibition arrived, Effinger switched to producing near beer and soft drinks. The first name chosen for the near beer was Nearo, but Effinger cancelled that plan upon discovering that the name was already owned by Dick Bros. Brewing Co. of Quincy, Illinois.119 In addition, they launched a line of ice cream that was so popular that dairy giant Borden purchased it in 1931. The same year, the directors of the company sensed that there was “much agitation for the return of manufacture of beer and deem it advisable at this time to place the plant in usable condition . . .” Unfortunately, the brewery was in bad shape. The insulation in the cold storage rooms had rotted and decayed, the ceiling and floor of the keg racking room had fallen in, and much of the machinery had deteriorated from lack of use and maintenance. Effinger hired the eminent brewery architect Richard Griesser to draw plans for remodeling.120 The record is not clear on whether Effinger had beer ready on “New Beers’ Day,” but they certainly had beer on the market shortly after 7 April 1933.

The 1930s and 40s brought change to the brewery but also some degree of success. Like other breweries, Effinger had to adjust to new regulations and market realities. In 1935, the directors noted “the public in general seems to be inclined to favor the milder fermented beverage,” and amended their production to increase the amount of 3.2 percent beer—a move that would also save the company money by using less grain. Increased sales enabled the company to buy new equipment and expand their range, though in 1943 they closed the wholesale office in Madison. The brewery had a particularly good year in 1944, profit per barrel and case was up, and the company increased the annual Christmas bonus to the employees to $25 (compared to $10 in the previous three years).

Like several other local breweries, Effinger reached peak production of about 18,000 barrels in the years immediately after World War II. But like many of their counterparts, business began to slide thereafter. The company undertook several initiatives to boost sales. They started a newsletter directed at customers (mostly taverns selling the beer at retail) “to help you sell more beer.” In 1952 newsletters promoted the 7-ounce bottle but also noted that Effinger “consistently sold over 80 percent of our production in draft beer.”121

Effinger tried to make the most of its location in the center of a popular tourist area by introducing labels in 1954 that advertised “In the Devil’s Lake—Dells Region.”122 The Wisconsin Teamster proclaimed in 1960 that the brewery employed twenty-two workers and used seven trucks to serve a fifty-mile radius, and noted that some of the flagship Badger Brew went to other large cities. But these numbers did not reveal the underlying weakness of the company. From 1956 to 1959 the brewery incurred an average loss of $20,000 a year, and started to distribute Miller products to increase income. In 1960, production dipped below 10,000 barrels and never recovered. Effinger attempted to distribute Badger Brew in Milwaukee, but lost sales when their major account went out of business and when the brewery was forced to raise the price of the beer. Competition from national brands and local wage and price conditions doomed the business. Ultimately, the company elected to sell the Badger Brew name and all remaining packaging, labels and cooperage to the Oshkosh Brewing Co. in March 1966.123 (More on the reasons for the final closing of Effinger is found in chapter 8.)

• Conway Pub & Brewing Co. (2003–?)
• 215 South Boulevard

This brewpub opened in 2003 but had little time to get established.

Beaver Dam (Dodge County)

• Mike Biersach, Beaver Dam Brewery (1853–55)
• Biersach & Liebenstein (1855–56)
• Goeggerle & Patzlsberger (1856–1863)
• John Goeggerle (1863–1901)
• J. Goeggerle Brewing Co. (1901–2)
• Julia Goeggerle (1902–4)
• Louis Ziegler (1905–1920)
• Louis Ziegler Brewing Co. (1933–1953)
• 516 Madison Av.

Michael Biersach (Biersack) built a brewery in Beaver Dam in 1853 for, as a city history put it, “the purpose of making his native brew.” However, 100 Years of Brewing claims that the first beer was “top fermentation beer” or ale, which was unlikely to be the lager familiar to German immigrants. Around 1855 Frank Liebenstein became a partner in the business, but in 1856 they sold the business and Liebenstein moved to nearby Fox Lake to start a brewery there. The new owners were John Goeggerle, and John and Joseph Patzlsberger, the last of whom had been employed by a brewery in Madison. In 1860 the Beaver Dam Brewery was the smallest of the three in town, but still produced 800 barrels. After Joseph died in 1862, Goeggerle bought out the remaining shares the next year and ran the brewery by himself for the next four decades.124 During the Civil War, Goeggerle launched an additional product, a distilled liquor made from local fruit (called whiskey by one historian but more likely a form of schnapps). This drink became a feature of New Year’s Eve celebrations at the brewery for many years.125 Goeggerle appears to have improved the brewery gradually over the years—building its capacity to more than 2,000 barrels by the mid-1880s and taking over as the largest brewery in Beaver Dam. By the time of Goeggerle’s death in 1902, the brewery was making lager and weiss beer and was bottling at least some of the production. Frank Goeggerle took over operation of the brewery for two years, but he passed away in 1904. (The brewery was sometimes listed in directories under the name of John’s widow Julia.)

Louis Ziegler, already proprietor of a brewery in Mayville, purchased the brewery at the beginning of 1905 and renamed the firm the Louis Ziegler Brewery. He built a new and larger brewery in 1906, a new bottling house in 1916, and other improvements along the way. The original brewhouse was razed in 1912.

During Prohibition, Ziegler produced near beer and malt syrup that was used to make home brew, which the Beaver Dam centennial history reported without any sense of surprise. However, in April 1920, Ziegler was arrested on charges of selling full-strength beer.126 Louis Ziegler died in 1927, and his wife Anna took over the business. As the repeal of Prohibition approached, the directors reorganized the company and began to prepare for legal beer. Local demand in Beaver Dam had to be met by imported beer for several weeks, but by the end of April the brewery was reopened. It was difficult for Ziegler Brewing Co. to establish their business in the years after repeal because of rapid changes in ownership. Louis Ziegler Jr. died in 1933, and the business changed hands several times until the Hutter Construction Company of Fond du Lac purchased the brewery. (The Hutters were related by marriage to the Zieglers.) The centennial history claimed that production was 50,000 barrels a year, but actual production figures were closer to 15,000 barrels per year. However, production spiked to approximately 36,000 barrels in 1946, which made the brewery an attractive purchase.

Robert D. Hamilton, a beer distributor in Los Angeles, was looking for breweries that could produce inexpensive beer for his West Coast accounts. He purchased Ziegler in 1946, and shortly thereafter added the former Ebner brewery in Fort Atkinson and the Kunz brewery in La Crosse to his holdings. After a brief surge in production to 38,000 barrels in 1949 (which may represent the production of all three plants—the records are not clear), sales dropped dramatically, though the brewery had a combination bottling and canning line by 1952, and offered Ziegler Old Fashioned Lager in cone-top cans. In 1953 only 2,000 barrels were made in the few months before closure.127

• Charles Schutte, Farmer’s Brewery (1857–59)
• Schutte & Aman (1859–1864)
• Charles Schutte (1864–66)
• (J.) Philip Binzel (1866–1898)
• Binzel & Baum (1898–99)
• J. Philip Binzel (1899–1902)
• Louisa Binzel (1902–4)
• J. Ph. Binzel Co., Binzel Brewery (1904–1920)
• 510 Madison Street

The centennial history of Beaver Dam boldly proclaims “All old histories tell us that the Farmers’ Brewery, the second establishment of its kind in Beaver Dam, was built by Charles Schutte in 1857,” though various spellings of Schutte appear and he is even called George in some accounts. Schutte took on George Aman as a partner in 1859, and they appear together in the 1860 census of industry. The partnership was dissolved in 1864 and Schutte continued alone. When John Philip Binzel’s brewery in Waupun burned in 1866, he moved south in search of less-charred pastures, and purchased the Farmer’s Brewery. Binzel had trained in Milwaukee with Schlitz and Blatz, and his reputation helped the brewery expand production. By the early 1880s, Binzel had the largest of the three breweries in town.128

Increased demand forced Binzel to expand, and in 1892 the wooden brewery and malt house were torn down and replaced with brick structures. Visitors to the brewery could enjoy not just a mug of beer, but also fresh caraway rye bread baked by Philip’s wife, Louisa, in a giant oven near the brewery. The brewery suffered a fire in 1894, but recovered quickly and continued to build its market through Philip’s death in 1902. For four years, Louisa ran things with the help of sons Edward and Alvin, but in 1906, son Rudolph bought the brewery from his mother. Rudolph had attended Hantke’s Brewer’s School in Milwaukee and served as brewmaster at Kiewel’s in Little Falls, Minnesota as well as helping in his father’s brewery; he put his training to use by installing new equipment including a modern bottling line.

When Prohibition arrived, Binzel joined with his cousin Philip to organize the Oconomowoc Canning Company, and he later continued in the canning business in Marshfield. In 1936 the buildings were sold to the neighboring Louis Ziegler Brewing Co. for use as storage. After being used for a variety of storage and light industrial purposes, the buildings were razed with the rest of the Ziegler complex in 1984.

• Thomas Young (mid-1850s–at least 1860)

Considering the reported size of Thomas Young’s brewery, it is remarkable that so little is recorded of it. The industrial and population reports of the 1860 census report that he sold 1,000 barrels of beer during the census year, and employed four brewery laborers who boarded with his family. The fact that Young and three of his employees were from England suggests that at least part of his output was English-style ales. It is possible this business became the Steil brewery, with Niehoff owning it during the transition.

• Joseph Miller (ca. 1860)

Joseph Miller was listed as a brewer in the 1860 population census.

• Bernard Niehoff (ca. 1860)

Niehoff’s brewery is listed in American Breweries II, but it is unclear whether Niehoff briefly operated one of the other known breweries in Beaver Dam, or if he was a separate firm.

• George Aman (1864–66)
• Berthold & Schmidt (1866)
• Adjacent lots west of Goeggerle brewery on present Madison Street

After selling his interest in Farmer’s Brewery to Charles Schutte, George Aman went into business for himself in the summer of 1864. He purchased two empty lots just west of Goeggerle’s brewery (and slightly farther down the street from his former partner), bought an old sash factory building and moved it onto the lots and converted it into a brewery. He sold this business in July 1866 to Bertholdt and Schmidt (first names not recorded) for $5,000. Unfortunately, the brewery burned that September, and was a total loss.

• Pfestel & Steil, New Brewery (1868–1870)
• Frank X. Steil New Brewery (1870–1884)
• Spring Street

The New Brewery of Pfestel & Steil first appears in tax records in November 1868. It was built on the site of the Aman brewery which had been destroyed by fire two years earlier. By the next entry in 1870, F. Steil appears alone. Frank Xavier Steil also ran a saloon in connection with the brewery, and in some records is listed as a saloonkeeper rather than a brewery owner. It is likely that he brewed mostly for his own trade. The 225 barrels he produced in 1870 was less than one third as much as his two neighbors, and by 1878 his 112 barrels was one tenth the production of Goeggerle and Binzel. Despite the small size of the operation, Wing’s 1884 directory lists Steil as producing ale and porter, doing his own malting, and selling bottled beer.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck the family through the second brewery fire at that location. On 29 June 1885, a fire broke out in the residence (the report in the Milwaukee Sentinel claimed that the brewery and saloon wing had not been in use for a time). Frank was able to jump from the second-floor window and his wife Frances was able to drop their infant child to him and then escape by a ladder. Their eleven-year-old son and eight- and six-year-old daughters slept in a different part of the house and were not able to escape. The brewery was not rebuilt, and the tragedy was still vivid many years later for those who witnessed it.129

Beloit (Rock County)

• William Shovenfelter & S. M. Hamlin (ca. 1850)

Shovenfelter and Hamlin were both listed in the 1850 population census as brewers. They were listed in close proximity in the census and may have worked together.

• Bernard Cunningham, Beloit City Brewery (1857?–1862?)
• North side of Liberty near 4th

Bernard Cunningham’s Beloit City Brewery appears in both the 1858 and 1862 city directories.

• Church & Kenworthy (1867)

Beloit’s character as a religious college town hindered the survival of many of its breweries. Church and Kenworthy appear to have operated for only a few months during 1867 according to excise records.

• Montayne & Wheat, Steam Brewery (1865?–66)
• Richardson & Barrett, Beloit Steam Brewery (1866–68)
• North end of Third Street

R. D. L. Montayne had a steam (powered) brewery at least by 1866, and probably earlier. Richardson & Barrett purchased the brewery during the fall of 1866. However, their brewery was destroyed by fire at the end of the month. The newspaper reports claimed “[t]he fire originated in the office, in the north-east part of the building, and is thought to be the work of some villainous incendiary, as there was no fire used in that part of the brewery . . .” The loss was recorded at $14,000, which suggests that their brewery was fairly large compared with others of the time, and also suggests that Montayne started before 1866.130 Richardson still appears in 1868 tax records, but with the notation that he was not brewing.

• George Schlenk, Beloit Brewery (1875?–1878)
• Schlenk & Co. (1878–1880?)
• Augustina Schlenk (1880–1898)
• Frank Schlenk (1898–1915)
• 134 State Street

In November 1869, the Janesville Gazette reported: “Beloiters are becoming bibulous again. Beer-bibbers around here are soon to have a brewery of their own, and then ‘won’t we all be joy-joy-e full when Johnny comes ‘straggling’ home’ bloated, bleared, and brutalized by the brewing of our own bummers.”131

However, it would be several more years before Beloit had its own brewery again.

George J. Schlenk had been brewing in Rockford, Illinois, since at least 1863, but by 1873 he was shipping beer across state lines to Beloit. The precise date he moved his brewery to Beloit is not clear. His Beloit ads in late 1873 no longer list his address as Rockford, but there are no records of production in 1874. An 1879 county history claims Schlenk started in 1875 and that he made lager as well as ale (and small beer).

Beloit’s Yankee heritage suggests that for the relatively few beer drinkers there, ale was more popular than lager. Wing’s indicates that Schlenk’s brewery specialized in ale and porter, and was bottling it, and 100 Years of Brewing supports this description of the product line.

Like most brewers, Schlenk started small, producing only a few hundred barrels a year, but like most Wisconsin ale breweries, Schlenk’s never got particularly big—100 Years of Brewing claims that its output at the turn of the century was only about 1,500 barrels per year, quite small for the largest brewery in a mid-sized city. But he apparently had wide distribution—the earlier county history claims his goods were shipped to “Racine, Milwaukee, and other places.”132 The brewery was damaged by fire in January 1880, but in December 1890 the brewery was gutted by a fire “supposed to have been set . . . by unknown persons.”133

George Schlenk was in financial trouble by the early 1880s, and the brewery was placed in the name of his wife Augustina. (Some sources claim the proprietor was August Schlenk, but there does not appear to have been such a person in the family.)134 The eldest son, William, worked in the brewery, but when Augustina disposed of the brewery around 1898 it was to her younger son, Frank. Frank had been running the operation since at least 1891, when he made the news for selling beer without a license. (He was acquitted on the grounds that the prosecution could not prove that the bottles contained beer.)135 The brewery closed around 1915.

• BT McClintic Beer Company (1997–2001)
• 136 West Grand Avenue #245

BT McClintic Beer Company was founded by brothers Brian and Tony McClintic in the mid-1990s, and their beer reached the market in May 1996. The first batches were brewed at Cold Spring Brewing Co. in Minnesota until they opened their Beloit location in 1997. McClintock Pilsner and Amber both earned medals at major beer competitions, and increased demand led the brothers to begin a contract brewing arrangement with Roundhouse Brewing of Aurora, Illinois, to brew and bottle the most popular beers.

In 1999, the McClintics received help from a small business development program to add a brewpub in the Reardon Building in the historic Chester Square complex. The next year they began selling their beer at Beloit Snappers baseball games. They also distributed some beer in Northern Illinois. Despite the expansion, the company went out of business in 2001.136

Bergen Township (Stoddard) (Vernon County)

• Rudolph Weile (1866?–1870)

Rudolph Weile started brewing on his farm in rural Vernon County sometime prior to 1867. Weile’s production was typically quite small: just 4.5 barrels in June and July of 1867 combined. Weile’s last appearance in tax records was in August 1870. Shortly thereafter he moved to Albert Lea, Minnesota, where he started a larger brewery and operated it for more than a decade.

Berlin (Green Lake County)

• Oscar B. Caswell (prior to 1856–58?)
• William H. Cottrell (1858–59)
• Henry Smith (1859?–1860?)
• John Sporer (1868–69)
• Northeast Corner of North Wisconsin and East Liberty Streets

A Milwaukee Daily Sentinel account of Berlin in 1856 mentioned a brewery among the industries in town. A city history from 1998 claimed that Caswell started his brewery in 1850. However, this date is not yet supported by other data, and may have been a misinterpretation of the date in American Breweries II, since it claims Caswell sold it “soon,” but Caswell was still in possession around 1858.137 An 1853 ad in the Marquette Mercury indicated that Caswell had a saloon, but mentioned nothing about brewing.138 Evidence suggests that Caswell sold the brewery to William H. Cottrell, who was listed in the 1858 city directory as the proprietor of a brewery on the same block. Cottrell appears to have sold the brewery to his employee Henry Smith, who was listed as a brewer living in the city of Berlin in the 1860 population census. Smith was an English immigrant who appears to have employed elderly countryman William Ford (72 years of age) at the brewery.

It is not yet clear how long Smith continued the brewery, but he was not listed in excise records or other sources by 1867. In April 1868 John Sporer appears in the excise records for the first time, apparently at the same site on Wisconsin near Liberty. However, his brewery burned in February 1869, and he did not rebuild.139

• Joseph Beck (1858?–59)
• August Buhler (1859?–1875)
• Schmidt & Schunk (1875–79)
• Louis Schunk (1879–1896)
• Jacobina Schunk (1896–1901)
• Berlin Brewing Co. (1901–1920)
• Berlin Products Co. (1920–1933)
• Berlin Brewing Co. (1933–1964)
• Near Modern Ripon Road and Whiteridge Road (to 1867); 277/283 Broadway (1867–1964)

The first appearance of August Buhler as a brewer is in the 1860 population census. According to the local history Home Town Ties, Buhler and his brother Edward built their first brewery on a spring near what later became the Conservation Club. However, the location of the brewery appears to match the brewery sold at public auction in September 1859 by Joseph Beck, who defaulted on a lien taken out a year earlier. It is possible that the Buhlers built a new brewery, but they may also have taken over Beck’s “wooden brewery building.”140 In 1867 they built a new brewery in the city on Broadway. The brick used for the brewery was made from the clay dug out to make the cellar.141 His modest brewery appears to have averaged less than ten barrels per month. Around 1875 the Buhlers apparently closed the brewery and the property was purchased by H. S. Sacket. In October 1877 he sold the brewery to the partnership of Schmidt and Schunk, both of Milwaukee. The Milwaukee Sentinel approved of the investment, claiming “There is not a town in the State the size of Berlin without one or more breweries in successful operation.” After a few years Louis (or Ludwig) Schunk bought out Schmidt and ran the brewery until his death. Even as late as 1887, Louis Schunk was producing less than 500 barrels per year.

In 1901 Charles Kulnick, who had been with the Schreihart brewery in Manitowoc, purchased the brewery from Jacobina Schunk and began a massive improvement program. Most of the old brewery was torn down and a new brick structure was erected, and the first batches of the new Berliner and Eagle Special were sold in 1902. In 1911 the company built a “sampling house” on the southwest corner of West Huron and South Capron streets, which served the unlikely combinations of public bath house, barbershop, and tap room for the brewery. The brewery also sold Berliner Tonic—one of several small-town breweries to include this product in their lineup.

During Prohibition, the brewery made a short-lived attempt at producing near beer, but had little success. The brewery made some real beer during the dry years, though by careful concealment they were able to avoid trouble with the law.142 Charlie Kulnick moved back to Manitowoc to run Manitowoc Products. He would later become president of Walter Bros. Brewing Co. in Menasha before his death in 1938. James Kulnick took over the brewery in 1933, and Berlin Brewing Co. began to produce real beer again. (They distributed Manitowoc Products beer for a few months until Berliner was ready.) In the years after Prohibition, Berlin Brewing Co. established itself as a viable regional brewery, with 90 percent of its production consumed in the Fox River Valley.143 They offered bock beer in the spring and a Christmas or holiday beer in the winter. Berlin beer was not necessarily regarded as a “cheap” beer: An Office of Price Administration list of maximum beer prices for 1946 listed Berlin Export at 12¢ per bottle—above the average for a small town brewery on this list.144 The brewery reached peak production of 23,000 barrels in 1945, but sales dropped to 8,000 within six years.

The brewery was sold to J. T. Savage in 1949, but sales remained low under the new management. James Kulnick remained as general manager and brewmaster until the beginning of 1955. The brewery was still using wooden kegs as late as the 1950s, since in April 1953 there was an explosion at the brewery, apparently caused by a fire in the barrel pitching room, which injured three firemen and a pitch room employee.145

The brewery was an important part of the community for more than just the championship softball teams sponsored by the company. During the 1956 tornado that devastated the city, Berlin Brewing Co. supplied the hospital with water from its artesian well. After the big Carnation foods plant was destroyed in the storm, Berlin Brewing became the only union shop in town. When the brewery was in danger of closing during the summer of 1956, the Berlin Industrial Development Corporation launched a “community-wide effort” to save the brewery. The group hoped that local residents would buy a total of 450 shares in the brewery, and they estimated could reach the break-even point with a 3,000-barrel increase in sales. Local trucking executive Patrick J. Curran became the new president of the company. He set about stabilizing the business, which at that point didn’t even have spare tires for the delivery truck. To compound the problems, the brewery smokestack collapsed in the first year of the new management, but this gave Curran and his team the opportunity to switch to gas power, which they had hoped to do at some point anyway. (This also made the city happier, since the old smokestack was right by the city swimming pool.)

During the next few years the brewery was profitable again, and had accounts as far away as Milwaukee. Despite this, Berlin Brewing focused on its local market. The company purchased everything they could in Berlin to support local vendors, but most brewing materials came in by rail to a siding half a mile from the brewery. Berlin did not have a nearby truck rental business, so the brewery often let local residents borrow the brewery trucks when not in use (and provided free beer when the truck was returned).

Berlin Brewing Co. competed primarily on price, and made about fifty different private labels for stores or restaurants. (Labels from this period are pictured in chapter 8.) While Berlin never canned beer, they had considered including cans and were able to use a variety of bottles to save money. Berlin Brewing purchased the labels of New London’s Knapstein Brewing when the latter closed, and continued to supply some of the Knapstein markets. However, the brewery was feeling competition from Milwaukee brands, and when the city of Berlin raised sewer and water rates, the brewery’s prices became less competitive. The brewery offered to reduce sewage outflow instead of paying higher rates, but nothing came of the proposal. The brewery closed in 1964, and the company began to distribute Schlitz beer to its old accounts. Curran emphasized that the business did not fail—that all suppliers and employees were paid in full. The plant was torn down in July 1966 and replaced with a grocery store.146 However, the Berlin Brewery softball team reformed and was still successful for many years. Berlin Brewing Co. is still incorporated in the state of Wisconsin as of 2017.147

Berry Township (Dane County)

• Otto Kerl (1853–1861)
• Section 27, Berry Township

Otto Kerl began production in his farmstead brewery around 1853 by his own account, though published sources offer dates ranging from 1851 to 1856. He brewed two or three times each week, and shipped beer as far away as Dodgeville. Kerl’s partner Carl Ludwig left after about five years to start his own brewery in Hillsborough (as it was spelled at the time). Kerl stopped brewing in favor of farming when his employees left to fight in the Civil War. Additional information on the founding and operation of Kerl’s brewery is in chapter 2.

Big Bend (Waukesha County)

• Longnecks Brew Pub and Restaurant (2006–8)
• S68 W22665 National Avenue

This suburban brewpub opened in 2006 but suffered from a difficult economy and lukewarm reception for their beers. The address is sometimes reported as being in Vernon, Wisconsin.

Black Creek (Outagamie County)

• Eclipse Brewing (1997)
• 910 Apple Creek Road/N 4524 State Highway 47

Located in a small town north of Appleton, this brewery was credited in various on-line sources with a capacity of 1,200 barrels per year. Brewer Bill Stevens released a few brands, including der Schatten Special (Schatten means shadow, and Stevens had also considered going into the window shade business).148

Black River Falls (Jackson County)

• Ulrich Oderbolz, Black River Falls Brewery (1856–1900)
• Ulrich Oderbolz Estate (1900–1)
• Anna Oderbolz, BRFB (1901–7)
• Oderbolz Brewing Co. (1907–1913)
• Badger Brewing Co. (1913–1920)
• Badger Products Co. (1920–1933)
• 320 Pierce Street

Swiss immigrant Ulrich Oderbolz came to America in 1852 and wandered around the Midwest for several years, working at a brewery in Canton, Ohio and as a cooper in La Crosse among other occupations. Upon moving to Jackson County, he selected a site up the hill from the Black River to establish his brewery. The brewery prospered, typically producing more than 500 barrels each year, with a peak of 832 in 1875. In 1885 Wisconsin census figures reported sales of 400 barrels, and an 1891 industry directory listed capacity as under 500 barrels. The 1892 Sanborn maps depict a relatively primitive brewery for the time, still dependent on horsepower and candles for light. However, by 1895 the total tripled to 1,200 barrels, likely the result of a considerable upgrade. The 1902 Sanborn map shows a much more modern facility, with steam power, and additions to the building. By this time, the brewery had its own bottling works across the street from the brewery next to the two-story Oderbolz residence in the Italianate style which still stands across the street from the brewery. (See photo in chapter 3)

While the patriarch himself survived to lead the brewery for almost half a century, not all members of his family were so lucky. The first tragedy to strike the Oderbolz family was a gruesome one. On February 15, 1888, Charley Oderbolz fell into the mash kettle. The eighteen-year-old kept his head above mash and climbed out, but was horribly burned and attempts to remove his clothing only made matters worse. He died the next morning after an agonizing night. Ulrich died at age 80 in 1900, and his son Frank took over operation of the brewery. Frank was a well-known banker and local office holder, and had success with the brewery for a decade. However, on May 21, 1911, Frank drowned after the boat he was in went over a dam on the Black River that he had helped build. Shortly after Frank’s death, Ulrich’s widow Anna sold the brewery to a group of local businessmen who renamed the company Badger Brewing Co. Several of the new owners were independent saloonkeepers who hoped to make their own beer to keep costs down. The brewery suffered a minor fire in February 1917, but escaped with only $2,000 damage.

When Prohibition arrived, the brewery offered New Style Temperance Drink, a short-lived near beer. The building was eventually sold to the Miller-Rose poultry company. (Premature newspaper reports had the building being converted to a vegetable canning plant or cold storage in 1919.) The building suffered a massive fire in 1932, which destroyed the second and third floors. The second floor was rebuilt, and the building was used as a soft drink bottling plant.149 The building was used on and off for various purposes until a new brewery took over the premises in 1997 and fresh local beer returned to Black River Falls.

• Pioneer Brewing Co. (1995–2004)
• Sand Creek Brewing Co. (2004–present)
• 320 Pierce Street

Only a few pre-Prohibition Wisconsin breweries were restored to their former uses after more than a few decades had passed. One of these was the old Oderbolz brewery, which became the home of Pioneer Brewing Co. in 1995. Dave and Jim Hellman, who had been successful beer distributors in central Wisconsin, bought the building, which still had feathers in it from its days as a turkey processing facility, and hired Todd Krueger as brewmaster. It took some time to renovate the building, but the first beer reached the market in June 1997. (See Chapters 1 and 10 for photographs showing how the old building was adapted to fit modern brewing equipment.) In 1998, Pioneer acquired the Wisconsin Brewing Co. of Wauwatosa, which had been devastated by two floods. The brands and a couple of employees moved to Black River Falls. The brewery made both Pioneer and Wisconsin Brewing Co. brands for several years, but after 2005 the Wisconsin Brewing Co. names were phased out though some of the beers remained (Wood Duck Wheat became Woody’s Wheat, for example). The brewery gained a reputation for quality across a variety of styles: Krueger won gold awards at the 2000 World Beer Cup for Oscar’s Chocolate Oatmeal Stout and Pioneer Black River Red Märzen, and in 2002 for Oderbolz Bock.

In 2004, the Hellmans moved back into distribution, and the brewery was sold to a partnership of the Sand Creek Brewing Co. owners headed by Jim Wiesender and brewmaster Todd Krueger. (See the entry under Downing.) In the last decade, Sand Creek has developed a solid reputation for its own brands and has become a respected contract brewer—brewing and bottling beers for companies from Wisconsin and Minnesota and as far away as Kentucky. Among the noteworthy contract projects was BluCreek (originally called BluBrew) a beer containing juice from Maine blueberries that was sold in the Madison area but was also marketed in Japan by HMS WorldSupply. During the Pioneer era, the brewery made house beers for the Black Rose Brewpub in La Crosse. In several cases, Sand Creek’s contract operations served as an incubator for breweries that needed to get beer on the market to build a revenue stream in order to get their own brewery built, such as Fulton Beer of Minneapolis and Lift Bridge Brewing Co. of Stillwater, Minnesota. Sand Creek also brewed the creative Furthermore Brewing Co. beers including Thermo Refur: An ale brewed with organic red beets and black pepper.

In 2015, Sand Creek Brewing purchased Furthermore Brewing Co. and Cross Plains Brewing Co., makers of Esser’s Best beers. All of the brands were already brewed at Sand Creek, and Wayne and Larry Esser of Cross Plains and Aran Madden of Furthermore stayed on to serve as representatives of their brands for Sand Creek. Two years later, Sand Creek was happy with the continued incremental growth of these labels. Increased growth of their own labels and their recent acquisitions meant that by 2017 only about 5 percent of production was contract-brewed brands, though this included the new Lombardi Golden Ale and Lombardi Lager, brewed for a grandson of the famous coach.

To date, Sand Creek continued to produce fine examples of craft beer favorites, including barrel-aged beers and SMaSH ales (single-malt, single hop). Distribution range has varied, but Sand Creek beers have been shipped to parts of Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois, though as of 2017 distribution has been limited to Wisconsin and a few locations in the Twin Cities.

Sand Creek also has brewed three varieties of hard lemonade, as well as special fruit versions and occasional barrel-aged editions. Sand Creek Hard Lemonade became available in cans for the first time in late 2016.150

Bloomer (Chippewa County)

• Wendland & Adler (1872–75)
• John Wendland (& Co.) (1875–1890)
• Liehe & Koepp (1890–93)
• Charles Liehe (1893–99)
• Bloomer Brewing Co. (1899–1920)
• Bloomer Beverage Co. (1933–35)
• Bloomer Brewery (aka Bloomer Brewing Corp.) (1935–1947)
• Grove Street north of 17th

Started in what was previously called Vanville, John Wendland’s brewery at Bloomer and High streets built a steady, if limited, business in the northwest region of Wisconsin. Wendland and his partner Fred Adler appear in the excise records for the first time in October 1872 and reported selling three barrels of beer in November and fourteen in December. They expanded production quickly and by 1875 sold 513 barrels, which made them a “large” brewery by excise tax standards. A local history by Tina Susedik recounted that Adler sold his half of the brewery to Wendland in 1882, getting out just before a series of fires struck the brewery. Wendland rebuilt after the 1883 fire and was brewing in a much larger brewery by 1886, only to have the brewhouse burn down again in July of 1888 with a heavy financial loss, of which less than half was covered by insurance. Most of the other structures were saved, so Wendland rebuilt yet again.151 The local newspaper account claimed that at the time of the fire it “was becoming one of the best paying breweries in this section and Mr. Windlandt [sic] was beginning to reap a benefit from the manufacture and sale of excellent beer.”

Wendland decided to leave the beer business in 1890 and sold the brewery to J. F. Koepp of Bloomer and Charles Leihe of nearby Eagleton for just over $10,000.152 (Leihe’s residence in Eagleton was reported as the brewery’s location in a few state directories, leading some sources inaccurately to list Eagleton as having its own brewery.) Neither Leihe nor Koepp were brewers by trade, so they hired A. Mueller from Pabst to run the operation. In 1898, they sold the brewery to Charles Althans and Valentine Schoen, who changed the name to Bloomer Brewing Co. They embarked on an ambitious program of improvements that included fireproofing the brewhouse and adding steam power. According to Susedik, the brewery used wind power prior to that time with horse power available for windless days, but it is likely that the windmill only served the malt kiln on which it was located since the Sanborn map of 1893 listed the source of power as wood. Althans used his background as a tinsmith to fabricate much of the copper equipment for the brewery, as well as mugs for the brewery saloon. Althans and Schoen sold the business to Cornelius Schwartz of Chicago in 1912, who then sold to the Breunig family in March 1915. Jacob Breunig owned the brewery through Prohibition, though he leased the building at least once. Unfortunately the lessees used the equipment for distilling and were raided by federal agents in March 1928.153

Breunig later sold the brewery to A. L. Lipschulz of St. Paul, who prepared to bring local beer back to Bloomer. The renamed Bloomer Beverage Co. reentered the market with Yankee Special in December 1933, and promotion continued the next year with a float in the Fourth of July parade shaped like a giant beer barrel. Lipschulz sought markets beyond the local area—shipping beer to Minnesota and the Dakotas.154 Lipschulz experienced financial difficulties, and sold the brewery to the Tankenoff family in 1935. M. B. Tankenoff became company president, and Al Tankenoff became the new manager. (Tankenoff’s obituary reported he took over the brewery in 1937.155) Tankenoff changed the name back to Bloomer Brewery, and soon changed the lineup of beers to feature Al’s Ale and Al’s Lager. He later changed the names to less personal labels such as Wisconsin Pilsner and Buckingham Ale. It is noteworthy that Tankenoff continued to offer ale as a standard product, since it was generally less popular in the Upper Midwest than in the Northeastern states.

Bloomer is located in the heart of Wisconsin’s “cabin country,” and Tankenoff recognized the importance of Twin Cities customers to his business. He was originally from St. Paul, and company letterhead from the late 1930s included the address for the office and warehouse in St. Paul.156

In 1938 the Bloomer Brewery was authorized to offer 250 shares of stock for sale, but the City of Bloomer was told it could not accept stock in return for providing city water.157 During World War II, Bloomer had contracts to supply beer to the armed forces, so thousands of Americans who otherwise never would have heard of Bloomer were introduced to it with a welcome bottle of beer.

The end of World War II brought the end of the brewery as well. Susedik’s account claims that “Bloomer residents were not happy having a Jewish businessman in town and they boycotted him, so he gave the beer away. In 1947, after losing beer contracts with the war department he bottled what beer was left in vats and shipped it to England.”158 Other historians of the Bloomer brewery reject the idea that business suffered from anti-Semitism, and it was unlikely to have slowed Tankenoff, who was a leader in the Anti-Defamation League.159 Tankenoff switched to developing shopping centers and other financial businesses, and died in 2006 at the age of 101.

• Bloomer Brewing Co. (2013–present)
• 1526 Martin Road

The second coming of Bloomer Brewing Co. began as a nanobrewery occupying some of the old brewery caves. Sicne 1985, Dan Stolt had rented a portion of the old brewery for his business, Stolt Excavating & Trucking. Inspired by homebrewing experiences with his son, he began homebrewing in part of the old brewery. His first beers were brewed for the local Good Friday fish fry. After experimenting with recipes for about five years, he settled on brews that became Bloomer Beer, Duncan Spring Blonde Ale, and Town Brown. In April 2013, he opened a taproom in the brewery and began serving his beers one or two nights a week.160

By 2016, Bloomer Brewing beers had become so popular that Stolt upgraded his brewhouse to a seven-barrel system and planned eventually to add a bottling line. Water for the beer comes from the same well used by the earlier Bloomer brewery. Stolt hired a sales representative in 2017 to help service the twenty-two draught accounts and to help build toward the goal of around forty. As of July 2017, Blooming Brewing typically has eight beers on draught in the taproom—which is decorated with photographs of and artifacts from the earlier brewery.161

Bonduel (Shawano County)

• Slab City Brewing Co. (1995–2006)
• W3590 Pit Lane

The Slab City Brewing Co. was an early example of a small rural brewery of the type that would become common in Wisconsin a decade later. Owner Bill Winsand cobbled together a small brewing system on an old farm and began to brew a variety of ales and a seasonal bock. After a few years, the brewery outgrew the original farm milkhouse and Winsand installed a larger brewhouse in an adjacent building. Several of the beers were well received, in particular the Esker Alt and the Milkhouse Stout. Over the next several years Winsand expanded both the brewery and distribution range, and products which once had been available only in growlers and a few local draught accounts starting in 2002 were available in six packs throughout much of the state. The brewery closed in 2006.162

Boscobel (Grant County)

• Ziegelmaier & Bielerman (1866?–67)
• George Ziegelmaier (1867–1884?)
• Frank Wunderle? (1883?–84?)
• William Brewer (Bruer) (1884–87?)
• George Reiner (1887–88)
• Schuler & Dobler, Boscobel Brewing Co. (1895–1908)
• Joseph A. Dobler, Boscobel Brewing Co. (1908–1912)
• Dobler Brewery (1912–13)
• Boscobel Brewing Co. (1913–1920)
• Boscobel Brewing Co. (1920–1942)
• Wisconsin Avenue, near Madison Street

The firm of Ziegelmaier and Bielerman first appeared in the existing excise records in May 1867. The 1881 county history reported that George Ziegelmaier returned to Boscobel in 1866 after bouncing back and forth between that village and MacGregor, Iowa and “bought out the first brewery.” While it is indeed possible that Bielerman or another party had started the brewery much earlier, this phrase in a generally ungrammatical paragraph may also simply mean that Ziegelmaier bought out Bielerman’s interest. However, an article from September 1867 refers to “cleaning up and refitting the entire establishment,” which should not have been necessary if the brewery was only a year old. Ziegelmaier, who was a baker by trade, hired F. Rabenstein to be his brewer. The brewery suffered a major fire in 1868, but rebuilding started almost immediately. In 1873, Ziegelmaier was prosecuted for allegedly selling beer on Sunday at his brewery, but he was found not guilty.163

At some point during 1884, William Brewer took charge of the brewery (perhaps after a short period of management by Frank Wunderle), and Brewer ran it for about three years. During this period the brewery had its own malting facilities, and sometime between 1884 and 1887 added a bottling facility. Despite the expansions, production was usually about 300 or 400 barrels per year. The brewery George Reiner took over sometime in 1887 or 1888 was a prosperous concern, which unfortunately drew the attention of the criminal element. In August 1888, Reiner was assaulted with a four-foot sled stake and robbed of about $300 and his gold watch and chain. Reiner was apparently unable to return to work for some time, since it was later reported that a brewer from Milwaukee bought 300 barrels of beer from the Boscobel brewery at a sheriff’s sale for one dollar each—a price which suggests the beer was not fresh (and that he may have been more interested in the cooperage).164 The Boscobel brewery disappeared from lists of brewers for several years.

Around 1895, Frank Schuler and Joseph Dobler formed Boscobel Brewing Co. After more than a decade together, Dobler took over the company on his own. In the 1912 Brewers’ Hand Book, Dobler listed his son Carl as the brewmaster, but because Carl was thirteen years old at the time, Joseph was probably having a bit of fun with the survey. By 1916, John Blass was listed in directories as the president of the Boscobel Brewing Co., and remained so through Prohibition.

Boscobel Brewing Co. was not in operation during Prohibition, but became one of many small town breweries to return after the dry spell. Boscobel was not ready in April, but by September John Blass had received his permit and was ready to brew. The years after Prohibition did not go smoothly for Boscobel. Premier-Pabst (as it was at the time) threatened the company over the blue ribbon on its label but the dispute was solved when Boscobel agreed to redesign the Amber Brew graphics. Premier-Pabst need not have worried much about the competition, since Boscobel never produced more than a few hundred barrels a year, with all but a few barrels sold in the immediate area. The company went out of business in November 1937, but was reorganized in 1938 under the receivership of George Doll, who replaced the Amber Brew brand with Eagle Brew and Boscobel’s Pride. Continuing financial problems led to the brewery being auctioned at a sheriff’s sale in 1939, but the only bidder was the existing mortgage holder. Starting in the summer of 1939, the brewery was operated by Joseph Doll and Harry Geisler, but from 1939 to 1941 Boscobel produced less beer than any other Wisconsin brewery open during those years. The period of intermittent shutdowns ended when the Boscobel brewery closed its doors for good in June 1942. The building was razed in 1999 and the stone was used for other projects.165

• Franz Liske (1869–1872?)

For a brief period, the small village of Boscobel had two breweries. Liske’s firm was much smaller than Ziegelmaier’s—brewing about a third as much in the periods where data exists and apparently never more than one hundred barrels.

Boulder Junction (Vilas County)

• Big Bear Eatery & Brewery (1996–98)
• 10490 West Main

Branch (Manitowoc County)

• Gottfried Kunz (1858–1872?)
• Elizabeth Kunz (1872?–1882)
• Peter Herman (1882–83)
• Section 5, Manitowoc Rapids Township

According to local and family accounts, Gottfried Kunz arrived in the tiny hamlet of Branch in 1858 and began building a brewery with the help of his sister Elizabeth and his cousin Heinrich George, who also became Gottfried’s brother-in-law when he married Elizabeth. H. George was the head brewer in Branch until 1860 when he went to Manitowoc to work in breweries there. Elizabeth apparently played an important role in managing the brewery, since by the 1870s the business was conducted in her name, even though Gottfried lived until 1877. Gottfried also owned a hotel, and may have focused his time on that endeavor. The brewery grew until it produced 1,629 barrels in 1879—more than any brewery in the city of Manitowoc other than William Rahr’s. An atlas from 1878 includes an illustration of a prosperous looking brewery next to a handsome residence, indicating this was much more than a simple farm brewery.166

Sometime around 1882 the brewery passed into the hands of Peter Herman who owned the local mill and other businesses. In early 1883 the brewery burned, and the Lake Shore Times noted that Herman did not intend to rebuild “at present, but will turn his attention exclusively to farming.” Later in the same column, the Branch correspondent reported: “Mr. Peter Herman treated us to a glass of Rahr’s Bock Beer to-day. It was fine, but if our Bock had not got scorched so bad, we could have had some of our own.”167

• D. B. Pierce (1871?–1872?)

The brewer that historian Wayne Kroll identified as DeWitt B. Pierce is in the 1872 state business directory. He appears in no industry publications nor excise records.168

British Hollow (Grant County)

• Thomas C. Jones (1839?–1845?)
• Near modern U.S. Highway 61

Research by local historian John Dutcher has identified a brewery extant in 1840 mentioned in passing by an 1844 account as that of Thomas C. Jones. Jones was apparently not popular in the area and was involved in several lawsuits during his few years in British Hollow. Very little is known about Jones’ brewing, but it is known that he moved west after a divorce and a flurry of lawsuits in 1850. The brewery may have stayed in operation after Jones departed, since descendants of the other British Hollow brewers remember older relatives pointing to the former Jones property and being told “that’s where the competition was”—a state which was only possible if brewing continued after 1850.169 It may have continued as an informal farm brewery, since it appears in no other official records.

• Joseph Udelhofen (1856?–1859?)
• Miller & Mohrenberg (1859?–1867?)
• Stephens & Mohrenberg (1868–1871)
• Mohrenberg & Macke (1871–72)
• Henry Macke (1872–1882)
• Joseph Vogelberg (1882–1890?)
• Near Modern U.S. Highway 61 and British Hollow Road

Sometime in the mid-1850s, Joseph Udelhofen began brewing in British Hollow. While he was still listed in the 1860 population census as a brewer, the brewery is listed in the census of industry under the name Miller & Mohrenberg, who were also listed in the population census as brewers. Udelhofen may still have owned the brewery at this point, since he is the only one of the three listed as owning any real estate. The 1860 production was about 500 barrels, which sold for $6 each.

By 1868, Samuel Stephens had replaced Mathias Miller, and in 1871 Henry Macke would become William Mohrenberg’s partner. Macke bought out Mohrenberg in 1872 and ran the business without a partner for the next decade. British Hollow was a very small community, so the brewery was clearly built to supply the surrounding countryside. The proprietors built caves in the hillside near modern Hippy Hollow Road to age and store their lager. In the early 1870s Macke was producing between 1,000 and 1,200 barrels per year with the help of three employees in his horse-powered brewery, about the same as the brewery in the much larger community of Potosi a few miles to the south. The capacity under Joseph Vogelberg’s direction was 2,000 barrels per year, according to Wing’s 1887 Annual. Adam Schumacher, later the owner of the Potosi brewery, worked at the brewery for a few years during Vogelberg’s proprietorship. Vogelberg may also have had a partner named Frammel[?] for a year or so at the beginning of his proprietorship. Local historian John Dutcher holds that Vogelberg may have stayed in operation as late as 1890, but industry documents do not provide evidence for a specific date.170

Brookfield (Waukesha County)

• Biloba Brewing Co. (2014–present)
• 18720 Pleasant Street (2014–17)
• 2910 N. Brookfield Road (2017–present)

The husband and wife team of Gordon and Jean Lane opened Biloba Brewing Co. in Brookfield to bring craft beer and a comfortable gathering place to their hometown. In addition to a long career at Briess Malting Co., Gordon is also a licensed cheesemaker. He began homebrewing in 1974—five years before it was legal.

The city of Brookfield was trying to revitalize its downtown area, and was very helpful to the Lanes as they developed the business. The taproom was modeled on similar facilities on the West Coast, with no televisions to distract from conversations. The beer menu emphasized Belgian styles and included several barrel-aged products. Gordon taught daughter Kristen how to brew and she soon took over brewing duties. Daughter Kathryn manages the tasting room and handles marketing and social media.

The popularity of the beer and the taproom forced the Lanes to look for a new site, which they found just around the block from their original location. They moved to the new location early in 2017. The new facility allowed them to expand the brewhouse to a ten-barrel system and provided additional storage space for the barrel-aging project.171

Buffalo (Buffalo County)

• John Schuler (1863–1871)
• Castle Rock, two miles south of Fountain City on Highway 35.

According to an article in the Winona Republican-Herald from 1936, John Schuler had been having hard luck attempting to farm his land, but discovered seven large springs near the large bluffs along the Mississippi River. Schuler had worked in a brewery in Johnstown, Pennsylvania for two years prior to coming to Wisconsin, so he decided to try his hand at brewing in his new home. The brewery was a fairly simple structure, with a cellar below and a second floor used as a tavern and living quarters that were reached by an outside stairway.

Census and industry records indicate that Schuler’s production was quite small—seldom much over 100 barrels a year and often less—but similar to that of many other farm breweries. However, accounts claimed that Schuler occasionally took deliveries to the farmers on the ridge above the river, and sometimes even took the ferry across the river to Minnesota City to sell surplus beer.

While Schuler was proud of his beer, his brewery was better known for the clientele of the tavern. The brewery was on the stage line between La Crosse and St. Paul, and was a lodging and refreshment stop for travelers. Occasionally the travelers were unsavory, as was the case with a mysterious well-dressed duo, who announced upon departure that they were the locally notorious Williams brothers. They paid for their breakfast by tossing Mrs. Schuler a gold coin, but took their leave on the river in Schuler’s skiff. Schuler also had a reputation for serving beer to the remnants of the local Indian population. While Schuler relented and sold “fire water” to them, he insisted that they drink it elsewhere. On one occasion, Indians desperate for more beer besieged Schuler’s brewery, and the family barricaded themselves inside with whatever improvised weapons they could find until the Indians decided to leave. After a few years, competition from the growing breweries in Fountain City and Winona forced Schuler out of business.172

• Mr. Charles Schacttler (Schaettle) (1858–1862?)
• Ackerman & Co. (1859–1860?)
• G. W. Ackermann, Spring Lake Brewery (1862?–63?)
• Spring Lake

Kessinger’s History of Buffalo County claims that the Buffalo City brewery was built in 1858. The Dun Credit Report volumes identify the proprietor as Charles Schacttler (Kessinger spelled it Schaettle), a former leather dealer from Cincinnati. In 1859 he sold a half interest in the brewery to pay his debts, and shortly after sold out entirely and went into the lumber business. The brewery must have been reasonably substantial, since a half share sold for $2,000 and it was listed as employing two workers and made 200 barrels of beer worth $1,600 in the 1860 industrial census.173 The new owners were Ackerman & Co. The population census suggests G. W. Ackermann (spelled differently) was a recent arrival in Wisconsin, and that Ackermann’s neighbor, Xaver Stofer, worked at the brewery as well. Kessinger’s history later refers to “a shooting match at Mr. Schaettle’s place . . . where he had a brewery at the time,” so it is possible that he took the brewery back for a short time, though the account may have been imprecise about ownership.174 Starting in late 1862 and running through September 1863, the Buffalo County Republican, a German-language newspaper, carried ads for Ackermann’s brewery, now called the Spring Lake Brewery, offering “gutes Schenk und Lagerbier.”175

Burlington (Racine County)

• Jacob Muth, Sr. (1852–1872)
• 109 North Main Street

Jacob Muth, a brother-in-law of Jacob Best, started the first manufacturing enterprise in Burlington when he began brewing in 1852. Details about his first years in business are scarce, but by 1860 he ran the second largest brewery in Racine County, producing about 500 barrels a year. Muth was quite proud of his beer, as indicated by his 1859 advertisement in the Burlington Gazette:

No war, but peace in Burlington here, and nothing stronger than Muth’s Lager Beer.

The undersigned begs leave to inform the trusty population of Burlington and vicinity that he always keeps on hand the celebrated Buck, Lager, and Common Beer, and hereby recommends it for sale as a first rate remedy for the preservation of health. Do away with patent medicines, pills &c., and drink Muth’s Beer, and you will feel as well as a muskrat, as strong as a lion, and as happy as a man with the best feelings towards his fellow beings. Make once the experiment, and the second time you will need no persuasion. Facts are facts, and no humbug!176

The most dramatic event at the brewery occurred in May 1864, when an arsonist started a fire in a wagon of hay at the brewery. When Jacob Muth went out to fight the fire, the intruder entered the house and threw vitriol (sulphuric acid) at Mrs. Muth—no motive was known for the crime.177

Muth continued in the brewing business until 1872, when converted his brewery to a malt house. According to R. G. Dun & Co. records, business started well, but by 1877 he was out of business. When the malt house was put up for sale in 1877, it was advertised as having a capacity of 75,000 bushels per year.178 The plant was purchased by the Finke-Uhen Brewing Company and used as both a malt house and brewery. The building was purchased (for payment of $859 of back taxes) by the Haylofter theater group in 1943 and converted into a theater. They presented the first show on the new stage in 1954, and the Haylofters still occupy the building as of this writing.179

• J. Smith (1862?–1870?)

Smith’s brewery is known only through the R. G. Dun & Co. credit reports. An entry in 1863 noted that he was doing a large business and making money, but the only other entry, from February 1874, reported that he had gone bankrupt and departed four years earlier.180

• Anton Finke (1858?–1873)
• William J. Finke (1873–1884)
• W. J. Finke & Co. (1884–1897)
• Finke-Uhen Brewing Co. (1897–1922)
• Burlington Cereal Products (1920?–1933)
• Burlington Brewing Co. (1933–1953)
• Van Merritt Brewing Co. (1953–54)
• Wisconsin Brewing Co. (1954–55)
• 425 McHenry St.

While some accounts have this business starting in 1865, census and R. G. Dun & Co. records indicate that Anton Finke started brewing in Burlington closer to 1858. The existing records suggest a modestly successful business during the early years. Dun & Co. reported that Finke was “inclined to drink his own product as most brewers are,” but that it did not interfere with his attention to business and that he was “well liked in the place.”181 In 1866, he was burned in an accident while pitching a barrel, but recovered. Anton Finke died in 1873, and while the business was carried on under his name for a time, his widow Catharine and son William soon changed the name of the company. They acquired the former Muth malt house, added a bottling facility during the 1880s and continued to expand the plant throughout the next decade to push capacity to around 5,000 barrels a year.

When the company was incorporated in 1896, John Uhen was brought into the business as president. The brewery was the scene of a tragedy in 1899 when William J. Tulif, a night watchman for the company, was found murdered in the office. The brewery continued to grow over the next two decades, especially after a new brewhouse was built in 1903 which quadrupled capacity. In 1910 the brewery produced and shipped about 15,000 barrels of beer, and the brewery employed about two dozen men, making it the fifth-largest manufacturing employer in the city. Both Finke and Uhen drew praise for being “among Burlington’s most progressive and public spirited men.”182

During Prohibition, the plant stayed in business making wort, first under the Finke-Uhen name, and then as Burlington Cereal Products. Burlington’s proximity to Chicago made it an appealing location for production of illicit beer, and the brewery was raided at least twice and discovered to be in violation of the Prohibition Act. Finke-Uhen was one of six breweries in 1922 that was not only fined but also assessed thousands of dollars in back taxes.183

After Prohibition, the Burlington brewery was purchased by what the papers called “a Chicago concern . . . seeking control of several Wisconsin breweries” or “Chicago men,” terms which, intentionally or not, seemed to imply bootlegger connections. In the case of Burlington, the bootlegger connections were not simply suspicions, since one of those concerned was George “Dutch” Vogel, who was what one paper called “a beer baron of the prohibition era.” Vogel had been linked to jewel robberies, spent time in Joliet State Prison, and was acquitted of murdering a police office with the famed Clarence Darrow on his defense team. Vogel was officially the “chief shipping clerk” of the new Burlington Brewing Co., but he was known to have a significant financial stake in the firm as well.184 Documents of the Beverage Tax Division continued to allege that Burlington was “a gangster outfit” for several years. Despite the out-of-town ownership (though Vogel himself moved to a home on nearby Browns Lake), Burlington stressed its heritage in early advertisements: “Burlington Brew is made in the old Finke-Uhen Brewery in Burlington by Michael Deubig, formerly brewmaster for the Finke-Uhen Brewery. This in itself should be a recommendation for Burlington Beer.”185

Burlington added several brands to its lineup in the years after repeal, including Chesterton Ale and the beer the company became most famous for, Van Merritt beer. Brewed at Burlington “with exclusive permission of de Sleutel Brewery” of Dordrecht, Holland, Van Merritt anticipated Löwenbräu and other licensed versions of imported brands by several decades. Van Merritt was advertised as a superpremium beer: “You can taste the difference. You’re glad to pay the little extra it costs.” (Though it was often more than a little extra—a Chicago area liquor store advertised it at $4.40 a case in 1946, nearly twice as much as Chicago’s Prima or Prager and exceeded only by Gluek’s Stite malt liquor from Minneapolis.)186 Van Merritt was shipped well beyond Chicago—correspondence shows that Burlington products were exported to Los Angeles and Las Vegas by the early 1940s and newspaper ads offered it for sale in Reno. (Sales in Nevada during this period were not necessarily due to mob connections. Wisconsin beer was in demand around the country and smaller breweries sought sales opportunities wherever they could find them.) Burlington was one of several smaller Wisconsin breweries to sell much more of their product outside the state rather than for home consumption: in January 1938, for example, it sold 342 barrels in Wisconsin but exported 1,132 barrels.187

After a minor corporate reorganization in 1937, the company continued in business, though records show it was losing money at rate faster than any other Wisconsin brewery at some points—more than $80,000 combined in 1940 and 1941. The war brought additional difficulties, as it did for all breweries. In 1942, the brewery proposed cooperating with the City of Burlington on a trash collection program, since the brewery had authorization to salvage tin cans of size No. 10 or larger to reclaim for bottle crowns. The city rejected the plan, since its trucks would have to make the same rounds twice, but allowed the brewery to have “the privilege of picking out what cans it can use, at the city dump, paying for them at the federal rate of $6 a ton.” On the other hand, employees of the brewery were noteworthy for their patriotism. Not only were they the first firm in the city to have 100 percent participation in the payroll allotment program for purchasing war bonds, they doubled their original pledges in July 1942 as other businesses caught up.188

During the war years, Burlington’s production rose as high as 50,000 barrels, which spurred the company to build a new bottling plant that would double capacity to bottle thirty-eight barrels per hour. But in the early 1950s, sales dropped precipitously. Van Merritt’s availability in two sizes of bottles as well as cans did little to increase its popularity. Vogel died in 1951, but that August the brewery redoubled its newspaper campaign for Van Merritt, pledging to continue it indefinitely if it bore fruit. However, it was almost completely unsuccessful, and even with the Milwaukee brewers’ strike of 1952 the Burlington brewery closed in October of that year, leaving forty-five employees without a job. The following July, Maurice Frank of Chicago purchased the brewery and started to reinvigorate the plant and the Van Merritt brand. He assured all former employees of their jobs, and pledged to use the seventy salesmen of his Chicago liquor distribution business to push sales nationwide. In an echo of the Brewers’ Best scheme (see Two Rivers and Chapter 8), Frank announced plans to license other breweries around the country to make Van Merritt, claiming that demand was outpacing supply and arguing that the new distribution plan would make better use of a national advertising campaign and cut costs. The company was renamed Van Merritt Brewing Co. in August, and brought in new management to oversee the expansion. Despite the excited announcement in March 1954 that sales were up 700 percent from the previous year (not difficult since the brewery was closed for most of the year), in April the brewery was sold to Weber Waukesha Brewing Co., which used it for the production of soft drinks. The Van Merritt brand was sold separately to Chicago-based partners of Frank, who continued it for a few years at other breweries (including Oconto).189

• F. G. Klein & Co. (1891?–1901?)
• Pine and Mill Streets

Francis G. Klein, a native of Alsace, was known much better for businesses other than brewing. He was credited with making the “first cow-fender ever put on a locomotive” while in Pennsylvania, and after moving to Racine he was one of the earliest employees of J. I. Case’s threshing machine factory. Klein stayed in this line of work when he moved to Burlington and set up a machine shop in his new home.190 Klein began manufacturing carbonated beverages with J. H. Bower & Co. in the mid-1880s. In 1889 Klein’s son Otto purchased Bower’s share and the firm became F. G. Klein & Co. Around 1891 they included beer in their product line. The 1900 population census specifically lists Klein as a manufacturer of weiss beer, and a 1900 industry directory shows a product line including ale, porter and weiss beer. The company soon dropped beer and specialized in soft drinks for many years until declaring bankruptcy in 1937.

Burr Oak (Farmington Township) (La Crosse County)

• Johnathan Teisch? (1868?–1870?)

Excise records reveal the tiny nature of this brewery. During the period from August 1869 to February 1870, only once did Teisch produce more than one barrel of beer per month. While it is possible he produced intermittently in other years, there is no record of his operations.

Butte des Morts (Winnebago County)

• Christoph Klenk (1857–1862)
• Louis Schwalm (1862–65)
• Frederick Bogk (1865–1873?)
• Washington Street between Ontario and Main

The research of Lee Reiherzer in Winnebago County land records has added much to the previously scant information about the small brewery on the north side of Lake Butte des Morts. Christoph Klenk purchased two lots from Butte des Morts pioneer Augustin Grignon in 1857 and began to build a brewery. The land sloped toward the lake and was convenient both for digging a beer cellar and hauling ice from the lake. By 1860, Klenk and his two employees were producing 250 barrels of beer a year with horse power and perhaps some steam power, since the census of industry lists a boiler among the equipment.

In 1862, Klenk sold the brewery to Louis Schwalm of Oshkosh, and eventually became a brewer in Buffalo, NY. Louis’ younger brother Leonhardt would soon form the Horn & Schwalm Brooklyn Brewery in Oshkosh. It is not clear if Leonhardt served as the brewer or was active at Butte des Mortes, since he was also involved with the Lake Brewery in Oshkosh. Leonhardt purchased the brewery from Louis in November 1865, but sold it a month later to German-trained brewer Frederick Bogk.

Bogk appears to have expanded the brewery since he purchased two adjacent plots of land. Articles published in the mid-twentieth century claimed the “big red building was a landmark for many years afterward and could be seen for miles from up or down the river.” While the brewery may have been bigger, production was not. The 1870 census of industry reported sales of 200 barrels, and industry figures listed no production in 1870-1 and only eighty-two barrels in 1871-2. The later articles claim that the brewery burned at some point, but do not specify when—so it is possible that the fire happened sometime in 1870 and interrupted production for several months. The last known reference to Bogk’s production was a tax penalty paid in February 1873, and the brewery disappears from the records. Bogk was most likely driven out of business by competition from breweries in nearby Oshkosh. Bradstreet’s credit reports of 1884 list Bogk as a vinegar manufacturer, and he passed away in 1886. The brewery site is now residential property.191

Cadiz Township (Green County)

• Peter Ede (1859?–1860?)

Prior to his longer stay at Wiota, Peter Ede started a brewery in Cadiz Township that was large enough to appear in the 1860 Census of Industry. In the year ending May 1860, the forty-eight-year-old English immigrant produced one hundred barrels of ale, which sold for $6 per barrel.

Calumet Township (Fond du Lac County)

• Mathias Aigner (1868?–1876?)
• South edge of Section 6

Aigner appears in existing excise records or industry directories intermittently between 1868 and 1872. Total production in the years ending May 1871 and 1872 was twenty-three and twenty-two barrels respectively. Aigner was listed as a farmer in the 1870 census, so it is likely that he brewed only occasionally to supplement his income.

Calvary (Village) (Fond du Lac County)

• Philip Becker & William Wolff (1871?–72?)

Becker & Wolff (sometimes listed as Wolf & Becker) appeared in excise records and other records in 1871 and 1872, when they produced 111 barrels and 340 barrels respectively. Wayne Kroll holds that this firm and the later Mt. Calvary business of Matthias Bourgeois and successors are the same brewery (see Mt. Calvary).192

Carlton Township (Kewaunee County)

• Wenzel Havliceck & Wenzel Holub (1865–67?)
• Wenzel Holub (1867–1872?)
• Anton Langenkamp & Bro. (1874?–1898)
• Walecka & Kulhanek (1898–1901)
• South Edge of Section 32, Carlton Township

Wenzel Havliceck and Wenzel Holub appear to have begun brewing in Carlton Township near Tisch Mills in 1865, though Havliceck’s first appearance in the excise records is not until 1867.193 Havlicek apparently left the partnership in late 1867, and Holub continued on his own. By 1870, Holub employed three men and made 160 barrels of beer, which he sold for $10 per barrel. Holub remains in the excise records through November 1872.

Anton Langenkamp was in possession of the brewery at least by June 1874, when he was first listed in the R. G. Dun & Co. credit reports. (This account claimed he had been in business eight years at that point, which is clearly not true at this location.) While his production was generally small, he made money and generally paid his bills in cash.194 He made about 200 barrels per year during the late 1870s, but increased to more than 450 barrels by 1882. The operations of the brewery after this point can only be pieced together from industry directories. The capacity of the brewery seems to have increased during the mid-1880s, and sometime prior to 1891 he built a malt house. In the early 1880s Langenkamp switched his mailing address to the Tisch Mills post office, though this does not seem to represent a change in the location of the brewery.195 (This brewery is often known as the Tisch Mills brewery, and the rare breweriana from this business use the Tisch Mills location.)

In the last years of the brewery, it was operated by Walecka and Kulhanek, but there is little information about their operations.

The names Frank Lufter and James Lodel were listed in state business directories in the late 1880s and early 1890s as being brewers in Tisch Mills, but there is nothing in the industry directories that confirms they had their own breweries.

Cassville (Grant County)

• Schmitz & Co. (1854?–59?)
• Andrew Ortscheid (1859–1860?)
• Schmitz & Weisse (1860?–62)
• Schmitz & Ortscheid (1862-?)
• Du Chein Street near Bluff Street (Block 51 Lot 6)
• Schmitz & Scherer (1867?–1873)
• F. Scherer & Co. (1874–78)
• Scherer & Alrath (1878–79)
• Schmitz & Grimm (1879–1880)
• Aloys Grimm (1880–88)
• Derichs Bros. (1889–1891)
• Mathias Lorscheter (1891–95)
• Cassville Brewery
• Habermann & Lorscheter (1895–99)
• George Scheibl (1899–1904)
• Mrs. Mary Scheibl (1904–7)
• Andrew J. Lindner (1907–1920)
• Cassville Brewing Co. (1933–38)
• Brewery Avenue

The history of Cassville’s brewery is confused by a number of seemingly contradictory records. While a 1976 history of the city reports (without specific documentation) that William Schmitz started the brewery in 1854, the older 1881 history of Grant County claims that Schmitz did not move from Galena, Illinois to Cassville until 1855, and that his first business there was a hardware store.196 However, the state business directories of the late 1850s list Seitz & Co. as the Cassville brewers, and an entry in the R. G. Dun Company credit reports list Voltz & Sitz as the brewers in July 1858.197 Sitz and Seitz may well be interpretations of Schmitz, but there is also the possibility that Schmitz may have leased the brewery to other parties.

By the time of the 1860 Census of Industry, the Cassville brewery was operated by Andrew Ortscheid with the help of his son, Andrew, and Michael Faltz. Since the population census reported that Ortscheid owned $1,500 in property, he may have purchased the brewery. The brewery’s production was quite small—only fifty barrels in the year ending May 1860, which sold for $6 a barrel. The brewery next appears in records in 1862, when the firm of Schmitz & Weisse dissolved. Weisse took the tin shop they had owned, and Schmitz took the brewery, now in partnership with Andrew Ortscheid, who may have remained as the brewmaster during the previous partnership.198

The best evidence suggests that a new brewery was built in the late 1860s, apparently across the creek from the first structure. By 1867 (if not earlier) William Schmitz was back in business, and with new partner Franz Scherer (or Scherr). While apparently too small to be included in the 1870 census of industry, by 1871 the brewery produced 330 barrels and nearly doubled production to 630 the next year. In 1873 Schmitz sold his half to Scherr for $7,300, but by the end of the decade, production was back in the 200-barrel range and the company was in financial difficulty. The brewery was sold at foreclosure sale in 1878, and Schmitz returned from the saloon business to take charge of the brewery again, this time with financial partner Henry Abrath. This arrangement lasted only briefly, and by late 1879 Schmitz was in business with Hugo Grimm. Schmitz again sold out in 1880 (this time for $7,850, so the value of the property was at least holding steady). Grimm’s brother Aloys was also associated with the property during the 1880s, but the fact that the Cassville brewery is not listed in most industry directories during this decade suggests that the brewery was not in production for much of that time. This hypothesis is supported by an article announcing the reopening of the brewery by the Derichs brothers in late 1888.199 Aloys Grimm may have kept a financial stake in the property for several more years since Tovey’s Brewers’ Directory still lists him as the owner as late as 1891.

From this point, the Cassville brewery changed hands several more times, but often from one family member to another. Mathias Lorscheter operated the brewery alone for about five years, but when he took on a partner, it was his brother-in-law John Habermann. New owner George Scheibl added a bottling line to the brewery during his term, and the company continued to malt at least some of its own barley. When Scheibl died in 1904, the business was carried on by son-in-law William Grimm (under the name of Scheibl’s widow Mary) until it was purchased by another son-in-law, Andrew J. Lindner.

Lindner was by far the most accomplished brewer to own the Cassville plant, and his leadership stabilized the company for the next several decades. Linder had worked for several other Midwestern breweries, including Anheuser-Busch, and took formal training in 1903 in Chicago. The company continued to operate until Prohibition temporarily closed its doors. The brewery was reopened in 1923 by J. L. White, allegedly to produce a product “in every way conforming to the Volstead Act.” However the brewery was raided shortly thereafter and White, Lindner and two others were prosecuted in 1924 for violating the Act.200

Despite the setbacks of the Prohibition years, Lindner maintained control of the brewery and began to make preparations to reopen the brewery in the Spring of 1933. The La Crosse Tribune and Leader Press reported that “A force of mechanics was at work” installing new refrigeration equipment, repairing casks and repairing and redecorating the office. After three months of work, the brewery resumed brewing in July, and further benefitted the community by employing thirty men.201 Even with the modern refrigeration equipment, Cassville still advertised that its beer was “Aged in a Cave” on labels and other advertising. (A sign from this era claims the year 1854 as the start of the brewery.) The company was shipping beer to Madison (where it sponsored a bowling team in the Arcade Ladies League), and as far as Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Unfortunately, the small brewery was having trouble staying afloat, and by December 1938, the company had ceased operations. Lindner was still trying to reopen the brewery in 1940, but had no success.202

The Cassville Brewery had one last attempt at new life in 1946, when the Louis Ziegler Brewing Co. of Beaver Dam showed interest in purchasing the brewery, at least in part to secure an additional grain allocation during the period of input restrictions. Even though the brewery had not operated during the previous twelve months, an allocation was granted and a contract was drawn up. However, Ziegler pulled out of the deal in December and the Cassville brewery was left to decay. The brewery was razed in 1967.203

Cazenovia (Westford Township) (Richland County)

• Alois Fix (1867?–1874)
• Schott, Saltzenberger & Co. (1874–77)
• Joseph Justin (1877–79)

In 1864, Alois Fix moved north from Richland City and purchased a store in Cazenovia. He established a new brewery near Cazenovia in Westford Township. Excise records suggest that a Zelley Mahler may have leased or operated the brewery for a few months in early 1868. (There was a Cecelia Mahler who owned land near Fix’s, and this may be the same person.)204 Recorded production of the brewery was seldom more than ten barrels a month and usually much less—during the year ending May 1871 Fix brewed a mere thirty-three barrels. R. G. Dun Company records report that Fix was an “honest German” but starting in the 1870s he apparently indulged in his own product to the detriment of business. By 1875 the property was in his wife Dorothy’s name.

Excise records and industry directories seem to indicate that Fix leased or rented the brewery starting in December 1874. The firm of Schott, Saltzenberger (or Solchenberger) & Co. operated the brewery for a few years, followed by Joseph Justin. Neither of these new operators did much to expand the business. Schott and Saltzenberger brewed eighty-four barrels in 1875 and under Justin production dropped from eighty-eight barrels in 1878 to nineteen in 1879—probably marking the end of the brewery. In 1879 Dorothy Fix put the brewery up for sale along with a house and nine acres of land.205 Alois was still listed as a brewer in the 1880 population census, but he apparently ceased brewing well before then.

Cecil (Shawano County)

• E. W. (William) Buche, Cecil Brewery (1893–1906?)
• Between modern WI-22 and South Warrington Avenue northeast of Lake Drive

William Buche began brewing in Cecil, on the east end of Shawano Lake, around 1893. His brewery was a large one for a small village even though it had no bottling facilities and no malt house. Buche built a large two-story residence, which still stood in 2015. In 1905, the brewery was absorbed by a stock company that also took over the Raddant brewery of nearby Shawano at the same time. The new firm did not continue the Cecil operations very long, and the Sanborn map of 1907 shows the brewery buildings as vacant. William Buche later became brewmaster at Raddant Brewing Co.206

Cedarburg (Ozaukee County)

• Engels & Schaeffer (1844?–1850)
• August Runge (1850?–1860?)
• Dr. Theodore Fricke & Co. (1866?–1874)
• Cedarburg Brewery, John Weber (1874–1920)
• NE corner of Riveredge & Water Streets

The precise year in which Charles Engels and Lewis Schaeffer began to brew is in dispute. The 1881 county history says 1848, other sources claim 1844. It is also unclear exactly when Engels and Schaeffer gave up the brewery. The 1850 census still has the two as brewers in Cedarburg (along with two brewery employees). By the 1860 census year, Runge’s brewery was producing 560 barrels a year, making it one of the largest breweries in the county. One local source claims Dr. Theodore Fricke and John Weber, a stonemason by trade, took over the brewery in 1862 (though this source also claims that Fricke died in 1865, when in fact he lived well beyond then).207 The 1881 county history claims that the pair purchased the business in 1869, though this is contradicted by multiple sources. Dr. Fricke was a practicing physician, so his role was to own the property and provide the capital, while Weber managed the brewery. By the early 1870s the brewery was selling more than 1,100 barrels a year, which ranked them among the largest breweries in the state outside Milwaukee. Weber took over the brewery himself around 1874, added steam power in the late 1870s, and boosted production to around 1,500 barrels a year. By the mid-1880s the R. G. Dun & Co. credit reports indicate that Weber was “doing very well” and “has the monopoly in this line” in Cedarburg.208 The 1895 Wisconsin census of industry reported Weber had produced 2,600 barrels the previous year, all of it draft beer. Even as late as 1916, industry directories recorded no bottling operations at Cedarburg, and no bottling house appeared on insurance maps. (Dr. Fricke is known to have packaged beer in stoneware bottles, and a few exist in private collections.) With the arrival of Prohibition, the company moved briefly into soda water, but the lack of a bottling plant made this difficult and the company went out of business.

After Prohibition ended, there were rumors that the brewery would reopen. The Port Washington Pilot reported that three Port Washington men and a Cedarburg man were negotiating to buy the Cedarburg brewery, but the brewery never produced again.209 Since 1970 the building has served as a center for local artists.

• Henry Bender (1860?)

Henry Bender appears as a brewer in the 1860 population census. These records indicate that he owned his own property, which suggests that he did not work at August Runge’s brewery, but is not conclusive.

• Sliver Creek Brewing (2004–present)
• N57 W6172 Portland Road at Columbia Road

Silver Creek Brewing Company was founded in 1999 by Steve Venturini, Steve Roensch and Todd Schneeberger—all members of a local homebrewers club. In 2002 they began serving beers at their pub in the historic Cedarburg Mill, and in 2004 they began to brew at the site. While sometimes listed as a brewpub, Silver Creek is more correctly classified as a taproom since it does not have its own kitchen or restaurant. (Original plans called for a limited menu of sandwiches and other simple items.) Guests in the beer garden can gaze at the nearby creek and waterfall, while those inside can watch as the original mill race streams through the bar. In addition to their numerous beers, Silver Creek has become famous for its blonde root beer.210 (Silver Creek Brewing is pictured in chapter 10.)

• The Fermentorium (2016–present)
• 7481 Highway 60

The Fermentorium opened its doors to the public in 2016 at a location just outside of Cedarburg.

The Fermentorium features five different series of brews: Traditional, Hop Wheel, Brewer’s Reserve, Barrel, and the Pilot Series, through which any brewery employee can try out a ten-gallon batch. Several of the Pilot beers, such as the IPAs Juice Packets and Rainbows & Lollipops, have been added to the regular lineup.211 As of 2017, several Fermentorium beers were available throughout Wisconsin in bottles.

Cedar Creek (Polk Township) (Washington County)

• Jacob Pfeil (1860?–61?)

The only evidence of Pfeil’s brewery is his presence in the population census of 1860. Some evidence suggests that Cedar Creek supported two breweries, so his may have been separate from that of Lehner’s (listed under Slinger). This brewery could also be the same as one of the numerous other breweries in that part of the county during the 1860s.

• John Hellenschmidt (prior to 1867?–1872)

The first recorded mention of John M. Hellenschmidt’s brewery was in the excise tax reports of December 1867, when he sold five barrels of beer. He appears in the tax records through 1871, but his brewery burned in February 1872, and he did not rebuild.212

Cedar Falls (Dunn County)

• Hans von Kessel (1881?–1882?)

The Milwaukee Daily Sentinel reported in March 1882: “Hans von Kessel, a former reporter of the Herold and Freie Presse, is at present the proprietor of a brewery in Cedar Falls, Wis.”213 The brewery is not listed in industry publications of the time.

Centerville Township (also known as Cleveland and Hika) (Manitowoc County)

• Simon Krause (1857–1866?)
• Christian Scheibe, Centerville Brewery or Centerville Brewing Co. (1866?–1888)
• Centerville Brewing Co. (1890–98?)
• Hoffman & Mill? (1893?)
• Gartzke Bros. Brewing Co. aka Centerville Brewing Co. (1898?–1911)
• Centerville Brewing Co. (1911–17)

Simon Krause is credited with brewing the first beer in the township in 1857.214 Krause appears in various state directories as late as 1880, though no local or industry sources have him there after 1866. Sources differ on when Christian Scheibe left the former Hottleman brewery in Manitowoc and purchased the Centerville business. Some local histories claim 1866, but others report 1867 and excise records do not include production prior to May 1867. As early as 1870, he was producing 450 barrels eight months of operation with three employees. Production jumped to almost 1,000 barrels by 1875, and after twenty years of brewing, Scheibe had built a substantial market in the region, since Wing’s annual lists his capacity as approximately 6,000 barrels. A county newspaper boasted in 1886, “The Centerville Brewing Co. . . . sell large quantities of their product at different points along the railway.”215 Scheibe also added malting and bottling operations sometime between 1884 and 1887.

Unfortunately, the brewery suffered a disastrous fire in November 1888, which inflicted a loss of $40,000 with insurance on less than half that amount. In the wake of the fire, both the Rahr and Kunz & Bleser breweries of Manitowoc offered to sell Scheibe beer with which to supply his accounts until he could rebuild.216 Rumors swirled about the rebuilding plans—a month after the fire Milwaukee papers claimed that Christian Scheibe would continue to farm in Centerville but his son, newly-elected Assembly member Emil, would build a new brewery at Brillion, to the northwest in Calumet County. But a few days later, new reports placed Emil at the head of a $35,000 stock company that planned to rebuild in Centerville.217

While the Centerville Brewing Co. was indeed rebuilt, the Scheibe family decided to focus on brewing in Marshfield and Grand Rapids. The new Centerville firm was incorporated in 1890 by Allis Kraus, Henry F. Gutsch, and Gustav A. Scheibe. However, it was managed by the Gartzke brothers, Emil and Otto, who would run the brewery for the next two decades and eventually become officers, bringing other family members in as they came of age.218 (The Hoffman & Mill reference contained in AB2 is not yet confirmed by local sources.) The company made the newspapers several times, but other than a series of advertisements in 1913 in the Sheboygan Press, it was usually for bad news. Their safe was broken into in 1899, and they had a team of horses stolen in 1908. In 1902, the brothers were arrested and fined several hundred dollars for reusing revenue stamps. In 1907 Edward Gartzke was badly injured when the elevator in which he was transporting eight kegs of beer slipped and crashed. The most interesting news item was published in 1912, when the Centerville brewery was rumored to be a pawn in a local price war—the retail liquor dealers of Manitowoc proposed taking stock in the Centerville concern and using it to produce beer for less than the increased prices demanded by Manitowoc companies.219

While the 1913 advertisements proclaimed that “Our Special ‘20th Century’” was “The Beer Everybody Wants,” not enough people wanted it to keep the company on sound footing. By 1915, the Rahr company of Manitowoc held the mortgage for the brewery and had to defend their property against claims ranging from $500 in wages to over $5,000 in unpaid bills for ice machinery. The brewery appears to have continued in business to some extent after it was sold to meet the demands of creditors because an article in September 1917 claimed the brewery had closed “a few months ago.”220

Chilton (Calumet County)

• John Paulus (1857?–1872)
• Arlen & Gut (1859?)
• Ulbrich Gut (1859-?)
• Philip Becker (1875–1885)
• Gutheil Bros. (1883?–1888?)
• North of Modern W. Main, west of Heimann Street

J. Paulus is listed as a brewer in Chilton as early as the 1858 state business directory but may not have brewed regularly. He appears to have transferred the brewery to other operators on occasion, since the Chilton Times published a notice of the dissolution of the brewing firm of Arlen & Gut in 1859. While Paulus was listed as a brewer in the 1870 census, he was identified as a farmer in 1860, and this along with his absence from industry directories and excise records suggest he might have brewed off and on during his earlier years. The one known figure from the Paulus era was fiscal 1870, when he brewed 280 barrels, which sold for $8 per barrel. Paulus died in 1872, and the brewery lay dormant.

Philip Becker took over in 1875 and suffered a major fire almost immediately. His rebuilt brewery was much larger, and by 1878 it was producing over 1,000 barrels per year—more than three times as much as local rival Gutheil. While Becker was in debt for several years, he had a solid reputation for business and continued to improve his position into the 1880s.221 By 1882 his output was over 1,400 barrels. A bird’s eye map of 1878 includes an inset illustration of Becker’s large plant and the adjacent “Summer Garden” complete with pavilion.222

In early 1884, the Milwaukee brewery of Jung & Borcherdt leased the brewery for $1,100 a year for four years to gain additional capacity.223 Becker was retained to be superintendent, but the arrangement soon collapsed and Becker moved to Ashland to take over the Schottmueller brewery. The brewery was then converted to a malt house for the Milwaukee firm. The 1891 Sanborn map shows the facility still in use, but by 1898 it was no longer used as a malt house and use was limited to a depot for Pabst, which had purchased the assets of the Jung & Borcherdt.

Some sources, including Wing’s directories, list this brewery as being operated by Gutheil Bros. from 1883–1888, but local evidence about their proprietorship is lacking. They may have operated it for Jung & Borcherdt, or it may be a directory error since the same firm was also listed in Kiel (and is better documented there).

• Fred R. Gutheil (& Co.) (1866–1882)
• Jaeckels & Thomas (1882–83)
• Nicholas Thomas (1883–88)
• Thomas & Freyer (1888–1890)
• Albert Freyer (1890–91)
• Freyer & Hoch (1891–93)
• Gierow & Hoch (1893–1901)
• Gierow & Hoch Brewing Co. (1901–7)
• Chilton Brewery (Kroenke & Landgraf) (1907–1910)
• Calumet Brewing Co. (1911–1920)
• Calumet Brewing Co. (1933–37)
• Henry Rahr Brewing Co. (1937)
• Calumet Brewing Co. (1937–1942)
• 125 East Commerce

Fred Gutheil moved from Kiel to establish a new brewery in Chilton in 1866. (Accounts that he began brewing here in 1853 are refuted by local reports.)224 His brewery remained a relatively small operation through its first few decades. During the early 1870s he was producing a steady 200-plus barrels a year, and finally crossed the 300-barrel threshold before the end of the decade. Gutheil had a strong reputation as a businessman—the R. G. Dun & Co. credit evaluator reported in 1873 that Gutheil was “Good as the Bank of England.”225

Gutheil’s production was down to 162 barrels in fiscal 1882, and soon sold his brewery and went to Gunnison, Colorado to look over the prospects for a brewery there.226 New owners Jacob Jaeckels and Nicholas Thomas were a saloon owner and a blacksmith respectively. Jaeckels sold his share to Thomas in 1883.227 As Thomas was not a brewer, he was forced to hire trained brewers to supervise production. One of these, Erhardt Kick, died in February 1888 when he fell off a board placed across a vat filled with hot water.228 However, it appears that Thomas and his successor made substantial expansions, since several sources report that capacity (and sometimes production) in the 1890s was more than 3,000 barrels.

Stability arrived with the partnership of Herman Gierow and John Hoch in 1893. Albert Freyer sold out and was considering a move to Jefferson, and Gierow took his place and joined Hoch for the next fourteen years. Gierow retired in 1906, and the next year John Landgraf first became associated with the firm he would guide even after Prohibition. He soon gave the brewery the name of the county in which it operated.

While the Calumet Brewing Co. was seldom in the news in the years before Prohibition, the company grabbed frequent headlines in its last two decades. The Prohibition-era company, Calumet Sales Corporation, was padlocked in 1925 for violations of the dry laws. The brewery was the subject of more praiseworthy headlines starting in 1932 when the Calumet Brewing Company bought Calumet Products Company and proposed to manufacture “Canadian King” liquid malt.229 This was merely a prelude to the excitement that followed the election of Roosevelt in 1932. The Sheboygan Press announced that Calumet Brewing Co. was preparing for legal beer, and planning to spend $65,000. The excitement was heightened in this small city by the news that “offers have been made by outside capital in Menasha, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and other places to operate the brewery.”230 Newspapers also lauded the fact that fifteen men would obtain work at the brewery during desperate economic times.

The widespread interest in Chilton’s brewery seems to have been more than local boosterism. While the officers of the company included no-one from farther away than Milwaukee, when the brewery shipped its first beer in early May 1933, a carload a day was destined for Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, Nebraska, and 2,000 cases a day to Los Angeles. The revived Badger Brand was drawing attention around the country. However, Secretary O. W. McCarty reassured Chilton residents at the official launch celebration for Badger Beer that “Calumet County will receive first attention from the Calumet Brewing Co.”231 Indeed, the company supported the local community by sponsoring a basketball team called the Badger Brands “with a strong line-up of the best basketball players in this territory.” It also sponsored the Badger Boys, a piano duo which played a regular fifteen-minute program on WIBL radio (Sheboygan).232

Unfortunately, Calumet Brewing Co. was also receiving first attention from government officials in Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago. In April 1934, federal authorities in Milwaukee heard arguments on a motion to revoke the company’s brewing permit—reported to be the first such action since repeal. On 1 June, the brewery was seized by a team of deputies and federal agents led by the U.S. marshal. The plant was idled except for running the refrigerating plant to keep the existing beer from spoiling. The raid was said to be either the first of its kind in the United States or the first such act in forty years.233 A review of the books at the brewery led Wisconsin’s revenue auditors to conclude “that there was juggling going on.” Based on the counts of barrels and discrepancies between state and federal revenue stamps, Wisconsin inspectors reported “. . . it is evident that either state, Minnesota or Wisconsin, has been defrauded of its revenue.”234 While the company challenged the seizure, federal judge F. A. Geiger upheld the action, though he ruled that certain personal articles “such as a picture of President Roosevelt” might be excluded from the seizure.235 By fall, the remaining beer was sold to meet obligations, and the brewery was purchased by another group of mostly Chilton residents led by Edward Bonk.

For the next few years, the brewery struggled to make a consistent profit. In February 1937, Calumet Brewing Co. was sold to Henry C. Rahr Brewing Co. of Green Bay. This arrangement was short-lived, and by July the Calumet name was back on the company. While production hovered around 10,000 barrels for the next several years, the company was in a precarious financial position. When war broke out in 1941, increasing taxes and high material costs, in part because of the small brewery’s inability to purchase at favorable rates compared to larger firms, pushed the company to the brink. While management claimed the brewery “had been selling enough . . . to have operated at a profit under ordinary conditions,” in March 1942 Calumet Brewing Co. closed its doors for good and dumped 9,000 gallons of beer into the Manitowoc River rather than pay the license fees and taxes required to sell the beer.236

• Rowland’s Calumet Brewing Co., Inc. (1990–present)
• 25 N. Madison Street (1990–present); 57 School Street (production brewery) (2000–present)

Located in a classic Wisconsin corner tavern, Rowland’s Calumet Brewing Co. was among Wisconsin’s pioneering brewpubs. In 1983, Bob and Bonita Rowland bought a tavern located in a nineteenth-century building that had been home to Chilton’s first fire station and housed city hall for a period before becoming a tavern in 1937. They renamed the establishment the Roll-In. A few years later business was slowing when Bob read a magazine article about brewpubs. Bob already had some experience homebrewing (learned from his father in the hills of West Virginia), and decided to try “the craziest idea I’ve ever had.” Rather than starting with scavenged brewing equipment, Rowland purchased a new three-barrel system from JV Northwest of Oregon. The rest of the equipment was purchased locally and local contractors completed the extensive remodeling of the tavern to accommodate the brewhouse—very much like new breweries of the nineteenth century.237 The first beer went on tap in September 1990, and in the next two years the business was attracting regulars from around the region and travelers from all over the world to visit what Rowland claimed was then the smallest city in the nation to have a brewery. During the first year he produced a mere eighty barrels, but pushed the total over one hundred barrels the next year.

It was during that second year of operation that Bob Rowland had the idea hold a craft beer festival in Chilton—one of the first such events to be held outside a major city. Eight different breweries attended the first year (pouring a mere sixteen beers), but the Wisconsin Micro Brewers Beer Festival soon grew to around thirty breweries—which was all that could fit comfortably in the Calumet County Fairgrounds.238

Rowland’s Calumet Brewing continued to grow within its modest capacity, and by 1997 production was over 300 barrels.239 The increased demand led them to purchase new building that year. They purchased a seven-barrel brewing system and by 2000 they were brewing in the new School Street location. In 2005, Bob and Bonita celebrated fifteen years as a brewpub and production of their 5,000th barrel.240 Rowland’s Calumet Pilsner was based on the recipe handed down from Bob’s father, who said “’he needed it a little thicker and heavier to wash the coal dust out of his throat.”241

For many years the Rowlands operated a pilot brewery for Briess Malting Co. of Chilton—brewing nearly seventy batches that were sent all over the world to showcase Briess products. Bob Rowland dedicated his 1,876th barrel of beer to Briess (that being the year they were founded).242

Tragedy struck when Bob Rowland died at age fifty-five in May 2006—just four days before the fifteenth annual Beer Festival. The festival went on that year “as a celebration of Bob, a celebration of life, a celebration of beer,” as Bonita put it, and has continued to be a successful festival.243 The Rowlands’ son Pat took over brewing duties. Both Bob and Pat were active in local community groups and served terms as president of the local Chamber of Commerce. One flavorful contribution to civic affairs is the apple-pumpkin beer brewed for the Crafty Apple Festival.244

As of 2017, Rowland’s beer was available in about forty retail accounts around northeastern Wisconsin, as well as at the Roll-In Brew Pub in Chilton.

Chippewa Falls (Chippewa County)

• Francis X. Schmidmeyer (1855?–1876)
• Herbert Mansen (1859?–1860?)
• Huber & Neher (1876–79)
• Modern West River Street, west of Superior Street

Research by Wisconsin archaeologist Tim Wolter indicates that F. X. Schmidmeyer (various spellings) was brewing in Chippewa Falls as early as 1855. Schmidmeyer apparently leased or rented the brewery off and on, since it is Herbert Mansen who is listed in the 1860 census as the Chippewa Falls brewer. Its production was relatively large for a business so far out on the frontier—200 barrels were produced in fiscal 1860 with the help of two employees. The brewery burned in March 1865, and unfortunately the insurance had run out about a month earlier. Schmidmeyer began to rebuild, and by October 1866 was able to announce: “This Brewery has been recently completed and has all the modern appliances for making No. 1 Beer and Lager.”245 Kasper Neher, later of Augusta, was the foreman/brewmaster “for a long time” until 1869, and may have leased the brewery at some point. Schmidmeyer’s reputation seems to have been good in this era, since the Chippewa Union & Times referred to him as “owner of the best brewery in the Chippewa Valley” and claimed that “everybody knows you can’t be beat at” brewing good beer. Unfortunately, he also incurred a hefty $500 fine for violations of the revenue law in 1871.246 Production jumped from 374 barrels in fiscal 1871 to 624 in fiscal 1872—not as much as the nearly 1,000 produced by Leinenkugel & Miller, but more than any other brewery in the surrounding counties.

Schmidmeyer’s ownership story is complicated by the fact that he is reported in several sources to have taken as his second wife the widow of a brewer named Gebhard, who may have leased or purchased the brewery from Schmidmeyer. (An 1867 article in the Semi-Weekly Wisconsin reported that Gebhard ran the only brewery in town at that point.) Documents discovered by Wolter suggest that it was Amelia who actually owned the property and Schmidmeyer ran the brewery for her, but he was clearly responsible for the brewery several years before this marriage. Confusingly, a note in the Chippewa Herald reported that Schmidmeyer “resume[d] possession of the lower brewery, and hereafter will have charge of it.” While the figures for 1874 and 1875 report no production, it is clear that Schimdmeyer was still in business, since he was listed as having made $5,000 of brewery improvements during 1873. During 1874 Schmidmeyer had a short-lived partnership with Mike Welton, which dissolved in August.247

In 1876, Schmidmeyer got out of the brewing business for good when he leased the brewery to Huber and Neher. Their early reports in R. G. Dun & Co. reports suggested they were responsible and doing well. Production in 1878 was back to 1872 levels. However, by early 1879 they were rated as “irresponsible” and by the end of the year were out of business. The buildings remained for several years, and were used as temporary housing for three families of Russian refugees in 1882. A cave in Irvine Park is all that is known to remain of Schmidmeyer’s business.248

• Leinenkugel and Miller, Spring Brewery (1867–1883)
• Jacob Leinenkugel’s Spring Brewery (1883–1898)
• J. Leinenkugel Brewing Co. (1898–1920)
• Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. (1933–1987)
• Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. division of Miller Brewing Co. (1987–present)
• 124 East Elm Street (formerly Jefferson Avenue)

Twenty-six-year-old Jacob Leinenkugel was the third member of his family to start a brewery in Wisconsin. He and his partner John Miller, a friend from his years in Sauk City, selected a location higher up the hill than their rival Schmidmeyer, and began production in 1867. While they seldom made news in the first year or two, by the 1870s the local and regional papers were full of news about the rapid expansion of the brewery and the quality of its product.249

From the beginning, Leinenkugel & Miller devoted time and treasure to expanding their plant. Less than four years after opening, they had a cellar cut into the rock which a visitor from Madison described as “nearly as large as Rodermund’s.” Later that year, they embarked on a major building program which included new residences for the partners, an addition to the brewery, new machinery, and two noteworthy additions that showed how far they were ahead of most other breweries of their size and age. Among the new machinery was a new boiler, which made them one of the rare steam powered breweries outside of the major cities. In addition, the new malt house was built entirely of stone, indicating they already had sufficient funds to build a more permanent structure than the usual frame buildings. Just two years later, Leinenkugel & Miller were compelled to add a three-story “patent ice house, so that beer can be made in the summer just as well as in winter.” This new building was designed with a short “underground railway track connecting it with the front cellar,” which was a feature few country breweries could dream of. During 1873, the company spent $33,000 on improvements—a staggering sum for a small brewery in the 1870s: nearly as much as the total cost of the county courthouse then under construction and more than twice as much as the new First National Bank. The Herald concluded in 1879: “a year never passes but what these energetic citizens are erecting something.”250 Even so, the brewery was still a small-town operation. An 1880 article praised the delivery wagon and its team of “dapple gray horses weighing sixteen hundred pounds each,” but it was notable that they only had a single wagon and team.251

The most significant expansion of the first few decades began in the summer of 1880, when the partners began to prepare to bottle their own beer. This move made them among the earliest smaller breweries to have their own bottling operation, and the Herald rejoiced: “there won’t be any more necessity for importing Milwaukee or La Crosse bottled goods.” By the next February the company advertised cases of twenty-four quarts or thirty-six pints, “Delivered to any part of the city, or at express office, or railroad depot, free of charge.” The new filling and bottle washing equipment supported a capacity of 1,500 quart bottles per day. This capacity gave them a significant advantage over small local bottlers, however, such businesses did not disappear from the scene—in fact, local grocer John P. Mitchell also set up a bottling operation in the back of his store in 1880.252

Like most breweries of the era, the Leinenkugel & Miller brewery functioned as something of an extended family. A dormitory provided housing for the many single men who worked at the brewery, and Jacob’s first wife Josephine was responsible for the meals of up to twenty men, as well as her own household chores and caring for children. The company family lost a member in 1884 when Leinenkugel bought out the interest of founding partner John Miller. The company continued to prosper under Jacob’s direction, and the Herald was able to report at the end of the decade Leinenkugel’s beer had “stopped the demand for foreign importations” from Milwaukee. In fact, Leinenkugel was solidifying his own hold on other markets. He sent his son Matt to operate the depot in Eau Claire—right in the backyard of other Leinenkugel breweries. Advertisements from the late 1880s and 1890s show that Leinenkugel also produced porter and bock beer, offering his customers a full product line.253

In addition to his duties at the brewery, Jacob Leinenkugel was an important political leader of the community. He was elected alderman in the first city election of 1869, and later served three terms as mayor in addition to several more terms on the city council. Jacob was a benefactor to the community in ways beyond politics. He was a major contributor to St. Charles Boromeo parish and donated altars for the new church. He also had a reputation for helping the needy with food from the grocery story and meat market that he ran along with the brewery. Jacob was also foresighted enough to realize the importance of protecting his business for his family. In 1898 he incorporated the company with himself as president—and not a moment too soon, since he died the next year at age fifty-seven. The transition to the next generation was smooth: son Matt took over as president, daughter Rose’s husband Henry Casper became general manager and younger daughter Susan’s husband John Mayer became sales manager. Descendants of all three would remain with the company well into the twentieth century.254

The Leinenkugel Brewing Co. of the early twentieth century was a flourishing business. Around thirty men were employed at the brewery, and the beer was distributed throughout Northern Wisconsin. The brewery employees were unionized in 1903, about the same time as their brethren in Eau Claire. The brewery campus of 1910 included a modern brewhouse, a sprawling malthouse adjacent to the cellars, a cooper shop, a carpentry shop, the bottling facility, a boarding house, stables and several storage and utility buildings.255

Prohibition forced the brewery to adapt. Luckily, the brewery was in sound financial shape, and could survive the tepid reception given its near beer, Leino. Eventually, a popular soda water helped pay the bills and keep the company functional during the dry era.256

Many repairs and upgrades were required before the brewery could reopen in 1933. The company also replaced the horse teams with trucks, though one horse team was kept on for city deliveries until after World War II. While members of the Leinenkugel, Mayer and Casper families remained in charge of the brewery, the brewmasters were equally important, starting after Prohibition with Cornils F. Schmidt. Elmer Baesemann took over in 1945 and oversaw the postwar wave of improvements.257 Some improvements were required by the state, such as the installation of sewage and waste disposal facilities in 1949–1950 to reduce pollution in the Chippewa River. The brewery kept one nod to tradition by maintaining horse-drawn deliveries to some city accounts through the early 1950s.258 The brewery continued to consolidate its business in northwestern Wisconsin, and even established an agency in Onalaska, on the doorstep of its rivals in La Crosse.259 Among Leinenkugel Brewing Company’s many promotions were frequent sponsorships of horseracing prizes at fairs throughout northern Wisconsin.

Like many smaller breweries, Leinenkugel was relatively late to adopt the beer can—only turning to the Crowntainer style in 1952 and replacing it with the flattop can in 1958. The company was in a good enough financial position to replace all its fermenters in 1964 with state of the art glass-lined tanks, and installed a new aging cellar in 1967.

The brewery remained a fixture in the region from its centennial into the next two decades, in part because of its expansion into Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with the purchase of Bosch Brewing Co. in 1973 and a strong following in eastern Minnesota. But declining sales encouraged Leinenkugel to accept a purchase offer from Miller Brewing Co. in 1988. The move gave Leinenkugel marketing and sales resources unimaginable by most small town breweries, and Leinenkugel products eventually became available nationwide.

The new popularity of Leinenkugel products strained the capacity of a brewery designed to supply a regional market. The company moved some draught beer production to Miller’s main brewery, and to the Heileman-owned Blatz brewery in Milwaukee. This ran counter to an earlier pledge that all beers still would be made with water from the Big Eddy spring near the brewery. Leinenkugel’s need for more production became so acute that in September, 1995, it purchased the Blatz facility from Heileman, which was in need of cash. After the formation of MillerCoors, this facility on Tenth Street provided part of the name for the company’s Tenth and Blake division that focused on craft beers, imports, and other beers marketed in a similar manner. (The Blake portion came from Coors’ Sandlot Brewery [later Blue Moon Brewing Company @ the Sandlot] located inside Coors Field on Blake Street in Denver.)

Even as the market expanded, Leinenkugel Brewing Co. continued to emphasize the small-town, family-owned nature of the business. The Leinie Lodge became a popular tourist destination, and the company celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2017 by enhancing the tour experience with new displays and features. (More on the period from 1950 through the present appears in chapter 10.)

• Louis Busselman (1869?–1872?)
• Union Brewery (1872)
• Oehlschlager and Kuehn (1872–73)
• Peter Mairet & Fred Schmidt (1873)
• Schmidt & Son (1873–75)
• Spring Street, across from Duncan Creek

Louis Busselman, Adam Dearen, Adam Owener and Conrad Strosell are listed as brewers in the 1870 population census, and all lived in close proximity of each other. Busselman was the only one with measurable property holdings, so he may have been the senior partner of the business. However, when the Union Brewery appears in the excise records, the partners are listed as Busselman, John P. Mitchell and Mathew J. Cummings. The firm was dissolved in May 1872 when Busselman left the partnership.260 It is likely that Oehlschlager and Kuehn took over this brewery in 1872, since dates in the excise records fit and there is no evidence of a fourth brewery in the city. The same records suggest that Schmidt & Son had the brewery by December 1873, but statistics for 1874 and 1875 record no production. The Chippewa Herald has a few brief mentions of the brewery during the month when Mairet & Schmidt were in business, but provides no information other than the fact that beer was produced and the partnership broke up in December 1873. The assessment of the firm by the R. G. Dun & Co. researcher “Know little ab[ou]t the bus[isness]” applies as much to the brewery’s history as it may have to the brewers’ acumen.261

• Brewster Bros. Brewing Co. (2016 to present)
• 402 West River Street

Located near the location of the former Schmidmeyer brewery, Jim Stirn and Kurt Schneider opened their brewery and distillery in 2016—the first combination of its kind in the state. They designed the twenty-barrel brewing system to fit the space, which was a former video rental store (and which earned recognition for Best Adaptive Reuse Project in the 2016 Wisconsin Main Street Awards). The brewery and taproom have patios that overlook the Chippewa River valley. The 2,500-liter fractional distillation unit and a 100-liter developmental still are used to produce vodka, rum, gin, flavored whiskies and other spirits. The brewery side of the business offers a variety of ales along with occasional seasonal lagers.262

Christiana Township (Village of Clinton) (Dane County)

• G. Lewis (1849?–1858?)
• Geo. Hartwell (1860?-?)
• Jacobson and Hartwell (1866?–67)
• Ole Jacobson (1867–1872)
• K. J. Gildenhaus (1872–73?)
• Henry Mehls (Mehels) (?–1878)

The 1880 history of Dane County claims that a Mr. Lewis established a brewery few years after the settlement of the village of Clinton (modern Rockdale), which was around 1846.263 The 1850 census lists John Smith, a native of England, as a brewer, but since he owned no real estate is possible that Lewis hired him to make the beer. G. Lewis is still listed in the state business directory of 1858, but nothing else is known about him or his brewery.

George Hartwell appears in the 1860 census as a brewer, but like Smith, he appears to have been an employee rather than the proprietor. Excise records suggest that sometime before 1867 Hartwell formed a partnership with Norwegian immigrant Ole Jacobson. Hartwell apparently left the partnership that year and Jacobsen became sole proprietor. According to the 1870 census he had one employee, countryman Ole Olson. The excise records report that the capacity of Jacobson’s brewery in 1870 was thirty barrels a week, though sales were typically closer to seven barrels a month. The 1880 history says that Jacobson also ran a distillery at the site. In 1872 Jacobson apparently turned the business over to K. J. Gildenhaus. Henry Mehls produced 166 barrels in 1878, but reported no production the next year and the brewery apparently closed. Wayne Kroll’s research supports the supposition that the various businesses reported under the Christiana name were the same brewery.264

The Wisconsin State Journal reported in January 1881 that the old brewery in Clinton had been converted to a temperance hall, which was dedicated with speeches from several regional heroes of the movement, including the headliner Jack Waburton—known for saving many souls.265 At some point the large building appears to have become a creamery, which was photographed around 1900. The size of the structure lends credence to the reports of the thirty-barrel capacity in the 1870s.

Clarks Mills (Manitowoc County)

• Nicholas Ball (1870?–72?)
• Anton Baumann (1873?)
• John Geo. Faatz (1874?–75)
• Faatz & Schweitzer (1875?–78)

The brewery in Clarks Mills was most likely started by Nicholas Ball (Bool) around 1870. On an 1872 map of Manitowoc County, he appears in the Clarks Mills business directory as Nicholas Ball. According to the 1873 excise collection records, the brewery was in the hands of Anton Baumann. The brewery sometimes listed as located in Cato and belonging to John Geo. Faatz was in fact the Clarks Mills business.266 Faatz was listed in the R. G. Dun & Co. records as the brewery owner in July 1875, and had brewed 141 barrels in the previous year. By the beginning of 1876 his property was in the hands of creditors, and it is possible that the Schweitzer who appears in the name of the business starting in 1876 was either a new investor or a major creditor. In July 1878 the firm was reported as out of business.267 Some sources list the brewery as late as 1880, but there is no production data to support this.

Clear Lake (Polk County)

• William Kuether Brewing Co. (2004–6)
• 360 Fourth Street

William C. Kuether owned the Anheuser-Busch distributorship in the Twin Cities, and his son Billy decided to open a brewery in northwestern Wisconsin, hoping that name recognition in the beer community through his father’s business would help gain a foothold with distributors and retailers. Kuether purchased the old Village Hall which had been slated to be razed, purchased equipment from a defunct brewery in Washington, and began the renovation process. The William Kuether Brewing Co. served its first beer, Blonde Ale, in late June 2004. The company brewed about half a dozen beers, most marketed under the ‘Sconnie label (a slang term for Wisconsin). Brewer Richard Stueven reported that whatever the merits of Clear Lake were as a business location, the water there was “fantastic for brewing.”

Local customers were not particularly interested in the ’Sconnie beers, which made marketing against Miller Lite and Leinenkugel a constant challenge. Bottles and kegs were shipped to the nearby Twin Cities, but this market was not as lucrative as they had hoped. Disappointing sales and higher than expected expenses led to the brewery’s closure in 2006.268

Cold Spring Township (Jefferson County)

• Edward Roethe (1859?–1860)
• “One mile north of Whitewater”

Edward Roethe was listed as a brewer in the 1860 population census, though not in the industrial census of that year, which probably means that he did not reach the $500 sales threshold required for inclusion. However, when the brewery burned in September 1860, Roethe’s loss was given as between $3,000 and $4,000, a large sum for a year-old brewery, which suggests that Roethe may have been in business somewhat earlier than so far known.269 Roethe later went into the furniture business in Whitewater with George Streng. It is also possible that this brewery was started prior to 1856 by William Marshall (see Whitewater).