Early this last week I was running a couple of errands, and I stopped by the Northern Brewer homebrew supply store and picked up another carboy to use as a secondary fermenter. On the counter, next to the register, was a flyer proclaiming "Saturday Sept 24 10AM - 5PM - Urban Archaeology Expedition: Legacies of Milwaukee Brewing: North Side Brewing History Tour".
Now probably 3 years ago, I was hanging out with my friend good friend Tom Frank Jr. at his parents' house (who I also consider my freinds). Tom Sr. tols me about these "Ale through through the Ages" classes that he was attending with one of his other sons at Discovery World. The "class" was about the background of historic styles of beer, as well as how to brew that style at home. Each style had two sessions - a Brewing day and a Bottling day. And on the bottling day, they got to take home a bottle of the beer that had been brewed to represent that style.
This sounded very interesting to me, so I looked them up and kept an eye on it. But for one reason or another I never made it to any of the sessions. Last year I had heard that they were doing a South Side Brewing History Tour that I really wanted to go on, but at that time I was tight on cash and couldn't do it. Now I figured I had another chance with the North Side tour. So I got my schedule in order for the rest of the week and called the Discovery World reservation desk to see if there were still any openings (the tour was limited to the first 50 people). Lucky me, there was room for me!
So yesterday morning, I rolled up on the beautiful Milwaukee lakefront, parked my car and headed for the front door. There was a charter bus sitting out front for us and I got a goodie bag. I grabbed my seat and looked at what I'd gotten. It was a canvas Discovery world bag (kind of like the ones that are all the rage now with people trying to be more "green") In it was a 22 oz. bottle of the archaeology team's "homebrew" bock "Omnibus". They let us know that it was still very young and had just been bottled. The lager was set to bottle condition, so they advised us to give the bottle some time to mature and finish bottle conditioning. There was also a little bag of Fritos (which I was grateful for later in the day - not because I was hungry, so much as I needed a snack in me after around of sampling - but that's later, so let me not get ahead of myself). Also included was the booklet that outlined the stops that we would be making on our tour and two flyers - one for the fourth season of Ale through the Ages, and one for a fundraising event for the Sailing Vessel Denis Sullivan.
I was getting pretty excited already. I was going on a tour that would involve history, Milwaukee and beer (3 of my favorite things), and I'd gotten a bag of freebies. Yay free stuff! (Although technically I paid for the tour, I wasn't expecting the free stuff, so it still counts as a bonus in my book). As we were heading out, Kevin Cullen (one of the two guys guiding us) said that we one of our early stops would be made at the old 1890 Schlitz Brewhouse and we'd have a toast to the building, which is, quite unfortunately, scheduled for demolition. As a toast, they had brought a Corney keg of the bock they'd given us in bottles. The warning came that the beer was still young and that they were doing forced carbonation to have it fairly drinkable. Obviously, I think they would have preferred a beer that had aged a little more, but they didn't have anything else yet. So there was a keg on the bus! Bonus to the bonus! And, honestly, despite being young it was really quite good.
So the tour got on and they drove us down Juneau, which used to be known as Brewers Row. They told us that within Milwaukee, over the course of time ther had been about 15 Breweries east of the river and 95 west of it. Not all at the same time, mind you. At it's height, the city had about 30-35 breweries operating at the same time. This was about 1860-1863.
We drove to the site of the old Ogden Avenue Union Brewery. Unfortunately, due to city development, there is no building still remaining at that site. It is just an empty gravel lot, because after the demolition, the development fell through. They did indicate that there were likely still chambers remaining somewhere within the hillside, under the sidewalks and maybe under the gravel lot. When I would walk from Schlitz Park to the grocery store up the hill on my lunch break (which I did a number of times while I was working downtown) I would walk right past that location, and I had no idea what was there. In 2005, the structures on the site were removed from the "Historic Designation" by the city, and a developer was given a permit to demolish the buldings to develop condos. The demolition occurred in January 2006, and the hole was filled in in 2011. I may have even walked past it before they demolished the building (I don't recall specifically, since I saw a number of old buildings get torn down and replaced by modern condos the last few years.) How sad.
From there we went to the Schlitz Brewery and tapped into the keg to toast the old Schlitz Brewhouse. Now this was right across the parking lot from where I worked, and it is right next to Libiamo's restaraunt. I walked past that building dozens of times. In front of it is where I attended the event to celebrate Schlitz' return to the original recipe and look at classic cars (again, on a lunch break - but who wouldn't go since I had to just walk across a small parking lot). I've always thought the building was very beautiful, despite a somewhat more modern addition on one side of the building, and a parking structure obscuring the view of the rear of the building.
They explained that despite the loss of a beautiful historic landmark, decisions like this are often made because modern property owners find it very difficult to find tennants for brew houses. Without tennants, they don't make the money to rehab the buldings. Without money to rehab, the buildings fall into disrepair and then they are condemned or demolished to be replaced by something that makes money. The problem with trying to repurpose a brewhouse is that there are holes from equipment and the floors are all slanted. Repurposing such a building can be difficult and expensive. And so we lose beautiful landmarks.
From there we went a couple of blocks over to the old E.L. Husting Brewery building. The entire bulding complex is still intack and is now considered the oldest standing, complete brewery in Milwaukee, and possibly Wisconsin. There is one other brewery that may be able to compete for that title, because they opened earlier and their buildings still stand. But that brewery experienced a disaster that destroyed the buildings and they had to rebuild.
Although the building has been repurposed, it all still stands, with original cream city brick and everything. We were able to go inside to see some of the internal architecture. One place I would have liked to have seen is the basement, which stories say is haunted. One of our tour guides, Leonard, said that one time he had gone downstairs into the basement with a video camera and the camera went dead three times after switching out new batteries. Haunted? Maybe.... (I love little stories like that, even though I don't belive in them)
We went up a block to the location of the J. Obermann/Jung Brewery. Now turned into another gravel lot.
Then we visited Schlitz Park. Not the business park where I used to work, but the location on N. 8th and W. Vine where a green space was set up with a lookout tower, a hotel, a theater, an open air opera house and became a premier Milwaukee entertainment destination for three decades. After being acquired by the city, the park was renamed and Roosevelt Middle School was built on the site of the park.
We stopped outside the Northwestern Brewery / Altpeter Malt House. Fortunately, these buildings still stand, but they were repurposed. We weren't able to go in, but it was pretty cool looking from the outside. We also got to stop outside the Phoenix Brewery / Malt House on the corner of N 2nd St and Vine and the location where the Roedel/Badger Brewery used to be on Reservoir and Hubbard.
During these stops, we made a stop at a Miller Brewery "Tide House" that is currently being refurbished and should be opened again as a bar this coming spring. The owner let us in and gave us the nickel tour. I had never heard of tide houses before, but the history is kind of cool. The following is the information that was provided in our booklet said the following:
As early as the 1850s, Milwaukee breweries understood the need to work with tavern owners/operators in every possible way to insure that their brand of beer was carried and sold at their establishments. To do so, the breweries offered special proces or discounts on beer, and in many cases, they would help the tavern owner maintain the property by offering new equipment, or sometimes help pay property repairs.
Eventually, the breweries discoverd that the best way to keep a saloon/tavern account and grow beer sales, was to focus more on the saloon customer through aggressive advertising and point of sale advertising signs and materials. Finally the breweries discoverd that the most practical way to hold a drinking customer and grow sales was to own the saloon outright, thus eliminating competition altogether. By the 1890s most Milwaukee breweries, especially the larger ones, began an aggressive program to purchase existing saloons, purchase prime vacant locations, and build newer saloons. These saloons became known as "tied houses" because they were "tied" to the breweries.
The ownership and control of brewery-owned and controlled saloons/tavers (tied houses) ended when Prohibition was repealed in 1933. The federal government ruled that breweries were only allowed to be involved in the brewing and manufacturing of beer. Moreover, their function and role is not a retailer of beer, thus forcing the breweries to sell or close their taverns. Prior to Prohibition, the Schlitz Brewing Co. had more than 2,000 saloons across the United States, the Pabst Brewing Co. had more than 1,000 saloons. Both the Blatz Brewing Co. and Miller Brewing Co. had much smaller numbers of tide houses. During Prohibition (1920-1933) many of the former "tied houses" operated as ice cream and soda parlors, however a great number operated as "speakeasies", where illegal alcohol was offered and were then commonly called "blind pigs".
Today, most of these former tide houses are still standing throughout Milwaukee and are generally identifiably brick with corner doors and located on street corners. many of the buildings still have evidence of what brewery operated the tavern, due to the original painted or inlaid brewery insignias. As an enduring legacy of this tradition, often these former brewery saloons continue to operate as bars or restaurants. (This information proveded by Leonard Jurgensen - Milwaukee Brewery Historian - and Kevin Cullen - Discovery World Archaeologist)
On the tour we were also told that Schlitz was so agressive about getting rid of competition that when they put a tide house on a corner, they would also buy the lots on the other three corners to ensure that no competition could put in a tide house.
Lunch was at the Stonefly Brewery / brew pub (formerly Onopa). Before we ate, we grabbed a pint. I started with their their Ol' Seal Away scotch ale. It was 6.5%, nice dark reddish brown. There was little to no head. It had a nice malty charachter with a little bitter finish, and it might have had just a touch of astringency. Overall, it was good, but not the best scotch ale that I've had.
Once we had our pints in hand, their head brewer, Jacob Sutrick, took us back to where the magic happens and gave us a quick tour and fielded questions. Last year, Stonefly produced 161 barrels, about 31 batches. They have 10 year round beers and maybe 4 specialty beers. Someone asked him which of their beers is his favorite. His response was that asking that question is like asking a parent which child is their favorite. Someone else on the group said that it should be easy, then. Jacob said that's true, but it's not something you say outloud. Their flagship beer is Moustache Red Pale Ale. After that, it is probably their Four Wolves English Ale.
After the tour, we sat down to lunch (included in the price of our tour). This is when I really got to meet other people on the tour. Lunch was a blast. After I finished by Ol' Seal Away, I had the Moustache Red Pale Ale. It was great. I would definately drink it again. Unfortunately, I was too busy chatting with people at my table to take notes about the beer itself. I guess I'll just have to head back to Riverwest and drink some more!
Lunch was their Redhot Bleu Burger. It was great. Definately my top 20 burgers.
After lunch, we drove by the original location of Lakefront Brewing Company at 818 Chambers St. and past the location where Blatz Park used to be. We stopped outside the location where Milwaukee's Capitol Brewery used to stand (not to be confused with the existing Madison Capital Brewery). This was on our way to Big Bay Brewing Company's tasting room at 4517 North Oakland Ave. Big Bay does not have their own brewery, so they work with Milwaukee Brewing Co. to use their equipment for brewing. This is not contract brewing, Big Bay's people are on site working with Milwaukee Brewing's head brewer to use their equipment. The tasting room is there to build awareness of their beers (and sell merchandise, beer and soda). We sampled Wave Hopper - a Kolsch style, Botilla - their amber, and Long Weekend pale ale. Their Amber was real good.
So at this point, the trip has allowed me to check off two points on my brewery bucket list - Stonefly and Big Bay.
Then we headed to Sprecher Brewing Co. for a tour. I've done the tour before. It was good, about the same, but the sampling at the end was a great time. One thing I didn't like was that instead of doing 4 paper coupons for free samples they started doing a wrist band with tear-off tabs for the samples. The tabs are void if torn off by anyone other than the bartender. Which means that people who are only drinking soda can't just give away their coupons. Sprecher did this to keep the tour family friendly and discourage people getting smashed. Fortunately, if you make friends with a soda drinker, you can just ask them to hit the bar on your behalf, and you're still golden.
We also drove past the buildings of Eline Candy Plant where the failed attempt at candy production occurred during prohibition by the Uihlein family. We also went past the location of Pabst Park. Pabst Park is no longer the park that it once was, but it's still a park to this day.
After the tour wrapped up, we headed back to Discovery world and Kevin took us up the back way (because the museum was closed to the public for a wedding) to see their THIRST Lab. It "is Discovery World's newest educational space and Milwaukee's newest nano-scale brewery with its 1-barrel brewing system. The goal of the THIRST Lab is to teach people about the properties of Water by making water-based products - most notably beer!"
All in all, it was a fantastic day!
Now probably 3 years ago, I was hanging out with my friend good friend Tom Frank Jr. at his parents' house (who I also consider my freinds). Tom Sr. tols me about these "Ale through through the Ages" classes that he was attending with one of his other sons at Discovery World. The "class" was about the background of historic styles of beer, as well as how to brew that style at home. Each style had two sessions - a Brewing day and a Bottling day. And on the bottling day, they got to take home a bottle of the beer that had been brewed to represent that style.
This sounded very interesting to me, so I looked them up and kept an eye on it. But for one reason or another I never made it to any of the sessions. Last year I had heard that they were doing a South Side Brewing History Tour that I really wanted to go on, but at that time I was tight on cash and couldn't do it. Now I figured I had another chance with the North Side tour. So I got my schedule in order for the rest of the week and called the Discovery World reservation desk to see if there were still any openings (the tour was limited to the first 50 people). Lucky me, there was room for me!
So yesterday morning, I rolled up on the beautiful Milwaukee lakefront, parked my car and headed for the front door. There was a charter bus sitting out front for us and I got a goodie bag. I grabbed my seat and looked at what I'd gotten. It was a canvas Discovery world bag (kind of like the ones that are all the rage now with people trying to be more "green") In it was a 22 oz. bottle of the archaeology team's "homebrew" bock "Omnibus". They let us know that it was still very young and had just been bottled. The lager was set to bottle condition, so they advised us to give the bottle some time to mature and finish bottle conditioning. There was also a little bag of Fritos (which I was grateful for later in the day - not because I was hungry, so much as I needed a snack in me after around of sampling - but that's later, so let me not get ahead of myself). Also included was the booklet that outlined the stops that we would be making on our tour and two flyers - one for the fourth season of Ale through the Ages, and one for a fundraising event for the Sailing Vessel Denis Sullivan.
I was getting pretty excited already. I was going on a tour that would involve history, Milwaukee and beer (3 of my favorite things), and I'd gotten a bag of freebies. Yay free stuff! (Although technically I paid for the tour, I wasn't expecting the free stuff, so it still counts as a bonus in my book). As we were heading out, Kevin Cullen (one of the two guys guiding us) said that we one of our early stops would be made at the old 1890 Schlitz Brewhouse and we'd have a toast to the building, which is, quite unfortunately, scheduled for demolition. As a toast, they had brought a Corney keg of the bock they'd given us in bottles. The warning came that the beer was still young and that they were doing forced carbonation to have it fairly drinkable. Obviously, I think they would have preferred a beer that had aged a little more, but they didn't have anything else yet. So there was a keg on the bus! Bonus to the bonus! And, honestly, despite being young it was really quite good.
So the tour got on and they drove us down Juneau, which used to be known as Brewers Row. They told us that within Milwaukee, over the course of time ther had been about 15 Breweries east of the river and 95 west of it. Not all at the same time, mind you. At it's height, the city had about 30-35 breweries operating at the same time. This was about 1860-1863.
We drove to the site of the old Ogden Avenue Union Brewery. Unfortunately, due to city development, there is no building still remaining at that site. It is just an empty gravel lot, because after the demolition, the development fell through. They did indicate that there were likely still chambers remaining somewhere within the hillside, under the sidewalks and maybe under the gravel lot. When I would walk from Schlitz Park to the grocery store up the hill on my lunch break (which I did a number of times while I was working downtown) I would walk right past that location, and I had no idea what was there. In 2005, the structures on the site were removed from the "Historic Designation" by the city, and a developer was given a permit to demolish the buldings to develop condos. The demolition occurred in January 2006, and the hole was filled in in 2011. I may have even walked past it before they demolished the building (I don't recall specifically, since I saw a number of old buildings get torn down and replaced by modern condos the last few years.) How sad.
From there we went to the Schlitz Brewery and tapped into the keg to toast the old Schlitz Brewhouse. Now this was right across the parking lot from where I worked, and it is right next to Libiamo's restaraunt. I walked past that building dozens of times. In front of it is where I attended the event to celebrate Schlitz' return to the original recipe and look at classic cars (again, on a lunch break - but who wouldn't go since I had to just walk across a small parking lot). I've always thought the building was very beautiful, despite a somewhat more modern addition on one side of the building, and a parking structure obscuring the view of the rear of the building.
They explained that despite the loss of a beautiful historic landmark, decisions like this are often made because modern property owners find it very difficult to find tennants for brew houses. Without tennants, they don't make the money to rehab the buldings. Without money to rehab, the buildings fall into disrepair and then they are condemned or demolished to be replaced by something that makes money. The problem with trying to repurpose a brewhouse is that there are holes from equipment and the floors are all slanted. Repurposing such a building can be difficult and expensive. And so we lose beautiful landmarks.
From there we went a couple of blocks over to the old E.L. Husting Brewery building. The entire bulding complex is still intack and is now considered the oldest standing, complete brewery in Milwaukee, and possibly Wisconsin. There is one other brewery that may be able to compete for that title, because they opened earlier and their buildings still stand. But that brewery experienced a disaster that destroyed the buildings and they had to rebuild.
Although the building has been repurposed, it all still stands, with original cream city brick and everything. We were able to go inside to see some of the internal architecture. One place I would have liked to have seen is the basement, which stories say is haunted. One of our tour guides, Leonard, said that one time he had gone downstairs into the basement with a video camera and the camera went dead three times after switching out new batteries. Haunted? Maybe.... (I love little stories like that, even though I don't belive in them)
We went up a block to the location of the J. Obermann/Jung Brewery. Now turned into another gravel lot.
Then we visited Schlitz Park. Not the business park where I used to work, but the location on N. 8th and W. Vine where a green space was set up with a lookout tower, a hotel, a theater, an open air opera house and became a premier Milwaukee entertainment destination for three decades. After being acquired by the city, the park was renamed and Roosevelt Middle School was built on the site of the park.
We stopped outside the Northwestern Brewery / Altpeter Malt House. Fortunately, these buildings still stand, but they were repurposed. We weren't able to go in, but it was pretty cool looking from the outside. We also got to stop outside the Phoenix Brewery / Malt House on the corner of N 2nd St and Vine and the location where the Roedel/Badger Brewery used to be on Reservoir and Hubbard.
During these stops, we made a stop at a Miller Brewery "Tide House" that is currently being refurbished and should be opened again as a bar this coming spring. The owner let us in and gave us the nickel tour. I had never heard of tide houses before, but the history is kind of cool. The following is the information that was provided in our booklet said the following:
As early as the 1850s, Milwaukee breweries understood the need to work with tavern owners/operators in every possible way to insure that their brand of beer was carried and sold at their establishments. To do so, the breweries offered special proces or discounts on beer, and in many cases, they would help the tavern owner maintain the property by offering new equipment, or sometimes help pay property repairs.
Eventually, the breweries discoverd that the best way to keep a saloon/tavern account and grow beer sales, was to focus more on the saloon customer through aggressive advertising and point of sale advertising signs and materials. Finally the breweries discoverd that the most practical way to hold a drinking customer and grow sales was to own the saloon outright, thus eliminating competition altogether. By the 1890s most Milwaukee breweries, especially the larger ones, began an aggressive program to purchase existing saloons, purchase prime vacant locations, and build newer saloons. These saloons became known as "tied houses" because they were "tied" to the breweries.
The ownership and control of brewery-owned and controlled saloons/tavers (tied houses) ended when Prohibition was repealed in 1933. The federal government ruled that breweries were only allowed to be involved in the brewing and manufacturing of beer. Moreover, their function and role is not a retailer of beer, thus forcing the breweries to sell or close their taverns. Prior to Prohibition, the Schlitz Brewing Co. had more than 2,000 saloons across the United States, the Pabst Brewing Co. had more than 1,000 saloons. Both the Blatz Brewing Co. and Miller Brewing Co. had much smaller numbers of tide houses. During Prohibition (1920-1933) many of the former "tied houses" operated as ice cream and soda parlors, however a great number operated as "speakeasies", where illegal alcohol was offered and were then commonly called "blind pigs".
Today, most of these former tide houses are still standing throughout Milwaukee and are generally identifiably brick with corner doors and located on street corners. many of the buildings still have evidence of what brewery operated the tavern, due to the original painted or inlaid brewery insignias. As an enduring legacy of this tradition, often these former brewery saloons continue to operate as bars or restaurants. (This information proveded by Leonard Jurgensen - Milwaukee Brewery Historian - and Kevin Cullen - Discovery World Archaeologist)
On the tour we were also told that Schlitz was so agressive about getting rid of competition that when they put a tide house on a corner, they would also buy the lots on the other three corners to ensure that no competition could put in a tide house.
Lunch was at the Stonefly Brewery / brew pub (formerly Onopa). Before we ate, we grabbed a pint. I started with their their Ol' Seal Away scotch ale. It was 6.5%, nice dark reddish brown. There was little to no head. It had a nice malty charachter with a little bitter finish, and it might have had just a touch of astringency. Overall, it was good, but not the best scotch ale that I've had.
Once we had our pints in hand, their head brewer, Jacob Sutrick, took us back to where the magic happens and gave us a quick tour and fielded questions. Last year, Stonefly produced 161 barrels, about 31 batches. They have 10 year round beers and maybe 4 specialty beers. Someone asked him which of their beers is his favorite. His response was that asking that question is like asking a parent which child is their favorite. Someone else on the group said that it should be easy, then. Jacob said that's true, but it's not something you say outloud. Their flagship beer is Moustache Red Pale Ale. After that, it is probably their Four Wolves English Ale.
After the tour, we sat down to lunch (included in the price of our tour). This is when I really got to meet other people on the tour. Lunch was a blast. After I finished by Ol' Seal Away, I had the Moustache Red Pale Ale. It was great. I would definately drink it again. Unfortunately, I was too busy chatting with people at my table to take notes about the beer itself. I guess I'll just have to head back to Riverwest and drink some more!
Lunch was their Redhot Bleu Burger. It was great. Definately my top 20 burgers.
After lunch, we drove by the original location of Lakefront Brewing Company at 818 Chambers St. and past the location where Blatz Park used to be. We stopped outside the location where Milwaukee's Capitol Brewery used to stand (not to be confused with the existing Madison Capital Brewery). This was on our way to Big Bay Brewing Company's tasting room at 4517 North Oakland Ave. Big Bay does not have their own brewery, so they work with Milwaukee Brewing Co. to use their equipment for brewing. This is not contract brewing, Big Bay's people are on site working with Milwaukee Brewing's head brewer to use their equipment. The tasting room is there to build awareness of their beers (and sell merchandise, beer and soda). We sampled Wave Hopper - a Kolsch style, Botilla - their amber, and Long Weekend pale ale. Their Amber was real good.
So at this point, the trip has allowed me to check off two points on my brewery bucket list - Stonefly and Big Bay.
Then we headed to Sprecher Brewing Co. for a tour. I've done the tour before. It was good, about the same, but the sampling at the end was a great time. One thing I didn't like was that instead of doing 4 paper coupons for free samples they started doing a wrist band with tear-off tabs for the samples. The tabs are void if torn off by anyone other than the bartender. Which means that people who are only drinking soda can't just give away their coupons. Sprecher did this to keep the tour family friendly and discourage people getting smashed. Fortunately, if you make friends with a soda drinker, you can just ask them to hit the bar on your behalf, and you're still golden.
We also drove past the buildings of Eline Candy Plant where the failed attempt at candy production occurred during prohibition by the Uihlein family. We also went past the location of Pabst Park. Pabst Park is no longer the park that it once was, but it's still a park to this day.
After the tour wrapped up, we headed back to Discovery world and Kevin took us up the back way (because the museum was closed to the public for a wedding) to see their THIRST Lab. It "is Discovery World's newest educational space and Milwaukee's newest nano-scale brewery with its 1-barrel brewing system. The goal of the THIRST Lab is to teach people about the properties of Water by making water-based products - most notably beer!"
All in all, it was a fantastic day!
