Celebrating Oshkosh’s Brewing Heritage | OshkoshBeerTimeline.Blogspot.com

A 12-Pack Tour of Brewing in Oshkosh

Oshkosh Beer

A guide to the beer-soaked lands of Oshkosh’s brewing past.

1 Our first stop takes us to the south end of Oshkosh. Follow Doty Street past Ardy & Ed’s to its southern conclusion. There you’ll find two rustic fences framing the entrance to Glatz Park. It may look like private land, but it isn’t. Take the path into the woods and in a few moments you’ll be standing on the very spot where, in 1869, Glatz and Elser began brewing their “Good As Milwaukee Beer.”

John Glatz’s Union Brewery. In 1869 a couple of beer-brewing hotshots born and trained in Germany left their jobs in Milwaukee to establish the Union Brewery of Oshkosh. The brewery had just been built by Franz Wahle, founder of what is now known as The Stevens Point Brewery. Glatz and Elser settled in and immediately began pushing the new brewhouse to its limit. In its first full year of production, the Union Brewery pumped out 500 barrels of beer, a mean feat in those days. The next year

they burned the place to the ground. Glatz and Elser quickly rebuilt and the Union Brewery became the most productive Oshkosh brewery of the period. In 1879 John Glatz bought-out Christian Elser and ran the brewery on his own until 1888 when he made his 25-year-old son, William, a full partner. In 1894 Glatz merged the Union Brewery with Horn and Schwalm’s Brooklyn Brewery and Lorenz Kuenzl’s Gambrinus Brewery to form the Oshkosh Brewing Company. The Union Brewery remained operational until 1915 when it was dismantled and its production moved to the large, modern brewery built in 1911 by the Oshkosh Brewing Company on Doty Street. In 1976 the land where Glatz once made his “Good As Milwaukee Beer... And Much Cheaper” was purchased by the city of Oshkosh and re-named Glatz Park. If you explore the eastern edge of the property, you’ll find the

outcroppings of the lagering caves that were the foundation of Glatz’s brewhouse. Be sure to treat it kindly, though, as it’s the oldest surviving brewery structure in Oshkosh.

Taking The TourOur tour will start on the south end of town. We’ll gradually wind our way north and east and finish with a beer or two on the north side of Oshkosh. We’ll cover seven miles and more than 160 years of Oshkosh brewing history. Ready? Let’s Go!

For additional information on the breweries mentioned here, visit the

Oshkosh Beer Timeline atOshkoshBeerTimeline.Blogspot.com

2 We’re not quite done with John Glatz, yet. As you leave Glatz Park continue north on Doty Street a couple hundred feet until you reach the corner of Doty & W. 24th Ave and the magnificent home at 2405 Doty.

The Glatz Mansion was completed in 1894 and stands as a monument to John Glatz’s success in the new world. Legend has it that Glatz used the smashed beer bottles of his competitors to adorn the peaks of his home, as if making a crown for himself from the shattered bones of his rivals. If you look up under the eaves of the house you can still see the pieces of beer bottles that are embedded at the crests. If the legend is true, John Glatz’s crown remains intact.

3 We’re just a couple blocks away from another old brewer’s beautiful home, so let’s go check it out. Head north on Doty about .7 miles. When you cross W. 17th Ave direct your eyes to the east and look for the beautiful cream-city brick home at 1662 Doty Street. You’ve reached the house that Horn built.

The August Horn Mansion was built in 1879 for the man who put Oshkosh beer on the map. August Horn was born on August 6, 1835 in Plößberg, Bavaria and emigrated to America at the age of 17. In 1866 he and Leonhardt Schwalm established Horn and Schwalm’s Brooklyn Brewery and in 1894 Horn became the first president of the Oshkosh Brewing Company, a job he held until his passing on August 17, 1904. Under Horn’s leadership, the Oshkosh Brewing Company became the leading brewery in the area, capable of producing 90,000 barrels of beer a year. Not bad for a guy

trained as a stone mason. Maybe that’s what accounts for the swank stone digs.

Now, travel north about 200 feet. If you’re a true lover of beer and brewing history, you may feel a slight tingle as you approach the middle of the 1600 Block of Doty. That’s because you’re treading on hallowed ground. This land has been home to two of Oshkosh’s greatest breweries.4

Horn and Schwalm’s Brooklyn Brewery & The Oshkosh Brewing Company were two of the premier regional breweries of their respective eras. The land was purchased by Leonhardt Schwalm in 1865 and by 1866 the Brooklyn Brewery of Horn and Schwalm was spilling out beer. Initially, the brewery

doubled as a home to both the August Horn and Leonhardt Schwalm

families and a few of their employees, as well. When the home/brewery burned to the ground in

1879, a new brick brewery was immediately put up in its place. A portion of that brewery still stands on the east side of the lot. In 1894, Horn and Schwalm merged their brewery with the breweries of John Glatz and Lorenz Kuenzl to form the Oshkosh Brewing Company and in 1911 the company

erected a magnificent brewhouse upon this site. Those were heady days for beer in Oshkosh. Beer was made on this land for more than 100 years, including a dispirited near beer named PEP during Prohibition (1919-1933), but it all came to an abrupt end 1971 when the Oshkosh Brewing Company halted production. The great brewhouse, withered by neglect and vandals after its closing, was demolished in 1986. A moment of silence would be entirely appropriate.

1894

John Glatz

A. Horn

circa 1865

circa 1879

We have one more stop to make on the south side of Oshkosh and it’s just around the corner. Continue north on Doty and when you reach W. 16th Ave. take a right. Head east to S. Main Street where you’ll see the long gray building of Blended Waxes Inc. There you’ll find a squat brick building with the number 1512 upon it. This was once the bottling house of...

The Peoples Brewing Co. was hatched in 1911 whenJoseph J. Nigl and William C. Kargus convened a group of like-minded investors and announced their plan for creating a new brewery in Oshkosh. They seeded the venture by raising $100,000 from a consortium of tavern owners, farmers and private citizens. In April of 1912 they broke ground on their new brewhouse and by the Spring of 1913 Peoples Beer was flowing in Oshkosh. Six years later, the beer ran dry – Prohibition had arrived in Oshkosh. Unlike many regional breweries, Peoples survived that miserable period and saw their business expand throughout the 1940s and 50s. The 1960s were less kind. As national brands such as Pabst, Schlitz and Budweiser pushed local beers off the shelves, Peoples began to falter and the brewery was sold cheap to a group of Milwaukee investors led

by Theodore Mack in April of 1970. Mack was an African-American and the fact that Oshkosh was now home to America’s only black-owned brewery didn’t sit especially well with a certain segment of our population. But Mack’s business savvy and winning ways eventually prevailed. Peoples Brewing would outlast every other Oshkosh brewery and in 1971 Mack purchased the recently dormant brands of the Oshkosh Brewing Company, including the iconic Chief Oshkosh Beer. Fate would have its day, though. In 1972, crushed by debt and competition, The Peoples Brewing Co. brewed its last batch of beer. The brewery was demolished in 1974. At least we still have the bottle house!

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Our next stop is just 1.5 miles away, but it’s going to take us way back in time. Head north on S. Main Street and after you’ve crossed the bridge take the first right onto Ceape Ave. Follow Ceape east to Bowen St. Take a right onto Bowen and follow it for about a block. Then veer left onto Bay Shore Drive. When you reach 1031 Bay Shore Drive you’ve arrived at the approximate location of Oshkosh’s second brewery.6

In November of 1849 Joseph Schussler purchased this land and went about setting upThe Oshkosh Brewery. Schussler and his business partner, John Freund, were soon placing advertisements in the Oshkosh Democrat announcing that they had “Erected a BREWERY in the village of Oshkosh” and were “prepared to supply the Tavern, Grocery, and Saloon keepers of the surrounding country with good Ale and Beer”. The advertisements end on a note that would be echoed by Oshkosh brewers for the next 120 years with Schussler and Freund promising that their beer was better than that “obtained from abroad under the title of ‘Detroit Ale’ or ‘Milwaukee Beer’”. Already the specter of Milwaukee lager was haunting the brewers of Oshkosh. Schussler, who was born in Baden, Germany in 1819, was said to have a “brewing method different from others, and known only to himself.” Unfortunately, he was less adept at balancing the books. In 1852 he signed the brewery over to his creditors and went to work making beer barrels. In 1861 Schussler moved to Fond du Lac where he had better luck with his second brewery. Schussler’s West Hill Brewery of Fond du Lac would prove to be an unqualified success.

We’re within stumbling distance of our next stop. About a block east you’ll find lands currently addressed as 1253 and 1283 Bay Shore Drive. You’d never guess it, but this tract used to occupied by...

George Loscher’s Oshkosh BreweryBorn in Bavaria in 1819 George Loscher and his brother Frederick came to America in

1851. They didn’t waste any time. In 1852 George and Fred purchased this land where they established their new brewery. Fred soon left for Menasha to start a brewery of his own, but George would go on brewing here and just up the street at the north east corner of Frankfort and Bay Shore for the next 32 years. After Loscher’s death in 1884, the Loscher’s Oshkosh Brewery would continue on under the guidance of Loscher’s son William, but things just weren’t the same with the old man gone. By 1890 the Loscher brewhouse had gone dark.

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An 1858 Map with BreweryAn 1858 Map with Brewery

The Peoples Bottle Shop

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This part of town was a hotbed of brewing in the middle 1800s. Our next brewery was just around the corner. Head southeast on Bay Shore Dr. and take a left onto Lake St. A couple blocks down Lake you’ll find 74 Lake Street. You’ve arrived at the cradle of Oshkosh brewing.

What came to be known as The Lake Brewery was launched from this spot in July of 1849 by a German immigrant named Jacob Konrad. In all likelihood, this was Oshkosh’s first commercial brewery. But Konrad didn’t hang around long. In 1854 he sold the brewery to a swashbuckling German named Anton Andrea who, in turn, leased the brewery to Leonhardt Schwalm, the same guy who would go on to established Horn &

Schwalm’s Brooklyn Brewery. In 1865 Andrea sold the Lake Brewery to fellow German ex-pat Gottlieb Ecke. Our man Ecke, brewed here for a few years and then moved the entire operation a couple blocks west (we’ll check that place out, next). Perhaps, what’s most striking about the Lake Brewery is that its lineage can be traced from the very beginning of commercial brewing in Oshkosh to its very end. What began as Oshkosh’s first brewery eventually evolved into the Gambrinus Brewery, one of three breweries which merged to create the Oshkosh Brewing Company. And when the Oshkosh Brewing Company folded in 1971, its signature brands were assumed

by the Peoples Brewing Company, the last of Oshkosh’s large-scale breweries. That’s a lineage that joins 123 years of brewing history in our city. And it all began, right here.

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Head north on Lake St. and then take a left onto Ceape Ave. and go west. Take the 1st left onto Eveline St and then the 1st right onto Harney Ave. About 100 yards in you’ll reach 1239-1247 Harney Avenue. There used to be a great little brewery here named...

The Gambrinus Brewery. In 1868 Gottlieb Ecke was busy moving the Lake Brewery to this location. He needed a larger, updated brewery to compete with the four other breweries now operating in Oshkosh (that’s right, we had 5 breweries serving a population of about 12,000 in 1868. The following year, we’d add a 6th brewery! Thirsty little city we had here). Unfortunately, Ecke would die two years after the brewery was completed. Fortunately, the brewery was taken over by one of the true masters of the craft. Lorenz Kuenzl was born in Bohemia in 1845 where he was schooled in the art and science of brewing beer. Kuenzl reached America in 1871 and by 1875 was brewing beer here on Harney. Kuenzl’s

Gambrinus Brewery, named for King Gambrinus, patron saint of brewers, was the sort of brewery any beer geek would love. Kuenzl brewed traditional styles of beer that would have appealed to Oshkosh immigrants longing for the lagers of their German homeland. Perhaps that accounts for the survival of the Gambrinus Brewery while the other small Oshkosh breweries were falling off in the 1880s. In 1894 Kuenzl merged his brewery with two others to form the Oshkosh Brewing Company where Kuenzl would lay the groundwork for the Oshkosh beers to come. The Gambrinus Brewery operated as a bottling plant following the merger and was dismantled after 1912. Let’s hope there are a few Oshkosh homebrewers in this neighborhood upholding the Kuenzl tradition of brewing excellence.

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was once the home turf of the Rahr Brewing Company of Oshkosh. The brewery was established in 1865 as the City Brewery by a couple of German-born brewing brothers named Charles and August Rahr. Four generations of Rahr’s would brew here, making it Oshkosh’s longest running family-owned brewery. The Rahr family name was synonymous with beer in Wisconsin. Henry Rahr, the brother of Charles and August, was responsible for Rahr Brewing of Green Bay and their uncle Wilhelm Rahr launched the Rahr Brewing and Malting Company of Manitowoc. But the Rahr beer from Oshkosh may have been the best of the bunch. Rahr’s Elk’s Head Beer was a rich, malty brew that would easily rival today’s craft lagers and was considered by many to be the finest Oshkosh beer of the post-prohibition era. That singular approach was part of the Rahr heritage. Both the Oshkosh Brewing Company and Peoples Brewing attempted to lure the Rahr family into their fold, but the Rahr’s held steadfast and continued going their own

way until the brewery was finally driven under in 1956. More than fifty years after the Rahr brewery closed, its last brewmaster, Charles Rahr III, continued to lament the loss of his family’s brewery. “It was our life,” he said.

To get to our next brewery, we’ll need to back track down Harney and take a left onto Eveline. Follow Eveline north a bit and then take a left onto Ceape. You’ll go west on Ceape a few feet and then take a right onto Rosalia St. Follow Rosalia for about a quarter mile to Rahr Ave. Then take a right and head towards the lake. Guess where, we’re going? When you arrive at 1370 Rahr, you’ll have reached what...

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The view from 1867

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The last leg of our tour will take us to the north side of Oshkosh. Double back on Rahr and take a right onto Rosalia. Follow Rosalia north a couple blocks and then take a left onto Washington Ave. We’ll continue following Washington west as it crosses Main and becomes Algoma Blvd. Follow Algoma for the next mile and as you reach the UWO campus be on the look out for Vine Ave. There at the southeast corner of Algoma and Vine you’ll find a grassy lot

populated by pines that used to be occupied by...

Christian Kaehler’s Fifth Ward Brewery was the last of the Oshkosh breweries to be established prior to 1860. Kaehler was born in Oldenburg, Germany in 1833 and emigrated to America in 1853. He settled in Oshkosh around 1856 and by 1857, at the age of 24, had his brewery up and running. The Fifth Ward Brewery may not have been the largest or flashiest of the Oshkosh breweries, but it held its own for 25 years. The brewery was made up of several buildings, some of which were sunk low in the ground to help Kaehler achieve the cooler temperatures he needed to brew lager beer in the years before mechanical refrigeration was readily available. The complex was surrounded by a high, board fence shielding it from what was becoming an upscale residential area. The Fifth Ward Brewery was the smallest Oshkosh brewery of the period producing about 200 barrels of beer a year. Maybe Kaehler wasn’t brewing much, because he was too busy buying neighboring properties. Kaehler’s land grab served him well, though. As the northern end of Algoma Boulevard became a destination point for the newly affluent, Kaehler subdivided his land and sold off the lots at a handsome profit. In 1882 he shut down the brewery and moved to an island off the coast of Washington. The north side of Oshkosh would remain without a brewery for more than 100 years.

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12 Let’s go check out the place that broke our brewing drought. Continue northwest on Algoma Blvd. and when you reach Congress hang a left. Just before you come to the bridge take a right onto Arboretum Drive and you’ll soon see...

The Fox River Brewing Company was launched in Oshkosh in December of 1995 by brothers John, Jay and Joe Supple. The Supple’s had a long history in the restaurant business, but brewing was new to them, so they enlisted the help of Rob LoBreglio founder and brewmaster of Madison’s Great Dane Pub and Brewery to help set things up. LoBreglio brought along a Great Dane cohort named Al Bunde, who became the first brewmaster of Fox River Brewing. The brewpub was an immediate success and three years later Fox River Brewing opened a second brewpub in Appleton. Both locations are still going strong producing about 800 barrels of beer a year under the guidance of brewmaster Kevin Bowen. You could probably use a beer about now, right? There’s a reason the tour ended here. Thanks for taking the Oshkosh Beer Tour! This would be a great time to enjoy a few pints of our local!

A Chronology of Oshkosh’s Breweries1) Jacob Konrad’s Brewery: 1849 - 1854 2) Joseph Schussler’s Oshkosh Brewery: 1850 - 1852 3) George Loscher’s Oshkosh Brewery: 1852 - approximately 1890 4) Anton Andrea’s Lake Brewery: 1854 - 1865 5) Fifth Ward Brewery (Fischer & Weist/Kaehler): 1856/1857 - 1882 6) Gottlieb Ecke’s Lake Brewery: 1865 - 1871 7) The Rahr Brewing Company: 1865 - 1956 8) Horn and Schwalm’s Brooklyn Brewery: 1866 - 1894* 9) John Glatz’s Union Brewery: 1869 - 1894* 10) Lorenz Kuenzl’s Gambrinus Brewery 1875 - 1894* 11) The Oshkosh Brewing Company: 1894-1971 12) The Peoples Brewing Company: 1913 - 197213) Fox River Brewing Company: 1995 - Present * Part of 1894 consolidation resulting in the Oshkosh Brewing Company