 BLATZ
Valentine Blatz was born in 1826 in Mittenberg,
Bavaria and immigrated to Milwaukee in 1848. Blatz was a former
employee of City Brewery in Milwaukee when he established his own brewery
next door in 1851. Soon after, John
Braun, the owner of City Brewery died, and Blatz married his widow.
Combining the two breweries, Blatz was
Milwaukee’s third largest brewery by 1880.
Val Blatz was a man of few words, but had a good reputation for honesty
and business ability. His business savvy
was evident as Blatz beer was the first Milwaukee brewery that marketed
nationwide. Blatz performed another
Milwaukee brewing first selling his operations to a London investment
group in 1890. In 1959 the Blatz Brewing
Company was to be sold to Pabst, however a federal court order prevented
it. The brewery was sold instead to G.
Heilman Brewing Company of La Crosse, WI.
The enormous Blatz brewing complex is located two blocks directly east
of Brew City. Currently it houses apartments
and office buildings. The outside of the buildings are still engraved
with the Blatz logo.
 PABST
Captain Frederick Pabst was born in 1836 in Saxony,
Germany. Immigrating to Chicago in 1848 he started with
humble beginnings as a waiter in a Chicago restaurant. Shortly after
he became a cabin boy for a steam ship company
on lake Michigan. Moving up through the ranks by 1857 he became Captain
of the steam ship Huron where he met
his wife, Maria Best whose grandfather Jacob Best owned a Milwaukee
Brewery. After the Huron crashed in 1863 in
Whitefish Bay,WI Captain Pabst joined the family brewery and was soon
in charge. Under his leadership he changed
the name to Pabst Brewing Company and by 1883 it was the largest brewery
in the United States, selling beer in 35 states.
Pabst Blue Ribbon, which is Pabst’s trademark slogan, was the
result of the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Pabst took the blue ribbon surrounded by controversy from Anheuser-Busch
who was the preliminary favorite.
The former site of the Pabst Brewing Company, which no longer brews
in Milwaukee, is located directly west of
Brew City. Currently the site and its buildings are awaiting redevelopment.
 SCHLITZ
Joseph Schlitz was born in 1831 in Mainz,
Germany and immigrated to Milwaukee in 1855. He soon began working
as a bookkeeper for August Krug’s Brewery, which had a capacity
of 250 barrels a year. When Krug died three years
after Schlitz’s arrival, Joseph Schlitz bought the brewery and
married Krug’s widow.
In 1870 Schlitz built a new brewery and increased their yearly production
to 12,387 barrels. Schlitz benefited from
the Chicago fire of 1871 when they sent several shipments of beer to
the thirsty city. The following year Schlitz’s sales
doubled and adopted the tag line “Schlitz, the beer that made
Milwaukee famous.”
The former Schlitz plant is located directly north of Brew City and
currently houses several office buildings and a school.
 MILLER
Frederick Miller was born in Riedlingen,
Germany in 1824. He immigrated to Milwaukee with is wife Josephine
and son Joseph after serving as brewmaster at Hoenzollern Castle in
Sigmaringen. Upon his arrival in 1854 in Milwaukee,
he purchased the Plank Road Brewery for $3,510 and produced 300 barrels
the first year.
By 1883 Miller was producing 80,000 barrels annually, was among the
first to establish a bottling department and
changed the brewery’s name to Menomonee Valley Brewery. In 1888
Frederick Miller died and Frederick’s sons organized
a stock company. In honor of their father, they renamed the brewery
the Fred Miller Brewing Company.
The Miller Brewing Company, located at 42nd and State Street in Milwaukee
is the last of the four great Milwaukee
Breweries still brewing beer in Milwaukee.
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