Milwaukee, Wi, is a city of about 600,000 people on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan and is the most populous city in the state of Wisconsin. Madison is the capitol of the state, but to beer lovers Milwaukee once had the more esteemed title of “Brewing Capital of the World.” In its heyday, during the post–Civil War era in the United States, the name Milwaukee became almost synonymous with beer because it was home to four of the United States’ largest breweries: Miller, Pabst, Schlitz, and Blatz. In those days, no other city in the world produced more beer than Milwaukee. Today, only Miller—now part of MillerCoors—and Pabst survive as testaments to the city’s rich brewing heritage.
In its heyday Milwaukee was the “Brewing Capital of the World,” and “Milwaukee” breweries existed all over the US and even Central America. Clockwise from top left: postcard, c. 1933; beer label, c. 1933; beer label, c. 1933; window decal, c. 1933; brochure, c. 1920 (Panama); postcard, 1910; beer label, c. 1933. pike microbrewery museum, seattle, wa
There were many reasons why Milwaukee gained such importance in American brewing. One was the large number of German immigrants who settled there, starting in the 1850s. With their quest for economic opportunity and religious and political freedom they also brought with them their gusto for beer, particularly lager beer. As soon as German-speaking communities were established, breweries sprung up to meet the demand. Milwaukee’s lakefront location combined with cold winters to offer a virtually inexhaustible and cheap source of ice to keep beer cold for traditional German lager brewing. It did not hurt that many of these German immigrants were experienced brewers. Milwaukee was also a major water transportation hub for Lake Michigan, with emerging railroad connections into the agricultural interior of Wisconsin and beyond. Milwaukee’s location proved to be perfect for exports of beer as well as such brewing raw materials as barley, wheat, and hops. The trade in timber—essential for cooperage—flourished, too. One freak accident, the great Chicago fire of 1871, almost certainly played a role in the explosion of Milwaukee’s breweries, because the Milwaukee breweries quickly filled the need for beer that the burned-out Chicago breweries could no longer meet. Soon after the fire there were regular shipments, especially of Schlitz beer, to devastated Chicago, quickly doubling the brewery’s sales. It also earned the Schlitz brand the slogan, “The Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous.” Once the genie of long-distance beer shipping was out of the bottle, there was no holding back the beer barons of Milwaukee, and as the Milwaukee breweries got bigger, the talk of mergers, too, became louder. In 1873, Schlitz received a buyout offer from the Tennessee brewer Bratton and Sons. It was rejected. In 1889 three Milwaukee breweries—Franz Falk, Jung, and Borchert—merged to form Falk, Jung & Borchert Brewing Co, which 4 years later was absorbed by Pabst. That same year, a British syndicate hatched a plan to combine Schlitz, Pabst, and Blatz, which Schlitz and Pabst, Milwaukee’s two leading breweries at the time, declined. Subsequently, Blatz merged with Milwaukee and Chicago Breweries. In 1902, Schlitz reached the million-barrel-per-year mark (roughly 1.17 million hl), surpassing Pabst as the biggest brewery in the United States. By that time, Milwaukee breweries had become a cornerstone of the Wisconsin economy—as employers, consumers of agricultural raw materials and timber, and sources of spent grain for livestock. Yet, even Wisconsin was not spared the zeal and fervor of the evolving national temperance movement, which became the symbol of an underlying cultural struggle between the state’s more ascetic and usually Protestant Anglo-Saxons and the more gregarious and often Catholic Germans. But it took the rise of anti-German sentiment during World War I to eventually put the teetotaling forces over the top nationally. Prohibition, mandated by the Volstead Act of 1919, was devastating for Milwaukee and, not surprisingly, Wisconsin became one of the early and leading states agitating for its repeal. Already in 1926, Wisconsin voters passed a Prohibition-overriding referendum that legalized the manufacture and sale of beer with 2.75% alcohol; 3 years later, they repealed the entire enforcement provisions of Prohibition. Sensing the political winds in Wisconsin, one of its Senators, John J. Blaine, drafted a constitutional amendment for the national repeal of Prohibition, which, after some modifications, was ratified on December 5, 1933, as the Twenty-First Amendment. With the end of Prohibition, many of the Milwaukee breweries sprang back to life, and, after World War II, beers from such brewers as Schlitz, Pabst, Miller, and Stroh became firmly established national brands. But their beers also became very similar, which meant that competition among the big American breweries moved more from actual flavor differentiation to cost cutting. Many breweries also sought salvation in the production of so-called value- priced beers, like Schlitz’s Old Milwaukee, introduced in 1955. By the early 1970s, Miller Brewing Company had become a wholly owned subsidiary of tobacco giant Philip Morris, whereas Schlitz became the first victim of the new focus on cheapness. As Schlitz experimented with higher fermentation temperatures and continuous fermentation methods, searching for a faster, more cost-effective throughput of beer through its tanks, it also inadvertently changed its flagship beer. The taste of the beer was different, its stability became suspect, and the brewery went into decline. See continuous fermentation. By 1976, Schlitz had dropped to second place in volume behind Anheuser-Busch, and by 1982, it was absorbed as just a shadow of its former self by the Stroh Brewery Company of Detroit, Michigan. As discounting and price promotions by the big national brewers continued, the decline of America’s erstwhile unassailable brewing capital could not be stopped. By 2002, even Miller, whose market share had benefited the most from smaller breweries losing ground, was acquired from Philip Morris by South African Breweries. Then, in 2006, the once mighty Pabst Brewing Company closed its Milwaukee production facility and moved its headquarters to Woodridge, Illinois. Two years later, Miller was merged with Coors into MillerCoors. Today, several of the beer brands that once made Milwaukee indeed famous, including Schlitz and Pabst, are now owned by a financial holding company and are brewed under contract, in an ironic twist, by MillerCoors. Milwaukee now enjoys a resurgent craft beer culture led by breweries such as the Sprecher and Lakefront breweries as the buildings of Milwaukee’s old brewing giants are quietly converted to condominiums and shopping centers.
