Oshkosh Beer Show #008

We’re on location again. This time we’re in the Tap Room at Fox River Brewing Company in Oshkosh. Kevin Bowen, brewmaster at Fox River, joins us. We drink Cluster Bomb Rye IPA and talk about all that’s going on at Fox River Brewing these days.

The Subscribers Having Erected a Brewery in the Village of Oshkosh

Here’s the oldest newspaper ad that I’ve come across for an Oshkosh brewery. This appeared in the Oshkosh True Democrat on September 6, 1850. It’s for the Oshkosh Brewery of Joseph Schussler and John Freund, which was located on what is now Bay Shore Drive. If you click the image it will enlarge, making it an easier read. Note, the spelling of Schussler’s name in the ad differs from the spelling he typically used. I’ll stick with his standard spelling here.

The fact that Schussler and Freund are calling on local farmers to sell them barley indicates they were doing their own malting. That’s typical of the era. Malting was then largely considered part of the brewing process and not a separate endeavor independent of the brewery. Notice, also, that they’re only looking for barley. Corn wasn’t widely used in American brewing until the 1870s. Schussler, the brewmaster of this operation, was brewing an all-malt beer.

And what about hops? By 1850, there were already hop growers farming in Winnebago County. It would have made sense for Schussler to select his hops from the local stock. Rail lines had yet to reach Oshkosh in 1850. Bringing in bulky bales of hops from other parts of the state by horse and wagon would have been a more expensive, less reliable option. More than likely, the beer that came out of this brewery would have been a local beer in the truest sense.

It’s interesting that the Oshkosh Brewery was producing ale as well as beer, which in this case would have meant lager. Schussler came to be known as a lager brewer, but in 1850 the Oshkosh Brewery needed to compete with the ale from Detroit that had been coming into Oshkosh for more than a year. Schussler and Freund succeeded in taking over that part of the market. Detroit ale gradually receded from Oshkosh. The Milwaukee beer kept right on coming, though.

When this ad appeared there were fewer than 500 breweries in America. Oshkosh, with a population of 1,392, had two of them (the other being the Konrad brewery). That fact leads me to doubt that this is the first ad either of them placed in a newspaper. According to History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin Volume I (1908), Schussler and Freund began running ads in the True Democrat in 1849, the year the paper was launched. I’m not convinced that’s correct. I’ve dug through those papers and I’ve yet to find an earlier ad for this brewery. Maybe I need to look harder.

Here’s an odd, little side note: the Oshkosh True Democrat was an ardent supporter of the temperance movement. The paper’s co-owner and editor, James Densmore, was a unique guy. One account describes him this way: “Densmore had a huge muscular body, a bold red face and an aggressive, argumentative spirit.” Sounds like a fun guy. He was also instrumental in the creation of the first commercially successful typewriter, a vegetarian, and liked to rant about the evils of alcohol.

When it came to taking money from people selling alcohol, though, Densmore tended to look the other way. The True Democrat was larded with notices for saloons, liquor dealers and beer. Densmore may have been opposed to alcohol, but paying the bills came first. Those boozy ads helped to keep Densmore’s fledgling paper afloat.

Visit this page for more on the history of the Oshkosh Brewery.

Oshkosh Beer Show #007

Oshkosh Beer Show #007. This week we’re on location at O’Marro’s Public House in Oshkosh. Shawn O’Marro joins us as we drink Devil's Work, a robust porter from Surly Brewing Company. We chat about this year’s Brews n’ Blues, O’Marro’s upcoming bus trip to Irish Fest, and the south-side Oshkosh brewery Shawn is launching with fellow Oshkosher Mike Schlosser.  On with the show...

Brews n’ Blues 2015 is Saturday

The Oshkosh Jaycees’ 20th Annual Brews n’ Blues is this Saturday, July 25, at the Leach Amphitheater in Oshkosh. The beer and music fest will run from 3-7 p.m. Tickets are $35 in advance or $45 at the door.

Tickets are available in Oshkosh at Festival Foods, Fox River Brewing, Oblios, and O'Marro's Public House. You can also purchase tickets online.

The full beer list is down below, but first let’s take a look at a few other things in store for this year’s Brews n’ Blues.

Music 
And that would be Blues, of course. Donnie Pick & the Roadband, and The Young Revelators will be playing throughout the day.

VIP Tent
O'Marro's Public House will host a VIP tent that includes a catered meal and private tasting area. The other benefits of the general admission tickets are also included. The VIP ticket is $50.

Vintage Car Show
The Central Wisconsin Auto Collectors Club will be have vintage automobiles on display on the fest grounds.

Let’s get to the important stuff... beer.
Well over 100 different beers (as well as some cider, wine & spirits) will be served, but there are a couple of spots you might want to hit early.

5th Ward Brewing Company
Ian Wenger and Zach Clark will be on hand sharing a first taste of some of the beers they’re working up for the new brewery they’re planning for Oshkosh. More on 5th Ward here.

Homebrew Alley
Lots of homebrew again this year. If you’ve been to Brews n’ Blues over the last few years, you’ve noticed that Wisconsin homebrewers bring it strong to this fest. There will four homebrew clubs pouring more than 25 of their beers. This is where the action tends to be as the fest gathers steam.

And without further ado, here’s that full list of brewers and the beer they'll be pouring. Prepare to scroll...

5th Ward Brewing
Brown Ale
American Wheat
Imperial Oatmeal Stout
Red Rye Ale
American Pale Ale

The Fermentorium
Belma Amber Ale
Coffee Hefeweizen
Smoked Wild Rice Ale

3 Sheeps Brewing
 Really Cool Waterslides IPA
Baaad Boy Black Wheat Ale
Rebel Kent the First Belgian Style Amber Ale
First Kiss Imperial IPA with Honey

Appleton Beer Factory
Blonde
Hefeweizen
APA
Light Lager

Riverside Brewery
Feelin’ Lucky Irish Stout
Muggles’ Fuggles ESB
Unrivaled Wit

Stillmank Brewing
Wisco Disco
The Bee’s Knees
Super Kind IPA
Double Disco
Bock to the Future

Pigeon River Brewing
Townie Cream Ale
Wet Willie Oatmeal Stout
German Hefe

Mershon’s Artisan Cider
Mershon’s Artisan Cider

Chatterhouse Brewery
Chatterhouse Ale
Hard Apple Cider
1893

Wisconsin Brewing Company
Inaugural Red (lager)
Blister In The Sun (India White Lager)
Zenith (Farmhouse Ale)
Yankee Buzzard (IPA)

Badger State Brewing
Bunyan Badger Brown Ale
Green Chop Session IPA
Walloon Witbier

Fox River Brewing
 Crooked Dock Pale Ale
Blu Bobber
Levee Breaker IPA
Trollycar Stout
Winnebago Wheat
Buzzin Honey Ale

LakeFront Brewery
  IPA
Growing Porter
Cherry Lager
New Grist Ginger

James Page Brewing
Casper White
Chai Tea Porter
Gluten Free Pale Ale
Healani Pineapple

Horny Goat Brewing
WisconZin IPA
Watermelon
Brownie Porter
Tango Delta
Archer Apple

Ciderboys
 Pineapple Hula
Peach Country
First Press
Magic Apple

Stevens Point Brewery
Coast Radler
Beyond the Pale Ale
Onyx
Smiley Blue
Nude Beach

Lake Louie Brewing
Warped Speed
Pale Ale
Coon Rock
Milk Stout

Bull Falls Brewery
Five Star
Midnight Star
Hop Worthy
Hefeweizen
Holzhacker

New Glarus Brewing
Moon Man
Scream
Yokel
Totally Naked
Serendipity
Belgian Red
Raspberry Tart

Society of Oshkosh Brewers (Homebrew Club)
Stoutly
Berry Mead
Pineapple Wine
Apocalypse Amber
Golden Alt
Cherry Melomel
Belgian Summer Ale
Screamsicle Orange Ale
Lemondrop Hefe
Coffee Porter
Elderberry Port Wine

Appleton Libation Enthusiasts (Homebrew Club)
Irish Red Ale
Cottonwood Cream Ale
Cream Ale
Berliner Weisse
Romanov RIS
Various Wines

Central WI Vinters & Brewers (Homebrew Club)
Electric Lollipop
Zev
Granny's Belgian
Fish's Oktoberfest
Rye Pale Ale
Strawberry Blonde Honey Ale
Tangerine Honey Wheat
American Amber
American Wheat
Bicentennial (Lite) Stout

Cheese City Brewers and Vintners (Homebrew Club)
Ultimate Ginger (Ginger Infused Blonde Ale)
Wheat IPA
3rd Times A Charm Milk Stout
Black Hole Stout

Rusford Meadery and Winery
Chilean Moscatel
Swenson White Pyment
Cyser
Frontenec Port
Traditional Port

Vines & Rushes Winery
LaCrescent
Sadie’s Charm
Wiley Hard Cider
Wiskonsan
Marquette

Fresh, Cask Beer Tonight at Gardina's

Gardina’s. Cask beer. Tonight. 6 p.m.
I should just leave it there. Of course, you know I won’t. Here’s the full run down...

Tonight, (Tuesday, July 21) at 6 p.m. a cask of Door County Brewing Co. Silurian Stout will be cracked into. This is DCBC’s milk stout and this particular cask is conditioning at this very moment on a bed of cocoa nibs, toasted coconut, and vanilla bean.

Danny McMahon, brewmaster at DCBC, will be on hand to talk about the beer and whatever else you care to quiz him about (you might want to ask him about brewing farmhouse ales, it seems to be turning into his thing).

In addition to the cask, there will also be a mini-tap takeover with three other DCBC beers on tap: Biere de Siegle Rye Farmhouse Ale, Little Sister Witbier, and Big Sister Witbier with Hibiscus. Gardina’s will offer a flight of all four DCBC beers for $8.

Meanwhile, the chefs at Gardina’s will prepare their nightly dinner specials to pair with the four beers. You could make an evening of it.

That’s enough, right? Nope. Being an obsessive it occurs to me that with this being the 20th entry in Gardina's Beer Bar Series, now might be an appropriate time to look back on the tappings that have preceded tonights event. It’s like the beer geek version of trainspotting. This ought to jog a few memories...

Vol. 01: August 20, 2013. O’so Hopdinger Pale Ale infused with lemon, grapefruit, sweet orange, and tangerine peels.

Vol. 02: September 17, 2013. O’so Sweet Lady Stout infused with vanilla beans and cocoa nibs.

Vol. 03: October 15, 2013. Destihl Brewing Co.’s Sour Hawaii Five-Ale.

Vol. 04: November 19, 2013. Tall Grass Brewing Co.’s 8-Bit Pale Ale with Blackberries, Orange Peel. Dry-hopped with Centennial Hops.

Vol. 05: December 17, 2013. Goose Island’s Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout.

Vol. 06: January 28, 2014. Tallgrass Brewing Buffalo Sweat Oatmeal Cream Stout with blueberries, chocolate, cinnamon sticks and brown sugar. (This date was actually cancelled due to weather. It was later combined with Vol. 07 of the series).

Vol. 07: February 18, 2004. Dogfish Head World Wide Stout.

Vol. 08: March 18, 2014. Hinterland’s Saison infused with raspberries.

Vol. 09: April 15, 2014. Central Waters Illumination Double IPA with coconut and pineapple juice.

Vol. 10: May 20, 2014. O’so El Dorado SMASH IPA.

Vol. 11: June 17, 2014. Rush River Bubblejack IPA with Citra Hops.

Summer Recess

Vol. 12: September 16, 2014. 3 Sheeps Really Cool Waterslides IPA.

Vol 13: October 21, 2014. Central Waters Honey Blond Ale with lavender.

Vol 14: November 18, 2014. Lakefront Brewery Fuel Cafe Stout with raw coconut and lactose.

Vol 15: December 16, 2014. Tallgrass Brewing Buffalo Sweat Oatmeal Cream Stout with blueberries, chocolate, cinnamon sticks and brown sugar.

Vol 16: January 20, 2015. Hinterland Vienna Lager with fresh raspberries.

Vol 17: February 17, 2015. Fox River Brewing Company 20th Anniversary Ale.

Vol 18: April 19, 2015. Wisconsin Brewing Company Blister In the Sun with Amarillo and Nelson Sauvin hops and spiced with orange peel and coriander.

Vol 19: May 19, 2015. Lakefront Cherry Lager with Door County cherries.

Vol 20: July 21, 2015. Door County Brewing Co. Silurian Stout with cocoa nibs, toasted coconut, and vanilla bean. You probably already knew that.

The First Brew at Bare Bones

Lyle Hari prepping for the brew

Last week something happened here that’s only occurred three times in the past 102 years. A local brewery made its first batch of beer. The inaugural brew on the new system at Bare Bones Brewery took place Thursday morning, July 16. The beer was brewed by Lyle Hari, brewmaster at Bare Bones.

The two previous first-brew batches made locally were by the Fox River Brewing Company in November 1995, and Peoples Brewing Company in the spring of 1913.

The first Bare Bones beer is a 15-barrel batch of American brown ale that will be served at the Bare Bones Taproom beginning in mid-August. Hari says, the brewery plans to have a release party for the beer after it becomes available.

The recipe for the beer is one that Hari has brewed before, most recently on a one-barrel system that’s now used for pilot batches at Bare Bones. The brew day went well. Hari said his brewhouse efficiency was about 1% from what he had anticipated. That’s exceptionally close to the target for an initial brew on a new system.

Hari plans to brew another beer this week. The second batch will be an American pale ale.

Around here, we’ve had a 20-year gap between brewery openings. I doubt we’ll have to wait that long again. Perhaps 102 years from now, people will look back on this as the point that marks the beginning of Oshkosh’s brewing revival.

Oshkosh Beer Show #006

Here’s the 6th edition of our weekly slurp and yap. This time, we’re guzzling Bare Bottom Madness, an American  pale ale brewed by Door County Brewing Co. of Baileys Harbor, WI. 

The Summer Beer Season

Loads of beercentric events happening around these parts these days. Let’s see what we have coming up...

Wednesday, July 15: Cask tapping at Dublin’s Irish Pub. At 6 p.m. get into a cask of Lakefront Brewery Cherry Lager conditioned on cacao nibs. Lakefront co-founder Jim Klisch will be on hand. Might as well have dinner while you’re there. They’ll have a featured dessert to pair with the beer.

Tuesday, July 21: Door County Brewing Company cask tapping at Gardina's. I don’t have the full run-down on this one, yet, but I believe they’ll be tapping a special cask of Silurian Stout with some extras happening in the cask. The beer begins flowing at 6 p.m. with an optional dinner menu planned around the beer.

Saturday, July 25: 20th Annual Brews n’ Blues Beer Festival at the Leach Amphitheater. Once again the centerpiece of Oshkosh’s summer beer events. The fest runs from 3 p.m. - 7 p.m. Tickets are $35 in advance or $45 at the door. There's also a sweet VIP tent being operated by O'Marro's (tickets for that are $50). Tickets are available in Oshkosh at Festival Foods, Fox River Brewing, Oblios, and O'Marro's. Or you can get them online RIGHT HERE. Also, see the Facebook event page for more. If/when the beer list becomes available, I’ll post it here.

Friday, August 14: The Magnet is chartering a beer bus to Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee. The trip includes a tour of Lakefront, a fish fry and boat trip. The bus departs at 2 p.m. with “pre-game” beginning at The Mag at noon. Check out the Facebook event page for more info.

Saturday, August 15: O’Marro’s Public House is chartering a luxury coach to Irish Fest in Milwaukee. Your seat on the bus includes breakfast at O'Marro's, beer on the bus, and an in coach movie. See the Facebook event page for more info.

Wednesday, August 26: Beer Dinner at Dublin’s Irish Pub. The featured brewery is Milwaukee Brewing Company. Among the beers will be a cask beer. Dinner begins at 6 p.m. Tickets are $30 and available at the pub.

A couple of other things, I want to pass along.

The inaugural brew at Bare Bones Brewery is scheduled for early tomorrow (Wednesday, July 15) morning. As of Saturday, the plan was to brew a brown ale that should go on tap at Bare Bones near the end of this month.

Back in May I posted about Oshkosh’s Sawdust City Brewing Company, a new brewery in the planning stages. Things are still going according to plan, but the name Sawdust City Brewing is no longer a part of that plan. Seems a brewery in Canada, got their hackles up over the use of that name. Not to worry. I’m sure the boys will come up with something clever for their new moniker.

OK, that’s it. And I think that’s enough.

A Brewery in Butte des Morts

In 1936, long after the brewery in Butte des Morts had closed, the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern looked back upon the days when beer was made in the small village on the Fox River.

Some time previous to the Civil War a brewery was established on the bank of the river. A great vault for aging beer was dug into the side of the hill. This brewery burned but later was rebuilt. Mr. Schwalm, who later organized a large brewery in Oshkosh, was one of the early proprietors. Frederick Bogk bought The business and for many years carried on an extensive traffic in Beer. Advancing years and competition from Winneconne and Oshkosh gradually cut into his trade and when the Milwaukee breweries entered the field Mr. Bogk retired. The big red building was a landmark for many years afterward and could be seen for miles from up or down the river.
   Oshkosh Daily Northwestern; August 10, 1936

Newspaper accounts of brewery history are notoriously unreliable. This one, however, is fairly accurate. But beyond that paragraph, little else has been written about this brewery. Now, there’s more to add to the story of brewing in Butte des Morts.

Augustin Grignon

Like most things related to the early history of the Butte des Morts community, the story begins with Augustin Grignon. Born in 1780, Grignon was the last in a long line of fur-traders of French ancestry who settled in the Fox River Valley. In 1848, he platted the unincorporated village of Butte des Morts and fought to have the Winnebago County seat permanently moved there from Oshkosh. Grignon lost his bid. Butte des Morts never experienced the growth he envisioned.

Still, Grignon continued to advance the cause of Butte des Morts. In 1857, he lured a brewer to his village who would launch a brewery.

Christoph Klenk (Seated)

On Tuesday, January 20, 1857, Grignon sold two adjoining lots of land in Butte des Morts for $100 (about $2,800.00 in today’s money) to a German immigrant named Christoph Klenk. Born in 1816 in Württemberg, Klenk arrived in America about 1848 and may have worked as a brewer in New Orleans prior to his arrival in Wisconsin.

The property Klenk purchased from Grignon is located on Washington St. in Butte des Morts between Ontario and Main streets. The sloping parcel forms a shallow bluff overlooking the Fox River where it gathers into Lake Butte des Morts. It was an ideal spot for the brewery Klenk would build, with a hill to tunnel his beer cellar into and close proximity to the winter ice harvest on the river.

Klenk probably had his brewery in Butte des Morts up and running before the close of 1857. By 1858, the brewery was undoubtedly operational.

At the time of the brewery’s opening, Butte des Morts was home to fewer than 800 people. But the village also contained at least two hotels and a saloon that brought travelers to the area. In all, it was enough to support Klenk’s brewery. In fact, it appears the brewery thrived.

The Location of the Brewery in Block 13, Highlighted in White.

Klenk expanded the brewery, buying two more adjoining lots of land. But he was also looking to the future. On November 17, 1862, Klenk sold the Butte des Morts brewery to an entrepreneur and fellow German immigrant with close ties to Oshkosh’s burgeoning beer community.

Prior to taking ownership of the brewery, Louis Schwalm had run a liquor store and lager beer saloon in Oshkosh. Schwalm wasn’t a trained brewer, but his younger brother Leonhardt certainly was.

The 1936 article quoted above includes this: “Mr. Schwalm, who later organized a large brewery in Oshkosh, was one of the early proprietors.” The Mr. Schwalm referenced is Leonhardt Schwalm, who would launch Horn & Schwalm’s Brooklyn Brewery, which later merged with two other breweries to form the Oshkosh Brewing Company.

Just what role Leonhardt Schwalm played in his brother Louis’ brewery isn’t known. It’s safe to say, though, that the younger Schwalm already had his hands full. At this time, Leonhardt Schwalm was involved with Oshkosh’s Lake Brewery. He had leased that brewery in June 1862. His lease on the Lake Brewery would run until September 1865. Two months after the lease ended, Leonhardt Schwalm purchased the Butte des Morts brewery from his brother.

But Leonhardt Schwalm’s intention was not to continue with the brewery in Butte des Morts. A month prior to purchasing the Butte des Morts brewery, Leonhardt Schwalm had bought property in Oshkosh where he was about to build Horn & Schwalm’s Brooklyn Brewery. On December 13, 1865, Schwalm sold the brewery in Butte de Morts to yet another German immigrant. His name was Frederick Bogk.

Frederick Bogk was a brewer. He was born in Rossla, Germany in 1819 where he had learned to make beer. Before leaving Germany in 1853, Bogk had worked in Rossla as an innkeeper and brewer. By 1860 he had settled in Oshkosh where he ran a liquor dealership. Five years later, Bogk was back to brewing beer.

Initially at least, the brewery appears to have done well under Bogk’s ownership. A year after purchasing the brewery, Bogk acquired two more adjoining parcels of land. The brewery now covered six lots.

As the 1936 article indicates, at some point the brewery burned down and was rebuilt. When the fire occurred isn’t known, but the brewery that Bogk worked from was the one that would be remembered years afterward as the big red building that was a landmark for travelers on the Fox River.

But Bogk’s brewery suffered the same fate as hundreds of other small, American breweries in the early 1870s. The number of breweries had risen dramatically after the Civil War, but the size of the new breweries had also increased. Small breweries, such as the one in Butte de Morts, were gradually edged out by breweries with larger production capabilities.

The 1936 article states that competition from breweries in Oshkosh and Winneconne cut into Bogk’s sales. Rahr Brewing of Oshkosh, launched in 1865, was especially tenacious. The Yager Brewery in Winneconne was operational by 1867. Bogk’s small brewery was no match for the intense competition it was now facing.

The Butte des Morts brewery closed in the early years of the 1870s. The last listing I’ve found for the brewery is from the Wisconsin State Business Directory of 1872-1873, published in December 1871. By this time, August Grignon had been dead for more than a decade and Christoph Klenk was brewing beer in Buffalo, New York.

Frederick Bogk died on May 4, 1886. His shuttered brewery remained in the hands of his descendants until 1896, when the lands were deeded away. The lots became residential properties.

There’s not a visible trace of the Butte des Morts brewery remaining on the property where it once stood. The one relic that harkens back to its existence is the grave of its last brewmaster. Frederick Bogk is buried in Plummer Cemetery, a couple of miles from where he once brewed beer. His gravestone is weathered, barely readable. Its inscription is as faded as the memory of Butte des Morts’ landmark brewery.

Frederick Bogk's Grave in Plummer Cemetery

A current view from Washington St. of the property where the brewery was located.

The Growing Profile of Fox River Brewing Company

Since 1995, people around here have referred to Oshkosh’s brewpub simply as Fratellos. I imagine it will take a while for that to change. But the fact is, Fratellos in Oshkosh is no more.

Over the past week, the Fratellos signage was been removed from the building that houses the restaurant and Fox River Brewing Company. Also gone are the signs for the Fieldhouse, the taproom connected to the brewery and restaurant. The entire complex has been rebranded as the Fox River Brewing Company Tap Room Restaurant & Brewery.

Here’s what you used to see as you approached the building.

Here’s what you’ll see now.

The rebranding makes sense. Over the past year, there’s been a significant re-emphasis on the brewery side of the operation. With a distribution agreement signed last year and a new bottling line squeezed into Fox River’s Appleton location, the brewery is more visible now than it has been since the late 1990s, when it was self-distributing its beer.

Here’s an example of the heightened profile. This sign is over the doorway into the liquor department cooler at Festival Foods in Oshkosh. It’s good to see a local, independent brewery getting the prime spot among the products of big breweries.

Driving much of this has been the success of BLÜ Bobber, Fox River’s blueberry fruit beer. BLÜ is currently being sold in numerous stores and taverns in Oshkosh. It appears the beer is doing particularly well in Northern Wisconsin.

Last week, I ran into Kevin Bowen, Fox River’s brewmaster. “BLÜ is on fire,” Bowen said. “We’re maxed out.” Jay Supple, CEO at Supple Group which operates Fox River Brewing, said the same when I spoke with him. Supple indicated that he’s looking into expanding the capacity of the brewery.

Fox River’s numbers for the first quarter of this year back up their optimism. Through the first four months of 2015 Fox River has sold 446 barrels of beer. That’s 100 barrels more than the brewery had sold at this same point last year; an increase of nearly 30 per cent.

It will be interesting to see where this leads. With the growth at Fox River and the arrival of Bare Bones Brewery, we’re witnessing the brewing industry come back to life in Oshkosh. I’m betting, this is just the beginning of the story.

Rahr 150

This Wednesday marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Rahr Brewing Company of Oshkosh.

On July 10, 1865, Charles Rahr and his brother August purchased five acres of land on the shore of Lake Winnebago at the end of what is now Rahr Ave. There, the German-born brothers built their  brewery. The Rahr’s brewery would continue to pump out beer for the next 91 years.

I thought now would be a good time to take a look back at the history of Rahr Brewing in Oshkosh. Here’s a four minute video I made last year that sketches that history. And just below the video, I’ll place a link that leads to more stories about the Rahrs and their brewery.

More stories about the Rahr Brewing Company of Oshkosh.

Oshkosh Beer Show #004

Here’s Oshkosh Beer Show #004. This time, we’re joined by Oshkosher Jeff Potts as we drink Central Waters HGH APA.