Happy Memorial Day From the Oshkosh Brewing Company

Seeing as it’s a holiday, I thought I’d take a break from Oshkosh's burning breweries and post something a little more pleasant. Here’s a 100-year-old ad from the Oshkosh Brewing Company. This appeared in the Daily Northwestern in anticipation of the 1916 Memorial Day weekend.

Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, May 27, 1916

I don’t have a lot to add other than to ask you to notice that at this point OBC was offering just two beers: Special Lager and Oshkosh. Both were pale(ish) lagers. That’s a far cry from what the brewery was up to just 10 years earlier when it often had six or more beers in circulation, including a dark lager and a Berliner weisse. The blanding of American beer began well before Prohibition (1920). Drinkers in Oshkosh were experiencing that flavor recession first hand. Most appeared to be just fine with that. Those folks would go dizzy if they could see what we have to choose from today.