Beer Production in Oshkosh and Beyond

The Wisconsin Department of Revenue recently issued its final set of 2019 reports for beer production in the state. Let's see what those numbers have to say about what's happening here in Oshkosh.

Filling Kegs at Bare Bones Brewery.

In 2019, Oshkosh’s four breweries produced a combined total of 2,296.43 barrels of beer (a barrel contains 31 gallons). That's a 5% increase over last year's combined output. Here's how that production is distributed among the breweries here.

Fox River Brewing
Fox River Brewing led the way again this year. The 1,200.57 barrels Fox River made at its Oshkosh brewery is more than all the other breweries in the city combined. That, however, is just one part of Fox River's output. The brewery produced an additional 1,555.54 barrels of beer at its Appleton facility where its bottling line resides. After outgrowing its capacity last year, Fox River began contract brewing beer at the Hinterland facility in Green Bay. This year, Fox River brewed an additional 1,500 barrels in Green Bay. That puts the brewery's total production for 2019 at 4,256.11 barrels; about a 19% increase over last year. That's an especially large bump for a brewery that's been around for 25 years.

For the second year in a row, Fox River is the largest brewery in the Fox Valley metropolitan area that includes Oshkosh and Appleton. Stone Arch of Appleton remains second with a production of 2040.43 barrels. It's also interesting to see that Fox River's production now outpaces that of O'so Brewing, which had long been a prominent brand in the Oshkosh area. O'so produced 3905.23 barrels in 2018.

Fifth Ward Brewing
Fifth Ward had a break-out year. The brewery's 2019 production of 547.17 barrels is a 26% increase over its 2018 output. "We were running at full capacity at the end of 2019," Zach Clark of Fifth Ward said. "If we continue at this pace, we're going to have to look into increasing our capacity at some point later this year." Fifth Ward is still doing all of its own distribution. The brewery now sells its beer throughout the Fox Valley and into Green Bay and Sheboygan.

Bare Bones Brewery
Bare Bones had another good year in 2019 with production of 544.19 barrels; an increase of 1% over its 2018 output. The brewery's output has been consistently in this range for the past three years; a period that has seen a significant increase in local competition. Bare Bones distributes its beer through Lee Beverage, but the brewery doesn't have a salesperson. That may be changing soon, and if it does, I would expect you'll see the brewery's output increase.

HighHolder Brewing
HighHolder is Oshkosh's only nano-brewery and it had a rough year in 2019. Early in the year, Mike Schlosser – HighHolder's jack of all trades – had a serious health scare that put the brewery on hold for much of the year. The 4.5 barrels Schlosser managed to brew was a 62% decrease from 2018's output. But Schlosser is now back in the brewhouse and this year has already surpassed his 2019 output. He expects HighHolder to produce about 20 barrels this year.

The Overall
At this moment, the picture in Oshkosh looks fairly encouraging. The 5% increase in overall production is slightly better than the projected 4% increase for craft breweries nationally. But this market is definitely tightening.

There are now more than 8,000 breweries in America. Approximately 200 of them are in Wisconsin. And eight of those are in Winnebago County. I'll end here with production numbers for several other area breweries. This illustrates how competitive it's becoming for small breweries in this region.

2019 Production in Barrels
Stone Arch Brewpub, Appleton: 2040.43 ( Down 1.6% from 2018)
Lions Tail Brewing, Neenah: 683.23 (Up 25% from 2018)
Knuth Brewing, Ripon: 441.59 (Up 18% from 2018)
Appleton Beer Factory: 317.46 (Down 5.1% from 2018)
McFleshman's Brewing, Appleton: 327.14 (First full year of production)
Barrel 41 Brewing, Neenah: 228.04 (First full year of production)
Rowland's Calumet Brewing, Chilton:  169 (Up 1.8% from 2018)
Omega Brewing Experience, Omro: 32.39 (Up 31% from 2018)
Emprize Brew Mill, Neenah: 17.82 (First began reporting production July)

Note: After this story was posted I received a message from Alex Wenzel, owner of Lion’s Tail Brewing. He informed me that the Department of Revenue’s 2019 reporting for Lion’s Tail was incorrect. Lion’s Tail’s actual production was 683.23 (the DOR reported 514.68). This post has been updated to correct the error.