Oshkosh Peculiar

All is not well in the world of beer. American beer sales are trending steadily downward, and craft breweries are failing at an unprecedented rate. Yet there’s little evidence of such withering here. Last year, Oshkosh's three breweries – Bare Bones, Fifth Ward, and Fox River – each saw their sales volume increase.

“Maybe it’s just that we’re a couple of years behind the trend,” says Ian Wenger, co-owner of Fifth Ward Brewing. Wenger may be half joking, but the concern is genuine. When it comes to beer, Oshkosh has a history of being slow to adopt national trends. If the local homebrewing scene is any indication, though, this may be one trend that skips the city altogether.

Homebrewing has been looked upon as a bellwether for the craft beer industry. In fact, the struggle that now besets craft brewers was preceded by a sharp downturn in homebrewing. Membership in the American Homebrewers Association has fallen by 35 percent since 2018, and the organization has canceled its annual conference for 2024. Over the past three years, however, the Society of Oshkosh Brewers homebrewing club has increased its membership by 35 percent. The club now has 69 members.

Scott Westpfahl during a recent meeting of the SOBs at Fifth Ward Brewing. Photo by Staci Saunders.

Scott Westpfahl has been president of the Society of Oshkosh Brewers (the SOBs) since 2021. He has no doubts about what makes the Oshkosh club different. “We have a lot of people here who are truly invested in the club,” Westpfahl says. “It’s a very active membership. It makes all the difference. And we’re so tied into the community. The SOBs are engaged with every brewery, cidery, meadery, and distillery in the region.”

At Fifth Ward, brewery co-owner Zach Clark takes a similar view. “I go around to a lot of other towns on sales calls, and one thing you notice here is that the enthusiasm hasn’t died down the way it has in some places. We see it in our taproom. People want to go out and do things and be active. I mean, we have a pretty advanced crowd coming in here. They’ve evolved along with us. You don’t see that everywhere.”

Clark says it probably helped that the craft beer scene in Oshkosh didn’t grow as quickly as it did some larger cities. “It happened more gradually here, and I think that’s meant that we’ve never had the oversaturation that you see in other places where there might be too many breweries, and people kind of losing interest because it's just too much to keep up with. I think people around here have remained engaged with what’s going on.”

The engagement is an expression of social life in a city where tavern culture has been foundational. Wenger sees a shift taking place. “I know that some of our taproom regulars are people who used to spend more time in bars, but maybe they just wanted a different sort of atmosphere. We see a lot of the same faces, and they might be with their families and they're getting together, and they can all feel comfortable here. I don’t know if that kind of thing is happening in the bars so much anymore.”

The Fifth Ward's taproom in Oshkosh. Photo by Staci Saunders.

Fifth Ward is looking to build upon its taproom success. Clark and Wenger are currently exploring the possibility of opening a second taproom in the area. After doubling the capacity of its brewery over the past two years, Fifth Ward became the largest producer of beer in Oshkosh last year selling 1,480 barrels.

“We could already make twice as much beer here as we do now, so we absolutely have the capacity to supply another taproom,” Clark says. “The question we’re thinking about is how far do we want to go in that direction? We’re trying to figure out where the equilibrium is.”

For the Oshkosh homebrewers the future appears as promising, but far less complex. “I mean, for us it’s all about having fun,” Westpfahl says. “And right now we have such a great group that’s really invested in the overall experience of being an SOB. We’re in a good place.”

The Society of Oshkosh Brewers invites the community to get a taste of the SOB experience on Saturday, May 4, when the club will hold its annual Big Brew from 9am until 1pm at The Cellar homebrew shop at 465 N. Washburn Street. The event is open to the public and will feature brewing demonstrations.

A slightly different version of this story appears in today’s Oshkosh Herald.

If you would like to receive a notification when a new blog post is released, send me an email to OshkoshBeer@gmail.com with “Subscribe” in the subject box. Your email address will never be shared or sold.

Oshkosh Classics: The Story of Our City’s Beer in 12 Recipes

Here's the story of our beer culture told through recipes that span 175 years of brewing in Oshkosh.

Oshkosh Classics is a 32-page, magazine-sized booklet with full-color illustrations throughout. Beer recipes are the core of the booklet, but anyone with an interest in Oshkosh brewing history or the city’s social history will find it interesting. The story goes beyond beer. It’s about community.

Oshkosh Classics has been a long time coming. I began searching for recipes from old Oshkosh breweries about a dozen years ago. My sole intention was to replicate what were then lost Oshkosh beers. As I found recipes, I scaled them to homebrew batch size and got brewing. I wasn’t too surprised to find that some of the old recipes produced great beers. After all, people in Oshkosh once loved these beers.

Rolling another barrel of Gambrinus Brewery Beer into an Oshkosh saloon in the early 1890s. A recipe for the brewery’s black lager is included in Oshkosh Classics.

As it often is with homebrewers, I had a strong impulse to share what I was doing. It was easy finding people who understood my obsession. I’ve been a member of the Society of Oshkosh Brewers homebrew club since 2010. This kind of thing is what the SOBs are all about.

In the spring of 2023, I suggested to the club’s board that we collect these recipes into a booklet. And off we went. I spent most of this past winter writing and designing the booklet, and thanks to SOB Rob Bearwald, we were able to have it professionally bound and printed on quality paper. Our humble, little beer book turned out better than any of us could have expected.

Some SOBs checking out their copies of Oshkosh Classics. Photos courtesy of Staci Saunders.

The SOBs’ release party for Oshkosh Classics will be at Bare Bones Brewery on Saturday, April 20, beginning at noon. In addition to the booklet release, SOB members will be sharing free samples of homebrew made from recipes included in the booklet.

Here’s a bonus: that same day, Bare Bones Brewery will release Peoples Bock made from the original recipe used at Peoples Brewing of Oshkosh in the 1950s and 1960s. Peoples Bock will be available on draft and in collectible cans.

There are only 300 copies of Oshkosh Classics, and I doubt that more will be printed. The SOBs are a non-profit organization and printing something like this is quite expensive. But the club wanted to keep the price of the booklet as low as possible. So, individual copies of Oshkosh Classics will be sold for $5 when purchased directly from a club member.

If you can’t make the release party at Bare Bones, here are a couple of other options…

Saturday, April 27

I’ll have copies of Oshkosh Classics for sale at the B'Gosh It's Good Breweriana Show from noon until 4pm.

Saturday, May 4

The SOBs will host their annual Big Brew behind the The Cellar brew shop at 465 N. Washburn from 9am until noon. This is always a fun, public event with lots of brewing, and food from the Ginger German food truck. This year, we’ll have a stack of Oshkosh Classics with us.

All of us SOBs hope to see you at one of these events. Prost!

175 Years of Beer in Oshkosh

The Oshkosh 175 celebration begins Thursday, April 4th at Fifth Ward Brewing with the release of 175 Bock.

All three Oshkosh breweries will release a bock beer this year to commemorate the 175th anniversary of brewing here. Each of the collectible cans for these beers will carry the “Oshkosh 175” emblem. This is the first time brewers in Oshkosh have collaborated on a series of beers that celebrate our city’s brewing heritage.

Each of the three beers in the series will be a different style of Bock. The Fifth Ward’s Bock is a traditional German Bock, dark and rich with a lush caramel note and just enough hop contribution to keep it from being too sweet. It's a surprisingly drinkable beer considering that it brings a solid 6.2% ABV. This is an excellent example of the style.

Now, here’s something I’ve been saving for the right occasion, and I think this is it... Back in 2017, Ian Wenger and Zach Clark were working to get their brewery launched. Fifth Ward would open later that year, in November. In the meantime, Zach and Ian continued to homebrew. In April of 2017, the three of us got together to drink some of their homemade Bock beer. For reasons I no longer recall, I shot some video while we quaffed Bock.

Here are the three of us from April 2017, six months before the opening of Fifth Ward, getting a taste of what was to come. Prost, guys!

Talkin' Omro Saloon Wars

I’ll be talking this Thursday, April 4, about the Omro Saloon Wars of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Omro saloon scene was like something out of the Wild West. Unfortunately, this is a history that was left for dead. It’s time we bring it back to life.

The talk begins at 6:30 at the Carter Memorial Library in Omro. Hope to see you there!

Oshkosh Brewers Celebrate 175 Years of Brewing in the City

In the summer of 1849, a German immigrant named Jacob Konrad established a brewery just south of Ceape Avenue on the shore of Lake Winnebago. Konrad’s brewery was the first in Oshkosh. The brewing culture he initiated here is still going strong 175 years later.

Brewers in Oshkosh are celebrating their heritage this year with beer releases and events that tap into the city’s history as a center for beer making. 

April 4: Fifth Ward's 175 Bock

The series begins at Fifth Ward Brewing on Thursday, April 4, with the start of Oshkosh Craft Beer Week. Fifth Ward will commemorate the anniversary with the release of 175 Bock, a strong German-style lager.

April 20: The SOB's Book Release at Bare Bones
On Saturday, April 20, the Society of Oshkosh Brewers homebrew club will be at Bare Bones Brewery for the release of Oshkosh Classics, the club’s first recipe book. The collection includes twelve recipes that illustrate the history of Oshkosh’s beer and brewing culture. The SOBs will share free samples of homebrewed beer made from recipes included in the book. In addition to the book release, Bare Bones Brewery will release Peoples Bock, made from the original recipe used at Peoples Brewing of Oshkosh in the 1950s and 1960s.

June 1: Bare Bones' Helles Bock

On Saturday, June 1, Bare Bones Brewery will release a Helles Bock made from a recipe that amplifies the brewery’s popular Oshkosh Lager. 

Fox River's Pre-Prohibition Bock

Fox River Brewing Company will round out the series with the release of a pre-Prohibition style Bock later this year. Each special release will be available on draft and in a collectible can featuring a commemorative “175” emblem.

It’s especially fitting that the anniversary will be observed by an offering of Bock beers. This subcategory of lager beer was first brewed in Oshkosh in 1858. Over the next century, the robust Bocks became the most commonly produced specialty beer here. The annual spring releases were highly anticipated. Saloons and beer depots posted placards illustrated with a grinning goat in their windows to alert beer fans that the Bock was back. Aficionados on hoarding binges grabbed all they could afford, causing the Bocks to rapidly sell out.

The tradition survived well into the 20th century as Oshkosh’s small breweries grew into larger, more industrial concerns. By the early 1950s, Oshkosh was home to three breweries with a combined production of more than 90,000 barrels of beer annually. An astounding quantity considering that the city’s population was just 41,000 and that most of that beer was consumed locally. Last year, less than 3,500 barrels of beer were brewed in Oshkosh.

Industry consolidation led to the end of our large breweries in 1972 when Peoples Brewing Company closed. The city was without a brewery for the first time in 123 years. In response, a homebrewing movement developed in Oshkosh even though it was a crime to make beer in an unlicensed facility. Oshkosh Congressman William Steiger took care of that by introducing federal legislation legalizing homebrewing. Steiger’s bill was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1978.

Our current breweries are a direct outgrowth of that early homebrewing movement. All three breweries here have brewhouses run by former homebrewers who came out of the local scene. The kinship with the city’s earliest breweries is no less tangible. After Jacob Konrad established his brewery in 1849, he began making hand-crafted, small-batch beer that he sold directly from his brewery to people living nearby. That description applies just as well to our current breweries.

There have been 21 breweries established in Oshkosh since Konrad came to town 175 years ago. That count doesn’t include the score of wildcat breweries that flourished, albeit illegally, in the city during Prohibition from 1920-1933. The beer and brewing culture here has been central to the identity of this place from the start. Oshkosh has always been a beer town. It’s time we celebrate that.

A Beer By Any Other Name

The longest-lived craft beer made in Oshkosh has a fluid identity. It’s a Scottish Ale from Fox River Brewing Company, and it was first served to the public at Fratello's Italian Cafe on Friday, December 15, 1995. On that day, it was called Caber Tossing. In 2014, Caber Tossing became Marble Eye. This February, the name will change again, this time to Highland Fox Scottish Ale.

Drew Roth is the head brewer at Fox River. He knows what’s coming next. “It’s kind of a running joke around the brewery. People will insist that Caber Tossing and Marble Eye were completely different beers with different recipes,” he says. “I can pull out recipe sheets and show them that they’re the same beers. It doesn’t matter. They just tell me I’m wrong.”

Drew Roth

Roth has 29 years of brewing logs backing up his claim. The recipe he is using for Highland Fox adheres, in every important respect, to the recipe that former Fox River head Brewer Al Bundee entered into the logbook for the first batch of Caber Tossing on November 25, 1995. “It’s a different name, but the recipe is not changing in the slightest,” he says.

In the trend-riddled world of craft beer, that kind of longevity is practically unheard of. But then, this beer was an outlier from the start. When Caber Tossing was introduced it became the strongest year-round beer ever produced in Oshkosh. At 6.5% ABV, with its deep amber color and caramelized malt flavor, Fox River’s Scottish Ale was altogether different from the mild, pale lagers that had been dominant here for a century.

Beer connoisseur and brewer Mark Stanek was among the early adopters. He became acquainted with Caber Tossing after moving to Oshkosh from Madison in 1997. “That beer was outstanding,” Stanek says. “It was malty in flavor and aromatics. It was one of the great beers from that time frame and was really well respected.”

In 2001, Caber Tossing took the gold medal in the Scottish-style ale category at the Great American Beer Festival. By 2006, it was the best-selling beer in Fox River’s portfolio. Caber Tossing-cum-Marble Eye held that position until 2014 when BLU Bobber became a year-round beer and the brewery’s runaway bestseller. Ten years later, Marble Eye, soon to be Highland Fox, still holds its own.

“It just continues to be that beer that consistently sells,” Roth says. “We have discussions every year about what beers are going to get pulled to make room for new things, but Marble Eye has never been up for discussion. It just keeps going, and we’re going to keep brewing it.”

That’s a rare declaration to attach to an amber beer these days. Nationwide, the popularity of darker-hued brews has fallen significantly. The decline is illustrated by the recently diminished Fat Tire Amber Ale. Ten years ago, Fat Tire was among the most popular of all craft beers. But deflating sales led to Fat Tire's reformulation last year. Gone is the amber. Fat Tire now wobbles along, drained of its color.

“Wisconsin is kind of a weird market in that way,” Roth says. “A lot of people here still want those darker beers. It might be our climate, or some of the traditions around here, I’m not really sure. Marble Eye is often our second or third best seller on draft even in the summertime.”

It's a beer that has been bucking trends for so long that it has entered the pantheon of Oshkosh classics such as Chief Oshkosh, Peoples Beer, and Rahr’s Elk’s Head. At 29-years old, what is about to become Highland Fox is the youngster of that bunch. Yet it remains an old friend to those who discovered their love of flavorful beer through Caber Tossing. “I know I’m going to hear about it, but I like the new name,” Roth says. “Highland Fox embraces our identity and what the beer is about. We're getting back to our roots on that.”

A slightly different version of this story appears in today's Oshkosh Herald.

The Best to You!

Hey Gang, first off, thanks so much for checking out the blog in 2023. I truly appreciate it!

Second, there won’t be much new content here for the next couple months. I'm working on a short book (about historic Oshkosh beer recipes) that I need to complete by the end of February. And in March, I'm giving a presentation about the Omro Saloon Wars at the Omro Public Library. Combined, these two projects will absorb most of my free time until March. But after that, things will get rolling again. There's so much more to tell!

Until next time, Happy New Year!
Prost,

Lee

The Unmaking of Witzke’s

The origin of Witzke’s Bar traces back to 1873. That’s when a German immigrant named Henry Schmidt bought the property at 17th and Oregon to establish a saloon there. What Schmidt set in motion was still going strong 100 years later. But in 1973, there was no centennial celebration at Witzke’s. By then, no one could recall how it all got started.

Est. 1850? The guess was off by 23 years.

The forgetting began long before the 1970s. A 1948 article in the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern said the tavern's “early history has been lost from memory.” What memories remained resided with the man who ran the place in the 1970s. Kenneth Frederick Witzke had been there all his life.

Ken Witzke was born in 1924. His father, August "Fuddy" Wtizke, had just finished a jail sentence for serving moonshine in the speakeasy bearing his name. Ken grew up amid a criminal enterprise in the apartment attached to the speakeasy. None of this was especially unusual in the Roaring Twenties. Prohibition made a lot of Oshkosh parents into outlaws.

Witzke’s became a legal bar again after Prohibition ended in 1933. In 1942, Ken Witzke turned 18, got drafted into an Army infantry unit, and was sent to fight in the South Pacific. He came home four years later with a bronze star for bravery. “We were in a lot of the thick of it,” Witzke later said.

Ken Witzke, on the right wearing t-shirt and glasses, circa 1944.

Back in Oshkosh, Witzke went to work tending bar at his father’s tavern. And when Fuddy retired in 1966, Ken Witzke took over. He ran the place for the next 30 years and launched a few traditions of his own. They were informed less by the past than by Witzke’s droll humor.

At Christmastime, he would stand a fresh cut balsam in the barroom. After the 1980 holiday, Witzke decided to re-use the same tree next year. Each year thereafter, the increasingly brown evergreen, trimmings and all, was dragged up from the basement and propped in a corner by the pool cues. Bartender Cliff Sweet gave the tree a shot of vodka every morning to keep its spirits up. “The needles are petrified,” Sweet said in 1995. “They don’t even fall off anymore”

Older yet was the ossified moose head mounted on the wall opposite the bar. The head was said to have been separated from its source sometime around the turn of the century. It became a rite of passage for newlyweds to come in and kiss the snout of the hoary totem. The moose head became the perennial symbol of Witzke’s.

Moose head and all... Inside Witzke's 1983. Photo courtesy of Dan Radig.

Ken Witzke retired in the summer of 1996 and sold the family bar. For the first time in 82 years, there was not a Witzke pouring beer at 1700 Oregon. The new owner, Harold Salzer, played a transitional role. He was a 34-year-old Oshkosh native who had recently started a home siding business. Salzer’s partner at Witzke’s was John Rasmussen. He was 35 and had been working at the Morgan Company mill. At the end of the 1990s, Rasmussen became the sole owner of Witzke's, leading the tavern into its third century.

John Rasmussen behind the bar at Witzke's, 1997.

Rasmussen was eager to emphasize Witzke’s significance to Oshkosh. “The history of the bar is so interesting,” he said in 1997, “so we’ve tried to accent that.” But the history had a downside. There had been little investment in the property over the previous three decades. The place looked worn out. Rasmussen promised to address that.

Witzke's, circa 2001.

In 2003, Rasmussen began sharing his renovation plans. He met with local preservationists and the Oshkosh Landmarks Commission to assure them that he would retain the character of the property. He was true to his word. The tavern Rasmussen started with was a ramshackle offcut of its past glory. The Witzke’s of 2008 was an eye-catching homage to enduring Southside traditions. Witzke’s hadn’t looked this good since its first remodeling in 1901.

2010

In addition to the restoration, Rasmussen added a banquet hall and video archery range behind the original saloon building. It took five years and more than $300,000 to complete the project. Witzke’s appeared poised for another successful run. But it wasn’t to be.

In July 2017, Wells Fargo Bank filed a notice of intent to foreclose on the property. Later that summer, the Wisconsin Department of Revenue began issuing tax warrants against the business. Over the next two years, Witzke’s Tavern, LLC was hounded by creditors baying for payment. Initially, Rasmussen was able to navigate the storm. But by 2019, his options had run out.

Rasmussen announced Witzke’s closing at the end of September 2019. A handwritten sign was taped to the front door: “CLOSED until further notice. Thanks for your understanding! Management.” The “further notice” never came, and the “understanding” was in short supply among those Rasmussen was indebted to.

He renewed the tavern’s liquor license in 2020. The 2021 application was more closely scrutinized. Rasmussen told the Common Council that he hoped to have Witzke's back in business by the end of 2021. There was little chance of that. The delinquent taxes remained unpaid. And since closing, the tavern “had sustained significant water damage.” Rasmussen couldn’t say how he would address the issues. The liquor license was revoked. And on October 19, 2023, the title to the property was transferred to Winnebago County for non-payment of taxes.

This year is the sesquicentennial of Witzke’s founding. But like the tavern’s centennial, this anniversary passes without celebration. One of the southside’s most historically significant properties sits vacant, neglected, and moldering. An abandoned Oshkosh landmark at the edge of oblivion.

October 2023

This is the third in a series of three stories about the history of Witzke's. Here are links to Part 1 (The Garden Where Witzke's Grew) and Part 2 (Witzke's Wild Years). If you would like to receive an update when I release new content, send an email to OshkoshBeer@gmail.com with “Subscribe” in the subject box. Your email address will never be shared or sold.

Witzke’s Wild Years

The saloon and beer garden at 17th and Oregon was already 40 years old in 1914. The Oshkosh Brewing Company, owner of the property since 1897, was looking for someone new to run the place. Fuddy Witzke was the perfect fit.

Witzks’s bar room in the early 1940s. Fuddy Witzke is behind the bar on the right, the shorter of the two men.

Becoming Fuddy
August Herman Friedrich “Fuddy” Witzke was born in Oshkosh on July 19, 1886. He was raised on 18th Street, just a block away from the saloon that would later bear his name. His parents, Charles and Augusta Witzke, were German-speaking immigrants. So were most of their neighbors. Charles Witzke was a millworker for the Morgan Company and was involved in Southside labor politics. He and his union brethren often rallied at the 17th and Oregon saloon and beer garden. This place was always part of Fuddy’s life.

May 5, 1911. At this time, Theodore Bork was the proprietor of the saloon and beer garden.

Fuddy quit school at 13 and followed his father into the mills. His first job was at the Campbell & Cameron box factory. The boy walked an hour every morning from his home on 18th Street to his job in the factory next to Campbell Creek.

The foot bridge over Campbell Creek leading to the Campbell & Cameron box factory. It was the last leg of Fuddy’s daily journey to work.

He grew up and found a marginally better job at Diamond Match. And from there, he drifted to the McMillen Company. By age 25, he had a dozen years of factory time under his belt. That was enough.

In 1911, Fuddy got a job tending bar for Louis Clute at his saloon on 7th Street. Clute’s place was an Oshkosh Brewing Company tied house. OBC liked what it saw in Fuddy. In May 1914, the brewery recruited the 28-year-old bartender for its showcase saloon at 17th and Oregon. Hereafter, it was called Witzke’s.

A bar glass from Augie Witzke’s Tavern. The address, 1701 Oregon, reflects the old numbering system in Oshkosh. That address is now 1700 Oregon.

At Witzke’s you could get any beer you wanted. So long as it was brewed by the Oshkosh Brewing Company. But that seems to have been about the only limitation the brewery placed upon its new tenant. Witzke made the place his own.

He lived up to his nickname. Fuddy was 5’6” tall, 170 pounds, and reliably grouchy. But he was a good man. His customers leaned on him when they had trouble. He’d bail them out of jail. He’d use his connections to get them jobs. People trusted him. No one more so than his wife, Ella.

They probably met at Diamond Match in 1907 when they both worked there. Fuddy was 21 then. Ella was 17. She had a one-year-old daughter named Wilma and had just gotten divorced. Her former husband had beaten her repeatedly. The last beating was just before Christmas 1905. Ella was five months pregnant with Wilma at the time.

Fuddy and Ella were married in July 1914, a couple of months after he had gotten the saloon at 17th and Oregon. Fuddy adopted Wilma, and the three of them moved into the apartment connected to the bar.

Fuddy Witzke behind his bar, circa 1915.

These were salad days for Fuddy and Ella Witzke. The saloon ran seven days a week. If Fuddy skipped out on a Saturday morning to go ice fishing, Ella would pull duty behind the bar. The Witzkes leaned into the traditions that had long ago made the place so popular with southsiders. Right down to the annual Labor Day dance and picnic in the beer garden.

May 5, 1914.

The Undry Land
The high times turned into hard times with the arrival of Prohibition in 1920. Fuddy had been gearing up for this. The previous summer, he purchased a license to sell soft drinks. It allowed him to keep his saloon open after the dry law went into effect. But Fuddy could not have cared less about soft drinks. Every bar owner in Oshkosh knew that you couldn’t make the rent selling soda. Witzke’s became a speakeasy.

The cops in Oshkosh showed little interest in Prohibition violations. ​​Even the mayor, Arthur McHenry, was against the new law, saying that “the City of Oshkosh was not in sympathy with Prohibition enforcement.” Oshkosh ran wide open that first year. By the summer of 1921, the city had grown notorious as a place where Prohibition did not apply. And that brought the feds to town.

Federal agents made their first major raids in Oshkosh on the Friday evening of August 26, 1921. They aimed their initial thrusts at the most prominent targets. On the northside, they hit the Annex Thirst Parlor (now Oblio’s Lounge). On the Southside they headed for Witzke’s.

The feds poured through the door to find Witzke mixing drinks from a tumbler of moonshine. He was ready for this. He just needed to give the tumbler a nudge. It would drop into the sink and send the liquor down the drain. Fuddy’s plan failed. The feds said he was so alarmed by their sudden appearance that Witzke forgot his trick.

They arrested Fuddy and took him to the city jail. He pleaded guilty when his trial came up in September. The district attorney recommended the minimum penalty: $100 (about $900 today). Fuddy could turn on the charm if he needed to. The DA commented that Witzke had been “very fair and decent in this matter.” Fuddy paid the fine and went straight back to his bar.

The Man with the Moon
The striking building at 17th and Oregon was an advantage in the heady days before Prohibition. Standing tall at the south entrance to the Southside, Witzke’s Saloon could not be missed. But the prominence became a liability when liquor became illegal. As a speakeasy, Witzke’s was too conspicuous. He got caught again in 1924.

The agents rushed in at about 7 pm on the Monday evening of April 28th. They found Witzke holding two quarts of moonshine. They searched Fuddy and Ella’s apartment and found another bottle of liquor on the kitchen table. They hauled Fuddy to jail where he said he’d just as soon plead guilty now and skip the trial. Fuddy changed his tune when they told him this second offense would mean mandatory jail time.

At his trial, Witzke asked for leniency. He said he was quitting the business and promised to stop selling bootleg liquor. The judge didn’t even bother to comment. He slapped Witzke with a $300 fine (about $5,000 in today’s money) and sent him to the county jail for 30 days of hard labor. Witzke served his sentence, went back home, and reopened his speakeasy. But he was cagier now. He pulled off a six-year run before they got him again.

In the fall of 1931, federal agents made a series of raids on speakeasies in Oshkosh. There had been rumblings for weeks that a housecleaning was in the works. On October 17, a squad of 29 agents invaded the city. Of course, they paid a visit to their old buddy Fuddy. But he wasn’t home.

He had stepped away for a moment, asking his friend Henry Drew to watch the bar. Fuddy walked out, and an undercover federal agent walked in. The agent called for a beer. It was the first beer Henry Drew poured as a bartender. It was also the last. The agent immediately arrested Drew. A reporter saw his arrival at the city jail. “His jaws and knees shook noticeably. ‘Heck of a note,’ he remarked, ‘J-j-just doing a favor for a friend.’”

The feds met up with Fuddy the following day. His case was settled in May, 1932. Witzke was fined $250 and handed over to an officer from the House of Corrections in Milwaukee to serve six months behind bars.

Free at Last
Things were getting better when he got back to Oshkosh in late 1932. Prohibition was being dismantled. In April 1933, beer became legal again. Full repeal came at the end of the year. But by then, Prohibition had changed everything for the saloon keepers. Fuddy could see that through his back door.

The dry law led to the closing of the beer garden that had accompanied the saloon for decades. People in Oshkosh did not stop drinking during Prohibition, but they wouldn’t do it in a park in broad daylight. In 1927, the Oshkosh Brewing Company sold the beer garden to a charity group. The pavilion later became home to the Florian Lampert Post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The site of the beer garden pavilion on the south side of Seventeenth Avenue near Oregon Street as it is today.

The Oshkosh Brewing Company also shed many of its saloon properties during Prohibition. The brewery sold Witzke’s in 1930. After 16 hard years there, Fuddy became the owner of the building. It would remain his until his death in 1969.

Fuddy retired from his bar in 1966. He was 79 years old. But his retirement was more of an easing up than a hard stop. Fuddy and Ella still lived in the apartment attached to the tavern, and Fuddy still dropped in at the bar to pour beer now and then. His presence at 17th and Oregon lingered even after his death. From 1914 until its closing in 2019, the tavern was never known as anything other than Witzke’s.

This post is the second in a series of three stories about the history of Witzke’s. The first story (The Garden Where Witzke's Grew) was published on November 5th. Part 3, the Unmaking of Witzke's, was published on December 3. If you would like to receive an update when I release new content, send an email to OshkoshBeer@gmail.com with “Subscribe” in the subject box. Your email address will never be shared or sold.

Fifth Ward... Six Years.

Fifth Ward Brewing in Oshkosh is celebrating its Sixth Anniversary this week. And every year around this time I snap a picture of the brewery’s founders, Ian Wenger and Zach Clark, in front of their tap handles. Here we go again with another round of Fifth Ward.

Ian Wenger (left) and Zach Clark on opening night at the Fifth Ward Taproom, November 12, 2017.

November 7, 2018.

November 4, 2019.

November 10, 2020.

October 28, 2021.

2022

November 9, 2023.