Beers From Three Breweries New to Oshkosh

Here we go, three beers in 10 minutes…. We’re drinking City Lights Brewing Company’s Brown Ale, Ahnapee Brewery’s Two Stall Chocolate Milk Stout, and The Fermentorium's Paper Planes, a bock made with wild rice...

Repp's Bar

Repp’s Bar is the epitome of the family-owned, neighborhood tavern in Oshkosh. Al Repp has been behind the bar there for more than 50 years. He’s an Oshkosh treasure. In this video, Al Repp tells the story of his bar and what life was like on the “West Side” of Oshkosh.

April 7, National Beer Day

When legal beer returned on this day in 1933, people in Oshkosh took it in stride. Probably because beer never went away here. During the dry years, Oshkosh was flooded with homebrew and beer from illegal “wildcat” breweries.

The article below is from the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern of April 7, 1933. It recaps the mild, midnight celebration that took place in Oshkosh.

Sitter Beverage, Schnitzelbank and the end of Prohibition in Oshkosh

Last week, I blogged about the the Sitter family's early years in Oshkosh and the wildcat brewery they operated during Prohibition. You can find that story here. Today we head back to Sitter Beverage, which was located at what is now 1255 Harney Ave.

We pick up in the spring of 1933… It was a happy time in Oshkosh. There was sense of anticipation. National Prohibition was coming undone. Legal beer was coming back.

On March 22, President Roosevelt signed off on legislation clearing the way for beer that was 4% ABV or less. That same evening, Matt Sitter ran an ad in the Daily Northwestern urging people to send him their orders.

Oshkosh Daily Northwestern; March 22, 1933.

The Sitters were back in the beer business. Bonafide. But there was a hitch. Oshkosh’s three breweries were already swamped with orders for beer. Matt Sitter had to scramble to find an out-of-town source. We get the story from a relative of Matt Sitter.

Tom Sitter lives in Oshkosh. Matt was his grandfather’s brother. Tom was told of Matt Sitter's rush to get beer in early April 1933. Here's Tom...

"In 1982, I was at work and a customer stopped by. He asked if I was related to Matt. He was the driver of the first load of beer to come to Oshkosh for Matt for the day Prohibition ended. I wish I could remember his name and what brand.

He said everything was going fine with his trip back from Milwaukee. He approached the Main Street bridge from the South and as he crossed the river he almost crapped his pants. Both sides of the street were lined with people waiting for the first loads of beer to arrive (I can only think of the song “Happy Days are Here Again!”). It scared him so much that he was happy that his first turn was to go down Ceape Street.

He got to Harney Avenue and was instructed to back the truck up the narrow driveway to unload.  As he was backing up someone yelled out to him “stop, stop, you are going to snap the wire”.  It was a wire for the telephone.  At that point Matt Sitter yelled out, 'That beer is worth more than any G** Damn wire, get that truck back here to unload!'"

And so, Matt Sitter had his beer. In the future, he wouldn’t have to hustle so to get it. After the initial furor waned, Sitter partnered with Peoples Brewing Company. Sitter Beverage became the primary distributor for Peoples Beer in the Oshkosh area.

March 16, 1939

Matt Sitter expanded the family business beyond beer. He began offering, wines, cordials, whiskey. Here’s the head of a December 23, 1933, advertisement celebrating the Sitter family’s 50 years in Oshkosh.

And here’s a mid-1930s whiskey bottle from Sitter Beverage.

Sitter’s advertising sometimes paid homage to his family’s European roots. The example below comes in the form of a "Schnitzelbank" poster. Schnitzelbank is an old, call-and-response German song. It was popular among the German immigrants who came to America in the latter half of the 1800s. Schnitzelbank was often sung while drinking beer. If you want to grab a beer and sing along, here’s how it’s done (and here's another example).

Here's another copy of the poster.

Sitter Beverage flourished in the years following the repeal of Prohibition. But Matt Sitter’s success was cut tragically short. He died of stomach cancer in 1940. By 1948, Sitter Beverage had closed. Mathius Sitter is buried in Oshkosh’s Riverside Cemetery.

Thanks to Tom Sitter, he's been a great help with this. Tom gets the last word. "Here is the link for Bernhard Sitter and his Bier Hotel at Gut Riedelsbach. It is 8 to 12 miles from my Great Grandfather’s (Johann Sitter's) birthplace, which is now in the Czech Republic (Formerly in Austria). His birthplace was Boehmischroehren, Austria. If his last name is Sitter, and he makes and likes beer, I know he is a direct descendant!!"

A Beer with Shawn O'Marro

Shawn & Brandy O’Marro opened O’Marro’s Public House in Oshkosh in 2004. In this episode of Oshkosh Beer, Shawn and I talk about the past, the present, and what’s coming up at the pub. Sláinte!

Sitter’s Wildcat Brewery on Harney Ave.

Wednesday Evening, August 24, 1927... Federal Prohibition agents were stalking Oshkosh again. This time, to break-up wildcat breweries. Their first stop was Theodore Fisher’s saloon and brewery on S. Main. They smashed Fisher’s place. Then they raced to the north side of town.

The second raid was on Harney Ave. where Mathias Sitter lived. For decades, the Sitter family had been involved in the beer business in Oshkosh. In 1920, Prohibition made beer illegal. But Mathias Sitter kept the family tradition alive. Now he was headed to jail for it.

Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, August 25, 1927

Mathias Sitter had beer in his blood. In 1883, his father, Johann Sitter, came to Oshkosh from Böhmisch Röhren, Austria (now České Žleby, Czech Republic). Johann went to work for Lorenz Kuenzl at the Gambrinus Brewery on Harney Ave.

Johann Sitter Family, October 1910. Mathias Sitter, aged 9, is seated at the far right. His father Johann sits next to him.
Photo courtesy of Tom Sitter.

The Sitter’s made their home next door to the Gambrinus Brewery. Mathias Sitter was born there in 1901. He grew up with beer all around him.

An 1890 insurance map showing the Gambrinus Brewery on Harney Ave.
The Sitter home was at 178 Harney, below the red arrow.

In 1894, the Gambrinus Brewery merged with the Horn & Schwalm and Glatz breweries to form the Oshkosh Brewing Company. Johann Sitter worked as a distributor and bottler for the new firm. The Sitter name was embossed on many Oshkosh beer bottles in the early 1900s.

Courtesy of Steve Schrage.

By the age of 18, Mathias Sitter had joined the family business. He took it over when Johann Sitter passed away in 1920. Working from the family home at what is now 1255 Harney Ave., the Sitter operation grew to include a liquor store and a tavern supply business.

Prohibition made all of that illegal. Mathias Sitter went underground. Literally. He converted the basement of his home into a wildcat brewery. Federal agents caught wind of it. On a hot summer night in 1927, they came busting in.

 Raided in 1927, the Sitter family home still stands at 1255 Harney Ave.

The feds broke in to find Sitter’s basement brewhouse running full tilt. There were 168 cases of beer ready to go out the door. There was enough beer in various stages of fermentation to fill another 204 cases. How do you produce that much beer in a residential neighborhood without drawing attention to it?

Sitter had a singular advantage most bootleggers lacked. He had a front that could explain away the commotion of a brewery. After Prohibition began, the Sitters turned to dealing in soft drinks. The clanking bottles and delivery trucks wouldn’t have seemed out of place.

Still, an operation this size could not have been much of a secret. Especially in a neighborhood where the bellwethers of beer making were so familiar. The aroma of fermenting beer wafting from the Sitter home would have been unmistakable.

Sitter’s basement was crowded with fermentation vessels churning out beer. He had fourteen 30-gallon fermenters and one 40-gallons in size. They were full of beer when the feds broke in. Moments later they were empty. Their contents were drained onto the floor.

Sitter was arrested. He was held on charges of manufacturing and possessing intoxicating liquor and maintaining a common nuisance. He spent Wednesday night in jail. Sitter was released the following afternoon on a $1,000 bond. He eventually pleaded guilty at the federal court in Milwaukee. Sitter paid the standard $1,000 fine and returned to Oshkosh.

Mathias Sitter spent the remainder of the dry years here selling soft drinks. But when Prohibition ended in 1933, he went back to selling beer. Fifty years after Johann Sitter had come to Oshkosh, the Sitter family was back in the beer business. Legally.

Beer Production for 2016 in Oshkosh and Beyond

The Department of Revenue has finally released the complete set of 2016 beer production reports for Wisconsin breweries. I'll share the local numbers in a moment, but first here's some background on what we'll be looking at.

The reports show the number of barrels of beer a brewery has produced for sale in any given month.
   • A barrel contains 31 U.S. gallons of beer.
   • That's the equivalent of 13.6 cases of beer.
   • Meaning each barrel contains about 330 twelve-ounce servings of beer.

Now to the meat of the matter. The big story locally is the continued rise of Fox River Brewing Company. In 2016, Fox River was among the fastest growing breweries in the State of Wisconsin.

The Oshkosh Brewhouse of Fox River Brewing Company

Fox River Brewing Company: 2546.64 barrels
That's an increase of more than 26% over last year's production. That's also the most beer Fox River has ever produced in a single year. There's more.

Over the past three years, production at Fox River has risen by just over 90%. The sharp increase coincides with the brewery's 2014 decision to get back into distributing its beer beyond its brewpubs.

The lion's share of Fox River's beer was produced in Appleton, where the brewery maintains its bottling line. In Appleton, Fox River produced 1,500 barrels in 2016, an increase of 34% on its 2015 output.

In Oshkosh, Fox River produced 1,046 barrels. That's an increase of 17% over the Oshkosh brewery's 2015 production.

Bare Bones Brewery: 438.5 Barrels
Bare Bones didn't begin showing up in the state reports until October 2015, so there's no meaningful comparison to the previous year's output. That said, there's something in the numbers worth noting.

The peak month production-wise for Bare Bones in 2016 was December when the brewery reported producing 63.75 barrels of beer.  That level of production defies most assumptions made about the brewery when it launched in 2015.

The consensus among many was that Bare Bones would thrive during the summer months when the WIOUWASH Trail was open. Conversely, business would slow when colder weather would keep bikers off the trail. The predicted winter slump appears not to have materialized. Production through the latter half of 2016 was strong at Bare Bones.

Now, on to breweries nearby...

Lion’s Tail Brewing: 220.76 Barrels
The Neenah brewery didn't begin reporting its output until 2016, so there are no year-to-year comparison points. However, I think it's safe to say production at Lion's Tail will increase in 2017. The brewery plans to expand its capacity and put more emphasis on distribution this year. That should translate into increased production.

Stone Arch Brewery: 2881.32 Barrels
They're holding steady at Stone Arch. The brewery produced 28.56 more barrels in 2016 than it produced in 2015. That's an increase of about 1%.

Appleton Beer Factory: 301.75 Barrels
ABF is the only brewery in the bunch that saw its production decline in 2016. The brewery's output was off by more than 25% in 2016. ABF produced 103 fewer barrels in 2016 than it did in 2015.

Knuth Brewing Company: 103 Barrels
Knuth Brewing in Ripon entered the state production reports in August 2015, so a year-to-year comparison isn't possible. Production has steadily risen at Knuth, though, since the installation a new 6-barrel system in August. This is another brewery you can expect to see grow in 2017.

Rowlands Calumet Brewing Company: 241 Barrels
A nice increase of 35 barrels – 14.5% more than the brewery's 2015 output. That's good to see. Established in 1990, Rowlands is the Grand Dad of modern brewing in our area. Rowlands, continues to have a dedicated fan base in its hometown of Chilton.

Overall, it's been another good year for beer in Oshkosh and the breweries in its vicinity. While the larger, nationally distributed craft breweries report sales declines, the local scene here continues to grow.

Ian & Zach

Inside the future home of Fifth Ward Brewing Company of Oshkosh. Ian Wenger (left) and Zach Clark working this morning on the space that will house their brewery on S. Main Street.

Fisher’s Wildcat Brewery on South Main

Theodore Fisher was thriving. He had a three-story building at the corner of 6th and S. Main streets. There he ran a hotel, a saloon, and a brewery. The hotel was legal. The saloon and brewery were not. It was 1927. Prohibition was on. There was real money to be made in beer, now that it was illegal.

The Former South Side Hotel, Saloon and Brewery at what is now 601 S. Main St.

Theodore Fisher was born in Wisconsin in 1872. Much of his early life was spent on a Pierce County farm in western Wisconsin. But farming was not for Fisher. He wandered out of Pierce County and wound up in Oshkosh.

About 1917, Fisher took over the saloon and hotel at the corner of 6th and S. Main. A bachelor, he made his home in a room above the saloon. Downstairs, Fisher sold beer made by the Oshkosh Brewing Company.

The Fischer Saloon in 1919 with an Oshkosh Beer sign.

After the dry law arrived in 1920, the Oshkosh Brewing Company could no longer supply Fisher with beer. Fisher saw an opportunity there. He’d make his own beer. He set up a brewery in the basement under the saloon. He hired a brewer named Frank Weber. He could produce about six barrels of beer in each batch. The money came rolling in.

Before Prohibition, Fisher had been selling draft beer for a nickel a mug. Approximately half that nickel went to the Oshkosh Brewing Company. It was tough for a saloonkeeper to get ahead. The dry law changed the equation. It caused beer prices to skyrocket.

Fisher could sell bottles of his wildcat brew for a quarter – five times what he used to get for a schooner of OBC’s beer. And there was no outside brewery taking a cut from that quarter. The illicit beer trade was lucrative in the extreme. All was well until the summer of 1927.

July 4, 1927. Fisher's Wildcat Brewery & Saloon on the parade route.

Federal Prohibition enforcement officers had turned their attention to northeast Wisconsin. The area was teeming with wildcat breweries. A series of raids were planned that would begin in Oshkosh, move to Appleton, and conclude in Green Bay.

On the Wednesday evening of August 24, 1927, the raids began. “Five federal dry operatives hit Oshkosh with a crash,” the Daily Northwestern reported. Fisher’s place was the first taken down.

The Milwaukee Sentinel reported that the cops broke in to find 110 cases of bottled beer. Another 200 gallons of beer were ready for bottling. In all, Fisher had some 420 gallons of beer at the time of the raid in his basement brewery. In today’s money that beer would be worth just over $15,000. It all went down the drain.

As was their practice, Prohibition enforcers smashed the brewery and shattered every container of beer.

“The hotel basement was flooded with the fluid from the broken bottles and jars witnesses said. The place was piled with debris after the smashing party they declared. The fire department was called to the place to stop a gas leak, which it was alleged was started when a pipe was broken.”
   – Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, August 25, 1927.

The cops arrested Frank Weber, the brewer, and Otto Finder, a bartender at Fisher’s saloon. Fisher was nowhere to be found. A warrant was issued for his arrest. He turned himself in the next day. He wasn’t in jail long. Fisher cut a check for $2,000. By Thursday afternoon the three were back on the street.

It’s not known whether Fisher repaired his brewery and went back to making beer. If he did, he didn’t get caught again. In any case, he kept right on running his hotel and “soft drink” parlor.

The arrest didn’t appear to hurt his reputation any. In 1933, the year Prohibition ended, Fisher was elected to the Oshkosh city council representing the Third Ward. He stayed on in the tavern business in Oshkosh until the end of the 1930s.

Theodore G. Fisher died in Milwaukee in 1940. He was 68 years old.

Old Hank

Old Hank was a 1930s Ford discovered in a junkyard near Brown Deer in 1961. The Oshkosh Brewing Company restored it and had it fit with a reefer that could hold beer at 40º Fahrenheit. Old Hank was used by OBC in the 1960s for promotions and beer deliveries to special events.

Following up on Old Hank.
I never knew what became of Old Hank. But after posting this I received a couple of messages about its fate. Tony Pagel replied, “Old Hank went to John Kuenzl from Lee Beverage. From there it was sold to The Leach Co. where they fitted it with one of their restored refuse bodies. I read from there it went to Canada in the buyout along with the Leach Co. jobs.”

Kenneth Markofski, who worked at Leach, recalled, “We had it in the Parts Dept. at Leach Co. I had to keep it shined up for visitors.”

Here's Old Hank in 2011 after it had been remodeled by The Leach Co. Photo courtesy of Dan Radig.