Monday, August 28, 2017

Forgotten Oshkosh Beers: Schoen's Old Lager

Here's one nobody remembers. Schoen's Old Lager Beer. Brewed and bottled by The Peoples Brewing Co. Oshkosh Wisconsin.


Schoen's Old Lager wasn't native to Oshkosh. How it arrived here is something of a mystery. Here's what I know...

Schoen's Old Lager was named for Louis Schoen, born in  Bavaria in 1876. He came to the United States in 1892. Schoen went to La Crosse. He became brewmaster at G. Heileman Brewing.

Louis Schoen
Schoen was an old-world sort of brewer. He insisted his lager be aged nine weeks before it left the brewery. His exactitude was acceptable before Prohibition hit in 1920. But when the dry years were over, Schoen's meticulousness became problematic.

When Prohibition ended in 1933, G. Heileman Brewing came roaring out of the gate. It would grow to become the largest Wisconsin brewery outside of Milwaukee. That growth wasn't compatible with Schoen's ethos. At Heileman, they couldn't wait nine weeks for a batch of beer to be finished. Schoen had to go. They canned him at G. Heileman in 1934.

Schoen went to Wausau. In 1934, he helped launch Wausau Brewing Co. There he produced Louis Schoen's Old Lager Beer. It wasn't just his name on the label. His picture was there, too.



Louis Schoen died in 1965. By that time, the beer with his name on it was already in the hands of others.

Wausau Brewing Co. had closed in 1961. Its brands were immediately scooped up by Rhinelander Brewing Co. Rhinelander began producing its version Schoen's Old Lager Beer. You can bet your life they weren't aging it nine weeks in Rhinelander.


In 1967, Rhinelander Brewing Co. bit the dust. The Rhinelander labels were purchased by Huber Brewing of Monroe. But Schoen's Old Lager didn't end up in Monroe.

Here's a label said to be from 1972. What the hell was Schoen's doing in Eau Claire?


And why was this beer ever in Oshkosh? And when? I'm guessing it landed in Oshkosh sometime after the fall of Rhinelander Brewing Co. in 1967.

If that's the case, it wasn't here long. When Peoples Brewing was sold in 1970, the brewery's portfolio made no mention of Schoen's Old Lager Beer. I wonder, though, if the omission was an oversite.

Peoples Brewing closed in 1972. It seems a little too coincidental that Schoen's Old Lager Beer would surface that same year in Eau Claire. But that's sometimes how it goes with these vampire brands. Strange things happen when a beer won't stay dead.



31 comments:

  1. Dan beat me to the punch... When will you be brewing this undead beer?

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  2. I’d love to see that recipe, too. Thing is, by the time the beer was shifted to those other breweries, it probably didn’t have much in common with Schoen’s original brew. That said, I’ve seen a lot of recipes from Schoen’s era. Most of the lagers from that time are fairly simple in design. They usually break down to about 70-80% 6-row, 20-30 percent corn (sometimes rice) and then sometimes just a dash of caramel malt or roast malt for color. Hops are almost always Cluster for bittering. For high-end beers would use Czech or German hops for aroma.

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  3. The Mar/Apr 1993 issue of the American Breweriana Association Journal had an article featuring the Rhinelander Brewing Co. Otto Dietz, the Rhinelander brewmaster was not at all happy about the acquisition of Schoen's, Adel Brau, and Rib Mountain Lager when the Wausau Brewing Co. folded in 1961. He indicated that he just put Rhinelander Beer in the newly acquired brands. So it is likely that the original Wausau Schoen's Old Lager recipe ended in 1961.

    In the early 1970's I bought a 6 pack of Eau Claire brewed Schoen's Old Lager at a Chicago liquor store. They had stacks of these stubby NDNR bottles at a low price.

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    1. Hey, Leigh, I just noticed your comment. Interesting that Dietz would suggest he was filing the Schoen's bottles with Rhinelander Beer. I’ll bet there was a lot of that going around in the 1960s. Thanks for your comments, Leigh, always interesting!

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  4. Louis Schoen was my great-uncle. My Dad took me to his 90th birthday party in La Crosse. They spoke German, and Louis asked me if I liked sweet cakes and candy. I was about 8 years old.

    Steve Schnurrer

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    1. Thanks, Steve, I love hearing these kinds of stories.!

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    2. I'm posting some replies to see if anyone can answer my questions about Schoen's beer and the bar mirror in my comment at the end of this page, thank you!

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  5. Louis Schoen is my wife Janine Hutchison (Schoen)'s great grandfather.

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    1. My Grandfather delivered Schoen's beer. When my grandmother died I was able to claim some of Schoen's paper napkins, a Schoen's mechanical pencil, and a Schoen's beer tray from her estate. The beer tray said Wausau brewing co. I wish I could also find a Schoen's beer can from that era.

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  6. Super cool. Schoen was my great great uncle on my mom's mom's side. A beautiful story for a beautiful beer (schön = beautiful).

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    1. Thanks for reading, Molly!

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    2. I'm posting some replies to see if anyone can answer my questions about Schoen's beer and the bar mirror in my comment at the end of this page, thank you!

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  7. Louis was my great grandfather. He lived in his later with my Dad's parents and I remember him well. Family story goes that Schoen beer was same recipe as Old Stye with the aging but can't confirm that. Great grampa was a loving gentle man.

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    1. Valerie, thanks for chiming in on this. It's always great to hear from family members. Thanks!

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  8. I've got an unopened bottle of it that I found under an old bathtub during a remodel. A 10 ounce bottle. Cork under the cap. Found some old bottle caps too.

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    1. christinezminer@gmail.comDecember 4, 2019 at 10:21 PM

      A cousin just posted this link. This was my great grandfather, Louis. It's really nice to see all the family members commenting. I'd like to hear from all of you & compare notes!
      See me on ancestry.

      Steve, another cousin, has a bunch of the old advertising material.

      The March-April 1997 American Brewerina pg 4-11 contains another article on Wausau Brewing Co. and Schoen's Old Lager.
      Christine Miner

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    2. What year was that bottle from? Could the yeast be re-cultured?

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  9. Thank you for this article. Louis Schoen was my great-great grandfather and I have heard tales of his brewery all my life that have differed depending on who you were speaking to. It's great that someone did the research! I have 2 of his bottles of beers still capped. One I won at a family picnic and the other I found in an antique shop. Also so nice to hear from people who met him as he died before I was born.

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    1. I'm posting some replies to see if anyone can answer my questions about Schoen's beer and the bar mirror in my comment at the end of this page, thank you!

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  10. I was walking around on my property in the woods that I've owned for almost 35 years and I happened to come across a pile of old cans under the leaves. Never thinking that I would possibly be able to find a name or even printing on any of the cans. I happened to move a larger can around with my foot and there was a smaller can inside, so after I picked it up and took a look at it I could make out a portion of the label. I could read the Schoens portion and the beer word ,I found a few more of those and an old style can that were all cracked open with a can opener. Never hearing of schoens beer I had to do the modern thing and Google it. I love old time things and I also loved the stories that I read here.

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    1. I'm posting some replies to see if anyone can answer my questions about Schoen's beer and the bar mirror in my comment at the end of this page, thank you!

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. Here's a video showing a 1960 Schoen's Old Lager 12 ounce bottle from the Peoples Brewing Company. https://youtu.be/sAEpLw2cKgI

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    1. Thanks for sharing this. So it was 1960. That's so odd, Wausau Brewing didn't close until 1961. Is it possible that the bottle is older than the label? Thanks for posting the video, I just subscribed to you YouTube channel.

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  13. Hello,

    Just discovered this site & page after doing a search for Schoen's beer. My paternal great-great grandparents came from Sweden and settled in Ortonville MN. We don't know why they had a German last name: that there were photos from Sweden with a different spelling, so perhaps they changed it to fit in with the predominantly German population in MN (except for the original inhabitants, of course!). One of their grandson's--the last of his generation and my great Uncle--died in 2005. He lived in the original homestead, and there were 2 empty bottles of Schoen's beer in the house that I snatched up: they are the Wausau version that you see in the last red label above. I doubt we're related to Louis Schoen and you folks above, but you never know, I guess!

    Also, I just happened to meet someone some years ago who, when he saw my last name, he mentioned the beer and said there was a bar in Wisconsin and its large mirror behind the bar had the Schoen's Beer logo. I can't remember what town it was--anyone know where that might be?

    Thank you!

    P.S. If you love good ol' German style beer (not all that crappy ale you see everywhere--yuck!), and you're ever in St. Paul, be sure to stop by Waldmann Brewery & Wurstery! They restored the oldest surviving commercial building in St. Paul built by a German immigrant, Anton Watdmann, in 1857 as a brewery and saloon. They also serve great German food. Here is the URL: http://waldmannbrewery.com

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    1. Oops! That should have been "Anton Waldmann," of course...

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  14. Hello fellow Schoens':

    If anyone has an unopened bottle or can, I can re-engineer it at my brewery and we can re-create the recipe that way. Feel free to reach out via email.

    Christopher Schoen
    Director of Brewing Operations & QA
    Brew Hub - Lakeland, FL
    ctschoen@brewhub.com

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  15. Hello Christopher! Unfortunately, I don't have an unopened can or bottle, but it was great to see someone added to this thread! If you read the post just before yours, I'm still looking for that bar and, of course, a Schoen's bar mirror that might be for sale. Anyway, any relation to the Schoen's from Ortonville, MN? If I'm ever in Florida, I will be sure to stop by your brewery!

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  16. Not kidding, I’m also a Louis S. relative. His daughter Sophie was my paternal grandmother.

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  17. I was born in Door County Wisconsin in 1938. I drank a lot of beer before I left the state for good at around 19. I remember drinking Schoens Old Lager, and remembering it as the best, smoothest Beer I’d drank. I also remember drinking some Lithia in a small town near fondulac..My buddy and I agreed it was the greenest, worst tasting beer we had drunk up to that point. Al E. Bavry, Sarasota, Fl.

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