The SOB Governor

On this day in 1992, Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson was made an honorary member of the Society of Oshkosh Brewers. Thompson was touring the area when SOB Jim Lundstrom presented him with a club t-shirt and a hastily written proclamation making him an honorary SOB. The confused Governor frowned. Then he read the proclamation, smiled and replied, “I’ve been called an SOB before.” The picture below was taken moments before Thompson’s SOB induction experience.

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.

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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!

The SOBs Move to Fifth Ward

Fifth Ward Brewing is the new home of the Society of Oshkosh Brewers. The club will begin having its monthly meeting at Fifth Ward starting tomorrow night at 7 pm. If you’re a homebrewer, homebrew curious, or just into good beer, stop in and check it out (wine, cider, and mead folks are also welcome). The SOBs move to Fifth Ward has been a long time coming. When the club formed in 1991, Oshkosh was without a brewery and finding good beer here could be a challenge. Part of the original SOB mission was to agitate and educate with the goal of improving the beer scene in Oshkosh. Now we have three breweries, each of them with ties to the SOBs. Fifth Ward was launched in 2017 by SOB alumni Ian Wenger and Zach Clark. It's fitting that this place would become the club’s home base.

Big Brew Day

The Society of Oshkosh Brewers are celebrating National Homebrew Day this Saturday, May 7 with an open to the public club brew at The Cellar Brewshop at 465 N. Washburn St. The brewing will be in full swing by 9 am and will go into the early afternoon. If you’re homebrew curious, this is an excellent chance to see what the world’s greatest hobby is all about. The Ginger German's Gastro-Truck will also be there serving up the best in German-inspired food. This event is always a lot of fun, stop on out and get to know those SOBs! Here's the Facebook event page (if you're into that kind of thing).

SOBs doing the sort of thing SOBs do.

The SOBs Celebrate 30 Years

The Society of Oshkosh Brewers homebrewing club is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month with a series of beers made in collaboration with three Oshkosh breweries. The first of those beers will be released at Bare Bones Brewery on June 10. It will be followed by beer releases at Fox River Brewing on June 17, and Fifth Ward Brewing on June 26. The three beers were produced from recipes supplied by members of the Society of Oshkosh Brewers; or as they've come to be known locally, the SOBs.

A few of the SOBs during a recent group brew at Bare Bones.
In back on the steps of the brew deck is founding member Al Jacobson.

Al Jacobson's Christmas in June, a spiced ale, was brewed at Bare Bones and will be the first in the series to begin pouring. Jacobson is an original SOB. He was on hand when the club was launched in April 1991 at the now-defunct Galaxy Hobby on Oregon Street. He's also the last of the original members still active in the club. "It started with brewing classes at Galaxy," Jacobson says. "The club came out of those. There were about 10 or 12 of us in the beginning. We'd meet and try each other's homebrews and exchange ideas and recipes. That part of it hasn't changed much."

Some of those early brews were more powerful than expected. "I'm probably the only one that ever hit the ceiling at Galaxy Hobby," Jacobson says. "I took the cap off a beer I made and it shot out of the bottle and hit the ceiling." Remembering it still makes him laugh. "We were learning," Jacobson says. "You never knew what you'd get. We were making beer in soup pots."

SOBs making beer on a stove top in the early 1990s.

As a group, they accumulated knowledge and became a training ground for at least a dozen members who have gone on to brew professionally. Bare Bones' head brewer Jody Cleveland, and Fifth Ward's brewing team of Ian Wenger and Zach Clark are among the club’s alumni who have joined the professional ranks.

Future Oshkosh brewery owners Ian Wenger and Zach Clark during
an SOB visit to the Milwaukee Brewing Company in 2015.

The SOBs' influence has also spread beyond Oshkosh. The club has been the starting point for similar groups in Appleton and Fond du Lac and has been instrumental in re-shaping Wisconsin’s homebrewing laws. In 2012, the SOBs hosted Cask and Caskets, the first all-homebrewed beer festival in the state.

Jeff Eaton, who now brews for Lion’s Tail in Neenah, serving his homebrew
while dressed as a hot dog at Cask and Caskets.

Mike Engel has been the SOBs' president for 15 of the past 17 years. He's guided the club through its most dramatic period of growth. There are now more than 50 members in the club making it among the largest, most active organizations of its type in Wisconsin. “I can’t believe how successful the club has become over the past few years,” Engel says. “We seem to get one or two new members at almost every meeting.”

Engel's Pumpernickel Rye Ale will go on tap at Fifth Ward on Saturday, June 26. It's a rustic beer brewed with flaked rye, molasses, and caraway seeds. "What really gives it the flavor is the caraway seeds," he says. "It’s almost like drinking liquid rye bread." This is the third time Engel has had this beer produced by a commercial brewery. "It feels great," says Engel, who is stepping down as the club's president this year. "It’s kind of like the icing on the cake of my brewing career."

Mike Engel at Oblio’s pouring his 2013 version of Pumpernickel Rye
made by Stone Cellar (now Stone Arch) Brewpub.

But new brewers still come to the SOBs for the same reasons that Al Jacobson did 30 years ago. Logan Anderson joined the club in 2017 "I was 21 at that point," he says. "It was only a few months after I started brewing. I knew from the get-go that I was going to need to find some people who knew what they were doing to give me pointers. That was the best choice I could have made"

Logan Anderson filling a carboy during an SOB wort share last July at Fifth Ward Brewing.

Anderson, who recently graduated from UW-Platteville with a degree in engineering, will have his Kellerbier, a German-style lager, released at Fox River on June 17. "Having the opportunity to brew one of my beers on a large system is like a dream come true," he says. "Looking back five years ago, I never would have expected that I’d make it to this point."

Anderson says the club's appeal extends beyond brewing. "The real benefits go back to that community of beer thing," he says. "I’ve made lifelong friends and could not imagine a group of more enthusiastic and fun-loving people. We have a great beer history in Oshkosh, and I think that people who know about it are proud. So, to be part of that community and history was really a great draw."

The Society of Oshkosh Brewers will hold their next meeting on Thursday, June 17 at 7 pm in the Taproom of Fox River Brewing in Oshkosh. The meeting will be open to the public.

Get Your Brew On With the SOB’s

Here's a welcome sign: The Society of Oshkosh Brewers is back in action. This month, Oshkosh’s homebrewing club held its first in-person meeting since last fall. And this weekend the tribe is gathering for its annual Big Brew.

This Saturday morning, the SOBs will gather for a communal brew day in the parking lot behind The Cellar Brew Shop at 465 N. Washburn. 

The brewing begins about 9 am with at least nine homebrewers there with their gear making beer. Get there early if you can, as the bulk of the actual brewing is likely to occur before 11 am. It's great way to see how homebrewing gets done. And if you’re nice to them, those SOBs might even share some of their homebrew with you. It’s a free event and always a hell of a lot of fun. Hope to see you there!

Here’s something of a preview... This minor masterpiece was shot at the SOBs’ 2010 Big Brew event. You’re bound to see a few familiar faces...

The SOBs Turn 30

On this day 30 years ago an ad ran in the Northwestern announcing the formation of a new club for homebrewers in Oshkosh. It would be known as the Society of Oshkosh Brewers.

Oshkosh Northwestern; April 5, 1991.

Thirty years later, the SOBs are still chugging along and the club’s meetings are still held in what used to be the Lake Aire Center at O’Marro’s Public House. The card shown here is from the first set of membership cards issued by the SOBs.

Dick's Bedford Porter

The relationship between homebrewers and pro-brewers in Oshkosh runs DEEP. For example... Dick's Bedford Porter is brewed from a recipe by Dick Waltenberry of the Society of Oshkosh Brewers. Dick won the club's annual homebrew competition back in July with this beer, so Fox River Brewing brewed it on their big system in Oshkosh in early October. It's available now in bottles at Fox River and will soon be pouring there on tap as well.

Dick Waltenberry at the Fox River Kettle on October 2, 2020.

The SOB's Oyster Stout

Saturday morning, The Society of Oshkosh Brewers will be doing the sort of things those SOBs do. They’re brewing an Oyster Stout at The Cellar Brew Shop. And yes, that beer will include actual oysters. Brew day starts at 10am. Stop by The Cellar and check it out.

Jeff Eaton’s Cocoa Pebbles Brown Ale

Jeff Eaton has a beer that he makes with, as he puts it, "A very healthy dose of Cocoa Pebbles added to the mash." Earlier this year, Eaton entered that beer in the Society of Oshkosh Brewers' annual club competition. The winner would get to brew a commercial-sized batch of their beer on the 11-barrel system at Fox River Brewing in Oshkosh. Guess who won?

Jeff Eaton

Eaton's Cocoa Pebbles Brown Ale will go on tap at Fox River in Oshkosh this Thursday, December 5.

"It's basically an English Brown Ale with Cocoa Pebbles," Eaton says. "I used Marris Otter for the base malt and Fuggle hops for a mild bittering. It's fermented with Nottingham ale yeast to give it the British feel. Andrew (at Fox River) went with Cocoa Puffs for their version, but other than that we used all the same ingredients that were in the beer that won the SOB competition. You could smell cocoa inside and out all the way across the parking lot."

A mash tun loaded with Cocoa Puffs.

Cocoa Pebbles Brown Ale is the first of two of Eaton's beers being released by area breweries. Eaton, who also helps out on the brewing side of things at Lion's Tail in Neenah, will have a beer going on draft there in early 2020. That beer will be brewed at Lion’s Tail in mid-December from Eaton's Czech-style pilsner recipe that includes an addition of honey.

And then there's that's pizza beer he makes. Don't laugh, it almost wound up in the Fox River brewhouse. "In the SOB competition, my pizza beer came in third, believe it or not," Eaton says. Maybe we'll get to try that one next year.

National Beer Day with the SOBs at Bare Bones

I couldn't let this go by without making note of it... This past Sunday, November 7, the Society of Oshkosh Brewers (SOBs) celebrated National Beer Day by helping brew a batch of beer at Bare Bones Brewery.

A panoramic shot of the SOBs at Bare Bones. Pardon the distortions.

National Beer Day sounds like one of those phony holiday's made up by an advocacy group, but it actually marks an important date.  On April 7, 1933, the Cullen–Harrison Act made beer legal again for the first time since the start of Prohibition in 1920. Prohibition hadn't yet ended, that wouldn't happen for another nine months, but at least you could get a legal beer – so long as it was 4% ABV or less. It was better than nothing.

The SOB/Bare Bones celebration ended with each of the homebrewers taking home a carboy of freshly made wort to ferment into beer.

Wort going into SOB carboys.

This was the first time since the end of Prohibition that an Oshkosh brewery has supplied homebrewers with wort. But prior to April 7, 1933, this kind of thing wasn't unusual at all.

The Oshkosh Brewing Company, in particular, was a main supplier of wort to Oshkosh area homebrewers during the dry years.  They sold it in the form of malt syrup, a condensed wort, used by Prohibition-era homebrewers in the same way the SOBs are using the Bare Bones wort to make beer.

I took my carboy of wort home from Bare Bones and dosed it with a thick slurry of lager yeast. It's now in my basement fermenting into beer. I'm thinking I might end up dry hopping it with Hallertau hops. Why not? Other SOBs are going to turn their wort into Belgian-style Saison and English-style ale. Some are going to condition their beer on vanilla beans, others on chocolate. No two will be the same. And that's what homebrew is all about!

Cask and Caskets 2018

Cask and Caskets 2018 happens Saturday, October 27 at Hilton Garden Inn Oshkosh. This is Oshkosh's most unique beer event. Hands down. And it's free. No gimmicks, this is a free beer festival. I'll explain how that happens in a moment, but if you want to get in on it CLICK HERE then hit the big blue SIGN UP NOW button at the other end of the link. Follow the simple instructions and you're in. The event begins at 7:30 pm and goes until 10:30.

The Backstory
Cask and Caskets was hatched by the Society of Oshkosh Brewers in 2013. The idea was to create an outlet for members of the homebrew club to share their beer with a wider audience. And that's the first point of differentiation here. All of the beer, mead, wine, and cider pouring at Casks and Caskets is homemade by members of the Society of Oshkosh Brewers. It’s all one-of-a-kind stuff you'll find nowhere else.

When the event began in 2013, there was an admission charge. Same in 2014, when the SOBs held their second round of Casks. The money raised at those earlier events went to charity. Every penny of it. The cost of producing all that beer was shouldered by the homebrewers who donated their time, skill, and beverages to the event. That wasn't good enough for the State of Wisconsin. Because the beer was untaxed, state officials decided the event was not in keeping with the letter of the law. They shut it down.

Last year, after a couple years of wrangling, Casks returned. This time there was no admission charge. If you signed up and showed up you drank without having to open your wallet. That’s how it will work again this year. Casks is still a charity event with money raised through raffles, business sponsorships, and donations, but there’s no charge to attend and drink your fill. Money raised will help support the food pantries of Oshkosh.

The Beer
And what will we be drinking this year? It's an all-homebrew event so it won’t be anything like the standard lineup found at every other beer festival these days. This is the genuine article. This is beer with meaning.

For some homebrewers that means pushing boundaries. It's part of what homebrew is about. And it can get weird. For example, there'll be an Asparagus Stout, and something called Eggs and Sausage Stout. But it's not all fringe stuff. There'll be plenty of homebrewed Barleywine, IPA, Cider, Mead,  Stout, and Amber to go around.

For the past couple years at Casks, a few of us have been reviving old Oshkosh beers. This year Jody Cleveland, Steve Wissink, and myself have teamed up and are bringing six different brews that were once popular in Oshkosh.  Included are an 1850s Common Beer like the one George Loescher was making at the old Oshkosh Brewery on Bayshore Drive, a Kulmbacher Black Lager of the sort Lorenz Kuenzl was brewing at the Gambrinus Brewery in the 1890s, and the Oshkosh Brewing Company's 1960s Holiday Beer. In all, there'll be over 40 homemade beers, meads, and ciders to choose from (I think there may be a few wines there, too).  The list is still being populated, you can check it out HERE.

Try an 1870s Oshkosh Saloon Beer at Cask and Caskets 2018

There'll also be live music from the 432s, door prizes, bucket raffles, and more. If you go, wear your best Halloween suit; there's going to be a costume contest. For more info on Cask and Caskets 2018 check out the C&C webpage and the Facebook event page. See you there!

The Return of Casks and Caskets

After a two-year hiatus, Casks and Caskets returned Saturday night.

Casks and Caskets was launched in 2012 by the Society of Oshkosh Brewers (SOBs).  The plan was to have an annual homebrewed beer festival. All went well until the event was shut down by the state after Casks 2014.

Even though money generated from the event went to charity, the SOBs were informed that selling tickets to a festival where untaxed beer is poured would, in the future, be considered illegal. It took the club a couple years to find a way to work with that decision. The solution turned out to be fairly simple. Make it a free-beer fest.

This year, Casks and Caskets was held at the Oshkosh Hilton Garden Inn. And it remained a charity event. Money was raised through silent auctions, raffles, and donations. This year, the money will go to the Oshkosh Hunger Network.

There's not another beer fest like this in Wisconsin. There's no other that's absolutely free. And there's no other where all the beverages – beer, wine, cider, mead, soda – are homemade. It makes for an atmosphere different from any other beer event I've been to.

SOB president Mike Engel presenting Travis Sullivan his trophy for his "Best of Show" beer.

Let's hope we can all get together and do it again next year.

Cask and Caskets 2017

Cask and Caskets is back. The Society of Oshkosh Brewer's fourth homebrewed beer fest takes place Saturday, November 4, 2017, at the Hilton Garden Inn Oshkosh from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m

Here's the kicker: this year, it's free. You do not have to pay to get in. No hitches, no bullshit. It's a free beer festival. But tickets are strictly limited. Right now, less than 150 remain. If you want to go, you’ll need to get moving. Here's how it works.

UPDATE: Casks & Caskets 2017 is now sold out.

Everything served at Casks is homemade. There won't be a commercial beer in sight. And it's not just beer. There will also be a bevy of ciders, meads, and wines. The homemade aspect means this won't be a "normal" fest. This fest takes rare and local to the extreme. At Casks, you'll get to try stuff you've never had before and will never have again.

Despite all the free liquid, Cask and Caskets is still a charity event. It costs nothing to get in and drink, but there are a number of ways to contribute. When you enter, you'll be able to make a donation. And if you want to upgrade from a regular cup to a "Casks" glass, you can do so for $35. There's also going to be a bucket raffle and silent auction items including a Gretsch guitar. All money raised will go to the Oshkosh Hunger Network.

The Gretsch

The list is still being populated, but here’s a handful of beers that’ll pour at casks: Telephone Pole Pale Ale, a fresh-hop beer made with hops grown in Oshkosh. Gin Barrel Saison. Georgia Peach IPA. Peanut Butter Ale. Sour Apple Saison. Vanilla Java Porter. Raven's Breath Black IPA. The Hulk, an aged Barleywine. They're not all stunt beers. The SOBs will be slinging plenty of traditional styles including ESB, Porter, Wit, Kolsch, Cream Ale, and more.

Fellow SOB Jody Cleveland and I are teaming up for a mini-fest within the fest. We're calling it Old World Oshkosh. We've cloned six beers from Oshkosh's past. An 1840s porter of the sort that was shipped to Oshkosh before there were breweries here. An 1850 dark lager brewed in Oshkosh at the Schussler Brewery. An 1874 Vienna Lager brewed at the Glatz Brewery. An 1876 Berliner Weisse brewed at the Schiffmann Brewery. The Oshkosh Brewing Company's 1894 Export Beer. And the original Peoples Beer from the 1950s.

And then, there’s this...

A costume contest. But you’ll need to find a better get up than a wiener suit to win it. There’ll be live music at the fest along with door prizes. If you want to spend Casks night at the Hilton Garden Inn, call the hotel and mention the festival. They’ll give you a deal on your room – $89 for the Saturday night stay.

If you have questions, plop them in the comments section or hit me up on Facebook. I'll answer as soon as I can. Hope to see you there!

Mike Engel of the Society of Oshkosh Brewers

A conversation with Mike Engel, the recently re-elected president of the Society of Oshkosh Brewers homebrew club. We discuss the state of the club and the SOB's plans for 2017.

S.O.B.

The Society of Oshkosh Brewers homebrew club formed in 1991. Here's one of the club's original membership cards. Al Jacobson is a founding member of the SOBs and still active in the club.

Then and Now: The Parading Oshkosh Beer Cans

In 1949, the Oshkosh Brewing Company began canning its beer. The first type of can used by OBC was a crowntainer, a can with a seamless body and funnel-shaped spout. Initially described as a “metal bottle” crowntainers were introduced in 1939 by the Crown Cork & Seal Company.

Here’s a look at an OBC crowntainer.

Here’s how those cans looked from the top.

To help introduce the new package, OBC made a large replica of the can for the brewery’s float in the 1949 Oshkosh Fourth of July Parade. Here’s that float coming down Oregon Street near 8th Avenue.

When the parade was over the can was taken to the home of OBC executive, Lorenz “Shorty” Kuenzl on Bent Avenue. Here’s Shorty’s 14-year-old son John Kuenzl posing with the can.

John Kuenzl would later be a driver for OBC and eventually become president of Lee Beverage of Wisconsin, a beer distributorship based in Oshkosh. Here he is again with his friend Dick Oaks (of the Oaks Candy family).

Earlier this year, the Society of Oshkosh Brewers was asked to take part in this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which took place Saturday on Main Street in Oshkosh. Inspired by the OBC float of 1949, the SOB's parade entry was in keeping with the club's ethos of "Upholding Oshkosh's Brewing Tradition." Instead of doing a single can, though, the SOBs decided to do a six-pack of cans, each adorned with a classic Oshkosh beer label.

Here's the full SOB parade crew just before the start of the parade.

SOB cans parading down Main Street.

Here the cans are piled high in Oblio's after the parade.

A few more shots of the SOBs.

Here's my John Kuenzl reenactment.

Finally, here's a very brief video of the SOB cans executing their crowd-pleasing, figure-eight, six-pack formation.

Much thanks to Kay Kuenzl-Stenerson who was a great help with this post. Also thanks to Chris Bauer, Correen Redlin, and Dick Waltenberry for their pictures posted here.