Saturday, August 6, 2016

Sheboygan Breweries - Part Three

OK, this is more of a footnote than a whole new post.  But Sheboygan had such a rich brewery history that I thought a few other companies deserved a flicker of historical recognition.

The first brewery in Sheboygan is generally listed as that of the Gutsch Brothers, starting in 1847 and continuing in one form or another until 1974.  It was located at New York Avenue and Water Street.  Nothing remains of it today.

But, I have also found reference to a brewery run by a man named Heberg in "the early 40's" on River Street between 4th and 5th Avenues. This is a nice hillside overlooking the Sheboygan river and would be a perfect site for such an enterprise.

As discussed in my last installment, Jacob Muth started brewing in 1848, in some sort of business arrangement with the Brothers Bintz.

There are a couple of 1850s breweries of which very little is known.  An August Rentz is a complete cypher.  A man named Charles Osthelder is listed as being in Sheboygan but I think this is a misattribution.  A man named Ostholder was in business in this era in nearby Sheboygan Falls.

The Schlicht and Schreier Brewery started in a modest way in 1854.  It was, and is, on New Jersey Avenue and 15th.  A few remains of the brewery can still be seen peeking out from under the modern Conagra plant that took over when brewing stopped in 1934.




A partnership of Walldorfer and Buchel in the late 1850s started a brewery on the edge of town, out on the Calumet plank road.  They had the usual bad luck with fires but I do find an 1870s reference to the same site having a brewery run by the Kroos family.  As they were local grain merchants I wonder if they took over a defunct enterprise on the basis of monies owed to them. This was near Calumet Road and 24th Street.  Although the remains of a beer vault were still to be seen in the 1920s I was not able to see anything on a recent visit.




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