Region & History

Milwaukee became a beer city because Germans arrived here in the 19th century who knew how to brew. After the failed revolutions of 1848 and 1849, many brewers emigrated. On the western shore of Lake Michigan, they found barley, ice and space. Jacob Best founded the Best and Company brewery in 1844 with his four sons, starting with 300 barrels a year, roughly 350 hectoliters.

This operation later became Pabst, the company has carried that name since 1889. August Krug started a brewery in 1849 on Chestnut Street, today's Juneau Avenue, which grew into Schlitz. Valentin Blatz followed in 1851, then Frederick Miller in 1855, who bought the Best brothers' shuttered Plank Road Brewery for $8,000.

The leap to a nationwide business came courtesy of the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. The breweries of the neighboring city burned down, and Milwaukee was perfectly placed to fill the gap. From 1893 onward, Schlitz advertised itself with the line "the beer that made Milwaukee famous." During Prohibition, nearly all of the city's roughly 1,980 saloons closed, and the big breweries survived on low-alcohol "near beer" and soda.

What became of the four names? Schlitz closed its Milwaukee plant in 1981 following a strike; Stroh took over the company in 1982, and Pabst bought the rights to the name in 1999. Pabst itself closed its Milwaukee brewery in 1996, has been based in Los Angeles since its 2014 sale, and has had varieties like Blue Ribbon brewed by Miller since 1999; after a dispute, the arrangement was renewed in 2018. Milwaukeeans brewed Blatz until 1959, after which the brand passed to Pabst. Only Miller still stands on its original site, now part of Molson Coors.

There's no EU designation of origin for Milwaukee, since the name stands for a city, not a style. The craft wave began in 1985 with Sprecher, followed by Lakefront in 1987. As of 2023, one survey counted 266 craft breweries across Wisconsin.