THE 5 BREWERIES THAT MADE MILWAUKEE FAMOUS

There’s a reason Milwaukee’s baseball team is called the Brewers. For more than two centuries, the city has been home to many of the largest and bestknown breweries in the United States. As late as 1950, four of the country’s 10 largest brewers — Pabst, Miller, Schlitz and Blatz — called Milwaukee home.

How did Milwaukee become Brew City? Historians credit the city’s fastrising German population and its thirst for beer (both manufacturing and consuming), a harbor that easily accommodated shipping, access to important natural resources like clean water and lumber (for making beer barrels), and even the city’s cold weather, which meant brewers had cheap and easy access to the tons of ice needed to keep their product chilled.

Here’s a look at Milwaukee’s five biggest beer-makers.

Miller Brewing Co.

Founded: 1855

Claims to fame: Miller effectively created the market for light beer after acquiring the Lite brand in 1972 and launching a massive marketing campaign, powered by a string of popular ads featuring the Miller Lite All-Stars, including legendary Brewers broadcaster and former baseball player Bob Uecker. The move helped propel Miller in the 1970s to No. 2 among the largest breweries in the U.S., behind AnheuserBusch.

Famous slogans: “The champagne of beers” (also “the champagne of bottle beer”); “It’s Miller time”; “If you’ve got the time, we’ve got the beer”; “Everything you’ve always wanted in a beer … and less”; “Tastes great … less filling.”

Best-known brands: Miller High Life, Miller Lite, Miller Genuine Draft

Today: Miller’s Milwaukee-based control ended in 1966, when W.R. Grace Co. bought a majority of the Miller family stock. Three years later, Philip Morris Corp. acquired Miller Brewing. Philip Morris sold Miller to South African Brewing in 2002, and it became part of SABMiller; after a combination with Coors, Miller was spun off as part of Molson Coors.

Jos. A. Schlitz Brewing Co.

Founded: 1849

Claims to fame: Schlitz was the largest brewer in the U.S. for much of the first half of the 20th century, and it was the fourth-largest as late as 1980. Until the 1970s, Schlitz, for decades one of Milwaukee’s largest employers, bankrolled several of Milwaukee’s biggest summertime attractions, including the Fourth of July lakefront fireworks, Old Milwaukee Days (a precursor to Summerfest) and the Circus Parade.

Famous slogans: “The beer that made Milwaukee famous”; “When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer.”

Best-known brands: Schlitz, Schlitz Malt Liquor

Last chapter: After Schlitz shut the doors of its sprawling Milwaukee brewery following a 1981 strike, the company was sold in 1982 to Stroh Brewery Co., which shut it down. The old brewery complex was converted into the Schlitz Park office park in the mid-1980s. (Pabst, which had tried to buy Schlitz in 1981, effectively acquired the Schlitz brand in 2014.)

Pabst Brewing Co.

Founded: 1844

Claims to fame: Pabst was the largest brewer in the U.S. for much of the late 19th century. The brewery won a blue ribbon for its beer at the 1893 Columbia Exposition in Chicago and made it part of its marketing and its brand thereafter.

Famous slogans: “It’s blended ... It’s splendid”; “What’ll You Have?”; “PBR me, ASAP.”

Best-known brands: Pabst Blue Ribbon, Andeker, Jacob Best

Today: After closing its breweries in Milwaukee and elsewhere in 1996, Pabst has been a “virtual” brewer, contracting with other companies, including Molson Coors, to brew its products. The former brewing complex has been redeveloped as a complex of offices, restaurants, a hotel, apartments and a couple of craft breweries.

A. Gettelman Brewing Co.

Founded: 1856

Claims to fame: Frederick Gettelman himself designed the first practical steel beer keg in 1933; it was manufactured by Milwaukee giant A.O. Smith.

Famous slogan: “Get … Get … Gettelman.”

Best-known brands: Gettelman, Milwaukee’s Best, $1,000 Beer

Last chapter: Miller Brewing Co. bought Gettelman in 1961 and operated the Gettelman plant as a standalone brewery until 1970. The brewery property, which was just west of Miller’s sprawling brewery on West State Street, was targeted for demolition in 2017, sparking public outcry. Part of the complex was torn down, but as of 2018, the 1856 farmhouse building that housed the original brewery was slated for renovation.

Blatz Brewing Co.

Founded: 1851

Claims to fame: The first Milwaukee brewery to market its beer nationally, and one of the first to put “brewed on” dates on its bottles.

Famous slogan: “I’m from Milwaukee, and I ought to know”; “Milwaukee’s finest beer.”

Best-known brands: Blatz, Old Heidelberg

Last chapter: Pabst Brewing Co. purchased Blatz in 1958 and shut down the brewery at Juneau and Broadway, but antitrust regulators challenged the sale. In 1969 Pabst was forced to sell Blatz to La Crosse-based G. Heileman Brewing Co. (Pabst later reacquired the Blatz brand.) The Blatz brewery was converted to apartments in 1988.

JOURNAL STAFF PHOTO, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL At one time, Milwaukee was the home to several of the United States’ largest breweries. This 1952 photo shows a Pabst truck waiting for a load of beer in the Milwaukee Road’s Beer Line loading yard between what is now North King Drive and the Milwaukee River. The Schlitz terminal on the massive Jos. A. Schlitz Brewing Co. complex is in the background.

MILWAUKEE JOURNAL PHOTO Frank C. Verbest, president of Blatz Brewing Co., pours a glass of the Milwaukee brewery’s new dark beer, Blatz Continental Special, for Louis E Wheeler, Blatz’s general sales director, in 1953.

MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL FILES Fred Gettelman (at right), the grandson of the founder of A. Gettelman Brewing Co., gathers with some employees in 1937.

MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL FILES Milwaukee Mayor Daniel W. Hoan, from left, Steve Trumbell of the Columbia Broadcasting System and Schlitz Brewing President Erwin C. Uihlein are on hand to broadcast news of the first legal beer coming off the Schlitz brewery’s production line after the end of Prohibition shortly after midnight on April 8, 1933.

MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL FILES Miller Brewing Co. President Frederick C. Miller, center, helps roll out the Milwaukee brewery’s three millionth barrel of beer of the year in 1952.