When $500 and a Barrelful of Determination Could Open a Brewery

by

One of Milwaukee’s most dynamic 19th century brewers, Valentin Blatz, would be pleased that his beer is still being produced 150 years later.

Born in Bavaria in 1826, Valentin Blatz, future Milwaukee brewing magnate, is 14 years old when he leaves school to work in his father’s brewery. Four years later, Blatz is offered an apprenticeship at a large regional brewery in Munich. Having heard about the opportunities for success in the New World, he makes his way to Milwaukee, where the large German population enthusiastically embraces art, music, and culture from their homeland. In 1849, he finds a job with John Braun’s Cedar Brewery, a three-man operation that produces 12 or 13 barrels of beer a month. Blatz rents a small room in his employer’s home, and when he has accrued $500, he establishes his own brewery near the intersection of Broadway and Juneau.

When Braun was killed in a fall from his beer wagon, Blatz married his widow, Louise, and adopted her son and unborn daughter. Using his new wife’s inheritance, Blatz merged the Cedar Brewery with his own, calling it the City Brewery. When the plant was producing 50 barrels a month, Blatz delegated the day-to-day operations to several trusted employees while he honed his sales and business skills. 

In 1871, Milwaukee’s major brewers capitalized on the catastrophic Chicago Fire to fortify their respective sales outlets in that city. The historic blaze consumed more than 17,000 buildings, including several brewing concerns. Before the fire, 40 Chicago breweries produced one million gallons of beer a year. Now, the production and distribution of beer slowed considerably as the city rebuilt itself. Unable to get beer, some residents resorted to angry, violent behavior like that of the 1855 Beer Riots. After a while, the situation righted itself and soon Blatz was providing one-third of all the beer sold in Chicago.

email newsletter iconStay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.

SIGN UP

At age 47, the dynamic Valentin Blatz is the first brewery executive to operate a railroad-based distribution network, the first to build a bottling house, and the first (in partnership with Joseph Schlitz) to open the Second Ward Savings Bank. The visionary CEO sees his competitors forging lucrative tied-house agreements with saloons owners who will advertise and serve only the sponsor’s beer. Schlitz opens a huge public park that houses a theater, bandstands, outdoor beer gardens, and restaurants. Pabst opens two parks, the Whitefish Bay resort overlooking Lake Michigan, and Shooting Park at Third and Garfield. Blatz purchases a large parcel of land in Pleasant Valley on the east bank of the Milwaukee River and creates an enjoyable atmosphere with music, conversation, and a stein of beer in front of the men. Every 15 minutes, a steamboat full of visitors docks at the park entrance.  

With production exceeding 200,000 barrels in 1889, the brewery was incorporated as the Val. Blatz Brewing Company with capital stock of $2 million. Blatz then quietly sold the entire business to the United States Brewing Company, a syndicate of British and American investors. At the transaction’s conclusion, Blatz came away with $3 million and control of the Milwaukee operation. The latter was a provision for the new owners that virtually guaranteed no reduction in revenue.

On May 26, 1894, 68-year-old Valentin Blatz died unexpectedly while in St. Paul, Minnesota with his wife. The couple was returning from California where they spent the winter in a warmer climate to slow Louise’s deteriorating health. Blatz postponed the trip west several times because something told him he would never see Milwaukee again. The premonition was shared with a few close friends.

A coffin rests in the parlor of the Blatz home at Van Buren and Juneau. The room is filled with flowers and memorials from the Masons, Old Settlers Club, Musical Society, and the Turners. Guests chat amiably with a large contingency of brewing executives from Chicago who have come to pay their respects. The coffin is then paraded past hundreds of employees who line the streets hoping for a glimpse. More than 120 carriages follow the hearse to Forest Home Cemetery for the burial service. Among the honorary pallbearers are Captain Frederick Pabst and the Schlitz Brewing Company’s Vice President Edward Uihlein. An article in a newspaper’s evening edition estimates Valentin Blatz’s estate at $8 million.