Pabst beer wagons and horse teams lined up to carry one day's delivery of beer for Milwaukee establishments in 1900.
Craft breweries preserve Milwaukee's beer heritage Local craft brewers are carrying Milwaukee’s “Brew City” legacy into the 21st century, helping the long-time brewing giant, Miller Brewing Company, redefine what it means to be the Beer Capital of the World. “It’s really important to have a strong brewing community when your local baseball team is called the Brewers,” says Russ Klisch, president of Lakefront Brewery, Inc., which produced just under 47,000 barrels of beer last year. “You have to keep the tradition and live up to the name.” For much of the 20th century, breweries were among the region’s largest employers thanks to Miller, Pabst, Schlitz and Blatz. Miller (now MillerCoors) is the only large brewer remaining (Pabst returned to the city last year as a small brewery) and the brewing industry employs
16 |
Milwaukee Commerce, FALL 2018
less than 1 percent of the workforce. But brewing continues to have an oversized impact on the region’s culture and its increasing attraction to Millennials. The growth in local craft breweries has been impressive. Currently, there are more than 160 craft brewers in Wisconsin, more than double the number in 2011. Three of the state’s largest craft breweries – Lakefront Brewery, Sprecher Brewing and Milwaukee Brewing Company – are based in southeast Wisconsin, which (thanks mostly to MillerCoors) produce 90 percent of the state’s favorite malt beverage. Sprecher Brewing Company launched the current craft brewery craze. Its founder, Randy Sprecher, worked by night as a
