The Rise and Fall of the Germantown Brewery in Wisconsin

Long before Germantown became the community we know today, one of its first cornerstone businesses was a brewery.

Originally known as the Staats Brewery, the Germantown Brewery was among the earliest enterprises in what was then called Town 9. So influential was the Staats family that the area soon became known as Staatsville — a name that reflected ownership and identity in the young settlement.

A Land Patent and a Limestone Hill

On July 1, 1848, Adam Staats and Valentine Schwalbach were issued a land patent for the west half of the northwest quarter of Section 22 — 80 acres that today would encompass the land between Main Street and Freistadt Road, from Park Avenue westward.

By 1858, Staats had constructed a brewery carved directly into a stone hillside at the southeast corner of Fond du Lac Trail — today’s Highway 145 (55). Building into the hill wasn’t just practical; it provided natural cooling for beer storage before mechanical refrigeration.

Across the trail to the west stood a hotel that had existed as early as 1854. Like most brewery-adjacent inns of the era, it almost certainly included a saloon and dining area. While the hotel building no longer stands, the brewery structure itself has survived — a rare physical reminder of Germantown’s earliest commercial days.

Expanding the Family Trade

By 1873, a plat map shows Valentine Staats operating a saloon roughly 500 feet east of the hotel, atop the hill on the south side of Fond du Lac Road. It doesn’t take much imagination to guess which beer was served there.

According to the 1880 History of Washington and Ozaukee Counties, the brewery was then owned by John Staats and had been operating continuously since 1858 — a 28-year run. When John Staats died in November 1880, the brewery continued under estate administrator Ph. G. Duerrwaechter.

Prohibition and Repeal

Like breweries across the nation, operations ceased during Prohibition. But in 1933, following repeal, the brewery received U-Permit No. WIS-U-720A, allowing it to resume production under the Milwaukee-Germantown Brewing Company name.

From 1933 to 1941, the brewery produced:

Old Germantown Beer (1933–1940)
Milwaukee Beer (1933–1941)
Lake Club Lager Beer (1938–1941)

Walter Lillydahl operated the Germantown brewery during the post-Prohibition era and also ran a brewery on Marshall Street in Milwaukee.

Closing and Legacy

The Germantown Brewery ultimately closed in 1941. Today, surviving brewery building is a private residence.

From its founding in the limestone hills of Staatsville to its repeal-era revival, the Germantown Brewery tells a classic Wisconsin story — immigration, entrepreneurship, saloons on dusty trails, Prohibition shutdowns, and a final run before mid-20th-century consolidation reshaped the brewing industry.

For collectors and local historians alike, surviving bottles labeled A.H. Reingruber, Vogl’s Independent Brewing, or Old Germantown Beer are more than glass — they’re artifacts of one of Germantown’s very first businesses.