From the Journal Sentinel

October 28, 2000

Here's a list of former Ozaukee County breweries:

• In 1847, Jacob Moritz began brewing in Port Washington at Lakeside Brewing. It was renamed Port Washington Brewing Co. and then, after Prohibition, the Old Port Washington Brewing Co. It closed in 1947. The brewery's old offices now form part of the American Legion Hall, 419 Lake St., across from Lower Lake Park. The brewery had beer caves, since bulldozed shut, built into St. Mary's Hill behind it. One of the company's signature beers was Premo, whose slogan was "The beer that made Milwaukee furious."
• The Engels and Schaeffer Brewing Co. began in Cedarburg in 1848, but no one is sure where it was located or when it closed, according to Gordon Engeldinger, who is co-writing a book on Ozaukee County breweries.
• From 1865 to 1894, the Wittman Brewery operated in Port Washington. The brewery's building, which also was a tavern, is today a private residence at 532 N. Harrison St. It also had beer caves built into St. Mary's Hill on the west side of Wisconsin Ave.
• The Cedarburg Brewing Co. began in 1869. One of the area's busiest breweries, it was producing 1,500 barrels of beer a year in the mid-1870s, according to "Breweries of Wisconsin" by Jerry Apps (University of Wisconsin Press; 1992). It stayed in business until 1920. Today the brewery building, at W62-N718 Riveredge Drive, houses an artists' collective.
• Engels Brewing Co. in Thiensville was begun in the 1870s by Charles Engels. It was in the 100 block of Green Bay Road, Engeldinger said, and stored its beer in caves on a hill near Green Bay and Bonniwell roads about two miles north.
• J. Harz Brewery in Thiensville operated from 1870 to 1880. A portion of its old foundation can still be seen on the north edge of town, on the east side of Cedarburg Road.
• A green expanse of lawn along the east bank of the Milwaukee River, just north of the Washington Ave. bridge, now covers the remains of Grafton's John Weber Brewing Co. It operated from the mid-1880s well into the 1890s.
• The Grafton Brewing Co. was run by George Blessing shortly before Prohibition and then revived shortly afterward, from 1933 to 1935, when it was bought by the Wisconsin Cooperative Brewery, which ran it until it closed in 1941. The old brewery is in a house about a half-block north of Washington Ave. on Green Bay Road.
• Franz Zimmerman Brewery in Mequon, also known as the Mequon Brewery, operated from 1878 until the mid-1880s. Its facilities can still be seen on Mequon Road where Kelch Corp. is located. The brewery maintained beer caves on the old fox farm near Green Bay and Highland Roads.
• One of the area's smaller breweries was the Robert Schwalbach Brewery in Newburg, which operated from 1876 to 1899 and produced about 125 barrels a year. A tavern, The Newburg Brewery, 315 Main St., is there now. Tracy Preschat, whose family owns the tavern, said notebooks and diaries - but not beer recipes - from Schwalbach have been found in the walls, as has a tunnel from the tavern to a local funeral home. Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Oct. 29, 2000.