A Beer that Made Milwaukee Jealous: The Story of Pioneer Beer and the G. Weber Brewing Co. Part 1

The following is a multi-part historical piece on the G. Weber Brewing Company and Pioneer Beer. The information was compiled using these sources: “Roll Out the Barrels: Brewers of Eastern Dodge County, Wisconsin, 1850-1961” by Michael D. Benter; archives from the Dodge County Pionier and The Mayville News; “The Beers of Theresa Part 1: Die Biere von Theresa” and “The Beers of Theresa Part 2: Weber Bier” by Rob Bowe; the Theresa Historical Society; and volumes one through six of its newsletter, “The Bridge.”

Before beers brewed by Anheuser-Busch and Molson Coors became household names across the United States, a locally brewed beer was the predominant choice found in Theresa homes and saloons: G. Weber Brewing Company’s Pioneer Beer.

Pioneer Beer was an unfiltered and “kraeusened” beer. According to Michael D. Benter in his book, “Roll Out the Barrels: Brewers of Eastern Dodge County, Wisconsin, 1850-1961,” a “kraeusened” beer went through a process where “‘young’ (still fermenting) beer was added to an almost finished lager beer ‘to create a secondary fermentation and a new carbonation.’” This was a natural way to carbonate the beer as opposed to using carbon dioxide.

The brewery that produced Pioneer Beer, along with other beer varieties, was opened around 1849 by German immigrant Ulrich Oberle and was located on present-day Menomonee Street in Theresa.

In 1853, Benedict Weber became Oberle’s business partner. According to Benter, Weber, also a German immigrant, had come to Theresa that year as an aspiring farmer, but was unable to acquire the desired land.

Only one year after entering the equal partnership, Benedict Weber bought the entire brewery, incorporating it and naming it G. Weber Brewery after his son, Gebhard. Benter believes that Oberle likely stayed on the brewery’s staff as a brewmaster “because at least seven years later, Oberle continued to reside in Theresa, and his occupation was listed as beer brewer.”

The brewery was officially incorporated with the State of Wisconsin in 1857, making it “the earliest incorporated brewery in the state,” according to local historian Rob Bowe in his article “The Beers of Theresa Part 1: Die Biere von Theresa.”

In 1860, the brewery was destroyed in a fire. Within the same year, Benedict began reconstructing the brewery, using materials from what remained of the old building and the surrounding countryside. However, before the reconstruction was completed, a tornado tore through Theresa, destroying the brewery’s new foundation.

When Benedict was finally able to complete the reconstruction, the brewery included a new malt house with a barley sprouting floor, a cordwood-fired furnace, and other new pieces of beer-making equipment.

Unfortunately, Benedict Weber did not live much longer to enjoy his additions to the brewery. In 1864, he died from an infected wound after being thrown off his horse on a trip to Ashford. Because Benedict’s son, Gebhard Weber, was only a teenager at the time of his father’s death, Benedict’s wife, Maria Josepha, likely took over the brewery’s operations. After ten years, Gebhard assumed ownership of the brewery at the age of 28. Some theorize that Gebhard was barred from owning the brewery until he married because 1874 was also the year of his marriage to Maria Husting.

Under Gebhard’s leadership, by 1880, the G. Weber Brewing Company was producing roughly 1,400 barrels of beer annually, significantly more than other area breweries.

In the late 1800s, the brewery’s operations expanded in multiple ways. In his article “The Beers of Theresa Part 2: Weber Bier,” Bowe explained that the Webers “began to produce much of their own barley and hops on the Weber-owned Sunny Brae Farm just west of the village as well as the neighboring Koll farm.”

Additionally, an ice house was added to the brewery in 1890 and was later upgraded in 1894. At this time, beer was not yet pasteurized, requiring it to be stored in a temperature-controlled environment. Ice was harvested from the Rock River during the winter for this purpose and to be sold for additional profit. To help it dominate the local market, the G. Weber Brewing Co. would not sell ice to any saloon or local establishment that did not sell Weber beer.

Around this time, the brewery’s biggest competitor was the Luhn and Bandlow Union Brewery. Before it was the Luhn and Bandlow Union Brewery, the brewery was owned by Johann Quast and was largely considered unsuccessful. After Quast died in 1889, the brewery sat empty until roughly 1893, when Gustav Luhn bought the building with Vinzent Asenbaur. According to his son, Cornelius, Gebhard Weber was urged by his wife to buy the building to eliminate future competition.

“In spite of my (m)other’s repeated urging for my (f)ather to buy it, he just would not comply . . . My (f)ather made a mistake in not having bought the Quast property,” Cornelius Weber is recorded as saying in “Roll Out the Barrels.”

The old Quast property became the Luhn and Bandlow Union Brewery when Luhn entered a partnership with his brother-in-law, Frederick Bandlow, in 1895.

The G. Weber Brewing Co. and Luhn and Bandlow Union Brewery were known to put their competition aside “if they were seeking the goodwill of the community” and to work together to harvest and deliver ice.

More changes came to the Weber Brewery in the form of leadership and packaging in the early 1900s. In 1906, the company switched from sole ownership under Gebhard Weber to include his sons Bertram (Bert) C. Weber and Victor R. Weber. Bert was serving as the brewmaster, and Victor was involved with the sales and promotion, along with completing “general brewery work.”

The following year, the installation of beer bottling equipment allowed the brewery to expand its business horizons by offering beer in sizes other than a keg. It also led to continued technological improvements to the brewery throughout the 1910s. These improvements included a rotary bottle filler, labeling machine, and mechanical bottle soaker, which was developed by Cornelius (Cornie) Weber. These and the other pieces of equipment in the brewery began running on electricity instead of gas in 1911.

With bottles came the need for labels and a label design. One of the company’s first beer labels included a picture of a Native American’s head and a passage in German, which, when translated, stated: “How brightly golden it bubbles in the glass, how it slides down the gullet, a delightful refreshing drink, gladdening body and soul. Like our ancestors, we ask that God preserve it long, and make well flourish the hops and the malt.”

Unfortunately for G. Weber Brewing Co. and breweries throughout the country, the hops and malt were not to flourish for long.