West Bend, WI – There is a lot of history inside the old West Bend Brewery building. Below is a tour of the caverns in the lower level of the brewery.
The former West Bend Brewery, 445 N. Main Street, was razed for another apartment complex.
Up a short series of stairs and through the red wash house door leads to a flight of stairs below street level. There are high ceilings in the lower level and then a quick turn left and into a dark cavern with arched ceilings.
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Rusty pipes line the floor and lead to two stairs through another red door to a smaller room that reportedly has a hole in the floor (now filled with cement) where the lithium water was acquired.
A little history on the old West Bend Brewery
There was a small nugget about the old West Bend Brewery in the book History of Washington and Ozaukee Counties, Wisconsin.
“The West Bend Brewery S.F. Mayer & Co., proprietors was built in 1848 by B. Goetter who conducted the business about two years and then leased it to Christopher Eckstein, and soon after sold to Stephan and Charles Mayer, who carried on the business enlarging and extending it during the remainder of their lives; Steven Mayer died in 1867.
Under Charles Mayer’s management the brewery was rebuilt and enlarged in 1868 and managed by him till the time of his death in August 1871.
In the next four years the business was conducted in the interest of the heirs, and, in 1875, an arrangement was made by which business was re-organized until the present management of S.F. Mayer & Co.
At this writing the brewery is 200 x 40 feet in size having a yearly capacity of 3,500 barrels of beer a 24-horse-power engine is used and employment given to seven men, a new double kiln 30 x 22 feet with new growing floors and storing rooms, 28 x 52 feet, have been added.”
According to an article by Lee and Mary Krueger regarding the history of breweries, the old West Bend Brewery dates to around 1890.
The building is a series of multi-level floors with high ceilings and stairwells.
Some of the old equipment remains including the arched tunnels in the lower level.
Story originally posted in 2017.