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Feb 18, 2024

I have to admit, I started out skeptical about the true feel-goodness of the “Old Style returns to La Crosse” story, which graced the front page of the State Journal earlier this month.

On its face, it’s a heart-touching homecoming, the return of a beer that became an emblem for a community, no less than Pabst or Miller with Milwaukee, Bud with St. Louis or Stroh’s with Detroit. And La Crosse had every right to be just as proud. It’s no big city, but its homegrown beer — created by G. Heileman Brewing in 1900 — was poured across the country and particularly caught on in Chicago.

By its peak in 1983, Heileman’s La Crosse brewery was the biggest engine in a brewing empire that kicked out 17 million barrels of Old Style and many other beers, the fourth-largest brewer in the country behind only Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Stroh. It even created the sparkling water brand La Croix in 1981.

The price wars of the late 20th century were not kind to big-but-not-biggest brewers, and for years Heileman, aiming to become big enough to survive, scooped up many largely fungible regional brands that could no longer compete: Kingsbury, Lone Star, Blatz, Olympia, Rainier, National Bohemian. Eventually, though, that consolidation caught up with Heileman, too, and it was bought in bankruptcy by Stroh in 1996, and Stroh by Pabst and Miller in 1999.

The La Crosse brewery, which continued production as it changed hands, was saved by local investors in 1999 who rebranded it City Brewery and built it into a major national force in contract brewing. Despite making none of its own products, City is one of the largest brewing companies in the United States and owns other large breweries in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and California.

It is this jumble of acquisitions and divestitures and joint ventures and faceless contract brewing that made me wary of the sheen of nostalgia over Old Style’s return to La Crosse. Things are not often as they seem in the world of big beer, and are hardly as simple as this story was presented.

Case in point: The precipitating event that brought Old Style back to La Crosse is a conflict between Pabst and Molson Coors, the owner of the Miller Brewing complex in Milwaukee and the primary contract brewer for Pabst since 1999. That arrangement, set to end in 2020, went out with a bang with a lawsuit settled in 2018. City Brewery was next up as Pabst’s contract brewer, and Pabst acquired a minority stake in City in 2021.

Old Style appears to be the leading edge of Pabst contract changeover, and La Crosse will be the only City facility brewing Old Style. A majority of other Pabst brands will be made at City as well, a Pabst spokesperson told me, including Pabst Blue Ribbon, which will begin production in 2024.

The rep declined to address questions about the nature of Pabst’s other contract brewers, but did say that while Pabst was expected to be one of City’s top customers, City would continue to have a large and diverse client base contracting for beer, wine, canned cocktails, seltzers and other beverages.

When the first Old Style made in La Crosse in 20-plus years hits tap lines in November, though, it’s hard to imagine that any of those complex machinations of the past 24 years will matter.

The city’s pride in Old Style endures today; La Crosse Tribune reporter Saskia Hatvany noted the plethora of those big, old-school Old Style bar signs visible on the streets of the city, worn as they may be after decades of Wisconsin winters.

And Hatvany’s story quoted a bowling alley owner who said he hadn’t poured Old Style for several years, partly because kegs and cases of it had been more difficult to secure since production left town.

And this is why I can’t be cynical about Pabst’s celebration of the Old Style homecoming. La Crosse deserves Old Style, no matter how many courtroom battles and hostile takeovers and bankruptcies complicated the relationship between the city and the beer that generations of workers and loyal drinkers earned the right to call their own.

This advertisement for Old Style Lager appeared in the La Crosse Tribune in 1957.

Pickets and officials of G. Heileman Brewing Co. swarm around a car and truck in 1969 during one of many strikes over the years.

This 1970 photo shows the final stages of construction of the World's Largest Six Pack at the G. Heileman Brewery. Just two of the tanks are painted to resemble Old Style cans. Today, the six-pack features La Crosse Lager, and it can hold 22,000 barrels of beer.

Thirty tanks were installed in 1972 along Third and Winnebago streets, nearly doubling the capacity of the G. Heileman Brewery. Also part of the expansion, as reported in the La Crosse Tribune, was a new bottling line.

The G. Heileman Brewing Co. joined the New York Stock Exchange in 1973 when it received the ticker symbol GHB. Shown here, from left, are Merle S. Wick, vice president of the stock exchange; Russell Cleary, president of Heileman; and Michael Creem, a stock trader.

Brewmaster Al Brietzke jots notes about his opinions of a sample of beer in 1976 at the G. Heileman Brewery.

Russell Cleary, center, president of the G. Heileman Brewing Co., and Local 1081 business agent Bill Akright prepare to pound the bung into the 6-millionth barrel of beer as John Pedace, left, executive vice president of marketing, looks on during the 1977 ceremony. In 1960, Heileman was the nation's 39th largest brewery. Cleary told the Tribune that the brewery would be No. 6 in the nation by the end of the year.

Sculptor Elmer Petersen, right, created a steel version of the King Gambrinus statue at the G. Heileman Brewing Co. headquarters along the city's downtown riverfront. Built in 1979, 100 Harborview Plaza was the first building of a riverfront redevelopment project that includes the La Crosse Center and the Radisson Hotel. Today, the building is occupied by Reinhart FoodService, Mutual of Omaha Financial Advisors and the 4 Sisters Wine Bar & Tapas restaurant. The statue is no longer on public display.

An open house was held in 1982 to let the public see inside the new brewhouse at the G. Heileman Brewery. The new facility brought the total capacity of the brewery to 10 million barrels of beer a year.

G. Heileman Brewery worker Duane Arentz examines a can of Old Style L.A. when it was first introduced in 1984. The low-alcohol beer was later discontinued.

A valve broke at the G. Heileman Brewery in 1986, causing beer to spill into a sewer line and bubble out a manhole cover at 900 S. Third St.

Fans of pure artesian water crowd the Heileman Brewery’s free water tap at Fourth and Mississippi streets on Oct. 14, 1994. This free water site was in operation from 1982 to 1998 and was popular with the public due to the water’s “fresher, cleaner taste,” according to Tribune files. During 1994, Heileman gave away a total of 744,000 gallons of water at this tap — for an average daily rate of 2,038 gallons. Anyone with more information about this photo or wishing to donate photos of the Coulee Region may contact the La Crosse Public Library Archives at 608-789-7136.

Jim Strupp (pictured) and John Mazzuto purchased the former G. Heileman Brewery and renamed it City Brewery in 1999. The company quickly ran into financial trouble under their leadership.

City Brewery employee Jim Skoy checks a can of La Crosse Lager as it moves past on the assembly line. A group of 12 investors who live in the La Crosse area or have longtime ties to the brewery purchased City Brewery in 2000 and continue running it today.

Got a beer you’d like the Beer Baron or Draft Queen to pop the cap on? Contact Chris Drosner at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @WIbeerbaron. Contact Katie Herrera at [email protected] or on Twitter @CellaredKatie.

La Crosse deserves Old Style, despite the attendant legal machinations.

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The Potawatomi are preparing to deal with competing casinos opening in downtown Chicago; Waukegan, Illinois; Rockford, Illinois; and Beloit.