Iron ore barges and chartered salmon ships ply waters off the quiet inland seaport beneath the northern lights. Welcome to Superior, Wisconsin, the last stop of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Founded in 1853, this major Great Lakes city is one of the most active inland seaports in America. Named after the largest of the five Great Lakes, the city flaunts the old, but familiar skyline of a city born by industry. Iron docks, sawmills of past lumber barons; tall, weathered grain elevators, and a soaring, but inactive smoke stack are the vestiges of the industrial age. Thirty years ago the smoking chimney was a sign of prosperity. Beer was still being brewed, kegged, and bottled at the city's Northern Brewing Company.

The Northern Brewiug Company was founded in 1890 by Louis Rueping and John A. Klinkert as the KIinkert Brewing Company. Both Klinkert and Rueping had worked many years in the brewing business before setting up this brewery in West Superior, Wisconsin.

John Klinkert was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany in 1849 and came to America in 1865. His experience as a brewer dates back to his graduation from the Brewers Academy at Frankfort, Germany. From 1867 to 1882, he was employed in some of the principal breweries of Milwaukee, including six years as foreman of the Philip Best Brewery. In 1882, he bought a one-half interest in the Red River Brewery at Fargo, North Dakota, with John G. Kraenzlein. Two years later, Kraenzlein sold his interest to Louis Rueping. K!inkert and Rueping were successful with their small operation in North Dakota until early Prohibition laws closed down their brewery in 1889. The pair moved to West Superior, Wisconsin, in 1890, and continued their partnership by building a new brewery, the Klinkert Brewing Company. It was one of seven breweries operating in Superior to quench tbe iron ore miners' thirst for good beer.

John KIinkert dissolved the partnership in 1898, selling his interest so he could start a brewery with Frank Pabst. The new Klinkert Brewing and Malting Company at 24th and Scranton stayed in business until 1908 when the land was sold to the Northern Pacific Railway at their request. KIinkert retired from the brewing business, but remained active in his other city entetprises. He passed away on April 20, 1915.

When John Klinkert's home at 24th and Scranton was demolished in July 1956, an 1891 Klinkert Brewing Company advertising calendar was discovered in the attic.

Northern Brewing Company Formed

After Klinkert's partnership ended in 1898, Louis Rueping renamed the original brewery the L. Rueping Company. In the following months, he reorganized and incorporated the Northern Brewing Company. Northern eventually grew to become one of Superior's most prosperous industries. At one time, Northern beer outsold the combined sales of all other brands in the city.

The brewery was located at the corner of Catlin and 8th Streets (702 N. 8th Street). It represented an investment of $300,000 for "the most modern brewery machinery of the time." Glass-enameled storage tanks, which most breweries didn't use until after Prohibition, were installed at Northern as early as 1909. The tanks were purchased from the Anheuser Busch brewery at St. Louis. The apparatus for filling the barrels and bottles where also state of the art. It excluded air in the bottling process, so that none of the original flavor and purity was lost during filling.

During the next five years, the capacity of the brewery was doubled to 20,000 barrels by additions and the modernization of the plant. Northern's Blue Label beer was introduced in 1912. The company employed 50 men that year who were proud of a new fire-proof, all-brick bottling house. Lager beer and malt extract were the main products. Wooden barrels of beer were stacked on hand cars, railroaded to Hammond Avenue, and eventually placed on horse drawn wagons for delivery.

The Northern Brewing Company was a home town brewery. Its market was the citizens of Superior, and its purchases and payroll added $125,000 a to the local economy each year.

Prohibition comes to Superior

When Prohibition came to Superior in 1919, the brewery was cashing in on the popularity of its Blue Label Beer. Nearly 25,000 barrels of the brand were being brewed annually when the brewery was forced to shut its doors. On April 20, 1920, the owners ol the brewery disposed of their holdings and moved to Southern Wisconsin. The new owners in Superior allowed the brewery to sit idle for two years.

Since the plant had the most modern equipmeni available at the time, very little renovating wa necessary to resume operations at the brewery - this time with near beer and root beer. Brewery officers petitioned Secretary Mellon for a permit to manufacture real beer for the use of medical purposes. The petition was not granted, but they did receive a permit to manufacture a cereal beverage and soft drinks. Workers were back on the job at the Northern Beverage Company on November 16,1922.

After several months of experimenting with its distiller for near beer, the company offered a very high grade near beer and root beer to the people of Superior. In a full-page ad in the Supenor Telegram on November 13, 1922, a contest was announced to name Northern's new beverages. The company offered a cash prize of $25 for the originator of the best names. This was a considerable amount of money at a time when the average weeldy wage was $12.

The promotion created an instant demand for the brewery's products. The results of the contest aren't known, but the officers continued to use the "Northern" name on their near beer and soft drinks - until one summer evening in 1924.

First Brewery Raid In Wisconsin

Most of America's breweries were closed. The few who attempted to survive the dry years were struggling. Business was good at the Northern Beverage Company in Superior, Wisconsin. In fact too good! On Monday evening, July 29, 1924 Federal Agents stopped Robert Delahunt, a brewery worker, as he was leaving the brewery. They found five kegs of real and illegal beer in his car.

Delahunt appeared before Federal Commissioner Charles Bishop on July 30. His bail was set at $2,000. The Northern Beverage Company was the first Wisconsin brewery caught manufacturing and distributing illegal beer during Prohibition.

On Monday November 17, 1924, the company's permit to manufacture non-intoxicating beverages was revoked by the Wiscoissin office for Prohibition. The people of Superior would wait nine years before their local brewery would reopen. Northern was not the only brewery caught brewing illegally. The following week, two other Wisconsin breweries were raided and their operating permits revoked: the Ebner Beverage Company of Fort Atkinson and the Cassville Beverage Company in Cassville.

Repeal means beer is back

On the dawn of Repeal, the new owner of Northern, Rudolph Peterson, mad plans to introduce beer to Superior after a 13 year absence. The Northern Brewing Company reopened on Wednesday March 22, 1933.

The brewery needed a major overhaul, and Peterson spared no expense in refitting the brewery. He had some difticulty in getting a brewing permit due to the compatly's illegal operations back in 1924 Since he was not involved, he finally received the necessary permit in July 1933.

J.S. Cochrane returned as engineer for the Northern brewery, a position he held during the pre-Prohibition days. He fired up the coal-fed boilers to heat the building and provide hot water to clean the outdated equipment. Five other men were hired to clean and varnish the vats and other machinery.

Brewing operations at Northern

The Northern Brewing Company started brewing around 3:00 in the morning. The brewbouse had a 165-barrel system with maximum capacity of 30,000 barrels annually. Production never matched capacity and peaked in 1947 with 25,000 barrels. In the early days, deep artesian wells supplied water for brewing. After Prohibition, water was taken fron Lake Superior.

The brewmaster usually brewed a new batch three times a week. A pasteurizer was added to the brewery, due to a brief 1933 Wisconsin law promoted by tavern owners. They complained of unfair competition from package stores selling cold beer. The law required package stores to sell beer at room temperature. To extend the beer's shelf life and satisfy the package stores, Northern pasteurized its beer for two hours.

In the bottling house, every bottle was visually inspected to insure proper filling. This was done eight hours a day. Labels were added after filling, then bottles racked and dropped into beer cases. For many years, the brewery had a problem with bottles exploding as they were dropped in cases. This must have been considered acceptable in brewing operations at Northern, since the foremen never bothered to fix this problem.
The popular Blue Label from pre-Prohibition was revived, and beer was in retail outlets by October 1933. For the next two years, the brewery's future seemed assured. Things changed with the untimely death of Rudolph Peterson in August 1936. Lacking good leadership, the brewery started to lose money and was declared insolvent by June 1938.

New Owners for Northern Beer

In August 1938, the Northern Brewing Company was sold at a trustee's sale to Victor Nelson, Oscar Johnson, and John Fritschler. Nelson, a prominent road contractor, became the new president and George Ehnann continued as general manager. In a full-page ad in the Superior Teirgram, Nelson assured everyone that his company would continue manufacturing "a beer that will live up to the enviable reputation that Northern Pale beer already enjoyed." He asked the local citizens for their whole-hearted support. A new bottling plant was built inside the brewery and an additional $40,000 was spent on improvements by the end of the year.

Wanted: One exceptional Brewmaster

Between 1933 and the summer of 1943, the Northern Brewing Conipany had six different brewmasters. Blue Label and Northern Pale beer took on a different taste with each new brewmaster. This ended in June 1943 when Joseph Hartel started his long career as brewmaster. He brough with him over 34 years of brewing experience and a standard of high quality that won beer drinkers throughout Superior.

Joe Hartel took advantage of the extreme cold winters of Northern Wisconsin. During the winter he opened the windows to allow the sub-zero weather to cool the wort as quickly as possible Some employees recall standing on floors that were half ice.

Victor Nelson was a leader in the brewing industry. His stated goal, "We're here to make money." The former road contractor operated the brewery like he managed a road crew. When he caught a worker slacking off, he would shout, "You got to get going boy, don't even look at the sun."

The Northern Brewing Company was one of the most sanitary small brewing operations in Wisconsin. Joe Hartel kept the brewery spotless. Even though he demanded hard work ftom his employees, their reward was a $100 bonus every Christmas. When the brewery changed from wooden to aluminum kegs, Victor gave a Northern beer neck tie to all his employees.

Victor also wanted to market a beer named after him and introduced Vic's beer. It was Northern Pale beer, but in an unusual screen printed shorty bottle. Because the shorty bottles were hard to separate from the regular stubby bottles, many of Vic's beer bottles never came back to the brewery.

Management change at Northern

The brewery was managed by Victor Nelson until it was sold to Robert R. Rooney on December 8, 1955. Rooney was the President of Northern Liquors, a chain of package stores in northern and central Wisconsin. Joe Hartel stayed On as brewmaster. When Victor retired from the brewing business, Rooney discontinued Vic's beer.

The new owner gave Joe Hartel full authority to order the best hops in the world for Northern Pale Beer. On February 13, 1956, Hartel took the first step in a general production-distribution expansion program by importing Bavarian hops to improve the quality of Northern beer. This was the first time imported hops had been used at the brewery. Hartel selected the Bavarian hops from the Hallertauer Valley in Germany where he had spent his early brewing days. "Hops," Hartel explained, "contribute the finer, mellow flavor to the beer. I know this Bavarian product will give us top quality."

Northern beer was a full hopped beer with a heavy body, old German beer flavor, and the second highest alcohol content in the country (4.9%). The brewery also made a bock beer every year until 1966, using a dark caramel barley. The brewery never had a chemist on hand, but Johnny Hey from Fitgers, in Duluth, was used occasionally.

Northern Packaging and Advertising

The Northern brewery packaged their beer in cap sealed cans from 1948 to 1953. When the flat top canning equipment was installed, all the remaining cone top cans were hauled to the dump.

For outdoor advertising, a huge Northern outdoor billboard sign with a clock was placed next to the Nemadji Bridge and was maintained by the brewery. Over the years, six different neon sign styles where produced for Northern beer. The neon signs were used mostly in the Duluth Superior area. Northern beer glasses were used at the brewery's two tap rooms and by certain major accounts. In 1962, the Northern hrewery produced "Best Beer by a Damn Sight," a private label, for the Damn Sight Tavern on U.S. Highway 8 near Turtle Lake, Wisconsin. The label featured an artist's rendition of the tavern building.

Public relations were also important for the Northern Brewing Company. The brewery had two tap rooms, one for the employees and a second was rented to the public. Local unions met regularly in thc brewery tap room until 1966. Garbage men visited the brewery every Friday afternoon to pick up spent hops and enjoy a few free beers in the tap room. Victor Nelson once installed a beer tap in the brewery's office. It was removed by Bob Rooney during the late 1950s..

Joseph Hartel's son, Richard, worked at the Northern brewery from 1945 to 1965. Dick Hartel learned everything about the brewing industry from his father. His first lessons started in 1937, when his father was the brewmaster at the Eulberg Brewery in Portage, Wisconsin.

In 1942, when his father became brewmaster at Peter Bub, no openings were available to him, so he worked briefly at Heileman in LaCrosse. Richard was working at the munitions plant in Baraboo in 1943 when his father asked him to join him at the Northern brewery. Dick Hartel recalls, "My dad always worked around the clock; everything had to he just right."

Changes at Northern

Joe Hartel suffered a mild heart attack in mid 1961 and decided to retire from brewing. Harry Husold was appointed general manager and production supervisor. Husold was with the Waukesha Fox Head brewery and joined Northern just before Heileman closed the Waukesha brewery in 1962. When Harry took over Hartel's position as brewmaster, he discontinued Bavarian Hops and ordered the cheapest hops available. Regular drinkers of Northern beers quickly noticed the difference and switched brands.

Peter Slomann became the new president of Northern Brewing Company and continued to cut costs to keep the company in business. A circuit brewmaster from Stroh, Joe Linsky, was brought in two to three days a week to oversee the brewing operations.

Bob Byrns remembers working at the Northern brewery ftom 1957 to 1967. Each year, Bob had to scrape varnish off the aging tanks and apply two or three new coats. One day while replacing the double bottoms in the wort tank he forgot to close the tank's hatch. Beer started pumping out of the hop jack like a fire hose. The entire 165-barrel batch of beer was lost as it flowed down the stairs and into the sewer. Bob Byrns and Bob Rooney also wanted to see their names on a label, so the brewery introduced "Bob's Beer. "It was the same Northern beer in a different package!

During the early 1960s, returnable bottles weren't being returned to the brewery. They were being picked up by the larger breweries in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Bob Byrns had to occasionally go over to Fitgers to buy their surplus bottles.

Problems brewing at Northern

In 1963, the Northern Brewing Company replaced its redwood cypress fermenting tanks with aluminum metal tanks. To install the new tanks a large hole was cut in the outside brick wall of the brewery. A worker for the Lakehead Pipeline Co. was fatally crushed against the brewery wall during the installation.

Superior, Spooner and Rice Lake were Northern's biggest accounts in Wisconsin, but the brewery regularly sent two semi-truckloads of beer to the Milwaukee area. When the brewery was using a Circuit brewmaster, a bad batch of Northern beer left the brewery. Beer was returned to the brewery by the truck load. The mistake was costly to the brewery. Many long-time accounts never called on the Northern brewery again.

Many employees blamed the circuit brewmaster for the bad beer. Management advertised for a full-time brewmaster to prevent this error from re-occurring. Henry Rothmann, associated with the Wausau Brewing Company for 28 years, became the new brewmaster and manager at the Northern brewery. Many employees felt that Rothmann was not the right person to manage the brewery. The brewery was averaging about 18,000 barrels per year, and sales declined substantially after Rothmann made changes to the brewing operations.

Northern beer distribution and pricing were different throughout Wisconsin. Milwaukee distributors paid less for their beer than did local distributors. Dick Hartel said, "I could go down to Wausau and buy our beer cheaper than I could working at the brewery in Superior." Dick Hartel voluntarily left the brewing business and worked as a custodian at the Superior High School. "I could see it coming. After my dad left the brewery, it wasn't the same. Corners were cut and the writing was on the wall."

End of Brewing in Superior

After five years of declining sales, the officers of the Northern Brewing Company announced on February 13, 1967, that the brewery would cease operations at the end of the week. The announcement was anti-climactic, since no beer had been brewed since the previous December. The Northern beer label and its distribution network were sold to the Cold Spring Brewing Company of Minnesota. Cold Spring brewed Northern beer, but could not overcome - or benefit ftom - its past reputation. The brand was discontinued in 1995.

The Northern Brewery in Superior had a full floor of inventory when the plant closed. A skeleton crew was kept to dispose of the beer inventory. Hank Rothmann went to work at Huber in Monroe after the brewery closed. Tommy Byrns Tavern was the last tavern to serve Northern beer on tap from the Superior brewery.

The Fitger's Brewing Company in Duluth considered purchasing the old Northern brewery in 1968 after the Interstate Commission threatened to build 1-35 through Firger's historical brewery grounds. The Northern brewery, as it turned out, was too small Despite Fitger's closing in 1972, its buildings stil stand (the fteeway was tunneled below and around it). It is now a tourist shopping mall and hotel.

The Northern brewery stood vacant for several years until a second hand and sign shop came and went. Currently, it's an appliance recycling business and warehouse. The heart and soul of the brewery was torn down in the mid 1980s. It was Iiterally split in two. The original office, tap rooms and cooperage are gone. The bottling house remains today, as does a four-story section of the brew house. It's rumored that the equipment is in South America.

The old Northern Brewing Company is still remembered by older Superior residents who had the fortune to the drink excellent beer once brewed by Joseph Hartel and his brewing assistants.