Local support is an important element for a regional brewery's survival. A textbook example why local support is so important, Charles Storck's brewery was no exception. During the Storck family's ownership, the brewery prospered with the village of Slinger, Wisconsin. Later, when outside interest deprived western Washington County of their Storck beer, the community eventually turned their backs on their local brewery when it needed help. After local interests re-invested in the brewery and tried to re-establish community support, the brewery had to live with its tarnished image as it faded into history. This story is as much a legend about the people of Slinger, Wisconsin and its local brewery, The Storck Brewing Company.
Begins at Schleisingerville
About 30 miles north of Milwaukee lies a headland region called "Kettle Moraine". Millions of years ago, glaciers formed the hilly terrain producing some of the richest farming land in the State of Wisconsin. Resembling the vast farmlands of European countries, the Kettle Moraine region attracted many immigrant German farmers during the early 1800s. Shortly afterwards, a settlement was initiated by Baruch Schleisinger Weil at the south portion of the region. Originally from German Alsace, Weil had followed the Winnebago Trail through Wisconsin and discovered the Kettle Moraine region. During the fall of 1845, Weil purchased a small land section in the area from the government to set up a village named after him, "Schleisingerville."
Weil built a small home and general store where local farmers and woodsmen traveled to trade for an assortment of merchandise. By the time Schleisingerville acquired a railroad station in 1855, Weil moved from the village to a new home on Big Cedar Lake. Over the next several years, many new settlers came from the German States such as Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Hesse-Darmstadt; and with them they brought a taste for beer.
It wasn't long before German brewers settled the area. Around 1860, John Klinger, and John Hellerschmidt discovered the Kettle Moraine resources to be perfect for brewing and established their breweries in Schleisingerville. Freshly-cut winter ice from Cedar Lake, at the village's north, provided enough ice for the summer. The lumber sawdust of oak, maple and elm were used to pack the ice for storage.
Benedict Kornburger and L. Rosenheimer Breweries
Benedict Kornburger and his family saw opportunities in Schleisingerville. In 1868, Benedict, along with his sons Charles and Otto, built a brewery on Schleisingerville's south side along the LaCrosse Railroad line. The hill south of the brewery provided enough stone and lumber for building the aging cellars. Little did the Kornburgers know that their brewery would brew beer for the next 90 years.
Late in 1870, Benedict Kornburger sold his brewery to Lehman Rosenheimer, the former Bavarian butcher, for about $3,000. Lehman owned a brick yard next to the brewery and had built a financial empire in Washington County before the prosperous brewing industry caught his attention.
Lehman's son, John, was in charge of the brewery. John used his family's assets to improve the brewery. The brick and lumber yards nearby provided enough building materials to enlarge the brewery. The family's grain elevators stored barley and their business connections in Schleisingerville gave them outlets to market their beer to local saloons. The brewery's success helped John Rosenheimer increase his capacity to 500 barrels annually by September 1877.
During this time, H. Charles Storck, the name the Schleisingerville brewery would later be identified with, came to America from Hesse-Darmstadt in 1868. A locksmith by trade, H. Charles left his hometown of Rosdorf where his family ran a small restaurant and a brewery, to find a new life in America. His trip to America wasn't easy. His ship left Europe with 400 passengers. By the time it arrived in New York, half the passengers died from a sickness that spread among them.
Working as a machinist, he briefly lived in Rochester, New York, and Chicago Illinois, before settling in Milwaukee. He first worked as an engineer at the John Karglader brewery until it closed in 1875 and then moved to Valentine Blatz's City Brewery where he met William Hartig.
William Hartig and H. Charles Storck developed a friendship while working for the Blatz Brewing Company. Together, they developed brewing skills and made plans of starting their own brewery. By the time L. Rosenheimer's health began to fail in 1877, Hartig and Storck traveled to Schleisingerville to look into purchasing the small brewery.
Storck & Hartig Brewery
Hartig and Storck inspected the brewery and decided to purchased it for $5,000 on September 10, 1877. Both invested $7,000 in improvements and hired Carl Panko, Schleisingerville's cooper, to supply locally-grown hardwood barrels for their beer. Their investment was spent on building a brick addition and installed new equipment in the brewery. Storck and Hartig's first beer sale was packaged in a 1/8 wooden barrel and sold for $1.
Hartig and Storck sold their beer through local support and publicity. Posters for advertising were not used until the mid-1880s when stock lithographs where first used. The demand for Storck and Hartig's beer increased as capacity increased to 2,000 barrels a year by 1881. The brewery was expanded again and H. Charles Storck built his home behind the brewery in 1881.
The Rosenheimers continued their success in the brewing business after selling the brewery to Hartig and Storck. The L. Rosenheimer Malt and Grain Company in Kewaskum, Wisconsin was started in 1890 by Moritz and Adolph Rosenheimer. At first, the capacity of the malting plant was 300,000 bushels, with a storage capacity of 120,000 bushels. By 1899, additions were made and malting and storage capacities were doubled. The malting company used a pneumatic drum system, developed by the Galland-Henning Company, and is still used in most modern steel storage elevators today.
The Hartig and Storck brewery continued to prosper as the two families grew. William Hartig had dreams of running his own brewery and sold his interest on June 27, 1884 to Schleisingerville's station agent, Charles Ehlert, for $6,000. Hartig and his family moved to Watertown, Wisconsin to join in a brewery that they would own outright by 1895. The Hartig and Storck families keep close contact with each other for many years, even after Prohibition.
Chas. Storck & Company
When Hartig sold his share in the brewery to Ehlert, the company was changed to Chas. Storck & Company. H. Charles Storck wanted to be the outright owner and made monthly (and in some cases weekly) payments to Ehlert. By 1888, H. Charles borrowed enough money from Robin Loos in the form of mortgage to finish paying off Ehlert.
By 1895, Storck's beer became so popular, he sent it as far as Stevens Point, Wisconsin by rail. H. Charles's sons attended school in Schleisingerville and learned the art of brewing from their father. The oldest son was sent to the Finke - Uhen Brewery (Burlington Wis.) to learn brewing at the cost of $1,700 for training. As demand for Storck's beer increased, H. Charles continued to improve and expand his brewery, using the cream colored bricks from the brick yards nearby.
H. Charles Storck was active in the community and served as Treasurer of the village for several years. H. Charles felt that his beer should sell itself by local support so the brewery used very little advertising to sell their beer. Print advertisement was limited to a local German language newspaper called Der Totschafter (The Messenger), and was written totally in German. Later when competition grew, H. Charles promoted his product in the local saloons by using etched glasses and some porcelain signs.
Tragedy struck the Storck family on July 9, 1893 when Henrietta Storck died. H. Charles was left to care for his nine children and managed the brewery alone. H. Charles remarried in 1895 to Julia Schumacher, the sister of Elizabeth Storck, Edward Storck's wife. They remained married until H. Charles died Tuesday, June 9, 1903. He was 54 years old. His funeral was the largest in Schleisingerville to that date. Dignitaries from all over the region attended his funeral. The black horse drawn hearse carrying his body was filled with flowers and the route to the cemetery was lined with on lookers offering sympathy to the family.
Company Reorganized in 1904
After the death of H. Charles Storck, his sons took over the brewery. Early in 1904, the company reorganized as the Storck Brewing Company. Henry N. Storck became President and General Manager; Charles D., Secretary; William, Vice President; and August became Treasurer. The Storck brothers improved the brewery by building a $15,000 brew house and enlarged the bottling plant making it one of the most modern breweries in central Wisconsin.
Competition from other brewers increased in the Schleisingerville area. Vogel's Brewery from South Germantown, West Bend Brewing Company, the large Milwaukee brewers, and Joseph Schwartz brewery in Hartford, were all eager to enter Storck's market. The Storcks fought off competition by introducing Slinger Beer, the name the village would change its name to in 1921. The Storck's began advertising their beer more aggressively in Der Totschafter. Although the newspaper was still a German language paper, the Storck's used English in their advertising. The advertisements touted Storck bock beer, Slinger beer, and German lager beer as pure, refreshing and appetizing. The entire ad series used cartoon characters to carry the message. The simple advertising worked and sales continued to increase in the Schleisingerville area for Storck.
The Storck brothers did not limit themselves to just brewing beer. They had other interests in the Farmers Supply Company, the Washington County Telephone Company, and the Standard Machine Company. Charles D. was the President of the State Bank of Schleisingerville. The Storck family owned large tracts of land which were subdivided and developed in 1905. The brothers had new homes on Storck Street near the brewery. William and August both served as Village Presidents. August also served as the Village's Fire Chief from 1906 through 1911. When August served as President, the village changed its name from Schleisingerville to Slinger in 1921.
Advertising became important to Storck during the 1910s. The Storck Brewing Company purchased a KisselKar truck to deliver their beer in 1914. This was their first motorized vehicle for the brewery. Storck advertised their beer in Schleisingerville's movie house in 1916. The Storck brothers promotional slide advertised their beer during intermissions.
Schleisingerville still used German as its spoken language in 1915. Many of the families names could be traced back to Germany. When the Germans sank the Lusitania on May 7, 1915, anti-German sentiment swept across the country, including Schleisingerville. The Der Totschafter was forced out of business by late 1917.
The threat of Prohibition was heard in 1917. Alcohol content of beer was dropped to 2.75 percent by December in response to the war effort as well as the prohibitionist movement. Prohibition looked as though it would become reality, so the Storck family developed other business ventures and started laying plans for their brewery during Prohibition.
Prohibition - Storck Ice Cream
The Storck family kept their brewery open during Prohibition. When the Volstead Act became law on January 17, 1920 in Wisconsin, some breweries produced "near beer," a substitute for the real thing. However, this was not the case at Storck as gallons of ice cream rolled out of the cold rooms instead of barreled beer. The brewery was reorganized as the Storck Products Company and was converted into an ice cream plant. Henry N. Storck became President; Oscar, Vice President; and August became Secretary and Treasurer (William Storck passed away in 1918 and Charles D. sold his interest in the family brewery, moved to Ripon, and later had a interest in the Blumer Brewery in Monroe, Wisconsin until his death in 1939). The close ties the Storck family developed with dairy farmers through the State Bank and the Farmers Supply Company allowed them to buy milk and cream to manufacture their ice cream. The Slinger Creamery on the corner of Storck and Rector Streets also supplied the company with cream. Storck's ice cream was delicious. It came in many flavors and kids loved it. Most of the ice cream was sold in two-gallon steel pails. To meet demand and increase capacity, a branch plant was established in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin in 1922. Some 200,000 gallons of frozen ice cream was turned out yearly by Storck Products Company.
Behind the Ice Cream Business
Storck's ice cream continued to sell and was popular with the children in the area. Fathers were more than happy to accompany their children at Storck's ice cream factory each day. It was common to see fathers walk with their children down Storck Street in the early 1920s and see children playing outside the plant while eating ice cream. However, this was not the complete story.
In reality, Prohibition did not completely shut down Storck's brewing operations in 1919. As the children ate ice cream and played outside the factory, their fathers drank real beer out of the shiny copper mugs that hung in Rathskeller. The Storck family and their employees knew exactly what to do anytime a stranger visited the plant. Real beer was easily discharged from the Rathskeller and the tapper was quickly hidden inside the Rathskeller's wall. No trace of beer was ever seen.
Henry Storck took daring chances during Prohibition. The beer was aged in the tanks stored among the ice cream manufacturing equipment. Raymond Storck cautiously ran beer to Hartford on a weekly basis. He would remove the back seat from his car and place two half-barrels of beer inside the seat, cover the barrels with a plaid blanket while making deliveries.
Some time in 1922, Chicago mobsters paid Henry Storck a visit. The mobsters, with the help of one Chicago Prohibition Officer, turned the Storck's business into a distillery and made hard liquor for the Milwaukee and Chicago markets. They told Henry to keep his family and workers away from the brewery for three weeks. After the three weeks were over, the mobsters removed their distillery equipment and informed Henry that the building was ready to manufacture ice cream again. Henry and Ray, returned to the brewery to find that everything was undisturbed and no trace of the distilling operation was evident.
Henry Storck continued to brew real beer throughout most of Prohibition. Storck was Milwaukee's chief source of real beer for seven years. Several times, Prohibition Officers paid Storck a visit hoping to catch them, but were unsuccessful. It wasn't until 1926 when Storck's illegal operation became too well known and finally caught up with them.
The Raid Of Storck Brewery in 1926
Henry Storck had applied for a brewery license several times during the early 1920s. He was refused each time. When he applied for a license in 1926, he was refused again, based on alleged delinquencies in 1922. A Prohibition agent visited the plant on a regular basis, interrupting Storck's production of ice cream. Henry asked the federal courts for an injunction restraining the Prohibition agent from interrupting Storck's legitimate activities. A temporary injunction was granted and a hearing was pending on March 6, 1926, but was postponed to allow the District Attorney to gather more evidence.
On Sunday, March 7, 1926, Storck Products Company was finally raided by two Chicago special Prohibition agents. The agents had been on lookout the entire night for beer trucks moving between Milwaukee and Slinger. Shortly after five o'clock, three trucks loaded with empty beer barrels, proceeded by a scout car drove to the loading platform at the brewery. The Prohibition agents, in a touring car, swooped down upon the scene and placed the drivers and Henry Storck under arrest. The Prohibition agents confiscated 2,348 gallons of 3.35 per cent alcohol beer contained in 20 full barrels, 98 half barrels, 16 one-quarter barrels, and two pony barrels. The brewery was immediately padlocked and Henry was released the following day after posting a $500 bond. The confiscated beer was dumped down the sewer on Tuesday, March 9, 1926.
Repeal Storck Products Co.
By late 1932, Slinger residents voted Prohibition out with a 99 percent of the voters against it; they wanted their local brewery operating again. When Repeal took place on April 7, 1933, Storck was not allowed to brew beer immediately because of the 1926 raid. This only postponed the brewery's reopening by four months. The return to beer making meant a switch over from ice cream equipment to brewing. The Meier Ice Cream Company of Waukesha, Wisconsin purchased Storck's ice cream equipment and the sub-station at Beaver Dam in 1933. The sale of the ice cream business gave an increased storage room for the brewery, enabling to store about 3,000 more barrels of beer.
Not long after brewery reopened, once again, demand for Storck beer was high. President Henry Storck appointed his son Ray as brewmaster. Henry's brother, Oscar, was General Manager. The Storcks first tried to satisfy the demand for beer in the Slinger area and introduced Storck beer in the Milwaukee market. The brewery's management decided to put more emphases on bottled beer for easier shipping to Milwaukee.
Late in 1937, the Storck family needed to modernize their product line art. A new label for Storck beer was designed at Roy Geldnick's Tap. The label used the familiar stork bird in a circle combined with many brown hues. The people who designed the label were concerned about the letter "S" used in the word "Storck". It was very similar to Schlitz's "S". After some discussion, management decided to used the new label and Schlitz's lawyers never bothered Storck. Their slogans used were "A Truly Fine Product" and "You Can't Buy Better Beer" and were seen in Slinger and Milwaukee for several years. A "Bobbing Storck" back bar display was used by Storck to advertise their beer. The bird was similar to the novelty dunking birds that rocked back and forth until the bird's head gained enough weight and dipped its beak into a glass of water.
Storck During World War II
War shortages of barley were difficult for most breweries. Storck Products Company tried to keep beer available in Slinger, The next four years had the brewery working around the clock. The brewery couldn't make enough beer for the Slinger and Milwaukee. Storck sold everything they made. During the war, beer was loaded onto railroad cars for delivery to other parts of the State. Storck phased out the "steinie" bottles that had been used since 1933 and started using long neck bottles but using the same labels as used on the steinies. The brewery purchased several boxcar loads of long-neck bottles from a defunct Texas brewery. The Storck brewery recycled as much as they could. A machine that reconditioned used bottle caps for reuse was purchased by the brewery.
Men from Slinger where in short supply during the war so the brewery hired high school kids to do some of the work. The high school boys would work after school by loading trucks, washing bottles, and operating the ammonia pumps for cooling beer. Office workers pitched in by helping with odd jobs. One of the jobs was to punch code dates into the beer labels one by one before the labels were fastened on the bottles.
German POWs, held near Hartford, Wisconsin, got their supply of Storck beer. They were held captive at a large dance hall (Marty Zivko's) and required to work in the nearby farm fields raising beets, beans and cabbage (for sauerkraut). The U.S government required the Storck brewery to make weekly shipments of beer to the prison camps for German prisoners.
Post -World War II
Many breweries enjoyed the prosperous post-war years. Unfortunately, Storck has some struggling times. On February 6, 1946, President Harry Truman introduced a program to help Europe contain its food shortages. His plan included the 70 percent reduction of malt brewers could use compared to their 1945 levels. This act started on March 1, 1946 and caused beer shortages in Milwaukee as well as the rest of the nation. This government act would eventually set a chain of events that would hurt the Storck brewery during the next decade.
Storck held most of its Milwaukee sales after World War II. One of Storck's largest clients was the Warhanek Brothers Beer Depot on Hopkins Street in Milwaukee. The Warhanek brothers were notorious for late payments to Storck. After the war years, Henry Storck's patience finally ran out and stopped selling them beer. Eulberg from Portage started selling their beer to the Warhanek brothers and took over a substantial portion of Storck's Milwaukee market.
The Storck family struggled to find barley and other materials to keep the brewery making beer. Henry and Ray needed to modernize the brewery but finances were very tight. The boiler was one of the last, if not the last, hand stoked coal fired brewery boilers in the State. The brewery burned all its wooden barrels in the boiler as they converted over to steel barrels. The brewery sold much of its spent grains to local farmers for cattle feed.
Associated Beer Depots
In 1946, a group of 54 Milwaukee beer depots, calling themselves Associated Beer Depots, were desperately short of beer. They needed a brewery to supply them with enough beer. Elmer Keller, a member of the Schlitz's Uihlein family, was their leader because of his brewing experience from managing the Capital Brewery in Milwaukee. When Keller set out looking for a brewery, the Storck plant was ideally suited. The Storck name was known in Milwaukee from the days of Prohibition and during the war. Elmer Keller along with Ed Warhanek proposed an offer too good for Henry Storck to refuse. On June 1, 1946, Henry accepted the group's $175,000 offer and the brewery was sold. Elmer Keller also wanted to retain Ray Storck and he stayed on as General Manager. During the next six years, both Keller and Warhanek would serve as the company's Presidents.
Since most of the equipment used by the Storck family required hand labor, the Associated Beer Depots had to update most of the brewery equipment. The automatic filler and capper purchased by Associated Beer Depots replaced equipment that may have dated back to before Prohibition.
Business started to grow at the Storck brewery after the Associated Beer Depot purchase. Each of the beer depots were allocated beer by the amount of shares they owned in the brewery. The beer depots were selling everything the brewery produced. Management made a decision to ship all bottled beer and most kegged beer to Milwaukee. A sales office was established in Milwaukee on Hopkins Street where Ed Barnes, the head salesman, was placed in charge of the office.
When the Associated Beer Depots operated the brewery, the village of Slinger really suffered. The local community could not get Storck beer anywhere. Elmer Keller and Carl Warhanek refused to sell any beer in Slinger. Couples in Washington County wanting to buy Storck beer for their upcoming weddings were refused, even after begging.
Outdoor Storck beer neon signs were common in the Slinger area prior to Associated Beer Depots ownership. The majority of Storck beer advertising, including the neon signs, tin-on-cardboard and "Bobbing Storcks", were taken from the Slinger area businesses when Associated Beer Depots sold Storck beer only in Milwaukee. The outdoor Slinger Storck signs were removed from Slinger and stored in the old cooperage plant in the rear of the brewery. A few of the neon signs were retro-fitted to advertise Bavarian Club beer after it was introduced into the Milwaukee market. Most of the outdoor Storck neon signs never reappeared in public again.
Management liked to make changes at the brewery. The label designs were revised, and at one point, the brewery tried a cheaper beer recipe that used only water, hops, rice, corn grits, and corn syrup to stretch the supply. The slogan "A peacock is a beautiful bird, but it takes a Storck to deliver the beer" was used throughout Milwaukee. When the government lifted the supply act of 1946, brewers could purchase more grain in the late 1940s. The large Milwaukee breweries immediately started to produce more beer. The new supply of beer caused a dramatic drop for Storck beer in Milwaukee. As sales backed off, management tried selling beer in the Slinger area again. Most local people would not drink Storck beer because of management's negligence to their village.
Management tried to keep production up by introducing new brands. Storck Dark was introduced, and failed miserably; people just didn't like it. Old Age Beer was introduced as a lighter beer until the Federal government had it discontinued because they felt the label implied that a person would live to an old age by drinking the beer.