Louis Schoen was so proud of his products that he released recommendation cards. Any lucky recipient could present them at any beer depot listed, and he would receive six bottles free with the first case bought. Adel Brau was the brand that sold best in the Wausau area, although the brand was sold in other parts of the state. Louis Schoen developed a beer recipe that he attached his name to called Schoen’s Old Lager. This brand was Wausau Brewing Company’s big seller in Chicago. Later (1941), the brewery introduced Rib Mountain Lager, which was to become their "popular price" brand.
The Wolff family lived in the Chicago area and operated their trucking business. George Wolff took the Hiawatha (the Milwaukee Road’s fast passenger train) to Wausau to conduct brewery business. The Wolff family would occasionally take the same train to Wausau and go skiing at Marathon County’s Rib Mountain ski resort during the Winter. James Fernock would make all the arrangements for their lodging and meals anytime they came to Wausau.
During World War II, supplies were tight, bottles and caps were difficult to find and the brewery did everything it could to survive. If Wausau had any beer available, the beer depot could sell it for any price. The government intervened and gave some incentive to many businesses to keep excessive profits at a minimum. During the war years, profits over $50,000 were taxed at 90 percent to help finance the war effort.
Many other local businesses suffered from material shortages. George Wolff and James Fernock needed some relief from the war rationing that was forced on the brewing industry. Frank Parent, the Merrill, Wisconsin bottler of Pepsi, had difficulty getting crowns for his soft drink bottles and offered his business to Wolff and Fernock in March, 1945. Wolff and Fernock offered $13,500 for the business, $5,000 down and the remainder due at the end of one year if the business worked out. Parent accepted the offer.
The Pepsi business paid its way and continued as a separate business located in Merrill until 1947 when Wolff and Fernock moved the operations to Wausau. United Airlines was selling two aircraft hangers at Midway field near Chicago. George Wolff bought the hangers, had each metal panel numbered, removed the wooden framework, and shipped them by rail to Wausau and reassembled them on new concrete foundations for his new Pepsi Cola bottling plant next to the brewery. George Wolff Jr., was released from active duty in the Air Force in 1945, and took over management of the Wolff’s Chicago trucking firm. This allowed George Sr. to focus more time managing the brewery.
Louis Schoen retired from the brewery in 1950 and his son, Henry, became the new brewmaster.
By the mid-1950s, the brewery was beginning to show signs of financial difficulties. Milwaukee breweries such as Blatz, Schlitz, and Pabst were using Wausau as a battle ground to sell their beer. Smaller Wisconsin brewers, such as Fauerbach, Eulberg, Rahr’s, and Ziegler’s, looked at the Wausau market as a way to increase their brewery’s volume. Mathie-Ruder Brewing Company, Wausau Brewing’s hometown rival, was the first Wausau brewer to give up and closed their doors in 1955. Wausau Brewing Company continued to struggle on for survival. At one point, George Wolff met with an executive for Carling in Chicago. He saw handwriting on the wall. The Carling brewer claimed he could brew Wausau’s products in Cleveland, Ohio and deliver the beer to Wausau’s docks at lower cost than Wausau could brew it.
About 1954, Henry Schoen began to "stretch" the beer by using more corn grits and rice. Two poor batches of beer left the brewery and Schoen was responsible for putting the beer on the market. After a heated argument between Schoen and the two partners, a mutual decision was made to allow Henry Schoen to leave the company. He was replaced by a brewery worker named Hank Rothman.
Disaster struck during November of 1956 when James T. Fernock died unexpectedly. This put a greater financial burden on the brewery and the Pepsi plant. Wolff needed to spend more time in Wausau and purchased a home in the city (he also kept a home in Illinois).
The regional brewery business was not getting any better in the late 1950s. The large breweries, especially in the Milwaukee area, all started to make lighter beers rather than their premium beers and were flooding the markets with product and mass advertising that made it very difficult for the smaller operations to compete. The Wausau Brewing Company at one time had the capacity to produce 50,000 barrels in a year, but was producing about 20,000 barrels by 1960.
On September 13, 1960, George D. Wolff Sr was stricken with a heart attack and passed away on September 27, 1960. He was 80 years old.
George Wolff Jr. was call to run the family businesses and found the task very difficult, at best. The family trucking business was financially healthy, the Pepsi bottling plant was a third in its market, and the brewery was losing money every day it operated. The brewery union contract was to expire about the time George Sr. had his heart attack, so the workers held off their negotiations until December, 1960.
George Jr. became administrator of his father’s estate. He had died without leaving a will, so the estate had to go through probate. The Wolff’s other business interests were able to loan money to the Wausau Brewing Company to satisfy the immediate creditors. It was also discovered after Mr. Wolff’s death that the brewery had loan debts totaling almost $75,000.
With the help of an accounting firm and the lawyer handling the estate of George D. Wolff, Sr., a plan was devised so the debts could be satisfied, the creditors paid off, a new corporation formed when the estate was settled.
Many other events came together in a short period of time convincing George Wolff Jr. that the brewery days were over. The union wanted more money for the workers. George Jr. could not justify paying anyone more when the brewery was going broke.
It became very clear to George Wolff Jr. that the real sore point in the family’s businesses was the brewery. He tried to negotiate with the local union, but they insisted on gaining improvements for their members equivalent to the union in Milwaukee. The impossible situation was described to them, but they would not accept any compromise. A new contract was signed, and the union put on notice that the company would be put up for sale and all operations ceased at the earliest possible time in order to conserve what ever assets remained.
During November, 1960, George Wolff Jr. attended the Small Brewers Convention at the Edgewater Beach as Wausau Brewing’s delegate and talked to Tom Gettelman regarding the brewing industry future. Although Tom did not tell George of his pending sale of the Gettelman operations to Miller, their conversation convinced George Jr. to close the brewery. The final decision to close the brewery was made by the Wolffs after attending Pepsi’s 1961 convention in New Orleans. Pepsi announced their new "Pepsi Generation" advertising campaign. George and his wife liked what they saw and made the decision to sell the brewery.
When the brewery closed in April 1961, Wausau’s labels were up for sale and the brewing equipment was sold to dealers for disposal. The owners of the Rhinelander Brewing Company expressed a desire to acquire the remaining assets of the Wausau Brewing Company by buying the Wausau trade names (Schoen’s Old Lager, Adel Brau, and Rib Mountain Lager). They also bought the crowns and labels, the 12-oz. bottles, wooden and steel barrels, and even some of the bottling and labeling equipment. They signed a contract for all the assets, and agreed to pay the Wausau Brewing Company a royalty on all barrels and cases sold under the Wausau names until 1964. When Rhinelander closed in 1967, the old Wausau Brewing Company labels faded into history.
Right after the brewery’s closing, a revenue man was dispatched to supervise the draining of the remaining beer in the storage tanks and what was still working in the fermenting cellars. All the product was calculated in barrels, then systematically dumped down the local sewers so nothing could be used for sales.
Shortly after the closing of the brewery, a new corporation was born called Mid-Wisconsin Beverage, Inc.. George D. Wolff, Jr. was the President/Treasurer, Elsie M. Wolff was the secretary and Alice L Waldvogel was the Vice-President. All three held the same offices in the Wausau Brewing Company, which was reduced to a non-operating company, but remained intact as a real estate holding company. The buildings were used to house the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company operations. The bottling company had assumed the debt at the bank, the Wausau Brewing Company put up the property for collateral and all other creditors were satisfied.
Mid-Wisconsin Beverage continued to pay down the mortgage at the bank. The University of Wisconsin - Marathon County Campus was in an expansion mode and bought the old brewery power plant for $100,000. It was an opportunity that could not have come at a better moment. The Pepsi plant did not need the power plant, and the brewing company could turn the non-revenue producing assets into cash. The deal brought the brewing company out of debt for the first time since 1950. Wausau Brewing then loaned money to the soda bottling company, they in turn paid off the loan at the bank and the bottling company increased production capacity to satisfy their growing soft drink business.
The old brewhouse was sold and torn down in 1975. The boiler house that was sold to the University of Wisconsin Marathon County is still used today to heat the university’s campus buildings. A sale of the property by the Wausau Brewing Company to the Wausau School district was signed in December, 1989. The Wausau Brewing Company agreed to hold the five year mortgage so the school district could avoid issuing bonds. All payments were made on schedule, the last payment being made on December 1, 1994, and the titles were then properly transferred. On paper, the brewery did not go out of business until December 1995 when Mid-Wisconsin Beverage bought the concern’s remaining assets.
Papers were filed with the State of Wisconsin to dissolve the corporation, final taxes were paid and the book closed on an oft-times shaky but ultimately very successful small brewing company. Today, a large painting hangs in the lobby of Mid-Wisconsin Beverage. The framed painting displays several renaissance people sitting around a table, one of which has a beer next to him. The painting once hung in the Wausau Brewery office, but can trace its roots back to Little Bohemia in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, where John Dillinger once stayed with his gang. The painting, in many ways, is a reminder of the Wausau Brewing’s gangster days, but is also a reminder of how a little brewery was the beginning of Wisconsin’s "Pepsi Generation."