Forgotten Brewery Caves - Mayville Wisconsin

Mayville is a nice little town in south east Wisconsin.  Remarkably it had at least three breweries.  On a trip there two years ago I had a chance to quickly take a look at two of them that are still standing.  Clearly more research is needed.

Here is a nice old stone brewery down by the river.  It has been converted into a garage and an apartment building.

The back side, built right into the hill.  Odds of a cave being under there are nearly 100%.  Ah, the Impossible Dream....a fabulous garage/work space with a brewery cave out the back.  

The other extant brewery building in town does not look like much.  But parts of it are quite old.  It is now a wholesale food company of some sort.  Likely the evolution was brewery-creamery-more diversified business.  Cold storage was the key link.

As is true with humans, so also with buildings.  You can try to hide your true age but for those who look closely.....

And off the back side another interesting little abutment to the hill.  Odds of a brewery cave?  Oh, count on it.

I've had these pictures sitting around for far too long hoping to get back and get some inside pix.  When that happens I'll of course update.

My preliminary look at the breweries of Mayville shows it to be a complicated story. This LINK to Oldbreweries.com lists 7 different breweries in town, although of course some may have simply been changes in ownership and variant names.

An 1885 map of Mayville indicates that the first brewery shown above was John Steger and Company.  The second was M. Ziegler, Mayville Brewery.