Your Strange Brewery News of the Day - Princeton Wisconsin

A while back I took a leisurely drive across the state, naturally avoiding contact with any presumably diseased human beings.  I had a long list of places to look in on.  Caves, cemeteries, roadside oddities.  But as with the best of all such wanderings I also came across some unexpected things.  Entirely by accident I ran across this sight in the little town of Princeton, Wisconsin.

An intact 19th century brewery.  Even in Wisconsin these are not common.  Here's the short version of its history.

It was started in 1857 when a certain August Weis moved to Princeton from Oshkosh Wisconsin. He left it for his wife to run when he went to fight in the Civil War.  Later the usual musical chairs partnership changes ensued.  The world of Wisconsin brewers was not that large and this enterprise seems to have been closely related in matters both fiscal and matrimonial to a family named Lutz who ran brewery in Steven's Point.  Remarkably I am not finding evidence of destructive fires that are so common in little breweries.  Perhaps this helped keep them solvent up to Prohibition....and even allowed a Post Volstead revival.  But it was not to last.  The Princeton brewery went out of the sudsy business for good in 1937.  Uses since then have been various and all of the sort we've seen before; mushroom growing, haunted house, antiques mall, warehouse, cheese factory.

Here's the impressive 1880's addition.  The tiger by the way is a nod to the mascot of Princeton University.

There was no sign of current activity so I strolled around a bit.  There was a steep bank going down to the river and it was the sort of place a brewery cave entrance might be found.  Not today though. I've gotten pretty good at interpreting various retaining walls and ramps but can't quite make this out as the approach to a cave.

I've also gotten quite good at correlating old maps, and this one shows the notation "cooling beer" at about the location seen above.  Of more import note the substantial ice houses.  While I don't doubt there could be a lagering cave from their early years somewhere it is probably not on location.  I did not see much in the way of decent rock structure in the immediate vicinity.

You could in theory poke around such places in a fashion more intrusive than peering from the property edge but I do not recommend it.  This photo actually is of the current owner.

I speak nothing but the truth here.  The brewery site is owned by the actor Michael Rooker and his wife.  I understand they have plans for a remodel that will make it an artist's community of some sort.  I wish them well.  But I'll wait for an invite to look any closer.  Mr. Rooker may well be a swell guy, and in fact from what I've read, he actually is.  But anyone who can convincingly play dangerous characters such as Yondo from Guardians of the Galaxy, Merle in the Walking Dead, and an assortment of serial killers, assassins and such over the course of a decades long career, well I'm going to respect the man's privacy!