Spring is an excellent time for spotting brewery caves. Today's example is along the banks of the Rock River in southern Wisconsin.
Perhaps you did not spot it instantly? Well don't feel bad it took me a moment and I knew it was there. Stepping a bit further upstream and switching to my slightly better camera we can see..
A fairly typical small brewery cave, of the sort quite common in the 1860's and 70's. Especially in an area such as this that lacks the geology for hard rock caves. There is of course always something novel to the trained eye. And it looks to me as if the structure directly above the cave is a vent hole that has been rebuilt a bit and repurposed as a decorative wishing well!
My policy on locations is to err on the side of caution when trespass and safety are concerns. This does look like a place that passing canoers might be tempted to duck into, and my Underworld Contacts tell me that the cave in in danger of collapse. So in a general sense just be happy to know that it is out there, at least for a few more years.
A brief history of the brewery will of course give clues for the more motivated to follow. These clues being already in circulation I'll simply trust you to exhibit the same degree of sense and discretion that I have.
This brewery was started circa 1864 by a man named Grosskopf. Never a big brewery it usually made about 175 barrels a year. It seems to have been a rather rough place. In 1878 a man was killed in a fight at the brewery, and in 1884 there was an attempted robbery by drunken railway workers. That seems to have been enough for the Grosskopf family and the brewery went out of business soon thereafter.
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