History’s brewing in Fergus Falls

By Jeff Hage (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Friday, December 7, 2007

Sit down and crack open a cold one.

While you do that I’m going to crack open a new book that has caught my attention this holiday season.

I’ve consider myself a brewery historian since I was a young boy, loving the lore of the big, gothic brewery buildings where I grew up in the Twin Cities. I have been visiting breweries across the nation for as long as I remember and had the pleasure of covering the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. in Chippewa Falls, Wis. for about nine years before moving to Fergus Falls in August.

That’s why this new book that’s appeared on the shelves of Minnesota bookstores this fall has me intrigued.

“Land of Amber Waters” chronicles the history of brewing in Minnesota.

Minnesota is one of the most important barley-growing states in the world — and barley is one of the most important ingredients in beer — so it’s only natural that Minnesota and beer have shared an important history for more than 100 years.

Long before the likes of Theodore Hamm, Jacob Schmidt, August Schell and Fred & Alvin Gluek, John Hauenstein and the folks at the Grain Belt Brewery put Minnesota on the brewing map, there is evidence that beer was being brewed by some of the first people to visit our great state — vagrants on the grounds of Fort Snelling who were chased from the compound only to settle up river and found St. Paul.

One of those early settlers was Pierre “Pigs Eye” Parrant, a notorious liquor dealer who went down in Minnesota brewing history after the Minnesota Brewing Company bought the Jacob Scmidt brewery on West Seventh Street in St. Paul in the fall of 1991.

“Pigs Eye Beer” became the brewery’s flagship brand and revived those old stories of brewing beer on Minnesota’s prairie.

Speaking of brewing beer on the prairie, Fergus Falls is home to quite a strong brewing history of its own.

According to “Land of Amber Waters,”

Brewing came to Fergus Falls in 1871 when Lincoln Avenue restrauntier John Zaiser announced he would build a brewery. The brewery was completed in 1875.

By 1878 the brewery had been sold to Lake City brewery Peter Oehlschlager but it burned a year later. The brewery was rebuilt and was selling beer by 1880.

Also in 1878, Fergus Falls’ real brewing history began to unfold. Charles Brown built a brewery near the present day location of the Eagles Club that after several ownership changes would grow into a major brewing operation.

In 1907 it would grow into the Fergus Falls Brewing Company.

The brewery survived Prohibition and emerged in 1933 as the Premier Brewing Company. It’s Premier Beer was the brewery’s flagship brand, but “Heinie’s Lager was its top seller.

Premier was reorganized in 1935 as the Fergus Brewing Co. Heinies was renamed Heinrich’s. Six Horse, Staat’s and Lord Chumleys were also being brewed in Fergus Falls — as well as brews for the Armed Forces, according to “Land of Amber Waters”. And to what should be no surprise in these neck of the woods, the company also brewed Viking Lager from 1935-1948.

After a 1948 reorganization the brewery saw its greatest success when the product line was simply Falls Pilsner and Falls Velvet. The Falls brands was being sold in both cans and bottles. Financial troubles and a failed expansion as far west as Montana were eventually the brewery’s doom in 1951.

“Land of Amber Waters” tells the story of some smaller Fergus Falls breweries, too, and shares the history of breweries in Elizabeth, Otter Tail City, Perham, and New York Mills, where Glacial Lakes Beer was brewed in a former drug store from 1997 to 2001.

If you have a thirst for brewery history you’ll find that “Land of Amber Waters” is as hard to put down as an ice-cold brew.

Jeffrey Hage is the managing editor of The daily Journal. Reach him at jeff.hage@fergusfallsjournal.com