It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
We’ve already poured out a Summer Shandy for the 157-year-old Leinenkugel’s brewery in Chippewa Falls, shuttered this winter by corporate parent Molson Coors. A play by the Leinenkugel family to buy back their historic brewery seems like not much more than a Hail Mary. But what will come of that brewery’s also-closed younger cousin in Milwaukee?
The Tenth Street Brewery along I-43 on the edge of Downtown was not long ago a big piece of Molson Coors’ craft beer plans. In 2017, the company proudly announced $50 million in upgrades to the brewery, built in 1986 by G. Heileman (maker of Old Style), to better suit it for brewing and packaging small-batch beers.
But market winds change, and the recent downturn in craft beer caused Molson Coors to cut bait, selling four craft brands it had acquired from 2016 to 2020 at what appears to be fire sale prices. Leinie’s and Blue Moon remain, but that production was to move to the Miller Valley complex by mid-January.
Molson Coors added a Chicago-based craft brand, Cruz Blanca, shortly after announcing the Chippewa Falls and Milwaukee closures, but industry analysts think that’s a play for Modelo drinkers, not IPA folks. Plus, Molson Coors already laid off Tenth Street’s 34 employees. (The company declined to comment for this story.)
So there’s a brewery – enormous for a craft brewer but apparently too small for the economies of scale Molson Coors seeks – for sale, just a few miles from a pretty nice source of fresh water. Any takers?
