(playful instrumental music)
- [Narrator] This is the town
of Chippewa Falls, nestled along the Chippewa River
in the beautiful Northwoods of Wisconsin.
It's home to the Leinenkugel family
and the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company.
Brewer of Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy
and one of the oldest breweries in America.
So what's it take for one family to keep the beer flowing
for over 150 years?
It's harder than you'd think.
Our story begins in 1867, with a young German immigrant,
a brewer named Jacob Leinenkugel.
- I like to refer to my great-great-grandfather
as No-Neck Leinie.
- [Narrator] For centuries his family had been brewing beer
in Germany, now he was looking to make his mark in America.
In Chippewa Falls, Jacob discovered a source
of pure spring water.
- Which makes for a great lager-style beer.
- [Narrator] He also discovered--
- Twenty five hundred thirsty lumberjacks.
- [Narrator] So he built a brewery.
But brewing was hard work.
To make ends meet, he enlisted his family.
- I think the hardest worker out of that family was probably
his wife Josephine.
- My great, great, great grandmother.
- [Narrator] Every day she woke up at three a.m.
to cook four meals for the 20 brewery workers,
all while raising four children.
- Lotta credit goes to Josephine.
- [Narrator] The little brewery prospered,
but then Jacob's partner quit,
and Josephine died of pneumonia, aged 44.
With a family to support, Jacob had no choice
but to keep brewing and the people of Chippewa Falls
loved the beer so much they elected Jacob mayor, twice.
- They continued to brew great beer, all the way up until
the Federal government put us out of business.
- [Narrator] In 1920 the United States banned
the manufacture and sale of alcohol.
The dark days of prohibition descended upon America
and hundreds of breweries vanished.
- We had stay in business and we had to stay together
as a family.
- [Narrator] To survive prohibition,
they turned to Jacob's daughter Susan,
electing her president just six years after women
won the right to vote.
- Third cousin twice removed.
You have to go back through a family lineage
to find that out.
- [Narrator] She saved Leinenkugels by brewing
soda pop and mixers.
- [Dick] I gotta believe that the mixers were being mixed
with something else.
- [Narrator] When prohibition came to a close,
two other Leinenkugel women.
- [Dick] Katherine Leinenkugel and Rose Casper--
- [Narrator] Came to the rescue.
- [Dick] They actually mortgaged their homes to get the
brewing equipment back up and operating.
- Not a lot of breweries came out of prohibition.
Leinenkugels was fortunate.
- [Narrator] The reinvigorated brewery was soon joined
by Bill Leinenkugel, a Marine returned from war.
- Bill, my dad, was really the guy that expanded
the brewery's footprint into the Northwoods of Wisconsin.
- [Narrator] Bill had five children, and they helped
out around the brewery as Bill hit the road,
spreading the gospel of Leinenkugels across the Northwoods.
He just went out and met the people.
Put a nice cold Leinies in their hands and they loved
the guy and that's what they stuck with.
- [Narrator] Soon, he had transformed Leinenkugels
into a major Midwest brewery.
But it wasn't enough.
Small brewers were being priced out of business
by big brewers who had invaded their turf.
- Economics 101, folks.
- [Narrator] Back when Leinenkugels got started,
there were nearly 4,000 breweries spread across America.
By the late 70s, only 89 remained.
As Leinenkugels became engulfed in the price wars,
- Ask for Leinenkugels.
- [Narrator] It received help from a
fellow Wisconsin brewery.
- It was in 1987 that my dad received a letter from
Miller Brewing Company.
My dad says I think they want us to buy them.
Well, it was obviously the other way around.
- [Narrator] Leinenkugels kept its family roots,
and Bill's three sons built upon their father's legacy.
- After partnering with Miller Brewing Company,
we began to develop different styles of beers
that we probably wouldn't have been able to do on our own.
- [Mahala] Can you list all the Leinenkugels beers?
- There are quite a few, so you'll have to have
some more film.
- Leinenkugel Original.
- Honey Weiss.
- Berry Weiss.
- Canoe Paddler.
- Sunset Wheat.
- Creamy Dark.
- Big Butt Doppelbock.
- What else? (laughs)
- Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy.
- It wasn't until the development of Leinenkugel's
Summer Shandy that we decided to take Leinenkugels
to the rest of the country.
- Whether it's the island of Manhattan, New York
or all the way up to the great frontier of Alaska,
that's pretty cool.
- Okay everybody, here we go!
♪ When we're gone from here ♪
♪ The gang will be drinkin' all the beer. ♪
- [Narrator] In 2017 Leinenkugels celebrated 150 years
as the pride of the Northwoods.
And with time, comes tradition.
- Leinenkugels and Chippewa Falls are synonymous.
When you see a Leinenkugels,
you think Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.
When you say Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin,
you think Leinenkugel beer.
- There's generations of Leinenkugels that have worked
here at the brewery, but there's also been generations
of other families that have worked here and continue
to work here to this day.
- Our hats off go to them as well.
It's a legacy that was started in 1867 and we're gonna
work really hard to ensure that that legacy continues.