Archive Dive: The Fitger Brewing Co.

This week’s dive into the ZCP archive tells the story of Duluth’s longest-lived manufacturer: The Fitger Brewing Company. Discover how brewmaster August Fitger and his business partner Percy Anneke took a modest brewery on the Lake Superior shore and turned it into a regional powerhouse that dominated northern Wisconsin and Northern Minnesota for decades until it began crumbling under the stress of national consolidation and received two letters: one from the Minnesota Highway Department and another from the State’s pollution control agency, that brought the brewery to its inevitable demise. From our book Naturally Brewed, Naturally Better: The Historic Breweries of Duluth & Superior. Check out the story here.

A postcard of Fitger’s Brewery c. 1900-1915. The artwork came from the company’s letterhead and includes some buildings that were never constructed, and a roof-top garden above the offices that was also never completed. (Image: Zenith City Press)