Self Opening States Only

Wisconsin II

The Milwaukee Extra is the steel variation, two known and the actual can shown in the back of the USBC book.

The Zing in the middle with the red at the top has only been photographed in the Unlimited Book as a tab.

The brown Weber and 3 Old Milwaukees are all book cans. The white Weber was a 2013 addition.

Potosi Brewing Company

Adam Schumacher and his brothers (Nicholas and Henry) brought this brewery in 1906 and named it after the town of Potosi. Situated in the south western Wisconsin along the Mississippi River they sold their beers in many far away locations. With the creation of refridgerated trucks, better highways and the growth of television where larger breweries could afford to advertise they lost their advantage and were forced to close in 1972.

The American Breweriana Association chose this site to establish the National Brewery Museum in 2004

When the Weber cans were pictured in the Unlimited Book, as Self Opening cans, I began a search for both the cans and any history I could find about them.    

 Walter Brewing Company

  In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, five Walter Brothers emigrated from Germany to Wisconsin. A better life was found in America and a Brewing Dynasty was born.

1. Jon (Johannes), Eau Claire, Wisconsin, graduated from the Siebol Brewing Institute (Chicago) where August Busch III was a classmate. After his first brewery burned, he re-located to Eau Claire by purchasing a struggling Dells Brewery from the Leinenfugel family. John died in 1932, a year before prohibition ended and his widow reluctantly sold the brewery to other members of the family. It was the last of the five Walter owned breweries to close (1989).
2. George – Appleton, Wisconsin- purchased two adjacent breweries (one being the Star Brewery and the other being the Fries Brewery) combining them to form the brewery that bore his name. George died in 1899. The brewery closed in 1972. Adler(German for Eagle) Brau was one of their products.

Martin, Christian, Matthaus – Menosha Wisconsin. For a while the three brothers shared the operation of the Brewery

3.    Martin – Pueblo, Colorado. Martin, feeling crowded,  left his two brothers  to go west to Colorado. He successfully began brewing in Pueblo (closed 1975) and expanded his business to Trinidad, Colorado (closed in the 1940’s). The completion was less in Colorado and his two breweries thrived..

4.  Christian – Menasha, Wisconsin. Upon Martin’s departure, Christian owned this facility and brewed Gem and Gold Label. This operation was the first to close in 1956.

5. West Bend Lithia, Wisconsin. Closed in 1972. Old Timers, Black Pride. A Second generation of Walters (Martin F. and Charles W. sons of George Walter from Appleton) bought into this brewery in 1919.

Brewing in Oshkosh (Rahr's, Oshkosh, and Peoples)

  In the 1890's the small breweries in Oshkosh were feeling the pressure from the much larger breweries in Milwaukee. Three (the Brooklyn Brewery of Horn and Schwalm; the Union Brewery of John Glatz and Sons; and the Gambrinos Brewery of Lorenze Kuenzl) decided to join forces and thus the merger created the Oshkosh Brewing Company. The Charles Rahr Brewing company refused to join the others and opted to go it alone. In 1911 another brewing concern was started by local residents led by Joseph Nigl - they called it People's. Then there were three when Prohibition took effect in 1920. All three stayed open during the "Dry Years" by producing soft drinks and near beers. Exactly what the real story was - this much is known, in 1929 there was so much activity in the Oshkosh area with real beer the Bureau of Alcohol officially declared the whole area "Wet"! Prohibition didn't stop drinking, it just made it illegal. It is remarkable when so many breweries in other places nationwide failed to survive prohibition that all three Oshkosh Breweries managed to do so.