View source for Valentin Blatz Brewing Company

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name = Blatz Brewery Complex
| nrhp_type =
| image = Valentin Blatz Brewing Company.jpg
| caption =Building detail from the brewery complex
| location = [[Milwaukee]], [[Wisconsin]]
| coordinates = {{coord|43|2|42.07|N|87|54|32.43|W|display=inline,title}}
| area =
| built = 1891
| architect = August Gunzmann, Louis Lehle
| architecture =
| added = April 15, 1986
| refnum = 86000793<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2007a}}</ref>
}}

The '''Valentin Blatz Brewing Company''' was an American brewery based in [[Milwaukee]], [[Wisconsin]]. It produced '''Blatz Beer''' from 1851 until 1959, when the label was sold to [[Pabst Brewing Company]].

Blatz [[beer]] is currently produced by the [[Miller Brewing Company]] of Milwaukee, under contract for Pabst Brewing Company.

==History==
[[File:Val. Blatz's Milwaukee Lager Beer 1879.jpg|thumb|left|1879 advertisement for Val. Blatz's Milwaukee lager beer]]

Johann Braun opened City Brewery in 1846. [[Valentin Blatz]] established a brewery next door in 1850 and merged both breweries upon Braun's death in 1852.<ref name="Part I">{{cite web|url=http://www.breweryhistory.com/journal/archive/140/Milwaukee.pdf|title=Rediscovering Milwaukee's historic breweries Part I: Milwaukee's downtown breweries|access-date=16 April 2019}}</ref> In that year, Valentin's little brewery produced 350 barrels of [[lager]]. That beer was for local consumption only, due to short shelf-life. In 1868 Blatz's brewery produced 16,000 barrels.<ref name=nrhp_nom/>

After a fire destroyed much of the original brewery in 1872, Blatz was able to enlarge and update his facilities with new brewing technology. In 1875, Blatz was the first Milwaukee brewery to have a bottling department to package beer and ship nationally.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://emke.uwm.edu/entry/blatz-brewing-company/|title=Blatz Brewing Company {{!}} Encyclopedia of Milwaukee|website=emke.uwm.edu|language=en-US|access-date=2018-03-02}}</ref> It incorporated as the Valentin Blatz Brewing Company in 1889. In 1891, the company sold part of its brewing interests to an English syndicate. By the 1900s it was the city's third-largest brewer.<ref name="Part I"/>

During [[Prohibition]], Blatz produced non-alcoholic beverages such as malt soap, sodas and near beer, from 1920 to 1933. In 1933, Blatz was issued U-Permit No. WIS-U-712, granting permission to resume brewing beer.

In 1953, Blatz was involved in the [[1953 Milwaukee brewery strike]]. In 1958, [[Pabst Brewing Company]], then the nation's tenth largest brewer, acquired Blatz, the eighteenth largest, from [[Schenley Industries]]. In 1959, the federal government brought an action charging that the acquisition violated Section 7 of the [[Clayton Act]] as amended by the Celler-Kefauver Anti-Merger amendment. The sale was voided in 1959 and Blatz closed that same year. In 1960, the assets of Blatz, including its labels, were sold to Pabst.

In 1969, Blatz was acquired from Pabst by the [[G. Heileman Brewing Company]].  Heileman, in turn, was acquired by the [[Stroh Brewery Company]] in 1996.  On 8 February 1999, prior to its dissolution in 2000, the Stroh Brewery Company sold its labels to the Pabst Brewing Company and to the [[Miller Brewing Company]]. By 2007, Blatz was once again part of Pabst.

=== Today ===
[[File:Milwaukee September 2022 34 (Valentin Blatz Brewing Company Brewhouse).jpg|thumb|Valentin Blatz Brewing Company Brewhouse in 2022]]

The "Blatz" beer label currently is produced by the [[Miller Brewing Company]] of Milwaukee, under contract for Pabst Brewing Company.  The Blatz Brewery Complex and [[Valentin Blatz Brewing Company Office Building]] in downtown Milwaukee are listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]. The brewing company's office building has been converted into condominiums. The former Blatz bottling facility is now the Campus Center Building for the [[Milwaukee School of Engineering]]. The office building has been converted into the school's Alumni Partnership Center.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Campus Map and Facilities |url=http://www.msoe.edu/about-msoe/visit-msoe/campus-maps-facilities/ |publisher=[[Milwaukee School of Engineering]] |access-date=September 17, 2017}}</ref>

The NRHP-listed ''Blatz Brewery Complex'' consists of three historic buildings from the Blatz plant - all of them in a German [[Renaissance Revival architecture|Renaissance Revival]] style, with round arches and light trim against dark brick. Stockhouse number 3 is the oldest, a six-story block designed by August Gunzmann and built in 1891, establishing the general style for subsequent buildings. (It is photo 5 in the NRHP photos.) In the 1930s a floor was added to the top of #3, removing original pediments.  Stockhouse number 2 is a similar structure built in 1904 with a 2-story square tower atop its center. Stockhouse number 1 was built in 1906, continuing the same design.<ref>{{cite web|title=Blatz Brewery Complex|date=January 2012|url=https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Property/HI17134|publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society|access-date=2019-07-09}}</ref> Other non-contributing buildings from the Blatz plant are the 1904 boilerhouse,<ref>{{cite web|title=Blatz Brewery Boilerhouse|date=January 2012|url=https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Property/HI104576|publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society|access-date=2019-07-09}}</ref> the 1906 brewhouse,<ref>{{cite web|title=Blatz Brewery Brewhouse|date=January 2012|url=https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Property/HI104580|publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society|access-date=2019-07-09}}</ref> and the 1910 Mill House.<ref>{{cite web|title=Blatz Brewery Mill House|date=January 2012|url=https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Property/HI104584|publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society|access-date=2019-07-09}}</ref>
<ref name=nrhp_nom>{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=86000793}}|title=NRHP Inventory/Nomination: Blatz Brewery Complex|publisher=[[National Park Service]]|author=Ann Stevens|date=1985-08-16|access-date=2019-07-09}} With {{NRHP url|id=86000793|photos=y|title=14 photos.}}</ref>

==Marketing==
Two famous Blatz/Milwaukee beer marketing slogans were "Blatz—Milwaukee's Finest Beer" and "Blatz—Milwaukee's Favorite Premium Beer".  In later years, the brewery described its product as "Draft Brewed Blatz". The two most famous jingles were from the 1950s to early 1970s. One had the words "Kegs, Cans, or Bottles, all taste the same. The three best is one beer—Blatz is the name", playing on the fact that many other beers had a different taste when bottled and canned from how they tasted fresh from the keg. The other had the sung words, "We're from Milwaukee and we oughta know, it's good old Blatz Beer wherever you go.  Kegs, Cans and Bottles, all taste the same.  The three best is one beer.  Blatz is the name."  In the 1980s, Blatz was marketed directly against [[Pabst Blue Ribbon]] in the "working class" market, as seen in a 1981 "blind taste test" commercial featuring a steel worker.<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYYjIB3dbZ8&t=53s |title=WCCO News Opening 1981|date=28 September 2006|work=YouTube|access-date=9 July 2015}}{{deadlink|date=September 2023}}</ref>

In 2005, a group of Blatz Beer advocates published and distributed what become known as the "Blatzitution", a guideline regarding the various rules and suggestions on how Blatz Beer should be enjoyed. Those who broke the rules become known as "Blatzphemers." The "Blatzitution" received a positive, though unofficial, endorsement from Pabst Brewery, with a representative citing "We are honored that the great tradition of Blatz Beer is being enjoyed by a new generation of beer drinkers."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ibb.co/X3xb2mP|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018184922/https://ibb.co/X3xb2mP|url-status=usurped|archive-date=October 18, 2019|title = News-BB}}</ref>

==Pop culture==
===TV & film===
In the 1953 cult-classic [[The Wild One]] starring [[Marlon Brando]], Brando's character Johnny Strabler is the leader of a biker gang that terrorizes a small town in California. After one of the members of the gang injures himself in a motorcycle crash and is taken to the town doctor, Johnny orders a beer at the local bar and the love interest, [[Mary Murphy (actress)|Mary Murphy]], serves him a bottle of Blatz. Johnny and his gang drink Blatz out of the bottle throughout most of the movie.<ref>"The Wild One." Directed by László Benedek, performances by Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, and Lee Marvin, Columbia Pictures, 1953.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Beer in Milwaukee]]
* [[List of defunct breweries in the United States]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{commonscat-inline}}
*{{Official website|http://www.blatzbeer.com/}} 
*[https://www.angelfire.com/rant/punkmoore/Blatz/history.html Unofficial company history]
*[https://www.angelfire.com/rant/punkmoore/index.html Blatz Online Fan Site]
*{{HAER |survey=WI-113-A |id=wi0788 |title=Valentin Blatz Brewing Company, Brewery, 1101-47 North Broadway, Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, WI |photos=2 |cap=1}}

{{Registered Historic Places}}

[[Category:Pabst Brewing Company]]
[[Category:American companies established in 1851]]
[[Category:1851 establishments in Wisconsin]]
[[Category:American beer brands]]
[[Category:Defunct brewery companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Milwaukee]]
[[Category:Historic American Engineering Record in Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin|Blatz Brewing Company]]
[[Category:National Register of Historic Places in Milwaukee]]
[[Category:Defunct manufacturing companies based in Milwaukee]]