Across the Mississippi river from the Minnesota shore lies the city of La Crosse, Wisconsin...and La Crosse's best-known industrial artifacts are the premises of the G. Heileman Brewing Company, onetime home of Old Style beer.
The history of the brewery dates back to 1854, when John Gund opened a small operation at the corner of Front and Division Streets. Gund expanded into a partnership with Gottlieb Heileman four years later, who eventually took over the business outright and branded it under his name. Heileman spent the 1960s and 1970s buying up other breweries, stumbled in the 1980s fending off competition and corporate raiders, and spent the 1990s in a state of sporadic bankruptcy. By 1999 Heileman had ceased to exist as an independent company and the brewery closed, with Pabst walking off with the trademarks. The premises didn't stay quiet for long, however, for they were sold to investors who promptly reopened them under the City Brewing name.
The oldest portion of the property is the Gottlieb and Johanna Heileman family mansion, which adjoins the brewery and dates back to 1875.
Today, the brewery's primary purpose of existence is to produce beers (and non-beer beverages) under contract for other firms. City Brewing does however produce its own La Cross Lager for local distribution, which is allegedly the real Old Style recipe while the Old Style currently in stores is an imposter. (Not that it matters...most beers of a certain color and consistency taste a lot alike, and I doubt a pack of sweaty Cubs fans would tell the difference if their life depended on it.)
Old Style labelscar is still discernable in a number of places.
Decorated storage tanks (dubbed the "world's largest six pack") were added by Heileman in the 1960s. Although impressive, the graphics on the tanks are starting to look a little worse for wear and fading...and in fact, the wrap-up had separated on one tank entirely, revealing the Old Style logo.
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