Fitger Brewing Company
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Fitger's Brewing Company
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The complex in Duluth in 2016
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| Location | Duluth, Minnesota |
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| Coordinates | 46°47′32″N 92°5′25.5″W / 46.79222°N 92.090417°WCoordinates: 46°47′32″N 92°5′25.5″W / 46.79222°N 92.090417°W |
| Built | 1886 |
| Architect | Multiple |
| Architectural style | Romanesque |
| NRHP Reference # | 84001690 |
| Added to NRHP | February 9, 1984 |
The Fitger's Brewing Company brewed beer from 1881 to 1972, making it Duluth's oldest continually-operating industry. The brewery was located at 600 East Superior Street, on Lake Superior in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The complex included ten buildings including the garage/stable (shown), which was built in 1911. Over the life of the company this building housed the horses and vehicle used to deliver the brewery's product.
The first brewery in Duluth, Minnesota, was started by Sidney Luce in 1857. It was purchased in 1881 by Michael Fink, who decided to build a larger brewery a block and a half away on Superior Street. Construction of the new building began September 19, 1881, and was completed the next year. Dubbed Fink's Lake Superior Brewery, it included offices, sleeping quarters for employees, brewing facilities, and its own drinking establishment, the Brewery Saloon. Lake Superior Brewery sold its first beer in August 1882. The brewery was very successful from the beginning and sold beer as far west as Aitkin, Minnesota, and as far east as Thunder Bay, Ontario.
On November 11, 1882, Fink hired a young German brewmaster named August Fitger, a graduate from a premier German brewing school, Weihenstephan Brewing School in Munich (now part of Technical University of Munich, the German equivalent of the MIT and home of many Nobel laureates). Just months later, in April 1883, Fitger purchased half of the company for $18,000. It was agreed that the other half would be purchased by Percy Anneke, a native of Milwaukee and auditor and sales rep for Schlitz. Anneke was a friend of Fitger, and son of famous German-American political activist, abolitionist and feminist Mathilde Anneke and her husband Colonel Fritz Anneke. The company was renamed A. Fitger & Co./ Lake Superior Brewery.
Beer production continued for 40 years until Prohibition began in 1920, forcing breweries to close their doors or change production. Fitger's was able to fill markets other than beer to produce, and was one of the few brewers in the entire country that remained open throughout Prohibition. Fitger and Anneke sold their shares and retired to California. Percy's son Victor H. Anneke, who had taken over from his father in 1920, wanted to keep as many employees as possible, but the beer sales could not justify that. In order to keep employees, he decided to begin making soft drinks and candy and distributing cigars. Fitger and Anneke had set out a strategy several years earlier in order to keep the brewery open during Prohibition, which they only expected to last a short time. The company produced five-cent candy bars such as The King Bee Nougat, the Flapper, the Spark Plug, the Nut Goodie, and the Skookum. Candy sales steadily increased for several years, but did not ultimately prove profitable.
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