On this date 165 years ago — July 6, 1849 — Bavarian immigrant Anthony Yoerg opened Minnesota’s first brewery in St. Paul.
Interesting side note on Yoerg’s Brewery: In 1871 the operation moved to a spot adjacent to the Lilydale caves. Yoerg used the natural caves to store his product, and added the phrase “cave-aged” to the label. There are a number of places online to read about Yoerg’s Brewery, but of particular interest is the Substreet underground history site, which profiles Yoerg’s lost cellars.
Duluth’s first brewery came 10 years after Yoerg got things going. During a prolonged economic depression in 1859, four unemployed men — H. S. Burk, Gilbert Falconer, Harvey Fargo and Gotlieb G. Bush — hewed pine timber to build a brewing plant for Sidney Luce. A few decades later it became the Fitger’s Brewing Co.
