The Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company (), doing business as Leinenkugel's, is an American beer maker based in

Chippewa Falls Chippewa Falls is a city located on the Chippewa River (Wisconsin), Chippewa River in Chippewa County, Wisconsin, Chippewa County in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 14,778 in the 2021 census. Incorporated as ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. Leinenkugel was historically distributed only in the

Upper Midwest The Upper Midwest is a region in the northern portion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. It is largely a sub-region of the Midwest. Although the exact boundaries are not uniformly agreed-upon, the region is defined as referring ...

, but is now available throughout all 50 states. The company is the seventh oldest brewery in the United States, and the oldest business in Chippewa Falls. It is a subsidiary of

Molson Coors The Molson Coors Beverage Company is an American-Canadian multinational drink and brewing company incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law and headquartered in Golden, Colorado and Montreal, Quebec. Molson Coors was formed in 2005 ...

. It produces both traditional beers, including

lager Lager () is beer which has been brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "lager" comes from the German for "storage" ...

s and

ale Ale is a Type of beer, type of beer brewed using a Warm fermentation, warm fermentation method, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops. As with most beers, ale typicall ...

s, as well as a popular line of

shandy Shandy is beer or cider mixed with a lemon or a lemon-lime flavored beverage. The citrus beverage, often called lemonade, may or may not be carbonated. The proportions of the two ingredients are adjusted to taste but are usually half lemonade ...

s, which are a mixture of beer with fruit juices, such as

lemonade Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored beverage. There are varieties of lemonade found throughout the world. In North America and South Asia, cloudy still lemonade is the most common variety. There it is traditionally a homemade drink using le ...

History

The brewery was founded in Chippewa Falls in May 1867 by

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n immigrant Jacob Mathias Leinenkugel (1842–1899) and John Miller, making it the seventh oldest brewery in the United States. The original beer brewed, which historically made up 90% of company production, was based on a formula Leinenkugel brought with him from Germany. The company is the oldest operating business in Chippewa Falls. Miller sold his stake in the company in 1884. Leinenkugels Brewery in Chippewa Falls

During

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

, the company produced

near beer Low-alcohol beer is beer with little or no alcohol content and aims to reproduce the taste of beer while eliminating (or at least reducing) the inebriating effects of standard alcoholic brews. Most low-alcohol beers are lagers, but there are some ...

(known as "Leino") as well as

soda water Carbonated water (also known as soda water, sparkling water, fizzy water, club soda, water with gas, in many places as mineral water, or especially in the United States as seltzer or seltzer water) is water containing dissolved carbon dioxide gas, ...

. With the repeal of Prohibition, Jacob Leinenkugel's daughters mortgaged their homes to fund the restoration of the company's beer brewing vats. The Leinenkugel brewery expanded from its local roots beginning in the 1970s, when it first introduced its light beer. The family-owned brewery was sold in 1988 to Philip Morris subsidiary

Miller Brewing Company The Miller Brewing Company is an American brewery and beer company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was founded in 1855 by Frederick Miller. Molson Coors acquired the full global brand portfolio of Miller Brewing Company in 2016, and operates the M ...

in an effort to stay solvent. In an unprecedented move at the time, Miller kept the Leinenkugel family on to run its operation. After several attempts to bring the beer to national U.S. markets, Miller succeeded in 2007 with the addition of a Summer Shandy ale to the Leinenkugel product line. The company has since become well known for its sweeter beers and shandies, with nine out of ten shandies consumed in the United States being brewed by Leinenkugel. On October 11, 2016,

SABMiller SABMiller plc was a South African multinational brewing and beverage company headquartered in Woking, England on the outskirts of London until 10 October 2016 when it was acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev. Prior to that date, it was the world's ...

sold its stake in

MillerCoors MillerCoors was a beer brewing company in the United States. MillerCoors was formed in 2008 as a joint venture between SABMiller and Molson Coors to combine their brewing, marketing and sales operations in the United States. The company was acqui ...

for around US $12 billion after the company was acquired by

Anheuser-Busch InBev Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, commonly known as AB InBev, is an American-Belgian multinational drink and brewing company based in Leuven, Belgium. AB InBev has a global functional management office in New York City, and regional headquarters ...

, making

the sole owner of all Miller brands, including Leinenkugel's. As of 2016, the brewery has distribution outlets in all 50 states and its president is still a family member, Dick Leinenkugel. For the company's 150th anniversary, it created a special, "old style" German beer, which was actually brewed by license in Germany via Hofbräu.

Breweries

Leinenkugel operates two breweries. The original, the company's base of operations, is located in Chippewa Falls; and the 10th Street Brewery located in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

. The 10th Street Brewery (formerly the

Valentin Blatz Brewing Company 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 Compan ...

brewery), was opened in 1986 by

G. Heileman Brewing Company The G. Heileman Brewing Company of La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States, was a brewery firm that operated from 1858 to 1996. It was ultimately acquired by Stroh's, and its independent existence ceased. From 1872 until its acquisition, the brewe ...

for the Blatz label. It was purchased by Leinenkugel in 1995. It produces Leinenkugel's Big Eddy ale line, a series of seasonal, high alcohol beers.

Products

As of 2019, beers produced by Leinenkugel's include:

Beers

*Honey Weiss,

wheat beer Wheat beer is a top-fermented beer which is brewed with a large proportion of wheat relative to the amount of malted barley. The two main varieties are German ''Weizenbier'' and Belgian ''witbier''; other types include Lambic (made with wild ye ...

with honey *Sunset Wheat, wheat beer (fall seasonal) *Berry Weiss, wheat beer with berries *Creamy Dark,

dark lager Lager () is beer which has been brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "lager" comes from the German for "storage" ...

*Leinenkugel's Original,

pilsner Pilsner (also pilsener or simply pils) is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the Bohemian city of Plzeň (german: Pilsen), where the world's first pale lager (now known as Pilsner Urquell) was produced in 1842 by Pilsner Urquell Brewe ...

*Wisconsin Red Pale Ale, a

pale ale Pale ale is a golden to amber coloured beer style brewed with pale malt. The term first appeared around 1703 for beers made from malts dried with high-carbon coke, which resulted in a lighter colour than other beers popular at that time. Diff ...

*Leinenkugel's Light, a

light beer Light beer is a beer, usually a pale lager, that is reduced in alcohol content or in calories compared to regular beers. The first use of the term in marketing was in the 1940s when the Coors Brewing Company sold Coors Light, for a short period ...

*Canoe Paddler, a Kölsch (summer seasonal) *Oktoberfest, a

Märzen ''Märzen'' or ''Märzenbier'' (german: March beer) is a lager that originated in Bavaria. It has a medium to full body and may vary in color from pale through amber to dark brown. It was the beer traditionally served at the Munich Oktoberfest. ...

(fall seasonal) *Snowdrift, a

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). Pollination is required to make the p ...

porter Porter may refer to: Companies * Porter Airlines, Canadian regional airline based in Toronto * Porter Chemical Company, a defunct U.S. toy manufacturer of chemistry sets * Porter Motor Company, defunct U.S. car manufacturer * H.K. Porter, Inc., ...

(winter seasonal) *Cherry Blonde Lager *Red Lager *Northwoods Lager

Shandys

*Orange

Shandy Shandy is beer or cider mixed with a lemon or a lemon-lime flavored beverage. The citrus beverage, often called lemonade, may or may not be carbonated. The proportions of the two ingredients are adjusted to taste but are usually half lemonade ...

*Berry Shandy *Summer Shandy (lemon flavored) *Grapefruit Shandy *Watermelon Shandy *Pomegranate Shandy *Harvest Patch Shandy (

pumpkin spice Pumpkin pie spice, also known as pumpkin spice, is an American spice mix commonly used as a flavoring for pumpkin pie, but does not include pumpkin as an ingredient. Pumpkin pie spice is similar to the British and Commonwealth mixed spice. It is ...

flavored, a fall seasonal) *Cranberry Ginger Shandy

References

External links

Company website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leinenkugel SABMiller Chippewa County, Wisconsin Beer brewing companies based in Wisconsin 1867 establishments in Wisconsin Food and drink companies established in 1867 American companies established in 1867