Top: The Fleckenstein Brewery began in the sand-rock bluffs of the Straight River in Faribault in 1856. Inset: A few women climb on a Fleck’s Beer statue in Faribault. (Photos provided by the Rice County Historical Society)
Brian Schmidt holds up a vintage advertising poster from promoting Fleckenstein’s Ernst beer.
The Fleckenstein Brewery Tour in the woods off the Shattuck-St. Mary's campus in Faribault has been put on by Rice County Historical Society. The tour featured photos and descriptions of the brewery once located there. (File photo/southernminn.com)
Fleckenstein Brewery artifacts on display at the State Bank of Faribault.
A “cave aged” Fleck’s Beer bottle label and more from the State Bank of Faribault display
The trademark Fleck’s Beer “bottle” that was on display outside of the brewery office was a popular tourist attraction back in the day.
The trademark Fleck’s Beer “bottle” that was on display outside of the brewery office was a popular tourist attraction back in the day.
Memorabilia is all that remains of the old Fleckenstein Brewery in Faribault in 2022.
Fleck's continues to be a popular Faribault institution, even as it hasn't been open for decades.
The trademark Fleck’s Beer “bottle” that was on display outside of the brewery office was a popular tourist attraction back in the day.
In recent years, the craft brewing industry has seen an explosion of interest on a national and regional level, and according to data released by the Brewers Association in 2021, the state of Minnesota had 226 craft breweries producing over 600,000 barrels of beer annually — to place it among the top 15 states in the nation for craft breweries.
The growth of the beer industry might seem a novel experience for the state, but Minnesota has a long brewing heritage. More than 300 breweries existed at times throughout the state before Prohibition started in 1919.
Like much of Minnesota, Faribault had several breweries that called the city home during this time. Most of them existed in the late 1800s and included names like the S.A. Sheffield Brewing Company, Brandt Brewing Company, Norbert Paquin Brewery and the John Ahles Brewing Company.
Brian Schmidt holds up a vintage advertising poster from promoting Fleckenstein’s Ernst beer.
Most notable among the early Faribault beer businesses, though, was the name Fleckenstein, which began its century-long run in the community with the arrival of brothers Ernst, Gottfried, Joseph and Paul Fleckenstein to the United States from Germany in the 1850s.
According to an article that ran in the Faribault Daily News on May 23, 1956, the brothers aided their father in the operation of the Fleckenstein Brewery in Hoerstein (Bavaria), Germany, a business founded in 1577 by members of the Fleckenstein family.
Gottfried and Ernst eventually landed in St. Paul, Minn. around 1855 and briefly ran a small brewery there before being attracted to Faribault by the sandstone bluffs that line the east side of the Straight River near downtown.
“Germans have long been associated with crafting beer and beer brewing practices. The word “lager” means storage in German, and that style of beer was brewed to be stored at a cold temperature. In the 15th century, brewers in the Bavarian region used yeast from Patagonia that could ferment in a cool setting and began doing so in dank caves and monastery cellars, according to a 2011 report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” wrote author Eric Berger in his report for Terrain Magazine.
According to Berger’s story, the first German lager brewing in the United States started in St. Louis in the 1830s thanks to a large system of caves beneath that city. Those caves could provide the refrigeration needed to brew lager beer before the advent of mechanical refrigeration systems.
The Fleckenstein Brewery Tour in the woods off the Shattuck-St. Mary's campus in Faribault has been put on by Rice County Historical Society. The tour featured photos and descriptions of the brewery once located there. (File photo/southernminn.com)
One of those early companies to utilize the caves in St. Louis was Anheuser-Busch, which now ranks as the world’s largest producer of beer. The sandstone bluffs in Faribault also provided the same resources for beer production as they a site to create caves and a cool location for making lager beer.
Brother Ernst and Gottfried Fleckenstein ventured to Faribault and constructed the Fleckenstein Brewery in 1856 on the east side of the Straight River, which allowed them to utilize the natural caves and hand dig new caves in the St. Peter sandstone formations that line the river.
Top: The Fleckenstein Brewery began in the sand-rock bluffs of the Straight River in Faribault in 1856. Inset: A few women climb on a Fleck’s Beer statue in Faribault. (Photos provided by the Rice County Historical Society)
The two brothers oversaw the growth of their brewery operation, which stood on the same location of today’s Caves of Faribault cheese factory. The caves created for the Fleckenstein Brewery later proved to be an attractive location for the introduction of blue cheese making to the United States in 1936 and they are still in use today.
The brothers eventually parted ways in 1872, as Gottfried, the older brother, took sole ownership of the original Fleckenstein Brewery and Ernst opened a competing brewery (at the site previously used by the Paquin’s Brewery) on the west bank of the river called the Straight River Brewery.
Fleckenstein Brewery artifacts on display at the State Bank of Faribault.
Gottfried rebuilt and expanded the original brewery in 1872, and also rebuilt his operation again after a fire in 1892. He was later joined in the business by his son Louis Gottfried and renamed the business G. Fleckenstein and Son. Gottfried Fleckenstein passed away in 1900 and his son Louis continued with the brewing business until it ceased operation in 1902.
After his departure from the beer business, Louis Gottfried developed into a noted photographer. According to the Getty Museum website on Louis Gottfried, his first camera was a birthday gift from his wife around 1895. He went on to compete in numerous local and regional exhibitions as an amateur photographer before winning first place in a national competition.
He later helped organized the Salon Club of America, which was devoted to the nationwide promotion of the regional photographers clubs and opened a portrait studio in California in 1907. He exhibited at the Royal Photographic Society in London and went on to become an internationally know photographer. Louis went on to continue to exhibit and publish his works before becoming the city of Long Beach, California’s first art commissioner.
A “cave aged” Fleck’s Beer bottle label and more from the State Bank of Faribault display
On the other side of the river, Ernst was growing his Straight River Brewing Company and later relocated the brewery to the east side of the river at a location near the old Eighth Street Bridge just down the bluff from the Shattuck-St. Mary’s campus.
Once again, the access to the sandstone bluffs was key as it provided a cool location to assist with the making of the famous “cave aged” beers produced by the Fleckenstein’s. He was also attracted by other assets provided by the region, as mentioned in a story from the Faribault Daily News on May 23, 1956, which celebrated the 100th anniversary of Fleckenstein brewing in Faribault.
“Ernst Fleckenstein decided that the community of Faribault had an abundance of choice grain at hand as well as a plentiful supply of the finest, pure artesian well water. He also noted the citizens of the community had a thirst for good beer such as he was taught to brew in his home in Bavaria,” the Daily News article noted.
As part of the new brewery that Ernst Fleckenstein created, a system of “lagering” caves were hand dug and over 64,000 cubic feet of sand rock was removed to create the cave system for the brewery.
Known in its early years as the Straight River Brewery, the operation later became the Ernst Fleckenstein Brewery and was led by Ernst Fleckenstein, along with his four sons Alfred, Edward, William and Henry. Those four sons went on to run the business after Ernst Fleckenstein passed away in 1901.
In 1902, carbonated beverages were added to the company’s product line and a new bottling house was also built in that year to meet the growing demand for the beer. The beer produced at this location was called Ernst Beer and later became known as Fleck’s Beer and Fleck’s Cave Aged Beer. The company also produced a bock beer along with a wide range of carbonated beverages including Killarney Ginger Ale, All Star Kola, Fleck’s Dark Cereal Beverage, Fleck’s Root Beer and Fleck’s Grapefruit Drink.
The brewery continued to prosper and grow until wartime restrictions during World War I put restrictions on the sale of alcohol and that just served as a precursor to the deeper impact of Prohibition, which ended beer sales for the Fleckenstein Brewery in 1919 until 1933.
The trademark Fleck’s Beer “bottle” that was on display outside of the brewery office was a popular tourist attraction back in the day.
The brewery’s prior experience in the field of carbonated beverages proved to be a godsend, as it allowed the business to stay relevant during Prohibition. The factory was able to stay active and employees were able to keep their jobs producing a variety of soft drinks. At this time, the Fleckenstein Beverage Company, as it was now called, worked out contracts to produce Orange Crush and Hires Root Beer along with their own line of beverages.
“Pop and Near Beer (non-alcoholic beer) helped save it during Prohibition,” local historian Brian Schmidt said. “They were big into that and that is when the pop took off, because they had to keep their workers working, so they ramped up the pop and never closed.”
The repeal of Prohibition allowed the Fleckenstein’s to resume production of beer at its facility in Faribault and at the stroke of midnight on April 7, 1933 the area celebrated “new beer’s eve.” An article in the Faribault Daily News provided a look at that day’s events.
“At midnight, rows of cars were parked at the Fleckenstein Beverage Company as thirsty crowds awaited the zero hour. Traffic became exceedingly congested at the brewery and at the proper minute three large trucks heavily loaded with cases of beer left the brewery and quickly delivered the beer to various parts of town. Scarcely had the throng departed then telephone calls began coming in from restaurants and cafes.”
The return of beer sales once again helped grow business and the brewery soon became a popular destination for area residents who were able to get a sample of Fleck’s beer in the brewery’s signature sample room, which was inside one of the sandstone caves. Youngsters were also able to get a soft drink in the sample room.
The trademark Fleck’s Beer “bottle” that was on display outside of the brewery office was a popular tourist attraction back in the day.
Another tourist favorite was the large “bottle” of Fleck’s Beer, which adorned the corner of the company’s office building (which had previously been used as Ernst Fleckenstein’s home until a new residence was built nearby overlooking the brewery complex). The bottle served as a great photo opportunity for visitors to the brewery, long before selfies became popular.
“I just lived down here on 10th Street and my friend and I used to walk across the 8th Street bridge and up through the brewery or we would go up through the bluffs and we would get up on the campus of Shattuck there,” said Paul Hopke, who grew up in Faribault and currently resides in Michigan. “They would have Orange Crush, and I can’t remember what else, but it was good pop, and my Grandpa would buy a case of beer.”
Schmidt added, “The bottle and tap room were an attraction. People would come down to the factory for a visit while they were in town. Before they left to go home, they would come down and get a few cases of beer or a case of pop to bring back home for the people to enjoy.”
At its peak, the Fleckenstein Brewery was strictly a regional beer that provided beer to bars, liquor stores, resorts and restaurants in communities like Faribault, Northfield, Owatonna and Montgomery. The brewery delivered its beer in kegs and bottles, but never utilized cans during its bottling process.
A large celebration highlighted the 100th anniversary of the brewery in 1956, at which time the third generation of Fleckenstein’s were running the business. This group included grandsons Ernst “Boots” Fleckenstein, John Fleckenstein, Charles Fleckenstein and Alfred Fleckenstein.
The story of the Fleck’s Beer and the Fleckenstein Brewery came to an end with the closing of the factory in 1964. At the time, the brewery was the smallest operating brewery in the United States. A combination of factors, including strong competition from the large corporate breweries such as Anheuser-Busch and Miller helped lead to the demise of the business.
Memorabilia is all that remains of the old Fleckenstein Brewery in Faribault in 2022.
According to an article in the Minneapolis Tribune from 1964, the Ernst Fleckenstein Brewing Co. had 15 employees when it shut down production.
“Our income has been gradually decreasing over the last 10 years, like so many other smaller brewing companies,” a Fleckenstein spokesman was quoted in the story.
After the plant’s closure in 1964, an auction was held to sell off the remaining brewery equipment and supplies. The buildings and caves on the site stood empty and they became a popular, albeit unsafe, destination, local youths to hang out and explore. In the early 1970s, the decision was made by site’s owners (Shattuck-St. Mary’s) to demolish the buildings and seal up the former beer caves.
“Heselton Construction had the contract to tear it down and they said it was one of the toughest buildings to tear down because it was just full of rebar. They said it was an unbelievable building to tear down,” Schmidt said about the site’s demolition.
Despite being gone from the area for over 50 years, the Fleckenstein Brewery still draws interest from area residents. The Rice County Historical Society has several Fleck’s Beer and Fleckenstein Brewery items on display and a larger comprehensive collection of Fleckenstein Brewery memorabilia is owned by State Bank of Faribault President John Carlander and is on display in the bank’s lobby during regular business hours.
Fleck's continues to be a popular Faribault institution, even as it hasn't been open for decades.
“The Fleckenstein Brewery was a community business of Faribault and Rice County. If anyone went down there they would generously help out. They sponsored softball teams, bowling teams … It was just a community brewery and they were community people,” Schmidt said about the reason for the continued interest in the historic brewery.
“If you talk about Fleck’s in the community, it is still a vibrant name, and it is amazing it hasn’t died,” Schmidt said. “I just think giving back to the community over all those years … The Fleckenstein’s were a super nice family, and I think that is why the interest has lasted so long.”
Tom Nelson is a freelance writer. Reach the editor at editor@apgsomn.com.
Over the summer, the history of the Fleckenstein Brewery will once again take the spotlight, as a series of community events will take place on the weekend of Aug. 19-21. Some of the highlights scheduled for that weekend will include a classic car show, tour of the old brewery site and the dedication of the new Fleckenstein Bluff Park at 699 First Ave. NE in Faribault.
Stay tuned to the Faribault Daily News for further updates.
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