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Carver County has long had beer due to the talents of its early German immigrants. These immigrants were master brewers, an art that had been cultivated in families for hundreds of years. As a result, breweries were one of the earliest industries in the county, beginning in Chaska in 1862, followed by Watertown and Waconia in 1865, Young America in 1866 and the City of Carver at an undetermined date.
The first recorded brewery in Carver County was the Fritz and Ulmer Brewery in Chaska owned by Joseph Fritz and George Ulmer. This brewery was in business no later than the end of 1862, but the partnership dissolved within the year. The brewery passed through several shifts of owners, before landing in the hands of Bernard Leiverman, Sr. in 1897. In 1904, Leiverman’s son August took over. It was during this time that the brewery was credited with producing Chaska’s first lager beer and bottled beer. Prohibition in 1919 put an end to Leiverman Brewery, and the building was razed to make way for Highway 212 in 1922.
The Union brewery in Chaska was founded by Henry Young and Charley May 1868, (by some accounts 1866). It passed through the hands of Peter Iltis, George Karcher and Gottlieb Beurlen, who sold it in 1906 to Fred Beyrer, Sr. The Beyrer family had passed down the art of brewing for more than 200 years in Germany. Fred’s family sent him back to Stuttgart Germany to study business and the art of brewing, in preparation for running the brewery. About the time he returned from his training, WWI broke out, and he returned to Europe—this time as an American soldier. The irony in all this is that just as he returned home from WWI, prohibition was about to start. The Union Brewery was transformed into the Castle Rock soft drink company.
Prohibition brought a screeching halt to legal brewing. In Carver County, it wasn’t the wine or hard alcohol that would be missed, it was the beer.
-Contributed by Wendy Petersen Biorn, Carver County Historical Society
