Breweries in La Crosse and the Old Style Story

Beer in La Crosse comes in two sizes, a plant that once made more than 17 million barrels a year and a taproom in a boot factory that pours flights on a patio. The breweries in La Crosse that welcome visitors are small, and the big one is a history lesson you can photograph from the road.

Gottlieb Heileman and John Gund founded the City Brewery in La Crosse in 1858, and the Pearl Street Brewery followed in 1999. Add a fruit winery, a few good taps and a festival, and a beer weekend fills itself.

City Brewery and the Old Style story

Gund left in 1872 to start his own brewery, and Heileman put his own name on the original. Old Style began as Old Times Lager in 1900, and by 1983 Heileman was the fourth-largest brewer in the United States, making more than 17 million barrels a year. The company went bankrupt in 1991, Stroh's bought it in 1996, and City Brewing bought the La Crosse plant in 1999.

Today City Brewing runs the plant as a contract brewer of beer, flavored malt beverages, hard seltzers and spirit-based drinks, and in 2023 Pabst announced that Old Style production would return to La Crosse that November. The plant can brew up to 7 million barrels a year.

The news has been mixed lately, with lenders taking ownership of City Brewing's four breweries in August 2025, staff cuts at the La Crosse plant that December, and an October 2026 report that the company added 2.5 million barrels of production across its operations for 2027. State Trunk Tour places the plant at 925 South 3rd Street, reports no tours, and calls the six storage tanks the World's Largest Six Pack, a photo stop. There is no public taproom, so take the photo and drink elsewhere.

Pearl Street Brewery, the taproom

Brewmaster Joe Katchever founded Pearl Street Brewery in 1999 after hauling his brewing equipment from Colorado in a trailer pulled by a 1984 Eagle Wagon, and he started in a small underground brewhouse on Pearl Street.

In March 2024 the brewery announced a proclamation from the United States House of Representatives for its 25th anniversary and the La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce's Legacy Award. The taproom is about 1.6 miles from Riverside Park, so plan to drive or ride.

DnA Vintners, fruit wine for beer people

The winery's tasting room is one block from a boat landing, which makes it an easy stop on a river day. A tasting here suits a mixed group where one person does not drink beer.

Oktoberfest and beer on tap elsewhere

A local history credits Heileman chief executive Roy Kumm as one of four golf friends who conceived Oktoberfest, and the festival began in 1961. The festival is billed as the longest-running Oktoberfest in the Midwest, with the Torchlite and Maple Leaf parades, polka music and a Biergarten. It runs at the Oktoberfest Grounds, about 1.3 miles from Pearl Street Brewery.

Outside festival season, beer is easier to find on a tap than on a tour.

Downtown, The Root Note pairs craft beer with crepes and live music.

The Breakfast Club & Pub lists a full bar with 16 beers on tap.

And the Rivoli serves pizza, beer and cocktails to your seat.

What to know before you go

The brewery's own site says its beer is sold in Wisconsin and has expanded into Minnesota and Iowa, so you may find a bottle near home, but the taproom is where the full tap list lives. Reviewers say you can buy beers to go, that the bartenders will build a flight around what you like, and that the patio is the place to sit when the weather allows. The plant itself is a drive-by, not a stop, so budget your time for the taproom, the winery and one downtown tap.

Planning a beer day

Start downtown with lunch, drive up to Pearl Street Brewery for a flight when it opens, and finish with the fruit wines on a Friday to Sunday. Hours change by season, so check each before you go, and plan the rest of the trip as a day out in La Crosse.

From a plant that can brew up to 7 million barrels a year to a taproom with 22 drinks on tap, the beer story here is told in two sizes, and both are worth a stop.