This is the story of Conrad Seipp
Beer Baron of the 1850’s to about 1932 in Chicago!!
Conrad Seipp Brewing Company – Wikipedia
Conrad Seipp was born in Langen, Hessen, Germany on 28 September 1825. His early trade was that of a carpenter and joiner. During the failed German revolutions of 1848-9, Seipp was conscripted and served as a bodyguard for the Grand Duchess of Hessen. In 1849, he emigrated to the United States, arriving first in Rochester, NY—a city in the midst of its own extensive brewing history—where he married his first wife, Maria Teutsch. His stay in Rochester was short and the couple soon moved to Chicago, where Seipp first worked as the driver of a beer wagon for the Miller Brothers Brewery and later owned and operated his own hotel on the corner of Washington and Wells Streets.[2]
In 1854, with the profit from the sale of his hotel, Seipp invested $18,000[3] to purchase a small brewery from Matthias Best on 14th street, which burned down within the year. Seipp immediately built a new brick brewery on 27th Street near Lake Michigan with underground cellars, a malt floor at ground level, and a 2nd floor living quarters for his family. By the end of his first year Seipp had 6 employees and was producing more than 1,000 barrels
Conrad Seipp Brewing Co. | Just A Little Better Than The Kind You Thought Was Best
Seipp’s beer is Chicago’s beer. Founded in 1854, the Conrad Seipp Brewing Company tells the story of the city’s history: the hope of immigrants, the determination to innovate, the respect for hard work. The times have changed but the principles of Seipp stay the same: well-crafted beer made from high quality ingredients that is accessible to all.
Conrad Seipp Brewing Co. President Laurin Mack joins the podcast at Archie’s Iowa Rockwell Tavern to trace how she resurrected the family brewery, which was founded in 1854, survived the Great Chicago Fire, and once ranked among America’s largest. She tells the wild story of her great-great-great-grandfather Conrad Seipp, an immigrant carpenter turned beer baron, and how his brewery rose to become one of the top-producing operations in the U.S. Along the way, she explains how 19th-century brewery fires and the Great Chicago Fire reset competition, how the World’s Columbian Exposition shaped beer branding, and how Prohibition shuttered Seipp despite pivots like cereal beverages and ginger ale. She also discusses the Black Point Estate & Gardens in Lake Geneva—the preserved Seipp summer home you still reach by boat—and how it influenced her decision to revive the Conrad Seipp Brewing brand as a living link between Chicago’s past and its present beer scene.
After the beer break, Laurin discusses Seipp’s Columbia World’s Fair Bock (a crisp 6% dark lager) and unpacks brewer Doug Hurst’s role in translating tradition into modern lagers. She explains what their detective work revealed about why the first American Pilsners didn’t work and how small adjuncts like flaked corn helped pre-Prohibition Pilsners achieve the snap people craved. Plus: 19th-century “strength” vs. today’s ABV, Seipp’s early refrigerated boxcar distribution, and how the revived brand landed with drinkers.
Blackpoint Lake Geneva, WS
Blackpoint Masion built in 1892businss
I have been there twice! 1967 and 2016. I have my own pictures to post!!
I posted the above part just because!! Below here will be what I heard & saw myself over the years!
I thought I had a lot of pictures from going to the lake in July of 2016. I must not have downloaded them!! Sadly!
I had some great pictures of the big house as they called it! I was there to celebrate the life of My Aunt. The Cousins Mother and my sperm donor’s sister. We had a great time. probably 50 people were there. The cousin did a great job entertaining the group. Two times they had rented a tour boat to go for a ride around the lake! One time we docked at the big house and another time at a house belonging to a cousin.
this is standing in the lookout of the big house!
In about 2005 Uncle Bill who was in charge of the Big House donated it to the state! He knew the family could no longer support it!
The story goes like this:
In 1888 Conrad bought 100 acres on the part of the lake called Blackpoint. He then built the Mansion. That part of the lake had no roads yet! Everything was taken to the site by boat!!
In 1892 before the house was completed Conrad died. The aunt Married a member of that family in the early 40’s, his mother was then the head of the family & had control of the house. The family spent the summers there! So my cousin I am almost positive of has been on the lake every summer since, even if just a week or 2. She is there right now!
The Cousin’s father got the lot on the lake right below the big house & built a home there in 1966-67. I visited the house right at the end of construction in the spring of 67. I was 12! I remember going to the grocery store while inside you could see that the sky turned really dark pretty fast! The aunt side we must go to a certain corner of the store quickly! Other people did it too!
It was a Dam Tornado! On the way back we passed a house that was literally picked up and moved to the other side of the road!!!
There is a trail that goes all the way around the lake. no homeowner can block it!!
The Wriggles have a home there. There are a lot of really rich Chicago people with homes on the lake for over 100 years!
the aunt house on Lake Geneva eeff’s picture
lake view of the Aunt’s house
There is also a farmhouse about a 1/4 of a mile away!
families farmhouse picture by eeff
There are two barns I have one picture of one!
farmhose barn.
here is a barn find!!
Barn find eeff’s picture
There was a tour arranged for all of us to tour the big house
grandmother would keep measurements of all the kids on her bathroom door!
this is the cousin’s oldest son with his son standing at the mark of him at about the same age!! we couldn’t find anything to mark Well’s height & add his name to the door that day!
I had lots of pictures on another phone I never sadly never saved!
They family had a fire in the big house, they were lucky & it was put out without a lot of damage. there was hundreds of fire extinguishers! Antique one in the barn!
One of the family members used a wheelchair. his bedroom had a slide put in so he could get out thru a window and hopefully slide to safety.
For the July 4th weekend the cousin told me she needed to make 22 beds in the 3 homes they have there for company showing up to see the fireworks on the lake!! There are 3 docks to use also!!
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