Good Ol' Potosi

It's on the National River Road near the southwest corner of Wisconsin, close enough to Dubuque to be included in that city's tourism guide.

Motorists looking for places that time forgot will want to wind their way downhill toward the river and into Potosi.

Just well-known enough to be familiar, yet small enough that a lot of Wisconsinites aren't real sure where it is.  The past and future home of Good Ol' Potosi Beer.


In the mid 1890s, Wisconsin was home to more than 300 breweries.  Not every city had one, it just felt like it.  Potosi is one of those communities.

Led by good thirsty German folk, the brewery here started in 1852 and quenched thirsts until 1972 when it couldn't hold off the big brewers. It survived the years of the Prohibition by selling near beer and soda.  In 1995 work began to restore and rebuild the Potosi Brewing Co.

You find locally brewed craft beers all over these days.  It appeals to folks interested in local heritage and local tastes.  In a twist from the 1970s, the big boys are now worried about the craft brewers, enough that in a Super Bowl ad Budweiser chose to mock folks who like smaller beers.

Part of the brewery complex in Potosi is the National Brewery Museum and a restaurant.  When we stopped, it was the wrong time for us to sit down and eat, so we'll need to make another trip.

The museum looks interesting.  If you are of a certain age - you know somebody or maybe are somebody who collected beer cans.

My friend next door had a large collection.  Many were curated, the pop tab in tact on the top with the beer carefully drained out of a couple slits in the bottom of the can.

That's the reason I had heard of Potosi in the first place was because of Andy's beer can collection.

I don't know if he still has that collection, but I suspect like me, the memories of a cultural (Wisconsin, German) heritage still flows through us.

And while you are in Potosi, you can start your own collection with the latest Potosi beer can.