Melchoir Brewery Ruins in Trempealeau

There’s not much left of the Melchoir Brewery in the Village of Trempealeau, Wisconsin. It’s a ruin, with only one corner of the original building standing. There’s no roof and the windows are long gone. Sandstone bluffs perch behind the ruin. Caves were cut into these bluffs to store the beer that was once brewed here.

The brewery was built in 1857 by Jacob Melchoir, a Prussian immigrant. Melchoir also built a hotel, which is no longer standing. The brewery and hotel were built before the railroad came to the area and travel was mostly by river steamboats. When the railroad finally arrived in 1880, Melchoir began distributing his beer to Minneapolis-St. Paul and other cities. 

Then decline of the brewery and hotel began later that decade with Melchoir’s death and the onset of the Long Depression – a wave of financial crises that sparked divestment in the railroads, bank failures, a decline in prices of agricultural products, farm failures and rural decline.

The Melchoir Brewery was used until the 1960s as a rooming house. It deteriorated quickly after that. The land is privately owned, but the building has been the victim of vandalism and visitors who ignore the No Trespassing signs to explore the tunnels. The brewery ruins are visible from the public right-of-way, but visitors should stay off the property itself due to safety and trespassing concerns.