Valentin Blatz

Who was Valentin Blatz?

Valentin Blatz was a German-American brewer and banker. He was born in Miltenberg, Bavaria and worked at his father's brewery in his youth. In August 1848 Blatz immigrated to America and by 1849 had moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Blatz established a brewery next to Johann Braun's City Brewery in 1850 and merged both breweries upon Braun's death in 1852. He also married Braun's widow.

The brewery produced Milwaukee's first individually bottled beer in 1874. It incorporated as the Valentin Blatz Brewing Company in 1889 and by the 1900s was the city's third largest brewer.

Blatz died in St. Paul, Minnesota, while returning home to Milwaukee from a trip to California. He was survived by a wife, three sons, and two daughters. He is buried in a massive family mausoleum at Forest Home Cemetery in Milwaukee.