Omaha Exploration

While Fred Metz is most often associated with Omaha’s second oldest brewery, it was his younger brother Philip that started it with partner Joseph Baumann in 1861.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Fred originally found work as a forester. With dreams of riches, however, he set sail for the United States. First he worked odd jobs in New Orleans before returning to Germany in 1856 to retrieve Philip.

The brothers landed in St. Louis where Philip trained as a brewer and Fred worked as a clerk in a dry goods store before moving to Bellevue, Nebraska and then to Denver, Colorado where he opened a general store during the gold rush.

Fred made his way back to Nebraska in 1864 where he joined Philip in the brewing business at 6th and Leavenworth Streets. After buying out Joseph’s share of the business, they renamed the “one-horse business” Metz Brothers Brewery. Afterwards Joseph Baumann hired Gottlieb Storz to run his new Columbia Brewery. Gottlieb would soon join the likes of Krug and Metz.

Fred suffered unimaginable loss in the following years as his wife passed away in 1873 followed by his mother in 1874 and brother and brewmaster, Philip, in 1875. That left Fred to raise seven children under the age of 17 while operating the growing brewery. 

Fred ran the business himself until the early 1880s when he was joined by sons Charles and Fred Jr. By 1888 his other two sons, Arthur and Louis, joined the family business allowing Fred to turn his attention to other interests. Among those interests were the German Savings Bank of Omaha, Omaha Turner’s Society and the Nebraska Senate after being elected to office in 1871 and 1885. 

After outgrowing its home at 6th and Leavenworth, Fred’s sons built a new, larger facility immediately south in 1899. The newly expanded brewery employed 50 men and produced more than 60,000 barrels per year. The brewery continued to thrive even after Fred’s death in 1901. The State of Nebraska enacted prohibition in 1917 causing the Metz family to close its brewing operations. 

Following the repeal of prohibition, a new brewery called Fontenelle setup shop at 3rd and Hickory Streets in a facility that had belonged to Willow Springs. Fontenelle bought the familar Metz name in 1936 and continued to brew from 3rd and Hickory for the next 25 years. When Metz 2.0 closed in 1961, they sold the name to Walter Brewing Company in Pueblo, Colorado which kept it alive until 1972.

The Metz name made a third comeback in 2018 when Bill Baburek of Crescent Moon and Infusion Brewing Company bought it and revived the Metz Jubilee brand using a different recipe. While the original Metz Brothers Brewing Company no longer stands, the old Willow Springs turned Metz facility at 3rd and Hickory Street remains though it has clearly seen better days.

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