Published August 11, 2026 | Updated August 11, 2026

Gottlieb Storz arrived in the United States an orphan who had lost his parents as a teenager. Over the course of his lifetime, he would build the city’s largest brewery and one of its grandest residences.

Born in Germany in 1852, he was trained as a brewer in his native country before moving to the United States with his aunt at 20. He spent the next two years in New York followed by two more in St. Louis, where he gained experience working for the Western Brewery, one of the most successful in the region.

Before hiring Gottlieb Storz, Joseph Bauman purchased Saratoga Brewing Company from Ebenezer Dallow. Saratoga was one of the area’s earliest breweries having opened in 1863. Located at present-day 16th and Grace in the then-town of Saratoga, Bauman renamed it Columbia Brewery. Bauman had previously partnered with Philip Metz before selling his share of the company to Fred Metz in 1864 which became Metz Brothers Brewing Company.

Bauman hired the 24-year-old Storz as his brewmaster in 1876 before he tragically passed away after being thrown from his beer delivery wagon. Born in Germany in 1822, Bauman settled in Omaha around 1856 and followed Krug’s lead by getting involved in the city’s brewing industry.

Following his death, Bauman’s wife, Wilhelmina, took over its business operations and Gottlieb its brewing operations. Gottlieb married Minnie Buck in 1882. Wilhelmina sold the business to Gottlieb in 1884 when he partnered with Joseph D. Iler. They proceeded to upgrade the buildings and machinery and increased production. Iler also owned Iler & Company, a distiller and importer of wines and liquors, with his brother Peter. By 1891 the two had dissolved their partnership, with Storz buying out the remaining share of the business. At some point thereafter, Joseph appears to have relocated.

With the brewery now solely under his control, Gottlieb rebranded it as the Omaha Brewing Association and brought in several of the city’s most prominent and wealthy businessmen as executives. An advertisement in the Omaha World-Herald said that Gottlieb would “devote his whole time and attention to the interests of the association.” He then commissioned architect Joseph P. Guth to design a massive new facility at 1807 N. 16th Street. The six-story brick, stone, and cement building stretched more than 200 feet and featured red tile floors, stainless steel and copper fixtures, an ice plant, cold storage, a bottling shop, and a machine shop. Sitting on 3.5 acres, the complex eventually grew to more than 15 buildings and included the Frontier Room, a hospitality space modeled after a brew house, and the Trophy Room, a hunting lodge-style space lined with big game trophies. The facility had an annual capacity of 100,000 barrels, with room to expand to 200,000.

Nearly 30 years after stepping off a boat in New York, Gottlieb renamed the business Storz Brewing Company in 1901. An expansion allowed him to quadruple his bottling capacity. By that time it had established itself as one of the city’s Big 4 breweries. The company won medals at international competitions in 1898 and 1905. He made his first trip home in more than two decades in 1905 and declared upon his return that German brewing could not compare to the United States, adding that the facilities there did not have the same quality and were not as well maintained.

With the business booming, Gottlieb commissioned a grand 27-room mansion at 3708 Farnam Street in 1904, completing it in 1907. Among notable guests to the mansion over the years were actor Jimmy Stewart and General Curtis LeMay. The ballroom on the third floor was named for Adele and Fred Astaire, who are said to have danced there as children when their father, Fritz, a beer salesman, visited the mansion.

Nebraska enacted prohibition in 1917, forcing Storz to halt brewing operations. The company pivoted to producing soda, near beer, and ginger beer to stay afloat. After prohibition was repealed, Gottlieb reopened the brewery in 1933 and was beaming when the whistles heralded the return of legalized beer in Nebraska. The brand thrived in the following decades, with Storz becoming the top-selling beer in the state during World War II. Among its offerings were Storz Gold Label, Storz Premium, Storz All Grain, and Storz Blue Ribbon. In 1953, the company debuted Storz-ette, billed as “the original beer for women,” packaged in 8-ounce cans sold in four-packs called “Princess Packs.” Gottlieb died in 1939, and of his six children, which included Minnie Storz Higgins, Adolph, Arthur, Olga Storz Smith, Louis, and Robert, it was his eldest son Adolph who succeeded him as president, though Arthur and Robert were also involved.

By 1960 the brewery produced one-third of all beer sold in Nebraska. National competitors, however, were beginning to crowd the market. As Anheuser-Busch, Schlitz, and Pabst expanded their reach, regional breweries across the country struggled to compete. The Storz family sold the business in 1966, and the brewery closed for good in 1972 after becoming part of Grain Belt Breweries of Minneapolis.

A brief revival came in 2013 when the former Rick’s Cafe Boatyard on the Omaha riverfront was converted into the Storz Trophy Room Grill and Brewery. Its management team included cousins Tom and John Markel, descendants of Gottlieb Storz. The restaurant’s beer was brewed by Blue Blood Brewing Company in Lincoln, and a memorabilia room occupied the second floor. The restaurant struggled financially from the start, and the city terminated its lease in October 2015.

The Storz legacy remains despite the restaurant’s closure. It can be found in Blackstone, where the mansion that Gottlieb built still stands, as well as the smokestack from its former plant at 16th and Clark that continues to bear the family’s name.

This is part of a series in which we explore the history of Omaha’s breweries past and present.