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My Grandpa was a Bootlegger

My Grandpa was a Bootlegger, Part 1

I always knew my grandparents ran the tavern during prohibition, but I guess it never really occurred to me what they did to make ends meet during that time. There are stories coming out now that I had never heard about some of their homemade hooch.  One of my favorites was one that my aunt shared with us shortly before she passed.

Apparently my grandparents would make their own 'beverages' and my grandfather would sell it to the construction workers down the road that were building Highway 151 at the time.  Of course after that, I had to google when Highway 151 was first built, and sure enough, it was in 1926 that the highway was originally constructed from Fond du Lac, WI to Madison, WI - of course running right by the Columbus, WI and East Bristol, WI area.  The perfect clientele in my opinion. Who wouldn't want a little happy hour beverage after a day of building a highway back in the 20's?


Remnants of the prohibition era inside Mautz's Tavern:
  • Barrels and jugs down in the basement, some hidden behind paper, that still had liquid inside of them
  • The bottle capper, found upstairs in storage
  • A jug of apricot flavoring that they used to make their apricot brandy could still be found on a ledge in the basement
  • A Blatz chewing gum display, in darn near perfect condition, that was likely just stashed into storage once the beer companies could go back to selling brew after prohibition finally came to an end


What an interesting time in our nation's history. It's very cool to see actual remnants from it. So now I bring to you from 2020......the roaring 1920s:


Prohibition Era Barrels
Barrels Hidden Behind Newspaper
Jugs with Contents
Jugs With Contents

Apricot Flavoring
Vintage Bottle Capper
Bottle Capper
Blatz Prohibition Era
Blatz's Solution to Prohibition


Blatz Chewing Gum
Blatz Gum




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