Minnesota Then
Andrew F. Keller founded Excelsior Brewing Company around 1857 near Greenbrier and Minnehaha Streets on the west bank of Phalen Creek. The location offered abundant artesian water from underground wells and natural sandstone caves for refrigeration and aging—ideal conditions for brewing. In 1865, Hamm acquired the brewery, renaming it Hamm's Excelsior Brewing Company. To support the growing business, the Hamm family relocated nearby.
Hamm moved the brewery to the east side of Phalen Creek and focused on expanding the business. Having already made a name for himself as a saloon and boarding house owner, he likely didn't intend to enter the brewing trade to this degree, but a combination of perfect location, timing, and sharp business instincts propelled him forward. His success coincided with a population boom from 1860 to 1880, as urban areas grew and German immigrants sought the familiar comforts of lager-style ales, taverns, and beer gardens. Lager beer was in high demand, as it was seen as a "cultural focal point" of German-American communities in St. Paul. This demand contributed to the growth of Minnesota breweries from fourteen in the 1860s to more than one hundred thirty in the 1880s.
Increased business at the brewery allowed Hamm to engage in other ventures. In 1874, he partnered with Philip Thon to become part owner of the Brainerd Flouring Mills, a company that adjoined the brewery on Phalen Creek. In keeping with his previous roots in the butcher trade, Hamm kept as many as forty steers in fattening stalls near the brewery. He raised pigs, slaughtered them, and provided sausage meat to customers throughout the city.
In 1865, the small brewery produced just five hundred barrels of beer a year. That number grew to nearly six thousand by 1878, then surged to twenty-six thousand by 1882. By 1886, two decades after its start, Hamm's Brewery was producing forty thousand barrels annually, making it the second largest brewery in Minnesota. What began as a small operation overlooking Swede Hollow had grown into a four-acre facility. Beer deliveries, once made by pushcart, now required a stable of horses pulling teams of delivery trucks each morning.
Hamm and his wife, along with close friends, spent thirteen months traveling through Europe in 1886, including a visit to Herbolzheim. The trip mixed business with pleasure, allowing them to explore the region while Hamm toured breweries for inspiration. While they were away, their eldest son, William, hired German American architect Augustus Gauger to build a new home for his parents at 671 Greenbrier Street. The twenty-room, eight-fireplace house sat on a bluff overlooking the brewery and Swede Hollow. In the years that followed, Hamm's children occupied four homes on the same block.
With business booming, Hamm modernized the brewery to meet growing demand. On September 27, 1894, he unveiled the "modern" Hamm's Brewery with a public inspection of the new facility. What had started as a small operation had grown into a sprawling complex with an expanded brewhouse, bottling works, refrigeration, and other improvements. Production had skyrocketed from five hundred barrels a year in 1865 to one thousand barrels a day. Reports estimated more than ten thousand people attended the daylong celebration.
After Louise Hamm died on February 2, 1896, at age sixty-three, Hamm took steps to secure his children's future. Though the brewery had operated in his name since 1865, he formally incorporated it as the Theo. Hamm Brewing Company on June 1, 1896, with himself as president and his son William as secretary and treasurer. The company was valued at $1.2 million. That same day, he also incorporated Theo. Hamm Realty Company. His children received annuities.
Hamm died of heart failure on July 31, 1903, leaving behind a son and five daughters. Though still the brewery's president in name, he had been retired for years. His son William succeeded him as the company's second president.