When Sidney Luce started the first brewery in Duluth in 1857, he probably wasn’t think about making candy bars. His mind was on beer. But the course of history would take his business into candy bars, boxing, pop and champagne, as well as “The Call of the North,” Fitger’s Beer. Luce built his brewery a block and a half from the present Fitger’s site and utilized a small clear brook which eventually became know as Brewery Creek. By 1870, he had sold the operation to Nicholas Decker, who built the business with advertising that capitalized on the area’s natural resources.

The business grew and by 1881 it had a new owner, Michael Fink, who built a new and bigger brewery on the present Fitger’s site. Fink’s Lake Superior Brewing Company zoo found a young German brewmaster named August Fitger who had recently graduated from one of Germany’s leading brewing schools. Within a year Fitger was half-owner of the brewery.

In 1884, Percy Anneke, a traveling auditor for Schlitz Brewing Company, bought into the brewery and became Fitger’s partner. The brewery was renamed the A. Fitger and Co. Lake Superior Brewery.

Beer production continued to grow at Fitger’s, and over a forty-year period the brewery expanded to include 10 different building until Prohibition (1920-1933) changed matters drastically. Many breweries around the nation went out of business but Fitger’s stayed alive by turning to other products such as soda pop and candy bars.

Candy lovers in Duluth during the Roaring Twenties enjoyed the Fitger’s Flapper, the Fitger’s Spark Plug, the 5 cent Fitger’s Nut Goodie, the King Bee Nougat, and Fitger’s Skookum – “A Bully Good Bar.” Fitger’s bottling house cranked out case after case of Lovit Pop, a big favorite on summer Sunday picnics down on Park Point.

After Prohibition was repealed, Fitger’s went back to brewing strong beer, and business boomed during the 1930s. Production increased to 100,000 barrels annually by 1940. In those days the brewery also produced Silver Spray Champagne, which it advertised as “The Best Mixer In a Crowd.” Silver Spray sponsored a boxing gym in the brewery which was frequented by the best fighters around; former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey was said to have paid a visit himself.

In 1944 the brewery was bought by Duluth’s Beerhalter family, who ran it for the next quarter-century. Fitger’s Brewery closed its doors on September 30, 1972, ending 115 years of brewing on Duluth’s Lake Superior shore.