December 11, 2008

Pure Spring Water At The Well House

the well house at the schmidt's brewery in st paul. If you look closely, the two blue squares offer free water to anyone who brings bottles or jugs to fill up. Growing up, we often stopped here every couple of weeks to get the good drinking water. Waiting in line some days for others taking their turn. I'm not sure if they still offer the free water as the plant has been closed since 2004 or 2005.

UPDATE 12/12/08: Entrepreneur.com 4.02.1990 - Schmidt Brewery will cease dispensing free spring water.

Taps at the Schmidt Brewery that have dispensed free spring water to the public since 1983 will be turned off sometime after the planned July 3 plant closing.

Each month, thousands of people wait in line to fill their glass jugs or plastic bottles. They take away a combined average of 79,000 gallons each month. The brewery estimates it gives away 955,000 gallons of spring water each year.

From the time the faucets were installed, the water was a hit. Regulars say there really is no season or time of day when there isn't a line.

The regulars were hit hard by the news that they would be cut off from the spring.

END UPDATE

The words are a bit hard to read so I've transcribed them below.

Over 1100 feet beneath this well building flows a stream of sparkling pure spring water. We have drilled deeper than any other brewer in the United States to tap this water because no other single ingredient is more important to the qualtiy and character of our beer than the purity of our perfect brewing water.

This water fell as rain over a century ago and has been viltered pure by nature through natural rock and limestone. There is no finer or purer brewing water anywhere in the world.

We don't aim to make the most beer, Only The Best!

Minnesota Brewing Co. [originally the Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company]


No comments: