SIOUX CITY, Iowa (Iowa Media Wire) — Siouxland is home to many breweries that give us legendary brews that are unforgettable, Iowa Media Wire 9 gives you an inside look into a few.
- Jackson Street Brewing
Jackson Street Brewing opened in 2015, becoming the first brewery in Sioux City since the early 2000s.
“(The) ongoing running joke is the brewery not actually on Jackson,” says owner David Winslow.
Winslow talked with Iowa Media Wire 9 about the brewery’s history and the inspiration behind their logo.
“The logo which is a weather vane, comes from our neighbors garage on Jackson Street. It’s an old working weather vane, that we thought was kind of unique and cool.”
Jackson Street Brewing occupies a 2,000 square-foot space that was once home to Fitzgibbons, a religious supply store. Winslow says changes to the building were made once they occupied the whole building.
“We took over that space about 4 years ago. Expanded, added a private party room. Moved all of our brewing equipment, just about all of it into the new space and then immediately ran out of space again.”
Pieces of history line the walls inside Jackson Street Brewing, Winslow shared with us several of those pieces.
“Part of our marketing for Jackson Street Brewing is we’ve always incorporated local names and themes into our beers and our branding. So, these aren’t all beer signs, but my favorite one is this Western Brew. It’s about a 50 to 60 pound sign, very heavy, very interesting mounting that one up on the wall.”
Jackson Street Brewing will be moving from their current location at 607 5th St, to 901 5th St by the end of 2025.
- Marto Brewing Company
Marto Brewing opened its doors in June 2019, recently celebrating its sixth anniversary.
“Our whole facility, tap room and brewing space is 7,300 square feet,” says owner and head brewer Erik Martin.
Martin first started brewing his own home brew and wanted to share that with Siouxland.
“(I) just had a lot of fun doing it as a hobby and thought we’d be crazy and take the risk and turn it into a businesses and experience for people in Sioux City to enjoy.”
Marto Brewing brews all sorts of styles.
“Anything from lagers, ales, you know within those two types of beers. We’re doing IPA’s, fermented sours, traditional lagers brewed true to style. All the way to the crazy stuff barrel-aged stouts, different beers like that.”
- Wise I Brewing
When Wise I Brewing first opened its doors Sept. 2019, they were given a special recognition.
“Opening was stressful,” said owner and head brewer Ben Sitzmann. “It was exciting… We were the 100th brewery to open in Iowa!”
Wise I has six core brews that are always on tap a Vienna lager, a blonde and brown ale, a west coast IPA, classic American IPA, and an American light lager.
- Sioux City brewing history
On Oct. 16, Iowa Media Wire 9 attended a History at High Noon presentation at the Sioux City Public Museum to learn about the city’s brewing history.
Curator of history at the Sioux City Public Museum Matt Anderson says since the first brewer arrived into town, things have changed.
“Sioux City does have a long brewing tradition gong back to its very early years of existence.”
Sioux City’s first brewery was founded by Rudolf Selzer in 1860 and since then has had some kind of brewing business for about two thirds of its history with several periods of prohibition during that time.
Anderson talks about Sioux City’s first microbrewery that opened in the late 1990s.
“Fourth Street Brewing Company was Sioux City’s first microbrewery back in 1998. It opened and lasted until 2002. At that point, Iowa wasn’t really set up legally to encourage the craft brew industry, much of it has to do with taxation.”
Anderson says the best part of buying from your local brewer is you can see how its made.
“It’s a locally made product. These are small brewers here in our area that make the beer right on premises. You can kind of see it going on as you’re in there. They all make a good product and they’re all enjoyable, family friendly places to go.”