Detroit’s Brewing Heritage

NOW OPEN on the Lower Level

Joseph Parent, Detroit’s first recognized brewer, arrived in 1706, just five years after the new French trading post was established. Generations of English, Irish, Belgian, Polish, German and Detroit-born brewers followed, shaping a local scene that thrives to this day. Learn more about the city’s beer barons, neighborhood breweries and beer-drinking customs in the new exhibition Detroit’s Brewing Heritage.

In addition to local brewing legends like Stroh’s, Altes and Goebel, the exhibit explores the smaller breweries that served as neighborhood gathering places and the brewers who played an outsized part in the city’s cultural and political scene. With a wealth of vintage artifacts and photos, it recalls the dozens of brands that became local favorites and those that weathered the drought caused by Prohibition, including the most famous – Stroh Brewery Company – once the nation’s third largest brewer. Moving into more recent history, the exhibition also details the current craft brewing boom and highlights some of the 80+ breweries and brew pubs that call the metro Detroit area home today.

Newly added! See items from our recently acquired Stroh Brewery Collection, many on public display for the first time. Artifacts include the highlights from this exciting collection; items salvaged from their flagship Detroit brewery, prohibition-era products and original hand-painted advertisements.  

Learn more in our original podcast, Untold Detroit: Beer.