The business was strong for over 25 years, and the Weber’s were an influential family in old Victoria. They had 7 children Lena (my great grandmother, Richard, Katie, Val, Justina, Annie, & Fred. & the family lived in their house at the corner of Constitution and William.
Lena Weber (her grandkids called her Muddie) lived in a house next door when she got married.
There is a stained-glass window at Our Lady of Lourdes Church that was donated in his memory, and his wife Katherine gave the Lutheran Church the bell for the steeple. The bell is on display in the church atrium.
The Weber brewery stayed in business until 1896 when refrigerated beer made its way into the market,and larger breweries such as Pearl Brewing (est 1883), Lone Star (est.1884) started by his old boss Adolphus Busch, were making it more & more difficult to compete.
The original brewery was located at the corner of Commercial & Washington Streets in Victoria, where they brewed lager beer, they also had a large swimming pool, and a soap factory. So you can imagine grabbing a cool beer and a bar of soap and hitting the watering hole to cool off on a Saturday afternoon
OtherAfter learning of my family history in the brewing business, I wanted to learn to make beer.
Starting out as a hobby and encouraged by my friends and family the beers got better and better over the years. I eventually left my job in the fashion industry in New York City to work at local breweries and improve my knowledge and skills.
I've been working on developing a lager beer as similar as possible to the 1870s brew that my great great grandfather made, using available ingredients and modern equipment. Some of the main ingredients – 6 row malted barley is still available – although most breweries today use the 2-row variety as their base malt. Many of the American hop varieties such as cluster & fuggle hops are still thriving & German hallertau hops were planted in Wisconsin in the 1800s are still being farmed.
Now after more than 150 years since my ancestors opened their brewery in Victoria, Weber Brewing is back! in 2025 we purchased the property at 206 Water Street (formerly Rositas's bakery & Garcias Tamales, and earlier the Water Street Saloon) and installed a small microbrewery, where we will produce the original 1870 Lager along with other favorite seasonal beers