"Wild Ride" "Groovy Brew" and "Oscar's Stout" are just a few of the 29 products that are bottled and kegged in Black River Falls and they all come out of a building with a very rich history.

In today's Wandering Wisconsin segment, we're heading to Black River Falls and the Sand Creek Brewing company.

((INFO FROM SAND CREEK BREWING WEBSITE))

We are one of Wisconsin's largest microbreweries, located near downtown Black River Falls in Jackson County, west central Wisconsin.

Our portfolio includes award-winning ales and lagers, other malt beverages such as hard lemonade, and fine quality soft drinks including root beer.

In 1856, Swiss immigrant Ulrich Oderbolz founded the Oderbolz Brewing Company in Black River Falls on the site of the present Sand Creek Brewing Company. Mr. Oderbolz cut his brewery into the side of a hill, as was the practice in those days, and created thick stone foundation walls to make a brew cellar for keeping the beer fresh -- in the winter, blocks of ice were cut from nearby Spaulding pond.

Today the Sand Creek Brewing Co. operates in Mr. Oderbolz's same brewery building, and the beer is stored in the same 19th century beer cellar. (The original building was nearly destroyed in a fire in 1932, in which it lost its second and third floors.)

In 1911, it became known as the Badger Brewing Co.. Most of the new owners were "independent saloon" keepers -- that is, they ran saloons not owned by the major breweries. Their new brewery would keep their costs down for their saloons in Black River Falls and along the Omaha railway between there and Eau Claire.

The Badger Brewery only lasted eight years until being closed by Prohibition in 1920. They made a low-alcohol "temperance drink" called "New Style," but the building was sold to Miller-Rose, a poultry company, in the 1920s. In 1932, a devastating fire struck the building, destroying the second and third floors. It was rebuilt with a new second floor, and was later used as a soft drink bottling plant.

In 1995, after an absence of 75 years, brewing returned to Black River Falls and to the old brewery building when the Hellman brothers, Dave and Jim, started the Pioneer Brewing Co.. They outfitted the brewery with the latest in brewing technology and hired brewmaster Todd Krueger.

In 2000, the brewery and brewmaster Todd Krueger won an unprecedented two gold awards at the World Beer Cup. Oscar's Chocolate Oatmeal Stout took the gold in the Oatmeal Stout category, and Pioneer Black River Red took top honors for the Oktoberfest/Marzen category.

As if this weren't enough, at the next World Beer Cup in 2002, Pioneer again took home a gold award for Pioneer Oderbolz Bock, in the Bock category.

In March, 2004, the Hellman brothers sold the brewery to a new company comprising brewmaster Todd Krueger and members of the Sand Creek Brewing Co. of Downing, Wisconsin.

In March of 2004 Krueger and Jim Wiesender officially formed the new Sand Creek Brewing Co. of Black River Falls, Wisconsin.

If you want to check out Sand Creek Brewery for yourself, tours run all year long every Friday at three. And between noon and four on Saturdays during the summer. You can buy their beers in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.