Peacock Brewery

Peacock Brewery, also known at times as the Rockford Brewing Company and the Rock River Brewing Company, is a historic pair of buildings on the east side of the Rock River in Rockford, Illinois, United States. It was Rockford's largest brewery for almost seventy years.OriginBritish immigrant Jonathan Peacock moved to Rockford, Illinois in 1849. Peacock had learned the brewing trade in England before working in Chicago's Lill & Diversey brewery. He purchased a house on Madison Street and began to brew beer in the back. Peacock ground malt in a coffee mill, brewed it in a wash boilers, and delivered his product to customers via wheelbarrow. With the connection of the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad to Rockford in 1852, Peacock was ready to serve the droves of immigrants that followed.By 1857, Peacock's operation had grown to a point where he could no longer simply brew out of the back of his home. He built a new brewhouse next door to meet demand. In the summer of 1894, a fire ravaged the brewhouse. Peacock immediately rebuilt, but died two years later. His sons, Frank and Edward, inherited the business. Under their leadership, the brewery produced over 20,000 barrels of beer per year. The most popular beer was Nikolob. Both sons died of tuberculosis in 1899, and the brewery was sold to Croatian immigrant John V. Petritz.1900sJohn Petritz had moved out west to Montana in the 1880s and made a fortune in liquor production and distribution. After he decided to move back east, he decided to purchase a large brewery. With the Peacock Brewery under his ownership, he hired St. Louis architects Widmann, Walsh & Boisscher to design a large, modern brewhouse. Replacing the older brewhouse, the $100,000 brewhouse had state-of-the-art technology and advanced production to 75,000 barrels a year. Petritz renamed the company the Rockford Brewing Company. He purchased a bottling company in 1900, replacing it with a newer building in 1902.