Holiday Cards from Dead Brewers

As regular readers of Lyke2Drink will tell you, I like beer. I also celebrate Christmas and I enjoy history. Even so, I find the way that Brad and Lynn Craig have combined the three to be, well, just a touch odd.

The Craigs are from southwestern Wisconsin and collect brewery artifacts. The Daily Isthmus in Madison, Wisc., reported this week that for the last 13 years the Craigs have sent out Christmas cards featuring photographs of themselves posed next to the tombstones of deceased Wisconsin brewery owners. Under the headline, "Season's greetings from a beer baron's grave: A breweriana enthusiast's distinctive Christmas card arrives," the paper reported that the Craigs visited the grave of Adam Schumacher (1859-1942), with memorabilia from Schumacher's defunct brewery in Potosi, Wisc., for this year's card. Last year it was Peter Fauerbach (1831-1886), the founder of a Madison brewery that closed in 1966.

I guess I applaud them for not sending out one of those Christmas letters and their cards have to be among the most unique that recipients find in their mailboxes each year, but the graves of dead brewers? I bet when they make it to heaven they will never have to buy a round.