During the failed German revolutions of 1848-9, Seipp was conscripted and served as a bodyguard for the Grand Duchess of Hessen.

In 1849, he emigrated to the United States, arriving first in Rochester, NY—a city in the midst of its own extensive brewing history—where he married his first wife, Maria Teutsch.

[2] In 1854, with the profit from the sale of his hotel, Seipp invested $18,000[3] to purchase a small brewery from Matthias Best on 14th street, which burned down within the year.

By the end of the next decade, it was one of Chicago's leading brewers, with about 50 employees producing more than 50,000 barrels of beer per year.

[8] By the turn of the century the Conrad Seipp Brewing Company had grown into one of the largest breweries in the country, with an annual output of 240,000 barrels.