At its peak, Hibernia produced over 30,000 barrels of beer per year, employed about 50 workers, and had a market range that included Minneapolis–Saint Paul, St. Louis, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska, with success also in Denver and Boulder, Colorado to the west and south; and Chicago, Milwaukee, and suburban Cleveland, Ohio to the east.
Although brewing industry success was predicated upon active marketing, Walter's advertising budget had fallen to zero, and the company's prospects appeared so bleak that a business class at the University of Wisconsin recommended that it be shut down.
As Healy noted in 1985 and afterward, “That spoiled me, because when I came home I just couldn’t redevelop a taste for American beer.”[7] The strengths of larger breweries, combined with a flat growth rate in the beer market, played a large role in the demise of Walter.
We came in with plans to do something different, and everyone welcomed us with open arms.”[8] Unfortunately, under Walter's management, which had continued to try to compete with the national brewers by offering identical-looking, nondescript-tasting adjunct beers, no thought was given to producing all-malt products.
These included the year-round Eau Claire All Malt Lager Beer and the seasonal brews Oktober Fest (fall), Winter Brau, Bock (spring), and Dunkel Weizen (summer), with a plan to release European-style stout, ale, and porter at a later date.
[13] The newness of the Hibernia specialty beers allowed Healy to penetrate markets and retail outlets that previously had been unavailable to the brewery, drawing interest from distributors in the Twin Cities, Chicago, and St. Louis, among other locations.
The increasing news media coverage augmented extensive personal efforts by Healy to promote the Hibernia product line, including frequent guest spots on local radio and television programs as far away as Madison, Wisconsin; Omaha, Nebraska; and Columbus, Ohio.
For appearances at bars and restaurants where Hibernia beers were sold and personal meetings with brewery visitors, Healy took time away from work to welcome guests, invite them to tour the plant, and answer questions about the operation.
In a further respectful gesture, in early June 1985, Healy took out a full-page advertisement in the local newspaper, the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, to thank the individuals and organizations that had helped with the transition of the brewery from Walter to Hibernia.
[16] The extensive promotional activities and interaction with potential customers meshed well with the entrepreneur's outgoing personality—and corresponding physical presence, at six-foot-five in height and 240 pounds in weight—as well as his prior experience in sales, with the Hibernia name quickly growing in prominence within the brewery's target markets.
Well, it may seem strange when you are working 20-hour days, but so far we’re having fun.”[17] Early results were encouraging: initial demand for Eau Claire All Malt outstripped supply, prompting Healy to declare that “the acceptance has been incredible.
[19] Hibernia also was given excellent reviews from Michael Jackson, at the time the foremost expert on the brewing industry and the changes and trends taking place in America and how it was following in the footsteps of a similar evolution in Britain.
Employing 18 part-time workers and created in the German image of a family recreational space to drink, eat, converse, and listen to live music, it was the first new commercial beer garden in America since Prohibition.
From mid-May to early October, Hibernia beers and sodas were served fresh on tap, and local polka and other bands provided regular entertainment for listening and dancing.
Civic interests played a role as well: Healy recognized that Eau Claire had few tourist attractions and opening the beer garden would bring people off the highways during the peak travel season to visit town, tour the brewery, and perhaps stay overnight in the city and spend money.
Since the beer garden closed at 11:00 p.m.—with live music ending by 10:00 p.m. in deference to the interests of local residents—patrons often were not ready to go home that early and continued to socialize in bars and restaurants located in the vicinity.
In each case, the contract brews remained true to Healy's vision of making only adjunct-free all-malt beers, with recipe formulation done by Hibernia brewmasters according to input provided by clients.
In rural areas and smaller cities, the higher price for Hibernia specialty made it hard to generate sales among clientele more accustomed to cheaper beer, including the home market of Eau Claire.
Healy summarized the dilemma that he faced in noting that “you can’t compete directly against the big guys, with all their advertising muscle and volume-buying discounts.”[27] Despite such obstacles, over time Hibernia production improved to around 32,000 barrels and the future of the brewery seemed more secure than had been the case for almost a decade.
In May 1986, Healy took an optimistic approach to the challenges that Hibernia faced, noting that “although the growth has not been spectacular, it has been very steady, and that tells me I’m getting repeat business, which is the key to the whole thing.”[28] Yet dark clouds remained on the horizon.
[30] But irreparable damage to the Hibernia name had been done in the important new sales territories, with the further consequence that word-of-mouth publicity in established markets took a toll on brewery goodwill and, ultimately, production volume.
Additionally, after the initial surge of interest in 1985, Hibernia craft brew sales began to slide in the home market, and retail accounts in and around Eau Claire were not able to take up the slack from declining business elsewhere.
The worst mistake I ever made was trying to sell the beer in rural areas.”[31] As production dwindled and layoffs took place when the company downsized, Hibernia filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protections in February 1988.
[33] An ambitious plan to build restaurants with miniature breweries—essentially a chain brewpub operation—in partnership with a Schaumburg, Illinois-based firm, and in which Hibernia possessed “the expertise and none of the capital,” failed to materialize, and on August 24 the brewery closed, ostensibly for a short time, because it lacked truck insurance coverage.
By spring 1989, only one group remained viable: a consortium of Minneapolis and Madison investors that sought to acquire the brewery, restore the original name of the Walter Brewing Company, and return production to the facility within two months of the purchase date.
With some areas of the complex becoming a safety hazard, roofs leaking and collapsing, and no prospect for renovation and productive use on the horizon, most of the Walter/Hibernia brewery structures were razed in late 2005, the lone surviving building being a small bottle shop dating to 1906.