The brewery was founded in 1856 by German immigrants Anton Geiger and Simeon Hotz.

Graf was instrumental in inciting the 1884 Iowa City beer riots, a popular uprising against Iowa's new prohibition law; the rioting mob injured multiple law officers and city attorneys, one of whom successfully sued Graf for $7,000.

The tunnels linked cellars and "beer caves" used by the breweries to store their products.

[4][5] The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 10, 1986.

This article about a property in Johnson County, Iowa on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub.