Okay, but that is BS. I'm pretty sure Iowa is not grape country.
Wine is SO much about locality, climate, weather, and the conditions not only in which certain grape varietals grow, but in which they grow WELL for making wine. Terroir is a thing. And an important one.
One of the beautiful things about beer, however, is how it is MUCH less affected by terroir. Ingredients for brewing are very stable for transport. The process is key, and you can adjust process here or there in various ways to account for differences in ingredients.
Essentially winemaking is very much a 'farm to table' sort of idea, while beermaking is very much a 'baking' process. The former, you evaluate what the land gives you and try to massage it into the best product. The latter, you manipulate the process scientifically so that you turn what the land gives you into what you want.
I'm not going to say that Iowa shouldn't have wineries... But I'm going to say that Iowa shouldn't be shuttering breweries and turning them into wineries.
The Dubuque Star Brewery closed for the final time circa 1990. It closed when the big brands were attempting to crowd out the small regional and area breweries. Dubuque was known for its low beer prices, as the major breweries tried to put breweries like this one under.
When the brewery was owned and operated in the 1970s and '80s by Joseph Pickett, Pabst Blue Ribbon essentially drove Pickett to sell the brewery through an unsuccessful lawsuit Pabst filed over the name of a product that Pickett which by my unreliable memory was called "Champale." Pabst had a similar product and they were a cross between wine and beer. Pabst claimed the name violated their trademark or some such thing. While the lawsuit was unsuccessful, the Jos. S. Pickett Brewing Co. was had to sell, having been put under by the attorney's fees expended to defend the lawsuit.
Then the Dubuque Star Brewery went through a succession of owners until it finally stopped producing circa 1990.
By circa 2000-05, microbreweries, became the rage, but it was too late.
The city acquired the property and sold it to these winery people. After the winery was going well, they expressed interest in brewing beer here again. But apparently there is a federal law that prohibits wines from being made in the same location where beer is brewed. I think they tried to get Congress to change the law, but I am not sure if that was successful.
Meanwhile, just across the river in Wisconsin, around 2010, Dubuque Star's former local competitor, the Potosi Brewing Co. reopened as a non-profit brewery after being shuttered since the late 1970s. They also opened a restaurant, bar, and national beer museum in the same very old building which had been dilapidated. I am not sure how they raised the money to do it. Potosi makes great beer!
The Dubuque Star Brewing Co. is for sale, again. The folks who are operating it as a winery, saloon and restaurant, are aging out.
