Green river soda where to buy

Lots of folks remember Green River Soda, but not so many know where to buy it these days. Green River soda has been around for a long time (over a century!) and the recipe has changed hands more than a few times. Most people know Green River as a Chicago soda, but it was invented in Davenport, Iowa and it is now brewed in Glendale, Wisconsin by Sprecher Brewing Company. In fact, you can buy Green River from Sprecher Brewery’s website (just click here) and get it shipped to your door.

But how did this happen? Why is a century-old soda from Davenport still famous in Chicago in 2022, and why is it brewed near Milwaukee?

Well, to make a long story short, prohibition. The Davenport drugstore owner who came up with Green River sold his recipe to the Schoenhofen Edelweiss Brewing Company in Chicago just before prohibition started. You can still get a Green River at Lagomarcino’s Confectionery in Davenport, but the original drugstore is long gone.

The Edelweiss company sold loads of Green River during prohibition, but once prohibition ended, they went back to beer and made much less Green River. That was their mistake, because the Edelweiss Company went out of business, but Green River lived on.

How, exactly, is lost to history. It’s known that the recipe was passed around, and the soda nearly disappeared. At one point, it may have been sold almost exclusively in Seattle. However, it fell firmly into Midwestern hands when it was acquired by Clover Club Brewing in Chicago in the mid 1990s.

Not long after, California-based WIT Brewing acquired the company in 2011 and continued to sell Green River in the Midwest, especially in shops around the Chicagoland area. WIT, in turn was acquired by Milwaukee’s Original Craft Brewery–Sprecher Brewing Company–in 2021.

Although the Green River brand has passed through many hands over the years, two things have never changed: the recipe, and the place that Green River holds in the hearts of Midwesterners. You can still buy Green River in store from many Chicagoland retailers, from the Sprecher Brewing Co. gift shop, and from the Sprecher Brewery Website.