Friedrich Johann Martin Goes was born in Lichtenau, Germany. He was a successful Milwaukee dry goods merchant who had emigrated to America at age 31 in 1850. In 1855 he partnered with fellow German emigree Franz Lorenz Falk to form the Bavaria Brewery on 8th Street. The following year he purchased the Middlewood & Gibson malt-house in order to supply the growing brewery with a necessary ingredient. Goes continued as controlling partner in the brewery until 1865, when Falk bought Goes' stake in the firm.

Although he was out of the brewery in name, Goes continued a close business relationship with his former partner. Goes continued supplying the brewery through the malting business, which he had retained ownership. In 1870, at age 50, he sold the company to William Gerlach & Co. and retired. Goes died on March 13th, 1893 at the age of 73 years.

Franz Lorenz Falk, one of the first Milwaukee Brewery magnates, was born in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. He was the son of a cooper, and trained as a barrel maker, but upon reaching his majority he abandoned that profession in favor of brewing. After apprenticing in Mittenberg brewery for three years Falk emigrated to America and obtained a position practicing his new trade in Cincinnati. Six months later, in October of 1843, he moved north to take an opportunity in the town of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Milwaukee at the time was a booming city, larger than Chicago with a sizable German population. There he was employed by August Krug in a brewery that in ten years' time would be owned by Joseph Schlitz. Krug employed Falk for only a few months before Falk, unsatisfied, was once again hired away. Falk's next position was living and working as foreman at Charles J. Melms' Menominee Brewery in Milwaukee. This situation was apparently to his liking as he stayed in it for eleven more years. On June 10 1851 Falk married Louisa Wahl, the daughter of a German-American shoemaker. Their union would produce eight children. In 1855, at age 32, Falk partnered with Milwaukee dry goods merchant Frederick Goes to establish the Bavaria Brewery on 8th Street between Chestnut & Prairie. Falk bought out Goes' majority stake in the company in 1866 and from then on he operated the brewery as a sole proprietorship. The plant grew and prospered and their product was distributed from California to Mexico to New Orleans. When Falk died on August 6th, 1882 at the age of 58 years his beer had such a reputation that the brewery continued using his name (which was uncommon at the time). Even when the brewery was merged with the Jung and Borchert Brewery the new firm kept the Falk name in the fore.