John Fey was born in Hessen, Germany. His family emigrated to America in 1852 when John was just 11 years old. They settled in Jefferson County, Wisconsin where his father Heinrich Fey took up farming.

In 1861 John married Friederike Albertine Wilhelmine Tiede and together they started a farming family of their own. The Feys relocated to Rock Township, Mitchell County, Iowa in 1869 and the family followed farm life there until 1874. In that year John purchased the West Mitchell Brewery, previously owned by Frank Coop.

He brewed at that location for about ten years until rising temperance sympathies in the area forced his business to close. In 1885 Fey moved his family 275 miles northwest to Ortonville, Minnesota where he had purchased a brewery built the previous year by Messrs. Geiger & Ebermann. In 1894 Fey brought his son into the business and they operated it together until 1898 when they sold to John Lammel.

John A Fey died on the 12th of February, 1903. He was 62 years of age. The brewery in Ortonville closed in 1910.