Jacob Weisbrod was born in Eppingen, Baden-Württemberg, Prussia, and was educated in his home country.  In 1852, at age 21, he married Maria Margretha Beller.  But tragedy struck the next year when both she and her baby died in childbirth.  Within three months of his loss Jacob sold everything he had, boarded a steamer, and left his home country, bound for the United States.

He settled in Rock Island County, Illinois, and worked in a brewery there.  Wthin a few years he met and married fellow German emigree Margaret Littig. They moved to Winona Minnesota where they built a small brewery of their own behind the bluff in East Burns Valley.

The brewery was successful and the Weisbrods soon relocated to the city side of Sugar Loaf, a location better suited for a large plant. The Weisbrod family grew as well, with child number five arriving in 1868.  In 1869 the Weisbrods hired fellow Prussian emigre Peter Bub as foreman.  The addition of Bub to the payroll only increased the Weisbrod's successes. Unfortunately he was unable to enjoy them for long, as just two years later Jacob Weisbrod contracted typhoid and died on August 11th, 1871.  He was 40 years of age. 

Upon Weisbrod's death Peter Bub took over the brewery, married his widow, and became father to her children.  This was a relatively common practice in German brewhouses of the era.  After a fire the next year left Bub with uninsured losses he partnered with local hotelier John Burmeister to finance rebuilding.  The new state-of-the-art brewery, now named the Sugar Loaf, was a money maker from the beginning and Bub was able to buy out Burmeister's stake just two years later. Bub managed the company until his death in 1921. The brewery Jacob Weisbrod founded in 1856 ultimately closed in 1969.

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