Minerva Dairy, America’s Oldest Family-Owned Creamery, Marks 132 Years of Slow-Churned 85% Butterfat Butter
Fifth-generation Ohio creamery continues small-batch production at 85 percent butterfat, with a sixth generation now in
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Fifth-generation Ohio creamery continues small-batch production at 85 percent butterfat, with a sixth generation now in the plant
OHIO, OH, UNITED STATES, August 11, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Minerva Dairy, America’s oldest family-owned creamery, is marking 132 years of continuous butter making in 2026, still using the slow batch-churn process the family adopted in 1894 and still producing butter at 85 percent butterfat, five points above the standard found in nearly every mass-produced butter on American grocery shelves.
The company traces its origins to 1894, when 21-year-old Max Radloff founded a dairy operation at Hustisford Creamery in Wisconsin. Over the following decades the family consolidated its operations and moved to Minerva, Ohio, where the creamery still runs today on Radloff Avenue. Five generations later, siblings Adam Mueller and Venae Watts own and operate the business, with a sixth generation of 13 children already learning the trade. One of them, Orrin Mueller, works as a butter maker at the plant.
Most commercial butter sold in the United States contains 80 percent butterfat, the legal minimum. Minerva Dairy butter contains 85 percent. That higher fat content means less water, which is why bakers and chefs reach for it when they want flakier pastry, better browning, and a richer finish. Each batch is churned slowly in small runs rather than pushed through a continuous industrial line.
“We make our butter the old-fashioned way, in batch churns, and it takes about an hour and a half per batch,” said Adam Mueller, fifth-generation chief executive officer of Minerva Dairy. “There is no shortcut to that. It is the same way we have made butter for more than 100 years, and it is the reason people can taste the difference the moment it hits the pan.”
The butter is made from just two ingredients: cream and sea salt in the salted varieties, and cream alone in the unsalted. Milk comes from pasture-raised cows on local family farms, roughly 12,000 head supplying the creamery. Minerva Dairy pasteurizes between 450,000 and 600,000 pounds of milk daily, the equivalent of 52,000 to 70,000 gallons. Because the cows graze on pasture, the color of the butter shifts naturally with the seasons, deepening toward a golden yellow in the warmer months.
“Doing things the same way is how you stop growing,” said Venae Watts, co-owner and vice president of sales. “We have kept the traditional process our great-great-grandfather started, but we have never stopped looking for better ways to get our butter into more kitchens. Our whole family lives the butter life, and we want more people to be able to taste what that actually means.”
The Minerva Dairy retail line includes 8-ounce Sea Salt Butter, 8-ounce Unsalted Butter, and 8-ounce Garlic Herb Butter, along with 2-pound Sea Salt and Unsalted roll butters sized for serious home bakers and food service kitchens. The garlic herb variety has become a staple for home cooks looking to finish steaks, vegetables, and seafood without building a compound butter from scratch.
Minerva Dairy products are carried by select grocery retailers nationwide and are available for direct shipping through Instacart and Goldbelly. Shoppers can locate the nearest carrying retailer using the store locator at minervadairy.com. The company also manufactures ingredient and private-label cheese on a business-to-business basis for food manufacturers and food service companies.
The family credits its longevity to a simple principle passed down through the generations: each generation is given room to make its own decisions, and its own mistakes. That approach has carried the creamery through the rise of margarine, decades of consolidation across American dairy, and the shift in consumer demand back toward simple, minimally processed food.
Recipes, technique guides, and seasonal baking content are published regularly on the Minerva Dairy blog, covering everything from lattice-crust apple pie to compound butter techniques for grilling season.
About Minerva Dairy
Minerva Dairy is America’s oldest family-owned creamery, producing slow-churned, small-batch butter in Minerva, Ohio since 1894. Now in its fifth generation of family ownership under siblings Adam Mueller and Venae Watts, the company makes 85 percent butterfat butter from the milk of pasture-raised cows on local family farms, and produces ingredient and private-label cheese for food manufacturers and food service companies. Learn more at minervadairy.com.
Venae Watts
Minerva Dairy
+1 330-868-4196
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