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It almost seems that St. Louis was pre-destined to become a major beer brewing locale. In the 1800s, a lot of things just seemed to fall into place that would help make St. Louis the epicenter of American beers.

As large numbers of immigrants from Germany and Bohemia found their way to St. Louis beginning around 1830, a substantial portion of these newly-minted Americans settled in Soulard, the city's oldest neighborhood. The immigrants' principal skills lay in making bricks and beer, so a number of breweries began to open in the city. And it helps explain the number of red brick buildings throughout the area. This area was home to a number of breweries over the years, including Eberhard Anheuser's Bavarian Brewery, which eventually became Anheuser-Busch. In addition to the modern day brewing powerhouse, St. Louis had a hand in more than 40 breweries, including Adam Lemp's Western Brewery, Falstaff Brewing Corporation, Griesedieck Beverage Company, the Arsenal Brewery, Anthony and Kuhn's, Excelsior, Green Tree and English breweries.

Location and resources also spurred the growth of brewing in St. Louis. In addition to the large German and Irish population, there was plenty of water, rail connections, limestone caves, and an entrepreneurial spirit provided the foundation for the city's beer business. Today, the tradition continues as St. Louis is home to a number of microbreweries and brewpubs. Explore the history of St. Louis' beer barons and find out how some of America's favorite brands have roots in St. Louis.

ANHEUSER-BUSCH
The Bavarian Brewery was established in 1852 and renamed E. Anheuser & Co when Eberhard Anheuser took over the brewery in 1860. In 1864, his son-in-law, Adolphus Busch, joined the company that would later become Anheuser-Busch.

The Bavarian Brewery of Eberhard Anheuser was one of 50 breweries in St. Louis in 1870. The company grew quickly and began dominating the local beer market. In 1879, the company changed its name to Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association. Dozens of breweries formed around this time, and most of them bore names with a German heritage, including Griesedieck, Stifel and Winkelmeyer. But even those with English ancestry, like Ellis Wainwright's Fulton Brewery, now specialized in German beer.

After Anheuser's death in 1880, Busch became president of the company, and remained its leader until his death in 1913. The company was turned over to his son, August A. Busch, Sr., who led the brewery through Prohibition, as the brewery diversified and produced products such as ice cream, ginger ale syrup, non-alcohol Budweiser and refrigerated cabinets. Busch was a pioneer in the creation of refrigerated railroad cars, which extended the shelf-life of un-pasteurized lager so that it could be shipped longer distances.

Both Adolphus Busch and fellow brewer William Lemp capitalized on the new technology to move their beers beyond the St. Louis market. Before the introduction of artificial refrigeration, the Lemp brewery had four ice-houses on the Mississippi River, each having a storage capacity of 5,000 tons each. The ice houses were designed to be able to directly receive the cargoes of river barges, which Lemp also owned. In 1878, Lemp added the first artificial refrigeration machinery to the facility, and the addition of refrigerated railcars now enabled the beer maker to ship beer across the country. In addition to the refrigerated cars and a new technique of pasteurization, bottled beer that previously would have spoiled within a matter of days was now "warranted to keep in any climate."

By capitalizing on these technologies, A-B nurtured a national market for its beer, eventually creating one of the most popular beers in the country. Budweiser, the brewery's flagship brand, was introduced in 1876 and the rest, as they say, is history.

August A. Busch, Jr., took over the reins when his father died in 1946, and "Gussie," as he was known, diversified the company even further by adding regional breweries, opening Busch Gardens, and creating the Metal Container Corporation as an A-B subsidiary. Gussie became a fixture at Busch Stadium, home to the brewery's Major League Baseball team, and is still as beloved as any St. Louis Cardinals player. Gussie's son August A. Busch III - usually referred to as "The Third" - took over as company president in 1973, and was at the helm when Bud Light was introduced in 1982. Anheuser-Busch has since expanded its brewing practices around the globe. Busch III retired in 2002, naming Patrick Stokes as president of the brewery, the first non-family member to oversee the company since its inception. In 2006, August A. Busch IV ("The Fourth") assumed the role of president and the company continues to introduce new beer brands and has expanded into the distilled spirits category.

LEMP
John Adam Lemp arrived in St. Louis from Eschwege, Germany in 1838, one of the many Germans who fled the war in their home country. Thousands of Europeans flocked to the American Midwest and by 1850, 43 percent of all St. Louisans were born in either Ireland or Germany. Thanks to the influx of new immigrants - and their passion for beer - St. Louis grew from a town of 16,000 people in 1840 to a brewing metropolis of more than 300,000 in 1870.

Lemp originally sought his fortune as a grocer, but he developed a local following because of his ability to supply a thirsty public with lager beer. Lemp, who learned the art of brewing under the tutelage of his father in Germany, began to utilize the natural cave system under the city, which provided the perfect temperature to age beer. He soon realized that the future of lager beer in America was a force to be reckoned with, so he gave up the grocery business and built a modest brewery on South Second Street in 1840. His small brewing enterprise eventually grew into a vast complex that included storage for 50,000 barrels and his own tavern. Lemp's Saloon was a major factor in the early growth of the brewery. The popular pub served only Lemp's beer, and became the largest in the city during the 1850s.

Many German beer makers were attracted to St. Louis for its abundance of limestone caves lying beneath the city. Brewers converted these natural refrigerators into beer cellars. The lagering, or aging process, allows remaining yeast a chance to settle, improving the beer flavor and allowing the beer to store better. Local beer makers began using caves in the Benton Park neighborhood, as the cool, constant temperatures provided the best circumstances for brewing and storing. Ice from the Mississippi River helped keep the caves cool, and the German-style beer revolution introduced what had been a largely unknown brew to American beer drinkers. Eventually, lagers became the most popular beer in the nation, and John Lemp became the father of a brewing empire.

When the Civil War started in 1861, William J. Lemp succeeded his father as the head of the brewery. Lemp was one of 40 local breweries at the start of the War Between the States, but less than half that number was still in business by 1900. A new plant was added in 1864 to accommodate the increased demand for its product, and by the early1870s, Lemp's Western Brewery was the largest brewery in St. Louis. By 1876, Lemp was the 19^th largest in the country, producing more than 60,000 barrels a year and William Lemp, Sr. was named vice-president of the prestigious United States Brewer's Association.

In 1892, William J. Lemp's Western Brewery was incorporated under the title the William J. Lemp Brewing Company, and it controlled the lion's share of the St. Louis beer market until Prohibition. By the mid-1890s, Lemp was well on its way to becoming a nationally known shipping brewery, having become the first brewery to establish coast-to-coast distribution of its products. An average of 10,000 beer shipments were sent out each year, with the beer traveling via Lemp's 500 refrigerated railroad cars on the Lemp-owned Western Cable Railway Company. The brewery's beer cellars could store up to 50,000 barrels at a time, and their rated production capacity was 500,000 barrels a year. It was now the eighth largest beer maker in the country.

Having expanded their distribution network throughout the U.S., Lemp continued to move into foreign markets. By the late 1890s, Lemp beers were being shipped to Canada, British Columbia, Mexico, Central and South America, the West Indies, Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong. Eventually, Lemp beer made it into London and Berlin, two well-known beer Meccas in their own right.

In 1897, two of the country's largest brewing industries were brought together by the marriage of William Lemp's daughter, Hilda, to Gustav Pabst, son of Milwaukee beer baron Captain Frederick Pabst. Nine years later, a brewing-merger of a different sort would have a huge impact on the St. Louis market. In 1906, nine large area breweries combined to form the Independent Breweries Company (IBC), the second major merger in the local beer business. The first, the 1889 formation of the St. Louis Brewing Association (SLBA), absorbed 18 breweries and continued operating up to Prohibition. The formation of the IBC and the SLBA left only Lemp, Anheuser-Busch, the Louis Obert Brewing Company, and a handful of small neighborhood breweries as independent St. Louis beer makers.

FALSTAFF & GRIESEDIECK
Falstaff is the tale of two brewing families - the Lemps and the Griesediecks. In 1870, members of the Griesedieck family arrived in St. Louis from Stromberg, Germany, and embark on careers in brewing. Anton Griesedieck opens a brewery in St. Louis and his son Joseph "Papa Joe" Griesedieck enrolls in the United States Brewing Academy. In 1891, Papa Joe opened the National Brewery in St. Louis, which later merged into the Independent Breweries Company but goes bankrupt due to high overheads.

The first Falstaff brand beer appeared in mid-1899 and Lemp Brewing registered the Falstaff trademark and logo in 1903. The story behind the logo and the name is that the well known Falstaff shield was derived from an artist's paint pallet, and the brand was named after the Shakespearean character of Sir John Falstaff. Lemp thought of it as a tribute to the character's philosophy to "eat, drink and be merry." Lemp, Anheuser-Busch and Bernard Griesedieck's beers were introduced to a worldwide audience at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, more commonly known as the 1904 World's Fair.

However, all was not well within the Lemp beer dynasty. The first fracture occurred when Frederick Lemp, William's favorite son and the heir apparent to the brewery presidency, died under mysterious circumstances in 1901. Three years later, William J. Lemp shot himself in the head in a bedroom at the family mansion, apparently still grieving the loss of his son. William J. Lemp, Jr. then took over as company president, but the brewery's fortunes continued to decline until 1919 when Prohibition forced the plant to close permanently. Prohibition, officially known as The Volstead Act and the 18^th Amendment, was the downfall of numerous brewers across the country. In 1920, St. Louis beer maker Otto Stiefel committed suicide over the loss of his business to Prohibition, and so many brewers took their own lives that Prohibition also was called the "Dutch (Deutsch) Act."

The Griesedieck family purchased the former Forest Park Brewing's property and formed the Griesedieck Beverage Company in 1917. Joseph "Papa Joe" Griesedieck was named president of the company. In response to the new laws enforced in 1919, Griesedieck Beverage Company (GBC) launched a "near beer" called HEK, named after a cereal beverage the Egyptians brewed in 1500 B.C. Near beers were non-alcoholic brews that somewhat tasted like their "leaded" brethren. Unfortunately, HEK sales were not enough to keep GBC afloat and the company went into receivership in 1920. Joe Griesedieck eventually obtained the Falstaff trademark from the Lemp family and bought the Griesedieck Company back, renaming it the Falstaff Corporation. The company made it through Prohibition with a variety of side businesses, including brewing other near beer brands, or non-alcoholic brews.

When Prohibition ended in 1933, the company became Falstaff Brewing Corporation and was granted the first federal permit to resume brewing beer. Falstaff had managed to keep their brewer's yeast alive during Prohibition, and they later insured it with Lloyd's of London for more than $1 million to keep the beer's famous flavor. Falstaff's near beer was also easy to "spike" with alcohol, which made the transition to "real beer" a relatively easy process.

It was reported that huge crowds gathered outside the brewery on April 7 hoping to get a case of beer and the police have to be called in to control the mob. Some Falstaff employees worked 48 hours without sleep to keep up with the demand. Sales the first year were 150,000 barrels and totally outstripped production capacity.

In St. Louis, beer and baseball always seem to have gone hand-in-hand. Case in point: on "Falstaff Day" at Sportsman's Park in 1951, brewery executives get the surprise of their lives when St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck staged a show during a double-header. Veeck and 18,000 of his closest friends had crowded into the stadium to celebrate 50 years of the American League and Falstaff Beer. At one point during the festivities, a large birthday cake was wheeled onto the field by an actor dressed as Sir John Falstaff, and a 3-foot, 7-inch tall dwarf named Eddie Gaedel popped out. Gaedel, wearing a Browns jersey with the fraction 1/8 on it, then enters the ballgame and pinch hits for player Frank Saucier. With his diminutive strike zone, Gaedel drew a walk and was replaced by a pinch runner.  

Falstaff purchased a plant from the Stifel brewing family in 1944, and in 1948, they purchased the Colombia Brewery. The plant opened in 1892 at the corners of 20^th and Madison streets in St Louis. In 1906 Colombia merged with the Independent Breweries Company, which also had been part of the Griesedieck's first brewing enterprise.

In the 1950s, Falstaff became the seventh largest brewer in the country, and in 1957, the Griesedieck and Falstaff breweries merged. The Griesedieck brewery, which became Falstaff's Plant #10, had a long history in the business, having begun brewing beer in 1856 by William Stumph. In 1877 Aton Griesedieck purchased the plant and it went through another series of owners before the Griesediecks purchased the plant in 1910. The company closed its original Falstaff brewery, Plant No. 1, following the consolidation of assets. 

In 1985, Falstaff acquired Pabst Brewing. However, the brand's sales continued to drop throughout the 1990s, so in 2005, Pabst announced that it would no longer produce the Falstaff brand.

COLUMBIA
The Columbia Brewing Company opened in 1892 at the Corners of 20^th and Madison streets in St. Louis. Columbia's market share grew and it was one of the larger brewers in the area. In 1906, the Brewery was merged into the Independent Breweries Company of St. Louis. The Brewery stayed a branch of this organization until 1919. IBC owned a large number of St. Louis area brewers. It basically was a management company that operated several smaller breweries independently. These brewers were able to pool resources and purchasing power to compete with the big brewers like Anheuser-Busch and Lemp.

Like most of the IBC plants, Columbia closed during prohibition, and in 1934 the brewery was reorganized as the Independent Columbia Brewing Company. The company's flagship brand was Alpen Brau, a traditional lager beer, and production brewery continued to grow. Before WWII began, the brewery produced about 175,000 barrels a year, but began a modernization plan shortly after the war ended. The brewery expanded to a capacity of 250,000 barrels annually, and sales were so brisk that Columbia purchased the EMS Brewery in 1947. Columbia produced beer at this facility, better known as the Central Royal Brewery, until 1948 when Falstaff purchased the plant. Unlike the other facilities Falstaff bought, there was no need to stop brewing for retooling, as Falstaff had been brewed by Columbia at this plant for nearly a year. The brewery underwent additional modernization and soon produced more than 500,000 barrels of beer annually. However, by 1967 the Falstaff Brewing Corporation hit hard times, and closed the facility in 1967.

SCHLAFLY
In 1991, Schlafly beer began operations in a building at the corner of 21^st and Locust streets on the western edge of downtown. The city's first new brewery in more than 50 years started making and selling a line of beers named after its founder, a local attorney named Tom Schlafly. What began as a simple brewpub with limited distribution to a few local restaurants has grown and evolved into a popular local beer-maker that now features a second brewery - Schlafly Bottleworks in nearby Maplewood - and a distribution network that includes more than 1,200 restaurants, bars, grocery and convenience stores across the region.

Schlafly notes that before Prohibition, most breweries were small and crafted beers for the purpose of serving them in their own taverns. Because of this, breweries made more styles of beer to serve, and most of them were traditional brews originating from Europe. When these small breweries were shut down during Prohibition, their traditional beer styles were largely forgotten, the post-Prohibition breweries began mass-producing beer for a thirsty public. They almost exclusively brewed American light lager, which included corn and rice to make a lighter beer.

The goal of the Saint Louis Brewery and Schlafly Beer is to bring back the small brewery that produces traditional beer styles. Today, Schlafly produces more than 30 traditional styles of ale and lager, with more 12,000 barrels brewed at the Bottleworks location and 1,500 barrels at the original Tap Room brewery.

                                                                            Updated:  February 7, 2008

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