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The Pittsburgh Brewing Company is a Beer company located in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , USA . HISTORY In 1861 , a young German immigrant, Edward Frauenheim , started the Iron City Brewery, one of the first American breweries to produce a Lager , in the bustling river port known at the time as the "Smoky City." This founder of Frauenheim, Miller & Company started brewing Iron City Beer, now the flagship of the Pittsburgh Brewing Company (PBC), in a city thriving on heavy industry and commerce. By 1866 , the brewery had begun to grow. The business outgrew its original facilities on 17th Street and moved into a four-story brick building that the company built at Liberty Avenue and 34th Street, then worth an estimated $250,000. Just three years later, Iron City Brewery erected an additional three-story building at the site, where PBC operates to this day. The two buildings, carrying an average stock of about 10,000 Barrel , used state-of-the-art brewing equipment. At the time, 25 of the operation's 30 skilled workmen were employed full-time, and Iron City Brewery continued to expand its markets to become the largest brewery in Pittsburgh. After the 1866 expansion, Leopold Vilsack, a Pittsburgh native who learned the brewer’s trade at Pittsburgh’s old Bennett Brewery , joined Frauenheim, Miller & Company. The young man later became a Partner , investing his small wealth in the firm when Miller retired and another partner died. Iron City Brewery then became Frauenheim and Vilsack Company. Frauenheim and Vilsack’s fame spread throughout the brewing industry across the country, as the company had built one of the most complete and extensive breweries in the United States. With a brewing capacity of about 50,000 barrels a year, the Iron City Brewery was an impressive operation, able to compete favorably in sales with any brewery west of the Atlantic Coast area. Historians and newspapers were amazed that a brewery could be so big. The total value of Iron City, including everything from stock to raw materials, was about $150,000 – an unheard of sum for a brewery. By 1886 , the Iron City Brewery had about 500 reception Cask s, each up to 60-ft in Circumference and 20-ft in height, each of which held 45 to 50 Barrel s of beer. And, the brewery had about 10,000 Keg s in constant use, evidence that serving its client base was no small job. During the latter part of the 19th century, trusts became the business vogue, and industries began to merge or form trusts to achieve stability through size and take advantage of economies of scale. The brewing industry was no exception. On February 3 , 1899 , the ''Pittsburgh Dispatch'' reported that 12 local brewing firms applied to transfer their license to the trust known as Pittsburgh Brewing Company: Wainwright Brewing Company, Phoenix Brewing Company, Keystone Brewing Company, Winter Brothers Brewing Company, Phillip Lauer, John H. Nusser, Ebhardt & Ober Brewing Company, Hippely & Sons, Ober Brewing Company, J. Seiferth Brothers, Straub Brewing Company, and the Iron City Brewing Company. In addition to these 12 Pittsburgh and Allegheny County breweries, nine breweries outside the county took part in the merger. In all, 21 breweries joined to make Pittsburgh Brewing Company the largest brewing operation in Pennsylvania and the third largest in the country. The combined facilities, worth about $11 million, provided a capacity of more than one million barrels. Greater efficiencies and more modern equipment made it practical to close many of the 21 breweries shortly after the Incorporation without relinquishing capacities. Prohibition , starting in 1920 , forced many breweries, Distill ers and Tavern s to close, yet Pittsburgh Brewing Company survived. One of only 725 American breweries left when the movement was repealed in April 1933 , PBC produced soft drinks, ice cream and 'near beer' and ran a cold storage business to endure those years. The brewery’s creative efforts kept alive a Pittsburgh tradition and foreshadowed future innovations that would again restore security in times of struggle. In the 1970s, the Pittsburgh Brewing Company acquired the Queen City Brewing Company (1901-1976) of Cumberland, Maryland . The Queen City Brewing Company was also known as the Old German Brewing Company and included the Cumberland Brewing Company (1890-1958), which was purchased by the brewery in 1958. At its peak, the Queen City brewery produced over 250,000 barrels of beer and ale a year in Cumberland. The company prospered during the 1950s and 1960s; however, labor disputes and declining sales caused the Queen City Brewing Company to close in December, 1974, transferring its Old German , Old Export , Heritage House , Old Dutch , Brown Derby , Gamecock Ale , and American brands to the Pittsburgh Brewing Company. The Queen City brewery was demolished in April, 1975, ending a combined 152 years of brewing in Cumberland Maryland. Amanda Paul, Tom Robertson, Joe Weaver, "Cumberland", Arcadia Publishing, Copyright Oct 1, 2003, Paperback, ISBN 0-7385-1498-5, page 46. |
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