Beer

Wolf Bottling Co. - Spokane Falls

One of the longest running wholesale liquor houses in the State of Washington, David Holzman started this firm sometime in 1888 in Spokane and was located at 106 Howard St. Approximately a year later the firm was listed as Holzman, D. & Co and was located on the SW corner of the Northern Pacific railroad tracks at South Monroe St. which was later renamed Railroad Ave. The "Wolf & Co. Bottlers" of Spokane Falls, which had been located on Havermale Island, was purchased by Holzman and relocated to the Monroe St. address with the company name phasing out by 1892. The company was renamed as the "Northwestern Bottling Co. under Holzman ownership and remained as such until 1908. The Holzman liquor firm remained at this location until closed by Prohibition in 1915. This location also housed the Northwest Bottling Works owned by Holzman since 1890 which was in business until 1917. Over time, the company used the brand names:

"Kentucky's Old Style", "MacNeal", "Old Newport Club", "Orpheum Club", "Red Stork", "Circle Eight" and "Rob't. Hamilton Old Tom Gin" among their product lines.

G. Maginnis - Seattle

(Condensed from a Seattle Times article dated February 4, 1904)

There has of late been years a very great demand for light non-alcoholic beverages of the better grade and their use throughout the Republic and Canada. In Seattle, the leader in this line is from the firm of Geo. T. Maginnis & Co. which was established here 25 years ago and was incorporated on January 16, 1903. Their office and bottling works are located at 1024-1028 First Avenue South where they occupy a 2-story building 100x150 feet equipped with all the best modern carbonating and botting equipment and employees 25 people with 5 wagons to deliver goods. The firm makes use of the hotel and family trades and their productions include lemon soda, sarsaparilla soda, cream soda, vanilla soda root beer, irandn brew, champagne ale, kola, sarsaparilla and iron ginger beer and pure syrups. In addition, they are also bottlers of Olympia Beer and do an immense trade in Seattle and surrounding areas.

Joe Garcea - Spokane

Joe Garcea founded the Western Bottling Co. in 1909 which was then located at 212 Main Ave and later at 7 Main Ave. in Spokane. The company sold mineral water and later applied for a patent to brew and label its beer "Mount Spokane" which was granted on 7/5/13. An application for a wholesale liquor license was granted on 10/21/14 and the company remained in business after Prohibition selling soda and mineral water.

Seattle Brewing & Malting Co. - Seattle

Andrew Hemrich & John Kopp began their Seattle brewery in early 1883. From steam beer to lager, the plant saw improvements in brewing, and plant expansion, that eventually became the Bay View Brewing Co. Then in late 1892, plans were made for the Bay View plant to merge with two others to form the Seattle Brewing and Malting Company. This "syndicate" was a consolidation (1892) of three plants - the Bay View, founded in 1883; Claussen-Sweeny, established that same year; and Albert Braun Brewing Company, established in 1890. A brand of beer was then needed to identify the new company's product, and the name of the mountain that dominated the southern view was chosen. On January 10, 1893, "Rainier" was adopted as one of the brands for the new firm, and soon became their flagship mark. In 1904, Georgetown incorporated a “company town” safeguarding the business interests of its brewery. The number of taverns and roadhouses doubled, and by 1905 it required 25 horse teams to daily fill the Seattle appetite for "Rainier Beer". Production by then had reached 300,000 barrels per annum. The company now employed more than 300 men and there was room to build worker homes beside the Duwamish River that then still curved through Georgetown. Before Washington State introduced prohibition in 1916, the Georgetown brewery was the largest industrial establishment in the state of Washington.

History developed in association with Gary Flynn - Website: www.brewerygems.com

Colfax Brewing Co. - Colfax

The Colfax Brewery began in 1893 by Alvin Schmidt and cost over $5,000 to construct the brewery. The company usually employed around 10 men until the most of the building was destroyed in a fire 3 years later. Alvin Schmidt rebuilt and expanded the Colfax Brewery, reopening in late 1897. In 1902 he sold the company to Henry Schultz who operated the brewery as the Schultz Brewery Company until he sold it to brewmaster Max Hoefle (from Buffalo, NY) in 1911 for $65,000. Hoefle operated it as the Colfax Brewing and Malting Company and the company ran the only ice plant in Colfax which supplied the brewery, all the towns residents as well as shipping ice to other towns in the area. The brewery was forced to close with the start of Prohibition in January 1916 and dumped their last 14,000 gallons of beer into the Palouse River where a large crowd had gathered and observed that fish downstream began jumping in strange patterns.

Milwaukee Bottling Works - Tacoma

In May of 1891, Samuel S. Loeb, and his brother-in-law, Albert Weinberg, purchased controlling interest in the United States brewery. Two months later it was reported that Andrew Hemrich, proprietor of the Bay View brewery had purchased shares in the United States Brewery of Tacoma. The brewery would be remodeled and renamed the Milwaukee Bewery. On December 30th of 1894, for their year-end recap of local industries, the Ledger reported that Milwaukee Brewing company had increased their annual output to 60,000 barrels, and that they had 23 employees. In 1897, Loeb agreed to a merger with its neighboring brewery and formed a new corporation and on 30 August, 1897, Tacoma's Daily Ledger reported:

"The Milwaukee Brewing Company in Tacoma gave a warranty deed to the Puget Sound Brewing Company for its brewery. The Pacific Brewing & Malting Company filed articles of incorporation, with a capital stock of $500,000 to carry on the business of the two breweries. Mr. J. F. Yuncker, a bottler of fifteen years experience ran the bottling department and the Milwaukee plant remained in operation for two years - until 1899, when PB&M purchased the local Donau Brewery, and closed the Milwaukee branch.