Angeles Beer - Port Angeles
The most prominent "boomer" and promoter of Port Angeles was Col. James S. Coolican, president of the city's Board of Trade. In the Summer of 1901, he organized the Angeles Brewing & Malting Co. in Chicago, with local investors. Not long after the projected May '02 date they had "Angeles Beer" on the market. However, in spite of their best efforts the company was struggling to pay its debts. The brewery had serious competition in the Seattle market which prevented them from becoming a serious contender around the Puget Sound area. However, they did get some welcome exposure with the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. At that illustrious event they won a Gold Medal for their beer and issued an etched glass heralding that accomplishment. Due to the effects of numerous saloons shutting down, and stiff competition in Seattle, the company did not work its way out of bankruptcy and on 30 April, 1913 controlling interest in the Angeles Brewing & Malting Co. was sold to a group of Seattle investors for $65,000.
History developed in association with Gary Flynn - Website: www.brewerygems.com
Port Townsend Brewing - Port Townsend
Local investors George Watkins, Michael Hartman, and Newton W. O'Rear established the company in Sept. 1905, after raising $25,000 in capital stock for the venture. One of the brewery's brand was called "Key City Beer" was built on site of the old Washington Brewery whose location was on the west side of Monroe St. between Water and Washington Sts. In January of 1916 the brewery was closed due to the Prohibition initiative which allowed brewers one year to sell their stock and shut down their plants. The Port Townsend Brewing Co. continued with a line of non-alcoholic beverages and soda waters, but closed in 1918.
History developed in association with Gary Flynn - Website: www.brewerygems.com
Inland Brewing & Malting Co. - Spokane
Inland Brewing and Malting Company was formed when a group of investors led by Charles Theis purchased the Hieber Brewing and Malting Company in 1905 which lasted until Prohibition in 1915.
Note: According to an article in the "Spokane Press" dated February 2, 1906, "...the general opinion was that the new "Inland Beer" was all right; in fact everyone who imbibed the liquid refreshment expressed surprise that such good beer could be made in Spokane. The "Inland Beer" is as good as any and is better than any of the imported beer sold in the city".
Independent Brewing Co. - Seattle
In 1902, Samuel S. Loeb and other business associates who had been with him in his Tacoma brewery, laid plans to open a brewery in Seattle. Samuel Loeb served as president, and his brother-in-law, Albert Weinberg, was vice-president, with Benjamin Moyses serving as sec./treas. Their millionaire partner, Herman Klaper - "the Hop King" - left the company prematurely when he went down with the Titanic on her ill-fated, maiden voyage. The brewery was located at 4202 8th Ave. So., what is now Airport Way, and south of Seattle Brewing & Malting's Sweeney plant in Georgetown. The brewery flourished in spite of the major competition from Seattle Brewing & Malting's "Rainier Beer". In June of 1910 they introduced "Old German Lager" calling it the "Fatherland Beer," with the slogan: "Prosit! Es Giebt Kein Kopeweh," which means - "Good Health! It won't give you a headache". By 1912, "Old German Lager" was being bottled and distributed by the Chas. F. Wagner Co. in San Francisco, and in Portland by Rose City Importing Company.
History developed in association with Gary Flynn - Website: www.brewerygems.com
Star Brewery - Vancouver/Portland
The Star Brewery was a successor to one of the earliest brewing enterprises in the Washington Territory. It was originally John Muench's Vancouver Brewery, established in 1856, near Fort Vancouver. A young, immigrant brewer from Germany, Henry Weinhard, joined Muench for about six months and then went across the river to the city of Portland where he started his own brewery, but the settlement was growing too slowly, and he shut down his brewery and returned to Fort Vancouver. In 1894, the company was sold to Louis Gerlinger, who formally changed its name to the Star Brewery, and then three years later to the Star Brewery Company. Gerlinger may have been the one who introduced the "Hop Gold" brand, since its use hasn't been documented before the late 1890s. The brand was in use in Sept. 1898, when 330 cases of "Hop Gold" beer were shipped to their agent in the Philippines, on news that Commodore Dewey had destroyed the Spanish fleet in the Bay of Manila. In 1904, the Star Brewery Co. was purchased by the Northern Brewery Company, but they continued to refer to the plant as the Star Brewery, and carried on with the popular "Hop Gold Export" beer".
History developed in association with Gary Flynn - Website: www.brewerygems.com
Schade Beer - Spokane
In 1903, Bernhardt Schade was brewmaster at the locally owned and operated New York Brewing Company. Schade left the New York Brewery in 1902 to start his own brewing legacy, the B. Schade Brewing Co. whose plan was to brew a fine lager and out-produce Spokane Brewing and Malting Co. The Schade Brewery building was built in 1903 at a reported cost of $265,000. The brewery was rock-solid, built of reinforced concrete and brick, with walls three and a half feet thick. The B. Schade Brewery produced beer until Prohibition in 1915.