Aberdeen Brewing Co. - Aberdeen
In November of 1901, Alvin Hemrich purchased the Grays Harbor Brewing Co. from receivership for $3000 and went forward with plans for a more modest brewery. By the time production commenced, in May of 1902, Alvin had dropped the name Grays Harbor Brewing Co. in favor of the Aberdeen Brewing Company. The first draught beer was placed on the market on the 21st of May, and was warmly received. The bottling line had a capacity of 10 Barrels, or 1680 quart bottles per day. By 1906 the brewery employed 25 people, and produced $200,000 worth of beer a year. Increased sales and demand required even further expansion. In order to increase capacity an annex to the plant was erected in June 1907. In 1915 Washington voted to go dry, with statewide Prohibition to go into effect on January 1st, 1916. This terminated the production of all alcoholic beverages. Most breweries were forced to close, but the Aberdeen Brewing Co. stayed open by increasing their production of soda waters. This enterprise was named the Prima Bottling Works.
History developed in association with Gary Flynn - Website: www.brewerygems.com
Seattle Brewing & Malting - 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
Ellensburg Brewing & Malting - Ellensburg
The St. Louis Brewing Company (predecessor to the Ellensburg Brewing Co.) was incorporated in March 1895 in Ellensburg by raising $15,000 worth of capital selling 150 shares to individuals Frank Groger, Frank Fiegle & Kasper Hoffmeier. The Brewing Company was granted a liquor license to sell spirits and liquors in August 1899 and remained at that location until a fire on July 5, 1907 destroyed the entire building. Kroger vowed to build a new brick building to house the brewing company at 3rd Ave. & Pearl St. When the new building was completed, they changed the name to the Ellensburg Brewing and Malting Co. which remained in business until prohibition in 1915. Both Groger and Fiegle eventually left the brewing business - Groger opening a saloon in Thorpe in 1908 and Fiegle being elected as a councilman-at-large in the 2nd ward in Roslyn in 1908.
Side note: Both Groger and Fiegle were arrested and eventually released from custody as being indicted along with 6 others in the lynching of the Vinson brothers in August 1895.
History developed in association with Gary Flynn - Website: www.brewerygems.com
Capital Brewing Co. - Olympia
The Capital Brewing Company began in 1896 by Leopold F. Schmidt whose business model was "Quality First - Quantity Next." Brewing commenced at the tiny Tumwater brewery in July of 1896 and their first beer, "Olympia Pale Export", was siphoned by hand from wooden barrels, bottled and placed on the market October 1, 1896. The Capital Brewing Company became the Olympia Brewing Co. in 1902, and at that time chose the slogan "It's the Water" for its flagship brand "Olympia Beer," in part to explain why the Tumwater lagers tasted so good. Leopold Schmidt died in 1914. By then brewing basically ceased in Washington in 1915 due to Prohibition and it allowed brewers one year to deplete their inventory and dismantle their operations. However, the Schmidt family chose to carry on with near beers called "German Brew", "Lact Dark," an "Olympia Malt Extract" and an "Olympia Artesian Water". By the early 1920's the Schmidt family controlled a large number of luxury hotels, with a presence in all of the major northwestern cities. They sold off all their inactive breweries and beverage operations (including the 1906 Tumwater Brewhouse), and concentrated on their Western Hotels chain which would become the nucleus of the present day Westin Hotels.
History developed in association with Gary Flynn - Website: www.brewerygems.com
Bellingham Bay Beer - Whatcom
The history of the Bellingham Bay Brewery (3-B) began when Leopold F. Schmidt, president and owner of the Capital Brewing Company of Tumwater, (soon to become the Olympia Brewing Company), chose the site for the company's newest brewery. He selected the city of Whatcom as the site for his new plant as it was ideally located on the northern end of Puget Sound, in the northwest corner of Washington State. In 1902 Whatcom, the quality of brewing water was still as much an issue for Schmidt's 3-B as it was in 1885 as the town used Lake Whatcom for its primary water source. This lake water was rejected as lacking in purity. Instead the 3-B drilled private wells and established a waterworks on its property "at an expenditure of $8,000" according to a newspaper account. The brewery was located on North Elk street. The Bellingham Bay Brewery served a largely local market but 3-B also shipped its "Pale Export" to markets on the Pacific coast, Alaska and Canada. The Alaska market even had its own brand called "Alaska Special Brew". On January 7, 1910, Schmidt announced that he had leased the brewery and ice plant to Pierre J. Andrae and Edward L. Stowe. Shortly before the Statewide Prohibition vote, Leopold Schmidt passed away; he spent his last days at his Leopold Hotel in Bellingham, dying on September 24, 1914, without having to witness the destruction of his brewery business.
History developed in association with Gary Flynn - Website: www.brewerygems.com
Washington Brewing Co. - Everett
In October of 1899, Tacoma's Pacific Brewing & Malting Co. purchased property in the city of Everett for a proposed branch brewer; however another group had beat them to it. By the Spring of 1900, the Washington Brewing Co. was in production with Anton Aabling as the plant's first manager. The Northern Brewing. Co. sold its interest in the venture and by 1902 the Columbia Brewing Co. of Tacoma had its people managing the brewery. The Washington Brewing Company was to have a relatively short run. In late 1904 another group of Tacoma investors, backed by PB&M, made a deal to purchase the company and operate the plant until their new, larger brewery was constructed. On September 12, 1909 The Pacific Brewing and Malting Company of Tacoma had taken over the Everett Brewing Company for the sum of $200,000. However, the brewery would soon become a liability and in November 1914, the Everett plant was to be leased to a wholesale grocery house until state-wide prohibition in 1915.
History developed in association with Gary Flynn - Website: www.brewerygems.com