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12. Pabst: A Beer Drinker's Brewery
- University of Wisconsin Press
- Chapter
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Pabst: A Beer Drinker's Brewery hEcolorful history of the Pabst Brewing Company dates to the early 1800s in Mettenheim, Germany, where Jacob Best, Sr., owned a brewery and winery. Jacob trained each of his four sons-Jacob, Jr., Phillip, Charles, and Lorenz-in the art of beer making. Anxious to strike out on their own, and confident they could find great success in the United States, Jacob, Jr., and Charles were the first of the family to emigrate. They settled in Milwaukee in the late 1830s and quickly established, not a brewery , but a successful vinegar factory. A short time later they began a campaign to convince the entire family to join them in America. Best, a Freethinker The.other Bests were ready to move. Political pressures were stifling them. In the 1840s, a freethinker like Jacob Best, Sr., could not speak his mind and try new ideas as he wished. Excited by the reports from his sons in Milwaukee, Jacob, Sr., gathered his family, packed up his belongings, and sailed for America. He was convinced that America would allow him to prosper, to live his beliefs, and to speak his mind without fear of political retaliation . Unlike many other immigrants journeying to America in search of opportunity, Jacob Best brought with him sufficient capital to set up a new business quickly. Rather than starting new when he moved to Milwaukee, Best essentially relocated his German brewery, which, at the time, was considered state-of-the-art. He was immediately ahead of much·of his competition. In the beginning the Best Brewery annually produced three hundred barrels of beer, although _Best did not limit his operation to that product alone. He also brewed ale and porter, and MALTSTERS AT THE PHILLIP BEST BREWING COMPANY, MILWAUKEE. (COURTESY OF THE MILWAUKEE COUNTY HIS TORICAL SOCIETY.) made corn and rye whiskey. In late 1844 the brewery began making lager beer, and an advertising campaign for the new product began in 1845. Best's lager sold for $4.50 a keg at the brewery, and cost $5 if delivered. It was quickly in wide demand. The Best sons worked with their father for a time, but Charles returned to the vinegar business in 1845. In 1850 Lorenz also left his father's company, and with his brother Charles and another partner, G. Fine, he established a brewery that was the forerunner of Miller. When Jacob Best, Sr., retired in 1853 at the age of sixty-six, Jacob, Jr., and Phillip took complete charge of Best and Company , as the firm had been called since 1850. At that time, the brewery was selling twenty-five hundred barrels annually and was ranked fourth among Milwaukee's breweries. Very early the Bests sought to expand their marketing beyond Milwaukee. In 1852 they began shipping to Chicago, and soon established an office in the heart of that city. After an argument about expansion procedures, Jacob, Jr., and Phillip dissolved their partnership in 1859. Phillip took control of the brewery, but the business soon began to decline. By 1863 the brewery was producing little more than half its output of 1860. Because Phillip's health was failing he decided to turn the business over to someone else, but none of his immediate Pabst 1~3 [44.192.16.116] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 14:28 GMT) 1~4 Part Three: In the Time of Giants FREDERICK PABST WAS A LAKE MICHIGAN STEAMSHIP CAPTAIN BEFORE MARRYING A BREWER'S DAUGHTER. family seemed able or interested. There was a serious question of whether the brewery would stay in business-until Phillip's daughter, Maria, married Frederick Pabst. Captain Pabst Pabst had come to America in 1848 when he was twelve years old. His family first settled in Milwaukee but soon moved to Chicago, where his mother died in 1849. Young Pabst worked as a waiter in a Chicago restaurant before becoming a cabin boy for the Goodrich Line, a steamship company that operated on Lake Michigan. He sailed the lake for eight years, studying navigation in his spare time, and by 1857 had become captain of the Huron, a Goodrich steamer. Maria Best met the flashy Captain Pabst while a passenger on the Huron. A romance quickly followed and they married in 1862. Although Captain Pabst did not have a brewing background, he soon decided to join his father-in-law in the brewery business. His decision was hastened in December 1863 when a violent storm beached the Huron...