Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: Who founded the Pearl Brewing Company?
The site owned and operated by the Pearl Brewing Company was originally known as both the J. B. Behloradsky Brewery (1881–1883) and the City Brewery.[3] Privately held and poorly run for two years, the City Brewery was purchased by an investment group in 1883. The investment group was composed of local businessmen and several moguls already involved in brewing at San Antonio's other major brewery, the Lone Star Brewing Company. Together they formed the San Antonio Brewing Company (1883–1888), and began to raise capital to fully restart and improve operations at the brewery.[4] In 1886, after three years, the company had secured the necessary capital and began full-time operations at the brewery again. The name San Antonio Brewing Association was used as a parent to the brewing company, since it also managed some of the founding members' other business interests. Functionally, the business structure worked, but it caused confusion with city officials, customers, and business partners; therefore, in the end, the investment group dissolved the San Antonio Brewing Company and used the San Antonio Brewing Association (1888–1918) name for all operations and business transactions. Thus, in seven years, the same brewery had three different names.[5] In addition, the name City Brewery was frequently used. The first logos used for the San Antonio Brewing Company/Association even featured the name City Brewery in the logo. City Brewery was carried over from the Behloradsky days and was used until the beginning of Prohibition in 1918.[5]
The Pearl Brewing Company (also known as the Pearl Brewery or just Pearl) was an American brewery, established in 1883 in Downtown San Antonio, Texas, USA. In 1985, Pearl's parent company purchased the Pabst Brewing Company and assumed the Pabst name. In 1999, the Pabst Brewing Company began transferring its production to Miller Brewing, on a contract basis, and closing all of its breweries. Pearl beer is still in production at Miller's Ft. Worth, Texas facility, but the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio was closed in 2001.[1] Since then, the former brewery was purchased by Silver Ventures, Inc., which has made the property the crown jewel in revitalization efforts of southern Midtown and northern Downtown San Antonio.[2]
Pearl, Pearl Light, and Country Club are still available to this day, but only in small volumes and in select markets such as Texas and Oklahoma. Today's distribution is greatly reduced from the 47-state coverage Pearl's beers once enjoyed. In addition, the variety in which Pearl's beers were available has also decreased. Although previously produced and sold in every form, such as bottles, cans, and kegs, the current iteration of Pearl is only available in 12-packs of 12-oz. cans. Likewise Country Club has been reduced to only 40-oz. bottles.[32] Many who have tasted Pearl before and after the Pabst merger claim the formula has changed; customers say today's Pearl tastes like a weaker version of Budweiser. Officially, though, Pabst claims the formula used for today's Pearl is the same that was originally bought by the San Antonio Brewing Association back in 1886.[33]
Detroit-based Stroh Brewery Co. then bought Heileman and closed the San Antonio brewery in 1996 moving beer production to Longview, Texas and signaling the end of San Antonio as a major brewing town. Milwaukee-based Pabst bought most of the Stroh brands, including Lone Star, in 1999, and began brewing Lone Star at the San Antonio Pearl Brewery to great fanfare. In 2000, the Pearl Brewery was closed because it was outdated and would have been too expensive to continue to operate or to bring up to date. Production of Lone Star is currently contracted out to non-Pabst owned breweries (e.g. Miller Brewing Company in Fort Worth).
Prior to Prohibition, Texas was a hot spot for beer production. With a strong German and European influence, small and regional breweries were found throughout the state. San Antonio enjoyed the distinction of having two of Texas’ largest breweries: Lone Star Brewery and the San Antonio Brewing Association. Prohibition, though, changed the face of brewing and forced almost every brewery out of business. When the Volstead Act and Prohibition went into effect on January 16, 1920, Lone Star Brewing Company ended sales, shut the brewery doors, and dissolved the company.
The triple Xs were adopted by the San Antonio Brewing Association to portray two things: the high quality of their beers, and the pride that workers put into their products. The triple Xs may be gone from company and Pearl beer logos, but it has not completely vanished. In the 1960s, Pearl absorbed the Goetz Brewing Company and made Country Club Malt Liquor one of Pearl's key products. When Country Club received its only product makeover a few years after the buyout, it gained the triple Xs in its logo. The Xs were situated in the top-center of the logo's crown. Country Club is still produced today, and it still carries the “xXx” mark of Pearl.
Today, the Pabst Brewing Company is a marketing company; Pabst no longer owns or operates any of their former breweries. Pabst contracts out the brewing of all of their beers to other brewers. By far, Pabst's largest agreement is with Miller Brewing Company, which produces Pabst's major brands, as well as Pearl and Lone Star.[31] Although Pabst's more popular beers such as Colt 45, Stroh's, and Pabst Blue Ribbon are produced at virtually every Miller facility, Pearl is only brewed at the Ft. Worth location.[31]
Although narrowly defeated in the vote to be acquired by Pabst, McGimsey and fellow members of Pearl's board still pushed for change in the company. The predominant theme throughout was growth. The acquisition of Pearl by a larger company was no longer considered, but then how could the company really grow and hope to compete with industry leaders such as Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Pabst? Pearl considered expanding the San Antonio brewery to increase production, but after researching the idea, Pearl realized expanding the brewery could only gain them a nominal production increase and ultimately would not be worth the overall investment.
Production and market-wise, the 1950s were similar to the late 1940s. In the early '50s, the San Antonio Brewing Association felt they needed to increase the association of their number one product, Pearl lager beer, with the company itself.[16] In marketing research, the association found that most consumers believed the San Antonio Brewing Association encompassed more than a single brewery; in fact, the public thought San Antonio Brewing Association referred to all brewing in San Antonio in general. Therefore, in 1952 the San Antonio Brewing Association changed its name to the Pearl Brewing Company (1952–present).[17]
Pearl's three brews receive little or no marketing dollars, thus lack advertising campaigns. However, Pabst did launch an independent Pearl website which featured several pictures, history, and a state distributor locator.[32] This website has been canned since ca. 2016.
In 1961, the Pearl Brewing Company officially purchased the M. K. Goetz Brewing Company.[18] Overall, the merger of the two companies was a success. Beers from both companies began to be produced at the two facilities. Goetz brewed all of the Pearl beers for easier distribution in the north, and Pearl produced Goetz's Country Club malt liquor. Country Club proved very successful for Pearl, and in fact is the only Goetz beer still in production by Pabst today under the Pearl Brewing Company name. The merger was not without its problems, but overall the transition occurred smoothly. Pearl took over as the corporate headquarters and some duplicate jobs were eliminated. The production side of Goetz remained intact, with Pearl treating Goetz employees just as they did the employees in San Antonio, like family.[19]
Pearl was successful, not only in Texas, but on a national level, as well. Larger companies saw this success and made many attempts to buy out Pearl and their beers. Almost all offers were never even considered. In what would turn out later to be ironic, one company came very close to buying out the Pearl Brewing Company in the 1950s: Pabst Brewing Company. B.B. McGimsey, who was Pearl's plant manager, shareholder, and the face of Pearl at most events, began gaining support to sell the brewery off.[16] McGimsey was a charismatic leader whom most of the employees liked and respected. McGimsey's influence also reached other board members, and when the offer came from Pabst, it was not as easily dismissed. Details of the offer have long been lost, but one can surmise it was a good deal given the consideration given to it by Pearl. McGimsey believed that Pearl's stance as an independent Texas brewer would never allow them to truly compete on a national level with brewers from St. Louis and Milwaukee. Ultimately, the sale to Pabst was defeated by Otto A. and the other shareholders, but only by the slimmest of margins.[16] Pearl maintained its independence, for now.
Billy Beer was a beer first made in the United States in July 1977, by the Falls City Brewing Company. It was promoted by Billy Carter, whose older brother Jimmy was the incumbent President of the United States. In October 1978, Falls City announced that it was closing its doors after less than a year of Carter's promotion. The beer was produced by Cold Spring Brewing, West End Brewing, and Pearl Brewing Company.
For over two decades Buck Winn's work was the centerpiece in the Pearl's Corral Room. While the painting was there, it was oblivious of the changes occurring around it. By the 1970s the company running the brewery was very different from the one that had built the Corral Room back in the 1950s. The San Antonio Brewing Association had changed its name to the Pearl Brewing Company in 1952. By the 1970s the Pearl Brewing Company name had remained, but Southdown Corporation out of Houston, Texas, was now in charge of Pearl. Southdown's ideas for the brewery were drastically different from when Pearl was an independent company, and these new ideas spilled over to the Corral. After 20 years of use, the Corral as a whole was less than pristine. Southdown decided to remodel the Corral to bring it up to the current building codes and give it new look. Unfortunately, America's fascination with the old West was long over, so Southdown decided to renovate the Corral Room into the Lillie Langtry Room and renamed the Pearl Corral to the Jersey Lilly.
After 118 years of brewing along the San Antonio River, the doors to the Pearl Brewery closed.[30]
Rather than building a second brewery and potentially putting the company at risk, Pearl decided to purchase an existing brewery to increase production and the distribution network. Overall, buying out another brewery meant a larger initial investment, but the new brewery would be able to put out Pearl beer almost immediately and therefore help recoup costs more quickly. From a short list of potentials, the M. K. Goetz Brewing Company in St. Joseph, Missouri, seemed the perfect fit for Pearl's plans. Goetz's historic brewery would allow increased production levels and the ability to use the well-established distribution network to help Pearl reach untapped markets. In addition, Pearl gained access to the Goetz line of beers, from pilsners to malt liquors.
In 1999 the old G. Heileman Brewing Company's former brewery buildings in La Crosse were bought by a group of investors who founded the City Brewing Company.
Judson was part of the company, but in many ways it was still very independent. Financial backing came down from Pearl, but Judson still made decisions on their own, setting their own strategic goals independently of Pearl. Whatever the decisions were at Judson, they obviously worked. From the day Pearl acquired them, until they were sold off to members of the Atkinson's Candy family in 1983, Judson remained a profitable business. When the Atkinsons bought Judson, the only real evidence of ownership by a larger company, and one in a completely different industry, was the office furniture and supplies. Everything in the Judson offices were labeled with "Property of the Pearl Brewing Company" and items such as pencils, pens, ashtrays, notepads, and even first aid kits were branded with the Pearl logos.[21]
In 1977, Falls City representatives approached Billy Carter, brother of President Jimmy Carter, about marketing a signature brand to capitalize on Billy's fame as the beer-drinking black sheep of the Carter family. Falls City brewed several test batches in hopes that one would meet Carter's approval and could be marketed as Billy Beer. Carter, who had long been a Pabst Blue Ribbon drinker, chose one of the Falls City formulas and the brewery quickly developed a marketing campaign for Billy Beer. Realizing that a regional brewery could not fulfill national demand for the product, Falls City licensed several other independent regional breweries to brew and package Billy Beer. Those breweries were Cold Spring Brewing Company of Cold Spring, Minnesota; Pearl Brewing Company of San Antonio, Texas; and West End Brewing Company in Utica, New York. Billy Beer became a briefly-popular fad due to the company's expensive, large-scale marketing campaigns and promotion by Carter, however the cheaply made beer quickly fell out of favor, and in 1978 it was discontinued.
The community was named after the Pearl Brewing Company's Pearl beer.
The Texas Transportation Company (TXTC) was a class III short-line railroad in San Antonio that serviced the Pearl Brewery. The company operated electric locomotives on their 1.3-mile (2.1km) line for more than 113 years.[49] TXTC was started as a private company in 1887 until it was chartered on September 24, 1897.[50] In the early days when the Lone Star Brewing Company was located on W. Jones Avenue, TXTC serviced both breweries. Service ended for the line when the Pearl Brewery closed in 2001.[49]
In 1935, Jackson Brewing Company entered a legal dispute with Jacksonville Brewing Company over the "Jax Beer" trademark, used by both companies. This resulted in a compromise in which Jacksonville Brewing Company got exclusive rights to sell in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, while Jackson Brewing got states to the west. Jackson Brewing expanded in the 1940s, as demand increased. In the 1950s, the company suffered competition from the growing national breweries. In 1954, it bought exclusive rights to the Jax trademark from the Jacksonville company, which ended brewing operations. This move made Jackson Brewing the 10th largest brewery in the U.S., and the largest in the South. However, Jackson Brewing entered financial straits and was acquired by Pearl Brewing Company in 1974. Pearl continued producing Jax Beer until 1984, when it was acquired by Pabst Brewing Company and took on Pabst branding.
With the end of Prohibition, so too came the end of the Alamo Foods Company. The company went back to their prior name: San Antonio Brewing Association (1933–1952). Most believed beer production would quickly return to the levels before the 1920 ban. However, Pearl's hard times were not over yet. In 1933, the nation was still deep in the grips of the Great Depression. Although most of the public would have loved to enjoy a Pearl, the financial situation of most made buying beer an unaffordable luxury. Through her skillful management, Emma Koehler kept the brewery afloat through the Depression, selling beer to those who could afford it and continuing many of the business ventures that had carried the brewery through Prohibition.
The Pabst Brewing Company () is an American company that dates its origins to a brewing company founded in 1844 by Jacob Best and was, by 1889, named after Frederick Pabst. It is currently a holding company which contracts the brewing of over two dozen brands of beer and malt liquor: these include its own flagship Pabst Blue Ribbon, as well as brands from now defunct breweries including P. Ballantine and Sons Brewing Company, G. Heileman Brewing Company, Lone Star Brewing Company, Pearl Brewing Company, Piels Bros., Valentin Blatz Brewing Company, National Brewing Company, Olympia Brewing Company, Falstaff Brewing Corporation, Primo Brewing & Malting Company, Rainier Brewing Company, F & M Schaefer Brewing Company, Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company, Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company and Stroh Brewery Company.
It is not uncommon to see beers named after the towns where they were brewed. For example, Texas' own Shiner is brewed in Shiner, Texas.[53] So, seeing a local brewery name a beer after the town or city is pretty common. However, what is not common is a town named after a beer. That is exactly what happened, though, in Texas with Pearl. In a small community just west of Yoakum, Texas, a small store had the highest Pearl beer single-point sales for a number of years prior to Prohibition.[54] Walter G. Hagens' general store was the focal point of the community, and it had sold Pearl's beers by the truckload and still sold a rather large volume of the Prohibition-era nonalcohol Pearl. The idea to name the town after Pearl was concocted by Hagens and the local Pearl distributor, R. J. Eslinger.[55] In 1942, the motion passed and the German/Czech town became known as Pearl City.[56]