Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: When did Pearl Brewing Company close?
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]
During these name changes, the brewery found the product that would become their signature brew. Pearl beer was formulated and first brewed in Bremen, Germany, by the Kaiser–Beck Brewery, which produces Beck's beer. Pearl beer's name came from Kaiser–Beck's brewmaster, who thought the foamy bubbles in a freshly poured glass of the brew resembled sparkling pearls.[6] In Germany, the brew was called "Perle". When brought to the United States, the spelling was changed to English: Pearl. In 1886, the first bottles and wooden kegs of American Pearl beer rolled off the line and into local tap rooms.[3]
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 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.
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]
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).
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]
In 1969, Pearl was acquired by Southdown, a conglomerate that started out in the sugar industry.[25] In 1977, Pearl was sold to General Brewing of San Francisco, owned by Paul Kalmanovitz.[26] Kalmanovitz specialized in leveraged buy-outs,[27] which take over businesses to sell off their parts for profit, closing plants and laying off employees. After a takeover in St. Louis, brewery employees there flew the American flag at half-staff and upside down.[28] Kalmanovitz acquired the Pabst breweries, going back to 1844, in 1985 and united his holdings under the name Pabst Brewing Company.
Through the 1940s, operations at Pearl continued at a steady pace. Pearl was well established as the largest brewer in Texas, even though Lone Star beers had adopted the slogan proclaiming Lone Star the national beer of Texas.[15] Pearl, as a company, did its part in the war effort, reducing can production to save on metals and producing generic beer for the troops abroad. At the end of the war, Pearl reestablished its aggressive growth drive and shifted marketing to focus on the emerging power buyer, the postwar housewife.[16]
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.
The triple-X logo has long been associated with Pearl. In fact, it was used at the brewery even before Pearl beer became synonymous with the company. When the San Antonio Brewing Association bought the City Brewery and opened it for business in the 1880s, they used the triple Xs in the brewery's logo. Three large Xs were enclosed in a circle, with the words “City Brewery” on both sides or around the outside of the circle. This was the brewery's first logo under the San Antonio Brewing Association, thus it appeared on all of their advertising and the majority of their bottled and kegged beers.
As the Great Depression ended in the United States, world affairs worsened and spun the globe toward World War II. After almost 26 years at the helm of the San Antonio Brewing Association, Emma Koehler decided it was time to relinquish the official title. Her “retirement” closed an amazing chapter in the brewery's history. While it may not seem much these days, Emma's successful management role at Pearl was a breakthrough for its day. At a time when women's suffrage was still in its infancy and women did not yet have the right to vote, Emma Koehler led Texas’ largest brewery and one of the larger breweries in the nation.
The Texas Transportation Company was an electrified, Class III, short-line railroad in San Antonio, Texas, that operated from 1897 until 2001. It served the Pearl Brewery and several other businesses, moving carloads between those businesses and the Southern Pacific yard. Service ended on June 30, 2000, shortly before the Pabst Brewing Company closed the Pearl Brewery, in early 2001.
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]
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]
When the ban on beer ended in 1933, the brewery quickly began the production of Pearl and Texas Pride beer once again. Along with their return, the triple Xs returned, as well. The Xs were absent from advertising and the company logo for 15 years after Prohibition, but they held a prominent status on every single bottle. In the late 1940s, the brewery launched an advertising campaign stating the brewery's beers were the “Three xXx of Texas.” The triple Xs took a renewed and increased role at the brewery, but their growth in prominence did not end there.
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.
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.
In 1952, when the San Antonio Brewing Association changed its name to the Pearl Brewing Company, the triple Xs joined the Pearl name as a dominant image on the product and the company as a whole. The triple Xs were back on the company logo and were used on almost all of Pearl's advertisements. The Xs held this significant role to the end of production at the brewery in 2001, when the brewery closed its doors and the company logo was abandoned. As production of Pearl and Pearl Light spun up at Miller's Fort Worth facility, the product logos were redesigned. The updated label does not use the triple Xs, so a significant part of company identity has been virtually eliminated from the Pearl beers. However, Pearl's Country Club malt liquor still displays the XXXs in its logo.
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.
Port City Brewing Company is a craft brewery in Alexandria, VA. It is the first production brewery to operate in Alexandria since Prohibition, when the Robert Portner Brewing Company closed its doors. Port City was named the 2015 Small Brewing Company of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival.
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]
After 118 years of brewing along the San Antonio River, the doors to the Pearl Brewery closed.[30]
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.
Restoration continues on the brew house, the centerpiece of the complex. Silver Ventures recently wrapped up 18 months of restoration on the building's exterior. Today, the outside looks much like it did in 1894, especially with the return of the San Antonio Brewing Association company name back to the building plaque. The golden cupolas and white wash are gone from the building, instead the rooftops are charcoal, their original color, and the walls have been stripped down to show their natural stone.[45] The brew house project is far from complete, though, with work remaining on the middle and rear of the building, as well as the entire interior.