All About Beer Magazine - Volume 27, Issue 2
May 1, 2006 By

The US beer industry was on the verge of great change in 1879, about to undergo a massive ramping-up, due in part to the rise of industrial mechanization and the advent of the railroad. The following list indicates which breweries were selling the most beer that year. Of special note is the No. 12 showing of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, which sold approximately 2.5 million gallons in 1879. Within 10 year’s time, A-B would introduce its flagship beer, Budweiser, and reshape America’s beer landscape. (Breweries shown in bold are still operational today.)

George Ehret (New York)…180,152 barrels sold

Philip Best, later known as Pabst (Milwaukee)…167,974

Bergner & Engel (Philadelphia)…124,860

Joseph Schlitz (Milwaukee)…110,832

Conrad Seipp (Chicago)…108,347

P. Ballantine & Sons (Newark)…106,091

Jacob Ruppert (New York)…105,713

Christian Morlein (Cincinatti)…93,337

H. Clausen & Son (New York)…89,992

William J. Lemp (St. Louis)…88,714

Flanagan & Wallace (New York)…84,825

Anheuser-Busch (St. Lous)…83,160

Peter Doelger (New York)…80,000

Beadleston & Woerz (New York)…78,093

Boston Beer Co. (Boston)…77,232

Albany Brewing Co. (Albany)…71,568

Clausen & Price (New York)…69,271

Downer & Bemis (Chicago)…66,878

George Ringler (New York)…65,658

Windisch-Mulhauser (Cincinatti)…62,157

And if you don’t think the rise of Bohemian lager forever changed the shape of the American brewing industry, consider the following facts and figures:

In 1879, approximately 2,520 breweries were operating in the United States. The total beer production of those breweries equaled 10,848,194 barrels (for the revenue year ending May 1, 1879). These days, Anheuser-Busch alone makes more than eight-times that total amount.

In 1879, George Ehret’s Hell Gate Brewery was the country’s largest single producer of beer, making about 1.5 percent of America’s beer. Today, the largest single brewer (again, Anheuser-Busch) produces more than 40 percent of the nation’s beer.

Source: Salem, F.W., Beer, its History and its Economic Value as a National Beverage, Hartford: F.W. Salem & Co., 1880.