Falstaff Brewing Corporation

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Falstaff Brewing Corporation
Type
Founded 1917 (incorporated 1920), closed in 1975
Headquarters St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Key people John Adam Lemp, founder; William J. Lemp, Griesedieck Brothers
Industry Beverages
Products Beers, lagers, malt beverages

The Falstaff Brewing Corporation was a major American brewery located in St. Louis, Missouri. With roots in the 1838 Lemp Brewery of St. Louis, the company was renamed after the Shakespearean character of Sir John Falstaff in 1903. Production peaked in 1965 with 7,010,218 barrels brewed, and then dropped 70 percent between 1965 and 1975.[1] While its smaller labels linger on today, its main label Falstaff Beer stopped being produced in 2005.[2]

Contents

[edit] History

Falstaff Brewing's earliest form was as the Lemp Brewery belonging to German immigrant Adam Lemp in St. Louis in the 1838. Over the next 80 years the Lemp family was devastated by personal tragedies as they built their beer empire over the caves of St. Louis. They adopted their famous "Blue Ribbon" moniker quickly, as a 1898 trial proved when they took the Storz Brewing Company in Omaha, Nebraska to court for tying blue ribbons on their bottles and won.[3] The Lemp Brewery company closed in 1921, and its products were bought and the company rebranded after its successful Falstaff Beer. Starting in 1922 the Falstaff Corporation was owned by the Griesediecks Brothers, and in 1933 they merged it with their Forest Park Brewing Company, surviving Prohibition by selling near beer, soft drinks, and cured hams under the Falstaff name.[4][5] Falstaff Brewing was a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, which was rare for a brewing industry in which families closely guarded their ownership.[6]

When Prohibition was repealed in 1933 the company expanded greatly. Its first acquisition was the 1936 purchase of the Krug Brewery in Omaha, which made Falstaff the first brewery to operate plants in two different states.[7] Other facilities bought in this period included the National Brewery of New Orleans, Louisiana in 1937, the Berghoff Brewing Company of Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1954, the Galveston-Houston Brewing Company of Galveston, Texas in 1956, and the Mitchell Brewing Company of El Paso, Texas in 1956.[8] On New Years Day in 1953 renowned country musician Hank Williams was drinking Falstaff on the night of his death.[9]

Falstaff was the third largest brewer in America by the 1960s, with several plants across the country. The 1965 acquisition of another company, the Narragansett Brewing Company of Rhode Island, proved disastrous, with the state government of Rhode Island pursuing an antitrust case against them. The Supreme Court found in Falstaff's favor in 1973, but the company never recovered.

Fortunes declined throughout the 1970s as consolidation swept the beer industry, and in 1977 the company was bought by the S&P Company, which was same company that controlled General Brewing, Pabst Brewing Company, Pearl Brewing Company, Olympia Brewing and Stroh's. [10] That year the company ranked 11th in sales nationally,[11] and the original St. Louis plant was closed. Following closures included New Orleans in 1979; Cranston and Galveston in 1981, and; Omaha in 1987.[12] After the closing of the last Falstaff brewery in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1990, the brand name became a licensed property of Pabst Brewing Company, who continued to produce Falstaff Beer through other breweries.

Having sold only 1468 barrels of the brand during 2004, Pabst discontinued production of the Falstaff label in May 2005.[13][14]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Yenne, B. (2004) Great American Beers: Twelve Brands That Became Icons. Motorbooks International. p 41.
  2. ^ "Falstaff Brewing Corporation", Retrieved 4/1/08.
  3. ^ Yenne, B. (2004) p 106.
  4. ^ Tremblay, V.J. (2005) The U.S. Brewing Industry: Data and Economic Analysis. MIT Press. p. 96.
  5. ^ Mittleman, A. Brewing Battles: History of American Beer. Algora Publishing. p 110.
  6. ^ Mittleman, A. Brewing Battles: History of American Beer. Algora Publishing. p 110.
  7. ^ "Falstaff Brewing Corporation", Retrieved 4/1/08.
  8. ^ Tremblay, V.J. (2005) The U.S. Brewing Industry: Data and Economic Analysis. MIT Press. p. 96.
  9. ^ "The night Hank Williams Died", Retrieved 4/1/08.
  10. ^ Tremblay, V.J. (2005) The U.S. Brewing Industry: Data and Economic Analysis. MIT Press. p. 96.
  11. ^ Mittleman, A. Brewing Battles: History of American Beer. Algora Publishing. p 110.
  12. ^ Yenne, B. (2004) p 45.
  13. ^ Falstaff Brewing fansite Retrieved 4/1/08.
  14. ^ "History of brewing in St. Louis", Schafly Beer. Retrieved 4/1/08.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Historic Breweries in Omaha, Nebraska
Falstaff Brewing Corporation • Krug Brewery • Metz Brewery • Storz Brewery • Willow Springs Distilling Company