Is Stegmaier Porter Avaliable Anywhere

Check here: https://www.lionbrewery.com/

As you said, Lion Brewery bought the name, but it looks like they're still brewing it.

 

The Lion has a website with a "Beer Finder" but they no long list Steg Porter under "Products" but it is shown under "Stegmaier". Who knows - I haven't seen it in many years. It's come and gone a few times over decades - but they changed the recipe at some point to make it more "authentic" and ruined that great licorice taste (1970s promo material from The Lion mentioned they used brewer's licorice in the beer).

Well, almost all beer also came in those returnable cases of refillable bottles but it was weird how The Lion stuck with them for the Porter while they went to T/A stubbies for most everything else in their portfolio for their out of state markets.

(Altho' I've seen small labels for it which suggests maybe they did?) Yeah, lots of stores used to sell the Porter as singles. Speaking of labels, without that horse label, it just wouldn't be same even with the licorice...

 

I had gotten a case from Breskis in Harrisburg probably 3-4 years ago, so I am thinking it's still being made. Such a good beer for like $6-7/6 pack.

 

Lion mentioned on a Dec FB post that they've not brewed the porter in a few years so I think you are out of luck OP, unfortunately.

 

The "Esslinger" label had a strange chronology. In 1964, NYC's Jacob Ruppert Brewing Co. (~1.5M bbl. brewery - #20 in the US at the time) bought the company, closed the brewery (they claimed it was because the PA state law that required brewing licenses to be held only by PA residents - but that was a popular excuse back then) and began making Esslinger, along with their other brands Phila. brands, Gretz and Keglet, at their NYC brewery, noting that they'd have much more capacity at their new brewery, planned to be in upstate NY or Connecticut.

For some odd reason, Ruppert "fires" Esslinger's famous "Little Man" (I mean, he even had Esslinger's ale named after him!) and replaces him with a... pirate? (Maybe the NYC'ers got Philadelphia mixed up with that other "P" city in PA? A comment on the buying of brands of closing breweries hoping to gain local market share?).

That new brewery never came about and a couple of years later, Ruppert sold all their brands to Rheingold. A decade or so later, Rheingold closes and sells their brands to C. Schmidt's and Sons of Philadelphia in the late 1970s. Perfect - a homecoming for the Esslinger brand!

Nope. Schmidt's by then had a dozen or so labels, so they sold off a few of Rheingold's - that's how Ortlieb got McSorley's - and the former Phila. brand, Esslinger? They sold that to The Lion up in Wilkes-Barre which, using their "Pocono" 'dba' name, continued with the !@#$ Pirate...

 

In 1964 about how many breweries were left in and around NYC?.

 

Well, early '60s - besides Ruppert - Liebmann/Rheingold in Orange, NJ, the Bronx (formerly Eichler) and Brooklyn, Piels in Brooklyn and Staten Island (ex-R&H), Schaefer in Brooklyn and P. Ballantine & Sons in Newark. Krueger in Newark closed in 1961.

Plus branch breweries of Anheuser-Busch and Pabst (Newark) and Schlitz in Brooklyn. Think that'd be it - have to check on dates of closing for some of 'em.