Old Breweries Converted into New Craft Breweries

Thirsty Dog in Akron, Ohio is in the old Burkhardt Brewery. the name is even still on the building, chiseled in a stone plaque near the top.

 

Six Row in St. Louis is in what had been the office of an old Falstaff plant.

 

Just to name a few off the top of my head:

Apparently they're about to attempt it at the former Olympia brewery in Tumwater, WA.

And Ruckus is supposed to built a brewery inside the old Neuweiler brewery in Allentown, PA.

Philadelphia Brewing Co. is in part of the old Weisbrod & Hess facility.

Penn in Pittsburgh is in part of the Eberhardt and Ober brewery.

There was some talk about building a small brewery inside one of St. Paul's old breweries (Schmidt, I guess - might have been the old Hamm plant).

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Rhinegeist Brewing in Cincinnati is located in the former Christian Moerlein brewery bottling room.

 

Flat Earth Brewing renovated & moved into part of the old giant Hamm's Brewery in St Paul MN

 

I believe that CCB took over a large brewery in Puerto Rico. That's how we get hopped on the high seas! Beer is brewed in PR, then dry hopped while its on the ship to Tampa...

 

Machine House is located in part of the former Olympia brewery.

 

not quite the same but i live in a loft that was converted from the old Best Brewery in Chicago. its pretty fitting for me!

 

Petosky brewing is in the original Petosky brewing building.
http://petoskeybrewing.com/about/

 

This naturally begs the question of what makes a craft brewery a craft brewery. Is it the assets (i.e. the physical components of the plant or factory) or is it the production techniques and ingredient selection and formulation?

Tangibles vs. Intangibles, so to speak.

 

since it seems recently by definition Yuengling can join the party, they've had the old Stroh's plant in Tampa since the late 90s. (ok, not "new", but newly "craft" wrt brewers assoc.)

 

Isn't Summit taking over the old Schmidt's facility as well. Or...

Is it just my imagination
Runnin' away with me?​

 

Hmm, dunno bout the Summit move, I thought someone was putting apts in the Schmidt buildings..... BTW: Stones or Temptations quote?

 

The Stroh's brewery between Winston Salem and Lexington is now Foothills.

It wasn't old like those in the pics above. It was a college pilgrimage to a place that you never otherwise bought a beer from in the store except for perhaps a 1.29 Bull.

 

Is that a recent move? According to Schlitz (which built the facility in the late 1960s) and Stroh's records, their Winston-Salem brewery was on "Schlitz Avenue" - apparently what now is called Piedmont Industrial Drive, off of Rt. 52 at Exit 103. Foothills says their production brewery is in an "old manila envelope factory" on Kimwell Drive.

 

But most of the above mentioned breweries are essentially new facilities, that were simply built inside the shell of long closed, usually gutted breweries. They are, for the most part, not using any of the original brewing equipment - kettles, fermenters, aging tanks, bottling lines - the "assets i.e. the physical components of the plant or factory...".

Quite a bit different than other above-named companies that bought existing breweries and continue to operate them essentially "as is" - like Yuengling's Tampa brewery (ex-Schlitz/Stroh & Pabst) or Boston Beer Co's Cincinnati (ex-Schoenling) or Eastern PA (ex-Schaefer/Stroh/Pabst/Diageo) breweries.

But, yeah, many "craft beers" have been brewed in breweries owned and operated by companies not recognized by the Brewers Association as "craft brewers" - most notably Samuel Adams (Pittsburgh, Heileman, Stroh, City, Miller, Genesee) and Pete's (Schell, Minnesota, Stroh, Miller).

 

You are correct--pre coffee brain fart. The N.C. Stroh's was the "largest brewery built" when it opened in 1969--originally by Schlitz. It taken over by Stroh's sometime in the early 80s about the time I went to college and I lived about 25 miles away. It closed in late 90s. Several things have been in the "industrial park" and I am certain someone brewed there but obviously no craft brewer could use that enormous facility. I have been to the Foothills brewery in
Winston and it is obviously not that giant facility but someone used that place to get started--cannot get my arms around who it was. Meant to put all that in but trying to be concise.

Had Foothills on the brain--should not have posted that without verifying it was them.

Thanks for keeping beer history accurate.

 

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