Brewing and Distilling

Brewing and Distilling. Adrian Block and Hans Christensen established the first brewery in British North America in 1612 in New Amsterdam (now New York City). Others soon followed, although many taverns brewed their own beer, making it difficult for commercial breweries to succeed. In 1793, Philadelphia was the brewing center of the colonies. By 1810, 132 U.S. breweries produced 185,000 barrels (31 gallons each) of beer.

Rum, distilled from molasses produced by slaves on West Indian sugar plantations, figured prominently in the economy of England's mainland colonies. In the early nineteenth century, settlers moving into Kentucky and Tennessee began making whiskey, which became beer's major competitor. Whiskey, distilled from wheat, rye, and corn, soon became a lucrative alternative to selling grain. Noted early distillers included Dr. James C. Crow, Jasper Newton, “Jack” Daniel, and James Beam. Bourbon, acorn‐based whiskey, was first distilled in Bourbon County, Kentucky.

The brewing industry, meanwhile, moving west with the settlers, responded to the influx of European immigrants, especially Germans. Jacob Best, a German immigrant, established the Best Brewery in Milwaukee in 1844, four years before Wisconsin became a state. Renamed Pabst Brewery, it was the country's leading brewer by 1874. A second Milwaukee brewery, started by John Braun in 1846, became the Blatz Brewery when Valentine Blatz, a former employee, married Braun's widow shortly after his death. August Krug started a brewery in Milwaukee in 1849, which later became the Schlitz Brewery. A St. Louis brewery launched by George Schneider in 1850 became the Anheuser‐Busch Brewery when Eberhard Anheuser bought the company and four years later was joined by Adolphus Busch. In 1855, the German‐born Frederick E. Miller of Milwaukee purchased a local brewery and renamed it the Miller Brewing Company. By 1860, the nation's 1,269 breweries produced more than one million barrels of beer, 85 percent of it still brewed in New York and Pennsylvania. In 1873, 4,131 U.S. breweries (an all‐time high) produced nine million barrels of beer. The years 1880 to 1910 saw a decline in brewery numbers as improvements in production and distribution enabled fewer plants to produce more beer. The number of breweries fell to 1,500 by 1910.

Americans' taste in distilled spirits, meanwhile, had expanded to include mixed drinks or cocktails (an American slang coinage) utilizing imported Scotch and Irish whiskey; gin, a grain‐based, juniper‐flavored liquor invented by the Dutch; and vodka, a flavorless but potent drink made from rye and barley malt or sometimes potatoes, that originated in Russia, Scandinavia, and eastern Europe. The bourbon‐based mint julep enjoyed particular popularity in the South.

The Eighteenth Amendment (1919) forced all breweries and distilleries to stop making beer and spirits. Some breweries continued by producing candy, soft drinks, and near‐beer (no more than 0.5 percent alcohol). Prohibition ended in 1933, but by 1934 only 756 breweries were back in operation. The number of U.S. breweries reached a low of 80 in 1983, but with interest in microbreweries and pub breweries (on‐site breweries) the total increased thereafter. By 1996, more than 1,500 breweries (many of them small, local enterprises) were operating in the United States. The leading national breweries at century's end were Anheuser‐Busch, Miller, Coors, and Stroh.

Consumption of distilled drinks declined in the late twentieth century owing to health and fitness concerns and the growing popularity of specialty beers and domestic and imported wines. From 1980 to 1995, U.S. production of distilled spirits fell from 236 to 104 million gallons, including a 20‐percent drop in whiskey production. Mixed drinks remained important in American drinking patterns, however, as evidenced by the more than $2 billion in distilled spirits imported in 1996.
See also Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse; Colonial Era; German Americans; Immigration; Mass Production; Temperance and Prohibition; Twenties, The; Working‐Class Life and Culture.

Bibliography

Stanley Wade Baron , Brewed in America: A History of Beer and Ale in the United States, 1972.
William L. Downard , Dictionary of the History of the American Brewing and Distilling Industries, 1980.
Jerry Apps , Breweries of Wisconsin, 1992.

Jerry Apps