Page 3 of 6
Pre-prohibition Brewery Structures
As breweries grew, space permitting, they became campuses of specialized buildings. Brewery campuses were dynamic. As new technologies arrived and money for investment became available, brewery buildings were demolished, replaced or altered. Many breweries that were established in the 1850s or earlier had no structures pre-dating the 1890s when national prohibition was enacted. This constant rebuilding and alteration is typical of industrial structures, in general, while they are in use. This is yet another reason why studying pre-prohibition breweries is interesting. The material evolution of the entire industry was stopped abruptly in 1919. There were no incremental changes to breweries or campuses after that point. Changes to brewery buildings after 1919 were due to radical changes in use.
The largest breweries were usually designed by specialist brewery architects. Some brewers designed smaller, but still quite large, breweries themselves and hired contractors to construct them. A number of books were published from the mid to late 1800s that discussed, in depth, the construction of breweries. The main material used to construct industrial breweries was brick. The style of ornamentation varied. In the Midwest and among German lager brewers, Romanesque was the most popular architectural style. Corbeled brickwork, arched windows and castellated parapet walls were common. Ale breweries were more likely to be unadorned. Many brewery complexes contained buildings with different styles and amounts of ornamentation on buildings that had been constructed at different times.
The brew house was the central structure of the brewery campus. It was where the materials for making beer; barley, water, hops, and adjuncts like rice or corn, were mixed and cooked. Brew houses were often five or more stories tall but they did not have standard floor levels. Their solid walls enclosed large open spaces where different levels of tanks were encircled by catwalks, steps and galleries. Brew houses were typically the tallest and had the most ornamentation of the buildings in a brewery complex. The brew house often symbolized the business in advertising illustrations. They often, but not always, had central towers that contained water tanks for process water, hoppers for barley and lift equipment. Brew house towers were usually much bulkier than the towers of other industrial buildings of the period that held water for fire suppression. Brew houses had ample fenestration for natural lighting and large doors for loading materials.
Anheuser-Busch Brewery brew house, St. Louis Missouri
The Anheuser-Busch brew house was designed by a specialist brewery architecture firm, E. Jungenfeld & Co in 1891. Anheuser-Busch is one of the few pre-prohibition breweries that never stopped producing beer. During prohibition Anheuser-Busch made non-alcoholic beer. Since 1933 the company has greatly expanded operations at its original location while preserving many of the campus' historic structures. The 1890s brew house is no longer the main production facility but it is still the architectural centerpiece of the campus.
Many Victorian industrial buildings were arranged around long horizontal shafts that distributed mechanical power from a central steam engine or water wheel. Late Victorian brew houses were arranged around a vertical axis. They were arranged such that a central steam engine could power the grain lift, and the main fluid pumps which were located next to each other. After being lifted to the top of the brew house, the process materials moved down, assisted by gravity as they were formed into beer. The tactic of centralizing power needs and utilizing gravity to move material was refined into the gravity or tower brewery design which became popular towards the end of the 1800s. Tower breweries have stepped massing that reflects the brewing material's journey through the plant as it cascades down from level to level.
The First National Brewing Company brewery in Mckees Rocks Pennsylvania
The First National brewery is typical of the late 1800s early 1900s tower brewery design. These buildings were constructed to produce beer as efficiently as possible. They were centered around a vertical axis of mechanical power. The boiler would have been located near the base of the smoke stack. It drove a steam engine which drove pumps, lifts and other equipment via mechanical linkages like axles and belts. Raw materials were lifted or pumped to the highest part of the building. They then flowed or fell down through the production process. The First National plant was built in 1901. It would have been designed by a specialist brewery architect or engineer. Many of the production steps that were often housed in separate buildings were placed in this single structure. The First National Brewery was never included in a production survey but it would have produced tens of thousands of barrels per year. It was reopened by the Duquesne Brewing Company in 1933 and stopped being used to brew beer permanently in 1951. It is current partially occupied by a sign company.
Brew houses are challenging to repurpose. Removing the tanks and equipment leaves an empty shell with little usable floor space. In larger brewery reuse projects, the brew house, if it survives, continues to the centerpiece of the complex.
The Duquesne Brewing Company brew house, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
The Duquesne brewery was built in 1899 with an original capacity of 100,000 barrels per year according to contemporary trade journals. The plant was expanded several times before national prohibition. After 1933 the brewery was expanded again several times with the construction of new buildings. Duquesne Brewing Company closed permanently in 1972. The pre-prohibition portion of the brewery has been occupied by an artist group since the 1990s. Portions of the structure are used as gallery space, work space and performance space. Sections are currently being renovated and converted to residences.
Malted barley is the main ingredient in beer aside from water. Malting is the process of sprouting the grain and then stopping growth with heat. This process breaks down starches into simpler sugars which are converted into alcohol by yeast. The traditional way of producing malt was to spread barley over a hard surface and douse it with water. The wet grain would be raked occasionally for a few days. Once the grain started to sprout, it was moved to a malt kiln to be cooked and dried. In pre-industrial brewing, malt was cooked directly over a fire to stop germination. By the late 1800s, malt was germinated in sophisticated pneumatic malting systems and kilned with air heated by piped steam. A late 19th century, state-of-the-art, malt production facility required a significant investment in equipment and a specialized structure. Many brewers chose to purchase malted barley rather than make their own. In eastern cities, breweries with malting operations were uncommon. Many breweries in the Midwest did produce their own malt and so the campuses of those breweries included specialized malt houses. Malt houses were characteristically windowless multi-story structures. The temperature and humidity in a malt house had to be controlled so malt houses were constructed with insulating features such as thick walls with air spaces and they were air sealed with pitch. In most climates, malt houses would have required mechanical refrigeration and heating to maintain the required process temperatures.
The Hoster Brewery malt house in Columbus Ohio
The Hoster malt house is one of several buildings in the Hoster Brewery complex that are still standing. Hoster produced 185,000 barrels in 1898. The malt house is an unadorned traditional structure (large brick structure in the back) whereas the Hoster brew house is a more ornamented Romanesque building (not in photo). The malt kiln was housed in the closer portion of the building on the right. The building might have been designed for floor malting originally with pneumatic malting equipment installed later. The structure was not in use other than the restaurant in the foreground in 2018. There are plans to turn it into a hotel.
The Lemp Brewery malt house St. Louis Missouri
The Lemp brewery was the second biggest brewery in St. Louis after Anheuser-Busch in 1919. The Lemp Brewery complex spans several city blocks. It produced 325,000 barrels of beer in 1898. The main brew house is the building to the right and the malt house is on the left in the photo above. After national prohibition went into effect in 1920, the Lemp brewery was sold to the International Shoe Company which manufactured shoes in the buildings until 1980. Portions of the complex are now occupied by industrial, studio and storage use. There is an extensive network of lagering tunnels beneath the complex.
The Pabst Brewery malt house, Milwaukee Wisconsin
The Pabst brewery spanned several blocks and multiple structures in 1919. The brewery resumed producing beer in 1933 and continued to expand until the 1980s. Production ceased at the brewery in the 1990s. The malt house above was a state-of-the-art facility constructed in 1882. It was constructed with the same cream-colored brick as the rest of the brewery buildings. The entire brewery campus is now being adaptively reused as commercial, residential and office space. Only the exterior brick walls of the malt house remain in the photo above. The interior of the building has been completely removed. A new steel skeleton is being constructed inside of the brick exterior. When completed, the new building will contain 130 apartments and retain its historic veneer.
Next page: 4
All content on these pages Copyright Mark Hedlund 2012-2019. All rights reserved. Use in school projects and with links on social media is always okay. Please send me an email to request permission for any other use: hedlunch@yahoo.com Non-exclusive commercial publication rights for most photos is $25 per image.