The Lager Revolution

Beer consumption in America was declining in the early 19th century. However, when railroads and the Industrial Revolution swept through Europe and America, the production and consumption of beer was changed forever. There were improved methods for malting, roasting and milling grains, and steam power was used for mashing and boiling. Technology enabled brewers to brew beer on a larger scale and to more exact specifications. Railroads enabled brewers to transport large quantities of beer ingredients (as well as the finished product) from one location to another. However, the most important advancement of the time was refrigeration - beer could be kept fresher longer. Refrigeration in turn spurned yet another revolution that would forever alter the brewing landscape throughout the world - the lager revolution.

Lager was invented in Central Europe. Until the Industrial Revolution, lager - which when used as a verb literally means to cold-store beer - was difficult to produce given the limitations on the brewer's ability to ferment and store the beer at the appropriate temperatures. In fact, before refrigeration made lagering possible, lagering was initially done in cool caves. However, with the advent of industrial brewing techniques and refrigeration, brewers could now brew lagers year-round and in mass quantities. Not until 1840 was a lager brewed commercially by the Spaten Brewery in Munich. That same year, lager yeast made its way to Philadelphia and lager beer was introduced to the Americas. In 1842, a pilsner - a substyle of lager - was first brewed commercially under the name Pilsner Urquell in the Czech Republic.

During the 1820's and 1830's, it is estimated that 1 out of every 3 immigrants to America was of German descent and they brought with them their knowledge of lager brewing. Everywhere these German immigrants went, lager breweries popped up. The taste for this lighter brew spread like wildfire throughout America and quickly overtook the declining ale market. In the 1840's and 1850's the traditional brewing centers of the country - Philadelphia and New York - were being challenged by the German lager brewers in St. Louis, Milwaukee and San Francisco where some of America's great brewing names began operations. In St. Louis, Eberhard Anheuser went into business with his son-in-law, Adolphus Busch. Jacob Best's son Charles opened the Plank Road Brewery in Milwaukee which soon became Miller Brewing under Frederick Miller. Jacob's other son, Philip, had a daughter who married a steamship captain named Frederick Pabst. Valentin Blatz and Joseph Schlitz - industry leaders deep into the middle of the 20th century - also began brewing lagers in the 1840's that. All of these individuals, and hundreds of others like them, brewed lagers modeled after the German lagers and Czech pilsners.

As the American economy and population rapidly increased after the Civil War, so did the country's demand for beer. Between 1860 and 1873, the number of breweries in America more than tripled, but the number of barrels produced increased nine-fold. Although the brewing giants continued to grow, most breweries at this time, while larger than their predecessors, were still relatively small-scale operations - in 1873 the average brewery produced only 2,200 barrels annually. Eventually, many of the smaller breweries were put out of business, consolidated with or swallowed up by the larger breweries - an industry trend that would rear its head again after Prohibition. In Milwaukee, the great brewing dynasties (in order) were under Pabst, Schlitz, Miller and Blatz, and their beers bore their names. In St. Louis, Adolphus Busch dreamed of a truly national beer that appealed to all people and decided to brew his lager in the pilsner style. He found his recipe in the Czech town of Budweis and he named his beer Budweiser.

In addition to the megabreweries in Milwaukee and St. Louis which were slowly growing into national operations, large regional breweries still dominated their local markets. Bernard Stroh operated in Detroit, Jacob Schmidt and Theodore Hamm in Minnesota, Charles Hansen and John Weiland in San Francisco, Henry Weinhard in Portland and Adolph Coors in Colorado. While America's cities west of the Mississippi did not have the local population at this time to support their enterprises and were forced to export their products to other states, New York City had no such problem. George Ehret, Peter Ballantine and Frederick Schaefer thrived on the concentrated population of New York City and its surrounding urban areas. Other regional breweries existed and prospered in the South and West, but none matched the production of America's megabreweries in New York, Milwaukee, St. Louis and San Francisco. Despite the meteoric growth in the brewing industry following the Civil War, the industry would be brought to its knees in the 1920's.