Schmidt Brewery

by Paul Freidlund

Title

Schmidt Brewery

Artist

Paul Freidlund

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

The Schmidt Brewery was originally known as the Christopher Stahlmann, Cave Brewery. A brewery first appeared on the site of 882 W. Seventh Street in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1855, becoming the Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company in 1900
Though Stahlmann's Cave Brewery was not one of the founding Breweries in Minnesota nor St. Paul for that matter, it quickly became the largest in the state producing 1,200 barrels annually by 1860, Exporting his Lager as far as Tennessee. In 1879 the Stahlmann brewery was capable of producing 25,000 barrels annually and became the first Brewers to sell more than 10,000 barrels in Minnesota along with being one of the first Brewers to bottle his own beer.

Sadly Stahlmann was to succumb to tuberculosis in 1883, leaving the company to his three sons all of whom would suffer the same fate with the next decade. Without the experience of these well trained men the company would never again find success and in 1898 was sold to the St. Paul Brewing Co.
A short lived venture lasting less than three years. the company formed with the dissolution of the Christopher Stahlmann Brewing Co. The company was met with little success and by 1900 had sold its brewery to the Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company.
Jacob Schmidt started his brewing career in Minnesota as the Brewmaster for the Theodore Hamm's Brewing Co. He left this position to become owner of the North Star Brewing Co. Under Schmidt's new leadership the small brewery would see much success and in 1899 Schimdt transferred partial ownership of his new brewery to a new corporation headed by his son in law Adolph Bremer, and Adolph's brother Otto. This corporation would later become Bremer Bank. With the New partnership the Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company was established. In 1900 the North Star Brewery would suffer a fire that would close it for good. With the new management team in place a new brewery was needed, the new firm purchased the Stahlmann Brewery form the St. Paul Brewing Co. and immediately started construction on a new Romanesque brewery incorporating parts of Stahlmann's original brewery along with it including the further Excavation of the Lagering cellars used in the fermentation process to create Schmidt's Lager Beer Upon Schmidt's death in 1911 the Bremers took full control of the company and continued to see success and growth. In 1920 National Prohibition came to Minnesota and stopped the production and sale of intoxicating beverages. Schmidt's was one of the few breweries to see success and remain open all throughout prohibition in offering Nonalcoholic beverages or near beers such as Malta and City Club as well as other beverages. It was rumored that Schmidt's continued to produce real beer during prohibition complete with a secret underground tunnel that allowed for beer to be transported from the brewery on the bluffs to awaiting ships on the Mississippi river below. None of these rumors were ever confirmed though.

Sinse Schmidt's never stopped production of beverages in the brewery it was one of few breweries in Minnesota that was ready to produce real beer when prohibition was lifted in 1933. Schmidt's re-released City Club beer as an strong beer with the new slogan of "Tops in any Town". After prohibition Schmidt's saw wide spread success and continued to grow. This success brought attention to the Bremer family, leading to the kidnapping of Edward Bremer by the Barker-Karpis gang on 16th January, 1934; he was released on 7th February in the same year with the payment of $200,000 ransom.

As Schmidt's continued to grow becoming the 7th largest brewery in the country by 1936 it was decided offering City Club in cans would be more profitable and became one of the first brewers in Minnesota to offer beer in cans. Like Hamm's Schmidt's offered beer in flat top cans, but became one of the only brewer to switch back to cone top cans after. During World War II Schmidt's was granted a contract from the government to supply beer to the troops, made possible by a long standing friendship between the Bremers and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1951 Otto Bremer died and City Club beer was begun to vase out. In 1954 the due to mounting pressure and competition from outside National Brewers the Bremers decided to leave the brewing industry and sold the company to Detroit based brewer Pfeiffer.
As City Club beer was removed from the market Schmidt beer was introduced, it's acceptance helped greatly by the introduction of the scenic can series. Between 1947 and 1958 185 breweries either closed or sold to larger companies, this time was known as the great shakeout. It was during this time that Pfeiffer acquired Schmidt as well as many other smaller regional breweries. Without a strong national brand to sell Pfeiffer relied on multiple brands that had strong regional sales. This tactic along with the need to update the multitudes of smaller breweries the company had purchased, many of which had been poorly maintained, struggled with inefficiency problems and slumping sales sense prohibition lead the company to bankruptcy and dissolution in 1972 at which time the company and all of its assets were sold to G. Heileman of La Crosse Wisconsin.
As with Pfeiffer Heileman purchased smaller struggling breweries with regional bases, and again Schmidt's brewery was one of many in a vast beer empire, the brewery though ran at near capacity while it severed under Heileman and reviled the La Crosse in efficiency. along with its own brand the Brewery brewer Heileman's Flag ship brand Old Style, as well as Blatz, Grain Belt and Haunstein. By 1981 Heileman was the 4th largest Brewing Company in the country. Still without a national recognized brand it was vulnerable to competition, in 1987 the company was bought out by corporate raider Alan Bond who had built his empire on junk bonds and when they crashed lost ever thing causing Heileman to be a causality of the largest financial collapse in Australian history and by 1990 Schmidt's brewery would close its doors for the first time sense its opening in 1855.
In 1991 a group of local investors reopened the brewery under the name of the Minnesota Brewing Company. With the reopening of the brewery a contest was held to name the Flag ship beer for the brewery, the two names with the most votes were Landmark in first and Pig's Eye in second; the former for the Breweries iconic status in the West St. Paul neighborhood and the latter for the man credited with founding St. Paul. It was at this time that the iconic flashing Schmidt's sign that had long spanned the cat walk connecting the grain silos and the breweries towers was removed and replaced with the non-lighting "Landmark" sign. Landmark beer was met with little success and in 1992 released Pig's Eye Pilsner to much affair. It was at this time that the company started to revitalize the Grain Belt brand, and began contract brewing for many small independent companies including Pete's Wicked Ale, one of the first craft brewers in Minnesota.

The brewery saw some success in the mid and late 1990s running the brewery at almost its capacity of 1.2 million barrels per year, the Brewery was also able to hire back all of the employees that had been laid off by Heileman's closer of the brewery who still need work. Trouble found the brewery though and a combination of the brewery being too big to distribute just in the immediate area, but not large enough to distribute on a national level, out dated inefficient equipment, and the companies that contracted through them sometimes going out of business leaving the brewery full of vats of unpaid for beer as well as labels for said brands; caused the brewery to shut down for good in 2002
In 2000 the Gopher State Ethanol Company began production of industrial grade Ethanol on the site of the Minnesota Brewing Company. This proved to also be an ill-fated venture as the noise and smell produced during the production process of ethanol became the aim of neighborhood organizations that petitioned to stop production at the plant. In 2004 Gopher State Ethanol closed its doors and again the Brewery lay idle.
Minnesota based developer Dominium has purchased the site of the former Brewery and as of 2012 has began the renovation of the buildings to be turned into an artist community Schmidt Artist Lofts complete with studio space for the artist. As of January 2014 the former "Bottling Department" has be converted into lofts and is available for rental.

While renovation on the main brewery building is yet to be completed Dominium has removed the Landmark sign and has stated it plans to replace the old flashing Schmidt's sign that once lit the West St. Paul night sky.
(from wikipedia)

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April 21st, 2014

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