Upon repeal of Prohibition in 1933, Cincinnati stood ready to resume its position as one of the leading brewing centers in the United States. Within a few years fourteen plants had resumed production, with total output equaling or exceeding that of all but a handful of other cities.

But despite a modernization program that created a host of state-of-the-art facilities, changing consumer demographics left local breweries at a disadvantage compared with much larger national brewers, with massive advertising budgets and efficient distribution systems. Faced with increasing competition and a loss of once-loyal hometown beer drinkers, the number of breweries remaining in Cincinnati dropped rapidly beginning in the 1940s, with a corresponding loss of employment and income for longtime brewery workers. By the late 1950s only three - Burger, Hudepohl, and Schoenling - were left to serve their hometown market. In 1973 Burger - only a decade earlier Cincinnati's largest brewer - quit the beer business due to slumping sales, and in 1986 the two remaining operations merged to form the Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Company, in an attempt to ensure the survival of an almost two-hundred-year-old brewing tradition.

In recent years the number of brewing establishments in Cincinnati has increased, due to the proliferation of microbreweries and brewpubs. Sadly, there is little left of the old-line brewing operations in the city, as once-prominent breweries such as Red Top, Bruckmann, and Clyffside now are used for different purposes or, worse still, have been torn down in the name of progress. With their once well-known brands likely gone from grocery store shelves and barrooms forever, a long-posed question remains as current now as it did several decades ago:

"Where have all the breweries gone?"

The Bruckmann Company

Address: Plant 1: Ludlow Ave. at Interstate 75
Plant 2: 2960/74 Spring Grove Avenue
Plant 1 Opened: 1856 (Frederick Bruckmann Cumminsville Brewery)
Manufactured non-alcoholic cereal beverages and malt tonic during Prohibition, 1919-1933
Plant 2 Opened: 1904 (Ohio Union Brewing Company)
Renewed as brewery by Bruckmann after repeal, 1933
Plant 2 Closed: 1949
Plant 1 sold to Herschel Condon 1949, operated as Herschel Condon Brewing Company 1949-1950
Plant 1 Closed: 1950
Primary Brands: Brucks Jubilee Beer, Big Ben Ale, Aristocrat Cereal Beverage

 

The Burger Brewing Company

 

 

Address: Central Parkway & Liberty Street
Opened: 1934 (pre-Prohibition Windisch-Muhlhauser Lion Brewery)
(Lion Brewery, Inc. 1933-34)
Modern Origin: Burger Bros. Company (malt house), beginning in 1880
Closed: 1973
Primary Brands: Burger Beer/Ale, Red Lion Ale, Tap Beer

 

The Clyffside Brewing Company

 

 

Address: 242 McMicken Avenue
Opened: 1846 (George Klotter & Co., Hamilton Brewery)
(J.G Sohn & Company/William G. Sohn Brewing Company 1870-1907)
Ceased operation due to Prohibition: 1925 (raided by federal officers for illegal beer production)
Reopened after Prohibition: 1933
Purchased by Red Top Brewing Company for use as Plant # 2, 1945
Closed: 1957
Primary Brands: Felsenbrau Beer, Hi-Cliff Beer, Old Hickory Ale

 

The Hudepohl Brewing Company

 

 

Address: Plant 1: 34/38 E. McMicken and 105/125 E. Clifton Avenues
Plant 2: 505 Gest Street
Plant 1 Opened: 1850 (Gottfried & Henry Koehler Buckeye Street Brewery)
Manufactured soft drinks and other non-alcoholic beverages during Prohibition, 1919-1933
Plant 2 Opened: 1860 (Lackman & Sandman Brewery)
(Herman Lackman Brewing Company 1890-1919)
Purchased and reopened as brewery by Hudepohl after repeal, 1934
Plant 1 Closed: circa 1953
Acquired labels and assets of Burger Brewing Company, 1973
Merged with Schoenling Brewing Company
(becoming Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Company), 1986
Plant 2 Closed: 1987
Primary Brands: Hudepohl 14-K Beer, Hudy Delight Beer, Chevy Ale, Christian Moerlein Cincinnati Select Beer, Ludwig Hudepohl Bock/Oktoberfest Beer




Continue to Part II


________________________________________________________________



Labels from the collection of the author

Information on the listed brewery operations taken from the following sources:

Timothy J. Holian, Over the Barrel: The Brewing History and Beer Culture of Cincinnati, Volume Two, Prohibition to the Present (St. Joseph, MO: Sudhaus Press, 2001)

Dale P. Van Wieren, American Breweries II (West Point, PA: Eastern Coast Breweriana Association, 1995)