by Jeremy Banas
Published by American Palate
A Division of The History Press
Charleston, SC
www.historypress.net
Copyright © 2018 by Jeremy Banas
All rights reserved
Front cover image of can by Steve Fernandes. Pearl logo courtesy Pabst Brewing.
First published 2018
e-book edition 2017
ISBN 978.1.43966.386.8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017955993
print edition ISBN 978.1.46713.992.2
Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
To my boys, Quinn, Jack and Max: My love for you knows no bounds. You inspire me to be the best father I can be. To my parents, Milton and Cathy Banas: Your unconditional love and support are what keep me going. To my baby sister, Cari Gordonne: I grow more in awe of you each and every year that passes by. I love you all.
CONTENTS
Foreword, by Christopher “Kit” Goldsbury
Preface, by Bill Jones
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Period I. City Brewery and the San Antonio Brewing Association, 1883–1887
Period II. The Rise of the San Antonio Brewing Association, 1887–1918
Period III. Prohibition, 1918–1933
Period IV. Otto A. Koehler and Pearl’s Golden Age, 1933–1969
Period V. The Decline of the Pearl, 1969–2001
Period VI. The New Pearl, 2002–2017
Appendix I. The Koehler House
Appendix II. The Texas Transportation Company
Bibliography
About the Author
FOREWORD
Over the last fifteen years, we have had the honor of working in the footprint of the historic Pearl Brewery as we’ve tried to reimagine and rebuild this stately neighborhood that is home to so many stories, traditions and histories that we as San Antonians hold dear.
What drew us to this property and this project were the beautiful buildings, evidence of an era when pride in quality meant everything, and the opportunity to bring a place back to life that had faded in relevance and energy.
Our aim at Pearl over these fifteen years has been to use the principles that made the brewery great—commitment to people, pride in quality and, most importantly, a sense of place and community indelible and rooted in South Texas culture—to build a next chapter filled with people making things that make us proud, public space, beautiful architecture and an invitation to all of San Antonio to make it their own.
As we complete our final project, the Bottling Department Food Hall, we take stock in the dense, diverse, well-loved and well-used neighborhood that has grown up around and in the beautiful bones of the brewery.
Beer is brewed here again, students are educated at the Culinary Institute of America, homegrown and far-flung chefs are honing their craft in our nineteen restaurants and San Antonians and visitors alike bask in the special and inimitable beauty of the Hotel Emma, located in the original San Antonio Brewing Association brewhouse.
As you read this book, we invite you to absorb the history so that you may look for clues of this place’s illustrious past in this contemporary iteration—chandeliers made of bottle cappers, cabanas and fountains made of tank ends and a conveyor belt as a boardroom table. But more than the things, it’s truly the spirit of the people who built, worked in and led this place that we hope you feel here today. Their spirit, ingenuity, boldness and creativity live in the community that is here now, writing the next chapter of Pearl.
—CHRISTOPHER “KIT” GOLDSBURY
PREFACE
At Pearl Brewing, everyone was family. Everyone watched out for one another, from Bubba at the grain rail sidings to Leo Kitchen, the keeper of the yeast. Cowboy Wallace took care of the fermentation, all the while making sure that everyone had peanut butter to snack on. Manuel Rodriguez and Howell Parker headed up the filtration crew, which kept Pearl and Pearl Light flowing, and James Burns handled the packaging department by way of the government cellar. The department lunches included great barbecue and homemade tamales and were always good times. One of the better memories was when a certain supervisor from Rhode Island ate a tamale for the first time and didn’t know to remove the cornhusk.
I am very proud to follow in the steps of past brewmasters G.J. Billmeier, Howard Nagle and Richard Kromar, not to mention working with past brewmaster Kenneth Schmidt, who came to Pearl in the 1980s (via the Lone Star Brewing Company) as a packaging manager; another big shout-out goes to our plant manager, Eddie Mueller, who kept the boat afloat.
Pearl finally has a future, but I always remember the past, as it’s quite literally carved into the walls of my office. The hidden office was part of the original brewery and full of dark oak paneling, as well as the handmade Triple X chairs and historic beer steins lining the walls. I would always take my two kids to the brewery on the weekends when I had to work. They loved sitting on the big leather sofa in my office, running around, riding the big elevators and checking fermentation in the cellars.
With the sweaty aroma of the beer being brewed coming from the huge copper kettles, it was an industrial playground that reminded me of how beer making runs in my blood and now runs in the blood of future brewers and Pearl drinkers.
I started my brewing career working at my family’s brewery in Smithtown, Pennsylvania, at the age of sixteen. I later attended the Siebel Institute Master Brewer Program, graduating in 1979. I was the master brewer at the Jones Brewing Company, the makers of Stoney’s Beer, until 1984, when I joined the Pearl Brewing Company in San Antonio, Texas. After the Pearl plant was closed, I moved on to the Miller Brewery Company, working at its Fort Worth plant.
To all the Pearl enthusiasts and future generations of Pearl beer drinkers:
Let’s drink the liquid of amber so bright;
Let’s drink the liquid with foam so bright;
Let’s drink the liquid that brings all good cheer;
Prost to the past, present and the future Pearl beer drinkers.
—BILL JONES
Bill Jones is now retired and living with his wife, Christy, in Fort Worth, Texas. He has two children: a son, Benjamin Jones, living in Arlington, Virginia, and working for Keller Williams Realty, and a daughter, Isa Jones, living in Jackson, Wyoming, and working as a journalist for the Jackson Hole News & Guide. Bill won numerous brewing awards while working at Pearl: Gold Medal for Pearl Larger at the 1991 Great America Beer Festival, Gold Medal for Old Milwaukee NA in 1999 and Best Amber for Salado Creek Beer at the World Expo of Beer in 1997.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The best part of writing a book on a subject you have a passion about and maybe a fair amount of knowledge is the research—exploring and discovering things that not only you did not know, but tidbits of information that also previously had been lost to time. All this cumulative knowledge tells the story of your subject, as well as the stories of the people involved.
This comprehensive history of the Pearl Brewery tells such a story of people. I would be remiss, however, if I did not acknowledge the many people who helped with this wonderful book. My sincerest apologies if anyone was left out.
To my Heidi, thank you for your love, support and putting up with all my late nights and weekends of researching and writing. I love you, sweetie.
Mike Hood, thank you for being an i
nspiration with writing, as well as a mentor and friend. It means more than you know.
Charlie Staats, your knowledge and passion for the history of Texas breweries know no bounds. Thank you for keeping me historically on track. Your guidance and friendship were invaluable.
Travis Poling, thank you for all your friendship and advice in guiding me to be a better writer.
To my friends at Silver Ventures/Pearl LLC, specifically Christopher “Kit” Goldsbury, Elizabeth Fauerso and Anne Marie Nikolich, your openness and generosity helped to make this project more robust. Thank you for helping me to preserve this piece of San Antonio history.
Tim Craig, thank you for sharing the fruits of your archival labors. The archives you’ve built for the Pearl will stand the test of time.
Dr. Paul Pace, thank you for opening up your family to me and sharing your history (as well as healing my broken hand!). It has been an honor and a pleasure to be a part of it.
Bill Jones and Grant Ward, thank you for sharing your work experiences at the Pearl and for the grand tradition you added to.
Pabst Brewing Company and Alya Wilhelm, thank you for use of the Pearl Lager Beer logo.
To the staff at the Trinity University Coates Library in San Antonio, thank you for guiding me in the early stages of my research. It proved to be invaluable.
To the impeccable folks at Southerleigh Fine Food and Brewery, the current occupants of the Pearl Brewhouse, thank you for continuing such a grand tradition of brewing—in particular, chef Jeff Balfour, head brewer Les Locke and my favorite Frenchman, manager Philippe Place.
To all my friends and family who have supported me throughout this: my oldest friend, Clinton “Buck” Davis; Eric Cruzan; Brian Orosco; Marco and Tiana Ortega; Brooke Barker; my grandparents Richard and Marie Mauro; RJ Mauro; Rich Mauro; Mary Kay Mauro; Ron Mauro; Claire Marie TeBockhorst; Randy Mauro; Mary and Keith Beuchel; Chris and Julia Scott; John TeBockhorst; Leah TeBockhorst; Paul TeBockhorst; Joe TeBockhorst; Laura Johnson; Kristin Turner; Devin Mauro; Janice Bates; Nicholas Bates; Jane Mauro; Tricia Gallegos; Stephanie and Greg Vetter; and Scott Graham.
To my brewing industry family who always inspire me: Brad Farbstein, Megan Parisi, Jason Armstrong, Mark McDavid, TJ Miller, Dennis Rylander, James Hudec, Eugene Simor, Greg Spickler, Vera Deckard, Keith and Anna Kilker, Jason Barrier, Kelly Meyer, Ray Mittledorf, Jason Ard, Paul Ford, Matt “Chaca” Menchaca, Blake Murrah, Zach Harris, Jeremy Karney, Seth Weatherly, Aaron Mendiola, Jason Davis, Alicia Spence-Schlesinger, Scott Metzger, Chris Mobley, Boyan Kalusevic, Jody and Steve Newman, Rob Martindale, Scotty Kretchman, Forrest Clay Hyde, Mike Holt, Seth Parker, Marcus Baskerville, Mike DiCiccio, Rob Garza, Roland Tamez, Randy Ward, Tim Schwartz, Jaime Jurado, Paul and Kim Kavulak, Joey and Maggie Villareal, Jeff Stuffings, Averie Swanson, Mitch Steele, Greg Koch, Steve Wagner, Chris Spradley, Pedro Longoria, Aaron Mendiola, Tony Drewery, Drew and Leah Watson, Tim Myers, Jon Airheart, Denise Aguirre, Kerrie Crosby, Kevin and Chrissy Hobbins, Holland Lawrence and Garrett Marrero.
Arcadia Publishing and The History Press, specifically acquisitions editor Ben Gibson and senior editor Ryan Finn, thank you for your encouragement and guidance.
Debra Martin, executive director of the Alamo Colleges Foundation, thank you for the use of your photos of the Koehler House, as well as the college’s continued preservation of such a historic home.
INTRODUCTION
The idea for this book arose out of research that was done on my first book, San Antonio Beer: Alamo City History by the Pint, co-written with my good friend Travis Poling. A plethora of information was found on the Pearl that was confined into two chapters of that book. It would take much more to properly tell the story of the Pearl, and so here we are: a comprehensive account of one of the largest regional breweries in the country, a brewery that would last 115 years and have a long-lasting effect on San Antonio and all of Texas.
The history of the Pearl Brewing Company is the history of beer itself in San Antonio, for Pearl—or the San Antonio Brewing Association, as it was known as for its first seven decades—was there in the beginning and would be there almost to our present. Subsequently, the history of beer in San Antonio is the history of German and European settlements in Texas. It is all connected to a larger aspect of our culture here in South Texas.
Fermented beverages were alive and well in Texas in the city’s earliest days. In the eighteenth century, Spanish missionaries in many ways kicked off what would be the start of San Antonio’s culture and reputation as a fairly boozy city. Records in the Bexar County Clerk’s Office show inventories of Spanish missionaries that include wine in their possession. Tax certificates at the time show that wine was transported around what is now Texas, specifically from Laredo to the Spanish for Presidio De Bexar.
The Bexar County clerk’s resident Spanish archivist, Alfred Rodriguez, suggested that grapes could have been grown within a short distance of the irrigated San Antonio River and that these local grapes may have even made their way into locally made wines. It is also quite possible that alcoholic beverages from Mexico and Central America, such as chicha—a corn-based beer in which enzymes from the corn are released by chewing the corn itself—may have made their way to San Antonio. That’s not hard to imagine when there were well-established trade routes from Central America into the United States.
The Spanish brought wine, but the English and Germans would bring beer. In most English settlements throughout what would become the United States, ales prevailed, whether it be porters or pale ales. Where Germans landed, it was primarily lager beer, and it was lager beer that would come to define brewing in San Antonio, although it didn’t start off that way. Charles Degen and the Western Brewery popped up in 1855, though some records indicated 1853, right next to the famous “Shrine of Texas Liberty,” the Alamo. William Menger, who would later build the famed Menger Hotel, hired Degen, and together they started the state’s first commercially licensed brewery in San Antonio. The beer they brewed was not the popular lager of their native Germany, but rather ale.
It would not be until the late 1870s when breweries would begin making lager beer. Once they did, however, the floodgates were opened. The Lone Star Brewing Association, started by Adolphus Busch, really kicked things off, but it would be J.B. Belohradsky and his City Brewery in 1883 that would have the biggest influence.
By 1886, San Antonio residents Otto Koehler, Otto Wahrmund, Oscar Bergstrom and Frederick Hartz had assumed control of City Brewery and sought to modernize it further, not only with new equipment but also with a secret recipe and a new name. The brewery was re-chartered in 1887 as the San Antonio Brewing Association. Less than a decade later, the soon-to-be-iconic brewhouse was built in 1894, along with the Pearl Stables.
By the early twentieth century, the San Antonio Brewing Association was one of half a dozen breweries in the Alamo City that were a driving force in its evolution. It was not just beer. No, the San Antonio Brewing Association was a major employer in San Antonio and along with other breweries accounted for one-fourth of San Antonio’s total income. From 1914 to 1933, Pearl would see many challenges to its business. Founder Otto Koehler was shot and killed in 1914, leaving a void in leadership. Prohibition hit in 1918, forcing Pearl to modify its model in order to stay in business and keep food on the table for its employees. Emma Koehler, wife of Otto Koehler, would see the brewery through Prohibition and its growth beyond.
Portrait of Otto Koehler in his later years. UTSA Libraries Special Collections.
After Prohibition ended, a reorganized San Antonio Brewing Association emerged with Otto A. Koehler, nephew of Emma and Otto Koehler, at the helm of the brewery, leading it to what would be its golden age. Unparalleled growth occurred along with a name change in the 1950s, making Pearl the largest brewery in Texas. This growth would continue into the ’60s, making these two decades the best in Pearl’s history.
Soon after the death of the second Otto Koehler, the brewery was sold to Houston-based Southdown C
orporation, ending Koehler ownership for the first time in eighty years and signaling what would become a fast decline for Pearl. The ’70s saw extravagant spending and a disregard for brewery maintenance. As the ’70s were coming to a close, Pearl was sold to Paul Kalmanovitz’s General Brewing, whose holdings would later become the Pabst Brewing Company. Pabst ran Pearl much as it did the other regional breweries in its portfolios, with very little concern for the brand and its employees, focusing instead on maximizing exposure and the fortune and glory aspect of ownership. These led Pearl into a decline that it would not survive, closing for good in 2001.
Pearl’s story did not end in 2001, however. By 2002, local billionaire Christopher “Kit” Goldsbury had purchased the Pearl facility, including its buildings. Goldsbury would renovate the grounds and all of the brewery buildings, including the iconic brewhouse, into a mixed-use facility for the community that includes shopping, dining and brewing.
The story of the Pearl Brewing Company is a story not only of a historic regional brewery but also of its people, who poured their hearts and souls into a family business and into San Antonio itself.
PERIOD I
CITY BREWERY AND THE SAN ANTONIO BREWING ASSOCIATION, 1883–1887
CITY BREWERY ARRIVES
The early 1880s were an interesting time for San Antonio. The population was 225,000 by 1880; the city’s second railroad, the International–Great Northern, had arrived; and an industrial revolution had gripped the city. Modernization was in full swing, paralleling that of the country’s growth at the time. Having dropped slightly from being the largest city in Texas, San Antonio’s infrastructure boomed as well, with hospitals, paved roads, telephones and the like bringing San Antonio into the modern era and helping it once again claim the title of the state’s largest city.
San Antonio’s fledgling beer industry was not spared this growth, as the influx of immigrants into the Alamo City comprised mainly Germans, and the one thing Germans wanted most was beer. It was this thirst for beer that drove German immigrants William A. Menger and Charles Degen to open the Western Brewery in San Antonio in about 1855. The Western Brewery, however, produced ale, unusual for a German immigrant at the time, as lagers required very cold temperatures for fermentation and a longer aging time. What the growing German population wanted, however, was the lager beer that was so popular in their native Germany and much of Europe at the time. Lager beer, produced in other parts of the state, including the nearby town of New Braunfels, was often brewed in the winter to take advantage of the lower temperatures. However, lager beer was lacking in San Antonio.
