History
The brewery was originally organized in 1877 by G.H. Herbers as "The Memphis Brewing Company". In 1885, it was bought by J. W. Schorr, Casper Koehler, and associates, and soon became one of the largest breweries of the era.
The first beer marketed from the brewery was a Pilsener. Like many other brands of the time, the beers were not usually named. Instead, the type or style of the beer was used as the name, along with the name of the brewery. They also produced several other beer styles. An ad from 1890 lists their styles as Pilsener, Export, Budweiser, Tennessee Pale, and Bavarian. Later, two new brands called Columbian Extra Pale and Erlanger were also produced, before prohibition shut down operations.
At one point, more than 1500 workers worked at the brewery. By 1903, production was up to 250,000 barrels per year making it the largest brewery in the south. Prohibition shut down operations, however after prohibition ended, the plant was reopened by J. W.'s son, John Schorr. Very rapidly, they got back up to production speed, and the best known and leading beer sold in Memphis for many years was "Goldcrest". After 1938 the beer was named "Goldcrest 51", to honor more than 51 years in the brewing business.
Goldcrest 51 was a bottled beer until 1947, when they started using cans. As a somewhat local beer, the brewery actually used returned bottles up until they ceased all operations, in 1954.
The building that remains today was erected in 1890 and is basically unchanged from that time (other than renovations performed to keep the building intact for possible further development in the future). The bottling plant was an add-on to the building much later, in 1938. Plans have been made in the past to turn the building into condominiums or shopping space, however none of these have occurred.
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Goldcrest
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Goldcrest 51
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Pilsener
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Pearl of Memphis
Read more about this topic: Tennessee Brewery
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