Pearl Brewing Company

Former brewery in San Antonio, Texas

The Pearl Brewing Company (also known as the Pearl Brewery or just Pearl) was an American brewery established in 1883 in downtown San Antonio, Texas, United States. In 1985, Pearl's parent company purchased the Pabst Brewing Company and assumed the Pabst name. In 1999, the Pabst Brewing Company began transferring its production to Miller Brewing on a contract basis and closed all of its own breweries. Pearl beer is still in production at Miller's Fort Worth, Texas, facility, but the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio was closed in 2001. Since then, the former brewery was purchased by Silver Ventures Inc, which has used the property as part of the revitalization efforts of southern Midtown and northern downtown San Antonio.

The site owned and operated by the Pearl Brewing Company was originally known as both the J. B. Behloradsky Brewery (1881–1883) and the City Brewery. Privately held and poorly run for two years, the City Brewery was purchased by an investment group in 1883. The investment group was composed of local people in business and several moguls already brewing at San Antonio's other major brewery, the Lone Star Brewing Company. Together they formed the San Antonio Brewing Company (1883–1888) and began raising capital to restart and improve the brewery's operations fully. In 1886, after three years, the company had secured the necessary capital and began full time operations at the brewery again. The name San Antonio Brewing Association was used as a parent to the brewing company since it also managed some of the founding members' other business interests. Functionally, the business structure worked, but it confused city officials, customers, and business partners; therefore, in the end, the investment group dissolved the San Antonio Brewing Company and used the San Antonio Brewing Association (1888–1918) name for all operations and business transactions. Thus, in seven years, the same brewery had three different names; since then, the former brewery was purchased by Silver Ventures, Inc., which has used the property as part of the revitalization efforts of southern Midtown and northern Downtown San Antonio. In addition, the name City Brewery was frequently used. The first logos used for the San Antonio Brewing Company/Association even featured City Brewery in the logo. City Brewery was carried over from the Behloradsky days and was used until the beginning of Prohibition in 1918. In Germany, the brew was called "Perle." When brought to the United States, the spelling was changed to English: Pearl. In 1886, the first bottles and wooden kegs of American Pearl beer rolled off the line and into local tap rooms. Under Otto's leadership, the brewery set strategic plans to grow in physical size and beer output in motion. The San Antonio Brewing Association went from a microbrewery that produced enough output for residents and businesses to a strong competitor to the much larger Lone Star Brewing Company. Koehler was one of the first residents to build in the newly opened Laurel Heights section of San Antonio. The hill on which Koehler built his home, now known as the Koehler Cultural Center, provided a clear view of the city skyline and, of course, included an unobstructed view of the San Antonio Brewing Association's City Brewery. Legend has it that by sitting on his porch, Koehler could determine whether his employees were hard at work by the smoke color rising from the brewery's stacks. After Koehler's death, his wife, Emma, succeeded him as the chief executive. Under Emma Koehler's direction, many of her husband's strategic plans were either started or fulfilled. Namely, she modernized the original brew house, and by 1916, beer production capacity had significantly increased from per year in the early 20th century to over per year. With the tremendous production increase, the San Antonio Brewing Association was able to outpace the Lone Star Brewing Company to become the largest Texas brewery and the beer America most widely associated with Texas and the West. Although the Koehlers did not own the brewery, after the first Otto, his wife Emma, and now Otto A., the family was very much considered the owners not only by the community, but the brewery board members and workers alike. Otto A. was a strong leader and businessman who had learned much from his aunt and uncle. It was this strength that he would have to draw on as turbulent times lay ahead for the brewery and beer brewing industry as a whole.

Through the 1940s, operations at Pearl continued at a steady pace. Pearl was well established as the largest brewer in Texas, even though Lone Star beers had adopted the slogan proclaiming Lone Star the national beer of Texas. Pearl, as a company, did its part in the war effort, reducing can production to save on metals and producing generic beer for the troops abroad. At the end of the war, Pearl reestablished its aggressive growth drive and shifted marketing to focus on the emerging power buyer, the postwar housewife. Production and market wise, the 1950s were similar to the late 1940s. In the early '50s, the San Antonio Brewing Association felt they needed to increase the association of their number one product, Pearl lager beer, with the company itself. Pearl was successful, not only in Texas, but on a national level, as well. Larger companies saw this success and made many attempts to buy out Pearl and their beers. Almost all offers were never even considered. In what would turn out later to be ironic, one company came very close to buying out the Pearl Brewing Company in the 1950s: Pabst Brewing Company. B. B. McGimsey, who was Pearl's plant manager, shareholder, and the face of Pearl at most events, began gaining support to sell the brewery off. Overall, the merger of the two companies was a success. Beers from both companies began to be produced at the two facilities. Goetz brewed all of the Pearl beers for easier distribution in the north, and Pearl produced Goetz's Country Club malt liquor. Country Club proved very successful for Pearl, and in fact is the only Goetz beer still in production by Pabst today under the Pearl Brewing Company name. The merger was not without its problems, but overall the transition occurred smoothly. Pearl took over as the corporate headquarters and some duplicate jobs were eliminated. The production side of Goetz remained intact, with Pearl treating Goetz employees just as they did the employees in San Antonio, like family.

Although Pearl had long dominated the Texas market over Lone Star, that did not stop the rivalry between the two. Each brewery was intent on being known as the brewery of Texas. Competition in the community was fierce, with both companies doing all they could to be associated with any large event. In the 1950s and '60s the competition was at its highest. On its own, Judson was a profitable company that had an established name in the candy industry. Judson was not on the level of Hershey or Mars, but did have strong sales in the Southwest. Pearl simply made the Judson sons an offer they could not refuse. So, in 1965, Judson Candies joined the Pearl and Goetz families under the umbrella of the Pearl Brewing Company. Judson was part of the company, but in many ways it was still very independent. Financial backing came down from Pearl, but Judson still made decisions on their own, setting their own strategic goals independently of Pearl. Whatever the decisions were at Judson, they obviously worked. From the day Pearl acquired them, until they were sold off to members of the Atkinson's Candy family in 1983, Judson remained a profitable business. When the Atkinsons bought Judson, the only real evidence of ownership by a larger company, and one in a completely different industry, was the office furniture and supplies. Everything in the Judson offices were labeled with "Property of the Pearl Brewing Company" and items such as pencils, pens, ashtrays, notepads, and even first aid kits were branded with the Pearl logos. Although profitable and requiring little oversight, an official statement was never given on why Pearl purchased Judson. Other than support for Judson, Pearl never branded their name on any of the candy products, even in an era when it was completely acceptable for celebrities and popular cartoon characters to push adult oriented items such as alcohol and cigarettes. From the surface, it makes no sense that a major brewery would enter a completely foreign market to buy a company and support it, yet not use the purchased company in the larger company's goals. It makes no sense at all, that is until one looks at the purchase in the context of the feud between Pearl and Lone Star. In 1949, Mr. Harry Jersig became president of Lone Star, and effectively the nemesis to Otto A. Koehler. Through the '50s and '60s, competition between the two was fierce and generated a no holds barred mentality. Jersig had not always been in the brewing industry, and in fact got his start doing something completely different. Jersig learned the ropes of business while working in the Judson Candies Company for many years. Pearl's purchase of Judson might not have made any sense in the form of black and white business strategy, but it was pure gold in the propaganda and mental war against Lone Star.

In 1969, Pearl was acquired by Southdown, a conglomerate that started out in the sugar industry. In 1977, Pearl was sold to General Brewing of San Francisco, owned by Paul Kalmanovitz. Kalmanovitz specialized in leveraged buy outs, which take over businesses to sell off their parts for profit, closing plants and laying off employees. After a takeover in St. Louis, brewery employees there flew the American flag at half staff and upside down. Kalmanovitz in 1985 acquired the Pabst breweries, which itself originated in 1844, and proceeded to unite his holdings under the name Pabst Brewing Company rather than that of Lucky Lager.

The new millennium did not bring a change in luck for Pearl or Pabst as a whole. Changes instituted in the 1990s saved money, but did not solve the company's larger problems. As of 2000, Pabst's new strategic plan was well underway. To save even more money, they had devised an idea to save the company, closing all of their breweries and ending their own beer production. After 118 years of brewing along the San Antonio River, the doors to the Pearl Brewery closed. In 2001, Silver Ventures, Inc. acquired the property and transitioned the brewery to the boutique hotel, Hotel Emma, which opened in 2015. The hotel is named after Emma Koehler, the wife of Pearl Brewery president Otto Koehler. Pearl relaunched its beer in 2020 and changed their formula (July 2020).

Today, the Pabst Brewing Company is a marketing company; Pabst no longer owns or operates any of their former breweries. Pabst contracts out the brewing of all of their beers to other brewers. By far, Pabst's largest agreement is with Miller Brewing Company, which produces Pabst's major brands, as well as Pearl and Lone Star. Although Pabst's more popular beers such as Colt 45, Stroh's, and Pabst Blue Ribbon are produced at virtually every Miller facility, Pearl is only brewed at the Ft. Worth location. Many who have tasted Pearl before and after the Pabst merger claim the formula has changed; customers say today's Pearl tastes like a weaker version of Budweiser. Officially, though, Pabst claims the formula used for today's Pearl is the same that was originally bought by the San Antonio Brewing Association back in 1886. Pearl's three brews receive little or no marketing dollars, thus lack advertising campaigns. However, Pabst did launch an independent Pearl website which featured several pictures, history, and a state distributor locator. Fortunately, the company has big plans for many of the current structures on the brewery property, with the hopes to attract businesses as well as River Walk tourists. The dream of Silver Ventures is that once completed, the former brewery will be a village within eyesight of the skyscrapers of Downtown San Antonio. In a local article, Bill Shown, the development's managing director, described an area that would house an event hall, schools, and retail, office, and residential space. The idea is to create an area where people can live, shop, and work, yet a community close knit enough where residents know the shop owners. The first phase of rehabilitation and restoration included the garage, a large brick storage shed, and the former hospitality room/stables. The brewery's garage, which was built in 1939, houses the Aveda Institute, a global company focusing on environmentally friendly personal products. In the same building as Aveda is a cafe named Texas Farm to Table, which only uses Texas grown ingredients. The renovation updated the building to meet the current business needs, but still maintains the brewery feel to the exterior by reusing beer storage tanks as landscaping water tanks and a few of the garage's old red pumps. The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) uses one of the brewery's large sheds. Originally created there as the Center for Foods of the Americas (CFA), an upscale culinary institute developed by the CIA, it was originally planned to occupy the former bottling shop, but a mysterious fire in November 2003 gutted the building and forced its demolition. CFA's current building's old garage doors have been removed and replaced by large windows to show off the lines of counters, sinks, and cookware hanging from the ceiling. The school offers a 30 week culinary arts certificate program, geared to take students from the very basics of cooking to the masterpiece where students prepare their own graduation celebration. In January 2008, CFA transformed from a Culinary Institute of America supported program, to a full fledged campus and was renamed the Culinary Institute of America–San Antonio. The former Pearl Corral/Jersey Lilly has been completely remodeled and renamed. Now called the Pearl Stable, the new facility opened in May 2006 and serves as the showpiece of phase one of the overall project. The building retained its oval shape, and architects rebuilt the glazed skylight cupola and a recreation of the stable's false front pediment, which were originally on the stable. Above the main entrance, the pediment displays the stable's construction date, 1894. The Pearl Stable is geared to compete with other event halls by offering a full commercial kitchen, easy loading access for caterers, and a state of the art theatrical lighting and sound system. In addition, Pearl Stable will eventually house a museum section featuring the brewery's history through pictures, artifacts, and memorabilia. When Pearl Stable opened, Silver Ventures reached a milestone in the project, phase one was completed. May 2006 also had the return of another piece of history to the Pearl Brewery. As the new Pearl Stable opened its doors, Engine #2 of the Texas Transportation Company returned from a complete restoration. Originally built in 1909 as lot #758 by the St. Louis based St. Louis Car Company, Engine #2 served two Texas based companies prior to coming to Pearl. Most of its career in use was at the Pearl Brewery after the Texas Transportation Company purchased the engine in 1948. Today, the engine's paint scheme is exactly the one used on the locomotive from the time it arrived at the brewery through the early 1970s. Restored at the country's premier locomotive and passenger car restoration service, the Trans Texas Rail Shop, Engine #2 is immaculate and one of the few examples of electric locomotives on display. The Recycling Center, now known as the Can Recycle building, wrapped up construction in early December 2006. The old building is now gone, but the large silo that was decorated as a beer can was retained. The new structure is close to the shape of the old building, but its interior layout and use are vastly different. The surface has been reskinned with a shiny new can depicting the brewery's retro logo, neon beer bubbles, and the phrase "Enjoy the Finer Life", all accentuated with ime lighting. The new facility contains three studio apartments and two business spaces. The majority of the building is occupied by the Synergy Studio, which provides a full line of yoga classes along with Nia, pilates, and numerous other movement based workouts. The smaller retail space along Avenue A houses Run Wild Sports, which specializes in running supplies. In late 2008, construction was completed on the old shipping warehouse on the north end of the brewery, now called Full Goods. The building was partially demolished and the remaining front section stripped of its aluminum siding. New sections were added onto the building to expand its space and divide the floor plans into a variety of commercial offices and retail space. The north side, which runs along Grayson Street, will serve as two story low cost live/work apartments for artists, where the artists can work in studio space on the ground floor and live on the second floor. In November 2008, tenants of Full Goods began moving in. The CE Group, an events hosting company responsible for all events at the brewery, was the first to move into the building's new office spaces. By the end of the year, the building will house Silver Ventures, Rio Perla Properties, American Institute of Architects San Antonio, and The Nature Conservancy. Continuing with Silver Ventures' focus on food, Full Goods also houses 'Melissa Guerra', a Latin American food products and kitchen store, as well as two restaurants: 'Il Sogno', an Italian restaurant and 'La Gloria', which will offer Mexican street food. Full Goods is also home to a $1.35 million solar energy project, Texas' largest, with the capacity to generate 200 kilowatts of electricity. Restoration continues on the brew house, the centerpiece of the complex. Silver Ventures recently wrapped up 18 months of restoration on the building's exterior. Today, the outside looks much like it did in 1894, especially with the return of the San Antonio Brewing Association company name back to the building plaque. The golden cupolas and white wash are gone from the building, instead the rooftops are charcoal, their original color, and the walls have been stripped down to show their natural stone. The brew house project is far from complete, though, with work remaining on the middle and rear of the building, as well as the entire interior.

During the early 20th century, Pearl used advertisement campaigns that featured Judge Roy Bean – one of the more colorful and popular law enforcement personalities of the wild, wild West. In Langtry, Texas, Judge Bean declared himself the "Law West of the Pecos" and ran his court in the town's tiny U. S. Post Office and bar called the Jersey Lilly Saloon. Judge Roy Bean was as famous in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as many of the motion picture stars are today. Judge Bean's favorite (and rumored only) beer in his saloon was Pearl. Seeing this as an opportunity, San Antonio Brewing Association for decades used the connection to Judge Bean and the Jersey Lilly as advertising focal points. Later, in the 1950s, the brewery's old horse stables were converted into a hospitality room and given a Roy Bean feel to them in honor of Judge Roy Bean and his saloon. The old stables were renovated again in the 1970s with the main hall renamed the Lily Langtry Room and the whole building named the Jersey Lilly. In addition, an exact replica of Bean's saloon was built and placed on the brewery grounds for use in Pearl's "Wild West Shows" and as a gift shop. The ties to Bean's larger than life legacy lasted almost a century, and remained predominantly visible in the brewery until its closing in 2001.

The Texas Transportation Company (TXTC) was a class III short line railroad in San Antonio that serviced the Pearl Brewery. The company operated electric locomotives on their 1.3 mile (2 km) line for more than 113 years. TXTC was started as a private company in 1887 until it was chartered on September 24, 1897. Volunteers from the Texas Transportation Museum operated a steam locomotive a caboose on TXTC trackage on Pearl property from 1964 to 1977 giving train rides to the public. In the early days when the Lone Star Brewing Company was located on W. Jones Avenue, TXTC serviced both breweries. Service ended for the line when the Pearl Brewery closed in 2001. However, what is not common is a town named after a beer. That is exactly what happened, though, in Texas with Pearl. In a small community just west of Yoakum, Texas, a small store had the highest Pearl beer single point sales for a number of years prior to Prohibition. Walter G. Hagen's general store was the focal point of the community, and it had sold Pearl's beers by the truckload and still sold a rather large volume of the Prohibition era nonalcoholic Pearl. The idea to name the town after Pearl was concocted by Hagens and the local Pearl distributor, R. J. Eslinger. In 1942, the motion passed and the German/Czech town became known as Pearl City.

When the Pearl Brewery, then the San Antonio Brewing Association, remodeled their stables into a new meeting/hospitality facility, they had no idea of the importance of some of their decorating choices. The remodeled stables, dubbed the Pearl Corral, focused on a Western theme, with a wide range of influences. The corral contained a replica of Judge Roy Bean's saloon, cactus decorations, ranching fence lines, and the center attraction — a massive mural depicting the days of the old West. Created by Southwest artist James Buchanan “Buck” Winn, his work titled The History of Ranching measured 6 feet (2 m) tall and over 280 feet (85 m) wide. The mural wrapped completely around the Corral's main room and remained there for two decades.

Pearl Brewery – Silver Venture's official site for the former brewery's urban village. Pearl Brewery's Site Map – Full listing of the proposed buildings and spaces. Pearl Brewery's Public Spaces – Plan showing all the public areas in the new redevelopment. Pabst Brewing Company – Official site for the current owner of the Pearl beer brands. Pearl Beer – Pabst's official site for Pearl beer.