Пивоварня Lion: История с 1905 года.

Lion Brewery, Inc, is the operator of the Lion Brewery, located in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, which was founded in 1905. A "heritage brewery", it is one of only 10 United States pre Prohibition breweries that has independently and continuously operated since the repeal of Prohibition. It produces beers under its own Lionshead brand, and contract brews beer for other companies.

The Lion Brewery traces its origins to 1905 when the Luzerne County Brewing Company was organized and ground was broken on its four story brick brewery located at 700 North Pennsylvania Avenue, Wilkes Barre. The brewery was built on land acquired from Delaware and Hudson Company in 1905. The land was purchased for one dollar on the terms that the company would build a brewery capable of producing per year in just the first year and sell each barrel for no less than a dollar a piece. If the terms were not met, the land would return to the Delaware and Hudson Company. The brewery formally opened May 25, 1906, and was especially designed to brew Bohemian and Bavarian Beers. Its beers included a pilsner and a porter brewed under the Edelbrau name, and Munchner Bock Beer. Luzerne County Brewing Company went into bankruptcy in May 1908 but continued to operate under a receiver. In 1911, the company was reorganized as Lion Brewing Company. In 1912, it began marketing Lion Beer, which included a pilsner and a bock. After the arrival of Prohibition in 1919, the Lion Brewing Company produced near beers called Buck O and Gold Label. The company struggled to survive, and after its president was charged in 1923 with violation of prohibition laws, went into receivership. The brewery was then purchased by the Malt Beverage Company, the president of which was Charles Gibbons. The brewery operated until 1928, when it was raided by Federal agents and was again closed for making high alcohol beer.

The brewery remained closed until the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, when it was purchased by The Lion, Inc., a company owned by two sets of brothers: Henry, Ted, Morris and Louis (Laffe) Smulowitz along with Philip, Leo, and James Swartz. When the brewery resumed operations in the summer of 1933, Charles A. Gibbons was plant manager as well as Secretary Treasurer of the company. The brewery had an annual capacity of 200,000 barrels at that time. The beer it initially produced was marketed as Lion Beer. In 1936, in order to avoid confusion with other similarly named brands, it changed the name of its beer to Gibbons beer (named for Charles Gibbons), which became its flagship brand, and included lager, ale and porter varieties. For most of the next 40 years, the brewery traded as Gibbons Brewing Co. The Lion Brewing Company underwent many changes during the ownership of the Smulowitz and Swartz families. In the 1940s, brewery officials sensed changing tastes and successfully introduced the first lighter bodied beer in Northeast Pennsylvania. Post Prohibition, the beer brewing industry as a whole grew by leaps and bounds until around 1960, when the big breweries began to take control of the market. Henry Smulowitz passed away in 1960 and the management reorganized with James Swartz as president, Laffe Smulowitz as vice president, and Ted Smulowitz as treasurer and secretary. Leo Swartz continued in his capacity managing the Gibbons distribution until his retirement in 1978 when the Smulowitz family assumed full ownership of the brewery. In 1957, William Smulowitz, Ted's son, started with the brewery. He became president of The Lion in 1969 upon James Swartz's death and ran it until 1993, when the Smulowitz family sold the brewery. In 1964, the Brewery received the prestigious La Medaille D'Or award for brewing quality. It was only one of three North American breweries to receive the award that year. In 1967, with consolidation taking place in the brewing industry, Bartels Brewing Company, a brewery located in nearby Edwardsville, Pennsylvania, went out of business and The Lion acquired its labels and recipes. A much larger acquisition occurred in 1974 when The Lion's cross town rival Stegmaier Brewing Company went out of business and The Lion acquired its labels and recipes Founded in 1857, the Stegmaier Brewery had been the dominant area brewery and had been much larger than The Lion. Although Stegmaier Gold Medal Beer became The Lion's largest selling brand, there was a loss of brand loyalty and national brands continued to take market share, and sales slipped with time. In 1983 Lionshead beer was introduced. In 1987, The Lion also began contract brewing for craft brewers. Its first contract brewed craft beer was Manhattan Gold, which was brewed for Manhattan Brewing Company. It would go on to win many awards, including a gold medal at the 1994 Great American Beer Festival.

In 1993, Bill Smulowitz sold the Lion Brewery to the Quincy Partners. In 1996, the Quincy Partners took the Lion Brewing Company public by selling shares on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. Under the supervision of head brewmaster Leo Orlandini, the Brewery Hill line of craft beers was introduced in the 1990s. In 1999 Chuck Lawson spearheaded the purchase of the Lion Brewery for 18.5 million dollars, thereby transferring the company back into private hands. The Brewery Hill line of craft beers was rebranded under the Pocono label in 2002. The Lion Brewery hosted its first Oktoberfest celebration in 2005. This festival is designed to promote the brewery and German culture and to give people the chance to learn how beer is made, sample German food, and celebrate. Stegmaier Oktoberfest was brewed to be the official beer of the festival. Brewery tours are given on Saturday during the festival. Entertainment includes live bands, rides, games, wiener dog races and a fireworks display. On November 1, 2007, Chuck Lawson and Pat Belardi sold The Lion Brewery to private equity investors led by Cliff Risell and Ron Hammond who continued to operate the brewery as a private company. In late 2009 production of beer in 16oz. returnable bottles ended in order to make room for a new canning line, which began operating in 2010. The Gibbons and Bartels brands were also discontinued in the process. Between 2007 and 2017 the Lion Brewery invested $20 million in updating brewery capabilities. Among these additions are a Krones Top Modul Labeller with Paper and PSL label capabilities, a Dual Deck Krones Pasteurizer, and two Alvey Palletizers. The company has also invested in various quality control measures such as a Quality Lab and on staff Microbiologists. At the end of 2019 the Lion Brewery was purchased by Encore Consumer Capital, a San Francisco based private equity firm. In early 2022, the Lion Brewery sold the Stegmaier labels to the Susquehanna Brewing Company, a company owned by descendants of Charles Stegmaier.

The Lion Brewery is also a contract brewing partner for various Beer and non alcoholic beverage brands. They do contract brewing for Pabst Brewing Company brands.

The Gibbons brand was introduced in 1936 when the name of Lion Beer was changed to Gibbons in order to avoid confusion with other similarly named brands produced by other brewers. It was named for Charles A. Gibbons, an early officer of Lion, Inc. For many years the brewery produced Gibbons beer, ale and porter, and the brewery traded as Gibbons Brewing Company. Gibbons was the flagship brand of The Lion until the acquisition of the Stegmaier brands in 1974. Gibbons beer continued to be produced until November 2009, when the Lion Brewery stopped packaging beer in 16oz returnable bottles.

In 1967 The Lion acquired the labels and recipes of Bartels Brewing Company, which was founded in nearby Edwardsville, Pennsylvania in 1889. Bartels was a traditional darker beer in contrast to Gibbons, which was a lighter modern style. The Bartels label continued to feature "The Professor", a highly regarded symbol when Bartels was the biggest selling brand in the region, who had dispensed words of wisdom in Bartels advertising. Like Gibbons beer, Bartels was discontinued after the Lion Brewery stopped packaging beer in 16oz returnable bottles in November 2009.

Completed in 1894, the Stegmaier Brewery building in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, was the headquarters of Stegmaier Brewing Co. until it closed in 1974, and its labels were sold to the Lion Brewery. While the Stegmaier Building property was never owned by the Lion Brewery, it has been depicted on some Stegmaier packaging and promotional materials produced by the Lion. The old brewery building has now been repurposed as the Stegmaier Federal Building, where it provides office space for federal workers, keeping the federal presence centrally located in Wilkes Barre's downtown area. The Wilkes Barre Information Systems Support Center is an information technology development facility for the United States Postal Service that is located in the Stegmaier Building. The Internal Revenue Service also maintains a satellite office within the building.