Pabst Church Brewery Is Closing
Well it looks like 2020 has claimed another victim and this time its the Captain Pabst Pilot House in Milwaukee. If you didnt know already a few years back Pabst Brewing Company purchased the old First German Methodist Church at 1037 W. Juneau Ave. which is right smack dab next door to the original brewery location.
Actually here’s a quick history of the company, Pabst began brewing in Milwaukee in 1844 as Best & Co., owned by Jacob Best.
Frederick Pabst took over the brewery in 1888, and the brewery continued to produce beer in Milwaukee through 1996. After a few different owners juggling the brand not making any improvements, we fast forward to 2014 where Pabst was purchased by Eugene Kashper, a former Stroh Brewery Company employee, with the investment firm TSG Consumer Partners.
Then in 2015, they made the announcement, Pabst was coming home to Milwaukee in the form of a taproom in the old brewery neighborhood. And then this year, another move was made when Pabst purchased the old Molson Coors brewery in Irwindale, California and announced that the headquarters is moving from Los Angeles back to San Antonio Texas….are you caught up yet?
I luckily had the chance to visit the the Pabst Church brewery in the summer of 2018. I can say it was amazing to see what they did with the place considering it was abandoned for so many years. And of course I had to also visit the Best Place at Pabst which is right down the block, which is filled with many old school artifacts that are FOR SALE! Sadly Jackson’s Blue Ribbon Pub across the street has closed due to the covid outbreak/shutdown etc.
So what can really be said besides this year sucks. Hopefully something will be done with the building, Im not sure if someone will reopen it as a brewery…and if they do they will actually have to buy all new equipment because Pabst is shipping the brewhouse to Texas.
I will say now that this place is closed and Pabst now owns a brewery maybe they can finally put some of the classics that the Milwaukee brewery was making back in production like Andeker and Old Tankard ?? One can wish.
And since this year is almost over I can say next year should be a brighter future for everyone…?
