page_title: Pearl Brewing Company
section_title: 1881–1920: Origin to Prohibition
hierarchical_section_title: Pearl Brewing Company / History / 1881–1920: Origin to Prohibition
caption_attribution_description: English: Panoramic photo of the brewery in 1910. Notice all three modes of beer transport are shown: train, horse drawn wagon, and delivery truck.
context_page_description: The Pearl Brewing Company was an American brewery, established in 1883 in Downtown San Antonio, Texas, USA. 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 closing all of its 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 made the property the crown jewel in revitalization efforts of southern Midtown and northern Downtown San Antonio.
context_section_description: 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 businessmen and several moguls already involved in 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 to raise capital to fully restart and improve operations at the brewery.  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 caused confusion with 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.  In addition, the name City Brewery was frequently used.  The first logos used for the San Antonio Brewing Company/Association even featured the name City Brewery in the logo. City Brewery was carried over from the Behloradsky days and was used until the beginning of Prohibition in 1918.
  During these name changes, the brewery found the product that would become their signature brew.  Pearl beer was formulated and first brewed in Bremen, Germany, by the Kaiser–Beck Brewery, which produces Beck's beer.  Pearl beer's name came from Kaiser–Beck's brewmaster, who thought the foamy bubbles in a freshly poured glass of the brew resembled sparkling pearls.  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.
  In 1902, Otto Koehler took the helm of the brewery, leaving his position as manager at the Lone Star Brewing Company to become president and manager of the San Antonio Brewing Association.  Under Otto's leadership, the brewery set in motion strategic plans to grow in physical size, as well as beer output.  The San Antonio Brewing Association went from a microbrewery that produced enough output for local 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 up from the brewery's stacks.
  In 1902, Koehler purchased the property to re-open the since closed Hot Wells hotel, spa, and bathhouse, located on the San Antonio River in the southside of San Antonio. Many celebrities visited Hot Wells in its heyday in their own railroad cars with access by a spur to the resort. The facility was sold in 1923 to a Christian Science group. After many years, part of the time as a trailer park, work was authorized to begin in 2015 by Bexar County Commissioners Court to restore Hot Wells.
  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 6,000 US barrels (720 m³) per year in the early 20th century to over 110,000 US barrels (13,000 m³) per year.  With the tremendous production increas
caption: Panoramic photo of the brewery in 1910 (Staats Collection)
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