My next source that I have come across is a book called Bottoms Up : A Toast to Wisconsin’s Historic Bars & Breweries by Jim Draeger & Mark Speltz. This book briefly talks about the history of 70 different bars and breweries in Wisconsin alone. The bars and breweries that were selected for this book gained recognition as some of the most historical sites in Wisconsin. I selected this source because it shows that this Pabst has importance if it was mentioned it this book. Because this book focus’s on bars and breweries just in Wisconsin, the authors automatically limit their audience to Wisconsinites, and also Wisconsinites of the legal drinking age. I find this book to be useful because it talks about so many destinations in Wisconsin. If readers were like me,  they might learn about bars and breweries that they have seen or heard of, but never actually knew about. If you read this book, I believe that things such as where places got started will surprise you and you may realized that a bar or brewery that was listed in this book is closer to you than you were aware.

This book stated very useful information about the Pabst Brewing Company, or should I say  the Phillip Best Brewing Company. Phillip Best Brewing Company was the first name of the factory on 901 West Juneau Avenue. The factory later became the Pabst Brewing Company after a steamboat captain, Fredrick Pabst, married into the Best family and took over the brewery.  This book then talks about the success of Pabst by stating that the company production went from 225,000 barrels in 1880 to over 1 million barrels in 1892, which made Pabst the largest lager brewer in the world at that time. There were also some additions to the factory through the years such as a bottling house, boiler house, stables, and mechanical buildings. This book also talks about some tactics that the company used during the Prohibition, some of the things that I mentioned in my previous blog post, and also including nonalcoholic beer and water bottling.

Some of the buildings that helped Pabst become what it is today have been bout out and made into a development, which is now called The Brewery. Residents have moved into apartments in the former keg house and is now known as the Blue Ribbon Lofts. Despite what has happened to parts of this corporation, the beer hall and tour center have been preserved and even still serves beer and is keeping the history alive today.

I found this source to be very valuable and helped me understand the Pabst Brewery Company. It was very cool for me to expand my understanding while realizing the importance of this company because it was one of the breweries in Wisconsin that were listed in this book of historical sites.