A Little California Brewing History

Yesterday I took the kids to the California State Railroad Museum, which is in Sacramento. My son Porter is obsessed with trains and he’d been wanting to go there since he’d seen it in one of the many train videos he watches over and over again. We had lunch in a converted train depot across the street from the museum in a part of town known as Old Sacramento. It too, was a little slice of history, and had some very interesting old beer bottles on some shelves behind the counter.

1. The first one is from the Swan Brewery, Brewers & Bottlers, which operated in San Francisco for a very short time, from 1878-1880, on 15th and Dolores Streets. It had a cork top with a wire loop, similar to a Champagne bottle an the two examples they had both still had liquid in them.
2. Next is Buffalo Brand Lager Beer from the Buffalo Brewing Co. in Sacramento. The Buffalo Brewery lasted a bit longer, and was in business from 1890 until finally closing in 1949. It was located between 21st and 22nd Streets, but had three different new owners beginning in 1897, when it became part of Sacramento Brewing Co. (which itself was known by several names from 1859-1920). After prohibition, it reopened in 1934 and apparently was independent again but then was taken over once more by Grace Brothers Brewing Co. of Santa Rosa in 1942. The 11 oz. bottle was already empty.
3. This last bottle is more part of the brewery industry’s recent past but I can’t actually ever recall having seen this bottle of Pete’s before. According to the neck label, it was brewed by August Schell Brewery, which is still in business in Minnesota. Perhaps Pete himself can step in and let us know more about this one.

Of course, I wasn’t expecting a history lesson yesterday, but you never know when something beer-related and interesting is going to present itself.