Star Brewery Co.
Inc. (1933-1939)
Interstate Brewery Co. (1939-1950)
Lucky Lager
Brewing Co.
(1950-1985)
The Star Brewery was a successor to one of the earliest brewing enterprises in the Washington Territory. It was originally John Muench's Vancouver Brewery, established in 1856, near Fort Vancouver. A young, immigrant brewer from Germany, Henry Weinhard, joined Muench for about six months and then went across the river to a settlement that would eventually become the city of Portland. Here he started his own brewery, but the settlement was growing too slowly, and he shut down his brewery and returned to Fort Vancouver. In 1859, Weinhard bought the Vancouver Brewery from Muench. Weinhard operated the brewery for about three years, selling out to Anton Young in 1862, and returned to Portland were he built a successful brewing enterprise. In 1867, Young relocated the Vancouver Brewery to a more convenient location near Vancouver's public square and operated the business for an additional 27 years.
Sometime before 1890, Anton Young changed the name
of the plant to the Star Brewery, as can be seen from the 1890
Portland City Directory (below).
As can also be seen in the ad, Young had two partners in the brewery,
Anton Huth, and Henry Mockel. Huth left Vancouver in 1888 for Tacoma,
where he and John Scholl established the
Puget Sound Brewery. So, Huth must have kept an interest in Young &
Co. to remain listed as a partner.
Henry Mockel joined the group in 1880, and in '86 he married Huth's
sister, Margaret. When the Star Brewery was sold in '94, Mockel managed
one of the brewery's saloons, but when Margaret died in 1907, he
relocated to Tacoma and became associated with his brother-in-law's
Puget Sound Brewery.
In 1894, Young retired, and sold the company to Louis Gerlinger, who
formally changed the name of the company to the Star Brewery, and three
years later to the Star Brewery Company. In March of 1896, Gerlinger introduced the "Hop Gold" brand,
which would survive until 1940.
In 1904, the Star Brewery Co. was purchased by the Northern Brewery
Company, a columbus, Ohio syndicate, but they continued to refer to the plant as the Star Brewery,
and carried on with the popular "Hop Gold Export Beer." Since the much
larger city of Portland was their primary market, they introduced a
"Rose City Special Beer" - as Portland was (and still is) know as the
"Rose city".
The Star Brewery was shuttered with the onset of state-wide Prohibition in 1915 and didn't produce any products during nationa Prohibition (1920-1933). In August of '33, a group of Portland investors purchased the plant and began a major overhaul. They were able to begin brewing by October, and when the 21st Amendment was ratified on December 5th (allowing full strength beer again) they re-introduced Hop Gold Beer with the slogan: "Fond Memories of Old."
For short history on the Vancouver branch see Lucky Lager, Vancouver. |
Lucky Lager letterhead, ca.1957
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