Pabst announces death of the venerable Falstaff

Modern Brewery Age,  May 30, 2005  

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Pabst Brewing Co. has announced that it has killed off the Falstaff brand, once one of the top brands in the country.

Allen Hwang, Pabst's marketing director, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that only 1,468 barrels of Falstaff were sold last year. He said it no longer made sense to produce the brand, even at a minimal level.

At its height as an independent brewer, back in 1966, the St. Louis, MO-based Falstaff Brewing Company sold 7,000,000 barrels. The company's flagship St. Louis brewery was closed in 1977.

The Falstaff trademark was registered by the William J. Lemp Brewing Co. of St. Louis in 1903. In 1912, Falstaff became the first beer brand to be delivered by air, when a case was dispatched by aircraft from St. Louis to the mayor of New Orleans.

The Lemp Brewery was closed abruptly in 1918, a year before Prohibition was enacted. In 1920, the Falstaff brand was purchased by Griesedieck Bros. Shortly thereafter, Griesedieck entered receivership, but the company renamed itself the Falstaff Corp., and survived Prohibition by making near beer and curing ham.

In 1933, with Repeal, the Falstaff Corporation was renamed the Falstaff Brewing Co., and was granted Federal Permit No. 1 to resume brewing beer.

Falstaff had managed to keep their yeast alive during Prohibition, so production could be restarted immediately. By keeping the brewery operating around the clock, Falstaff managed to make 150,000 barrels its first year back in business.

The company grew to be a strong regional and national player. Falstaff's growth rivaled Anheuser-Busch into the early 1950s. In 1955, Falstaff was operating nine breweries, and was the fourth largest brewer in the US with production of 3,652,821 barrels.

By the early 1960s, Falstaff was the third largest brewery in the US. However, Falstaff's volume had topped out by the mid-1960s, and by that time A-B was twice its size. Nonetheless, Falstaff continued to be the top-selling beer in St. Louis.

In 1972, Falstaff purchased Ballantine, which proved to be a mistake. Ballantine sales were in decline, and Falstaff was saddled with debt. Joseph Griesedieck, the last family member of the original founders to head the company, was voted out of office by the board. In 1974, Falstaff sold its General Brewing subsidiary to investor Paul Kalmanovitz.

In 1975, with Falstaff facing bankruptcy, a controlling interest was sold to Kalmanovitz. Under his management, the brewery staff was gutted, maintenance budgets were slashed, and breweries were shut down one after another.

In 1985, Kalmanovitz bought Pabst, at which point Falstaff volume had dropped below one million barrels. In 1987, Kalmanovitz died.

The last remaining Falstaff brewery, in Ft. Wayne, IN, was closed in 1990. Falstaff products were contract brewed at Miller Brewing Co. in 2000-2001, and subsequently at City Brewing Co. On April 15, 2005, Pabst announced it would no longer produce Falstaff.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Business Journals, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group