Brewery

On July 26, 2006, Jim Gebicki removed his wristwatch and placed it in a small box. He hasn't worn it since, nor does he plan to ever wear it again. The watch, bearing the green and white Rolling Rock beer insignia synonymous with Gebicki's hometown of Latrobe, Pa., had been a gift from his former employer, Latrobe Brewing Co., on his 25th anniversary with the company. July 26, 2006, was also the day the last bottle of Rolling Rock rolled off the line at the Latrobe brewery, marking the end of a 67-year relationship with the town it helped define.

Selling out the brewery to Anheuser-Busch InBev is, in the eyes of craft beer drinkers, the equivalent of ditching Gryffindor for Voldemort and the Death Eaters. So it's no wonder Chicago's homegrown Goose Island has taken the beer-geek heat since its sale to the Bud Who Shall Not Be Named in 2011. The good news: since production of Goose Islands' mass-market brews (like 312 Urban Wheat) have been moved to Colorado and New York for a national rollout, there's more room at the original Chicago brewery for its more interesting efforts.

From the mid-19th to about the mid-20th century, the brewing industry in Pennsylvania, as in many states, consisted of a number of small to medium-sized breweries. The beer was produced and marketed locally. In this area, the Adam Scheidt Brewing Co. of Norristown was typical of these operations, which added much to the area's economy long before the large national beer corporations dominated the market. The archives of the Historical Society of Montgomery County show that by the 1830s, there were a number of breweries in Norristown and elsewhere in Montgomery County.

It's no barroom brawl, but the City of Philadelphia v. D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. has the makings of an interesting tussle. What's not in dispute is that the city has filed a lawsuit in Common Pleas Court seeking to collect $6.63 million in taxes, interest, and penalties against the Yuengling brewery for not paying the Business Income and Receipts Tax. What's also not in dispute is that the brewery itself is in Pottsville, more than 90...

BILLY PFLAUMER despised "light" beer. The onetime local beer baron once said that for people who drink the stuff, he would create a sixpack that contained five bottles of regular beer and one bottle of water so they could dilute their beer to their taste. Billy was a quintessential Philadelphia character, an intriguing rogue and onetime jailbird who disgusted neighbors of his once-sprawling brewery in Northern Liberties by allowing it to disintegrate after it closed in 1987, becoming home to the homeless, both two- and four-legged - as well as the multilegged that creep and crawl - piles of abandoned tires and bottles and other debris.

G. Heileman Brewing Co. of La Crosse, Wis., yesterday confirmed published reports that it has agreed to buy part of C. Schmidt & Sons, Philadelphia's last remaining brewery. Russell G. Cleary, Heileman's chairman, said in a press release that the brewery has signed a letter of intent to buy some of Schmidt's beer labels for a price to be determined later. The deal also includes Schmidt's inventory, the statement said. The statement listed Schmidt's, Schmidt's Light, Rheingold, Duquesne and Ortliebs, as the labels included in the deal.

YOU THINK WE have a pretty good beer scene now? You should've seen this town back in 1879. Every neighborhood had its own brewery, and every corner had a saloon. In the preceding 30 years, more than 250 breweries had opened — many of them closing quickly, but others becoming national powers. A census by Western Brewer magazine counted an astonishing 94 breweries up and running. The city's population was barely half of today's, and yet it had 12 times the number of breweries we boast of in 2012.

Firefighter Don Pearl cools off at a fire at American and Poplar Streets in North Philadelphia. A one-alarm fire yesterday damaged a five-story, vacant building at the old Ortlieb's brewery. Officials said there was a strong smell of gasoline, and arson was suspected.

Fred Von Czoerning, vice president and treasurer of C. Schmidt & Sons, Philadelphia's last remaining brewery, told salaried employees yesterday some of the business is being sold and that John F. Connelly, the firm's largest creditor, is forcing the sale because he wants his money, sources said. Von Czoerning told 100 Schmidt's employees that William H. Pflaumer, the company's owner, has signed a letter of intent with G. Heileman Brewing Co., of La Crosse, Wis., to sell Schmidt's brands.

Ask developer Bart Blatstein when he'll stop construction in Northern Liberties, and he replies: "Never. " His latest is the Piazza at Schmidts, a collection of apartments and retail along Second Street south of the old Schmidt's brewery. It's just east of Liberties Walk, his first major retail-residential project in the neighborhood. Last month, the Piazza saw the opening of three restaurants, and in three weeks, there will be a fourth. Free parking is just north of the Piazza in a dirt lot at Second Street and Germantown Avenue, where the brewery once sat. Blatstein plans to develop a supermarket there.