Best Brewing Company (The Brewery Lofts)

Built in 1893, this Chicago building served as the home to the Best Brewing Company. The Hasterlik family, one of many German families to operate a brewery in Chicago, founded Best Brewing two years prior when they bought Klockgeter & Company Brewing and replaced a smaller building on this lot with this structure. The family ran the brewing business for seven decades and is one of only six breweries in Chicago to survive Prohibition by producing sodas and other items. After prohibition, the brewery produced a large volume of private-label house beer brands for the largest grocery chains of the era. In the postwar era, large brewery mergers and takeovers changed the industry. Like many other brewers in an era of consolidation, this brewery operated until 1961. The building was later converted into an apartment complex and is known as The Brewery Lofts today.

Waves of German immigrants, many of whom brought their brewing and beer-drinking culture, came to the United States during the nineteenth century. Chicago's massive growth during the late nineteenth century included an influx of Germans, many of whom arrived after the 1848 German Revolutions (an unsuccessful attempt to unify Germany). Germans made up about one-sixth of the 30,000 Chicago residents in 1850. Still, by 1900, Chicago's population soared to 1.7 million, with Germans (first or second generation) making up one-fourth of the total.

Chicago enjoyed a strong relationship with its rural hinterlands, which benefited the beer industry. A little more than one million acres of barley supplied Chicago's breweries. Lake Michigan's abundance of fresh water also made Chicago an attractive location for brewers. The influx of Germans and Chicago's beer-friendly natural resources helped turn Chicago into the nation's sixth-largest beer producer by the turn of the century. 

The inpouring of Germans resulted in German-owned breweries becoming ubiquitous in Chicago by the late nineteenth century, notably on the North Side. However, early German breweries in Chicago faced significant challenges from politicians. In 1854, Chicago's "Know Nothing" Mayor Levi D. Boone and his colleagues, all passionate whiskey drinkers, ordered German beer halls to close on Sundays (when Germans routinely gathered together to celebrate with beer and food) and raised liquor license fees by 600%. Riots ensued in 1855, resulting in numerous injuries and one death. The riots and general outcry from an ever-growing German immigrant group forced the Mayor to back down, allowing breweries to flourish by the late nineteenth century. By 1885, thirty-three breweries operated in Chicago, which employed more than 2,000 people. By 1890, Chicago residents consumed, on average, almost fifty gallons of beer per year, more than twice the per capita consumption in Germany.

In 1891, the Hasterlik brothers (Samuel, Charles, Henry, and Ignatz) founded Best Brewing Company after purchasing the Klockgeter & Company brewing business. The Hasterlik family tore down and replaced the former company's brewing building with the now-historic plant, which opened in 1893. Best Brewing began its operation at a time when breweries sold beer by the barrel to beer halls and taverns by horse and buggy. Best, a medium-sized brewery, produced 80,000 gallons annually and managed a fleet of twenty wagons and forty horses. 

Best Brewing survived for decades mainly due to its ability to adapt, evolve, and innovate, navigating economic, political, and cultural changes and embracing and pioneering technological advancements. Indeed, Best was one of only six breweries on Chicago's North Side to survive Prohibition and the barrage of large, mass-production breweries forcing smaller breweries out of business. During Prohibition, Best enjoyed varying success selling root beer, ice, and malt syrup. After Prohibition, the Hasterliks became pioneers of the chain food store beer by producing 250,000 barrels of private-label house beer brands for each of the more than fifty different grocery chains, such as Safeway, A&P, and Kroger (every beer was Best beer, but re-branded for each store to sell as a private label). Also, in 1935, Best Brewery became one of the first in the area to sell canned beer, packaged it in 32-ounce and 12-ounce flat-top cans, further boosting sales.

Best Brewing began to sell off some of its operations during the 1950s and closed its doors in 1961, ending seventy years of beer production. Today, the structure operates as a loft apartment complex known as "The Brewery Lofts." Although the building's purpose has changed, the name serves as a reminder of its original function and the influence of German immigrants and their brewing culture.

Baldwin, Susan M. "Nomination Form: Best Brewing Company of Chicago." National Register of Historic Places. archives.gov. 1987. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892430.

Harzig, Christiane. "Germans." The Electronic Encylopedia of Chicago. 2005. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/512.html.

Ogle, Maureen. Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer. New York: A Harvest Book Harcourt, Inc., 2006. 

Platt, Harold L. "Breweries." The Electronic Encylopedia of Chicago. 2005. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/164.html.

Skilnik, Bob. Beer: A History of Brewing in Chicago. Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books, 2006.