Muehlbach Brewery (1938-1956)

Shortly after prohibition, the Muehlebach Brewing Company opened a brewery at this location and operated it until their company was acquired by Schlitz. Kansas City's Muehlebach family had previously operated a vast business empire centered on brewing between the late 1860s and Prohibition. A local favorite whose products were delivered to an average of 28,000 homes per year before Prohibition, Muehlebach once again began producing its famous Pilsener and Lager labels here in the River Market neighborhood. They also produced a special “green bottle” brew sold only at the Hotel Muehlebach, a 500-room downtown Kansas City hotel. Muehlebach’s post-prohibition revival was a success despite some setbacks during World War II, and they sold 244,000 barrels in 1947, much higher than this plant’s original 1938 production capacity of 150,000 barrels. This production peak was created by a combination of focus on the local Kansas City market, outside capital, acquisition, and aggressive out-of-state expansion. However, in 1948, production was hampered by U.S. grain commitments to the postwar Marshall Plan in Europe, as well as a nationwide glass shortage, and the brewery declined, posting its first loss in 1951. The brewery was sold to Milwaukee's Schlitz Brewing Company in 1956, but the Muehlebach name remains known throughout the city.

Swiss brothers George and John Muehlebach purchased the Main Street Brewery on 18th Street and Main Street in Kansas City from George Hierb in 1870. Hierb’s operation was not large and began as little more a shack. However, the location was ideal given access to a well and by 1869 he was producing 3,000 barrels of beer per year.

The Muehlebachs quickly expanded, adding cellars to Hierb’s shack in 1875. The company also added a new brewhouse in 1880, shortly after founder John Muehleback passed away. The brewhouse building was known as the “Beer Castle” by locals, and Muehlebach’s beer quickly became one of the most popular in the city. The brewery changed names several times, from Main Street Brewery after its purchase from Hierb in 1870 until 1884, then Muehlebach Brewing Co. – Main Street Brewery, then Geo. Muehlebach – Main Street Brewery; George Muehlebach Brewing Company; and simply George Muehlebach Company during Prohibition.

Muehlebach tried to weather Prohibition and the severance of its alcoholic product lines by manufacturing a non-alcoholic beverage named Mulo from 1917 to 1929, as well as several soft drinks, but the profits were not enough to keep the company solvent, and they shuttered the 18th and Main site in 1929.

With the repeal of Prohibition imminent in 1932, brothers George E. and Carl A. Muehlebach, sons of George Muehlebach, one of the original founders, decided to relaunch the company. An initial public stock offering failed to raise the $1.5 million needed to retrofit the old brewery site at 18th and Main with new equipment and needed upgrades, so George E. and Carl A. approached private investors for capital. The brothers finally secured funding from a consortium of stockholders in 1937, which included Robert A. Drum, President of the Fontenelle Brewing Company in Omaha, and Andres Soriano, owner of the San Miguel Brewing Company in the Philippines. Henry Sund, the connection between Fontenelle and San Miguel, moved to Kansas City from Omaha to take the position of brewmaster in the new Geo. Muehlebach Brewing Company. Drum would serve as President; George E. Muehlebach would serve as Vice-President and General Manager; and Carl. A. Muehlebach would serve as Chairman of the Board.

Part of the new financing was a change of location: the old brewery site at 18th and Main was abandoned, and Muehlebach opened its new operation here at 4th and Oak Streets in 1938. The old brewery building at 18th and Main fell into disrepair, and Kansas City officials asked the Muehlebachs to stabilize or demolish the structure in 1941. The building was destroyed that same year. 

The new Muehlebach Brewery site at Fourth and Oak had been a cold storage location for the Western Ice Service Company, and the investors spent $500,000 renovating the existing buildings and adding new structures, including a brewhouse, keg washing building, and bottling works. The brewery’s expected output was 150,000 barrels in 1938. 

Because of Muehlebach’s hometown appeal—the company delivered to an average of 28,000 Kansas City homes per year from 1909-1918—President Robert A. Drum decided to emphasize production of Muehlebach’s reliable favorites over expansion of Drum’s Fontenelle Brewery line. The Muehlebach Pilsener and Lager labels were resurrected, along with a special brew in green bottles sold only at the Hotel Muehlebach, a 500-room establishment the Muehlebach Estate Company (home of the family’s extensive real estate holdings) had built in 1916 at 12th and Baltimore in downtown Kansas City.

Muehlebach’s operations expanded again following Prohibition, just as before passage of the 18th Amendment. In 1940, the company purchased a controlling interest in the Lone Star Brewing Company of San Antonio and widened Lone Star’s brand offerings. Production capacity at Muehlebach’s facility in Kansas City expanded to 175,000 barrels about this time, and two new brands, Muhlebach Special and KC Select, were added to the company roster. 

Word War II caused employee, equipment, and grain shortages, and though sales did not meet the new production capacity of 175,000 barrels in 1941 and 1942, sales topped 180,000 barrels in 1944 and 1945, thanks to a capacity expansion in 1943. In 1946, Muehlebach made another public stock offering, and this time it was successful, bankrolling the company’s growth and increasing the number of brewery stockholders to over 400. Sales jumped to 244,000 barrels in 1947, a record for the company, and a fourth expansion of the facility began that same year. George E. and Carl A. Muehlebach also moved on from their positions with the company in 1947; George E. retired as General Manager when he moved to Beverly Hills, California, although he continued serving as Vice President until his death in 1955, and Carl A. was replaced as Chairman of the Board by Andres Soriano of San Miguel Brewing. 

Although Muehlebach celebrated its 80th anniversary in April 1948 with a party held on the street in front of its 4th and Oak brewery, the company began to struggle. Sales dropped to 183,000 barrels in 1948, due in part to the U.S. commitment of grain to Europe as part of the Marshall Plan, along with a shortage of glass. Muehlebach sold its interest in Lone Star Brewing in 1949. 

A brief respite in the early 1950s lifted production back to 200,000 barrels. That same year a new President, Otis F. Bryan, instituted a focus on flat-top beer cans, which were being used more than ever before. In 1945, 65% of beer was sold draft and 35% was sold in bottles. That ratio reversed five years later: in 1950, 73% of beer was sold in prepackaged containers (including bottles and cans) and 27% was sold draft. This switch reflected the changing consumption habits of returning military personnel, who had consumed beer in cans during the war and wanted the same experience at home. Early beer cans were cone-topped, in order to use the same production equipment as bottles and not disrupt drinkers’ expectations of the familiar bottle shape. But in 1950 Bryan saw the advantage of flat-top cans, which took less shipping space and stacked better, and approved a canning line at Muehlebach for the new flat-top design. 

Bryan also launched a brand redesign in 1950, along with a new pasteurizing system and nine new delivery trucks. All told, his investment totaled $375,000. At the end of 1950 the brewery’s capacity had been increased to 375,000 barrels, and another $1 million was invested in 1951 to extend its capability to 500,000 barrels. The brewery employed nearly 300 people and two more lines were added to the Muehlebach brand: Kroysen in 1951 and Malt Liquor around 1952. The company reported a loss for the first time in 1951.

Part of the reason for Muehlebach’s failure was overreach as they attempted to survive through growth in an era of industry consolidation. In their last fiscal year, their markets in other states and outside Kansas City limits grew by 7%, but sales inside the city dropped by 13%. A concurrent factor was competition by growing national breweries, including the Milwaukee-based Schlitz Brewing Company. Schlitzh struck a deal with the city's new Major League franchise, the Kansas City Athletics, when the club arrived in 1955. Schlitz’s popularity was growing in Kansas City, and their determination to invade Muehlebach’s home market via the Athletics’ radio advertising, combined with Muehlebach’s focus on out-of-state expansion, are contributing factors to Muehlebach’s declining sales.

In 1956, Muehlebach sold its operation at 4th and Oak Streets to Schlitz Brewing for an undisclosed sum estimated to be around $2.5 million. The Kansas City brewery empire had outlasted the rise and fall of Prohibition, but like dozens of other major regional breweries, it was absorbed by a larger brewery with national reach in an era of consolidation.

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