Chronology of the U.S. Brewing Industry.

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The following is reproduced from the book "American Breweries II" by Dale P. Van Wieren (available at BeerBooks.com.):

CHRONOLOGY OF THE AMERICAN BREWING INDUSTRY

YEAR	EVENT
1587	Virginia colonists brew ale using corn.
1607	First shipment of beer arrives in the Virginia colony from England.
1609	American "Help Wanted" advertisements appear in London seeking brewers for the Virginia Colony.
1614	The first non-native American is born in New Amsterdam, (perhaps the first non-native American male born in the New World) in Block & Christiansen's brewhouse. Jean Vigne grows up to become the first brewer horn in the New World.
1620	Pilgrims arrive in Plymouth in the Colony of Massachusetts aboard the Mayflower. Beer is extremely short on board ship and the seamen force the passengers ashore to ensure that they will have sufficient beer for their return trip to England.
1632	The West India Company builds a brewery on Brewers Street in New Amsterdam led by Governor Van Twiller.
1633	Peter Ninuit establishes a brewery at Market Field on Manhattan Island.
1634	Samuel Cole is the first to be licensed in Boston to operate a tavern.
1637	First authoritatively recorded brewery in the Massachusetts Bay Colony under the control of Captain Sedgwick.
1639	Sergeant Bauleton is placed in charge of a brewhouse in Providence, Rhode Island.
1670	Samuel Wentworth of Portsmouth obtains the first license to brew beer in New Hampshire.
1683	William Penn's colony erects a brewery at Peonshury near Bristol, Pennsylvania.
1683	William Frampton erects the first brewery in Philadelphia on Front Street between Walnut and Spruce at the Dock Street Creek.
1734	Mary Lisle, the first known "brewster" in America, takes over her late fathers Edinburgh Brewhouse in Philadelphia, which she operates until 1751.
1738	Major William Horton builds the first brewery in the deep south at Jekyll Island, Georgia.
1754	George Washington enters a beer recipe in his notebook.
1762	The Theory and Practice of Brewing by Michael Combrune is published. This is the first attempt to establish rules and principles for the art of brewing.
1765	The British Army builds a brewery at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh, PA). The first brewery west of the Allegheny mountains.
1765	A brewery is built in the French colonial settlement of Kaskaskia in what is now Illinois. It is the first brewery outside the 13 colonies.
1772	A mixture of dark to light malts called "Porter" is concocted in England. Exports begin to America but it fails to gain popularity.
1774	Robert Smith begins a modest ale brewing venture at Saint John & Noble Streets in Philadelphia. Through relocations and buy outs, the Robert Smith brand will survive until 1986 - 212 years.
1774	The Single Brothers Brewery and Distillery opens in the Noravian religious settlement of Salem, North Carolina.
1775	Revolutionary War measures by Congress include rationing to each soldier one quart of Spruce Beer or Cider per man per day.
1789	George Washington presents his "buy American" policy indicating he will only drink porter made in America.
1789	Massachusetts passes an Act encouraging the manufacture and consumption of beer and ale.
1792	New Hampshire agrees not to tax brewing property.
1793	Philadelphia produces more beer than all the other seaports in the country.
1808	Nembers of the Congregational Church in Moreau, Saratoga County, New York form a temperance society.
1810	132 operating breweries produce 185,000 barrels of beer. Population of the country is 7 million.
1810	Jacques Delassas de St. Vrain begins brewing in St. Louis, Missouri (brewery destroyed by fire in 1812).
1815	The American Brewer and Maltster by Joseph Cappinger is published.
1819	A steam engine built by Thomas Holloway is installed in the brewery of Frances Perot in Philadelphia. This is the first engine to be used in beer production in America.
1819	Nathan Lyman starts the first brewery in Rochester, New York.
1820	Brewers report business off due to increased consumption of whiskey.
1826	American Society for the Promotion of Temperance formed in Boston (also known as the American Temperance Society).
1829	American Temperance Society has 100,000 members.
1829	David G. Yuengling opens a brewery in the Pennsylvania coal town of Pottsville. It continues in 1995 as the oldest operating brewery in the United States, still owned by the Yuengling family.
1830	Jacob Roos builds the first brewery in Buffalo, New York.
1832	Secretary of War Lewis Cass cancels the ration of liquor to the military.
1833	William Lill & Co. (Heas & Sulzer) start the first commercial brewery in Chicago and produce 600 barrels of ale in their first year.
1833	Membership in the country's five thousand temperance societies exceeds one and one quarter million.
1836	United States Temperance Union meets in Saratoga, Now York and changes name to American Temperance Union. Principle of total abstinence or "Teetotalism" is introduced.
1837	Rice and Kroener establish the first brewery in Evansville, Indiana.
1840	Philadelphia brewer John Wagner introduces lager beer.
1844	The Fortmann and Company Brewery introduces lager beer to Cincinnati.
1844	Jacob Best starts a brewery in Milwaukee which later becomes the Pabst Brewing Co.
1848	John Roesele starts a lager beer brewery in Boston.
1846	Maine passes prohibition law.
1847	John Huck and John Schneider start the first lager beer brewery in Chicago.
1848	Unrest in Germany causes many Germans to emigrate to America.
1849	August Krug forms a brewery in Milwaukee which evolved into the Schlitz Brewery.
1849	Adam Schuppert Brewery at Stockton and Jackson Streets in San Francisco becomes California's first brewery.
1850	Mathias Frahm establishes Davenport, Iowa's first brewery.
1850	431 breweries in the country produce 750,000 barrels of beer (31 gallons per barrel). The population is 23 million.
1852	George Schneider starts a brewery in St. Louis, Missouri. This brewery is the seed of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery.
1852	San Francisco has 350 bar rooms to serve the hard-drinking population of 36,000.
1852	Henry Saxer starts a brewing business (City Brewery) in Portland, Oregon Territory. This brewery was later owned by Henry Weinhard.
1852	Prohibition comes to Vermont.
1852	Prohibition adopted in Massachusetts (repealed in 1868).
1852	Rhode Island enacts prohibition (repealed in 1863).
1852	Territory of Minnesota enacts a short-lived prohibition.
1853	Prohibition voted in for Michigan.
1854	Prohibition begins in Connecticut.
1855	German brewer William Menger starts a lager beer brewery in San Antonio, Texas. This is the first brewery in that city.
1855	Prohibition adopted in MNew York, New Hampshire, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, and the Nebraska Territory.
1856	The Benedictine Society of Saint Vincent's Abbey opens a commercial brewery in their Monastery near Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
1857	The largest brewery in the West is the Chicago brewery of William Lill and Michael Diversey.
1859	Solomon, Taecher & Co. start Colorado's first brewery, the Rocky Mountain Brewery.
1860	1269 breweries produce over one million barrels of beer for a population of 31 million. New York and Pennsylvania account for 85% of the production.
1861	Internal Revenue System introduced.
1862	Ernest Weisgerber builds Idaho's first brewery (in Lewistown),
1862	Internal Revenue Act taxes beer at the rate of one dollar per barrel to help finance the government during the Civil War.
1862	37 New York breweries form an association that would officially become the United States Brewers Association in 1864.
1863	161,607 barrels of beer are produced in the New England states.
1863	Thomas Smith, Christian Ritcher, and Henry Gilbert found the first brewery in Montana Territory (Virginia City).
1865	Mathew Vassar, a prominent Poughkeepsie, New York brewer, founds Vassar College, the first privately endowed school for women.
1865	National Temperance Society and Publication House formed in Saratoga, New York.
1866	Internal Revenue issues stamp regulations requiring application of tax stamps to barrels of beer leaving the brewery.
1866	Levin & Co.'s pioneer Brewery in Tucson is the first to operate in the Arizona Territory.
1867	Prohibition efforts in Iowa and New York fail.
1867	3700 breweries in operation in America producing 6 million barrels of beer.
1868	John Siebel opens a brewing school which later becomes the Siebel Institute of Technology.
1868	Publication of the monthly magazine The American Brewer begins in January.
1869	Prohibition Party organized in Chicago.
1869	Another prohibition law enacted in Massachusetts (repealed 1875).
1869	Best Brewing Co. (later Pabst) begins expansion in Milwaukee with the purchase of Charles T. Melms' Brewery.
1871	A number of Chicago breweries destroyed by fire started by Mrs. O'Leary's cow: Doyle & Co., Huck, Jerusalem, Lill & Diversey, Metz, Mueller, Sands, and K. G. Schmidt.
1872	Anheuser adopts A and Eagle trademark.
1872	First brewery workers' strike in New York City.
1872	Prohibitionist presidential candidate James Black draws 5608 votes.
1873	4131 breweries (record number) produce 9 million barrels of beer.
1873	Adolphus Busch begins bottling of beer for large scale shipments at the Anheuser Brewery in St. Louis (bottling was not new - only the magnitude of this venture).
1874	Woman's Christian Temperance Union formed.
1875	First lager beer in California brewed by Boca Brewing Co. in Boca.
1876	Louis Pasteur publishes "Studies on Beer" showing how yeast organisms can be controlled.
1877	George Ehret of New York is the largest brewer in the country.
1879	Ballantine adopts three ring trademark.
1880	Frederick Salem authors "Beer, Its History and Its Economic Value as a National Beverage." The book is his argument for beer as a temperance measure. It offers the motto "Beer against Whisky."
1880	Internal Revenue Department records indicate 2830 ale and lager breweries in operation.
1880	U. S. Brewers Academy established.
1880-1910	Number of breweries declines. Improved methods of production and distribution mean fewer breweries can manufacture more beer. By 1910 number of breweries drops to around 1500.
1882	National Brewers' and Distillers' Association formed.
1884	Adolphus Busch of St. Louis and Otto Koehler establish the Lone Star Brewing Co. in San Antonio, Texas.
1885	An injunction closes the John Walruff Brewery in Lawrence, Kansas which had flaunted prohibition laws for five years. He appeals on the basis that prohibition laws constitute illegal confiscation of property.
1886	John Walruff wins appeal in lower courts. Case taken to Supreme Court.
1886	National Union of the Brewers of the United States established.
1886	Abraham Cohen establishes the first brewery in Alaska at Juneau.
1887	United States Supreme Court rules in John Walruff case that Kansas was not depriving Walruff of his property, but merely abating a nuisance and prohibiting the injurious use of that property.
1887	Master Brewers' Association organized.
1887	Tuscarora Advertising Company formed in Coshocton, Ohio producing a wide variety of advertising items.
1888	Standard Advertising Company founded by H. D. Beach in Coschocton, Ohio in competition with Tuscarora Advertising.
1888	Brewery employees strike in New York, Chicago, and Milwaukee.
1888	A British syndicate under the name New York Breweries Co. is formed through the purchase of H. Claussen & Son Brewing Co. and Flanagan, Nay & Co.
1889	One of the first big brewery mergers takes place. Franz Falk Brewing Co. and Jung and Borchert in Milwaukee merge to form Falk, Jung & Borchert Brewing Co. This brewery was taken over four years later by Pabst.
1889	A British syndicate proposes a plan to merge Schlitz, Pabst, and Blatz in Milwaukee. Schlitz and Pabst decline the offer. Blatz sells part of its business to Milwaukee and Chicago Breweries Ltd.
1889	Eighteen St. Louis breweries merge into the English syndicate St. Louis Brewing Association.
1890	Six New Orleans brewers combine to form the New Orleans Brewing Co.
1892	British syndicates start price wars. Prices in Chicago decrease from $6.00 per barrel to $3.50 and $4.00 per barrel.
1892	Crown cap invented by William Painter of Crown Cork and Seal Co. in Baltimore.
1892	Wood pulp coaster invented by Robert Smith of Dresden, Germany.
1893	Anti-Saloon League founded by Rev. Howard Hyde Russell with the goal of suppressing the saloon.
1898	Beer barrel tax raised to $2.00 during Spanish American War. Beer sales decline.
1898	The Royal Brewery is the first to operate in Hawaii.
1899	The Pittsburgh Brewing Company formed by the consolidation of twenty one Pittsburgh brewers.
1900	Woman's Christian Temperance Union member Carrie Nation does a hatchet job on the Carey Hotel in Wichita, Kansas.
1901	Ten Boston brewers merge into Massachusetts Breweries Company, Ltd.
1901	Sixteen Baltimore brewers consolidate into the Gottlieb-Bauernschmidt-Straus Brewing Company.
1901	Barrel tax on beer reduced to $1.60.
1902	Barrel tax on beer reduced to $1.00.
1905	Independent Brewing Company formed by fifteen Pittsburgh breweries.
1909	United States Brewers Association yearbook discusses the problems of poor conditions in saloons and the need for a cleanup.
1912	Nine states vote dry.
1913	Webb-Kenyon bill passed prohibiting the interstate shipment of alcoholic beverages to dry states.
1914	Resolution to prohibit liquor through a constitutional amendment loses in the House due to lack of required two-thirds majority vote (197 for, 190 against).
1914	Fourteen states dry.
1914	Secretary of Navy Josephus Daniels orders prohibition of alcohol on Naval ships and Naval installations.
1916	Twenty-three states dry.
1916	Six San Francisco breweries consolidate.
1917	District of Columbia passes a prohibition law.
1917	Distilleries closed by Food Control Law.
1919	18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified on January 16 calling for national prohibition to take effect one year from the date of ratification.
1919	House of Representatives Bill No. 6810 presented in May by Rep. Volstead establishing the apparatus for the enforcement of prohibition. The bill was passed October 10, vetoed by President Wilson on October 27. The veto was subsequently overridden by Congressional vote.
1920s	Near beers brewed during prohibition: Pablo by Pabst, Famo by Schlitz, Vivo by Miller, Lux-O by Stroh and Bevo by Anheuser-Busch.
1920	Association Against the Prohibition Amendment organized by William H. Stayton.
1921	300 million gallons of "near beer" produced.
1922	Prohibitionist Volstead defeated in Minnesota elections.
1922	Anthony & Kuhn Brewery of St. Louis sold to a laundry.
1923	The Moderation League is formed.
1926	Montana votes to repeal the state prohibition enforcement law. Other states follow suit.
1929	The Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform started.
1930	The Crusaders formed protesting the lawlessness, crime, and corruption brought on by Prohibition.
1930	American Brewers Association formed.
1931	American Legion votes for a referendum of national prohibition.
1932	86 million gallons of near beer produced.
1933	The Cullen Bill is passed in March allowing states which did not have state prohibition laws to sell 3.2% beer. It also instituted a $5.00 per barrel tax on beer. On April 7, 1933 the legalization of beer takes effect via the 21st Amendment repealing the 18th.
1933	31 brewers back in operation by June.
1934	756 brewers back in operation.
1935	Canned beer introduced by American Can Company and Krueger Brewing Co. of Newark, New Jersey on June 24.
1935	Schlitz introduces cone top can produced by Continental Can Company.
1935	Falstaff Brewing Co. of St. Louis leases the Krug Brewing Company of Omaha, Nebraska. This touches off a wave of acquisitions by large brewers.
1936	United Brewers Industrial Foundation formed.
1936	Brewing Industry, Inc. formed.
1940	Beer production at level of preprohibition years with half the number of breweries in operation as in 1910.
1940	Barrel tax raised from $5.00 to $6.00.
1941	All brewers' associations united under the United States Brewers' Association.
1943	Brewers are required to allocate 15% of their production for military use.
1944	Barrel tax raised to $8.00.
1949-1958	185 breweries close down or sell out.
1950	407 breweries in operation.
1951	Anheuser-Busch of St. Louis builds a new brewery in Newark, New Jersey starting a trend for expansion of breweries.
1951	Barrel tax raised to $9.00.
1953	Anheuser-Busch buys the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team.
1954	First l6oz can introduced by Schlitz.
1959	Aluminum can introduced by Coors of Golden, Colorado.
1960	Aluminum can top introduced.
1961	230 breweries in operation. Only 140 are independently run.
1962	Tab top can introduced by Pittsburgh Brewing Company.
1965	"Ring Pull" can introduced.
1969	Canned beer outsells bottled beer for the first time.
1969	Fritz Maytag takes ownership of the Anchor Brewing Co. in San Francisco, CA. It is not obvious at the time, but a revolution has begun. He brews high quality beer for non-main stream tastes.
1970	A small group of collectors of brewery advertising items form the first club in the nation devoted to that hobby - The Eastern Coast Breweriana Association (ECBA).
1971	Philip Morris Co. acquires Miller Brewing Co.
1972	State of Oregon becomes the first state to adopt a container deposit law.
1977	The first ale is served in a new brewery in Sonoma, CA. Jack McAuliffe's venture is short lived, but the New Albion Brewery will become known as America's first "Micro Brewery", or "Craft Brewery".
1982	For the first time since prohibition, a brewery is allowed to open that not only sells its' beer at its' own bar on premises, but serves food to boot. In Bert Grant's Yakima Brewing and Malting Co., Inc., the Brew Pub is born.
1983	In January, 51 brewing concerns are operating a total of 80 breweries. This is the low water mark for breweries in the 20th century.
1983	The top six breweries (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, Heileman, Stroh, Coors, and Pabst) control 92% of U. S. beer production.
1984	AMERICAN BREWERIES published.
1984	44 Brewing concerns are operating a total of 83 breweries.
1984	Micro Breweries begin to spread: Riley-Lyon (AR): Boulder (CO); Snake River (ID); Millstream (IA); Columbia River (OR); Kessler (MT); Chesapeake Bay (VA).
1984	Manhatten Brewing Co., in New York City's SOHO section, becomes the first Brew Pub on the east coast.
1990	307 years after William Frampton opened his brewery on Philadelphia's Dock Street Creek, he is memorialized through the opening of the Dock Street Brewing Co.
1990	Producing 31,000 bbls. of beer, the Sierra Nevada Brewery in Chico, CA becomes the first start up micro brewery to break out of that classification (considered 25,000 bbl or less).
1994	It becomes legal to put the alcohol content of beer on containers.
1994	California begins the year with 84 Micro Breweries or Brewpubs in operation - one more than there were breweries in the nation 10 years earlier.
1994	Attendees at the Woman's Christian Temperance Union convention are admonished to recapture the spirit of Carrie Nation.
1994	Year end production figures rank the top 5 brewers as: AnheuserBusch (87.5 million bbls.); Miller (42.6 million bbls.); Adolph Coors (20.3 million bbls.); Stroh's (11.8 million bbls.); G. Heileman (8.4 million bbls.)
1995	Approximately 500 breweries are operating in the United States, and they are estimated to increase at a rate of 3 or 4 per week.
1995	American Breweries II is published.