Former Home of the Rainier Beer Company in Seattle WA

Bay View Brewery, Seattle Washington

Date added: September 20, 2024

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Washington
Brewery

Looking northeast from Airport Way South (2012)

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The growth and success of the Bay View Brewery facilitated Andrew Hemrich's political and commercial prominence; the incorporation of the Seattle Brewing and Malting Company; and the creation of the regionally iconic Rainier Beer brand. From founding in 1883 through construction of the last addition in 1962 before Sick's death, the brewery underwent several name changes:

1883-1884: Hemrich and Company's Brewery
1885: name changes to Bay View Brewery, because of site overlooking Elliott Bay
1891: brewery incorporated as the Bay View Brewing Company and continued as such through 1892
1893-1918: Seattle Brewing and Malting Company Brewery, Bay View Branch
1919-1932: Bay View Milling Company
1933-1935: Century Brewing Association, Inc.
1936-1962: Seattle Brewing and Malting Company and Rainier Brewery

Andrew Hemrich rose quickly in the ranks of local brewers, politicians, and business men. Arriving in Seattle at the end of the 1883 depression, the 27-year-old partnered with John Kopp, whom he met in Montana, to start a brewery. Coming from a family of German brewers and having worked in multiple breweries across the nation, this was familiar territory for Hemrich. Within two years Hemrich consolidated control of the brewery within the Hemrich family, buying out Kopp's shares. Over the years, Hemrich and his father both lived on-site in houses just uphill from the brewery.

Ownership within the Hemrich family expanded with the brewery's growth. The year after opening the brewery, Hemrich's father John moved west, leaving his own brewery in Alma, Wisconsin, to join the company. A master brewer, trained in Germany, he brought considerable skill to the operation. The next year, 1885, Hemrich's sister Emma and her husband Frederick Kirschner joined them in Seattle. Kopp sold his shares to John and Kirschner. Within the next three to five years Hemrich's brothers John Junior, William, Alvin, and Louis all moved out west and into the beer industry. Under family's direction, the brewery entered a period of growth between 1887 and 1892 with significant increases in production. This set the stage for the creation of the Seattle Brewing and Malting Company as the nationwide crash of railway and building speculation ushered in the 1893 depression.

The Seattle Brewing and Malting Company was created by combining the expertise and capacity of Hemrich and the Bay View Brewery (Bay View Branch) with the massive production capacity and experience of the Claussen-Sweeney Brewery and the capital of the Albert Braun Brewery's investors. Within the new Seattle Brewing and Malting Company, the Bay View Brewery became the Bay View Branch. This consolidation amidst the 1893 depression brought the advantage of a larger distribution market and united marketing efforts. Under Hemrich's leadership as president, they immediately closed down the Albert Braun Brewery, concentrated production in the two operating breweries, and defined a regional branding legacy. Their flagship beer brand "Rainier Beer" ascended as a regional icon before Prohibition and reclaimed that role after Prohibition. Within the next twenty years, the combined production of the two breweries under Seattle Brewing and Malting Company management became one of the largest on the West Coast.

As the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush pulled the economy out of the depression the well-positioned Seattle Brewing and Malting Company kept pace with the increasing demand. Distribution expanded beyond the continental US, Canada, and Hawaii to include other Pacific Rim ports in Australia, the Philippines, and Singapore. The Rainier Bottling Works, opened in 1903 by the company in Victoria, BC, which allowed barrels to be shipped north for bottling and distribution in Canada. Hemrich rose to the presidency of the Northwest Brewers' Association and was elected as a state senator in 1898 followed by chairmanship of the Committee on Manufactures, drafting an act to provide arbitration and settlement for labor/employer disputes. Labor strikes had an ongoing effect on production and often left local saloons short of beer if they did not get an express wagon down to the brewery before production stopped.

This ten to fifteen-year period of prosperity before the start of World War I was dampened by the death of Hemrich in May of 1910. Newspaper coverage reported every bar in the city closed as a five-car funeral procession filled with flowers and followed by another 50 cars wound through the city south to Hemrich's house adjacent the brewery. Nearly 1,000 of Hemrich's family, friends and supporters turned out in one of the city's largest funeral services. The services were held at his house adjacent to the brewery.

Louis, Hemrich's brother and already a partner in the Seattle Brewing and Malting Company, stepped in to become president and oversee operations. The next quarter century brought dramatic changes for the United States and the brewing industry in particular. These changes would take Louis down to San Francisco, then to Canada before returning to the Bay View Brewery.

By 1913 the Bay View Branch ceased brewing and focused exclusively on bottling while the Claussen-Sweeney Brewery continued as the main brewing facility for the Seattle Brewing and Malting Company. A state-wide prohibition on the manufacture and sale of alcohol, approved by Washington voters, followed in the fall of 1914. A 1916 Brewer's Bill sought to allow breweries to continue to make beer but only sell to individuals; this, however, was rejected by voters. Nationwide, wartime grain rations followed and led to a complete ban in beer production during wartime by 1918. The next year Congress ratified the 18 Amendment to the US Constitution prohibiting the transport, sale, and manufacture of alcohol. This was the death knell for the nation's breweries.

The next fifteen years marked a tumultuous period for the Bay View Branch and Louis. He sold the brewery in 1918 to Robert Montague and Manley Harshman. They retooled the complex to mill grain for feed and flour under the name of Bay View Milling Company. Before Montague died in 1927 he bought out his partner. His death left Mrs. Montague with sole control of the milling operation until 1933 and the nationwide repeal of prohibition. Meanwhile Louis, after a brief stint trying to start up a brewery in San Francisco prior to nationwide prohibition, purchased interests in 1921 in the Imperial Brewing Company in Canada that became the Rainier Brewing Company of Canada, Ltd. In 1931, anticipating the repeal of prohibition and seeing a means to build back up the Seattle brewery operations, Louis sold his interests in the Canadian company and formed a partnership with Joseph Goldie to purchase from Andrew Hemrich's estate, which included the Claussen-Sweeney Brewery and the San Francisco plant.

1933 was an auspicious year, the 21^st Amendment to the US Constitution lifted prohibition, yet the nation was in the midst of the Great Depression. That same year, Tacoma born brewer Emil Sick entered into a lease with Mrs. Montague to reopen the Bay View Milling Company as the brewery to be called the Century Brewing Association, Inc. Sick renamed the brewery and hired renowned Olympia architect Joseph Wohleb to design a series of improvements to bring the brewery back into operation. Sick also owned the Seattle Rainiers baseball team and in 1938 built Sick's Stadium in Seattle, which sold Rainier beer. He built capital through a multitude of partnerships, with ownership interests in breweries in Canada and Montana. Sick's father was a master brewer, who had emigrated from Germany and operated a brewery in Canada where Sick worked after college.

Negotiations between Sick and Louis for marketing rights to Rainier Beer in Washington and Alaska led to a 1935 merger and reformation of the Seattle Brewing and Malting Company. Louis served as chairman of the board of directors and Sick as president. The company decided not to reopen the Claussen-Sweeney Brewery, instead focusing their efforts on the Bay View Brewery. On July 4^th, 1935 the brewery released the first batch of Rainier Beer, made under the careful watch of brewmaster Karl Heigenmooser. The brewery brought in brewing expert Clifford Wendte for an official tasting before distribution began to confirm they had remained true to the original pre-Prohibition beer.

The decades from 1933 through 1962 marked a period of massive growth for the brewery employing the design skills of some of the region's most renowned architecture firms: Joseph Wohleb, Wohleb and Wohleb, and NBBJ. Following the brewery's use as a mill during prohibition, significant technical upgrades were needed to create a modern industrial facility. To accomplish this, the brewery grew by over 200,000 square feet by 1962. This growth represented an expansion of 76 percent with over 150,000 square feet of cellars, fermenting and production space. Sick operated the brewery until he died in 1964. The last addition under Sick's management was completed in 1962.

Following Sick's death the brewery underwent a period of change. The brewery changed ownership, brewing materials, and capacity to compete regionally with the hyper-competitive large national breweries, such as Miller Brewing Company and Coors Brewing Company. The brewery was sold in 1977 to G. Heileman Brewing Company, a Wisconsin brewery. At this time the brewery began using malt extract and they embarked on an aggressive marketing campaign and added massive storage tanks south of the brewery.

The 1990s chronicled the demise for the brewery. In 1996 Stroh Brewery Company (a Michigan brewery) bought the brewery. Stroh's own financial troubles led to their collapse just three years later, at which time the Pabst Brewing Company purchased and shut down the brewery. By the early 2000s, the brewery began to see new life as the building shifted to adaptive new uses during the transition. Much of the 1970s and 1980s additions, including the tanks to the south were removed. Existing spaces were rehabilitated for a variety of businesses, artist lofts, band practice studios, and a recording studio. Tully's Coffee established its company headquarters in the building's north end. The signature red "R" for the Rainier Beer atop the building's tallest tower was removed to the Seattle Museum of History and Industry collection and replaced with a green "T" for Tully's Coffee. The "Lady Rainier" statue at the north end of the site was also given to the Museum of History and Industry in 1999. Commissioned in 1903 and made in Germany, the statue originally served as a fountain with water bubbling over the top of the glass held in her outstretched hand. The statue has resided in various locations. In 2010 Emerald City Beer Company, a small craft brewery, made the first batch of beer in the building since closure in 1999. Other businesses operating from the building today include the Bartholomew Winery and Red Soul Motorcycle Fabrications.

Developmental history

As an intact agricultural industrial processing facility, a series of additions chronicle the growth and development of the brewery expanding out from the original 1886-1887 brew house. The entire facility was purpose-built from the beginning and through all of its additions as a brewery to produce beer. These changes, through 1962, illustrate milestones in the brewing industry, how breweries coped with the effects of prohibition and the massive industrial growth once Congress repealed prohibition and breweries struggled to slake the thirsts of those suffering the Great Depression. The brewery footprint grew substantially during each of the following growth periods.

1883-1885: established the brewery in wood buildings producing steam beer
1886-1892: rebuilt the brewery in brick adding bottling, broader distribution, and lager beer production capacity
1893-1910: production and operational growth
1911-1932: coping with the death of Andrew Hemrich and changes during Prohibition
1933-1949: post Prohibition growth under the direction of Emil Sick
1950-1962: post WWII growth and expanding scale of brewing operations

1883-1885

In 1883, the brewery started producing 2,500 barrels of steam beer on the shore of Elliott Bay. Steam beer uses a bottom-fermenting lager yeast as opposed to top-fermenting ale yeast. As the starting beer for the brewery, it reflects the training and background of the brewer and the lack of capacity of their cooling equipment. Andrew Hemrich's father was a master brewer trained in Germany where lager beers represented a dominant beer type. Brewing lager requires bottom fermenting yeast that can ferment at much cooler temperatures (40s to 50s-Fahrenheit) than ale yeast (60s-70s-Fahrenheit) and cellars for extended cold storage and aging (upper 30s-Fahrenheit). Lacking adequate chiller and ice production facilities to keep the fermenting wort (mixture of sugars extracted from grains, hops, water and any adjuncts) cool and for cellaring, a brewer could still make beer with a lager yeast at warmer temperatures. Steam beer, however, was not considered as refined as lager beer. This prompted the addition of cooling and cellaring facilities so the brewery could make the more valuable lager beer.

The brewery's site afforded an optimal location for beer distribution. Moving beer to market and developing localized distribution points enabled the brewery to expand operations. Standing at the edge of the tide flats, plank roads in front of the brewery led north to Pioneer Square. A narrow-gauge Grant Street Railway, also in front of the brewery, provided regular service to Seattle and destinations south. A wharf for ship access, also in front of the brewery, enabled distribution throughout the Puget Sound, north to Canada and south to California. Before being infilled in the 1900s, Elliott Bay came right up to the front of the brewery.

Rail service soon grew to the principal means of supplying raw brewing material as railways brought inland grain and hops to the ports for distribution. By 1887 Northern Pacific Rail Road (NPRR) and Columbia and Puget Sound Rail Road (C&PSRR) lines replaced the narrow-gauge railway in front of the brewery. The brewery's granary, built adjacent to these lines, handled the rail car bulk deliveries of grain and hops from eastern Washington. Springs on Beacon Hill, behind the brewery, delivered a constant supply of fresh water. This left only distribution, which the region's maritime waterways aptly filled.

Shipping via the Puget Sound's many waterways served as the dominant regional means for the movement of commerce through the late 1800s. During this period, prior to infilling of the tide flats, bottles and barrels of beer could be sent by ship from the wharf directly in front of the brewery. The first to bottle lager beer on the Puget Sound, Hemrich built his Bay View Brewing Company's Bottling Works on pilings along the shore of Elliott Bay as part of an 1887 expansion. Amidst the development of the tide flats, into the early 1900s, the City Waterway (a canal), maintained shipping access between the brewery and Duwamish River (emptying into Elliott Bay). The brewery sent barrels north to the Victoria Brewing and Ice Company bottling plant, of which Hemrich served as a provisional trustee, for Canadian distribution. Local distribution moved by wagon along plank roads and rail. By 1891 the brewery contracted exclusively with Close and Johnson, a bottling and cold storage plant, as distribution agents.

The 1883 brewery development consisted of wood frame structures built along the shoreline. This transitional stage lasted a couple of years as the company grew production and capital. Andrew's father moved west to join the company during this period, bringing his expertise. The company also consolidated ownership within the family by 1885. These set the stage for the redevelopment of the facilities.

1886-1892

From 1886 through 1892 the brewery upgraded facilities for lager beer production and became one of the first breweries on Puget Sound to bottle lager beer. Capacity jumped to 80,000 barrels per year by 1887 with quart, pint, and half-pint size bottles of lager distributed out from the brewery. Employees increased from 13 in 1888 to 35 in 1893 and expanded to include limited staffing at night using lanterns and candles. The plant upgrade shifted to brick as the primary building material. This afforded greater fire protection with boilers operating for the kiln and brew kettle as well as greater load-carrying capacity allowing the brewery to grow vertically. Stacking of tasks utilized gravity to aid in moving raw ingredients through the production process.

Brew house no. 1 (1886-1887): 2-story brick building. This served as the operational center for the brewery. Successive additions grew out from this building in later development periods. This building contained the mash tun, brew kettle, and wort chiller. A water line brought spring water down from a 5,000 gallon tank on the hill behind the brewery. A feed mill supplied grain from the kiln. The mash tun holds the grains and water that is heated to specific temperatures for specific lengths of times to allow the enzymatic action to break down sugars from the grains into a form the yeast can digest. This is a critical process defining many characteristics of the final beer. Once the mashing process is completed the liquid is drained from the tank into the brew kettle. There it is brought to and held at a rolling boil and hops added at the desired stages. Boiling is also important to the character and stability of the final beer. A large rooftop vent let off steam from boiling. From the brew kettle the wort (liquid) is taken through a chiller to quickly drop it to under 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Once at the temperature set by the brew master, the yeast is pitched (added) and the wort moved to the fermentation tanks.

Malt storage (1888): 2-story brick. This addition expanded the operational capacity of the brew house providing malt storage adjacent the brew house to facilitate production. A 30-horsepower motor provided power for moving the malt.

Malt kiln (1889-1892): 3-story brick. Wet brewers grains arrived by the train car load. In their wet state, they could not be stored for long periods. The grains had to be kilned in this addition before being used and stored. This processed involved wetting and allowing the grains to germinate and then heating them to specific temperatures and with specific durations to prepare the sugars and achieve the desired level of flavor imparted by the process. Once completed, the process allowed the grains to be stored in the malt storage additions until ready for brewing. The malt kiln featured a hip roof with a wood frame vent tower at the top and two perforated interior floors. These allowed heat from the furnace to move up through the grain and vent out the top. A feed mill ran from the kiln over to the brew house.

Power house no. 1 (1889-1892): 2-story, brick. This addition provided power for the majority of the brewery operation. Heat from the furnace kilned the malt and heated the mast tun and brew kettle. A steam pipe also ran from the power house over to the bottling works on pilings over Elliott Bay. The west half of the ground floor contained the boilers with offices above on the second floor. The east half contained two ice machines and two 90 horsepower motors and external brine pump to create ice and circulate chilled brine for chilling the wort and maintaining fermentation and cellar temperatures for the beer. The system's ammonia condenser mounted to the roof on the east half of the building.

Malt Storage (1889-1892): 3-story brick. This addition provided the majority of malt storage for the brewery with iron columns supporting first and second floor concrete floors and wood posts above. A 5-story wood tower on the south end was used sift and clean the barley. An elevated grain feed extended from this building west over the railroad tracks to the granary to receive grain. A 5-story wood frame tower at the north end worked in conjunction with the malt kiln.

Beer cellar no. 1 (1889-1892): 5-story, brick. This addition provided a wash room on the first floor for cleaning out barrels prior to filling them with beer. Malt storage occupied the second floor at the same level as the mash tun in the brew house adjoining to the north. The third and fourth floors served as beer cellars for fermenting and aging the beer to maturity. Younger beer pumped into tanks on the fourth floor underwent primary fermentation before being drawn off to the third floor for aging. The fifth floor contained a cooler and two 8,000 gallon water tanks. This building connected to the brew house and the beer cellar to the south.

Beer cellar no. 2 (1889-1892): 3-story, brick. This addition provided expanded fermentation and cellaring space. Wood posts supported each floor.

This period of plant development included the following buildings which the brewery replaced during subsequent periods of development. A wood frame granary stood alongside the railroad tracks for receiving grain deliveries with a conveyor system to transport grain to the kiln. Between 1888 and 1892 a larger, corrugated metal clad granary was built to handle the increased grain volume. The brewer's house stood just northeast of the brew house with smaller cottages located around the perimeter of the brewery for workers. Between 1889 and 1892 two large brewer's houses were built on the hill overlooking the brewery and the bay for Hemrich family members. Several additional single-family and duplex houses and associated chicken coops and cellars were constructed around the brewery for family and worker housing. The former brewer's house was converted to the foreman's house. A kiln, malt storage building, and pitch kettle stood just south of the brew house. Since breweries were not able to bottle or store bottled beer on site between 1875 and 1890, the brewery built its bottling facility on pilings out over Elliott Bay, just across the Northern Pacific railroad's mainline. The bottling facility had to be separate and across a public right-of-way. Between 1889 and 1892 this facility expanded its storage space as well as adding lodgings, a restaurant, and a saloon. A two-story cellar with refrigeration equipment stood to the northwest, between the brew house and bottling facility before being removed by 1893 upon completion of the beer cellars that consolidated all functions. A small single-story storage building stood nearby the former larger storage building.

1893-1910

A period of general growth marked the years between 1893 and 1910. The tide flats were being filled in by 1905 partially with material sluiced down from the hill behind the brewery, increasing the importance of the brewery's immediate proximity to the railroad and access to the canal waterway linking the brewery to the Duwamish River. Although a spark from a passing locomotive did briefly catch the brewery on fire, though it was soon extinguished with minimal damage. The brewery merged with two others to form the Seattle Brewing and Malting Company becoming the Bay View Branch and continued to make both export and pale lager beer. This period saw rapid plant growth, innovations in hop types, and the death of Andrew Hemrich in 1910 who had led the building of the brewery. The cellars began utilizing wood chips to clarify the beer by 1905. Fermenting cellars remained on the second and third floors; however, the first floor was used as a chip cellar. Once the beer had completed fermentation it was racked into tanks in the chip cellar along with wood chips to clarify. The wood chips acted as a filter pulling out fine particles. In 1910 the brewery also installed new automatic feed regulators on the steam boiler system. These regulators were invented by Seattle resident William Loudon and improved boiler efficiency and safety.

By 1905 the brewery utilized 36 tons of malt daily, giving a scale for the amount of grain that passed from the granary, through the kiln and into storage before going to the brew house for brewing. Despite laws prohibiting this, some of the spent grain from this process was sold to dairy farmers as feed at the rate of $9 per day.

Addition (1894-1904): 1-story, brick. This addition provided expanded wash house space, allowing the former wash room in the first floor of the beer cellar to be relocated to this building. A 15-horsepower motor operated the washing machinery. Vents on the roof allowed the steam and water vapor from cleaning to escape.

Addition (1894-1904): 2-story, brick. This addition provided a racking room on the first floor for transferring mature beer to barrels. The second floor contained bins for malt storage.

Addition (1894-1904): added a 1-story addition to each, bringing to 3 stories and unified the west facade into a larger brew house. The first floor contained the malt mill for grinding the malt prior to loading into the mash tun and a hop jack. The crush of the grain is important for extracting the most sugars and to not have too fine a crush allowing the grains to set as a filter in the bottom of the mash tun to keep particles out of the extracted liquid. The hop jack was used to strain hops out of the wort after it was boiled. The second floor retained the mash tun and kettle. The third floor received a rice tun and rice mill. Rice is an adjunct used to create a drier, light beer. As an adjunct, rice does not impart a strong flavor allowing it to lighten the beer without competing with the malt and hop flavors.?8 An added elevator also improved the movement of equipment and materials within the building.

Power house no. 2 (1894-1904): 1-story brick addition allowed the boilers to be removed from power house no. 1 and the boiler capacity increased. This addition continued to provide power for the brewery operations.

Chimney (1894-1904): 100-foot tall brick chimney added to service the boilers in the power house no. 2 addition.

Bottling plant (1906): 1-story brick addition provided a dedicated bottling facility on site, which consolidated operations. Formerly the bottling plant had been required by law to be off-site. Construction of this addition was partly in response to the growth of export trade in bottled beer.

Office addition no. 1 (1906-ca. 1910): 1-story brick addition provided dedicated office space for the brewery. This addition extended off the north end of the 1-story wash house. Expansion of brewery operations in the existing additions had gradually displaced office space. Previously offices had been located in the second floors of various buildings, fit in around brewing, cellar, engine house and bottling operations. This marked the first dedicated expansion to provide office space.

Office addition no. 2 (1906-ca. 1910): A 2-story brick addition provided expanded office space for the growing brewery operation. The exact timing of this addition relative to is not known. Configuration of this addition provided the brewery with a main front entrance for receiving visitors.

This period of plant development included the following buildings which the brewery replaced during subsequent periods of development. The 50-foot tall granary expanded and received its own spur line with a scale to weigh rail cars. The formerly overwater bottling works consolidated into a large brick, single-story facility on the filled in tide flats.

1911-1932

The years following Andrew Hemrich's death in 1910 through the last full year of Prohibition were not one of growth for the brewery. After Hemrich died, his brother Louis managed brewery operations for three years until Prohibition started in Washington State in 1914. The brewery remained closed for four years until opening as a flour mill. The flour mill operated for nearly 15 years through the Great Depression until the end of Prohibition in 1933. Existing grain storage and power house facilities from the brewery operation would have been reused; however no details were identified as to what changes were made to accommodate the milling machinery.

1933-1941

Following the use of the brewery during prohibition for milling grain, a period of growth followed the reopening of brewery operations in 1933 when prohibition lifted until the US entered World War II in 1941. The release from prohibition coupled with the hardships of the Great Depression contributed to strong demand for beer. On the business side this was also a period of expansion as the brewery merged in 1935 with Louis Hemrich's interests. Sick hired architect Joseph Wohleb of Olympia to design the new additions and integrate these expansions into an efficient processing operation. The modernization included installing a system for filtering air throughout the brew house, fermentation and aging cellars to prevent contamination. The remodeling work also included renovations to addition in 1933 and an interior balcony in 1939, installing a balcony and skylights in 1933 in addition, adding offices for the brew master and assistant brew master along with a waiting room and toilet. New signs were added on the brewery, including the 1933 sign for Century Brewing Association and the 1938 sign "In the West It's Rainier Beer."

Case goods storage (1935): 4-story reinforced concrete addition designed by Joseph Wohleb provided dedicated. storage space for bottling and packaging beer into cans and cardboard cases for distribution. This reflected the growing importance of bottles for large-scale distribution and the importance of on-site bottling facilities. The new facility had a capacity of 150 bottles or 200 cans per minute. A knocked-down carton storage space occupied the second floor. This building featured an overhead conveyor to move the cases. A Barry Wehmiller floor type and pint type pasteurizers sanitized the bottles before they moved to the 50 and 34 spout fillers. The fillers were located opposite one another on the floor. Two 8-head crowner machines capped the bottles with labeling machines to adhere the labels. Construction of the addition also involved remodeling of spaces in the adjacent building to accommodate the work flow. Upon completion of this addition, Emil Sick reported that "Only one brewery in the U.S. has a greater can-line capacity than Century's."

Beer cellar no. 3 (1935): 4-story reinforced concrete addition designed by Joseph Wohleb expanded the cellaring capacity of the adjacent cellar. This featured the primary fermenting cellars on the fourth floor. A Ruh cellar on the third floor was used for secondary fermentation followed by moving the beer down to the first floor chip cellar for clarifying. Beer was pumped in over wood chips, which aided in settling out proteins and other particles that would cause the beer to be hazy. This addition brought the brewery up to having the largest storage capacity in the Pacific Northwest.

Second story addition added between 1938 and 1945 to modify the building to serve as the new boiler house. Designed by Joseph Wohleb, this addition raised the roof by one story, reusing the original roofing system. One 200 horsepower Sterling boilers installed in the south portion in addition to two existing 100 horsepower Sterling boilers provided power for the brewery operation. The chimney stack connected to these boilers.

Keg filling (1940): 2-story reinforced concrete addition design by Joseph Wohleb provided space for filling kegs. W. H. Witt Company served as structural engineers. The building featured a U-shaped second floor built out along the Airport Way South side. The back, single-story portion provided rooftop keg storage adjacent the keg washing facilities in the adjacent building to the east. The front overhang projected 16-feet over the railroad tracks to allow sheltered loading.

Bottle storage (1940): 2-story reinforced concrete addition with wood posts. This building provided expanded storage space for bottles and packaged cases.

Keg washing (1940): 1-story reinforced concrete addition designed by Joseph Wohleb provided space for keg washing and sanitizing prior to filling. The rooms in the northwest corner contained the cooper's shop and a pitch room. The northeast portion of this addition was removed when the 1958 beer cellar was constructed.

This period of plant development also included the construction of a single-story garage building in 1938. This building was removed by the 1950s.

1945-1962

The period following World War II through the 1950s marked a period of additional growth and expansion for the brewery. Small breweries nationwide were bought up and interests consolidated, setting the stage for the massive brewing operations of the 1970s and 1980s before the emergence of small craft brewery operations. Sick retained the serves of renowned Seattle architecture firm NBBJ to design two of the additions during this period as well as continued design work by Joseph Wohleb including remodeling of addition for use as a social meeting space in 1951. During this period the brewery ceased to kiln its own malt, instead constructing large bins to store kilned malt delivered to the site. Bottling became increasingly important for both local and broader distribution. As production of beer increased so did the need for bottling space and storage of bottled goods prior to distribution. Former malt storage spaces transitioned into bottling spaces. The expansion received an added floor in 1962 to house a Cofar composite slab system developed in the 1950s and used through the late 1960s to 1970s. This system relied upon a metal deck with cold drawn wires welded to its topside with concrete poured over the top around the wires.

Head house (1945): 75-foot tall reinforced concrete addition. Designed by Joseph Wohleb, this tower served as the grain elevator to lift grain up to a distribution system that moved the grain to the silos. This elevator utilizes glass block along the outer corners to provide day lighting for interior operations.

Additions (1945-1948): westward expansion of the original two-story east tower as well as adding an octagonal tower above the original east tower with the signature "R" for Rainier Beer.

Addition (1945-1952): 1-story reinforced concrete addition.

Beer cellar no. 3 (1947): 3-story reinforced concrete addition. Designed by Joseph Wohleb, this provided expanded fermenting and aging facilities for beer production.

Grain silos (1948): 2-story steel silos added on concrete footings. Designed by Joseph Wohleb, each of the 28-foot diameter silos held 205,000 bushels of malted grain. These operated in conjunction with the head house to provide grain for the brewing process using a Dracco pneumatic grain handler and screw type conveyors. These replaced the former granary alongside the railroad tracks. Further consolidating brought operations into a closely packed series of building additions that streamlined the overall operation through the proximity of materials to their processing locations. The three existing tanks previously used for malt storage became storage space for corn grits used in the brewing process to lighten the color and body with minimal change to the flavor of American style light lagers.

Brew house no. 2 (1948): 5-story reinforced concrete addition. Designed by Joseph Wohleb, this provided the new brewing core for the operation as production quickly expanded following World War II. The brew house functions shifted from their previous locations to this new space. The former spaces became beer storage and malt bins with the freight elevator moved.

Bottling works (1946-1949): 2-story reinforced concrete addition. This long addition between the bottling and beer cellar operations allowed for a more efficient movement of bottles during processing. Beer could be pulled from the cellars to the east and capped and labeled bottles could be deposited in their cases for storage and distribution in the warehouse additions to the west.

Overhead bridge (1946-1949) facilitated movement between the upper floor office and work spaces amongst the additions.

Office addition no. 3 (1954): 2-story brick clad addition. Designed by NBBJ this addition provided expanded offices on the first floor with accounting, bookkeeping, and additional offices on the second floor. A vault and lounge also occupied the second floor. This addition and the growth in office operations reflect a second growth in management and marketing operations last seen in the additions in the 1910s.

Beer cellar no. 4 (1958): 4-story reinforced concrete addition. Designed by Wohleb and Wohleb this marked the last major processing expansion of the 1950s. The first floor contained the machine and cooling unit rooms with a pit clean up area and recirculating and yeast pumps for managing the liquid stored in tanks on the floors above. Each of the upper temperature-controlled floors contained twelve closed fermenting tanks per floor, six to either side of a central aisle. Each tank, when full weighed 144 tons. The floor sloped slightly on each floor toward center drains to facilitate cleaning. Ducts between the floors allowed transfer of wort up to the upper tanks for primary fermentation and then cycling down through successive stages of clarifying and maturing in the lower floor tanks. The stairwell and elevator allowed worker access between floors to monitor the tanks and temperatures.

Reception addition (1962): 1-story addition. Designed by NBBJ this modern style addition provided a prominent front room for receiving visitors. The design employed amber cathedral and new Glar-X glass supported by laminated wood wall sections.

Addition (1954-1962): added a brick clad third story and in-filled the first and second story windows.

This period of plant development also included the following buildings which the brewery replaced during subsequent periods of development. A large building built across Airport Way South provided expanded space for bottling and packing. A pipe to transfer the beer and a conveyor skybridge ran over Airport Way South to allow materials and workers to move safely to and from the brewery. A loading platform was added and sprinkler systems upgraded in the buildings.

1963-2000s

The late 1960s marked a period of change following Sick's death in 1964. In order to compete with competitive national breweries, the brewery embarked upon a change in ownership, brewing materials, and capacity. Construction of Interstate 5 commenced directly behind (east of) the brewery. In 1967 the packaging center across Airport Way South expanded with construction of a new metal clad warehouse and then again in 1979. In 1977 the brewery constructed a long, rectangular malt extract syrup tank house on the east side of the brewery. The brewery also hired Wohleb and Wohleb to remodel converting the addition to a social room with leaded amber glass and wood slats and the west entry. A platform stage occupies the north end with a large bar and counter at the south end. The brewery also launched an aggressive marketing campaign. A kegging warehouse was built in 1987 and street scape improvements made to Airport Way South. In 1979 the brewery also began departing from tanks contained within buildings for beer cellaring to constructing large external tanks. In 1985 the brewery added additional above ground storage tanks.

The 1990s ushered in the end for the brewery during this time. Much of the 1970s and 1980s additions, including the tanks to the south were removed. Existing spaces were then rehabilitated for a variety of businesses, artist lofts, band practice studios, and a recording studio.

Andrew Hemrich

Andrew Hemrich (1856-1910) emerged as a prominent local figure in the realm of politics and commerce. Elected to the state senate in 1898 representing the 334 district he was soon chair of the Committee on Manufactures, helping to draft recommendations for an act to provide arbitration and settlement for labor/employer disputes. Hemrich served four consecutive terms through 1909. As senator he also lobbied, albeit unsuccessfully, for the construction of a boulevard along the Lake Washington ship canal. He was president of the Northwest Brewers' Association. During a trip to Yakima Hemrich also became involved in the cultivation and curing of Bohemian hops, which the Bay View Brewery then used in Rainier Beer. Hemrich's commercial interests also extended to mining shares in the Cascade Mountains, presidency of the Eureka Coal Company, and Jand ownership in Seattle and Yakima.

Born in 1856 as the first son of master German brewer John Hemrich, Andrew grew up and went to school in Alma, Wisconsin. By age 10 he was learning the trade working for his father in his brewery before being sent at age 13 to La Cross to apprentice as a brewer. Andrew worked in breweries in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Denver, Colorado; and Eureka, Nevada. At the age of 21 he made his first, unfortunately unsuccessful, start at opening a brewery in Glendale, Montana, in partnership with Frank Gilig. After a brief stint at mining, he worked for a brewery in Bozeman, Montana, and met John Kopp (1856-1897) with whom he moved to Seattle to start the Bay View Brewery in 1883. Hemrich's father, sister and brothers soon followed, with many of them working at the Bay View Brewery.

Hemrich married Amelia Hucke of Essen, Germany in 1885. They had five children, John, Alvin, Ernest, Katherine, and Carl. During the early stages of the brewery development the family lived in one of the brewer's houses overlooking the brewery.

Ever intent on refining their lager beer, Hemrich traveled to Yakima in the fall of 1900 to spend 10 days supervising the curing of Yakima hops using Bavarian methods to see if they would improve the beer quality. Upon brewing a batch using these hops he thought they were excellent and shipped fifteen half barrels to Yakima in thanks on January 17^th, 1901. This led to a $5,000 investment in four large drying kilns and cultivation of Bohemian hops in Yakima. These sold for $1 per pound compared to 10 to 15 cents for hops cured using the then prevailing practices. Hemrich also built a stone building along Front Street in Yakima in 1902 and owned a white brick saloon built in 1903 in Pullman. By 1907 he was also a trustee, along with others such as Joshua Green and H. H. Dearborn, in the new Bank for Savings opened in Seattle. He and his family often cruised around the Puget Sound on the yacht "Rainier" and were part of an early 1900s welcoming committee for the German cruiser "Arcona".

Hemrich's death in 1910 at the young age of 54 spared him the dramatic changes brought by Prohibition to the brewery industry. The company remained in the capable hands of his brother Louis Hemrich who would remain involved until his death in 1938.

Emil Sick

Born in 1894. in Tacoma, Washington Emil Sick, son of Canadian brewer Fritz Sick, would spend much of his life moving between brewery operations in Canada and the United States. Sick graduated from Western Canada College in Calgary before taking additional courses at Stanford University. He worked up through his father's brewing business after starting out as a shipping clerk for the Lethbridge Breweries, Ltd based in Alberta Canada. Sick worked at a multitude of breweries controlled by his father, including operations in Salem, Oregon; Spokane, Washington; Missoula, Montana; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Prince Albert and Regina, Saskatchewan. Sick married Kathleen Thelma McPhee in 1918 and received his major promotion in 1925 when he became general manager of Associated Breweries of Canada, Ltd.

With the purchase of the Bay View Brewery in 1934, Sick and his family became firmly established in Seattle. He soon purchased the Seattle Rainier's baseball team, a Pacific Coast League baseball team from 1937 to 1960. Sick built Sick's Stadium for the team that went on to have five pennant winning seasons. By 1941 Sick was president of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce and went on to receive an honorary life-time membership. He led fundraising efforts for the Museum of History and Industry construction and development of the first King County Blood Bank. The King County Blood Bank grew to over 20 blood banks and became the Puget Sound Blood Center known today for advances in blood transfusions and transplant medicine.

Despite all of his philanthropic and related business ventures, Sick continued to build the brewery empire started by his father. By 1949 he was at the helm of one of the largest brewing operations in the world. He had 10 breweries located in Seattle and Spokane, Washington; Salem, Oregon; Great Falls, Montana; Prince Albert and Regina, Saskatchewan; Edmonton and Lethbridge; Alberta. He also operated hop farms at Sunnyside, Washington and Kamloops, British Columbia. Sick also served as director of Molson's Brewery, Ltd. By 1957 he had assembled largest number of breweries under single management in the world.

Declines in his health during the early 1960s did not stop him from serving as one of the directors for the Seattle World's Fair. However; his wife of over 40 years died in 1962. Sick remarried the following year to Mrs. Martha Gardner, before he died in 1964.