Pabst Brewing returns to Milwaukee with new brewery

The firm said Wednesday it will return to its historic brewery in Milwaukee, where it made one of the nation’s top selling brews until it left Brew City in the 1990’s.

Pabst, along with Schlitz and Miller, were integral to Milwaukee’s image and its economy for generations.

FILE – In this September 9, 1996 file photo is the Pabst brewery in Milwaukee.

“The Pabst Mansion, the Pabst Theater, Pabst Farms and this lovely brewery complex – these are all part of Frederick Pabst’s awesome legacy, which we are honored to continue by returning to our hometown and birthplace”.

“When I came to visit, it was pretty obvious that we should start here if we’re going to go back to our roots”, Eugene Kashper, Pabst Brewing’s chairman and chief executive officer, said. The Pabst sign has officially been lit at its old brewery complex for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Pabst expects to open the new brewery to the public next summer.

MILWAUKEE – Pabst Brewing Co. said Wednesday it is coming home to open a new brewery and restaurant next year on the site of its original Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee. In addition to the brewery and restaurant, the company plans to have a beer garden and a tasting room.

The new brewery would make many of Pabst’s pre-Prohibition brands as well as new craft beers inspired by recipes from the company’s archives. The previous owners moved the company’s offices from suburban Chicago to Los Angeles after buying Pabst in 2010.

The former First German Methodist Church building has a 3,040-square-foot lower level, that once housed the Forst Keller Restaurant, and a 3,020-square-foot upper level, which was originally the church sanctuary and later was used by Pabst as employee assembly space.