Yoerg Brewing Company

The Yoerg Brewing Company, historically called the Yoerg Brewery, was a brewing company in Saint Paul, Minnesota that was originally founded by German immigrant Anthony Yoerg in 1848. The Yoerg Brewing Company was the first brewery in Minnesota Territory being founded in 1848, ten years before Minnesota's statehood.

Anthony Yoerg (1816 - 1896) was a German-American immigrant who was born in Gundelfingen an der Donau in Bavaria to a brewing family.^[1][2] Yoerg learned his family's trade of brewing Bavarian style beer before emigrating to the United States at the age of 19 and settling in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.^[2] Yoerg would eventually move westward to Galena, Illinois before permanently settling in Saint Paul, Minnesota in Minnesota Territory by 1848.^[1][2][3]

Yoerg eventually created his own brewing company in 1848-1849 along the Mississippi River.^[4] Yoerg's brewery is credited as being the first brewery established in Minnesota state history and was the only brewery in the city until 1853.^[2] Yoerg chose to erect his brewery along the east bank of the Mississippi River near the modern-day Irvine Park Historic District in order to excavate caves in the bluffs where he could lager his beer.^[1]

In 1871, Yoerg's brewery was so successful that the brewery needed to expand in order to keep up with growing demand for lager beer.^[2] By 1881 Yoerg's brewery was processing 20,000 barrels of beer annually and by 1891 had risen to 35,000 barrels.^[2] "Yoerg's cave aged beer", as it was eventually advertised, became a notable selling point to the uniqueness of Yoerg's lagering process.^[2][5] During the era of prohibition in the United States, like many Minnesota brewers at the time, Yoerg's brewery suffered in sales but was able to stay in business by producing soft drinks and low-alcohol beer.^[5]

By 1941, the Yoerg Brewing Company had filed for bankruptcy, despite paying off its debts the company continued to decline, never again hitting its pre-prohibition sales.^[6] By 1952 flooding from the Mississippi River caused further production to stagnate, eventually leading to even less production than before.^[6] Yoerg's brewery eventually went out of business by November 1952 after three generations of family ownership.^[2] A fire in 1958 destroyed the brewery building which was located on Ohio Street near Isabel Street in Saint Paul.^[5]

Beginning in 2016. Yoerg's beer was resurrected by Carol Minogue and Thomas Keim of Saint Paul.^[6][7] Minogue and Keim eventually began a contract with the Octopi Brewing Company out of Waunakee, Wisconsin to produce Yoerg's original recipe.^[6] Minogue and Keim eventually purchased property at 378 Maria Avenue in Saint Paul's West Side neighborhood near where the brewery was originally located.

The Anthony Yoerg Sr. House located in Saint Paul's West Side neighborhood still survives today and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for Ramsey County, Minnesota. The house was completed in 1875 by Monroe Sheire.