Bakersfield Brewing Company
Bakersfield, California, USA
Tally's Take
Why this matters
A Pacific Wine and Spirit Review item from 1909–10 reports the Bakersfield Brewing Co. awarding a contract for a complete bottling house inside its brewery — equipment sized for 15,000 barrels, a 33-ton refrigerating machine, and beer expected on the market the following summer. Bakersfield newspaper advertising in 1912 then repeatedly identifies Lion Brew as beer made in Bakersfield by the company. Founding, plant address, ownership and closure are all unknown. A brewery known by its bottling contract and its flagship beer, and by almost nothing else.
The Museum
Timeline
- 1909Bottling house contracted
Sized for 15,000 barrels with a 33-ton refrigerating machine, per the Pacific Wine and Spirit Review.
- 1912Lion Brew advertised
Bakersfield newspaper advertising identifies it as made locally by the company.
The Beer Library
Beers
Lion Brew
Year-RoundGerman-style beer / exact subtype unknown
California Pass 187. Aliases: Loewe Brau / Lion Brew marketing comparison. A September 1912 Bakersfield Californian advertisement says Lion Brew was made in Bakersfield by Bakersfield Brewing Company and compares the name to Löwenbräu ('lion brew'). Other 1912 ads likewise call it an old-fashioned German beer brewed locally. Exact style subtype, recipe and ABV remain UNKNOWN.
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Sources
- recordProbable
Brewery record taken from Tally's California master, Pass 187, which cited https://archive.org/stream/pwsr52301909311910sanfrich/pwsr52301909311910sanfrich_djvu.txt for this entry. The cited page has not been opened by the archive.
Tally's California master, Pass 187 (research workbook) · Tally's Beer Universe research workbook · 2026
CommercialMedium reliabilityAccessed 2026-08-19Reviewed 2026-08-19 - historyProbable
Dated evidence as recorded in California Pass 187: 1909, 1912.
Tally's California master, Pass 187 (research workbook) · Tally's Beer Universe research workbook · 2026
CommercialMedium reliabilityAccessed 2026-08-19Reviewed 2026-08-19
Only the claims above are sourced. Everything else on this page is the archive's own research and has not yet been tied to a document — which is worth knowing rather than hiding.
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