Columbia Brewery and Syrup Works (Rocher)
Columbia, California, USA · Est. 1852
Also known as P. Rocher & Co., Columbia Brewery and Syrup Works
Tally's Take
Why this matters
Columbia's first brewery, and it made syrup too. Proctor Rocher built at Spring Gulch in 1852, a mile and a half out on the Yankee Hill road, where a spring at the head of the gulch fed a stone flume down to the brewery — water reckoned the finest in the district for brewing, and long since dried up. He kept a store on Broadway Street in town as warehouse and outlet, and advertised in the Columbia Gazette of 15 February 1854 as "P. Rocher & Co. Columbia Brewery and Syrup Manufactury, beers and syrups". Five months later, on 10 July 1854, the fire that levelled most of Columbia took the brewery and the syrup works with it, a $5,000 loss. Rocher never recovered: that same year he sold his brewing equipment to Antone Bixel, and in 1858 his Spring Gulch property went at a sheriff's sale to N. Soderer. The sale prospectus noted, almost in passing, that the ground had once been used as the site of a brewery. Everything Columbia brewed for the next sixty years started with the kit he sold.
The Museum
Timeline
- 1852Built at Spring Gulch
A mile and a half out on the Yankee Hill road, fed by a spring through a stone flume.
- 1854Advertising in the Columbia Gazette
15 February 1854: "P. Rocher & Co. Columbia Brewery and Syrup Manufactury, beers and syrups."
- 1854Destroyed in the Columbia fire
10 July 1854. Loss reported at $5,000. Rocher sold his brewing equipment to Antone Bixel the same year.
- 1858Spring Gulch sold at sheriff's sale
To N. Soderer, of Soderer and Marshall. The prospectus noted the ground had once been a brewery site.
The People
Behind the beer
Built Columbia's first brewery at Spring Gulch in 1852 and ran a store on Broadway Street as its outlet. Burnt out in the fire of 10 July 1854 with a $5,000 loss, he sold his brewing equipment to Antone Bixel that year; his Spring Gulch property went at a sheriff's sale in 1858.
Corrected by
- Rob Gordon, Tuolumne County Historical Society — one change to this record, 2026-08-21
Corrections from outside the archive are logged permanently and credited here. Every one of them replaced something this archive had wrong.
Show your working
Sources
- recordConfirmed
Proctor Rocher built the Columbia Brewery and Syrup Works at Spring Gulch in 1852 — two years before Bixel — making it Columbia's first brewery. Destroyed in the fire of 10 July 1854 with a reported $5,000 loss; equipment sold to Antone Bixel the same year; the site sold at sheriff's sale to N. Soderer in 1858. Per Louis "Pat" Kelly in The Quarterly (TCHS).
The Bixel Brewery: A Brief History of Columbia's First Brewery · The Quarterly, Tuolumne County Historical Society (now Chispa) · 1900s
ScholarlyHigh reliabilityAccessed 2026-08-21Reviewed 2026-08-21 - foundedDisputed
A 1993 E Clampus Vitus plaque at the site states that Rocher constructed COLUMBIA'S SECOND brewery in 1856, at Spring Gulch half a mile east of town on the north side of Yankee Hill Road, having been FIRST PARTNERS with Anton Bixel in the Columbia Brewery on Italian Bar Road; that the business failed; and that the brick building was dismantled by 1861. This archive follows Kelly in dating Rocher to 1852, placing him a mile and a half out, and having Bixel acquire Rocher's equipment after the 1854 fire — the reverse order of precedence. Both accounts are recorded. Neither is treated as settled.
Source not recorded — this claim needs one.
Reviewed 2026-08-25 - siteProbable
The Spring Gulch ruin survives as a basement depression and stone foundation, disturbed by modern development. TCHS was unable to locate it directly in 2026 but a local resident confirmed it is extant and gave directions.
Source not recorded — this claim needs one.
Reviewed 2026-08-25
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.
Straight answers
Common questions about Columbia Brewery and Syrup Works (Rocher)
- Who owns Columbia Brewery and Syrup Works (Rocher)?
- Columbia Brewery and Syrup Works (Rocher) is independently owned — there is no parent company above it on record. It is based in Columbia, California, USA.
- Is Columbia Brewery and Syrup Works (Rocher) independent?
- Yes. Columbia Brewery and Syrup Works (Rocher) is recorded as independent, with no parent company. Independence is recorded as the brewery states it; where a stake is a minority holding or joint venture, this archive leaves it unmapped rather than calling it ownership.
- Is Columbia Brewery and Syrup Works (Rocher) still open?
- No. Columbia Brewery and Syrup Works (Rocher) has closed. Columbia's first brewery, from Louis "Pat" Kelly in The Quarterly (TCHS). Kelly's article is titled as a history of Columbia's first brewery and is about Bixel, but his own text places Rocher two years earlier — the archive follows the evidence rather than the headline. CONFLICT RECORDED 2026-08-25: the site plaque dates this brewery to 1856, calls it Columbia's second rather than its first, and makes Rocher a prior partner of Bixel rather than his predecessor. Four points differ from Kelly — the year, the distance from town, the order of precedence and the manner of its end. The archive does not choose between them.
- When was Columbia Brewery and Syrup Works (Rocher) founded?
- Columbia Brewery and Syrup Works (Rocher) was founded in 1852 in Columbia, California, USA.
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