Philadelphia Brewery (South Vallejo)
South Vallejo, California, USA
Tally's Take
Why this matters
California Pass 187. Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum identifies a Philadelphia Brewery in South Vallejo at the southeast corner of 4th and Chestnut. Federal brewer-return data separately records Fred Deminger in South Vallejo selling 1,706 barrels in 1878 and 2,534 barrels in 1879. A later Solano historical account describes Philadelphia Brewery as the largest of Vallejo's pre-Prohibition breweries and says it made steam beer and porter. Pass 81 accepts the brewery as a distinct South Vallejo producer but does not claim Deminger's federal return is definitively the Philadelphia Brewery without a direct naming bridge.
The Beer Library
Beers
Steam Beer
Year-RoundSteam Beer / California Common
California Pass 187. Aliases: https://www.solanoarticles.com/history/index.php/weblog2/more/vallejo_faces_decline_gains_business_footing/. Solano historical account says South Vallejo's Philadelphia Brewery made a steam beer. Formal brand name and ABV are not stated.
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Year-RoundPorter
California Pass 187. Aliases: https://www.solanoarticles.com/history/index.php/weblog2/more/vallejo_faces_decline_gains_business_footing/. Solano historical account says South Vallejo's Philadelphia Brewery brewed porter and shipped beer/porter to surrounding counties and San Francisco. Formal brand name and ABV remain UNKNOWN.
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Sources
- recordProbable
Brewery record taken from Tally's California master, Pass 187, which cited https://vallejomuseum.blogspot.com/2008/05/early-vallejo-breweries.html 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
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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