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German Immigration And The Development Of The Beer Industry

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German Immigration and the development of the Beer Industry in America Many Germany’s immigrated to the United States in 1840. Repression initiated the emigration, due to the political unrest and the failed revolution of 1848, economic distress and political aggression forced many to flee Germany. Many that fled were young, educated or skilled from well to do families seeking political freedom, opportunity, land, and the wealth that the United States offered. The largest locations of German immigration in 1848 were New York City, Baltimore, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Cincinnati which constituted the so called “German Triangle”. By 1860, over 1.3 million German immigrants had entered the United States, the population grew to nearly 3 …show more content…

During the Pre-Civil war period breweries such as Jacob Best’s which later became Pabst Brewing and Joseph Schlitz –Miller Brewing began to operate in brewing plants. This period of technological revolution begin with the introduction of the steam engine led to changes in transportation and production (Stack 2000).
The local demands were too small to absorb the output of the plants and the cost for production and transportation to ship to further away locations were expensive. Also with transportation being slow and beer having a limited shelf life long distance shipping was not feasible.
The answer to the problem came by way of Adolphus Busch, a wholesaler who had immigrated to St. Louis from Germany in 1857, he married Eberhard Anheuser 's daughter, Lilly, in 1861. Busch began working as a salesman for the Anheuser brewery. Busch purchased shares of the company in 1869 and after the death of his father in-law he began to run the company. Adolphus Busch was the first American brewer to use pasteurization to keep beer fresh he was also the first to use mechanical refrigeration refrigerated railroad cars, which he introduced in 1876, and the first to bottle beer extensively. By 1877, the company owned a fleet of 40 refrigerated railroad cars to transport beer. Expanding the company 's distribution

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